I’m a Primary Care Physician. In 2002, I did my first medical mission trip to La Ceiba, Honduras — and I was instantly broken. I stayed in a host family’s concrete block home, surrounded by the poorest of the poor. Homes with dirt floors and leaky roofs, pieced together from scrap metal found here and there.
Dads would work all day to literally just earn enough for one meal, usually beans and rice. Kids would work the streets as well at very young ages, to help the family survive. And medical care… well, it just wasn’t existent.
A church had recently built a health clinic there after Hurricane Mitch had devastated Honduras. But the clinic was unmanned. I’d hop on a plane every 3-6 months just to do what I could do. But that only broke me more. When it comes to medical care, I needed to be there at the right time, and all the time. Not just when it was convenient for me. The simplest of issues could have been taken care of, if I was simply there.
On one of my earlier trips, I met a 10-year old boy who changed my life. He had gotten a cut. Probably a cut any one of our kids here might have gotten while playing in the woods. But when I saw him, it was no longer just a cut. His foot was the size of a cantaloupe and red with fire, streaks going up his leg, and filled with puss out of control. Such a small thing had become an incredibly dangerous infection, and it was spreading quickly. I did all I could that day to clean out, drain, and treat the wound. But he needed more. The truth is… less than 50 cents worth of medicine would have fixed that simple cut weeks before. But I wasn’t there. I never saw that little boy again. And it lives with me to this day, understanding that there’s a good chance he did not live.
These people deserved more. And I knew the simplest of medical care could alter this village’s entire world.
We started Total Health soon after that to give these beautiful people emotional and physical care they deserved. And to more importantly, tell them about the love of Jesus, which none of us deserve.
A few years after starting that first clinic, we were seeing 8,000 – 10,000 patients a year — and telling every single person about the love of Jesus. We partnered with local Christian leaders and churches to be able to do this. Yes… emotional and physical care. But also discipleship with follow-up and a spiritual support that only a local community can provide.
The NEED. IS. GREAT.
The people are beautiful.
And your support goes outrageously far… changing the life of so many beautiful faces, young and old.
Could you do something great today? Could you take care of a 10-year old boy with a simple cut? Could you give him the chance at life on this earth… and life forever with Jesus?
