Our last day began uneventfully-that is no rain, no thunderstorms-as we headed out on an adventurous ride to Las Nieves. The ride was about an hour and a half of Honduran road roller coasters on very rugged climbs and exhilarating down hills with lots of rocks and ruts on the narrow roads. As we arrived at Las Nieves, several of us who had been on the Reveille mission trip in 2011 recognized this village as one of the villages we visited that trip. The welcome we received was though we were coming home. We set up quickly, David Daniels gave our welcome and we were off and running.

The medical clinic was relatively quiet today with a total of 164 patients, especially when compared to the opening clinic on Monday. At the very moment the Friends of Barnabas bus arrived in the community, a man walked in the clinic. He had been chopping wood and swung the axe back too strongly, clocking himself on the top of the head with the opposite end. It was an amazing Holy Spirit moment as Al was able to begin his day suturing this grateful patient's head. Nothing quite so dramatic happened today.

During a routine examination on a nice 27 year old man, Mary Kay shined a light into his eyes to check responsiveness; one of his pupils did not respond. It was a prosthetic eye, and a very well done prosthesis. He was concerned about sporadic infections around the eye and Mary Kay was able to provide him with pertinent medical advice. And so, the medical clinic peacefully closed out their very full week.

In the eye clinic, Will took care of a dear 87-year-old man. This wonderful 4'4" gentleman lit up the room with so much joy; that even before receiving an eye exam, he had everyone in smiles. As his eye exam commenced, this gentleman said he had not been able to see well at all for a long time. Thanks to the Kendall machine, he was found to have very poor sight; however, there was a pair of glasses that perfectly matched his needed prescription. As these well-matched glasses were placed on him, the man exploded into even more joy! Needless to say, the eye clinic ended their week on quite a high, seeing 18 people today and delivering 22 pairs of glasses.

The de-worming and fluoride clinic had its usual full and fun day seeing 28 children for fluoride, 24 for Vitamin A and 100 children for de-worming. This clinic always seems to have lots of kids hanging out all day long!

The dental clinic, it should be noted, appreciates smiles more than any of the other clinics. For some reason, not too many people smile in the dental clinic when facing an extraction! Laura and Claire had more patients than they could treat but were happy to have helped 10 patients with a total of 16 extractions. Laura and Claire gave their crosses to patients today; two very brave young girls. Laura's patient was 9 years old and had been dropped off by her mother who was in the medical clinic. She was very brave: 1) to show up, 2) to face the anesthesia, and 3) to complete the mission without a single tear. As she was such a model patient and Laura sweetly coached her through the extractions, Laura gave her a cross.

Claire's patient was a very sweet 7-year-old girl who was also brought to the clinic by her mother who kept a watchful eye on her the whole time. This patient was very scared, but her mother coached her not to cry. She bravely made it through two extractions. These little girls were some of our best patients this week, and we cheered them as we do every patient by saying, "valiente!"

In follow up, we learned that our asthmatic young patient, Enrique, from Tuesday's clinic was admitted to the hospital in San Pedro Sula and is being treated for pneumonia. We continue to pray for his recovery.

As we close our mission week, we are blessed to have been able to work with our caring and competent Richmond and Honduran team members; we consider them our family now. All week we prayed for each other, we prayed for the villagers, and prayed to be able to show the love of Jesus Christ in action. The humble, grateful, joyful villagers continually shared God's grace with us. It was a wonderful week. We take home in our hearts many beautiful faces and experiences to relive.