Local mission group heading to Honduras

A plucky group of missionaries representing Woodland Heights Baptist Church will penetrate remote sections of Honduras in February to provide medical assistance and religious sustenance.

For months, members of the Conway church, located at Hogan Lane and Prince Street, have been organizing and assembling sundry and copious amounts of food, household goods and medicines for transport by ship to the Central American country and deliver the largesse to a small mission church.

Since Honduras is in dire need of assistance, abject poverty being the curse of the people who lack many of the essentials to sustain life, congregants of the Conway church feel an obligation not only to send materials and medicines to the country but also to extend religious truths to its people. 

In the cadre of Americans on the missionary team will be health care providers who will establish a replica of a family medical clinic. Other disciplines such as dental, pharmaceutical and optical will provide services, as well as many lay people who will provide support.

A Bible school for children will be held and preachers will offer translations even in a country that is predominately Catholic — some 98 percent of the population embracing that faith.

Nevertheless, despite this disparity in religious alignments, the Woodland Heights missionaries will bring to the Honduras people a message they consider applicable to a Christian lifestyle more in keeping with a Baptist-centered philosophy.

John Howell of Conway, a church deacon, will lead the entourage headed for Zapolitto, a remote mountainous town of 900 people where a mission church serves the religious needs of the peasantry.  And if there are doubts about the necessity of such aid offered by the Conway church to Hondurans, one only need know that poverty has increased by 300 percent in the past 10 years.

Honduras is the second poorest nation in Central America — a land lacking many natural resources. Its agriculture is insufficient; the land is poor, resulting in a negative production of sustainable materials. 

Jobs are available in tobacco production and on fruit and tobacco plantations, but they are minimal. 

The missionaries will address basic needs of the people who, on hearing of the arrival of the Conway team, will flock to the mission church, walking for hours to reach the clinics to receive the commodities, goods and medical assistance, if it is needed. Headquarters will be established in the church where the people may register and give voice to their most critical needs. 

Medical clinics will be set up in the community school, Howell said.  

“We believe that 1,800 to 2,000 people will come for medical assistance,” Howell said. “Seven to eight medical stations and four dental chairs will be arranged to receive patients.” 

A considerable amount of over the counter medications such as Tylenol, ibuprofen, vitamins, eye medications and other kinds of medicines typically found in American medical cabinets will be dispensed. Prescription medications will be doled out if needed.   

Attention to the teeth of the people is essential since oral hygiene is a rare factor among them. Sugar intake is high and tooth decay is rampant. Many are not even familiar with the use of toothbrushes.

Throughout the stay, emphasis will center on religious instruction. Singing, preaching and fellowship in the style invoked in Honduran Baptist churches will follow.  Preaching will be facilitated by several men of the cloth, including the local Honduran church pastor, the Rev. Juan Alberto Hererra, the Rev. Will Pounds, representing the Delta Baptist Association in Arkansas, which is headquartered in Dermott, Howell and other church members on the mission.      

Others who will preach include the Rev. Kent Dixon, associate pastor of Woodland Baptist Church, and Roy Jutze, a deacon at the Conway church. 

Herrera has been visiting in Conway and other Arkansas sites, presenting information about religious, economic and social happenings in his area of Honduras. During his testimony in American churches, Hererra speaks in Spanish. He is accompanied by Pounds, who is his interpreter.

During a recent visit in Conway, Hererra, Pounds and Howell discussed the value of missionary excursions predicated on what they called the American spirit of helping others in a way that no other society can or is willing to replicate.  In effect, they consider what they do is God’s will, an answer to bring the “Good News” to people around the world.     

Herrera will be on hand to welcome the Conway contingent when the missionaries visit in Honduras Feb. 13-20.  On Feb. 20-27, a second team from Woodland Heights will have a mission team in a northern region of Honduras.   

During his testimony delivered in Conway, Herrera made known facts of the plight of his family when they lived in Nicaragua during the civil war in that country.  His father was murdered at the hands of Sandinistas who overthrew the government of Nicaragua and took power in 1979. The Herrera family fled to Honduras and lived in refugee camps for a number of years. 

Howell said the Conway missionaries are responsible for trip costs incurred, including transportation. The church budget provides for the Bibles and shipping expenses, plus the cost of dental supplies and medications, which amount in the neighborhood of $15,000 per team.

And the premise for the trip?  Almost in unison, they said “God’s love and making a difference in another’s life. The kingdom of God becomes a reality on earth through the work of missionaries from places like the Woodland Heights Baptist Church who respond to the call to feed the hungry, provide medicines for their bodies and deliver good news to many who feel lost.”