About Us

The Cornerstone Foundation was founded in 1992 by Jefferson C. McKenney, MD, with Rosanne Lillard McKenney as co-founder. Since that time the Lord has brought together a Board of Directors (both in the US and in Honduras), committed career missionaries, part-time volunteers, and supporting churches and individuals. God has also granted cooperation from the Honduran authorities for the perfect location and full title to the property. Extensive electrical and water supply project have been accomplished as well as that of roads and bridges. The hospital itself and accompanying support structures--such as Dormitory / Staff Housing, Kitchen and Laundry Facility, Warehouse, Equipment Repair Building, and the Power Plant Building--have been constructed. Continuing construction goals include Sanctuary Housing, additional missionary housing & warehouse space, an airstrip, and on-going outfitting, equipping & maintenance of the various buildings in the hospital complex.

In January 2003 the hospital, Hospital Loma de Luz, saw its Grand Inauguration. Loma de Luz is a 30,000 square foot, 50 bed, modern, full-service medical care facility. Working through its Honduran board of directors ( APAH), Hospital Loma de Luz is a rarity in the small world of Christian mission hospitals. It was built and is administered without the backing of a denominational system. An average of 900 patients are seen through clinic and outpatient surgery monthly, and many more with minor problems are seen and treated in triage. Hundreds of these patients are ministered to through the on-going Chaplaincy program at the hospital, with new believers and recommitments being made almost daily.

You don’t have to look very far in this world to find need. It is true in each of our communities. It is particularly true for those who live in developing nations such as Honduras where the people in the countryside have suffered without hope. There, the need is overwhelming. It walks with you along the road. It clamors at your heels. It tugs on your sleeve and waits at your gate.

Through God’s clear and present hand, on a hill on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, a “city” whose builder and maker is the Lord is growing as a place of hope. Hospital Loma de Luz is the center of this “city.” Where there was no accessible medical care within a day’s travel, the least of these are now receiving care.

In order to explain why we are there, it helps to show you individuals for whom we are there, individuals in whose face we see His face. There is Sylvia, a girl whose deformity-causing cyst was removed from her neck, ushering her into a world where she was “normal” and teaching her that she could smile…there is Luis who found help after waiting at dusk by the roadside below the hospital with his face covered because it had been lost to untreated cancer--his eyes spoke of hunger and loneliness and despair …there is the young widow with 8 children, who was fitted with a life-saving pace-maker…there is the premature baby who was given critical, manually-provided ventilation for 18 hours…other babies whose lives were saved by a VP shunt or by a blood transfusion…and at times it is someone like two year old Nilson whose parents, after carrying him for hours down a mountain path, simply arrived too late. All we could do was share a burden of grief that was too heavy to bear alone…. On any given day the need is greater than our ability to meet that need; but each missionary at Hospital Loma de Luz has stepped out against the odds, and He has used each. For this is the Lord’s work, and it is marvelous in our eyes (Psalm 118:23).

Beyond that, the reason we are there is simply to serve our Lord in the areas where He has called us—Service (Mt. 25:4), Faith (Heb. 11:6) and Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20). We see His face in each encounter with a hurting patient or a weary grandmother or a hopeful child. And it is He who enables us to do this most improbable work.

In addition to the work at the hospital, there are many parallel ministries which the missionaries have undertaken as they see the need. Local pastors, for example, are meeting regularly for Biblical studies and training with some of our missionaries. Similarly, over 70 local youth meet weekly, alongside MKs (Missionary Kids) for fellowship and teaching. Ministry also takes place in the village schools. This outreach started a couple of years ago with reading to the students (most children had never seen a storybook before) and art lessons; it has developed into many ministries, including a school milk program, a literacy program, a library, introductory English, music, and more. Home health care ministry, started by one of our nurses, meets medical needs and extends comfort, while also ushering new believers into the Kingdom and opening the door to spiritual renewal in a remote community.