June 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Felipe and his wife left their American dream behind to serve in Honduras through His Eyes Ministry, a holistic mission providing medical care, child sponsorship, church planting, and coffee farming that transforms communities and lives. Their journey showcases how unexpected callings can lead to profound impact when we view the world through Jesus' perspective.
• His Eyes began as a small medical outreach and evolved into a comprehensive ministry
• Felipe never planned to be a missionary but followed God's unexpected calling
• The ministry includes optometry, general medicine, pediatrics, dental, and laboratory services
• Medical services cost around $8 including medicine, making care accessible to those living on $2/day
• Eight churches have been planted in communities throughout Honduras
• The Milk Project provides nutrition, education and spiritual teaching to nearly 200 children
• Coffee farming creates sustainable income and employment opportunities
• Children often walk over an hour each way to participate in the Milk Project programs
• The ministry operates with local leadership and focuses on empowering communities
• Future plans include developing a surgical center for procedures like cataract surgeries
Visit HisEyesHonduras.com to learn more about sponsoring a child for $38/month, purchasing Hill Climber Coffee, or supporting this ministry financially. Currently, 17 children need sponsors—consider changing a life today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, welcome back to Beyond Sunday podcasters.
Today's episode is a littledifferent because I'm actually
recording this one on the groundin Honduras.
I've been here servingalongside some people in my
church and alongside a ministrythat I love and believe in,
called His Eyes.
His Eyes is all about helpingpeople, both physically and
spiritually, see Jesus clearly,from medical clinics to child
(00:22):
sponsorship, from churchplanning to coffee farming.
Yes, you heard that right, theyare doing holistic,
gospel-centered ministry that'smaking a real difference.
And I'm joined today by a greatfriend of mine and one of the
leaders of this ministry, felipe, who, along with his wife
Valerie and their team, havebeen faithfully serving here for
years.
So whether you're listeningtoday and you're looking to
support Global Mission, sponsora child, or you just want to
(00:44):
hear a powerful story of whatGod is doing around the world, I
think this conversation isgoing to stir something in you.
So let's dive in and see what'shappening when we start looking
at the world through his eyes.
Felipe, thank you so much forjoining me today.
It's a pleasure to be.
So.
I've known you for man.
Maybe I've been at thisposition for a lead pastor for
(01:06):
about 10 years, so I've knownyou maybe eight years, something
like that.
Yep, I think my firstinteraction with you was you
coming to the States, and so youdo.
You get stateside a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Didn't used to.
We had young kids, so we werepretty much here 50 weeks out of
the year.
Now our kids are we're emptynesters.
50 weeks out of the year, nowour kids are, we're empty
nesters, so we can go back anddo more fundraising and help
spread the word about what themission is doing.
So we're back several monthsout of the year now.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Now, is that all at once, or do you split that up?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
No, we split it up, sometimes in the spring, a
couple of months, and sometimesin the fall, a couple months.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
This podcast is, as I was telling you earlier, is in
30 countries, which blows mymind and just to think about
that.
But there are a lot of peoplelistening today that have never
heard of his eyes, and so let'stake it kind of back to the
beginning.
How did his eyes get startedand how did God call you into
this mission?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, so this actually started as like a
little arm of a big medicalorganization in the States, just
a temporary RV, sort of medicaloutreach.
And there were some missionariesthat were part-time
missionaries at the time he wasa pilot for United and they
would come back and forth andthey were wanting to start
something permanent.
But they didn't want to do thatuntil they could add as long as
(02:16):
as well as medical also dooptometry, and my wife was going
to school for to be anoptometrist.
So when she graduated wedecided to come down.
We had done a couple trips bythat point with the same mission
, helping people here in thecapital city in Tegucigalpa, and
then we just came down for fourmonths to help intern and kind
of set everything up for them tobe able to kind of take that
(02:37):
ball and run with it.
And then we went back, got realjobs, came back several months
later just to help out, bringanother team, and then that's
when God was like you need tomove here.
So we did that in 2000 just todo optometry, because that's all
we were, that's all the plan wewere given at that time and
then pretty soon we just starthosting teams and then we're
(03:00):
helping kids in the neighborhoodand then and you just all kind
of snowballed slowly over theyears to now doing everything
that you mentioned earlier.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Now, when you first got here, had you guys planted
any churches outside of thisproperty?
No, okay, so we'll talk aboutthat in a minute.
So let's back up for a moment.
Did you always feel called tobe a missionary?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
No, no, we never really knew any missionaries
when I was a kid and I'd seen mygrandparents live out their
faith, but I wasn't really beingchallenged with that until my
first mission trip of like yougo somewhere to serve, but what
are you doing?
How are you doing that in yourkind of your daily life?
But still, I thought that wasfor like professional people
that went to school for that andknew what they were doing, and
so I never thought till we gotthe call I was like kind of take
(03:46):
that step in faith, but kind ofat the same time going this is
my choice but we did it Becauseyou guys went to college to live
the American dream.
I mean essentially right yeah,to make bank and buy the nice
car, the nice house and all thatstuff, and that was, you know,
we were just kind of aimless, Iguess, in that sense.
Um, before before mission tripsand then just really kind of
(04:09):
being hit with that Like whatare you living for, what are you
really living for, and whereare you, where are you putting
your time and your money?
And so, yeah, no, before thatnot on our radar at all.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, I think that's fascinating for most people,
myself included, because thereare some people grow up and you
know like they're calledadmissions.
That's all they ever thinkabout it.
But then there are other peoplelike you guys that are
professionals in your fields,living out life just starting
outside of college, not reallydreaming about moving to a
foreign country and making nomoney and having different
(04:39):
things than you would have inAmerica.
They just don't look at that aslike, yeah, I want to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, it doesn't, logically, or you know, the math
ain't math and it doesn't makesense, but that's how God works.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
So the ministry is called His Eyes.
So let's talk about that for amoment.
Why the name His Eyes andwhat's kind of the story or
vision behind that?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, so since we got started under that other
umbrella organization, it was acouple of years before the
leadership was thrust on me andthen we had to start a 501c3.
And so we really just kind oflike what do we call this?
Like Honduras Christian Missionor you know something pretty
plain.
And then by that time wealready kind of we'd been doing
church planning and we'd beendoing all this other stuff.
(05:17):
And so then it was just kind oflike well, what are we doing?
We're doing all these differentthings.
How do you put that into onename?
And literally we're just tryingto see the world the way Jesus
did, just trying to help peoplespiritually but also physically.
They were like, well, I wasjust trying to use his eyes and
I was like, well, that's a goodname.
And then we kind of, and thenit just kind of stuck.
Of course everybody thinks it'sbecause my wife's an
(05:38):
optometrist.
Oh, we didn't think of that atthe time.
But I'm like, hey, whateverworks, as long as it helps us
kind of focus ourselves onliving every day for Jesus.
Whatever gets you there.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's funny because I would have assumed, like most
people, that it's kind of adouble entendre just to play off
that I wish I was that smart orI guess I should just start
telling people that's what wedid.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It would make me look even smarter.
But no, that wasn't.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think that too, because you play on words so
much now it's embarrassing,that's funny, so all right.
So you guys are involved in somany areas.
You've got the medical, thespiritual, the educational.
This is a little bit of a hardquestion, but walk us through a
day in the life of ministry foryou, yeah there's, there's,
there's, no.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Two days are alike, and so I now.
I used to have my hands ineverything, literally like
touching things and doing allthis stuff, and as we've grown
and we need someone to handlethe administrative side, now I
spend when I'm not with teams orhelping.
I spend a lot of my time on thecomputer trying to make
(06:44):
everybody else's job possible orjust help facilitate what
they're already doing.
So in a way, we kind of workedourselves out of needing to be
here because now we have localsthat can do all that.
But yeah, with every team youcould be coffee farming one day,
working with kids, the nexthelping in the clinic or doing
medical teams.
We have different kinds ofteams that come down helping in
(07:05):
the clinic or doing medicalteams.
We have different kinds ofteams that come down.
So there's, and even in thatday, you could be touching three
or four of those differentareas, doing the same thing but
different.
So it's.
It can be a little chaotic forthose not used to it.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, so like, for example, my team today is here
at the the mission.
In what city?
Tegucigalpa.
Yeah, I make you say thatbecause I can't.
And this morning we worked withkids.
We'll work with about 80 kidstoday.
This morning I played soccerfor about an hour and a half.
I need an ice bath.
I'm not going to move much forthe rest of the day and I've got
another game coming up at 1o'clock and they are serious
(07:40):
about their football soccer andthey were intense.
There was even a fight on thepitch today.
It was pretty intense.
Sometimes it happened, yeah,and then we had a second team
upstairs doing Bible lessons andsharing that.
Then I went and got an eye exam.
Yeah, found out I need readingglasses, but I'm fighting that
right now.
So I asked you this questionthe other day out of it's kind
(08:00):
of like your favorite child kindof question out of all the
ministries you're involved in,what's one that kind of
especially captures your heartright now?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I guess what I really love is like a couple of our
coffee farms, our farms that areconnected with churches, that
are helping kids, that ourclinic can go up and help in,
and so that's what I really loveis how can we be in a community
and pour more into thatcommunity, be a more part of
that community, Like if we lefttomorrow, would anybody care
(08:31):
outside the church?
And so seeing those areas whereit's like we do this, we do
that and we can do all of thatin the same place is pretty cool
.
We can't coffee farm in everycommunity here.
They're not all at the rightaltitude or have the right
conditions, so you know some ofthose.
We can't do everything we dothere, but those are just really
cool to me to be able to seehow God has worked that over 20
(08:54):
some years to get there whereall these different things are
happening and almost none ofwhich were on our radar 25 years
ago Pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So how many churches have you guys planted?
Eight officially, eightofficially.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
The new city is Well, the last one is in Avias Okay,
which we kind of spun off.
It's independent, now it's in asmaller community and they just
had their third anniversary.
Some of them we've had pastorsin longer term.
We've got another one that'sindependent month to month, and
then some others where, you know, there's some places it's
(09:28):
harder, some places it's easier.
Every one of them is different,just like a kid.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, so let's unpack this for somebody that's not
experienced it yet.
Let's take Las Botillas, forexample.
So how far is that from here?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Driving about an hour and a half as the crow flies,
probably 20 some miles, 20 milesso up in the mountains.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And so you drive up there and Pastor Ronnie's there.
He's both the pastor and thefarmer.
Yes, and then his family farmsas well.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, they live on the property as well.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
So you get up there.
You've got the church building.
You've got Ronnie's house.
You've got the milk project,which is where the kids come and
we'll talk about milk projectin a moment, but that's where
they get food and spiritualnourishment.
You've got the soccer pitch.
You've got what else is upthere that I'm missing?
Oh, the clinic.
So you've got a couple of roomsset up that you can send
(10:23):
doctors from here, and that'sonce a month.
Once a month, yeah, and they goup there and can see patients.
You've got Ronnie workingconstantly.
What all is he farming up there?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So most of what we farm is coffee, but we also want
to always try and look for waysto look weird for Jesus.
So years ago we were like wedon't want the business side of
trying to farm coffee, you know,kind of wag the dog, so to
speak.
So we're also doing avocados,lemons, limes, other things that
we can be generous with andmostly give away.
(10:53):
Again in the communities withthe kids.
We're trying to reach people inthe church.
Just, you know, things thataren't normal in the diets there
.
Some things we get for free.
We grow a lot of bananas andplantains because they kind of
just self-propagate.
We have a bunch of those.
But then a lot of things thatespecially avocados that people
don't normally get in their dietor would be more expensive.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Now if somebody is listening into the States, that
coffee that you guys farm issold stateside right.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, so it's called Hill Climber Coffee.
We sell it on our website whenwe go around, and then we sell
obviously a bunch of it here incountry as well, which you don't
make hardly any money on.
But we just use that as afundraiser and just pump all
that right back into helpingemploy people and doing more
development and planting moretrees and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So let's talk a little bit about the milk
project, and I'm kind of partialtowards that.
You know my heart there.
I've got a kid that I sponsorin Las Botijas, and so what is
the heart behind the milkproject?
What, what, what is that?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, and it really just started from the clinic
work and seeing all the motherscoming in with babies that had
been weaned, not getting anymilk, malnourished,
undernourished, and they're likehow can we help?
And so it literally startedwith just handing out some
powdered milk to moms whenthey'd come in and then like how
can we be a little moreintentional?
And then, with no budget, so 20bucks would come in, we'd buy
(12:14):
some milk and cookies andinstead we'd invite a bunch of
those kids to come and basicallymaul us for a couple hours,
feed them and then try and getJesus into them once a week, and
that literally just people justkept donating money, like I
thought we were doing this once,I guess we're doing it again.
Oh, here's 50 bucks.
Oh, I guess we'll makespaghetti.
Wow, this is even better.
And then, through a lot of help,different people over the years
(12:35):
, we got to this kind of modelwhere we can have sponsors in
the States help, and then itjust kind of blew us away from
there to where we have almost200 kids now in six different
locations, a lot of whom arethere because of your church
specifically.
But we got a lot of people fromall over the States helping
with that and so we can givethem physical nutrition.
(12:57):
A lot of them are very low onthe percentile list if you go to
pediatrician.
So they get fed.
Some of them, a good number ofthem, that's their only real
meal that day.
And then they also get Bibleeducation, tutoring, homework.
They have to be going to school.
We help them out.
We give them a backpack, wegive them basic shoes to be able
to go to school, and then wehelp, try and keep them in
(13:17):
school as long as we can,because we're trying to, as much
as we can, break the cycle ofeconomic poverty that they were
born into.
So if they can get throughschool, maybe they have a better
chance of getting a job, or ifthey can learn to read Maybe
their parents weren't able toread and it goes beyond that.
(13:38):
There's a ton of other thingsthat our staff does.
You know computer classes andEnglish classes and a ton of
other stuff.
I help creative side and theycounsel them and they help them,
and it's incredible.
And then through the milkproject, a lot of them aren't
churched and then a lot of themend up in church, which I'd love
to say.
That was the plan from thebeginning, we didn't really I
don't think had that big of avision of that, just like 10% of
the kids are in a church.
And then, a couple of yearslater, I'm talking to the
(13:59):
director and she's like well,you know when, when, when he was
at church on Sunday, oh yeah,most of the kids go to church.
Now, what, how's that happen?
Oh, isn't that the idea?
Yeah, yeah, that's what we weresupposed to do, like, you know,
when you're just pouring intothem, I mean, it works.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Rocket finance.
So $38 a day provides all that.
For list kids, $38 a month $38a month, $38 a day.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
we could do a lot more kids.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
That's incredible.
Now again, just so people canwrap their mind around this
again, las Botijas, these kidsaren't bussed into the milk
project and they're on amountain.
Yeah, so I know the first kidthat I sponsored.
His family walked over an hourto meet me when we were there
and that meant that every dayfor him to come to the Mill
Project he walked over an hourin the mountains there and back.
(14:51):
Is that common In rural?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
areas, yeah, yeah, in the cities.
A couple of them we have are incities.
We try and have it so the kidsare closer.
But then we also have some kidsthat we've met that maybe move
and they're kind of far away butthey really need the help.
So they walk, even in the city,45 minutes to get here, yeah,
but yeah, especially in therural areas, just everybody's so
spread out, it makes it hard,but I mean, it makes it harder
(15:13):
just on life, let alone going toschool or or coming to the
movement, but yeah, that's it.
And going to church, you know,oh, it's raining, I don't want
to walk, I don't want to drivefive minutes, you know, walking
an hour and a half, you know,uphill, downhill, everywhere,
just to get to church.
I mean, it's humbling.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, it really is Like it.
It blew my mind the first timeI was here and was talking to
one of the kids through atranslator.
My Spanish is no good, and soit's nice to have a translator,
but it blew my mind to realize,man, this kid doesn't live down
the street, Nor does his familyhave a car driving him to the
milk project, but in order tohave a meal because he may not
eat another meal he's got towalk an hour.
(15:53):
I just it still blows my mind.
Yeah, it still blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's crazy, but that life for a lot of people
here.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
All right.
So we've got the milk project.
You've got doctors going out tothese villages once a month.
You've got the clinic here atthe main mission house that is
seeing people every day.
So we'll talk about that in amoment.
But tell us about a time whenyou saw God do something that
only he could do.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
There's a couple, there's some people we've met
over the years that have come toChrist that I would have said
you know, maybe we skipped thishouse.
You know, there's the spiritualside of that.
That is also just like.
You know, you, you don't get tochoose, god chooses, which is
cool to see.
There's a kind of a funnyphysical time, though, where we
were on a mountain and we'redirt roads at the time and we
(16:42):
were trying to bring containersof supplies up from the States,
you got a semi and this bigcontainer in the back, you know,
50,000, 60,000 pounds, andoccasionally the trailers get
stuck on the road.
And the first time thathappened, all we had was a Ford
pickup and they said let's putthe Ford to the front of the
semi and we'll, we'll help it up, we'll pull it up or up the
(17:06):
mountain.
So you know, put it in fourwheel, drive low.
And I, I said a prayer, I wasat least smart enough at that
point to say a prayer and theysaid go.
And I went and you know, and we,we, it worked and we got it up
and I was like well maybe maybethe truck's stronger than I
thought it was, and the semidriver jumped out and he was
shaking his head.
(17:26):
I was like, oh, what did I dowrong?
Did I break the chain orsomething?
And he was like I don't knowhow you did that, because I
didn't give them the thumbs upto go until my air brakes.
They were still locked.
Oh, wow, we drug him so rightabout the time that I had said
the prayer and then I was liketrucks, hey, dummy, you know I
(17:46):
did this.
I was like, yeah, okay, got it.
Yeah, that was like all of us,you know.
I pretty much said, well, thatwas god, because, you know, to
everybody standing there, butthey were all kind of like, yeah
, how did that?
That doesn't, that doesn't work.
Yeah, yeah, I've never forgotthat.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
It's pretty crazy too .
I didn't mention this, but wetalk about driving up into the
mountains, like you're literallydriving up where there aren't
roads in some places, or what Iwould consider roads.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Or sometimes, where there wasn't a road, we had to
kind of put one in.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's pretty incredible to see.
And then when the rainy seasonhits, those roads get washed out
and have to get repaired andit's.
It is pretty intense to see thedaily life that you guys live,
to get to these villages, to tominister, to people, and it's
honestly very humbling on ourside and it's also humbling.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Like you know, we go up sometimes.
If we're in Tegucigalpa, we'regoing up once or twice a month.
But you know, people live onthose roads, they need those
roads to do stuff, and so whenwe can, you know like, oh, I
don't know if it's going to berainy today, I don't know if I
can go up, well, they don't havea choice.
So, like helping try, and thoseisn't just for us, I mean, I
(19:00):
look as another, just communityservice.
How can we, you know, helpothers?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
help themselves, sort of thing.
So share with me a story abouta kid.
So we've got these milkprojects going on.
How is that changing the livesof a kid?
What have you seen in that?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I mean, I can think of two right off the top of my
head, one of which is thedaughter of our director, who
didn't used to be our director.
She was just a mom bringing herkid because she didn't have any
food at home.
She is now a college graduateand has a really good job.
Looking back at where they were, I don't think the mom or her
(19:34):
would have thought that waspossible.
The mom or her would havethought that was possible.
And then she's grown up in thechurch and grown up strong and
for several years actuallytaught other kids in the milk
project.
That has been just kind ofcrazy to see.
And the other is another girlwho we got through high school
and sometimes you talk aboutfights on the pitch.
(19:54):
I mean she was the hardestplaying, hardest kicking soccer
player I've ever met.
She tried to get herfrustrations out on the pitch.
I mean she was the hardestplaying, hardest kicking soccer
player I've ever met.
She, she tried to get herfrustrations out on the pitch,
sometimes a little too welltried to dial that back and as
she got older you know she's notthis is she's.
I'm glad she's here and sheneeds Jesus, just like all of us
.
But I don't think she's going tobe able to teach the younger
(20:14):
kids because she's just a littletoo aggressive and even as she
got older she got through highschool.
We tried to encourage her to goto college and she's like I
think I think with what you'vegiven me, I'm going to be able
to get a job and help my mom andI want to do that rather than
go to college.
She did and then she has comeback since, just like I just
want to come back and come inand teach the kid, come in and
(20:36):
help for the day.
So to see that little littlekid that I thought was either
going to kill me or, you know,freak out on us, to see her
growth in Christ and and matureas a young woman and be able to
get that job.
And then nobody asked her tocome back, but just for her to
see the value in that, you know,once you get older, and to try
and pour into the younger kidsand we've seen that with several
(21:01):
of the kids as they get olderthat we don't have to tell them
you know, they know they livedit, so they're the best ones
that teach the younger kids.
That that's been really cool tosee.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So it's funny.
I was telling our team thismorning that there was a girl
two years ago that was probably16, something like that Small
little girl, but she wasferocious on the soccer pitch
and you could tell like shedidn't care, like she didn't
care who you were, what youthought she was going to work
you, and she treated everybodyequally.
(21:28):
Yeah, it was insane.
So let's for a moment, let'stalk about the clinic here.
What all do you guys do at theclinic that is on this facility
and I kind of equate it to asmall hospital or urgent care,
if you will in my mind but whatdo you guys do and why is that
important for this community?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so I mean it grew from just general medicine
and optometry.
Now we have pediatrics,gynecologists, full lab dental
minor wound care, so it is akind of a just full lab dental
minor wound care.
So it is a kind of a.
The government classifies us asa hospital but we don't do like
yet surgeries, full-blownsurgeries or anything.
Really, there's very littlegood healthcare out there here,
(22:08):
especially if you don't havemoney.
So we try and charge the leastamount we can and then we're
essentially out there trying tohelp people take care of
themselves.
So a lot of systems here are inplace that you go to the doctor
, my arm hurts, take thismedicine, which I'll also sell
you, and that's about all theinformation you get.
Well, maybe if you avoideddoing this, or maybe if you did
(22:28):
this, or here's some otheroptions.
So we're just out there againjust trying to look weird for
Jesus, like, oh, you want me tobuy?
No, you don't have to buy this,you can go get this somewhere
else, or we have this here, butjust trying to love on people, a
lot of whom are here forphysical reasons.
But there's also a lot ofritual stuff going on there as
well, a lot of stress, a lot ofyou know just living life, and
(22:49):
psychologists here are available.
They're in country but they'rekind of like the states 56 years
ago.
People would look at you funnyif you went to those.
But you can sometimes sharewith your optometrist or your
dentist stuff that you can'tshare with anybody else.
And we have a full-timeevangelist on staff as well.
He shares devos and just goesaround, talks to people While
(23:12):
everybody else is more focusedon the physical side of it.
He can be having his eyes openfor other things and then our
staff, when they find thosepeople as well, can definitely
be like hey, why don't you talkto Jose Luis?
So he's doing a couple of cellgroups already once a week in
different parts of the city.
And then we also see peoplethat come from because we're
loving and caring.
We see people sometimes fromhours away.
(23:35):
So some of those people we cansend them home with tracts or
send them home with a Bible.
We can't typically be there todisciple all of them, but just
trying to help in a situationwhere there's unfortunately not
a lot of help available.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So let's talk about this for a moment.
What's the poverty level here?
High.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
One of the poorest countries in the hemisphere,
roughly 50% of the populationliving on $2 a day, and that's
the normal.
Well, if over 50% are doing it,I guess that's normal.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
And living on $2 a day.
How much would it cost to cometo the clinic?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, so for a normal patient, general medicine is
about $8.
That covers includes yourmedicine, though, yep, which is
usually more than $8.
And then in the other areas ofthe clinic we try to be you know
, we can't be free or it wouldend real quick but as cheap as
possible.
And then we have a person onstaff that if somebody comes in
(24:33):
and I need to be seen but Idon't have money, why not?
What's going on?
How can we help?
Okay, and we just, we just seethem.
We don't make a big deal out ofit, but it's also an ownership
thing too, that if they'repaying, they deserve to be seen
and they deserve good treatment.
So and there's other waysaround that like in the
optometry side of the thing wehave, we have free glasses or
almost free.
And then, if you want to oh,you want the nicest glasses out
(24:55):
there those will cost maybe asmuch as $600 in the States,
maybe up to $100 a year, butthat way they can subsidize some
of the people that can't affordthe nicer stuff.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So I wasn't going to ask you this, but I just thought
about it.
So we had something weirdhappen the other day.
We're here on property, there'san accident that happens right
outside the property and I meanlike we're walking by the gate
and we can see it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
It was a moto taxi and a motorcycle had a collision
and there was blood and therewas a guy injured, but he did
not come here.
He didn't come in, but thelittle girl and the mom, there
were some other people on andthey ran them into the clinic
straight away, which I didn'tknow about till later.
So they don't.
You know, those are emergencysituations and we've had this
come up before.
The police sometimes havebrought people here rather than
go back, go down to one of theirplaces.
They could take people, and soI mean that's just what you do.
(25:48):
So in certain parts of the cityit would be like, okay, so do
you have a credit card orsomething?
before we take you in, but wejust, you know, you just take
care of it.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So the mom and girl came in here.
Why wouldn't the guy laying onthe sidewalk bleeding come in
here?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Because he called for an ambulance.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
They called for an ambulance and the ambulance came
and got him and they may havelooked at it.
Some people that were there mayhave looked at him and said,
yeah, he needs more than whatthe clinic can do.
So we same thing.
We've had babies born in theclinic, but generally speaking
we're not set up for that.
So unless it's an emergency, wesend them on to the hospital,
(26:26):
where that where there's bettercare in case something were to
go wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, so what's your big vision?
What's your five-year, 10-yearplan?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
What are you wanting?
Kind of the big dream God's puton your heart.
Next existing thing, but that'sa thing.
So that'll be the next, youknow, five, 10, 15 years.
We'll start out with some easycataract surgeries, pterygium
surgeries for optometry that wecan do here on site, but then
we've acquired property, offproperty to go bigger and do an
actual surgical center.
So I don't know how that'sgoing to happen.
Yeah, but that's that's God'sproblem, not mine.
I just follow the plan he'slaid out and go all right.
(27:14):
Well, this, this is going to beinteresting, but cause it will
be bigger than anything we'veever done, in terms of just the
building of it and then howwe're going to staff it now, and
we have a plan, but you knowthere's a lot of pieces in there
.
I don't know how that's goingto happen yet, but everything
we've done so far has been thesame way and God made it happen.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
So what are some of the biggest challenges that
you're facing in this work rightnow, whether spiritually,
financially or logistically?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
One of us is trying to come up with that, that
transition plan.
We're not super old, but youknow a lot of missions are
focused on the guy or the personand then when that person dies
or can't do it anymore, theneverything slowly kind of falls
apart.
So what's going to be the planfor after?
We're not here for that tocontinue so continually trying
(28:02):
to work us out of a job.
There's still, you know,director responsibilities, but
how does that work going forward, because there's not a lot of
people out there going intomissions or wanting to be a
long-term missionary.
And then just you know,fundraising is always a you know
, nobody I don't think anybody,if they're honest really has a
handle on how to do that.
I mean, you have to trust inGod.
(28:25):
But then how do you, how do youlive that out and how do you do
that, especially when we'relooking at all this possible
growth, is is a challenge.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So for someone listening right now who wants to
help but doesn't know how,what's the best way for them to
get involved?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Pray Number one.
Um, I literally we could not dowhat we do without prayer,
because people will say, well, Idon't know how you do it, like
I don't, I don't know.
Oh yeah, it's God, it's prayer.
There's also we have a website,his eyes, hondurascom.
You can get on there if youwant to like financially support
cause you gotta have goers, butyou have to have senders.
Um, that's where people hadsome people that are like I
(29:06):
don't think I'm called to go,but I'll, I'll help with
finances.
That's fine too.
It takes you know it's cliche.
I mean it takes the teamworkmake the dream work, but I mean
it takes everybody to do thatLike, just if we were here by
ourselves and we had no supportsystem, it'd be over quick.
(29:26):
So yeah, those would be the twobiggest ways.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, and only because I found this out this
week You've got supporting themission and then supporting the
missionaries, so you guys don'tactually take a salary from this
ministry.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
That is unusual.
Yes, most missionaries havelike a plan and then they raise
funds before they know.
We chose not to do that andunfortunately I've seen a lot of
missionaries or people thatwanted to go into missions like,
well, but we have to raise allthis money and when we can hit
80% then we can move.
And then they go years and thenthey lose focus and then they
(30:03):
don't end up going and we werejust like God said go, so we're
going.
What do you?
Got Like a part-time job and400 bucks a month?
That doesn't we're going.
So we kind of just started outwith not taking a salary and so
we've always just kind of livedin faith on that.
That if it comes in andsomebody says we want this to go
to the Colby's, great, but ifit doesn't, it's going to the
mission, and so that means we'renot bleeding or taking anything
away from the mission and thatjust helps us really have a
(30:24):
peace as well, peace even thoughmonth to month you don't know
what's coming in.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Know month to month you don't know what's coming in.
That's okay, that's got us.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So one last question what's, what's something that
has surprised you about life andmissions?
I guess about, like, gettingout of your own way, like you
grow up in a culture and youhave a way of seeing the world,
and then how much you need toget rid of that to interact with
people that have differentcultures and different
viewpoints.
And so especially our kids.
You know there's this conceptof being a third culture kid.
So they born here, they grew uphere and so, like we're blue,
(31:01):
honduras is yellow and they cameout green because they see
things both ways and to someextent we do that as well.
So now when we go back to theStates, you know we shake our
heads or go what's going on here?
But then the same thing here.
There were a lot of painfullessons in that of judging or
just seeing things a certain way, and then very gentle Hondurans
(31:23):
mostly come in and saying theway you're seeing this isn't the
way it is, and being able tokind of look at things from a
different perspective reallyhelp and I think that's also key
to why a lot of missionariesburn out is they have this we're
going to come down, we're goingto fix it or we're going to do
something and then like, well,you're not going to do squat,
(31:43):
you know it's going to be Godand there's going to be, and God
didn't tell you to fixeverything, so there's still
going to be stuff around.
And then how do you wrestle withthat of keeping your heart soft
but then also hard at the sametime to just to be able to
function?
Go through life is, um, it'snot always easy, but um, it's
(32:04):
been powerful to see how goduses that and continues.
So I mean, it's not like we'reoh, I got it.
You know it's a continualprocess.
But then now at least I'm alittle more aware of like, okay,
stop, you know, don't think somuch about this Like, what's the
other side of this that you'renot seeing, which, when I was
(32:24):
young and now I'm slowlylearning In another 50 or 60
years, I'll have this down.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
It's interesting because my wife's first mission
trip was here in Honduras withyou guys and that was a hard
lesson for her because she's adental hygienist.
She was seeing certain thingshere that's like if you could
just teach them this, yeah itwould fix this right.
And I think you kind of spokeinto her like we can't fix it
all, like you have to take itone step at a time and and help
where you can help.
But like she just it wasoverwhelming for her to see the
(32:55):
things in the States that wetake for granted and know like
this hygiene changes everythingand stop drinking sugar only or
hydrate and things that just arenormal for us.
But here it's just a differentculture.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And we have seen that , like when you, you know, know,
we do those lessons and stuffin in rural areas, yeah, and
you're like you get a bigtoothbrush out, you're doing,
yeah, it feels a little silly,but you're like, and then you
tell me but 20 years later, whenwe've compared, yeah, like, hey
, people's teeth are better.
They're still not great, right,they're still not us level.
But then you're like, oh, yeah,it works.
(33:27):
I mean, it's the same thing,just sharing it does make a
difference.
But but you, but you can't fixeverybody.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, buddy, hey, I appreciate the time, I
appreciate you sharing yourheart and I love what you guys
do here.
I think the world of you guysand love the impact that you
guys have had for the gospelaround the world.
It's all God.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
We're just.
We're just the flunkies incharge temporarily.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well, what an incredible conversation, If
you're listening.
Still, I hope you were inspired, as I was, by the work God is
doing through His eyes.
It's a reminder that the gospelisn't just something we believe
.
It's something we live out withopen hands and open hearts.
If you want to learn more, ifyou want to sponsor a child, if
you want to support the ministry, just head to
HisEyesHondurascom.
In fact, I'm looking todayspecifically for 17 kids to get
(34:11):
sponsored.
They are constantly reachingnew villages and kids and so
right now, there are 17 kidsthat do not have sponsors.
That means Felipe and his teamare covering it while they're
praying for God to supply peoplethat'll do $38 a month to love
on these kids, and I can speakto it personally because I've
seen what they do with those $38a month.
I've seen the impact with thekids, and I can speak to it
personally because I've seenwhat they do with those $38 a
month.
I've seen the impact with thekids.
(34:33):
I've seen the faces and thesmiles and the love that's being
poured out into their life.
So I would love to finish thatgoal today, if you will help me
with that.
Every gift, every prayer, everypartnership makes a difference
and, honestly, don't miss nextweek's episode.
I'll be sitting down with one ofFelipe's kids to get a totally
different perspective.
Felipe's just finding that out.
(34:54):
I'm going to talk to him alittle bit about what it's like
to grow up on the mission field,to be a part of a family that's
all in for the gospel, and howGod is shaping his own life and
his calling in the middle of it.
He's in college now looking fora career as a senior right Yep
Senior this year, and so he'sgot a lot of prayer and God is
tugging at his heart in a lot ofdifferent ways, and so I think
(35:15):
it's gonna be an excitingconversation.
So don't miss that conversationnext week.
Thanks for listening and, asalways, keep following Jesus,
not just on Sundays, but beyondSunday as well.
Hey, welcome back to Beyond Sunday podcasters.
Today's episode is a littledifferent because I'm actually
recording this one on the groundin Honduras.
I've been here servingalongside some people in my
church and alongside a ministrythat I love and believe in,
called His Eyes.
His Eyes is all about helpingpeople, both physically and
spiritually, see Jesus clearly,from medical clinics to child
(00:22):
sponsorship, from churchplanning to coffee farming.
Yes, you heard that right, theyare doing holistic,
gospel-centered ministry that'smaking a real difference.
And I'm joined today by a greatfriend of mine and one of the
leaders of this ministry, felipe, who, along with his wife
Valerie and their team, havebeen faithfully serving here for
years.
So whether you're listeningtoday and you're looking to
support Global Mission, sponsora child, or you just want to
(00:44):
hear a powerful story of whatGod is doing around the world, I
think this conversation isgoing to stir something in you.
So let's dive in and see what'shappening when we start looking
at the world through his eyes.
Felipe, thank you so much forjoining me today.
It's a pleasure to be.
So.
I've known you for man.
Maybe I've been at thisposition for a lead pastor for
(01:06):
about 10 years, so I've knownyou maybe eight years, something
like that.
Yep, I think my firstinteraction with you was you
coming to the States, and so youdo.
You get stateside a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Didn't used to.
We had young kids, so we werepretty much here 50 weeks out of
the year.
Now our kids are we're emptynesters.
50 weeks out of the year, nowour kids are, we're empty
nesters, so we can go back anddo more fundraising and help
spread the word about what themission is doing.
So we're back several monthsout of the year now.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Now, is that all at once, or do you split that up?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
No, we split it up, sometimes in the spring, a
couple of months, and sometimesin the fall, a couple months.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
This podcast is, as I was telling you earlier, is in
30 countries, which blows mymind and just to think about
that.
But there are a lot of peoplelistening today that have never
heard of his eyes, and so let'stake it kind of back to the
beginning.
How did his eyes get startedand how did God call you into
this mission?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, so this actually started as like a
little arm of a big medicalorganization in the States, just
a temporary RV, sort of medicaloutreach.
And there were some missionariesthat were part-time
missionaries at the time he wasa pilot for United and they
would come back and forth andthey were wanting to start
something permanent.
But they didn't want to do thatuntil they could add as long as
(02:16):
as well as medical also dooptometry, and my wife was going
to school for to be anoptometrist.
So when she graduated wedecided to come down.
We had done a couple trips bythat point with the same mission
, helping people here in thecapital city in Tegucigalpa, and
then we just came down for fourmonths to help intern and kind
of set everything up for them tobe able to kind of take that
(02:37):
ball and run with it.
And then we went back, got realjobs, came back several months
later just to help out, bringanother team, and then that's
when God was like you need tomove here.
So we did that in 2000 just todo optometry, because that's all
we were, that's all the plan wewere given at that time and
then pretty soon we just starthosting teams and then we're
(03:00):
helping kids in the neighborhoodand then and you just all kind
of snowballed slowly over theyears to now doing everything
that you mentioned earlier.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Now, when you first got here, had you guys planted
any churches outside of thisproperty?
No, okay, so we'll talk aboutthat in a minute.
So let's back up for a moment.
Did you always feel called tobe a missionary?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
No, no, we never really knew any missionaries
when I was a kid and I'd seen mygrandparents live out their
faith, but I wasn't really beingchallenged with that until my
first mission trip of like yougo somewhere to serve, but what
are you doing?
How are you doing that in yourkind of your daily life?
But still, I thought that wasfor like professional people
that went to school for that andknew what they were doing, and
so I never thought till we gotthe call I was like kind of take
(03:46):
that step in faith, but kind ofat the same time going this is
my choice but we did it Becauseyou guys went to college to live
the American dream.
I mean essentially right yeah,to make bank and buy the nice
car, the nice house and all thatstuff, and that was, you know,
we were just kind of aimless, Iguess, in that sense.
Um, before before mission tripsand then just really kind of
(04:09):
being hit with that Like whatare you living for, what are you
really living for, and whereare you, where are you putting
your time and your money?
And so, yeah, no, before thatnot on our radar at all.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, I think that's fascinating for most people,
myself included, because thereare some people grow up and you
know like they're calledadmissions.
That's all they ever thinkabout it.
But then there are other peoplelike you guys that are
professionals in your fields,living out life just starting
outside of college, not reallydreaming about moving to a
foreign country and making nomoney and having different
(04:39):
things than you would have inAmerica.
They just don't look at that aslike, yeah, I want to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, it doesn't, logically, or you know, the math
ain't math and it doesn't makesense, but that's how God works.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
So the ministry is called His Eyes.
So let's talk about that for amoment.
Why the name His Eyes andwhat's kind of the story or
vision behind that?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, so since we got started under that other
umbrella organization, it was acouple of years before the
leadership was thrust on me andthen we had to start a 501c3.
And so we really just kind oflike what do we call this?
Like Honduras Christian Missionor you know something pretty
plain.
And then by that time wealready kind of we'd been doing
church planning and we'd beendoing all this other stuff.
(05:17):
And so then it was just kind oflike well, what are we doing?
We're doing all these differentthings.
How do you put that into onename?
And literally we're just tryingto see the world the way Jesus
did, just trying to help peoplespiritually but also physically.
They were like, well, I wasjust trying to use his eyes and
I was like, well, that's a goodname.
And then we kind of, and thenit just kind of stuck.
Of course everybody thinks it'sbecause my wife's an
(05:38):
optometrist.
Oh, we didn't think of that atthe time.
But I'm like, hey, whateverworks, as long as it helps us
kind of focus ourselves onliving every day for Jesus.
Whatever gets you there.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's funny because I would have assumed, like most
people, that it's kind of adouble entendre just to play off
that I wish I was that smart orI guess I should just start
telling people that's what wedid.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It would make me look even smarter.
But no, that wasn't.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think that too, because you play on words so
much now it's embarrassing,that's funny, so all right.
So you guys are involved in somany areas.
You've got the medical, thespiritual, the educational.
This is a little bit of a hardquestion, but walk us through a
day in the life of ministry foryou, yeah there's, there's,
there's, no.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Two days are alike, and so I now.
I used to have my hands ineverything, literally like
touching things and doing allthis stuff, and as we've grown
and we need someone to handlethe administrative side, now I
spend when I'm not with teams orhelping.
I spend a lot of my time on thecomputer trying to make
(06:44):
everybody else's job possible orjust help facilitate what
they're already doing.
So in a way, we kind of workedourselves out of needing to be
here because now we have localsthat can do all that.
But yeah, with every team youcould be coffee farming one day,
working with kids, the nexthelping in the clinic or doing
medical teams.
We have different kinds ofteams that come down helping in
(07:05):
the clinic or doing medicalteams.
We have different kinds ofteams that come down.
So there's, and even in thatday, you could be touching three
or four of those differentareas, doing the same thing but
different.
So it's.
It can be a little chaotic forthose not used to it.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, so like, for example, my team today is here
at the the mission.
In what city?
Tegucigalpa.
Yeah, I make you say thatbecause I can't.
And this morning we worked withkids.
We'll work with about 80 kidstoday.
This morning I played soccerfor about an hour and a half.
I need an ice bath.
I'm not going to move much forthe rest of the day and I've got
another game coming up at 1o'clock and they are serious
(07:40):
about their football soccer andthey were intense.
There was even a fight on thepitch today.
It was pretty intense.
Sometimes it happened, yeah,and then we had a second team
upstairs doing Bible lessons andsharing that.
Then I went and got an eye exam.
Yeah, found out I need readingglasses, but I'm fighting that
right now.
So I asked you this questionthe other day out of it's kind
(08:00):
of like your favorite child kindof question out of all the
ministries you're involved in,what's one that kind of
especially captures your heartright now?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I guess what I really love is like a couple of our
coffee farms, our farms that areconnected with churches, that
are helping kids, that ourclinic can go up and help in,
and so that's what I really loveis how can we be in a community
and pour more into thatcommunity, be a more part of
that community, Like if we lefttomorrow, would anybody care
(08:31):
outside the church?
And so seeing those areas whereit's like we do this, we do
that and we can do all of thatin the same place is pretty cool
.
We can't coffee farm in everycommunity here.
They're not all at the rightaltitude or have the right
conditions, so you know some ofthose.
We can't do everything we dothere, but those are just really
cool to me to be able to seehow God has worked that over 20
(08:54):
some years to get there whereall these different things are
happening and almost none ofwhich were on our radar 25 years
ago Pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So how many churches have you guys planted?
Eight officially, eightofficially.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
The new city is Well, the last one is in Avias Okay,
which we kind of spun off.
It's independent, now it's in asmaller community and they just
had their third anniversary.
Some of them we've had pastorsin longer term.
We've got another one that'sindependent month to month, and
then some others where, you know, there's some places it's
(09:28):
harder, some places it's easier.
Every one of them is different,just like a kid.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, so let's unpack this for somebody that's not
experienced it yet.
Let's take Las Botillas, forexample.
So how far is that from here?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Driving about an hour and a half as the crow flies,
probably 20 some miles, 20 milesso up in the mountains.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And so you drive up there and Pastor Ronnie's there.
He's both the pastor and thefarmer.
Yes, and then his family farmsas well.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, they live on the property as well.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
So you get up there.
You've got the church building.
You've got Ronnie's house.
You've got the milk project,which is where the kids come and
we'll talk about milk projectin a moment, but that's where
they get food and spiritualnourishment.
You've got the soccer pitch.
You've got what else is upthere that I'm missing?
Oh, the clinic.
So you've got a couple of roomsset up that you can send
(10:23):
doctors from here, and that'sonce a month.
Once a month, yeah, and they goup there and can see patients.
You've got Ronnie workingconstantly.
What all is he farming up there?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So most of what we farm is coffee, but we also want
to always try and look for waysto look weird for Jesus.
So years ago we were like wedon't want the business side of
trying to farm coffee, you know,kind of wag the dog, so to
speak.
So we're also doing avocados,lemons, limes, other things that
we can be generous with andmostly give away.
(10:53):
Again in the communities withthe kids.
We're trying to reach people inthe church.
Just, you know, things thataren't normal in the diets there
.
Some things we get for free.
We grow a lot of bananas andplantains because they kind of
just self-propagate.
We have a bunch of those.
But then a lot of things thatespecially avocados that people
don't normally get in their dietor would be more expensive.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Now if somebody is listening into the States, that
coffee that you guys farm issold stateside right.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, so it's called Hill Climber Coffee.
We sell it on our website whenwe go around, and then we sell
obviously a bunch of it here incountry as well, which you don't
make hardly any money on.
But we just use that as afundraiser and just pump all
that right back into helpingemploy people and doing more
development and planting moretrees and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So let's talk a little bit about the milk
project, and I'm kind of partialtowards that.
You know my heart there.
I've got a kid that I sponsorin Las Botijas, and so what is
the heart behind the milkproject?
What, what, what is that?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, and it really just started from the clinic
work and seeing all the motherscoming in with babies that had
been weaned, not getting anymilk, malnourished,
undernourished, and they're likehow can we help?
And so it literally startedwith just handing out some
powdered milk to moms whenthey'd come in and then like how
can we be a little moreintentional?
And then, with no budget, so 20bucks would come in, we'd buy
(12:14):
some milk and cookies andinstead we'd invite a bunch of
those kids to come and basicallymaul us for a couple hours,
feed them and then try and getJesus into them once a week, and
that literally just people justkept donating money, like I
thought we were doing this once,I guess we're doing it again.
Oh, here's 50 bucks.
Oh, I guess we'll makespaghetti.
Wow, this is even better.
And then, through a lot of help,different people over the years
(12:35):
, we got to this kind of modelwhere we can have sponsors in
the States help, and then itjust kind of blew us away from
there to where we have almost200 kids now in six different
locations, a lot of whom arethere because of your church
specifically.
But we got a lot of people fromall over the States helping
with that and so we can givethem physical nutrition.
(12:57):
A lot of them are very low onthe percentile list if you go to
pediatrician.
So they get fed.
Some of them, a good number ofthem, that's their only real
meal that day.
And then they also get Bibleeducation, tutoring, homework.
They have to be going to school.
We help them out.
We give them a backpack, wegive them basic shoes to be able
to go to school, and then wehelp, try and keep them in
(13:17):
school as long as we can,because we're trying to, as much
as we can, break the cycle ofeconomic poverty that they were
born into.
So if they can get throughschool, maybe they have a better
chance of getting a job, or ifthey can learn to read Maybe
their parents weren't able toread and it goes beyond that.
(13:38):
There's a ton of other thingsthat our staff does.
You know computer classes andEnglish classes and a ton of
other stuff.
I help creative side and theycounsel them and they help them,
and it's incredible.
And then through the milkproject, a lot of them aren't
churched and then a lot of themend up in church, which I'd love
to say.
That was the plan from thebeginning, we didn't really I
don't think had that big of avision of that, just like 10% of
the kids are in a church.
And then, a couple of yearslater, I'm talking to the
(13:59):
director and she's like well,you know when, when, when he was
at church on Sunday, oh yeah,most of the kids go to church.
Now, what, how's that happen?
Oh, isn't that the idea?
Yeah, yeah, that's what we weresupposed to do, like, you know,
when you're just pouring intothem, I mean, it works.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Rocket finance.
So $38 a day provides all that.
For list kids, $38 a month $38a month, $38 a day.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
we could do a lot more kids.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
That's incredible.
Now again, just so people canwrap their mind around this
again, las Botijas, these kidsaren't bussed into the milk
project and they're on amountain.
Yeah, so I know the first kidthat I sponsored.
His family walked over an hourto meet me when we were there
and that meant that every dayfor him to come to the Mill
Project he walked over an hourin the mountains there and back.
(14:51):
Is that common In rural?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
areas, yeah, yeah, in the cities.
A couple of them we have are incities.
We try and have it so the kidsare closer.
But then we also have some kidsthat we've met that maybe move
and they're kind of far away butthey really need the help.
So they walk, even in the city,45 minutes to get here, yeah,
but yeah, especially in therural areas, just everybody's so
spread out, it makes it hard,but I mean, it makes it harder
(15:13):
just on life, let alone going toschool or or coming to the
movement, but yeah, that's it.
And going to church, you know,oh, it's raining, I don't want
to walk, I don't want to drivefive minutes, you know, walking
an hour and a half, you know,uphill, downhill, everywhere,
just to get to church.
I mean, it's humbling.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, it really is Like it.
It blew my mind the first timeI was here and was talking to
one of the kids through atranslator.
My Spanish is no good, and soit's nice to have a translator,
but it blew my mind to realize,man, this kid doesn't live down
the street, Nor does his familyhave a car driving him to the
milk project, but in order tohave a meal because he may not
eat another meal he's got towalk an hour.
(15:53):
I just it still blows my mind.
Yeah, it still blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's crazy, but that life for a lot of people
here.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
All right.
So we've got the milk project.
You've got doctors going out tothese villages once a month.
You've got the clinic here atthe main mission house that is
seeing people every day.
So we'll talk about that in amoment.
But tell us about a time whenyou saw God do something that
only he could do.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
There's a couple, there's some people we've met
over the years that have come toChrist that I would have said
you know, maybe we skipped thishouse.
You know, there's the spiritualside of that.
That is also just like.
You know, you, you don't get tochoose, god chooses, which is
cool to see.
There's a kind of a funnyphysical time, though, where we
were on a mountain and we'redirt roads at the time and we
(16:42):
were trying to bring containersof supplies up from the States,
you got a semi and this bigcontainer in the back, you know,
50,000, 60,000 pounds, andoccasionally the trailers get
stuck on the road.
And the first time thathappened, all we had was a Ford
pickup and they said let's putthe Ford to the front of the
semi and we'll, we'll help it up, we'll pull it up or up the
(17:06):
mountain.
So you know, put it in fourwheel, drive low.
And I, I said a prayer, I wasat least smart enough at that
point to say a prayer and theysaid go.
And I went and you know, and we,we, it worked and we got it up
and I was like well maybe maybethe truck's stronger than I
thought it was, and the semidriver jumped out and he was
shaking his head.
(17:26):
I was like, oh, what did I dowrong?
Did I break the chain orsomething?
And he was like I don't knowhow you did that, because I
didn't give them the thumbs upto go until my air brakes.
They were still locked.
Oh, wow, we drug him so rightabout the time that I had said
the prayer and then I was liketrucks, hey, dummy, you know I
(17:46):
did this.
I was like, yeah, okay, got it.
Yeah, that was like all of us,you know.
I pretty much said, well, thatwas god, because, you know, to
everybody standing there, butthey were all kind of like, yeah
, how did that?
That doesn't, that doesn't work.
Yeah, yeah, I've never forgotthat.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
It's pretty crazy too .
I didn't mention this, but wetalk about driving up into the
mountains, like you're literallydriving up where there aren't
roads in some places, or what Iwould consider roads.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Or sometimes, where there wasn't a road, we had to
kind of put one in.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's pretty incredible to see.
And then when the rainy seasonhits, those roads get washed out
and have to get repaired andit's.
It is pretty intense to see thedaily life that you guys live,
to get to these villages, to tominister, to people, and it's
honestly very humbling on ourside and it's also humbling.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Like you know, we go up sometimes.
If we're in Tegucigalpa, we'regoing up once or twice a month.
But you know, people live onthose roads, they need those
roads to do stuff, and so whenwe can, you know like, oh, I
don't know if it's going to berainy today, I don't know if I
can go up, well, they don't havea choice.
So, like helping try, and thoseisn't just for us, I mean, I
(19:00):
look as another, just communityservice.
How can we, you know, helpothers?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
help themselves, sort of thing.
So share with me a story abouta kid.
So we've got these milkprojects going on.
How is that changing the livesof a kid?
What have you seen in that?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I mean, I can think of two right off the top of my
head, one of which is thedaughter of our director, who
didn't used to be our director.
She was just a mom bringing herkid because she didn't have any
food at home.
She is now a college graduateand has a really good job.
Looking back at where they were, I don't think the mom or her
(19:34):
would have thought that waspossible.
The mom or her would havethought that was possible.
And then she's grown up in thechurch and grown up strong and
for several years actuallytaught other kids in the milk
project.
That has been just kind ofcrazy to see.
And the other is another girlwho we got through high school
and sometimes you talk aboutfights on the pitch.
(19:54):
I mean she was the hardestplaying, hardest kicking soccer
player I've ever met.
She tried to get herfrustrations out on the pitch.
I mean she was the hardestplaying, hardest kicking soccer
player I've ever met.
She, she tried to get herfrustrations out on the pitch,
sometimes a little too welltried to dial that back and as
she got older you know she's notthis is she's.
I'm glad she's here and sheneeds Jesus, just like all of us
.
But I don't think she's going tobe able to teach the younger
(20:14):
kids because she's just a littletoo aggressive and even as she
got older she got through highschool.
We tried to encourage her to goto college and she's like I
think I think with what you'vegiven me, I'm going to be able
to get a job and help my mom andI want to do that rather than
go to college.
She did and then she has comeback since, just like I just
want to come back and come inand teach the kid, come in and
(20:36):
help for the day.
So to see that little littlekid that I thought was either
going to kill me or, you know,freak out on us, to see her
growth in Christ and and matureas a young woman and be able to
get that job.
And then nobody asked her tocome back, but just for her to
see the value in that, you know,once you get older, and to try
and pour into the younger kidsand we've seen that with several
(21:01):
of the kids as they get olderthat we don't have to tell them
you know, they know they livedit, so they're the best ones
that teach the younger kids.
That that's been really cool tosee.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So it's funny.
I was telling our team thismorning that there was a girl
two years ago that was probably16, something like that Small
little girl, but she wasferocious on the soccer pitch
and you could tell like shedidn't care, like she didn't
care who you were, what youthought she was going to work
you, and she treated everybodyequally.
(21:28):
Yeah, it was insane.
So let's for a moment, let'stalk about the clinic here.
What all do you guys do at theclinic that is on this facility
and I kind of equate it to asmall hospital or urgent care,
if you will in my mind but whatdo you guys do and why is that
important for this community?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so I mean it grew from just general medicine
and optometry.
Now we have pediatrics,gynecologists, full lab dental
minor wound care, so it is akind of a just full lab dental
minor wound care.
So it is a kind of a.
The government classifies us asa hospital but we don't do like
yet surgeries, full-blownsurgeries or anything.
Really, there's very littlegood healthcare out there here,
(22:08):
especially if you don't havemoney.
So we try and charge the leastamount we can and then we're
essentially out there trying tohelp people take care of
themselves.
So a lot of systems here are inplace that you go to the doctor
, my arm hurts, take thismedicine, which I'll also sell
you, and that's about all theinformation you get.
Well, maybe if you avoideddoing this, or maybe if you did
(22:28):
this, or here's some otheroptions.
So we're just out there againjust trying to look weird for
Jesus, like, oh, you want me tobuy?
No, you don't have to buy this,you can go get this somewhere
else, or we have this here, butjust trying to love on people, a
lot of whom are here forphysical reasons.
But there's also a lot ofritual stuff going on there as
well, a lot of stress, a lot ofyou know just living life, and
(22:49):
psychologists here are available.
They're in country but they'rekind of like the states 56 years
ago.
People would look at you funnyif you went to those.
But you can sometimes sharewith your optometrist or your
dentist stuff that you can'tshare with anybody else.
And we have a full-timeevangelist on staff as well.
He shares devos and just goesaround, talks to people While
(23:12):
everybody else is more focusedon the physical side of it.
He can be having his eyes openfor other things and then our
staff, when they find thosepeople as well, can definitely
be like hey, why don't you talkto Jose Luis?
So he's doing a couple of cellgroups already once a week in
different parts of the city.
And then we also see peoplethat come from because we're
loving and caring.
We see people sometimes fromhours away.
(23:35):
So some of those people we cansend them home with tracts or
send them home with a Bible.
We can't typically be there todisciple all of them, but just
trying to help in a situationwhere there's unfortunately not
a lot of help available.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So let's talk about this for a moment.
What's the poverty level here?
High.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
One of the poorest countries in the hemisphere,
roughly 50% of the populationliving on $2 a day, and that's
the normal.
Well, if over 50% are doing it,I guess that's normal.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
And living on $2 a day.
How much would it cost to cometo the clinic?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, so for a normal patient, general medicine is
about $8.
That covers includes yourmedicine, though, yep, which is
usually more than $8.
And then in the other areas ofthe clinic we try to be you know
, we can't be free or it wouldend real quick but as cheap as
possible.
And then we have a person onstaff that if somebody comes in
(24:33):
and I need to be seen but Idon't have money, why not?
What's going on?
How can we help?
Okay, and we just, we just seethem.
We don't make a big deal out ofit, but it's also an ownership
thing too, that if they'repaying, they deserve to be seen
and they deserve good treatment.
So and there's other waysaround that like in the
optometry side of the thing wehave, we have free glasses or
almost free.
And then, if you want to oh,you want the nicest glasses out
(24:55):
there those will cost maybe asmuch as $600 in the States,
maybe up to $100 a year, butthat way they can subsidize some
of the people that can't affordthe nicer stuff.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So I wasn't going to ask you this, but I just thought
about it.
So we had something weirdhappen the other day.
We're here on property, there'san accident that happens right
outside the property and I meanlike we're walking by the gate
and we can see it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
It was a moto taxi and a motorcycle had a collision
and there was blood and therewas a guy injured, but he did
not come here.
He didn't come in, but thelittle girl and the mom, there
were some other people on andthey ran them into the clinic
straight away, which I didn'tknow about till later.
So they don't.
You know, those are emergencysituations and we've had this
come up before.
The police sometimes havebrought people here rather than
go back, go down to one of theirplaces.
They could take people, and soI mean that's just what you do.
(25:48):
So in certain parts of the cityit would be like, okay, so do
you have a credit card orsomething?
before we take you in, but wejust, you know, you just take
care of it.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So the mom and girl came in here.
Why wouldn't the guy laying onthe sidewalk bleeding come in
here?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Because he called for an ambulance.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
They called for an ambulance and the ambulance came
and got him and they may havelooked at it.
Some people that were there mayhave looked at him and said,
yeah, he needs more than whatthe clinic can do.
So we same thing.
We've had babies born in theclinic, but generally speaking
we're not set up for that.
So unless it's an emergency, wesend them on to the hospital,
(26:26):
where that where there's bettercare in case something were to
go wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, so what's your big vision?
What's your five-year, 10-yearplan?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
What are you wanting?
Kind of the big dream God's puton your heart.
Next existing thing, but that'sa thing.
So that'll be the next, youknow, five, 10, 15 years.
We'll start out with some easycataract surgeries, pterygium
surgeries for optometry that wecan do here on site, but then
we've acquired property, offproperty to go bigger and do an
actual surgical center.
So I don't know how that'sgoing to happen.
Yeah, but that's that's God'sproblem, not mine.
I just follow the plan he'slaid out and go all right.
(27:14):
Well, this, this is going to beinteresting, but cause it will
be bigger than anything we'veever done, in terms of just the
building of it and then howwe're going to staff it now, and
we have a plan, but you knowthere's a lot of pieces in there
.
I don't know how that's goingto happen yet, but everything
we've done so far has been thesame way and God made it happen.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
So what are some of the biggest challenges that
you're facing in this work rightnow, whether spiritually,
financially or logistically?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
One of us is trying to come up with that, that
transition plan.
We're not super old, but youknow a lot of missions are
focused on the guy or the personand then when that person dies
or can't do it anymore, theneverything slowly kind of falls
apart.
So what's going to be the planfor after?
We're not here for that tocontinue so continually trying
(28:02):
to work us out of a job.
There's still, you know,director responsibilities, but
how does that work going forward, because there's not a lot of
people out there going intomissions or wanting to be a
long-term missionary.
And then just you know,fundraising is always a you know
, nobody I don't think anybody,if they're honest really has a
handle on how to do that.
I mean, you have to trust inGod.
(28:25):
But then how do you, how do youlive that out and how do you do
that, especially when we'relooking at all this possible
growth, is is a challenge.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So for someone listening right now who wants to
help but doesn't know how,what's the best way for them to
get involved?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Pray Number one.
Um, I literally we could not dowhat we do without prayer,
because people will say, well, Idon't know how you do it, like
I don't, I don't know.
Oh yeah, it's God, it's prayer.
There's also we have a website,his eyes, hondurascom.
You can get on there if youwant to like financially support
cause you gotta have goers, butyou have to have senders.
Um, that's where people hadsome people that are like I
(29:06):
don't think I'm called to go,but I'll, I'll help with
finances.
That's fine too.
It takes you know it's cliche.
I mean it takes the teamworkmake the dream work, but I mean
it takes everybody to do thatLike, just if we were here by
ourselves and we had no supportsystem, it'd be over quick.
(29:26):
So yeah, those would be the twobiggest ways.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, and only because I found this out this
week You've got supporting themission and then supporting the
missionaries, so you guys don'tactually take a salary from this
ministry.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
That is unusual.
Yes, most missionaries havelike a plan and then they raise
funds before they know.
We chose not to do that andunfortunately I've seen a lot of
missionaries or people thatwanted to go into missions like,
well, but we have to raise allthis money and when we can hit
80% then we can move.
And then they go years and thenthey lose focus and then they
(30:03):
don't end up going and we werejust like God said go, so we're
going.
What do you?
Got Like a part-time job and400 bucks a month?
That doesn't we're going.
So we kind of just started outwith not taking a salary and so
we've always just kind of livedin faith on that.
That if it comes in andsomebody says we want this to go
to the Colby's, great, but ifit doesn't, it's going to the
mission, and so that means we'renot bleeding or taking anything
away from the mission and thatjust helps us really have a
(30:24):
peace as well, peace even thoughmonth to month you don't know
what's coming in.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Know month to month you don't know what's coming in.
That's okay, that's got us.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So one last question what's, what's something that
has surprised you about life andmissions?
I guess about, like, gettingout of your own way, like you
grow up in a culture and youhave a way of seeing the world,
and then how much you need toget rid of that to interact with
people that have differentcultures and different
viewpoints.
And so especially our kids.
You know there's this conceptof being a third culture kid.
So they born here, they grew uphere and so, like we're blue,
(31:01):
honduras is yellow and they cameout green because they see
things both ways and to someextent we do that as well.
So now when we go back to theStates, you know we shake our
heads or go what's going on here?
But then the same thing here.
There were a lot of painfullessons in that of judging or
just seeing things a certain way, and then very gentle Hondurans
(31:23):
mostly come in and saying theway you're seeing this isn't the
way it is, and being able tokind of look at things from a
different perspective reallyhelp and I think that's also key
to why a lot of missionariesburn out is they have this we're
going to come down, we're goingto fix it or we're going to do
something and then like, well,you're not going to do squat,
(31:43):
you know it's going to be Godand there's going to be, and God
didn't tell you to fixeverything, so there's still
going to be stuff around.
And then how do you wrestle withthat of keeping your heart soft
but then also hard at the sametime to just to be able to
function?
Go through life is, um, it'snot always easy, but um, it's
(32:04):
been powerful to see how goduses that and continues.
So I mean, it's not like we'reoh, I got it.
You know it's a continualprocess.
But then now at least I'm alittle more aware of like, okay,
stop, you know, don't think somuch about this Like, what's the
other side of this that you'renot seeing, which, when I was
(32:24):
young and now I'm slowlylearning In another 50 or 60
years, I'll have this down.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
It's interesting because my wife's first mission
trip was here in Honduras withyou guys and that was a hard
lesson for her because she's adental hygienist.
She was seeing certain thingshere that's like if you could
just teach them this, yeah itwould fix this right.
And I think you kind of spokeinto her like we can't fix it
all, like you have to take itone step at a time and and help
where you can help.
But like she just it wasoverwhelming for her to see the
(32:55):
things in the States that wetake for granted and know like
this hygiene changes everythingand stop drinking sugar only or
hydrate and things that just arenormal for us.
But here it's just a differentculture.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And we have seen that , like when you, you know, know,
we do those lessons and stuffin in rural areas, yeah, and
you're like you get a bigtoothbrush out, you're doing,
yeah, it feels a little silly,but you're like, and then you
tell me but 20 years later, whenwe've compared, yeah, like, hey
, people's teeth are better.
They're still not great, right,they're still not us level.
But then you're like, oh, yeah,it works.
(33:27):
I mean, it's the same thing,just sharing it does make a
difference.
But but you, but you can't fixeverybody.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, buddy, hey, I appreciate the time, I
appreciate you sharing yourheart and I love what you guys
do here.
I think the world of you guysand love the impact that you
guys have had for the gospelaround the world.
It's all God.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
We're just.
We're just the flunkies incharge temporarily.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well, what an incredible conversation, If
you're listening.
Still, I hope you were inspired, as I was, by the work God is
doing through His eyes.
It's a reminder that the gospelisn't just something we believe
.
It's something we live out withopen hands and open hearts.
If you want to learn more, ifyou want to sponsor a child, if
you want to support the ministry, just head to
HisEyesHondurascom.
In fact, I'm looking todayspecifically for 17 kids to get
(34:11):
sponsored.
They are constantly reachingnew villages and kids and so
right now, there are 17 kidsthat do not have sponsors.
That means Felipe and his teamare covering it while they're
praying for God to supply peoplethat'll do $38 a month to love
on these kids, and I can speakto it personally because I've
seen what they do with those $38a month.
I've seen the impact with thekids, and I can speak to it
personally because I've seenwhat they do with those $38 a
month.
I've seen the impact with thekids.
(34:33):
I've seen the faces and thesmiles and the love that's being
poured out into their life.
So I would love to finish thatgoal today, if you will help me
with that.
Every gift, every prayer, everypartnership makes a difference
and, honestly, don't miss nextweek's episode.
I'll be sitting down with one ofFelipe's kids to get a totally
different perspective.
Felipe's just finding that out.
(34:54):
I'm going to talk to him alittle bit about what it's like
to grow up on the mission field,to be a part of a family that's
all in for the gospel, and howGod is shaping his own life and
his calling in the middle of it.
He's in college now looking fora career as a senior right Yep
Senior this year, and so he'sgot a lot of prayer and God is
tugging at his heart in a lot ofdifferent ways, and so I think
(35:15):
it's gonna be an excitingconversation.
So don't miss that conversationnext week.
Thanks for listening and, asalways, keep following Jesus,
not just on Sundays, but beyondSunday as well.
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