by Teresa Walls – Missionary to Honduras
Dr. Sharon Castro treats a patient at the Clinica Mision Bautista
After years of non-use medically, the Mision Bautista Clinica opened this past summer. It took weeks of scrubbing and cleaning, but the clinic began functioning as a medical clinic this past summer with the arrival of Dr. Sharon Castro. Let me introduce you to a very sweet lady. Dr. Sharon is the wife of Mr. Eder a long-term employee of Faith Home on the education side. Her compassionate spirit is comforting, and her skills as a physician have proved so helpful in these past few months. She has seen every Faith Home child, updated and completed charts for each, and organized the clinic’s pharmacy. She actively monitors the health of all the children, and especially those children who have chronic issues. She has often scheduled and taken children to San Pedro to see a specialist when needed. As with so many doctors, she puts in more time than we pay her for.
She is also leading the effort to get the clinic fully licensed with the government. With her help, an attorney was secured, and all the necessary documents have been filed. We are currently awaiting an inspection of our facility. Once the inspection is complete, we should then receive a license for the clinic. When licensed, Dr. Sharon will also see our pastors, their families and families within our General Baptist churches. What a blessing that will be!
These are the facts, but let me share a story that I think captures the character of Dr. Sharon. She is a woman of deep Christian faith and a strong belief in prayer. As many of you know, Rodney and I are the primary caregivers for baby Lisel because of her many special needs. A few weeks ago, she became very ill with an upper respiratory infection. Though a holiday, Dr. Sharon called and wanted to know how she was. When I asked her to come and see her, she and Mr. Eder quickly drove to Faith Home to check Lisel. She too was concerned and adjusted the medications in an attempt to keep baby Lisel out of the hospital.
Make your donations of medical supplies or monies to buy needed supplies through General Baptist International Missions. Contact Mark Powell at (573) 785-7746.
Before she and Mr. Eder left, she spoke about how much she and Eder believes in God’s healing touch, and that more than anything, she wanted to pray for Lisel. I held Lisel as Dr. Sharon, Eder and Rodney gathered around and we prayed for this sick little girl. When the amen was said, Dr. Sharon hugged us both and said it was going to be okay! I too believe in prayer. I know that Dr. Sharon is an answer to our General Baptist prayers of getting the clinic open. Lives are being touched physically and spiritually because Dr. Sharon is a woman of great faith!
Oh, and on top of it all, God also worked out the details so that we have a physical therapist that comes to the clinic four days a week providing occupational and physical therapy for several of our children. For years, the clinic was a storehouse. In the span of several weeks, all that changed!
Another story – Lisel has hip dysplasia. In mid-July, we took Lisel to her pediatric orthopedic doctor. The Pavlik harness that she spent five months wearing had not worked. Her only chance to walk normally would be surgery, but because of her cerebral palsy, she would need lots of physical therapy first. She just wasn’t strong enough yet. He recommended that we start physical therapy immediately. The wonderful thing was that we already had. God had sent a physical therapist a few weeks earlier. God answered our prayer, even before we knew to pray it! God is so very good. It is exciting to be a part of what God is doing here!
LAUNCH. The VBS offering in 2017 will go to help us to change more lives by bringing more children to Faith Home. Along with the blessing of 33 new children in 2016 (13 of whom were reunited with family) came challenges and extra expenses. We are grateful for all who are helping with additional sponsorships and funds for foster care and newborn baby care, but we also have other housing needs.
My first mission trip abroad was alongside one of my deacons, Ken Morris, in which I was to preach and he would lead worship on a medical/mission team. Our trip began at Faith Home where we visited with the children and workers and toured the grounds. We then traveled with the rest of our team several hours by bus over difficult terrain to the capital city of Tegucigalpa and then to a very remote village in the hills near Tegucigalpa.