Mission group takes supplies to Honduras, builds classrooms

Newsboy photo/ Sharon Kerr SHEILA POWELL boards the First Baptist Church bus to Houston, the first leg of a mission trip to Honduras. 29 members of several churches joined to take supplies and build Sunday school rooms in the village of Cebadilla.

People devastated by a hurricane, living without power, few supplies and limited access to medical facilities may sound like Rita-repeated, but it's everyday life in much of Honduras.

A group of 29 people sponsored by First Baptist Church in Jasper are currently in Honduras, taking supplies to local clinics and helping to build Sunday school classrooms.

"It's my 13th or 14th trip," said Terri Cheeley, team captain for the Jasper missionaries."My husband and I have been going down there since we were teenagers."

The group is taking pharmaceuticals, medical and dental supplies, clothing and children's items to Cebadilla, a small town in a mountain valley in the El Paraiso region.

Cheeley says her group ranges in ages from 17 - 74. They plan to set up their own kitchen, help out at the clinics and with construction, and do evangelism. They also purchased rice and beans before leaving the capital of Tegucigalpa to distribute to the needy.

DRUGS AND HUGS - Above: trip leader Terri Cheeley passes out antibiotics;"take them every day" she advises as family members bid farewell. Left: Brenda Job repacks soap and supplies on the spot so she does have to pay overweight baggage fees.

Honduras is still recovering from Hurricane Mitch, a 1998 category 5 storm that wiped out roads and bridges and decades of progress in Central America.

Newsboy photos/ Sharon Kerr