Friday, April 15, 2011

I Will BLESS YOU AND YOU WILL BE A BLESSING (WORD OF GOD)




In this month of January the Lord has allowed me to have the opportunity to be a blessing to a new set of children, by giving them the chance to have lower extremities orthopedic surgery

.

It has been such a blessing for us who are able to participate with the medical teams. To freely give your time and energy to serve someone else, to be able to actually put into practice the word of God: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”. It is an accomplishment in our lives to see firsthand these children’s lives change right in front of us. Children coming in with disabilities and after a six week recovery are able to start their life differently, with more opportunities and new hopes.

One unique case we had this Janua

ry was a set of twins around eight years old. They both had a deformity on their feet since the day they were born. Their family lives in a community far away from the Siguatepeque area in Honduras, and they did not have the opportunity of having a surgery. Thanks to the Lord and the help of an organization they were able to come to our clinic and were chosen for

surgery.

On the first day of changing casts from the previous surgeries in January, we were able to witness the expressions of happiness in her eyes when she was able to see her feet for the first time in six weeks. It was so touching to hear and see the excitement when she told her mom “Look mommy at how pretty my little foot is”. The emotion of happiness was overflowing, I felt so small being able to witness it all. I honestly did not realize how important these changes were for each individual case, it made me appreciate how much one person can make a difference in another life. Without a doubt these expressions of happiness from parents, patients, families, and friends allow to us realize that it is well worth it to have medical teams come and willingly donate their time, energy, hard work, and skills to help in a way that literally changes the lives of their patients.

Medical team’s Thank you so much for giving these patients new dreams to look forward too. Thank you for changing their lives, as well as the lives of their families. Giving a child a new opportunity at life with new hopes and dreams is a priceless gift. THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Friday, April 08, 2011

A Friend Experience

My time at La Providencia this week has been bitter sweet. This has been my third trip down here to Siguatepeque & unfortunately it will be my last (at least for a while). I am a part of an organization, called LeaderTreks, which has been partnering with La Providencia for the past several years. They offer us a unique setting where we can use the work they have for us as a tool to develop leaders to fulfill the Great Commission. A co-worker and I met up with a team of high school students from Holland, Michigan. We had the great opportunity to help La Providencia put in a playground for the children to who attend the school here.

Our team was challenged both physically and spiritually this week. As we worked some long & hard days we were also working through the book of James in the evenings as a team. We all were challenged by the lives of the staff, teachers & children who were here throughout the week. I’ve known for a while that James 1:27 has been a verse that La Providencia has rallied around. To see them already taking care of orphans & in pursuit of how they can take care of the widows is something that inspires me. But it was this week that I was really challenged by the last part of that verse, “to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” This had not stuck out to me in the past, but this week God challenged me to observe the people here and see how they were going about keeping themselves from being polluted by the world.

La Providencia is a ministry that is very dear to my heart. One that I will remember for the rest of my life in the ways that it changed my view of the world & of our God.

By Ryan Billelo