Honduras

Dr. J. Mark Reed wrote the following about the May 2019 trip to Honduras:

"It was a very special trip despite some challenges. As a team, we did 68 surgeries, and Brandon Shepherd and I did 21 of those. We had multiple opportunities to minister outside of the OR delivering rice, beans, and water to several communities. It’s an utterly humbling experience that you never get over.

We had a total of 47 team members, including UMMC faculty Dr. Mildred Ridgeway (OB-GYN), Dr. Jim Purvis (Pediatrics), and Dr. Jim Joransen (Pediatric Cardiology). We had three UMMC medical students and four Mississippi College pre-med students. Two general surgeons, Dr. Kevin Ivey and Dr. Michael Peavey, returned on their 4^th and 3^rd trips respectively. Two of my daughters came along with one of Dr. Ridgeway’s daughter’s and two of Dr. Purvis’s daughter’s.

We were challenged by a major power failure on our first day with me involved in a case. It was a highly unusual experience, but everything turned out well. The problem took around 8-9 hours to fix, so we had to cancel all other cases that day and add them on for our other days. That made the rest of the week tougher, but everyone was amazing. We were also faced with civil unrest and major demonstrations as the government decided to end all funding for public education and health care. Pretty major issues. Due to rioting and demonstrations, the airport was closed the day before we were scheduled to leave. We had to get up at 3 a.m. last Friday to get to the airport prior to the start of new demonstrations and were fortunate to be able to leave before the airport was closed again. The American embassy was also set on fire that day. Fortunately, we were never in danger, and many prayers were answered.

Overall, it was an amazing time with amazing people as we served an amazing God. It was certainly a privilege to be part of. The trip was amazing! The mission trip was sponsored by Health Talents International, a non-profit Christian organization that works within the Church of Christ to promote medical evangelism in developing countries."