By Cindy Gladden,
Record Staff Writer
An unexpected trip to poverty-stricken Honduras gave Marthasville artist Lisa Frick a new perspective on life.One trip she never thought to make has turned into seven. A place of desperation, hunger and poverty became a place for her own healing as she was helping to heal others.“I was in a tough spot in life,” she said. “I was just stuck.”A family member who was planning to make the trip to Honduras with the Washington Overseas Mission was unable to go and suggested Frick take her place as a translator.Frick, who loves to explore the caves of Mexico and has even rappelled 1,150 feet into one, considered herself to be “50 percent fluent” in Spanish and took up the challenge.“I came home with a whole new outlook on life,” she said. “There is extreme poverty there. You give them a bar of Dial soap and it’s the world to them. There is no clean water, they don’t bathe, everyone has parasites, and all they eat is tortillas and beans. The dirt is poor, so there are no gardens there.”Frick honed up on her Spanish and teamed up with the late Dr. Frank Miller on her first trip. She said all the doctors and dentists work differently as they interact with the patients.Some like the translators to give them a summary of the patients’ complaints; some want to hear everything the patients say.The feeling of desperation she felt as she battled through a tough time began to fade away as she experienced the people of Honduras and the trials they face each day.“There was a woman who had several children and was pregnant with another. She had never been to the doctor, never heard a baby’s heartbeat,” said Frick. “The woman was concerned because she had felt little movement. She heard the heartbeat at our clinic and cried from joy. It was priceless.”Frick quotes other members of the teams when she says: “We may not change the world, but we can change one person’s life.”She talks about a girl of 20 whose symptoms were extreme swelling in the face. Doctors referred her to a cardiologist, who was able to fix a simple heart valve problem.She says many lives have been saved due to the hard work of volunteers with the Washington Overseas Mission, founded in 1992. More than 100,000 Hondurans have received care from the organization.Frick said the mission selects a couple of villages to visit each year. Volunteers pay their own expenses and include many high school students, local medical professionals and other volunteers with a variety of skills.For 30 years, Frick spent her time as an artist, operating galleries and an airbrush store. In 2014, she pulled away from the retail atmosphere and decided to go in a new direction. A painter all her life, Frick has now carved out a niche she calls “crazy painted furniture.”Vibrant colors now adorn a variety of furniture pieces. Her inspiration comes from a quiet little homestead high atop a Marthasville ridge where she can look out on a lake, enjoy her gardens and her chickens.Her designs resemble the bright colors of Mexico, even though she didn’t realize the influence at first. Frick highlights her products on Etsy and has just about the right amount of sales to keep her happy and busy.Her bright dots and swirls adorn rocking chairs, yard totems, lamps, switch plates, decorative tins, lazy Susans or whatever her customer requests. Her designs are meticulous and exacting, a departure from the landscape paintings she has done over the years. They are fun and happy, a reflection of life that is good.Frick is happy to use her artistic talents to augment the overseas mission in addition to her skill as a translator. She always donates a painting or piece of furniture to the Beans and Rice Ball, which supports the mission’s expenses. Her sketches have also been used on T-shirts for the group.Her accidental plunge into mission work in Honduras has caused Frick to gain a better appreciation for what is important.“If you can’t be happy with what you have now, you’ll never be happy,” she said. “This is something everybody should do at least once. You’ll understand what compassion really is.”Lisa Frick works on a Lazy Susan from her studio in rural Marthasville. A landscape and airbrush artist by trade, Frick now covers furniture with her whimsical designs. Below, Frick poses with a Honduran child. Cindy Gladden Photo.
