A Full Heart And A Broken Heart: Christmas 2022

In one moment, my heart was overflowing and broken.

It started in early December, in the last week of our trip to Ohio. We got the hair-brained idea to collect 75 hand-written Christmas cards and money to buy Christmas gifts for the children in our community. Actually, it was the suggestion of our co-workers who were already working on their end of the same effort. We sent an email to our newsletter list, hoping that maybe we would get half of what we needed and then we could find a way to get the other half.

Boy, were we wrong.

The same day my Paypal started dinging, and cards and checks started coming in the mail a couple days later. We ended up flying back to Honduras with more than 80 cards in our suitcases, and funds to buy bigger gifts than we planned plus provide a whole Christmas party complete with dinner for our village and the next village over.

The missionary kids had fun packing all the gifts, loading them with all the goodies for their friends in our village. We passed them out to a group of kids who could hardly contain themselves. In fact, some of their mothers were equally uncaged.

Food, Too

And what is a Christmas party without a big dinner? Of course, a Christmas dinner in La Mosquitia is quite different than a Christmas dinner in your house. We were able to buy a pig from a local farmer, so everyone got some meat. It was accompanied by a large helping of rice, some cooked bananas, yuca, and a cup of good ole’ Coca-Cola. We finished off with a big slab of cake.

A Real Party

The whole community came together to share the dinner. We had some worship and Christmas music.

A Family In Distress

The evening after the Christmas party, I went to visit one of the nurses who works in the clinic. She had guests staying with her, and there was a little girl of about 7 years old who came down the steps toward me. She had attended the party the previous day with her sister, and had received one of the extra gifts that we had for visiting children. This day, when she reached the bottom of the stairs, she wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed. She held on for a long time before looking up at me and smiling.

My heart was filled to overflowing by the sincerity of her gratitude as she climbed the stairs back to her papa. I was so thankful that God had provided for us to be able to give her something that told her she matters.

“Where are you all from?” I asked her dad, Javier.

“We come from the farm out by Lasitingni” he told me. “We came to bring our baby to the nurse.”

The nurse came out on the porch and began to tell me about the heart condition that Javier’s son Mesac has. Mesac is about 4 months old, and has a hole in his heart. That hole prevents his heart from being effective, which means that among other problems Mesac’s body is not getting enough oxygen. His mother holds him upright all the time, because if she lays him down he starts to turn blue. The same happens when he gets upset and cries, or exerts himself in any way.

My heart sank again as I weighed the severity of that prognosis. His sister’s face radiated the joy of a child well-loved. I know Javier and his wife love their baby Mesac no less. Despite the best they can do, they live under the constant threat that he may not survive the night. As a father, I can hardly bear to imagine that kind of uncertainty.

Javier and his family live on a farm about 2 hours beyond our village. Javier is a farm-hand on someone else’s farm. He has no truck and doesn’t make enough to pay his family’s travel into town, at least not on a regular basis. Even then, the town they could go to does not have a cardiologist. The only option for possible treatment is in Tegucigalpa, the capital city. Traveling to the capital requires a flight, because there are no roads that connect our region with the interior of the country. On the wage Javier makes, he cannot afford to get his son to the city where the doctor is.

That is why Missionary Air Group exists.

Currently, our team is trying to coordinate getting the family into the city so that Mesac can have heart surgery. There is a cardiologist that is willing to look at him. His parents first have to get his documents completed at the municipal office, then find transportation to the city. Please pray for Mesac as we work to coordinate all the details necessary to get him adequate treatment.

This kind of care requires us to offer financial assistance. If we fly them in our airplane, there are fuel and maintenance bills. We may need to help house and feed them while they’re in the city. There could be any number of expenses they are not able to cover. We cannot help families like baby Mesac’s without your support.

If you would like to directly support flights like those for Mesac and his parents, you can click here and designate your gift for “Ongoing Program Support” then “Honduras Aeromedical.” Please consider contributing to making it possible for us to reach families with Help and Hope.