Taking Ruleville to Honduras
We love it when people say, “Take me to Ruleville.” Well, this Spring, Angela Lang of North Sunflower Pharmacy decided to bring Ruleville to people in need.
Angela has been volunteering with Baptist Medical Dental Missions Inc. for the past five years, helping bring medical care to people in Honduras. BMDMI has been conducting missions to Guatemala and Honduras for decades. Angela works with a team led by Dr. Walter Rose and Rev. Jim Woods, who have been leading the same team to Honduras for 38 years.
Mike Gilbow got Angela involved. “He went the year before I did. We go to a different village every year. Some years we both go and set up a pharmacy for people coming in for care. Sometimes I go by myself,” Angela told us. “Every year, when I feel like I’m too busy to go, something tells me I need to go. I don’t know who gets a bigger blessing — me or the people we treat.”
Angela told us the team sets up camp usually in a school where she sleeps on a floor with 10 other women. “If you get a quick shower from a garden hose, you’re lucky to have it.” Angela said the rough and tumble conditions don’t put a damper on things. “Everybody is happy. No matter the conditions, no one complains or argues. This is one week out of the year, you are there for one common purpose.”
The mission is part-aid and part-spiritual. They bring with them doctors, nurses, dentists, cooks, and construction workers. “As a Christian organization, the mission is to bring people together. Many of the people we see have never seen a doctor before. They need clothes, food, and treatment for all sorts of things. And we share with them that we are there as part of our faith.”
This year, Angela brought along a new recruit, Emory Davis, an employee at NSMC and the daughter of North Sunflower Foundation’s Stacy Davis. The thought of international travel to a developing part of the world almost scared Emory away before she left. “I nearly missed it, due to some anxiety hearing stories from others who have traveled to that part of the world. I’m so happy I didn’t.”
“The appreciation on the faces of people I distributed food to … many who looked as if they hadn’t eaten in days, touched my heart,” Emory told us. Seeing and assisting children who received medical, dental and optometry care for the first time made me realize how blessed we are to have it so readily available here at home.”
Angela agreed, “I think it’s wonderful for teenagers to go and experience. And Emory did a fabulous job. It was a blessing for her.” Angela told us her own daughter, Peyton Scott, has been part of mission trips in the past and loves it. “She went when she was in high school. Now she’s in nursing school and she wants to go as soon as she gets out. People are so appreciative for what you give to them.”
Angela said she will continue to go on mission trips “as long as they continue to let me.” Glad to know, if you can’t make it to Ruleville, there are people like Angela and Emory in the North Sunflower Medical Center Family who are willing to bring Ruleville to you.