On September 4, 2026, we gathered on the Hospital Yojoa property to celebrate a milestone years in the making.

Construction had already begun in August, but September 4 marked another major step forward as work began on the hospital foundation. Surrounded by teammates, partners, friends, supporters and community leaders, we celebrated the official groundbreaking of Hospital Yojoa and thanked God for bringing the project to this point.

For our team, the day represented far more than the beginning of a construction project. It marked the transition from years of preparation into a new season of building — not only a hospital building, but the people, systems, and ministry that will one day fill it.

Years of Work Before the Foundation

For the past several years, our team has worked through questions that rarely make it into photographs: Where should the hospital be located? What services are most urgently needed? How can we create something that is medically excellent, financially sustainable, locally rooted, and distinctly Christ-centered?

Land was purchased, the access road was constructed, and government approvals were pursued. Architectural and engineering plans were developed and revised. Funds were raised. Clinical services were discussed and refined. Leadership structures, partnerships, staffing needs, and long-term operational plans began taking shape.

By August, construction activity was underway. Then, on September 4, work moved into the hospital foundation itself as we gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking. Seeing that foundation begin was a powerful reminder that something discussed and prayed over for years is now becoming tangible. But it is only one milestone along the way.

Remembering Why We Are Building

While serving in Honduras two years ago, we cared for a child experiencing significant difficulty breathing.

For us as physicians, encounters like that make the vision of Hospital Yojoa much less abstract. When a child is struggling to breathe, a family does not need a vision statement. They need someone who can evaluate their child and provide appropriate medications, oxygen, diagnostics, and close monitoring. And when a child is too sick for a clinic, they need a hospital capable of stabilizing that child and determining what should happen next.

Those moments remind us that access to healthcare is ultimately about people. Hospital Yojoa is being built so families throughout the Yojoa region can have dependable, Christ-centered medical care closer to home. The long-term vision is a full-service teaching hospital serving this region for generations. But we cannot build everything at once, which is why Phase 1 matters so much.

Phase 1: Beginning Where the Need Is Greatest

The first phase of Hospital Yojoa is intentionally focused on maternal and neonatal health with a scope that includes maternal and obstetric care, newborn care and stabilization, women’s gynecologic surgery, emergency stabilization, diagnostics, pharmacy services, and the training of Honduran healthcare professionals.

This will not yet be the complete hospital we envision for the future. But it will establish a growing center of hospital-level care in the heart of the Yojoa region, with the ability to care for women and newborns, respond to emergencies, perform surgery, stabilize critically ill patients, and determine when a transfer to a higher level of care is necessary.

The child struggling to breathe helps us picture why that matters. Our long-term prayer is that Hospital Yojoa will continue growing beyond Phase 1 — adding services, beds, specialists, and greater capacity to care for children and adults with increasingly complex needs. The ultimate vision is a 140-bed Christ-centered teaching hospital, reached one phase at a time.

What Happens Over the Next Three Years?

A foundation is a beginning, not an ending. Between now and the day Hospital Yojoa opens its doors, there is an enormous amount of work still ahead.

Our Hospital Yojoa team will continue developing the strategic and operational plans that will guide the hospital toward opening — refining clinical programs and safety systems, identifying staffing needs, recruiting both Honduran and missionary personnel, developing training programs, strengthening governance and team structures, planning equipment needs, building regional partnerships, and continuing the capital campaign that keeps construction moving forward.

We will also continue working through the practical questions that determine whether a hospital can function well once its doors finally open. How will patients move through the hospital? What laboratory and pharmacy systems will be needed? How will emergency transfers work? How will we train nurses and physicians?

There will be visible progress on the property in the months ahead. But just as much of this next season will be countless meetings, planning sessions, staffing conversations, and financial decisions — the unseen work of building a hospital that can serve this community well for decades after the construction teams have gone home.

Building Toward Open Doors

Our goal is to open Hospital Yojoa by the end of 2029. With construction underway and foundation work beginning, the vision we have prayed and worked toward is becoming a reality.

One day, mothers will deliver their babies safely, newborns will receive the care they need, and families will encounter compassionate healthcare professionals who treat them with dignity while sharing the love and hope of Jesus.

Until then, our calling is to serve faithfully in the present while helping build for the future.

Your support of our personal ministry allows us to remain in Honduras, care for patients, build meaningful relationships, and devote our time and medical expertise to helping Hospital Yojoa become a reality.

We invite you to partner with us through prayer and financial support as we continue this work. Whether through monthly giving or a one-time gift, your generosity helps sustain our family’s ministry and enables us to invest in the long-term vision of Hospital Yojoa.

Together, we can continue serving patients today while helping build a hospital that will share the hope of Jesus with families for generations to come.