Central Texas Medical Center - a blessing for Honduras

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.

Independence Day Celebrations

September 15 is a special date for our country, Honduras, as well as for all the Central American countries as it commemorates Independence Day.  This is why our children dressed in patriotic fervor, took to the streets in an organized parade hosted by their school to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day.  Set to the cadence of their school’s Marching Band our children of all ages participated in different squads all with the intent to commemorate this special season as they wore the pride of their country on their faces, pride at being born in such a beautiful nation as Honduras!

Celebrating Children’s Day

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!

Golden Anniversary Parade

Centro Educacional Adventista - the educational center our children attend for private education - celebrated their 50th Anniversary this month, and as part of the celebration our children participated in a parade honoring the milestone of their alma mater.  The students were happy to be part of this special celebration and with great pride marched on behalf of their school through the street of our local town, Peña Blanca.

Our mission in August

Three new little patients have been admitted to our Nutritional Rehabilitation Center during the month of August. Without a doubt they will recover from the fight they are waging against the malnutrition that has stolen their health, and they are a reminder that makes us anxious to find more little ones in need of support for their fight against hunger. Two of the children are siblings Cindy and Jesus, ages 4 and 2 years respectively; they are from one of the poorest areas in our country and a place in which malnutrition is still rampant. Our third little patient is Michael, 2 years old, who is from a nearby town close to Lake Yojoa. Soon we will see their smiles emerge; please keep them in your prayers as they reach this milestone of recovery from malnutrition.

PAHS attends the International ASI Convention in Cincinnati, OH

As member of the Adventist-Laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI) PAHS attended the annual convention which was held this year in Cincinnati, OH. Our administrative staff used the opportunity to meet with both long-time as well as new supporters and it is time to update and refresh skills. It is a pleasure to be able to meet with supporters and other organization members from around the world to share of our work and to hear stories of triumphs and challenges of what as a group are able to accomplish in the service of others to make this world a better place!

A visit to the Zoo

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.

Helping the environment creatively

Thanks to an innovative project spearheaded by volunteer, Bonnie Gray, our campus appears cleaner. The children decorated 20 five-gallon buckets as small trash receptacles to be placed in strategic spots around our campus. This has given the children the opportunity to learn in a fun and creative way the importance of caring for the environment by avoiding the habit of littering and keeping our environment trash-free.

Medical and Construction Team from Oklahoma

Dear friends from the Crossings Community Church, in Oklahoma, USA came to our campus to give of their construction and medical talents to the community. Working together with Heart for Honduras, they hosted a medical clinic on our campus for a day and then went out to different communities nearby during the week. Their construction team worked on the building that will house our Nutritional Rehabilitation Center soon. Our deep gratitude goes out to the team for their great help in furthering our mission to bring health care to our communities!

Trip to the beaches of Punta Sal

For their mid-year vacation our children and teens from the Homes traveled to the remote beach property of Punta Sal for a camp out. They enjoyed a much needed break from the usual routine of classes and chores and played in the water and enjoyed the beautiful beaches. The trip is a tradition and reward for students who have made the effort to work hard to get good grades and to complete their assigned chores.

Anna Garrett Volunteers

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.

Maranatha Mission Group from Paradise, CA

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!

Saving one life at a time

Weighing in at 5 pounds at the age of 20 days old, tiny baby Axel showed us his fighting spirit and desire to hang on to life. Although born to a 14 year-old mother who does not have sufficient milk supply to feed him adequately he remains feisty and was hungrily drinking down the rice water mix that his grandmother prepared for him. Thank God that he now has the support he needs and is recovering from the rough start in life with the help that his young mother is receiving from our Nutritional support program.

Danny, Rachel and Lauren complete their volunteer service

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.

Serving the Honduran people with love

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!

The right to health & a life with dignity

Three new patients joined our Nutritional Rehabilitation Program in the Casita Feliz. Kelvin, 5 years of age; Yanori, 3 years of age; and Omar 7 years of age are now each one recovering from their fight against hunger, and enjoying three balanced meals every day while receiving tender loving care.Each one comes to us from a different community thanks to the rescue mission efforts spearheaded by Dr. Harding during his visit time with us.

Rescuing the children of Honduras

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.

A visit from San Gabriel Academy

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!

Magic Beans

This is our summer time and although we live in a very temperate climate the sun still shines hot and bright. Under this sunshine our children, teens, employees and volunteers have labored to harvest and abundant crop of beautiful red beans.The quality and quantity of this crop clearly indicate a blessing from God in 2012. Our children have enjoyed the work and have made it into evening entertainment. We have also been delighted to have volunteers who visited our campus and chose to help us harvest beans.The beautiful legumes will be used as seed to distribute to poor farmers in the driest areas of the southern Honduras. We hope that they too will be blessed with a crop similar to ours.

Fountainview Academy

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.