by Dr. Tom Sullivan ’78

When the idea was raised to send undergraduates from Gamma Zeta to Honduras to participate in the medical mission, I was confident that the brothers would find this a worthy effort and provide financial assistance… and I was not disappointed. Having been part of this trip for three years now, I knew it would be awesome for these guys to experience something of this magnitude. Although I did not get the chance to meet or work with Paul and Joe, Dr. Berl has expressed how great the guys were as part of the team in week #2.

I’d like to thank all the brothers who provided financial assistance to give Paul and Joe the opportunity to be part of something special. Your generosity exhibits one of the reasons we are all bound together in the pledge we took years before. The communication system that Dane has set up is a great way for all of us to stay in touch. I’m proud of all of Gamma Zeta nation and proud to call you brothers.

Providing the dental care to this impoverished people is a privilege and an honor. Working with Seth and Linda and the others I’ve met has enhanced my life; it can’t help but change you.

We are countlessly blessed as a people and a nation to be living in America. We truly take many things for granted. I’m confident that Paul and Joe will “pay it forward” and pass on the experience to others to continue in their footsteps.

If any of you have ever thought of participating in a mission such as this, I’d be happy to give you the necessary insight to help answer any questions or concerns. Thanks again for all your help.

VTL… Sully

by Dr. Seth Berl ’78

day #13 honduras….. i know heritage church is readying itself for mega-impact week but here in honduras we are in relax mode. bob wright, oral surgeon from sarasota, David adcock, OB-GYN from moultrie as well as my wife linda and myself have been here in honduras working for 2 weeks. the mission field is so much harder than you can imagine and i have nothing but respect and praise for those who serve in another country. our host missionaries are rhonda and TR sweeney from augusta, ga. they have lived the last 15 years in honduras. Just think about that!
team 2 had a great week. by the numbers we saw about 1080 patients with 2 doctors. our 2 dentists, bob and michael dent from sylvester saw about 160 patients. our team only had 12 members so we were very worried about how we could run all our areas and still get home by dark. you do not want to be driving on a mountain in honduras after dark. you have a very good chance to run into a car with no lights as well as a cow, horse with or without a rider, a 5 year old child walking alone on the side of the road, a bicycle going faster than you or a motorcycle passing you on a mountain curve with a double yellow and a truck coming the other way. i have never had a team so willing to pitch in anywhere they are needed. it actually felt like we had too many team members and many got to play with the honduran children. how many american kids would be happy just to blow or chase bubbles for hours? in the 2 weeks, we had a total of 6 college student who elected to spend their spring break in honduras rather than the beach or elsewhere. that is remarkable. i imagine most of us were not thinking of serving others in a third world foreign country during college spring break but just having a good time. maybe there is hope for this younger generation. 3 of our students are from university of florida, 2 are from university of illinois where linda and i went to college and 1 is from emmanuel college in boston, mass. i wish we could get some UGA students to join in.
saturday is our travel day. up early and home late.
for those of you who have read my posts in previous years where i wrote about exciting or scary adventures, everything just went too smooth this year. i never let the facts get in the way of a good story but this year i just did not have the material to work with. I mentioned this lack of life threatening adventure to Linda and she just said to thank God for good weather, a good bus driver, great team members, a supportive church, excellent missionaries to work with and a God that had prepared everything in advance. amen i knew there was a reason i married her!!!

by Linda (Jones) Berl (Dr. Seth Berl’s ’78 wife, Larry Jones ’75 sister, Gamma Zeta Little Sister)

Honduras team 2 update: I tried to post last night, but the Internet was down as it was most of today.
Tuesday the team drove to one of the smallest villages we go to called Buenas Aires. It is down a dirt road from Yamaringuila for those who have been here. As was the case on Monday, we weren’t greeted with a long line when we got there for clinic, but they just kept coming little by little all day until about 1:30. The dentists were actually finished before the doctors. Ithink this only happened because they didn’t have any “problem cases.”
We were almost through with people around 2 pm to see the 2 doctors so we began to pack the medicines in the pharmacy. A few minutes later here comes a small group of people walking up to the school where we had clinic.. “What to do?” Say we are closed now or reopen which means we have to unpack the meds again. To tell you the truth, we initially told them we were closed, but after they turned and walked away, we changed our mind and called them back. One of them told me they had walked from “muy lejos” or very far. so we started the check in procedure again. Then we looked up the road and some more were heading our way including an obviously crippled lady with severe arthritis. I don’t know how far she had walked but I was so glad she didn’t walk it in vain to find us closed. We probably only were able to provide short term anti-inflammatory medicine for her arthritis but these people will walk miles just to get short term relief.
The highlight of my day was to give my 2 books of Spanish children’s bible stories to their pastor, Rubenia for her to read to the children as they waited. She & one of translators, Gabby, read to separate groups of “ninos” for over an hour. The amazing thing was that Rubenia had the older group standing the entire time as she read while showing them the colorful pictures. Not one of them left or sat down. Not sure that would have happened in the states.
After we packed up around 3:00 we drove a short way to walk out onto the Yasi valley overlook. This was on the other side of this beautiful canyon-like valley than we’ve gone before. So beautiful! I will try to post some pics from my iPhone in another post.