A team of 22 people, most from Panola County, left Saturday for a mission trip to Honduras. I’ve written for 29 years about the work that local folks do in that poor country where shoes, food, and medical and dental care are scarce.

Every year a group, led by Batesville dentist Andy Garrott, makes the trip to visit the same mountain village, Yamaranguila. The people in the surrounding area know they’re coming and walk for miles for the dental and medical clinic the team will operate this week.

The team will also distribute two tons of rice and beans (purchased in Honduras), and 5,000 copies of the Gospel of John in Spanish.

They’ll give away t-shirts, jackets and jerseys donated by Phil Moore, and flip-flops left over from another mission trip.

The Panola Countians will assist Dr. Garrott and a Honduran doctor as they see patients, and pharmacist Erik Broome as he fills prescriptions. The team will conduct Bible School for the hundreds of children who will come.

There will be a soccer clinic with a spiritual emphasis, and the team will show the film, “Jesus.”

They will visit schools and take lunch to inmates at a nearby prison.

The headquarters for the team’s work is a complex built by New Vision Ministries, founded by Dr. Garrott. The facility houses an orphanage, clinics, a soccer field, and a Christian radio station.

Spending this week in Honduras are: Malcolm Morehead, Angela Summers, the Rev. Barry Warren, Bradie McMillan, Erik Broome, Randy Willis, Robbie Willis, Cindy McCurdy, James McCurdy, Ryan McCurdy, Walt Karr, Lonnie Moore, Andy Garrott, Joshua Garrott, Barbara Tapp Peterson, Kara Tapp, all of Panola County, and the Rev. Ricardo Greene, Ashley Greene, Richard Green, the Rev. John Owens, all of Memphis, and the Rev. Scott Sealy of Tennessee.

Though they are the ones giving up their vacations (and paying their own way), the mission team members expressed their appreciation to local churches and individuals who made donations to support the trip. It’s Panola dollars, for the most part, that bought the rice and beans, and paid for the copies of John.

Watch the pages of The Panolian in coming days for photos by Malcolm Morehead that speak of the poverty and the beauty of that country and her people who have stolen the hearts of so many Panola Countians.

Donations to New Vision Ministries may be sent to P.O. Box 350, Batesville, MS 38606