Molly's Mission Encounter Week 7

Mission Encounter Summer 2011 Honduras staff
This week Molly and the Helene team hosted a team from the Outerbanks. The team went to work rebuilding the mission directors house which was lost in a Christmas fire and doing medical work on the island. The med team did visitations around the island communities and staffed the clinic with medical and dental care. Molly tagged along on the medical visitations. She got a little more than she bargained for in one visit to a 16 year old boys home. He was recuperating from an appendectomy and they checked and dressed his incision and long story short, a career in medicine is not in her future.
It was an interesting experience for Molly to be part of hosting a large short-term team, that wasn’t from her home church. It was interesting for her to see and process different personalities and how they adjust to life on the island and a different way of doing things. One of the hard things to learn when you visit another place is that the American way of doing things just isn’t the only way to do things. It’s been interesting hearing her learn the wisdom of some of what feels like restriction when you are on a short term team.

“Today it hit me hard that I have only three weeks here. Seeing the Outerbanks team Friday I was really grateful that it wasn’t me leaving and that I wasn’t having to say goodbye.”

She has three more weeks on the island. This week is fairly normal, study, working in the school and at the clinic. Next week a small short term team, and the following week she will be finishing up there.
This week a bit of our communication centered around Molly’s clinic family. She’s been living with the team which range from 3 to 6 people when short term teams are not visiting. This has been a great learning experience for her. She’s had to be open to doing life with strangers and build relationships quickly. I’ve watched her ramp up her natural ability in authentic communication while continuing to develop listening well, responding and pursuing relationship even where there is some conflict. They share a house and a community that wants something from them. They have to depend on one another for a lot. And, there’s no taking a walk or hopping in your car for a drive on a challenging day, they are knee deep in life with one another. In the past it was easy for me to imagine life in the clinic as a sort of haven, but having Molly there I have a greater appreciation for just the basics like living together that missionaries everywhere have to deal with daily. I know she has grown to love and appreciate the clinic family and we are grateful for their care of her.
Prayer requests:
Healing for her eye- even with oral antibiotics and eye drops she still is dealing with what we think is pink eye.
Clinic Family- Praise for the work that was done on rebuilding Larry & Sheila’s home, for their personal relationships and that God would grow each of them into who He wants them to be, as a result of being part of this experience. That Molly would minister to them these next three weeks.

Molly's Mission Encounter Week 6

file photo of the school from the Mission Encounters facebook page
Helene Christian English School (HCES) is in its eighth year serving the children and families of the small southern Caribbean island of Santa Elena! This year we have 89 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through sixth grades who are taught by five islander teachers, two islander teacher assistants, and two American missionary teachers (Dominic and Miss Sheila). The school is in its third year under the governance of an islander school board and its second year with an islander director.

I've been working in Sheila's class, 4th, 5th &6th grade girls, they're quite the handful. I love it because I assist and work with kids 1 on 1 when they aren't understanding something but oooh I feel bad for Sheila somedays. The girls take no mercy on her.

Molly's been enjoying working in the Helene Christian School.

This week a short term team from the Outerbanks of North Carolina will be at the clinic. They are expecting 22 people, mostly adults, and many of them with a medical background. On Sunday they will be doing a CPR/first aid training class at the clinic for clinic staff and some islanders. Molly's excited about this because the young island boy who tended to Abby's wound in June will be taking the class. We are so grateful for his care of Abby and that he will get some training to continue to develop his skills so that he can care for others on the island.

She passed the halfway point last week and I've been happy to see her balancing a healthy desire to come home with a genuine understanding and appreciation for the very special opportunities she has in Helene each day. A good lesson for each of us.

Prayer requests:
Health- Molly's been sick this week, they were considering taking her down island to the Gringo clinic, but I think she is improving. She and Miss Sheila are fighting an eye infection of some sort though. (Praise! the med team is on the way!)

The outerbanks short term team- that their lives will be impacted as they serve the people of the island.

Rayme, the young island boy- That he will continue to learn and be a positive impact on the island and the people of his community.

Though I am writing the blog posts for her, she can read your comments here or on the facebook page, so feel free to leave her a note. Thanks again for your love and prayers, Molly and Janet

Molly's Mission Encounter- Week 4/5

Molly & Abby Fraser with Andreas photo June 2011
This week marks the half way point for Molly. She loved having her home church team and her sister, on the island for ten days. It was an eventful time and Sunset's youth pastor, Mike Giering, reported this week at staff prayer that he believed it was a very impactful trip, so we're excited the role that Molly with the Helene team played. After three trips on the "short termer" side of things being a clinic staffer was certainly a different experience.
Since the team left, she's settling back in to her routine there. Mornings consist of team devotions and more study. Afternoons she spends time with the kids who are gathering before they attend the Helene Christian English School that MEI has developed on the island. And, she was "finally" assigned to work at the school. The students were to be taking exams so she was planning to monitor the classroom. I know she was very excited to be in the classroom.
During her time there she has decided that she wants to come home and pursue becoming certified to teach either pre-school or kindergarten. At this point she is undecided about whether she wants to teach in the states or in a foreign country, but she is feeling led to pursue teaching as a ministry/career. She also is busy as a part of the clinic staff team, preparing for guests, hosting them and cleaning up after them. This is a very practical part of mission life.

She spent last weekend in Roatan while Mike and I were in New York City visiting her brother, Chris. Roatan means warm showers that dont require a one handed pull and air conditioning, a nice break from clinic life.
In one of our email exchanges after we both arrived "home" from our weekends I shared with her one of my experiences in New York. While visiting St Paul's Chapel I saw an image of the chapel two blocks from the 9/11 site with the flames and ash of the buildings burning in the background of the steeple. I had really been impacted by the way that God stands even in chaos. And that as a result, the church, God's people, can and should also be a refuge, in a time of fear and loss of hope. Molly carried that conversation into a devotion she led later that night, sharing with guests at the clinic. She talked about how giving in to fear is doing wrong by God and centered on this text.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. Psalm 46:1-6.

We continue to be grateful for the love and care that you all have shown Molly and our family during this experience. One of her emails this week said this...

"I love all the growth im experiencing here and do enjoy living here but I also cannot wait to get home to you guys. I just REALLY miss all of you guys."

Prayer Requests:
-- Continued growth and health for Molly and the clinic staff.
-- Direction regarding pursuing her new ministry/career goal as an early childhood teacher.
-- That Molly's last five weeks on the island, she could "be love" to all those she comes in contact with.

And a PS just for fun.
June 28th was Molly's 20th birthday. We thought this would be a tough day for her, as Abby and the Sunset team had just left and she was away from friends/family on her birthday for the first time. Some of us put together a video to wish her a Happy Birthday. Fortunately she found a laptop at the clinic that she could watch the dvd on and she seemed happy with the simple things we were able to do at this distance.

Molly's Mission Encounter in Helene- Week 3

photo from March 2011
An email from Molly yesterday ended with “what a day.” As I thought about writing her update for the week… I couldn’t help but think… “what a week.”
For as long as we’ve known that Molly would be traveling to Honduras for her Mission Encounter, we have taken comfort and been excited that her sister Abby and a team from our home church, Sunset, would be traveling there week three of her ten week stint.
This reality eased some of our apprehension about Molly's trip, and honestly last Sat at 4am as we were gathering at PDX saying goodbye to Abby I had not one fear or concern for the trip. This was the 9th time afterall, that a Fraser had a ticket to Helene. We know the route, the challenges, the people and that parameters. We were all very excited and good to go, I didn’t even cry at the airport, which is a first.
We’ve predictably heard less from her this week, because there’s SO much to do when a team is at the clinic. But, it is also true to say that the communication we have received has been full of twists and turns for our girls; stormy seas, illness, sleepless nights processing troubling news, relational dynamics, potential physical danger culminating in a pretty scary injury yesterday for Abby and a scorpion crawling on Molly’s leg as she was sitting with her in the clinic. What a week. Not the one we had planned.
So, I don’t have much to share from Molly today, but if you will indulge me, I will share a little of how I have been experiencing God this week. First, it’s got me thinking about how we plan things, how we look forward to these things because we imagine we somehow know what the next moment will bring. When in reality, we don’t really have a clue. But, I also have been reminded this week that it is generally in the unplanned that God reveals Himself more to me than on the days that I orchestrate. Because then I’m not so distracted by how wonderful the world I have created is… and I am focused on Him and how all I have is my faith in His love and character.
It’s also been very interesting to process this at a distance. I cannot step in to a tough conversation for them, I cannot protect them from danger or calm their fears by being near, nor can I carry a bleeding child from the boat to the clinic. But, I do know that both they and I have experienced true biblical community this week and that more importantly without a shadow of a doubt that God is very present both there with my girls and with the team and here at home. My God was a very big God this week. He was Father, Wisdom, Physician, Healer, Comforter, Protector, more than Worthy of My Praise. He was ENOUGH.

Prayer requests:
- The Sunset team leaves the island on Sunday. This will be a sad day for Molly and a day of real realization that she will be there seven more weeks. She and I know she is growing there, and so please pray that she will fully experience what God has in mind for the rest of her time there.
- Travel for the Sunset team. Sunday by boat from Helene to Roatan, then Monday by plane Roatan to Houston, to Portland arriving at PDX at 11pm.
- Molly’s 20th birthday is June 28th. She is on facebook off and on so you can post something to her or my wall or reply to this email and I’ll make sure she gets it on Tuesday.

Molly's Mission Encounter in Helene - Week 2

We were excited to get a picture of Molly in action at the clinic!

This week the English School at the clinic was closed so Molly spent most of the week studying, playing with the children and cleaning and preparing the clinic for the arrival of a short term team on Saturday.

She's watching "The Truth Project" series. This study is the starting point for looking at life from a biblical perspective. Each lesson discusses in great detail the relevance and importance of living the Christian worldview in daily life. In addition she has begun to work through Experiencing God with the clinic team.

Molly got to use some of her artistic ability this week, working on signs. The first one was the somewhat notorious "Welcome Sunset" banner that she's seen hanging on the clinic balcony the last three trips there. Then, Teddy, one of the island pastors asked her to make a sign for the Northside Church Revival that will be happening this week.

The short term team arriving soon is from our home church. A group of 12 students and 3 adult leaders who left Portland at 6am this morning. Molly is VERY excited for her sister to arrive. I think she's mentioned it in every correspondence this week. They will be on the island for ten days.

Prayer requests:
Praise- Molly is getting along great with Larry and Sheila Benson, the Missions directors.
Praise- Molly and Abby's relationship and the opportunity for them to be on the island together during Molly's internship.
Request- The Sunset team - safety, that each person will serve with energy, enthusiasm and love, the transition from life in Beaverton to island life, and for our dear friends, Traci, Mike and Rose- the adult leaders.
Request- Our island friend Elsa's son Esly was not feeling well and had to return to the hospital this week. You can read more of Esly's story here:
Request- Molly is already thinking about the day the Sunset team and Abby leave the island. She will remain there for six weeks after.

a late Saturday update is that they have decided to stay in Roatan overnight, due to tough seas which are making the boat ride impossible tonight. They plan to leave early and be on Helene by 8am.
So one more prayer request- physical safety for Molly and Sheila. I imagine that Larry is stuck down island and the ladies are alone in the clinic. I know our island friends will be aware and watching over them, but this has this Mom on her knees tonight.

Thanks friends, Molly and Janet