Dr Harris and Carlos have worked together on many trips.  They are both great guys, giving of their time and talents to help others.

Two very cute little girls in Citala.

One thing that has changed about our mission trips is communication with home.  On our early trips we used a pay phone to call home maybe once or twice during the week.  Now the hotels we use have  wifi and we communicate in many ways more than daily.  At breakfast recently, over half of the team was online with either a computer or smartphone at one time!

These two ladies were given reading glasses- one to help her reading and one to help her sewing. The one who could read was given a New Testament, and she immediately began reading it--after the photo. They were both loving ladies and fun to be around.

Medical facilities are generally clean and sterile. We set up a brief medical clinic in a brick building in Citala. Doc Harris and Carlos were in a corner of the building on a dirt floor and doing consultations. When there were no patients in front of them, the hen sitting/setting in the corner was obvious. The building owner, Maximilion, lived in a shack next door and allowed us to use the nicer brick building.

Jorge is back home from the hospital but feeling badly and staying in bed.

Please pray for Jorge. He has an ulcer and is hospitalized.

Dr Harris and his translator Carlos doing what they love to do--help people.

Pray for this little boy and his family who live in La Antigua. Noe is 13 and has a form of Ricketts, too far gone to be curable. We were fortunate to have Doc Harris with his hospice background with us. He and Dea bathed Noe and visited with him and his family, helping them all in the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms that are ahead of them. We plan to send a special wheelchair to him in April that will make him more comfortable.

It is time for me to 'come clean' and share an experience so that others will not make the same mistake. I have always preached to our missionaries that they must have their passport with them at all times. About a year ago I had to get a new passport since the pages on mine were full. About the same time someone suggested to me that I did not really need to carry it around town---just have a colored copy with me and leave it in the hotel to keep from having it stolen (there is a hefty black market for them). Since then I have carried a color copy of it and left the real thing in my hotel room. As our team was returning to Ocotepeque from Santa Fe last Wednesday, we came upon a police checkpoint. This is a routine type of event and usually they simply check the vehicle license and the driver's license and wave you on. There were several other things that happened at this point that I will not discuss, but I was asked for my passport by an officer who was very professional. Debbie and Sharon handed him theirs, and I handed him my copy. I told him that we three spoke English, to which he replied, "I speak German" (in English). He then asked about the yellow paper that they issue at Immigration and said I needed a visa to be in the country. I told him it was in my passport at the hotel. He approved of what Debbie and Sharon presented to him and gave theirs back. He asked why I did not have mine with me and I told him to keep it from getting stolen. We will fast-forward here--- we were told to follow him to the police station and send someone else to the hotel and have them bring my passport there. Dea and Doc and Carlos were in the other vehicle. I gave them my room key and they departed the scene. We went in caravan with the police vehicle to the police station. By the time we got there, my passport with the visa was handed to me by loyal team members, and I went inside. They allowed Carlos to go with me as interpreter, but he was not needed. the one who was in charge did speak German, as he had said. He also spoke French and very good English in addition to Spanish. He examined my passport and visa and my military ID card, and then asked if I had been an Army officer. My reply was yes, that I had been a helicopter pilot. He asked if I had been in Viet Nam and I replied that I had been there in 1970. He had a friend who had been there earlier. He called over the senior policeman and explained the situation. They told me they were sorry that this had happened and asked me not to do it again. I promised him that he would never find me again without my passport. I then told him that compared to the police in El Salvador that I had come in contact with, the Honduras police were much better uniformed and more professional acting--and that is very true. Some may try to protect their passport by putting it in a baggy during the rainy season. Mine has been through a laundry cycle and shows no sign of damage. I will carry it from now on and probably never need it again. Lesson learned and something to write about.

David Alexander: First service in Citala. We had 4 families visit from the community. With support from the area churches we had 40 adults and 11 children. It was very successful.

This is a report from David Alexander: First service in Citala. We had 4 or 5 families from the community visit. With the area churches supporting us we had 40 adults and 11 children. It was very successful day.

A new congregation begins here today, in Citala (see-tu-la'), El Salvador. Brother Marcos will be preaching from this beautiful pulpit that was built by Art Braden of Southaven, MS in September. Marcos has been door knocking for 2 weeks and inviting people to come. Many have said they would. Pray for great things to come from this work! They will meet for worship at 2pm which allows other congregations to come and support them.

Our team is now all home, and it was a great team! Everyone was productive and fun to be with. We accomplished a lot of things and a variety of things. Over the next few weeks I will give some stats and post a lot of photos of our activities.

We have completed 4 great days of med clinics in villages where churches should be planted in the future. We will spend the day in La Palma tomorrow before going home Saturday. God has been glorified!

We had about 70 adults and 50 children yesterday at a clinic in Santa Anita. There is no doctor in the town yet, but they have a nice facility and some good nurses. Our team adapted to some difficult situations quite nicely. We have a super team! Everyone is compassionate and kind and hard working. We are blessed in many ways. We attended a preaching campaign in La Antigua last night with good attendance. We are well and healthy and happy.

We are truly blessed on this trip to have wonderful people on the team and a great group of translators. Carlos is one of the very best ever, and we have Julia and Kevin also. Julia lives in El Salvador but has very good English and a servant's heart. Kevin is 14 but very mature and helpful as well as knowing English well.

Two men were baptized this afternoon in a tank in the Ocotepeque prison. We spent the morning treating 75 prisoners and staff members; simultaneously, Jorge, Alex, and Luis were conducting a Bible study in the main area of the prison, and Gloria and Lucia were studying with Midian and Evelyn in the women's cell block.

We are here! One more team member will join us this afternoon. We had a long day yesterday in our travels. Carla's plane from Memphis had mechanical trouble and she was rebooked to arrive in San Salvador at 6:30 pm. The rest of us waited for her at the beach, and of course were forced to eat seafood (fresh). The trip up the hill was uneventful and we arrived in Ocotepeque just after 10pm. We were met and welcomed by the Rodriguez family and some church people. We are now rested and ready for a day of work--preparing for the medical work tomorrow, evangelizing, and worshiping. We are well and healthy. Ralph

We are ready for our trip! Saturday we travel to Ocotepeque for a reunion with people we love. We have a busy week planned for us to help those who cannot help themselves. Please pray for our safety and security and success.

We have received approval for our medical brigade from the Health Ministry. Our trip is Jan 12-19, and so many times theh approval did not come until during or after the trip. We have a small but hard-working team and will have a good trip. In addition to the prison, we will serve patients in 4 villages where health care is scarce.