The LIGHT in Latin America

Portia Jones (New York), Jonathan, James, Jessie and Esther Hibbs (New York), Ralph Martinez (Arcadia), Steve, Sue and Charity Metzger (Sacramento), Scott Sward (Long Beach), Chris Thach (Long Beach) and I (Peggy Bohrer) recently traveled to Honduras with a medical brigade.



The medical brigade, formed of Americans as well as Hondurans, worked like a well oiled machine, with all its gears in unison. We worked long hours every day. The Lord rewarded our commitment to serving Him. We saw 150 to 200 people daily and about 850 over the entire week. Many of them came from small villages far away and had to walk many hours to get to where we were.

This team was historic in that the majority of the medical providers were Honduran. The brigade included four Honduran Health Promoters. These are Friends church members who Dr. Jonathan Hibbs and Dr. Portia Jones have trained to provide basic medical care in their communities. It was wonderful to be able to partner with them.



Portia Jones and Jonathan Hibbs, members of Minneapolis Friends Meeting, attenders for the past three years at Albany Friends Meeting, are working with a project of Honduras Yearly Meeting to develop a network for primary healthcare. Jonathan is an infectious disease physician with a background in public health and epidemiology. Portia is a family physician with special interest in maternal, child, and women's health. They bring years of experience in this kind of international health work, a long working relationship with Central American Friends, and a strong sense that God has placed them in this work. Friends by upbringing and convincement, they have three children who also want to be part of the work.

They will speak about their journey as a family and why they feel led to this work. They will discuss Friends' work in Central America, including their current health project, how recent events in the area have affected Friends, and Friends' responses to those events.