Dreaming of the Future

 

Angie will be having "reverse shoulder surgery" in August. Hopefully, surgery will relieve the nearly constant pain that she has had from a shattered shoulder as the result of a fall in May, 2010. At the time when Angie's surgeon initially implanted a new ball in her shoulder, he was not sure of the degree of success that she would have for recovery. Though we hoped for the best, the damage to her tendons was too severe to fully recover and she has slowly been losing all mobility in her shoulder. In addition to removing the pain, the next shoulder surgery that Angie will be having is expected to give her back some of the movement in her shoulder. The recovery time from the surgery will take about three months.  

While she is waiting for the planned surgery, Angie continues to dream about her future role in facilitating the learning process in the area of health care. Angie has hosted teams of Ohio State University medical brigades over the last 15 years. The first team to Choluteca in 2000 consisted of Angie, one other student, and Kathy Stone, who was Angie's OSU academic adviser at the time. This past year there were 44 students and professors from the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine, Linguistics, and Pharmacy. We are considering a couple of options for opportunities to become more involved in helping people through health care. 


1. We have recently been investigating the possibility of starting a new high school nursing program in Honduras. This is a lengthy process that requires submitting proposals to the Department of Education. This summer Angie will be working with several other people in putting together the necessary initial paper work to submit to the Government. Once governmental approval is given, Angie will coordinate the planning activity for starting a nursing program. 


2. Angie was recently invited to accompany our neighbor lady on a visit to the Choluteca prison. She was hesitant

Women's ward in the Choluteca prison.

at first because of being so involved in other activities. Angie was immediately impacted by the great need that she encountered.  A good friend pointed out to us that we should not view future prison ministry so much as another "opportunity" but rather as a mandate that we are obligated to complete. We want to be among those who are able to hear Jesus say , "I was in prison, and came to me." (Mt. 25:36).

Within our desire to be obedient to all that God wants us to do there are many options for service to those who are in prison. The prison director asked us to consider helping build a new area to house the women who are incarcerated. Among a total population of 600 inmates, there are 32 women. The director of the prison explained to us that he wants to allow the women to stay in Choluteca rather than sending them to another prison which would be farther away from thier families. We were also challenged to repair the floor in the prison chapel. 

One of the most viable potential opportunities is to begin offering vocational courses in the prison. The prison has a large area that would be ideal for planting gardens and starting small animal projects. 

Please pray with us about the direction we should take in this future ministry.