HELPING OTHERS
Mission provides 'priceless' memories
By JIMMY GALVAN

Planning your summer vacation?

How about a nice trip to the smoldering jungles of Honduras to care for the people of this starved country?

One group from Jasper takes part in this trip yearly through the Baptist Medical- Dental Mission International out of Mississippi.

Their reward?

"The experience is absolutely priceless," said Terri Cheeley, coordinator.

In fact, Jonathan and Terri Cheeley are presently working on finalizing plans for their next "vacation" to Honduras July 19-26. She anticipates 40-45 people from Jasper participating in this mission trip.

"Most people that go on the mission just take it as their vacation time," Cheeley said.

Their group, which funnels its efforts through First Baptist Church of Jasper, is made up of medical professionals in the Jasper area.

The Cheeleys have been participating in the missions since 1992. The first time Jasper participated in the mission trip was in 2002.

The mission focuses on delivering medical supplies to the population including clothing and Bibles.

Cheeley said the mission would set up a medical camp and a pharmacy in a village. She said part of the mission also revolves around a dental clinic.

THE CHILDREN of Quebrada Larga greet the mission team from Jasper during their last visit to Honduras. Pictured inset, Dr. Eric Koch works on a patient at the mission's dental clinic.

She said routinely the group would see Hondurans with colds, ear infections and well children. After their checkup, they advance to the pharmacy where each resident receives vitamins, Tylenol and cold medicines and a Vitamin B-12 vaccination.

E a c h f a m i l y will

also receive a bag of beans and rice for each child in the family.

All of these services are dependent on the amount of money that is raised by the group prior to the trip. Clothing and shoes are donated through First Baptist and sorted by the group prior to the trip.

"We always run out of clothing and they want that more than medicine," Cheeley said.

From here, residents advance to a dental clinic where problem teeth are extracted.

The weeklong mission allows the Jasper residents to help the people of Honduras but at the same

RONNIE WOODS, MASON KOCH AND BRUCE BROWNING, pictured left, work in the pharmacy filling bottles with liquid medications. Pictured above, Jennifer Job Seale and Ashleigh Dickerson help package rice and beans for distribution.

time, they help themselves.

"I always tell people before we go that you are going to be

more blessed than

you are going

to hand out

blessings,"

C h e e l e y

s a i d .

"When you come home, you feel like those people blessed you more than you did for them.

"You go with this feeling of wanting to help these folks and you come home very humble," Cheeley said. "They have nothing yet they are very content. It definitely makes you appreciate what you have."

The Cheeleys were drawn to the mission work when the founder of the organization spoke at their church in Birmingham, Ala. They have attended each year since then.

"I was pregnant one year and the next year my oldest was seven months old. That was the roughest trip - I didn't enjoy that trip at all," Cheeley said. "But my parents love it because that is their time to get the grandkids."

Once they arrived in Jasper in 2001, the Cheeleys started talking about the mission trip with members of First Baptist and soon the church formed its own group to send on a mission.

"During that trip, I was just led that I was meant to do this," Cheeley said. "We just started to pray about it and went to church and told everyone I was going to Honduras. The next thing, we had a team going from Jasper."

Another outreach of the mission is construction work. The mission pays for all the materials on a project.

"We have always built pastors' homes," Cheeley said. "The first year we went, we built a pastor's home that was 600 square feet and the pastor just raised his hands and wept.

"It's a very basic home, no plumbing, no floors, no doors," Cheeley said. "I just remembered thinking that I was whining about my 1,500-square foot house that I complained about all the time."