This year's Predisan walk, hosted in October in Atlanta and Oklahoma City, will be fundamentally different.  

Replacing the word, "for", and making it the "2013 Walk with Honduras" is more than just semantics. It's a reflection of the basics of Predisan's ministry.   

Each day, nearly 80 professional staff and many volunteers work tirelessly in seven eastern mountain communities to be Christ's hands and feet in the region. That means partnering with Hondurans to provide health services, education and other programs and resources to transform lives, while empowering them to pursue their own complete wellness.  

This year's walk will reflect that by having participants "walk a mile in their shoes." Each registrant will be given a pair of flip flops. This will allow participants to walk, very briefly, like many Hondurans, who perform so many daily tasks humbly in flip flops, often for several miles.  

The Atlanta Walk With Honduras will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 13 at Greater Atlanta Christian School, 1575 Indian Trail Lilburn Road, Norcross, GA. Become a sponsor or register online at:  http://weblink.donorperfect.com/AtlWalk 

Both events will be followed by a time of worship and a light meal.

Predisan has partnered with THRIVE Farmers Coffee to support our ministry work in Honduras.

THRIVE Farmers Coffee is a unique, farmer-direct coffee company that provides coffee directly from the farmers in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.  With THRIVE, every cup serves two - you receive artisan quality, specialty grade coffee and the farmer receives economic support greatly impacting their families and communities.

With a simple cup of coffee, you are able to support Predisan's mission program and the support the farmers in Honduras!

Click here to
BUY THRIVE COFFEE NOW and
enter code: PREDISAN 

In 1986, Dr. Robert Clark his wife Doris and their two teenage children, Kendra and Robert Jr., worked hard at raising $4,000 a month to support their mission of teaching health education and Christ to the local population. Today, Predisan has more than 80 employees and a monthly budget of $111,000.

In 27 years, so much has changed - but the basics, empowering the people of Honduras, proclaiming Jesus and healing lives - has remained the same.

Still, the wonderful arc of growth in a mission grounded in spreading wholeness is what Sharon Kemp has been delving into recently. As the celebration of Doris Clark's 70th birthday nears, (Oct. 12 at Northlake Church of Christ in Atlanta) Sharon, Predisan's chief accounting officer, has been poring through boxes and files of memorabilia, and peeling back the layers of time.

"It's been like a time capsule of Predisan," she says. One box contained old newsletters that were written by Robert. The newsletter was called the "Boonie Stomper", which is someone who strays off the beaten path. An art major, Doris included beautiful hand-illustrated work.

Illustration by Doris Clark

 Early every Thursday, at 5:45 a.m., Doris or Robert Clark cranked up their ham radio in an outpost of the rugged northeastern mountains of Olancho, Honduras' largest state, to communicate with contacts in the United States.

"I also got the sense of just how stretched their resources were," Sharon says. "They were in the country on 30-day renewable visitor Visas, and because the residency Visas were $200 a person, they just kept extending it out so they could get enough money to get them."  

In the early years, Doris traveled many miles a week through adverse conditions to teach health classes in Catacamas and the outlying rural areas. She would teach basic medical skills based on the book, "Where There is No Doctor."  

Today, Predisan provides more than 38,000 medical and educational contacts each year to the people of Honduras. Its work spans seven locations - the Predisan Family Health Center and Good Samaritan Clinic in central Catacamas, a clinic in the rural suburbs of Catacamas, five clinics in remote mountain villages, and the CEREPA addiction treatment center in Catacamas, Honduras. The clinics serve an area population of 90,000 people.

And today, instead of the old ham radio, there's Skype. But there's also still the ruggedness of the terrain, incredible poverty and the difficulty of getting in and out of communities, as well as unreliable electricity and Internet connection.

The needs might be evolving, but they are still there.

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Dr. Robert Gibson, a retired cardiologist from Portland, Oregon, understands this first-hand. He was part of a three-person group who worked for a week this past summer at Predisan, as part of a brigade sent by Medical Teams International. MTI is a Christian global health organization, delivering medical and dental care, humanitarian aid and programs to people affected by disaster, conflict and poverty in 70 countries.  

Dr. Gibson joined fellow cardiologist Dr. Geoffrey Wilson and Zane Wilson, an EKG technician, to help the doctor and nurses in the Good Samaritan Clinic in Catacamas, and then they would teach classes in the afternoon.

"Everything we did was in conjunction with the Predisan doctor," Dr. Gibson says. "We'd take a pile of charts and go through and see patients, and if I saw something interesting that he should see, I would pull him into the room. ... The atmosphere was very supportive not only of us but more importantly of the patients we saw. It was clear to me that the doctor and the staff were oriented to giving compassionate and high level care."

The cardiologist team, he says, went back to basic medicine, conducting routine check-ups on the young and old, and focusing on what was important to each patient. "I found it quite refreshing."  

Visiting physicians from North America, working in tandem with Predisan physicians, offer specialty care not otherwise available, including elective surgeries that are invaluable blessings to many.  

"If you have an interest in people and other cultures, doing medical work in a developing country gives you a privileged window into a culture that you can't get any other way," Dr. Gibson says. "You learn about people and the culture participating in the medical care system. It's very educational and fulfilling for those of us who get a chance."  

For more information about medical brigades, please visit:Medical and Surgical Brigade Q&A or e-mail Groups Coordinator Teresa Mejia, at  tmejia@predisan.org  

This past year, Congress extended the IRA Charitable Rollover for 2013 through the end of the year, and it's unclear whether it will be extended. So for now, supporters of Predisan's mission in Honduras also will be able to solve the issue of what to do with required distribution of pre-tax IRA dollars. After the age of 70 1/2, retirement savers are required to begin withdrawing money from their IRAs, and must generally pay income tax on the amount withdrawn.

But this Charitable IRA Rollover provision allows retirees to instead redirect their required distribution, up to $100,000, to a charity such as Predisan, and then no income tax is due on the withdrawal. Here are a few key points of the program:

• The funds must be transferred directly from the IRA fund to Predisan.
• Distributions must be made before Jan. 1, 2014.
• The donation must be made directly from the IRA custodian to the charity. So, the IRA owner directs the IRA custodian as to how much is given and to whom.
• The amounts distributed from the IRA in the Charitable Rollover are excluded from the taxpayer's Adjusted Gross Income (AGI).
• An individual may make the tax-free IRA Charitable Rollover of any amount up to $100,000 for 2013, and a spouse may also do the same from his or her IRA.

There are other ways to minimize taxes while also supporting Predisan's vision of seeing people experience whole health: physically, spiritually, socially, economically and environmentally. Charitable estate planning options are varied. But perhaps the best motivation for including charitable giving in any estate plan is the legacy it leaves. What better way to demonstrate values to the next generation than to show them what you support financially?

Here are just a few of many ways you might consider including Predisan in your estate plan.

• An outright contribution could be in cash or securities, which are fully deductible up to 50 percent of the donor's AGI in any one year.
• A Planned Contribution could be a bequest in a will.
• A donation of cash or securities can create a Charitable Gift Annuity, which provides the donor or another individual with a guaranteed, partially tax-free income for life.
• A Charitable Remainder Trust provides income for either life or a term of up to 20 years from the date the give is made. When the trust terminates, the charity receives the trust's principal.
• A Charitable Lead Trust is a mirror image of the remainder trust. It provides the charity with steady income for a term of years or the life of the individual donor. When the trust terminates, the donor's designated heirs receive the appreciated principal.

As with all of tax and estate planning issues, please consult an attorney or retirement specialist to determine the best plans and methods of giving.

For more information about planned giving, or to donate stock, in-kind gifts, please e-mail Sharon Kemp, accountant, at skemp@predisan.org.

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