Please visit our blog to read the July 7th update about the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Honduras.
IMPACTS
We’d like to offer a brief statement and update in regards to the CV19 crisis that has impacted the entire world. As an organization one of our primary concerns has been ensuring the health and safety of our guest patients and staff at La Casa De Rubén while maintaining operations as normally as possible. Our medical team, led by our Executive Director Dr. Maria Mercedes, have followed the rules and guidelines provided by the health department and implemented our own internal procedures to prevent the spread of the virus. We are happy to report that these procedures have been successful in maintaining the health of everyone at La Casa De Rubén. Please continue to pray as Rubén and Rosalina are both susceptible to respiratory infections and have somewhat compromised immune systems.
Due to the nationwide shutdown and curfews (both national and more localized) that have been in place since March 16th it has been necessary for us to find creative ways to maintain operations. With God’s favor and good planning operations have continued much as before. The biggest impact has been that Rubén and Rosalina have been unable to go to CRILE to receive physical therapy because it, like most everything else in Honduras, has been closed. While our two nurse aids have continued to assist them with their daily exercises we are hoping to coordinate a home visit from their primary physical therapist to assess and determine what else might need to be done to ensure that they do not lose valuable ground gained from all of their hard work.
We greatly enjoyed serving with our first three mission teams who came, one each in the months of January, February and March. Sadly but understandably our remaining teams for 2020 have had to make the decision to postpone their trips until next year. We have one team still praying about coming later this year and we are hopeful that they will be able to do so.
We are happy to report that the impacts on our sponsored students have been somewhat minimal as they are all healthy and continuing their studies online.
OPPORTUNITIES
In times of crisis there are always new challenges but with the new challenges come new opportunities. This crisis has caused widespread, long term unemployment resulting in families not having sufficient food and other basic supplies. Because of generous donations we are able to help families in their time of need by providing 20lb bags of food and soap for hand and clothes washing. Our other new opportunity is that we are developing a teaching series that we will begin in Torre Fuerte, our partner church in La Campa, once the curfews and group meeting restrictions are lifted. This series will be on the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. This was a study Jean and I did when we were new Christians that was most helpful in building a solid Christian foundation for us.
CONCLUSION
While 2020 is very different than what we expected God is faithful and He is still providing ways for us to fulfill our mission of serving families in the areas of health, education and development, addressing both the physical and spiritual needs.
Thank you so much for being partners with us. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like additional information about our ministries and programs. You can also make a tax deductible donation online.