Our campus was blessed by a mission team from the Mend a Child Foundation lead by Dr. Tom and Calle Wieg last week. During their visit they constructed a sidewalk from the Children's Home to the Chapel & main kitchen. This special proyect was made to facilitate the mobility of Jenny - who uses a leg braces and a walker, and Lily - who uses a wheel chair to get around. The team also worked on the Admin/Temp Clinic building by pouring concrete for an external sidewalk and the bathrooms for the outclinic patients. It was a great experience for the children to have this group of old friends and "extended family" visiting our Home again.
A student from LLU during the medical brigade
The dental and medical Students from Loma Linda University, CA, along with Dr. Tom Wieg and his family spent their New Year Holidays attending more than two hundred patients in the dental clinic and the remotes villages that they visited, El Dorado, La Fe and Los Caminos.They also participated in our celebration for the new year. Thank you so much LLU students for putting your energy, talents and love for our People in Honduras! We greatly appreciate it!
These last days have been full of activities and holiday spirit in our Campus. Our Children and Staff prepared a beautiful program which was held in the church where many members of our family gathered together from far and near to celebrate Christmas. We also received the Christmas gifts that were sent from the Oakhurst and Mariposa Church in CA, that were specially prepared for our Children! And with them the special visit of Dr. Tom and his family, as well as the SIMS group from Loma Linda! Happy holidays to you!
Christmas arrived a month early for the little ones of our Casita Feliz Nutritional Rehab Program thanks to a group of employees from two different HSBC locations, one in San Pedro Sula – Primera Avenida - and the other of Villanueva. This generous and loving team of givers – some of whom brought their own children along - shared presents and supplies along with a wonderful spirit of joy and love. Seated around the Central Plaza’s Christmas Tree the children’s faces lit up as one by one they were called by name to receive a beautifully wrapped gift. The fun continued with a hot lunch and a delicious cake which the team served the little ones. It was a lovely and unforgettable gesture of love which filled our hearts with gratitude and happiness!
A partnership of CARE and Cargill of Honduras in support of a group of Agriculturist in various development programs made a generous donation of food and produce to PAHS/Servicio Panamericano de Salud in an event which took place on Friday November 8 on our campus. It was a time to get acquainted and to become familiarized with the work to expand and support agriculture in Honduras and for our benefactors to see first-hand what PAHS does to support the most vulnerable of the population. The donated food items will be used in our Nutrition and Home programs. We are grateful to each of these groups for their great generosity and for being socially responsible companies that share of their bounty with our children!
Maria de Los Angeles (Mary of the angels) is a fitting name for this young woman – the single mother of two boys, ages 6 and 15 - who probably did not imagine that her life could change so much from one day to the next. Thanks to some “angels” disguised as physicians who showed up in a medical team in the small mountain community where her mother lives, Angela received a second-chance at life in May 2012. First examined by Dr. Gretchen Whisenant of the CTMC medical team, Angela explained she had seen many specialists and had undergone multiple tests and all assured her she did not have a chance to live long because of thyroid cancer that had spread and grown throughout her neck and upper chest. Dr. Gretchen’s husband, Dr. Dewey Whisenant, envisioned this young mother having a good prognosis if she could have the appropriate treatment and together the Whisenants came up with a plan to support Angela in fighting for her life. With the assistance of PAHS and Central Texas Medical Center a team of volunteers from the CTMC May Mission Team put together a larger support system to have Angela travel to San Marcos, TX for a life-saving surgery. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to witness this miracle.
The Central Texas Medical Center (CTMC) arrived with a well organized Medical Team for the second time this year in October 2012. Teaming up with PAHS/Servicio Panamericano de Salud, they treated over 1,500 people during the week in four communities: San Antonio de Cortés, Concepción del Sur, Canculunco and Peña Blanca. The 18 professionals that made up this team traveled back to their homes in Texas happy to have had an experience of serving those in need and making new friendships.
The month of September provides many opportunities for fun to our children. Besides the excitement building up to the Independence Day parades mid-month, September 10 is a day set aside to celebrate children. Piñatas, sweets, games, gifts and many visitors were all part of the Child’s Day celebrations on our campus this year for the children of the Casita Feliz as well as the Homes. It is a special time set aside to recognize the love and joy that these special gifts of God bring to our World!
Our children had the pleasure of experiencing an unforgettable, educational and fun trip to the Joya Grande Zoo in a nearby town. The trip was sponsored thanks to the generosity of Peter and Beth Malgadey of Florida, friends of Bonnie Gray a faithful volunteer of over a year. Our children were able to see animals they had previously seen only in photographs such as a lion, giraffes, tigers, leopards, hippopotamus, and crocodiles among others.
Nursing student, Anna Garrett of Ohio, spent one month of her vacation time blessing our children and assisting our staff with her nursing skills and expertise in the Casita Feliz. Anna first visited our campus with a local organization Heart for Honduras and she felt called to give of her time to our children. She has been a wonderful and very valuable support to our staff and to our recovering babies who benefited from both her medical expertise and her kind company.
We have been blessed this year to have the visits of many groups affiliated with Maranatha Missions who were visiting our local Academy and chose to help continue the construction of the building that will be our Nutritional Rehabilitation Center, a building that is greatly needed. This was the case when our brothers and sisters from the Paradise Adventist Church spent two weeks helping us advance this special building project – a wonderful answer to prayer. Additionally they hosted medical clinics around the Lake Yojoa area and saw approximately 500 patients. We are so grateful for their love and support!
We are grateful to Rachel, Lauren and Danny for their volunteer services and for the difference they have made in the lives of our children. Rachel and Lauren - here for 8 months - held pre-school classes for the children of the Casita Feliz; while Danny who spent 4 months with us, planted a vegetable garden that produced food for our little ones. We wish them the best and are grateful for the time they spent as part of our family.
Central Texas Medical Center of San Marcos, Texas organizes two medical mission team trips per year. At PAHS we feel fortunate to be able to host this marvelous group of professionals who during this trip gave attention to 1,075 patients in 4 different communities. Neither rain, nor mud, nor poor mountain roads were able to deter the service-oriented spirit of each member of this determined medical team from their mission of delivering medical attention to needy villages. We are deeply grateful for their service to our fellow Hondurans!
We have been greatly blessed to have the presence of our very own pediatrician, Dr. Gary Harding and his loving wife, Ouida, with us for three weeks. Dr. Harding, with the support of Nurse Suyapa and volunteers Rachel and Lauren, visited several remote mountain communities whose inhabitants live in extreme poverty with the intention of seeking malnourished children in need of the rehabilitation services offered by PAHS.The rescue missions proved fruitful as three little ones are now part of our Nutritional Rehab program as a result of these rescue missions. It is impressive to witness Dr. Harding’s great desire to save starving children from hunger and from misery along with his staunch commitment to seeing them healthy.
Students from San Gabriel Academy in Los Angeles, CA visited our campus and volunteered their time to help with bean harvesting and the child care in our Casita Feliz. They were visiting our community as part of a Maranatha Mission Team to the local our local academy Centro Educacional Adventista.During their time here they also held Bible School classes filled with fun activities for our children. We are grateful for their attentions and for their help!
This year’s graduation class of Fountain View Academy in Canada chose to come to our community for their Senior Class trip. While here the Seniors chose a variety of projects to benefit our campus. They took turns over the span of 10 days to help in the daily caretaking of the little patients in the Casita Feliz. Others organized a Music Camp for the children and teens from our Homes. Our children were thrilled to be learning music in this fun and entertaining way. Some in the group dedicated their time to furthering the construction of the new building that will house our Nutritional Rehab Center. We are deeply grateful for all of the contributions that these young people made to our campus life.
Nutrition students from Andrews University, under the direction of Dr. Winston Craig, did gathered data on the diets of our children on campus as well as children in neighboring communities. Their objective is to determine the nutritional value that children are taking in with their current diet. This group of students stayed with us for one week, not only helping out on our campus, but also assisting in nearby communities to help people learn about subjects regarding health and nutrition. Thank you Andrews University!
The members of the Seventh-Day Church of Oakhurst, California organized by Dr. Tom and Calle Wieg have made a annual tradition of gathering presents to send to our children.
Read MoreThanksgiving Day was a very special occasion this year on our Peña Blanca campus. Among the many reasons to thank God was that we had many of our extended PAHS Family with us for graduation time which made Nelly and Luzby feel very special.
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