HONDURAS – Medical/Surgical Team, 1999.

In April 1999, Arlen and Brenda Stauffer led a team of 13 missioners to Honduras. Following “Mitch,” a devastating hurricane that tortured Honduras and claimed thousands of lives during several days of fury a few months earlier, this team flew to La Ceiba, on the country’s northern coast.

Gaining Internet access at the hosts’ home in La Ceiba, an emailed photo of the group was sent home that first night, and was projected the following morning (Easter Sunday) on the front of the group’s home church in New Smyrna Beach. The Coronado Community United Methodist Church supported the missioners in many ways before, during, and after the mission trip.

Hosted by missionaries Jim, Nancy, and Maria Hartsock at their home in La Ceiba, the group traveled each day to El Cacao, a poor village 30 miles away at the edge of the mountains where Hurricane Mitch had done so much damage. A clinic building, built of concrete blocks, had been completed by volunteer teams from the USA the previous year, and was the only building in the village to survive unscathed by Mitch.

The clinic building had a small, American-style operating room, and the first surgery to ever be performed in this area was completed by the surgical members of the team. The team carried $30,000 of donated drugs and supplies from the USA to the clinic. During the week at the El Cacao clinic, in the tropical heat and humidity, the team saw 550 patients and performed 23 successful operations.

Pastor Mario, from a local church, shared God’s word with the patients and their families after they were taken care of by the medical team. For the Hondurans, many of whom had never been touched by a healthcare worker before this, some received medical and surgical care, and many received spiritual care.

For the 13 team members, a greater understanding of their roles in this life and on this earth was achieved. It is truly a humbling experience to see how the rest of the world really lives, and to be able to provide a small bit of help to those in need.

Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,

you have done it unto me.

Team members included physician Arlen Stauffer, surgeon Michael Morris, and anesthesiologist Richard Gramer; nurses Cheryl Jordan, Susan Kline, Clay Smith, Ruth Morris, and Vickie Clanton; and team members Bob Morris, Mackenzie Stauffer, Wes Rutland-Brown, Brenda Stauffer, and Tina Morris.

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MEXICO – Medical/Dental Team, 2000.

In April 2000, a team of 12 missioners was led by Arlen and Brenda Stauffer on the 23-hour travel from New Smyrna Beach to Pitorreal, Mexico, a remote village high in the Copper Canyon area of north-central Mexico.

Although the scenery was incredible (Copper Canyon is four times as large as the Grand Canyon), the area was in the midst of a long drought, and the Tarahumara Indians who inhabit this challenging geography were struggling to survive. These were tough people, and they had survived in this rather inhospitable area for many years.

Hosted by Jack and Marie Parsons, the team slept on wooden bunk beds. With no water until the fourth day of the trip, team members acclimated quickly, learned to use an outhouse, and went to work.

The Tarahumarans walked from miles away to see the doctor or dentist on the Parsons’ front porch “clinic.” Some arrived from remote areas via the Parsons’ van after team members traveled to spread the word about the clinic’s existence.

The cool evenings were spent sharing the experiences of the day, and recalling how lucky we all were to have been born where we were. Marie Parsons and her two Mexican helpers prepared three meals every day for the missioners.

Data gathered during this week indicated that nearly every family there had suffered the death of at least one child, usually as a result of a “curable” problem such as diarrhea or a respiratory infection. Of the couple hundred patients cared for by this team in Pitorreal, most of the problems were minor. However, several had serious infections that were treated promptly with the antibiotics that were carried from the USA to Mexico, and one woman suffering from apparent congestive heart failure was taken to a government clinic in Creel, a 45 minute drive in the van.

Dozens of Tarahumarans had painful, decaying teeth removed by the dental team. All were quiet, tolerant people. Even a three-year-old child sat calmly in the chair as a tooth was extracted, a couple tears creating dusty smears on his cheeks.

After spending one night in El Paso, the group arrived back in New Smyrna Beach at 2:00 AM on Easter morning.

All the ends of the earth will be remembered and turn to the Lord……

Team members of the medical/dental mission group to Mexico included physician Arlen Stauffer; dentist Bill Potter; nurses Cheryl Jordan, Susan Kline, and Judy Ruland; and team members Mackenzie Stauffer, Lindy Steele, Carol Greene, Jennifer Maxwell, Brenda Stauffer, and Mark Steele.

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Bolivia - Medical/Construction 2001.

Sapecho, Bolivia, South America

April 6 – 15, 2001

The largest Mission Team ever sent from the Coronado Community United Methodist Church was also the first team that combined Medical, Dental, and Construction work.

The Team of 21 departed the Church on April 6, 2001, launching into a 34-hour punishing travel route to the Bolivian rainforest village of Sapecho. A van trip to Miami was followed by a 7-hour flight to La Paz, high up in the beautiful Andes Mountains, and finally by a 17-hour bus ride over The World’s Most Dangerous Road.

The one-lane dirt and rock road that snaked along incredible Andes cliffs, peaks, and valleys deserved its nickname.

The exhausted missioners settled into their bunks in the hot, humid rainforest at 1:30 AM that first night.

After an inspiring village-wide welcome that next (Sunday) morning, there was lots of work to do. The Medical Team set up their pharmacy, the Dental Team worked the kinks out of an ancient dental chair and blew the first (of many) fuses with the autoclave sterilizer, and the Construction Team checked out the locations and supplies of their work.

Monday morning saw each of the three groups begin their work, and each day of that week brought more patients, more heat, more work.

More than 600 medical patients were seen, hundreds of doses of antibiotics were given for various infections, and 90,000 vitamins were divvied up. The Dental Team pulled nearly 200 rotting, painful teeth from mouths that had never before seen a dentist. The Construction workers toiled in smothering heat and humidity to carve out a 12-foot deep hole in the clay, where a methane generator would be installed to supply gas to the clay oven in the Children’s School, the “Internado.” They also laid a rock/concrete floor and painted walls in the teacher’s quarters at the school.

The “gracias” from the adults and the genuine smiles from the children lifted the spirits of the missioners. As is always the case on trips such as this, the missioners gain more – spiritually and emotionally – than they ever feel they can give to the people being served.

The trip by bus back toward La Paz was interrupted for several hours on Friday, April 13 (Good Friday) by a tragedy that deeply affected the lives, minds, and souls of this Mission Team. Involved in a rescue effort along The World’s Most Dangerous Road, the missioners witnessed death, dying, suffering, and near-hopelessness that was overwhelming.

Arriving home on April 15, 2001, nine of the 21 team members were ill, and all were fatigued and weary.

Fighting against feelings of inadequacy.....and even failure, comfort was drawn from the supportive, warm “Welcome Home” by many CCUMC friends and members, and also from the words of John Wesley. This quote was presented to the group one evening in Sapecho, 3400 miles from their Florida homes, by one the group’s Bolivian hosts:

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”