The Heart of the Matter

University of Missouri Medical Team

2009-03-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

A group of medical students from UMC along with a doctor, 3 nurse practicioners and a big group of other helpers from the US and Guatemala are working with us this week giving medical care, holding a health fair for a large rural school and working alongside the National Health system out of Chichi in a rural clinic. The group is in the village of Pocohil 2 at a church where we hold discipleship classes. This is the first day of clinic for the group. They are ministering to the local children and building new benches for the church as well. Check out our photos!

Block and Beds

2009-02-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday: Five guys from Greentree in NJ started laying block today. They came to work! Heard we are opening three more Churches in the Rain Forest. The Hospitality Floor is almost done. I told two of our students from Xajul that they could come Friday night and sleep there so the could study all day Saturday. They were excited!

Carman; break a leg

2009-02-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

We finally coordinated a helicopter to pick up Carmen Tuesday morning. She made it in twenty minutes. They could not do surgery because of some instability. After stabilizing her, Carmen went into a three hour surgery. They finally found a way to fix the break. Carmen is resting in intensive care.

Team emergency

2009-02-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

The day started out with blue skies and warming temperatures. Our team from Old Town Christian Outreach Center just finished their orientation with Sharon and Pastor Don was just getting started with his seminar on the "Last Days". I had just taken several people to the hotel to pick up some things when I got the dreaded call - one of the team members had fallen into a foundation hole in the new clinic and seemed to have a broken leg. By the time I got back to the clinic, our fire chief was also pulling up in the local ambulance. We took our patient to the local hospital for xrays and, sure enough, she had a very bad spiral fracture of her femur. Praying for wisdom, we started the process of trying to get approval from her travel insurance to helicopter her out to the capital to have urgent surgery. About 5 hours later and being on the phone most of that time, we had permission but were unable to get anyone to come that late to our area. Our dear patient has been a trooper all day. We had no heavy duty pain meds at the hospital so she was given what was available and has been able to tolerate the pain. The local missionary doctor at the hospital "just happened" to be returning today to Chichicastenango after living in the capital area for a year! God is always coming through for us!! He helped to stabilize her and we will fly her out with one of our nurses from ASELSI early in the morning and she will hopefully have surgery tomorrow morning.

A Blast

2009-02-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

Don Dinnerger, Pastor from the center of the universe, Saganaw, MI, and I had a blast with him preaching and I interpreting at a Church in El Quiche. Don shared on ASA, the kning who started out honoring God and ended us 25 years later dishonoring Him. Tomarrow we lay the first block on our new 6,000 sq. foot Clinic.

2009-01-27T19:47:00.001-08:00

We went to the police department to invite the new chief to our Bible Institute for a brief tour and a chance to pray for him. We try and connect with the community and have them connect with us.
Worked on salaries, study the new employment laws and changed some office hours.
John

A trip to the capital 1/26

2009-01-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

I left early this morning for the Capital. I wish I had a camara! Although I have seen these sites before, they are still incredible. The sun rising over the mountains, the fog filling valleys and covering some of the volcanoes, a clear view of other volcanoes, Indian women walking in the cold morning with their black hair swaying in harmony; The on going construction and the pot holes that could swallow a car.
Bob and Shawn got their official birth certificate today! After waiting about a year, it has finally been put in their hands!

Sunday walk

2009-01-25T15:59:00.000-08:00

I was enjoying the surrounding mountains on a little walk when I started straight up a trail. About halfway I was thinking how strong I ws for an old man, climbing this trial, when a little lady with a huge load on her head passed me by. I love living here.

We're Back!

2007-05-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

We have returned from our 3 months in the US and will hopefully be able to blog more consistently. While in the states I had forgotten to bring my password, etc. for the blog so was unable to do anything with it since January. So much has happened that is now too late and too much to share but we look forward to starting anew again! Please check the blog site frequently!

Post-op photos!

2007-01-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week! Lots of "beginning of the year" preparations, orientation for our new missionaries, working on 2006 financial reports and tax report, strategy meetings, etc. All great stuff but time consuming! John heads to El Salvador on Saturday after he opens our new school year at ILIO. He will go with Dr. Jaime Garcia from Antigua and they will be visiting a mega-church of over 100,000 members, all built around cell groups! He returns on Monday evening or early Tuesday and then takes off for a trip to Mexico on Tuesday at noon. Several will be going with him to keep working on the formation of a good foundation there in Chiapis with Pastor Daniel.

In the therapy department, we had the pleasure of celebrating Sonia's 15th birthday. She is the young teen that we mentioned in an earlier blog who had been suffering with kidney problems and was recommended here for therapy. She appears to have had polio when she was about 3. She is doing very well, working hard at her exercises and building up her upper body strength. She will soon be fitted for braces and then we will see how mobile she can become. She is a precious young woman. In the Latin culture, a girl's 15th birthday is as important as her wedding day! Parties and cakes, pretty dresses, dances, all go into the celebration. Virginia, who was instrumental in getting her into our therapy program, planned a special party at ASELSI, complete with decorations, cake, and gifts. I've included a photo of the party. Please pray for Sonia that her kidneys will continue to function and that we will be able to help her be more mobile and independent.

Dr. Heidi and Matt returned from their Christmas holiday trip and we were sure glad to have them back in the clinic. They have been such a blessing! The great news is that they are expecting a baby in July!! More and more women are coming in for prenatal care because they are here 3 Thursdays each month.

They stayed with the cleft lip and palate babies in Antigua for the surgeries and then had them come in today to clinic for their postop visit. Matt took some photos for us of the wonderful results. Now remember these babies are only 7 - 9 days postop. They are completely transformed by these surgeries. I am including photos of some of the younger ones.
Thanks for your prayers on their behalf!

2007 updates

2007-01-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

No, we haven't fallen off the edge of the nearest volcanoe! We have been traveling, working and rearranging everything in sight! We've tried to post a few blogs and somehow they got lost in cyberspace so we will try again. John wrote a great one about his recent trip to Senahu, 24 hours of driving through mountains and jungle areas but who knows where that blog went?? I did add some photos of the trip to teach a small group of IBEX students in this remote area.

The office opened on Tuesday, the 2nd and we have been in high gear! We are switching some offices, rearranging the storage areas, sorting and discarding lots of stuff, including in the pharmacy. All new metal shelving and plastic bins have been provided by 2 of our friends who are doctors' wives and so our pharmacy is taking on a new look. Our photocopier died but has been resurrected for the time being. Our wonderful Toyota 15-passenger van that we take everywhere with our visiting teams cost us a mere $3000 in repairs, mostly for damage underneath. Can't imagine why when we only take it on superhighways!! It's running like a new van now, at least until our big trips start up again. Our 2002 Terracan is being sold this week at a loss but we found out that it had been wrecked before and that is why we have had so many problems. Our male pup, Duke, is almost as big as his Dad, Kaiser, but ended up needing major work due to an abcess on his neck. So you can see things have been hopping!

On Saturday, Virginia and I took a group of 9 children with parents and some siblings into Antigua to see the surgeons who are operating on cleft lips and palates this week. Sebastian, who has had both repairs done before, was checked for a small opening in the palate. The surgeons decided not to do anything more for him at this time as the hole is not causing any problems. Little Fredy, 13 months old and only about 12 - 13 pounds needs to gain 3 pounds by May and then can get his operation. His family is extremely poor. They have, I believe, 13 children with Fredy being the youngest! When I first met them, the father was showing me a container of "milk" that a neighbor had given to him for Fredy. Turns out is was powdered coffee creamer! He had 3 containers and they were using it for little Fredy! Fredy is now getting the right milk!
The photos are of Carolina and mother Regina and Juan getting his palate checked by the surgeon.

The rest of the children were okayed for surgery. Dr. Heidi Bell and husband Matt returned from the US on Saturday and joined us at the hospital with the families. Virginia and I returned to Chichi on Sunday afternoon and the Bell's have overseen the surgeries and the families. I talked with Heidi today and the last little girl was operated on today. They have all done well and the parents are thrilled with the results. They will come to clinic next Thursday for a check up. I will try to get some photos to show the results! Can you imagine the sadness they felt (and fear) when their newborn had a gaping hole in their face? Just imagine the joy they feel to see that little face repaired!! It is an unbelieveable blessing to be a part of this miracle. The team of surgeons is from Boston and apparently they donate a week of time every month to travel around the world doing repair surgery. We are so blessed!

Today was our big clinic day with 3 doctors scheduled. The couple from Spain, Luis and Mercedes Velilla, called and said that their car was not working and they could not make it! Panic sets in as the people look forward to coming to get help on this day. They began to arrive at 2:30 am and Richard, who is the night guard as well as his other duties at ASELSI, dutifully got up throughout the night to tell the arrivals that the doctors would not be there. Dr. Edgar who is the orthopedic doctor who volunteers once a month did make it! I saw the prenatal care patients that had appointments with Luis, Virginia saw the sick children from the milk program and Edgar saw his patients so we had a busy day. We recently had 2 centrifuges donated and Letty was able to put the urine specimens in the centrifuge and do the analysis. She was pretty pleased as she has been asking for one for quite awhile! Well I tried to do spell-check and somehow the next 4 paragraphs got moved from their original spot at the top. I can't seem to put them back so keep on reading!

We have welcomed a full-time Canadian registered nurse to our staff as well as a young family from Dallas, Texas. Virginia Birss has been working on Thursdays with us for the last 11 months and has now come on board as full-time staff. How odd is it to have two 50++, pleasantly plump, white-haired nurses working together here in the mountains of Guatemala!!

Emily and Carlos Romero arrived here on Tuesday PM after driving through Mexico. They and their 3 children are joining us as full-time staff as well. Carlos is a pastor/teacher who will work with ILIO and Emily will be a full-time mom and homeschool David, their 6 year old as well as keeping up with Jonathan (21/2) and AnnaLyne who is a precious 9 month old who knows no strangers. Made us remember our early days in missions when we went to Mexico City to study Spanish with our 5 year old and 21/2 year old boys. It's amazing how resilient children are and how they can adapt so quickly to a new culture!

Tony and Carrie Taylor are back in the country but still in the capital. They spent part of November, December and early January in the States. Carrie will be have a C-section in February. Braegan is now 2 years old. Tony will continue to work with IBEX.

Bob and his family are still in the States and will return on January 23rd. They will come back, prayerfully, to a new daughter (little Miriam who will soon be adopted) and a new piece of land. Bob will continue to be the coordinator of teams.

John has made at least 6 trips to the capital in the last 2 weeks, as well as a trip to Senahu, spoken at a church where the mudslide took the original church down the mountainside, and heads to the capital tomorrow and back on Saturday early AM. On Saturday at 10 AM we welcome our new ILIO students and he will give the devotion. More trips are planned for him in the next few weeks as the extension centers are beginning to open. We are also getting ready to leave on February 5th for a 3 month trip to the States. We will be visiting our supporters and introducing our ministry to new people starting in Michigan, then on to NJ, DE, VA, TN, MO and AK. If you would like us to stop in during our travels, please contact us by email. Our Sundays are pretty much taken but we could meet with anyone during the days or evenings during the week.

We really need your prayer support and encouragement! We believe that God has strategically placed us here for this time and for His purpose. We know He is our provision and that He will give us the strength we need to finish the race. When we hear the stories of pastors who have prayed for years for someone to come and teach them about the Word of God or see the little children who need someone to be an advocate for them, our hearts break and we continue on. I know that may sound melodramatic but we do get exhausted, discouraged, worried, sad, and the enemy attacks from within and without! So please keep praying for us and for our team of wonderful Kingdom workers. Please drop us a line and let us know that you are standing with us. God has promised us an ARMY of faithful people to fight the good fight with us!! We love you and appreciate you.

Celebrating

2006-12-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Christmas always feels different in the Highlands, even after 14 years living in Guatemala. It's the time of the year when the patron saint of Chichicastenango is honored with a 10 day fiesta. Streets are blocked with vendors selling all kinds of goods. The air reverberates (even on our property outside of town!) with loud firecrackers and heavy duty "bombas" going off all day and night long. It's the time of many dances where streets are closed and the locals dance in rented costumes of the Spanish conquerers and cartoon characters. Drunkeness is the order of the day. Good church members are warned by their pastors not to be seen at the fair or they will lose their "privileges" to serve in the church. It takes an hour to get across our little town because all the main streets are blocked for the parades and dances. In the midst of this, Christ's birth is forgotten. Actually, that sort of sounds like what's happening in America!

We are working to lift up the name of Jesus in the midst of the revelry and idolatry! I am still amazed at the wonderful Children's Christmas party we had on December 7th! The people were genuinely touched by the love that was poured out on them in Jesus' name. We are so grateful for all the many, many people who put together gift bags in various parts of the country. The Gateway team that brought the Christmas program really lifted up the name of Jesus as well. For me, this is really what Christmas is all about - putting Christ in Christmas.

Yesterday we had another opportunity to celebrate! We had our annual staff Christmas party with over 60 guests. Each of our staff attended along with their families. It was so fun! We started with a powerpoint of the recent Christmas party on the 7th, followed by worship and a devotion. Then John put on his yearly "silly games competition" which everyone looks forward to. From the youngest to the oldest everyone got into the action. We topped it off with lots of goodies and gifts for all. We are so blessed with our wonderful staff and got lots of hugs and kisses from all the children. Now that felt like Christmas!

People keep asking if we will be going away for Christmas but no, we will stay here in Chichi. Our children and grandchildren will be celebrating in Portland and in Brazil this year. Jeff,Luiza and boys are with Luiza's family in Brazil. What a blessing that they were able to travel and visit her family, especially her father who is elderly and in bad health. Joy and John will celebrate together with their families. Thank goodness for cell phones and the inexpensive cost so that we can be in touch with them by phone.

As we close out this year and celebrate another Christmas together (it's our 39th!!) John and I are so grateful for the Lord's faithfulness. We are doing exactly what we feel called to do, and get to minister in a beautiful country with great co-workers. It's a real contentment to feel like we are in His will and doing what we really love. Thank you to those who continually lift us up in prayer. We do feel strengthened by the prayers of the saints. We wish each of you a most blessed Christmas season.

prayer needed

2006-12-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

Student starts church:
One of our students, Pedro from Ajmachel, lives in a village where there are no Christians but his family. The village is made up of former Guerillas and is opposed to the gospel. He wants to start a church there. The village has falsely accused him of stealing. They took the whole family in the dark, bare foot, to face trial. They were found not guilty. Please pray for them as they face very tense times as the village tries to do everything possible to quiet them.

Student's life threatened:
One of our graduates, Rodimiro from SanAndres, has been establishing a relationship with the mayor and visiting him regularly for prayer. The mayor has been ousted for embezelling a lot of money. The village is furious and decided Rodimiro is taking some of the money and that is why he is always in his office. If he leaves his home, the have threatened to kill him. He is hold up. Pray for him and his family as this has been boiling for over six weeks now and will not go away.

Our employees and their children will be coming for a Christmas party tomorrow. I (John) will be in charge of the corny games as always. We have over 60 coming. What a joy it is to have such a great team working together with one goal in mind - lift up the name of Jesus in Chichicastenango.

Chiapas, Mexico

2006-12-18T18:25:00.000-08:00

Trip to Mexico:
We continue to pray that the Lord will lead us to new areas to develop leadership as we continue to transform communities. Last weekend was one of those exploratory trips. We already have a young pastor, Daniel, that is interested in training pastors. He has an on fire church that is seeing many come to the Lord. We visited three pastors. The bad news is that there are three missionaries that have been training leaders for years in Chiapas. One offers everything from basic Bible to a Doctorate degree and all by DVD! What I knew as credited colleges and universities is now completely changed. Now anyone can name their own university and offer anything they want. Who cares whether it is accredited or not. The good news is that there is so much more to do! There are millions of unbelievers and I believe God wants to set the towns on fire! Our strategy is to put our efforts in Daniel and his church. With this model, we can impact many churches as they see the growth and life that comes from the Biblically- based principles.
We are excited about the future growth of Mexico. Please be praying. This area has had much persecution of evangelicals in the past and there is now a new openness to the gospel.

More Photos!

2006-12-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

Enjoy!

Christmas Party 2006!

2006-12-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write this last night but was just too exhausted! Thursday morning was bright and clear. When I got out to the front of the building at 6:30 am, the line was already so long that it wound around in the woods at the end of our road! Richard said people had arrived at 2 am to get in the line. Now that is ridiculous especially as cold as it is. Everyone was in high spirits. Various people came in and set up food stands and Lety and I (with the help of Tomas) started letting people in. We were very organized and had all the families checked in by 9:30 am. That's a new record!! Meanwhile our visiting team from Gateway Church in Dallas arrived and began the program for the children. It was a beautiful program. The children and families filled up our land and the music and Christmas story filled our hearts. The gospel message was presented in Spanish and Quiche and over 100 children accepted the Lord. We gave out at least 2000 bags with wonderful Christmas goodies. We are estimating that there were close to 4000 people here. I received so many hugs and smiles that I could hardly keep from crying. The joy of the children was so evident as they just beamed as they received their presents. The purpose of the party is to bless the children of our clinic families, not with just the gifts but with the message that Jesus came as a baby to save us from our sins so that we can live an abundant life.

We want to thank those who worked so hard to collect the gift bags and then to ship them to Guatemala. We are so grateful as we just have no way of providing this many children gifts without the help from our supporters. Here's a list of those who participated:
Gospel Outbound - NJ
Absecon UMC - NJ
Oakbrook Church - VA
Stan and Janet Elmore - MO
Casa de Oracion - MO
Gateway Church - TX

A Taste of Christmas

2006-12-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday (yesterday) was a crazy day with all kinds of people coming and going at ASELSI and the therapy program going at full steam ahead. We now have 30 enrolled and 4 more children showed up today to be evaluated. We have several mothers that do not come consistently so we may have to remove them from the program and put someone else in their place.

John and I took off for Guatemala City in the early afternoon. Road construction is in high gear all the way down from Chichi and makes the trip even more interesting! Our friend, Caroline, sings in the Messiah presentation and invited us to be her guests for the first performance. We went all dressed up to the National Theatre and had a wonderful evening listening to the Messiah and Christmas carols. Poinsettias were everywhere and the performance was very special. Towards the end of the performance a part of the stage buckled and the tree of poinsettias almost landed on the floor. We never did hear what happened and the soloist never lost a note! Went back to Caroline's house and had chocolate cake and went to bed. We left at 6:30 am to get back early to ASELSI. We sat in lines because of construction stops for about an hour before making it back. When we got back, the women's team from Gateway were immersed in Christmas bags and boxes sorting 2000 bags for tomorrow's fiesta. They are putting on a very special Christmas program as well. Our staff will be participating with them. We finished after dark and all is ready for tomorrow!

We will start at 7 am checking the families in. It is very exciting to think of all the fun we will have tomorrow and the great opportunity to present the Gospel message once again. Please keep us in prayer! We will post photos tomorrow night if I'm still standing!!

Gateway Medical Team

2006-12-04T19:37:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin? Our clinics are getting busier and busier and more and more interesting! Our team from Gateway Church arrived on Thursday morning and jumped right into seeing patients. Dr. Heidi was here as well seeing her regular appointments so there were people everywhere. Heidi, an OB-Gyn doctor is getting great response with many new patients being seen every week. We could have clinic everyday and still not see them all. Her patient with the breast mass returned as did 3 of the children who are getting ready for cleft lip surgery. Osni is gaining some weight. Keep praying for him please.

We quickly sent Dr. John Osborne up to the local Health Center (which is part of the government health care service) where he saw 19 patients with high blood pressure and other cardiac problems. Here where we live there are no cardiologists and very little choice of medicines available. He brought along a portable echocardiogram machine to use. I didn't even know there is such a thing! Wow.

Back at ASELSI, Dr. Scott Conard saw all of our patients that we see on a monthly basis with chronic diseases of the heart and diabetes. It was great for our patients to be seen by someone who is a specialist in these areas. It was also great to hear him say that we have been doing a good job with these folks.

Carla Johnston, an advanced practice RN and Tonya Walters, also an RN, saw our sick children. They were also very busy!

Meanwhile I was getting training on how to do ultrasounds! Mary Brenner brought her portable machine and worked hard to show me many things whenever I wasn't being pulled away for other things.

So we were able to see over 70 patients in just a little over 4 1/2 hours!

On Friday morning we set out in the mobile clinic bus for a busy day of seeing patients in Xepocol. This is about a half hour drive outside of Chichicastenango. We took our bus there consistently for a year when Roger Turnbough was with us but have not been back since. Working with the local "Health Committee" we set up our clinic in a field to the side of the local elementary school. People soon started arriving and clinic got started. Dr. Scott and Carla setup their stations on the school porch while Mary setup her ultrasound room inside the bus. Tonya was a quick learner in working in the pharmacy for the first time with Richard who runs our regular pharmacy. Poor Carla had become really sick during the night (something she ate??) but was working hard at seeing patients between running to the outhouse. What a trooper!

We really saw some sick folks and even sent some in for surgical consults based on the ultrasound findings. We saw close to 100 people in all. Meanwhile back in Chichi, Dr. John was presenting a seminar to 12 guests from the various medical care providers located in Chichi.

So all in all it was a great trip and many people were helped. On Saturday morning the team headed off to the lake and then on to the capital to return to Dallas on Sunday morning. Short trip but great results!!

On a sad note, we received notice that little baby Lesly that had come to our clinic 2 weeks ago had died in the hospital. Despite the interventions she continued to lose weight and finally went to be with Jesus. We were all sad for her family as they had tried to do what they could to help her. We also have received the biopsy report on a young mother of a 16 month old child who is also pregnant again. She has ductal cancer of her breast and will need a mastectomy ASAP. Please pray for her, her family and the unborn child. I will let you know how she does.

Please also remember to pray for our Christmas party on this Thursday. The final count is in and we should have 2000 children attend this year. That's 400 more than last year! Thanks to all who worked so hard to send enough presents. Shawn calculates that we should have just a few gift bags left after the party. Please pray for the program that the salvation message will pierce through the darkness and many will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Thanks so much.

Getting the bus ready

2006-11-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

We have an older school bus (the short kind) that is outfitted as a mobile clinic. We take it out when we have special medical teams that want to go out to a village for one day. This week we will have the privilege of having 2 doctors, 2 nurses, an ultrasound specialist and Dr. Scott's wife come for just 2 days and work with us. Dr. Scott Conard is a specialist in diabetes and hypertension and Dr. John Osborne is a cardiologist. The whole team is from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and Gateway Church. On Thursday we will have training in ultrasound techniques, Dr. Scott will see our diabetic/hypertensive patients and Dr. John will see cardiac patients at the National Health Center here in Chichicastenango. Carla will see our milk program children and Tonya will work with our patients in the triage area. What a blessing to have such specialty services here! On Friday, Dr. John will do a seminar for local health care providers and Dr. Scott will go out with the bus to the village of Xepocol and see patients along with Carla, Tonya and Mary. Mary has a portable ultrasound machine so we will be able to really do some diagnosing using that technology. This is very exciting! I have been trying to get the bus cleaned and outfitted with medicines and supplies. It really is time consuming.

We are also working on the Christmas party that we will have on December 7th. Last year over 1600 children received presents. We are not sure yet just how many children are signed up for this year. The families that have a family patient card at our clinic are eligible to sign up for the party. One of the big problems at the party is not enough bathrooms! This year we are constructing 4 temporary outhouses just for the party. We will be using our pavilion for the program instead of the front of the main building. We will use our side properties to hold all the families. Gateway Church is sending a team of 20 women down to help with the party and then at the end of the week hold a little retreat for all the missionary women and children.

So, as you can tell, this is crunch time! Too much to do and not enough time. Please pray for these activities because we always want to keep our primary goal as the presentation of the gospel and the salvation of the lost. We will have an opportunity to share the love of God the Father and His Son with over 3000 people in the next 10 days!

It really felt like Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Since Thanksgiving always is on Thursday, we always hold our regular clinic anyway. It was a good thing as we had over 35 patients seen today. Our poor patients began arriving at 4:00 am and waited outside in the cold (it was 40 degrees last night) until we opened the gate at 7 am. The sad thing was that we could not see all of them. Dr. Heidi saw about 15 prenatal care patients as well as other return visits and the sick children from the milk program. We had 9 babies show up for the newborn assessment program. All the babies whose mothers had received prenatal care were born with a great birth weight and were doing well. Shawn stayed home to prepare the turkey dinner so I did her job and I also did Richard's job in the pharmacy as he is on vacation. It all ran amazingly smooth despite 3 of our regular staff not being with us. Virginia, an RN from Canada who has been helping on Thursday with the sick MP children, left today to work with a visiting team she knows. We are not doing just routine care but almost every patient has a special need. Some of the OB patients have problems - one fetus is not growing, another mother has not gained any weight for 3 months even though we put her in the milk program in July, others will need C-sections, another came from an hour away just to be checked. We saw Osni today as well. He is 2 months old and has a severe cleft lip and palate. He comes weekly to be weighed but has not gone above 7 pounds for 3 weeks. His mother is afraid to put the bottle nipple in far enough in his mouth and he barely receives any milk. We once again showed her how to properly feed him. Please pray that he gains weight soon or he may need to be admitted to the hospital.

After clinic 5 missionary families met at Bob and Shawn's and we had a wonderful dinner with all the fixings. The kids played and the adults talked and watched football. It felt just like we were in the States! The weather has been unsually cold and so the fireplace was enjoyed greatly as well. We have much to be thankful for both here and in the States. John and I remember many lonely Thanksgivings where just he and I shared our dinner. We are thankful for our new friends who have been called to work here in the Quiche area as well. We also wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

They just keep coming!

2006-11-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I am not very good at this blog thing! I haven't been able to write something each day but we will keep trying. It has been a really busy week. Last Tuesday we picked up our conference team from Bay City, MI and took them to Antigua where we had supper with Robin Garcia and Jaime Garcia. They are two brothers, both with their doctorates, who are on the cutting edge here in Guatemala. Wednesday we returned to Chichicastenango, had lunch then everyone went out on home visits. Later that afternoon, we met with our Associate Degree students for a time of sharing and ministry. Pastor David Ferranti had talked to John several years ago about our need to offer an AD here at ILIO. He purchased the program (on DVD) and the right for us to use it. We just graduated our first class with all 14 that started also finishing. This class has some of the most dynamic Christian leaders in all of Quiche. What a great time we had as the visiting team ministered to each one of the students.

Thursday was clinic day with lots and lots of things going on. One young woman has a breast mass that was biopsied and looks pretty positive that it is cancer. Another mother brought her very malnourished baby in that also has down syndrome. Thanks to Dr. Heidi Bell who is now seeing patients here on Thursdays, she was admitted to the National Hospital. She is 3 months old and only weighs a little over 3 pounds. Please remember these special cases in your prayer. We have been treating a young man with diabetes for the last few months. He was in a bus accident and broke his arm. He had surgery on it about 6 weeks ago or so. He came in on Thursday saying that he had fallen on Sunday. Turns out that he was drunk and fell in the street. He has rebroken the same arm and now also his jaw! It didn't occur to him to go to the hospital to get xrays! He says he has accepted the Lord but is really struggling with drinking. Please remember Jose in your prayers as well.

Friday and Saturday we held our semi-annual conference. The theme was the 5-fold ministries. We had a wonderful time with about 250 in attendance. Many were ministered to and encouraged as they learned how the church should function. Pastor David and his team did a terrific job. They really spent a lot of time in intercessory prayer before and during the conference.

John and Bob took the team back to Antigua on Monday and then spent the rest of the day picking up more boxes of Christmas gifts for our party and running other errands. They got back last night at 8 PM. Very exhausted!

Meanwhile I hosted the first ever Health Care Providers (for our area) meeting at ASELSI. There were 3 doctors, 3 nurses, 1 Medical Assistant plus other people who also work in clinics, etc. It was great to get together and share what we are doing, what supplies we have to share or give away and what our plans are for teams, etc. Looks like we will try to get together every 3 months.

Today I sent John back to bed as he was quite sick all night with a cold and cough. I had to send Benjamin our receptionist home also with a bad cold. The weather is quite cold for November. Tonight it is about 45 degrees. And we don't have central heat! Thank goodness for our electric blanket. Today was therapy day and we evaluated 2 new children for the program. About every week we are putting new children in the program. Sonia was referred to us by a Canadian nurse at the local Methodist hospital. She is 14 years old and is a paraplegic. She lives with her abuelos (grandparents) as her father has died and her mother is living with someone who doesn't want to be responsible for Sonia. At the age of 3 she had a high fever for 20 days and when it subsided she was paralysed from the waist down. Her recent trip to the hospital was due to kidney problems. Thank God they were able to take care of the problem. Sonia does not therapy and also some schooling. Due to her paralysis she has never gone to school and needs to learn to read and write and do math. We will be able to help her with some of this. Just last week I received a bedside commode from another ministry. When I found out that Sonia's elderly grandfather has to carry her outside to the outhouse and that causes her to soil herself sometimes, I brought in the commode and you should have seen their smiles! Now Sonia won't have to be taken out in the rain and cold to use the bathroom. God provides all the things we need.

We will be doing training again for a new class of therapy assistants in January. This is exciting as we need more workers to help with all the new patients!

Another trip to Antigua

2006-11-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

I shared in our first blog about the trip to Antigua to set up surgeries for children with cleft lips. We were blessed that all of the children are signed up for surgery on January 8th! Several of the children are definitely malnourished so it is our job at the Milk Program to make sure they are gaining sufficient weight to have the surgery. Feeding a baby with an open palate is no easy task.

On Monday the 13th, we sent off another group to be checked for various surgeries. 2 of the little boys had their cleft lips repaired last January and are due for the palate surgery. Another of our little boys, Sebastian, has had both surgeries but was left with an opening in his palate. He was actually the first baby that we helped to get this surgery. He is now 4 years old and doing well otherwise. We also sent Ana to see about the surgery to correct her club foot. A new baby with a club foot and missing fingers and toes went along as well.

They all saw the pediatrician on Tuesday. The children with cleft palates will have surgery on January 8th as well. They have decided not to operate on Ana's clubfoot until she has her spina bifida repaired first. Another long wait for this precious little girl who is determined to go to school. The baby, Tomasa, we are still not sure just what her treatment will be.

On Wednesday, we sent another group in only this time they were to see the genetic doctor. One mother with her 3 year old son, Andres, traveled for 14 hours by bus to get to Chichicastenango on Tuesday. She lives in what is called the Zona Reyna which is way up in the mountains where there is almost no medical care and only trucks with 4wd can get in and out. Her daughter lives near us and has her own baby in the milk program. She told her mother to come down and we would help her with her youngest. Then she had to leave for Antigua with our group at 4:30 am to get to the 7 am registration. 2 other children also went to be diagnosed. After fighting the crowds and getting registered we found out that the doctor had another "activity" to go to and would not be in today! I was beside myself thinking of how hard it was for these 3 mothers to carry these children all the way in from their homes. The social worker then told us that if they could spend the night that the doctor would come to the hospitality house to see them later in the evening. They all decided to stay and my assistant, Bertha, agreed to stay with them. So far I haven't heard how it went.

Thanks to you who have prayed and given. We have to really be advocates for these children as there are very little services to be found. The charity hospital serves hundreds of patients every day at a minimal cost. So far it has cost about $800 to get the children in to Antigua and cover the costs of food and other items. It is well worth the investment.

More later!

The Heart of the Matter

2006-11-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

Back to the Beginning
I took four others with me to Nebaj for a conference on discipleship course. It was the first time that they opened the new road from our town in Chichi to the Ixil triangle there in Nebaj. It took two and one half hours in what used to take five hours. It gave me an opportunity to share about the last fourteen years of traveling this road with those in the car. The time the steering wheel came off while I was driving; the time Sharon and I walked over a mountain to a remote village and half way up Sharon could go no further. They had to recruit a local mule to help her up the rest of the way. It was hilarious to see her. When we arrived in Nebaj I was greeted warmly by many of my friends made over the last fourteen years. That is where I started teaching rural pastors and leaders.

Something new!

2006-11-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

After enjoying the blogs of several friends, we decided some of our friends might enjoy getting more details on life here in Guatemala. So, we are starting something new! Actually John did a daily journal for a number of years which served as our newsletter. Some people loved it; others filed it away in the trash. For those of you that like details and to get to the "heart of the matter" this is for you! John and I will both be writing in the blog about things that have touched our hearts or difficulties we face or just plain news.

My day started out with 6 families meeting at ASELSI to load into our van and travel to Antigua. Each of the families have a child with a cleft lip and palate. Miguel Angel drove the van and Dr. Heidi Bell and Matt followed in their truck. Everyone got treated to lunch out, which is not a common thing for these Mayan families. They arrived at Hermano Pedro Hospital in Antigua and received their appointments for tomorrow morning. The hospital provides housing for the patients and families. It is so great to see the parents encouraged that just maybe their precious little one will look normal and be able to eat normally. Miguel's major gifting is as an evangelist so he always uses these trips to spend time talking to the families about the Lord.

We have 11 children that are in need of surgery for this problem. Each surgery will cost us $300 to $500 to cover all the costs. That is really cheap when thinking like a north American but way out of reach for these Indian families. We are trying to raise money to cover each child. So far we have 3 of the 11 surgeries provided for!

I got invited up to the Casa del Rey which is another ministry here in town. They had clinic furniture and supplies to give away. It was better than a garage sale! I found a good exam table, adult weight scale, stools with wheels for the PT program, and lots of other odds and ends. Those are all things I have prayed for and just look how God supplies our every need!