A blessing to others

When Norm Beetler was a youngster, his father would convert old school buses into motor homes, providing the family a nice way to camp during the summer months. So when he had a vision to build a "shower bus," he knew it was possible. "I was on a mission trip in Mexico City and had an incredible vision at 3 a.m. one night while I was praying," he said. "I saw a bus and knew exactly what God wanted me to do. It was 1988 and we've been going full blast ever since."

Beetler, president of BUSES International, an interdenominational and interdependent organization, and his assistant Tom Szychowicz were in Dyersburg in April picking up a bus and supplies donated by members of Tucker Street Church to take to Honduras, the second poorest nation in this hemisphere behind Haiti. That bus, now a mobile medical and dental clinic, is in service in San Pedro Sulla, a Honduran town of a million people. In five weeks, Howard Fike will be there to see the clinic in action.

The connection between BUSES International and Tucker Street Church actually began in Honduras. Dr. Edwin Leon, a Honduran native who is in charge of the medical work of the Church of God in Honduras, had been to Tucker Street and saw a bus the church was preparing for a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. He mentioned it to Beetler who immediately called Fike, a member of Tucker Street who lives in Caruthersville.

While the bus was taken, Fike knew where he could get another. He contacted Henry Butler, a Tucker Street member who had purchased four buses during a Dyer County Schools auction. Butler had planned to resell or convert and use the buses on his farm, but someone had bigger plans. He sold two of the buses, one to a Boy Scout troop and another to Hughlett First United Methodist Church; the third was donated and loaded with used computers, bought during a Dyersburg State Community College auction and donated by Dyer Countians, for New Mexico. When Butler learned about BUSES, it didn't take long to decide what to do with the fourth. He donated it. Fike drove it to Ohio for Beetler to convert into a medical/dental clinic.

"Beetler said these were the best buses he ever saw; they were well cared for," Fike said. In six weeks the bus was filled with equipment donated by doctors and dentists; it is the first with a dental x-ray machine. When the conversion was completed, Fike and his wife drove back to Ohio to bring it back to Dyersburg so Tucker Street and Dyersburg Church of God members could see the conversion.

"It blew my mind that something like that could go into a country and serve so many and make their lives better," Butler said. "I never dreamed buses could be equipped to do that." Beetler and Szychowicz came in April to pick up the clinic bus and donations -- tables, chairs, lights, doors, carpet and toys donated by the churches and more than 1,200 pounds of seed donated Tennessee Farmers Co-op in Halls -- were packed into a bus that is now being used by Tree of Life Ministries, a Christian school with 200 students in Honduras, to transport children. "For the last eight years we'd been sending retired paper pack seeds to Mongolia," said Jerry Broglin, an employee at the co-op who attends Tucker Street. "When they said they had enough, we decided to send them to Honduras where they'll use them to plant around seven acres." Beetler and Szychowicz drove the buses to Gulfport, Miss., where they were taken by cargo ship to Port of Cortez, Honduras.

"It'll be used in the city and surrounding area. The people don't have any way to get anywhere," Beetler said. "Many in third world countries have never seen a doctor or a dentist, that's the beauty of the bus, which can be converted into many things." "Buses keep the ministry alive and well," Fike said. "They take this clinic with everything to a third world country that has nothing. I'm looking forward to see it in San Pedro. "This was all made possible because Henry Butler bought the buses and donated them," Fike said. "God moved in a lot of people."

Butler sees it as being at "the right place, right time and hold on to the reins and hold on," he said. "You see God's hand in it. It took a lot of Christian people in different parts of the country to make it come together."

Along with providing mobile clinics, BUSES (Bringing Unto the Saints Encouragement to Serve) International, has also converted school buses to be used for optometry, feeding in inner-city areas and street ministries. Those early buses are still functioning. "When the idea was first developed, people thought it was a tremendous thing," Beetler said. "It was God's idea. I can't take credit."

Through donations from individuals and churches, Beetler has seen BUSES International grow. Churches and individuals from states surrounding Ohio to as far south as Monroe, La., have provided buses and supplies. "We go where the people are interested and want to help," he said.

After having his vision in mid-December 1988, Beetler delivered his first bus in June 1989. "We started with nothing," he said. "When we first started, I did it all myself. About three years later, Tom came along and became the full-time help. We built 17 buses outside before building a garage to do the work in."

The dental/medical clinic bus donated by Butler is the 47th to be converted by BUSES. Clinics are now in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti. Beetler hopes that by the end of the year, they can make a shipment to Kenya. He noted shipping the $15,000 bus will cost an estimated $10,000 that "is worth it because it does so much," he said.

After this first time of helping BUSES International, Butler is looking for another opportunity. He now has his eyes and ears open for a bus with a shorter wheelbase that can be converted into a medical clinic for use in the Honduran mountains.

"When you think about how much we have and take for granted and how blessed we are -- there are thousands of children who don't' have access to basic medical and dental needs," Butler said. "God blesses us and we need to reach out and bless others. It blesses me to see others who are willing to bless others other than themselves."