Maely's Miracle

In June of 2009, my wife and I traveled to a remote mountain village in the highlands of Honduras to deliver medical supplies, shoes, clothing and water filters to the 300 inhabitants of Potenciana.  Little did we know what God had in store for us on this trip and how it would change our lives forever.  A few days after we flew in to the island of Roatan we met with our Honduran team member Miguel, and began making plans for the trek to Potenciana.  Miguel emphasized the need to begin our journey early enough in the day that we could be assured of arriving in the village before dark.  After some prodding as to why we needed to arrive before dark, he hesitantly explained that Potenciana was in a remote region of the Olancho district and the roads were "not safe" after dark.  After some more prodding, he admitted the danger was not so much bad road conditions as it was due to bandits that frequently ambushed vehicles at night.  Needless to say, we were more than willing to leave early and asked what time it got daylight!  We began our journey by taking an 1.5 hour ferry ride from the island of Roatan to the mainland city of La Ceiba. From there we rented a 4 wheel drive pickup for the remainder of our trip.  Leaving La Ceiba, we drove on a decent pave road not much unlike typical farm to market roads in the US.  After an hour and a half, we left the pavement and traveled on dirt roads for the next2 hours crossing some home made log bridges that I seriously doubted would support the weight of our truck.  We then left the dirt roads and began traveling on primitive, washed out  logging roads for the final 2 hours of our drive.  We lost count of the number of creeks and streams we crossed and were greatful this was the dry season or the trail would have been impassable.
We pulled into the village late in the afternoon and surprised the inhabitants with our appearance.  They knew we were coming, but didn't know what day we would be arriving.  This information had been intentionally withheld as an added precaution to minimize the chance of being robbed.

Potenciana is a primitive village nestled in the mountains of the Olancho district at an elevation of about 3,200 feet.  A couple of years ago, the Honduran government ran electrical power into this area but only 2 or three houses in the village are wired for power.  There is no running water, no vehicles, no sanitation system, no phone lines, people still use outdoor latrines, plow with oxen and cook using wood burning stoves and ovens.  The walls of all the houses were made with handmade adobe blocks (painted white) and the roofs made with handmade red clay spanish tiles.  Each house was exceptionally clean and it was evident the people took great pride in their homes.  We were taken to meet the president of the village, Don Armando who graciously offered to let us stay in his home during our stay.  It wasn't until the second night of our stay that I discovered he and his wife had given us their bedroom and were sleeping on the floor of their kitchen.  I can't say enough about how wonderful all the people were and how welcome they made us feel even though we were perfect strangers to them. 

Okay, thats enough for tonight....tomorrow I'll tell you how we met Maely.  For a hint, you can take a look at our website http://www.thekingsstorehouse.org/ , follow the "Central America" tab and then access the page we have dedicated to Maely.  We have two video clips of our first meeting with her.  The first clip is of her first ride in an automobile, the second shows the condition of her deformed feet.  More on that later!   

How it all began!

What a creative and wonderful God we serve.  Now before I begin quoting countless facts and scriptures that clearly testify to this fact….allow me to lay a little groundwork on how I have come to this startling conclusion on my own.   In June of 2008 my wife and I began making plans for a family/friend group vacation to “some place sunny and warm”.  We couldn’t decide where to go and then a friend recommended the Island of Roatan, Honduras.  I checked with the 11 other family and friends that were going and all agreed that was a wonderful idea….(13 people…..all agreed on a vacation destination…this should have been my first clue).  Being the OCD, type A personality that I am, I immediately began researching various rental properties, checked into flight arrangements/costs, explored excursion options, checked weather patterns and developed a detailed plan that eventually rivaled that of the D-Day invasion.

The property that I selected was a beautiful private residence located on a private beach, with private dock and a private boat house….with enough rooms that 13 people could all stay under one roof and still have….you guessed it…Privacy.  All of this….for less money than we would have spent renting cheap hotel rooms.  Everything was falling into place perfectly and I reveled in the sheer genius of my master PLAN.   Had I not been so busy patting myself on the back for finding this bargain…I might have begun to suspect something much bigger was in the works.

It was then that God started whispering in my ear.  He suggested that since we were going to be travelling to a third world country…. Wouldn’t it be great if we could meet some specific needs of the locals, while we were vacationing there?  Kind of like a Vacation/Mission trip!   Convinced this was my own brilliant idea, I started searching the internet for missions, clinics etc. on the Island of Roatan that might need assistance.  Within minutes I found a clinic called Clinica Esperanza (Clinic of Hope) which was in need of basic medical supplies.  Gathering a few suitcases of over the counter items would be relatively simple I thought, and this would allow me to quickly check off another box on my Honduran Vacation/Mission Master Plan!

Taking the list of items provided by the clinic, I set off for the nearest warehouse superstore.  Upon my arrival, I began going up and down the aisles looking for the items on this list which I had beenj told could spell the difference between life and death in a third world country.  The first aisle I went down was nothing but diet pills.  The second aisle contained nothing but cosmetics and the third aisle was nothing but hair products.  By the time I started down the fourth aisle, I had nothing in my shopping cart but my eyes were filling up with tears.  Being a typical guy…it took me a few minutes to figure out how diet pills, cosmetics and hair products could make a 200 lb, big game hunting, 3^rd generation oil field worker cry like a baby…in a public place!

Then it hit me....somewhere between aisle three and four, two things suddenly struck me to the core of my soul.  First, how fortunate we were to live in a country where the average citizen is richer than 95% of the rest of the people in the entire world.  Second and more importantly, I was struck by how little I had done in my 51 years of life to share some of that abundance with “the least of these” as Jesus referred to in Matthew 25:40.  Once the shopping cart was filled, my wife and I packed the purchased items into our “extra” suitcases and began to feel like maybe there was something more to this trip than just a warm, sunny vacation.  The weeks flew by and the day for our departure finally arrived.  Our flight was uneventful….always a good thing when your flying thousands of miles at 500 miles per hour in a pressurized tube at 37,000 feet!

We arrived safely on Roatan and just like clockwork, our contact (Wilfredo Mejilla) met us at the airport and took all 13 of us to our PRIVATE vacation villa.  The house and grounds surpassed all of our expectations and we were soon introduced to the properties resident grounds keeper Miguel, and his wife Wendy.  Neither spoke English and after 25 years of disuse, my Spanish was somewhat rusty to say the least.  Over the next few days, we got a chance to visit with Miguel and learn more about him and his family.  In addition to being the groundskeeper, Miguel is also a full time professor at a local private school.  Although wealthy by island standards, Miguel and his family live on the equivalent of $340 US per month. 

We discovered his wife, Wendy comes from a village high in the interior mountains of mainland Honduras.  The two of them (along with their two daughters) make  trips back twice each year to carry much need clothing, shoes and other humanitarian aid to her village which is named Potenciana.  Located in the rugged and sometimes lawless region of the Olancho district, Potenciana is a small village of 300 people.  The people of Potenciana live a subsistence lifestyle much the way their ancestors have for the past 1,000 years.  There are no vehicles, no running water, no phone lines, and no sewer system.  They still plow with oxen and cook on wood burning stoves and ovens.  Although extremely poor, these people are very generous and will share what little they have with perfect strangers. 

When Miguel discovered that we had brought medical supplies to the local clinic, he approached me one day and very timidly asked if we would be interested in helping out the people of Potenciana.  He explained their only source of water is a stream above the village which was contaminated with bacteria and parasites causing significant illnesses among the inhabitants.  It was then I realized that MY perfect PLAN for a sunny, warm family vacation was really just a tiny cog in the overall machinery of God’s universe.  I was struck by the fact that Almighty God, who spoke the heavens and earth into existence by the power of HIS voice has chosen to use a couple of threads like us, and allow us to be woven into the perfect tapestry of his creation!

Now, just two short years later, God has formed The King’s Storehouse which is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to gathering the surplus that God has blessed this great nation with, and sharing it with HIS less fortunate children around the world.  By the grace and power of our Loving God, we have been able to ship water filters, clothing, shoes, medical supplies and equipment to orphanages, clinics and remote villages in Honduras, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Nigeria, China, Korea, Viet Nam, Peru, Haiti, Guatemala and Mexico. 

We are partnering with an ever expanding group of individuals and organizations to share the abundance we have been blessed with and use it as a means to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.  See other stories provided by Tom and Ginger Smith and Mike North regarding their efforts to start a tree planting ministry through The King’s Storehouse to serve the long term needs of remote villages in Tanzania as well as share with them the Love of Christ.

What started as a family vacation has become an organization that is touching and changing lives all over the world.  Come be a part of GOD’s master plan and see what HE can do through you.  May God give you a love for the lost that will drive you to the ends of the earth.  May he grant you wisdom that you may hear and understand HIS voice, and may He give you more faith that you may move mountains in HIS name, and to HIS glory.

COMING UP NEXT....MAELY'S MIRACLE