Molly's Mission Encounter in Helene - Week 1 update

photo from March 2011
Molly’s first week has focused on reading. She has 6 books assigned during her discipleship encounter. She finished the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” and is now working through the workbook. (I love this book!). She is also reading “Cross-Cultural Connections”, the clinic team will be going through "Experiencing God" together and she finished “Who Moved my Cheese.” This was her synopsis.

“What I got out of the book is not to be afraid to move forward and just to trust. Which I think I’m doing. Me coming here was me letting go and trusting. Moving towards new cheese.”

In addition to reading, she is working whever she can to help. One day she worked on the generator and yesterday a Honduran doctor came to the clinic with 25 staff memebers to hand out medicine and give shots etc. So, she did a lot of dishes and she said she “played about 7 hours of Uno and dominos with the children.” One of her ongoing “jobs” is to play with the kids as they gather for the English School at the clinic. She hasn’t worked in the school yet because week one was about her experiencing different areas of mission life there, and there’s no school next week.

There are only 4 people living at the clinic, and one of them, Dominic just left for 10 days to go celebrate his parents 50th wedding anniversary. So, Sheila and Larry will be moving in to the clinic to sleep so that she isn’t alone at night. She and I are both looking forward to the team from Sunset arriving so she will have more company in the clinic. She learned that there will be two teams on the island while she is there and that another intern, Ashley, who we met in March will be returning in July to live at the clinic. The clinic employees a counselor stateside who she skyped with several time before traveling to Helene, and they check in weekly to see how she is acclimating.

I believe they rotate responsibility for cooking dinner. One night she shared that what they prepared they had cucumber and tomatoes in vinegar and sugar with brauts and fried rice. Sounds good, but it’s heavier than what she normally eats at home and she's thankful we packed gluten-free food for breakfast and lunch- and her packing list for Abby says her favorite thing we packed was the dried mangos- which is funny because the best fresh mangos we’ve ever had are on the trees there. But, the people on the island depend on the natural vegetation for their meals, so they cannot be gathered for clinic food.

Molly wrote that she is thinking and talking with the Missions Director, Larry, about her future plans. What she is hoping to get out of this encounter is to see if she wants to pursue missions through YWAM or if she would like to pursue working with children at home. She is interested in finding out more about what it would take to become a pre-school teacher because it seems to be her favorite age. The kids, for the most part, are eager to learn and the work and singing songs, and doing crafts, all of that is fun.

Monday morning devotionals consist of praying outloud for 30 minutes. She mentioned she prayed specifically for our friend Mitch Franklin, who has been very sick with intestinal trouble.
Our prayer requests for her this week are:
- Only three people at the clinic. Relationship building between Molly, Larry and Sheila and safety for them.
- Her future decisions. YWAM or pursuing a career at home/school.
-Travel for the Sunset team who leave on the 18th; Abby is traveling and I know it will be nice for Molly to see her and other friends.