"This is the day the Lord has made" was the introduction of my greeting to the high mountain community of La Cedra. But the Lord does not make all days easy; especially this one. It began at 3:30 am with a series of thunder storms to end all thunder storms with lightning hitting nearby within a deafening downpour. Breakfast included all the staff and team at one table with comical introductions all around. With the sun peaking out, we headed out a little behind schedule in order to allow the roads to drain for our one-hour, first-gear climb out of Pena Blanca. La Cedra offers a nice school facility donated by the Canadian Red Cross, complete with computer lab which became our dental/suturing suite for the day.   We were told this community was a model for the Friends of Barnabas Foundation based on its commitment and strong leaders and indeed we felt welcomed as family.

Stories we celebrated at the end of day included the elderly woman dental patient who after 15 extractions won the dental team over with the most infectious and beautiful if toothless smile. The elderly man with cataracts who sauntered through the eye clinic with time to spare, tried on his glasses and in classic appreciative style, kissed Will, Clay and Elmer on the cheek not once but three times each. The young woman who slipped and fell face first hours earlier, lacerating her left cheek who agreed to let us suture her rather than traveling to San Pedro Sula to the ER. She wears Mary Kay's cross.

Cough, cold and fever are what mark many patients' cards as they are seen by mountain teams; however, for my last patient of the day, it meant much more.   Enrique is a nine year old boy with asthma who I saw presenting with those complaints. But on exam, his lips were dusky and his chest retracting with inspiration. His lungs were so tight with wheezes; they were difficult to hear with a stethoscope supporting the source of his dramatically low blood oxygen and rapid heart rate on pulse oximetry. And yet, he stood quietly and patiently without much appearance of distress. Our pediatrician (Dr. Phil) and I decided back-to-back nebulizer treatments and high dose steroids by mouth were all we had to offer at 5 pm with the intention of having the community leaders transport him to San Pedro Sula to the hospital as soon as possible. We were told this could not happen until morning. Holding up our departure down the mountain, Phil and I labored over the challenges and limits of our mission in the mountains. The overnight potential for exhaustion and demise for Enrique was obvious. But it was Zenaida "Z", Phil's translator, who placed her hands on Enrique and prayed over him with tears streaming; that gave me hope our patient was going to make it. Enrique wears my cross tonight with that hope.

Four hundred twelve patients were seen in the medical clinic, 45 pairs of eyeglasses distributed, 41 dental extractions and 172 dewormed. A busy, difficult but fulfilling day the Lord has made.

Al Rogers, Co-Leader