Newsletter - November, 2006

The Least of These My Brethren

November, 2006

Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Matt. 25:40

Published by the Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210

Rescuing 5000 Bibles

Luis with some of the cartons of Bibles

As Deborah and I were preparing for our trip to Honduras this past summer, we learned of an unusual situation where help was badly needed. In July, a Christian ministry in the United States had shipped to Honduras a container load of Bibles, gospel tracts, building materials, fluorescent lighting fixtures, desks, walkers for the elderly, and a generator for the local health clinic in Siguatepeque. (The Society of the Good Shepherd had heard of the shipment, and we were able to donate some used clothing to go in the container before it left the U. S.) Luis Vega, one of our directors in Honduras, had agreed to pick up the container at the port of Puerto Cortez and to have the container trucked to Siguatepeque.

However, through a mistake, the container was incorrectly addressed. So each time Luis made inquiries, the shipping company told him that the container had not yet arrived. After a month passed, it was obvious that something had gone wrong. Through a number of inquiries, Luis finally learned that the container had been incorrectly addressed. It was mistakenly addressed to a nearby hospital. But since the hospital knew nothing about the shipment, they had refused to pay for the container to be brought to Siguatepeque. Eventually, Luis was able to track down the container, which had been placed in storage.

The health clinic in Siguatepeque

Sadly, by that time, the container had accrued several thousand dollars in storage charges. So now the dilemma Luis faced was either to forfeit the contents of the container in cancellation of the storage charges or else have to pay these unexpected charges. Well, a quick inventory of the contents of the container revealed that it contained the following:

5000 New Testaments
1 million gospel tracts
100,000 booklets containing the Gospel of John and Romans
6 desks
12 doors
84 fluorescent light fixtures
20 boxes of used clothes
several boxes of medicines
30 office partitions
2 used computers
8 boxes of craft supplies
2 walkers for the elderly
several file cabinets
1 sewing machine
1 generator

Luis holds some of the candles the clinic uses. (None of the flashlights were functional.)

It was apparent that the contents of the container were worth far more than the storage charges. And the urgent need to obtain a quick release of the container became apparent through some sad incidents at the public health clinic in Siguatepeque. Summer is the rainy season in Honduras, and thunderstorms are quite frequent. Unfortunately, the health clinic had no back-up generator in case the electricity went off. One night, the doctors were delivering a baby in the middle of a thunderstorm. Suddenly, all of the lights went out. The only light the doctors were able to obtain was from candles. So the nurses held candles over the mother while she was giving birth. Sadly, hot wax from the candles dripped on the mother’s upper legs, burning them. In another birth, hot wax dripped on the newborn baby’s head. Thankfully, the wax did not get into his eyes.

The birthing chair at the clinic

At this point, Luis contacted me in the U. S. and told me about the situation. Even though we weren’t the ones who had shipped the container, I told him that I felt quite certain that our readers would agree that we should obtain the immediate release of the container, and so I quickly forwarded the needed funds to him. So when Deborah and I arrived in Honduras several weeks later, the container had already been delivered to Siguatepeque. In fact, many of the Bibles and tracts were already being put to good use. We visited the health clinic in Siguatepeque and learned that they were arranging for an electrician to set up the generator for emergency power. So hopefully, no one else will have to be treated by candlelight or be burned with hot wax! DB

Click on the following link to read our Past Newsletters

Click on the following link if you would care to make a donation to the work in Honduras: Donations

100% of all donations go to the designated work in Honduras. Our overhead and travel expenses are paid through other means.