Mending Bodies and Healing Hearts

Cows walking down the hospital dirt road No, that wasn't a typo. I didn't mean to write "pigs". I really am going to talk about poop because in Honduras, poop flies! But bear with me as a I give you a little background to this story.  The Cornerstone Foundation was formed by Dr Jeff and Rosanne McKenney in 1992 when they felt God calling them to start a mission hospital in Honduras to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people. The building of the hospital brought roads, water supply, electricity, and the Gospel to a very poor, forgotten people group on the northern coast of Honduras.  Hospital Loma de Luz is located about 2 hours down a bumpy dirt road by public bus from the nearest grocery store.  The public bus and motorcycles are the most common forms of transportation around here because most Hondurans cannot afford a car. Hondurans can fit their entire family of 4 or 5 people on a motorcycle (How many can you fit on yours?) Even we missionaries mo

  "CQ Balfate! We need help in the labor room NOW!" Visiting midwife Abigail's normally calm, nothing-phases-me voice came calling on the radio in complete panic one evening in June.  I jumped over the mattress that a friend and I were trying to pull up my apartment stairs tripping the rest of the way down and ran out the door. "I'm not wearing shoes! Where are my shoes?" I run back inside, grab the nearest pair of flip flops I could find, run back out the door and across the two suspension bridges to the hospital. If Abigail was panicking, then something had to be really wrong.  The baby was being resuscitated by Dr Isaac on the baby warmer when several other of the doctors and I entered the room. He was massive. This was no baby. He was a full grown todddler! "Brutus" (affectionately nicknamed by Dr Ryan) weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 1oz. He was so big, compared to the average 6lb Honduran baby, that his shoulder was stuck behind his littl