Señora Valentina, a 74 year-old Honduran woman, sat patiently in the hallway, waiting to be invited into the exam room I had been sweating in all morning. Her walk was off, not quite a limp, but not the stride of the young. It was as wobbly as the smile she offered as she sat in the simple wooden chair across the desk from me.
When we look in a mirror it’s so easy to see only the labels that our culture places on us. For Señora Valentina her labels span a lifetime. She is a daughter…mother…widow…a laborer…alone.
She sat with her shoulder slightly bent forward and chin down as the interpreter introduced me and I greeted her in my limited Spanish. My American accent butchered her own beloved Spanish which finally brought a true smile to her face.
As I asked her how she was feeling and what brought her to the clinic, she answered in the way that is so common for the hispanic culture…with a story.
The pain started years ago, first in her back, then in her neck and now in her hands. She has used “medicina” for years to help mask the pain, common over the counter pain relief like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, diclofenac. It only helps for a short time and the pain comes back. Her husband died years ago, her children moved away to find more available work, and the only means of caring for herself is working as a laborer in the fields of a neighbor. She walks to work daily and spends hours bent over caring for the harvest of someone else.
I felt the reality of her words through my physical exam: strong back muscles from hours of lifting, first her children and now the harvest. Her neck was stiff from bending over constantly, but her hands showed the harshest reality of her life. The tendons and muscles were so easy to see and feel through her thin, papery skin. The calluses of her finders were thick and coarse while her knuckles were hard and swollen from a life-time of depending on her hands to sustain her daily needs and the needs of her family.
Her diagnosis was simple, osteoarthritis (over-use arthritis), but the treatment broke my heart: rest. The something that is impossible to obtain as a 74 year-old Honduran woman who must labor in a field to feed herself every day.
Every doctor dreads the moment when they have to tell a patient their is nothing we can do to take away the pain, only mask it for a time with medication. I explained the truth of her condition and the fact that stopping her work would help the most, but we can use medication, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, to relieve some of the pain during the day. We were both disappointed.
Now here is the good part: I was able to offer her hope. I spoke truth into her life: she is strength and endurance, she is a good mother and a daughter of God. She can find rest through peace from the Lord.
Now the smile you see on her face in the photo is not the result of fixing her pain, but the result of reminding her that she is so much more than her circumstances. We are all so much more than our labels, there are categories people fall into and then there is our eternal identity.
In the place between unfairness and impossibility lives love and hope for Valentina.
Launch Update
We continue to move forward toward resigning from our current clinic in March 2025! This is a pretty scary step for us, especially since we are not fully funded yet, but we are holding strong that the Lord will provide and we will be fully funded by March. Our plan is to spend April preparing our house for sale and putting it on the market. The kids finish school in May and then we will attend a ministry debrief in Colorado for 10 days in June. In July, we will be attending a CHSC re-orientation for a week since it’s been close to 10 years since we did our original orientation training.
Hospital Update
The team is still waiting for our environmental license. They have completed land surveys and made beautiful building plans (see below) and there is a great team of Honduran lawyers and engineers working with our team architect. We are just one license away from breaking ground. The water bore hole is flowing strong and should provide enough water to supply the entire hospital and residential housing. We are grateful for the “ground team” of individuals and families who are currently serving in Honduras and are encouraged by all the progress that has been made so far and the relationships that are continuing to be built throughout the community and country. God is working and we look forward to joining the team next year.
Fundraising Update
Our progress toward our January goal is slowly closing the gap. We are at 89% of our one-time goal and 44% of our monthly need being met through donations or commitments to give. Meeting our funding goal is essential for us resigning from our current clinic in March. 100% of our salary and ministry needs will have to be fundraised. In order to serve as medical missionaries in Honduras, we will rely on both monthly and one-time gifts throughout the year from individuals, families, and churches.
We understand waiting till next year to give and hope you will fill out this commitment card online now. Here is the link to the google form (commitment card): https://forms.gle/Jf7hjYW41CdX1puR7
We pray that you would consider giving a one-time gift or start to partner with us monthly. Go to: www.thedrsbrockington.org/donate to partner with us today! We pray that you will also share this opportunity with your friends, family, and church. Together, we can walk alongside this community in love and compassion as we care for their physical and spiritual health and train the next generation of young physicians to serve the underserved in their communities.
