First of all I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I am not one to push for things and you have answered prayers.
I don’t know how to explain what we still need for the trip because we still need a lot of things. It will be easier to just tell you about the money needed yearly.
First and foremost, NO PERSON GETS PAID A SALARY OR ANY OTHER PAYMENT FOR THEIR SERVICES FOR HMM. Also the Diocese of Mississippi or Honduras does not give us any money. All money for the mission is raised by either donations or grants and the grant money is about $3,000 yearly.
Just an idea what it takes to run a “Successful” mission.
It costs approximately $75,000 to $85,000 each year. This amount does not include team fees. Each team member is required to pay a team fee that covers their airfare ,meals for 6 1/2 days of 3 hot meals on the mountain, other items like toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, Betadine that we use to clean our hands before each meal, 2 nights for hotel costs (these nights are the night they arrive in Honduras and the night before we come back to the US) 4 meals while at the hotel and “Team member” fees that Honduras charges us to come down for our mission. The scrub shirts, crosses and caps that the team members get are DONATIONS from someone.
We have already spent over $30,000 on medications for the pharmacy that are given out to over 2500 people. Last year we gave out 28,000 prescriptions. There are a lot of administrative costs like postage, printing at both a printing company and printing at home between the team leader and pharmacist. We have to rent three trucks for 10 days and the bus rental from the Episcopal school in San Pedro Sula for 8 days. We also have to purchase the gas for the four means of transportation.
I can go on and on about things we pay for like repairs on the building we use and use for storage when we aren’t there but the list does go on and on and on. There are things we still have to purchase for the trip.
These things we will purchase in Honduras because we can’t ship them from the US due to the expensive shipping costs
- Veterinarian supplies : deworming, flea and tick preventative, and medications to help animals with medical problems.
- Medical supplies – Children’s liquid Tylenols, Children’s medications, Adult medicated eye drops, antibiotics, diabetes medications, prenatal meds.
- Supplies for our clinics and living areas for plumbing problems, electrical problems, living condition problems as well as repairs on storage areas.
- Major money needs is to help the school in San Joaquin, Kender of Mississippi. Miriam, the lady who runs Kender, relies on donations from us to purchase school supplies and to cook one if not two hot meals for the children who attend Kender. She writes us a request each February of her needs for the school and we always find a way to fulfill here request.
- Second major need is we try to sponsor children from San Joaquin who want to continue their education after completing 6th grade. These children have to go down the mountain to another village that has more grades for their education. These children, we sponsor, have to pay for tuition, uniforms and transportation to and from school. This past year we had a request to sent 12 children to this school for continuing education. With these two requests we donate approximately $5,000 US money.
We also have a water well that we had dug for the village of San Joaquin so the villagers and we may have water. We pay for the upkeep of this well. The costs very from year to year and we feel that this year it is going to cost about $1500 due to needing a better pump for the well. We have people who donate just for the well project. We cannot function without this well.
Again, THANK YOU for for your donations. No amount is overlooked and every penny is greatly appreciated.
