Oscar

It has been bittersweet to enjoy the last weekend in Guatemala.
This place has nestled itself into my heart so perfectly. It feels too long to wait until next year to go back.

I had the opportunity to sponsor one of the kids in the schools.
This is Oscar, he is 4 and absolutely adorable. He loves to play and draw.

He and his family live in a block house with concrete flooring in the bedroom and dirt in their living space. They cook with firewood, so they are exposed to smoke in their house, and the subsequent health risks. 

They are part of the Poqomchi tribe of Mayans, which is pretty cool.

It was so fun to spend some time with them, getting to know them. The people here are so relational, they just want to talk and spend time with you. We need more of that in the states.

Sponsorship is making the biggest difference to poverty. It is giving that child the opportunity to go to school, and stay in school. At Impact, every student has to pay something, even if it is equivalent to our penny, so that they are invested in their education. If they cannot pay, they can work in the schools. The sponsorship takes on the rest of the money needed for their education. It provides a meal, schooling, a vitamin, a Christmas gift of new shoes, a birthday gift, and access to medical and dental care for themselves and their families. 

If you are interested in sponsoring a child, you can go to this link:

Child Sponsorship: Impact Ministries

I was driven down to the city by some friends of mine, Oscar and Evelyn and their two boys, who are absolutely adorable. We stayed in Seteca, a large seminary in the middle of Guatemala City. We hung out on the playground for a while, and it was very relaxing.

Oscar and Evelyn needed to go to the mall, so we spent some time walking around there, and it was so fascinating to me to see the boys be amazed by the escalators, and the gumball machines. It kind of broke my heart when Evelyn turned to me and said "It looks like this in America all the time doesn't it?". I had to say yes in many cases America looks rich. The heart and soul of Guatemala is not present there though. It is a very different culture.

I have to admit I have been dreading coming back. Only because I love the freedom that Guatemala provides, the loose time, the ability to just treat what needs to be treated (except for the operations and expensive things which are usually unavailable). 

I have decided to not live in a spirit of fear or dread. I am going to confront my work here with the face of Jesus. 

God, speak into my life, speak into my work. Be forefront in everything.

In Jesus' Name, Amen.

La Última Semana

For a special treat this weekend, we went 3 hours into the bush to see Samuc, a national park of beautiful falls. 

We were able to do some swimming and hiking that day, and for me that was delightful because I LOVE water. I also love jumping off high things into water.

The best part of the trip though, was riding in the back of a pickup, and 4 wheeling it up into the mountain. 

It was a wild ride, and very exciting!

We weren't sure about making the trip though, because there had been some unrest in the area last fall. The townspeople were taking over the park from the government and it was rather violent. 

Thankfully, things have settled down enough that tourists are able to make it all the way in without getting mugged or robbed.

We did however get held up by children.

There were a bunch of "toll stops", where the local kids decided to block the road until we gave them money. These kids had to have been under 10 years old, but they were rather entrepreneurial. At one stop, all the kid wanted was water and cookies. Elvin bought some cookies for the way back, but he was gone by then. Everyone else just wanted money. 

So we had a wonderful and restful day in the beautiful waters of Guatemala.

This week we are finishing up with our Girl's Health Talks in the schools. Becca and I conquered our fears about public transportation, and took the buses to Mocohan and Chicoy this week so far, all by ourselves. I think we were both nervous since we are just single girls, with light hair, and we get cat-called a lot. It certainly didn't help that Elvin warned us to be careful so that we wouldn't get robbed or kidnapped. When a Guatemalan warns you to be careful, I suppose that should be taken into consideration.

It all went smoothly though, and we are proud to say God conquered our fears, and kept us safe.

The talks have been going very well. We included: basic hygiene, body parts, changes in puberty, and the difference between worldly love, and God Love. 

A lot of these girls don't know anything about their bodies. They get scared when things change, and their mothers can't help because they do not know anything either. I am so thankful for the chance to talk with them about these things. 

The teachers had been saving a special gift for each of the girls for after the talk. They had bags that had been filled with new underwear, soap, and re-usable sanitary pads, that could be washed. These had been handmade by women in Canada, and this was the perfect opportunity to hand them out. 

The girls were SO excited to get this gift, they were oo-ing and aah-ing and showing each other their loot.

Puberty is hard, and I am blessed by my education (thanks mom!), and the country I was brought up in, where health is one of the most discussed subjects in school. 

God, please bless these girls, and give them a life filled with hope, joy, and health.

Here I am, Send Me.

This is my new friend Becca, she is here as a translator. Remember how back at the beginning I was lamenting about not having friends here? Well, God has surely answered that prayer. I have lots of friends, and Becca is definitely a Kindred Spirit. 

What a week. we sure had fun in the clinic this week. Not least of which means that Becca and I have the same sense of humor, and use it accordingly.

We took a day to do the girl's health talk at Mocohan. We had about 20 girls from 9-13 years old. They were split up a bit according to age, which helped us to tailor the talk to their respective maturity levels.
The kids seemed interested, the older kids more so than the younger. (The boys were playing soccer outside the window, which was a little distracting to them.). We brought in our old friend Birtha, who we renamed Beatriz la Matriz, which is "Uterus" in Spanish, and added her new friend Mama Pecho (a breast). It was quite hilarious to hear the girls talking about Beatriz on their way out.

We addressed the issue of puberty. Unfortunately, it happens to us all, and we must deal with it. (Oh Eve...).

Many people here have no idea what happens during this period. They don't know that their bodies will change, and that it is normal to have menses. When it happens, they think they are dying. Many of the parents don't know much about their bodies either, which is why we have been giving them health talks as well.

The ministry is going to be packing my last week here with many more of these health talks. We will be doing the same one in almost all the schools. It is going to be crazy fun!

This past week we had a few days of clinic with a very small team from Canada. Half the team went to do a work project, and a doctor (Christy's Dad!), a pharmacist, and a med student came to help in the clinic.
I spent my time in the pharmacy with Isaias and Elvin.

Elvin and Cesar are eating lunch while waiting for Isaias to show.

Isaias brought his son along too, and we attempted to "train up a child in the way he should go" - converting him to a love of all things medicinal. It wasn't too hard, he thought it was the greatest thing in the world to count out the number of meds needed for a prescription.

This little Chica desperately wanted to help in the clinic, so she came and watched us for a while.

Since I wasn't in on the consults with the doc, I didn't get to hear many stories, but from what I heard, we had a lady with newly diagnosed cancer who was not doing well at all. The doctor put her in for a referral to an oncologist, but did not sound very hopeful.

We also heard from the woman we visited last week who was supposed to go to the hospital to give birth. She did go to the hospital but there were complications and she was sent to Guatemala City, where the baby was delivered safely. We are planning on following up with her this coming week.

Right now I am sitting, looking out the window with coffee in hand, feeling sad that my time is drawing to an end.
Guatemala has become home to me. It has reached in and hooked my soul.
I know I'll be back.
I also know that there are many things to look forward to this summer at home in the States. I will enjoy my time here while I can, and when God tells me it's time, I hope I'll have ears to hear where he wants me next.

 Isaiah 6:8, "And I heard the voice of the Lord calling, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.'"

So Much To Do, So Little Time

This little chunk of delight got to hang with me and the nurses while her momma was getting seen by the doctors. I just wanted to take her home with me!! (Don't worry, I gave her back to mom...)

We finished up the clinic in good order last week, and went straight from that to preparing for a women's health talk at the church in Purulha. 

Me and my gigantic poster gettin' ready for the Women's Health Talk.

Some beautiful Mayan ladies walking in Purulha

The women seemed to enjoy the talk, but I was fascinated by their ooos and ahhs when I did my sugar game. We had 5 sugary drinks that are popular here, Fanta, Cola, RapTor energy drink, and some others. We measured out in teaspoons how much sugar was actually in those drinks depending on how many grams there were. Fanta has 82 grams of sugar down here (yummy!), so that calculated out to 16.5 teaspoons of sugar approximately. That is a lot of sugar! 

Unfortunately having super sugary drinks is very common here, and no one drinks water. So, of course I had a big emphasis on drinking more water and limiting sugar intake.

So we had fun at the health talk, and I got to hang with one of our translators Julie afterward. She taught me how to make Pupuses, which are tortillas stuffed with cheese. They were quite yummy.

My time here is speeding ahead like crazy. We did take some time to "rest", which really means hike up a huge mountain to see some Quetzal birds. We must have been too noisy because we didn't see any. 

I also have a new friend here. She is an interpreter from the US, and she is down to hang with me for three weeks. We have our first big project on Friday. 

We are going to talk about puberty to a bunch of schoolgirls who don't have any education about the anatomy of their bodies. It's definitely going to be a challenge, and will stretch both of us to make it both age-appropriate, and fun. 

You have to have fun if you are going to talk about the uncomfortable topic of taking care of your body. 

They were going to have us do it tomorrow, but since we only learned we are going to do the talk yesterday, they let us take today and tomorrow to prepare. (Whew!)

We took a break from working on our talk to visit a patient today.

This lady is due to give birth any day now, but really wants to give birth at home. The problem is, she is old enough to be high risk, and she lives at the top of the mountain with no access for cars. We hiked for a good 30-40 min up the mountain. It was a tiny path only meant for walking, and was super steep. If she were to have any problems giving birth, there would not be any way to get her off the mountain in time. So we were there to help her feel more comfortable with the decision to give birth at the hospital. Her blood pressure was a little high today, but she was very nervous, and was doing a bunch of housework. We encouraged her to have more rest in bed, and arranged for someone to be able to help her when her time came. She was pretty isolated where she lived.
My prayer this week is for her to deliver safely, and that she and the baby would be healthy.

Mocohan Clinic

What a busy week.

We had a team of nursing students here last week. They were a lot of fun, still learning a lot, but they were getting the hang of it before the end of the week.

We had a doctor and a nurse practitioner here with the team, and they each took a few students to do scribing in the computer, and to learn from them. The rest of the students either had triage rooms, or helped me. I was on pharmacy duty this week. We also had a few students doing health talks every day.
I had Elvin and Isaias helping in the pharmacy and with registration, but I was the English speaker, so any questions about the medications were my job.

It was challenging, because we didn't always have the medication that the providers wanted. Sometimes we didn't have enough of that particular drug. We did end up getting a shipment of medication in the middle of the week, which was wonderful and very utilized.

Towards the end, I admit I was getting a little frustrated because our prescriptions weren't printing, and sometimes we would be late in figuring out that someone needed a certain medicine. We worked together to write out the scripts, and sometimes the girls would give me a list of meds that the person needed so that we would not miss any. That definitely helped.

I didn't get a chance to sit in with any of the patient visits this week, which was a little sad, but it was fun being the pharmacy girl. I got to get to know the Guatemalan staff a lot better, and really began to feel like a part of the family.

The crowning moment for me was when Isaias (who is happily married by the way), said "You can make good coffee! Now you are ready for a husband!". Of course they all started to tease me and asked when I'll live here for good. I felt so loved and like they were my big brothers. It takes a while for this culture to accept white people because they are so used to having teams come and go. If you are willing to stay and live with them, they start to warm up to you. I finally feel accepted here. 

I even got to ride in the Guatemalan van instead of the Gringo (white people) van. 

We stopped on the way home one night and got roasted corn. It was dry but delicious.

They put salt on the lemon and rub it on the corn! yummy!

We had the chance to challenge the Guatemalans to a game of Futbol during lunch in the middle of the week. I played with the Americans because they needed help.

The Guatemalans creamed us though.

The whole week was a bit of a whirlwind. We saw about 300 patients total, and prayed for each one. We had two girls who were most likely being sexually abused, and it was hard to figure out what we could do for them. We wanted to get them to see a psychologist, or maybe get a social worker involved. At the moment we are still trying to follow up with them. 

I think my favorite part of the week though, was our final debrief with the team. One girl shared that she had lost her faith before coming here, but that God really reached out and pulled her back this week. She told us that she never wants to let go of God again. That was really encouraging. I hope to keep her in my prayers in the coming weeks. She is going to need strength as she goes back into her normal world, and nobody will have experienced what she has experienced. My prayer is that she goes and tells people about the God who is strong to protect and guide, and never leaves.

Ready to Roll!

Next week we have a very large medical team coming in.
This means it is time to pack up our equipment and go to Mocohan to set up in their large gym.

Mocohan is located about 20 min south of Tactic, and is one of the poorest sections of our ministry. There are a lot of families there that do not have food, and alcoholism is in almost every family. The children come to school, and when they worship the Lord in the morning, their songs are so sweet. They know that they are in a safe place, that they will get a meal, and that God is present.

Since we have enough people, we are setting up a clinic here, for people who cannot make it all the way into town.

It took a while to get everything together, but once we got everything on the truck, and drove all the way there, oh the smiles we got! I got mobbed.

I like getting mobbed by little children.

So here is what our clinic will look like next week. It's so exciting!! 

We've got our pharmacy set up, and behind the curtain are about 6 exam rooms, 2 for the doctors and 4 for the nurses. 

The men did some good hard work getting all the lines up and computers calibrated. Go Team!

The team should arrive in town tonight, and we will get started nice and early on Monday. 

Lots of prayers needed for the coming week! Thanks everyone!!

When There Is No Doctor

The day started out normally.

I came into the clinic with Elvin and Christy, we did our Devotional, and split up to work on our separate projects.

I grabbed the next bag of glasses to put into the computer system, because yes there were more glasses hidden away.

I surpassed 2000 glasses by mid-morning. We took a break for lunch.

Then the crazy happened.

Two girls came in, one was limping, holding her stomach, wincing at every step. Her chief complaint was that she had severe pain from her back to her front in the epigastric area, with some pain in her shoulder. She said that after she ate, her stomach got really bloated, and she started having this pain.
She did indeed have a very distended abdomen, with hyperactive bowel sounds. She just had a lot of gas. She told me that this has happened before, that she did not know what caused it. She had eaten beans, eggs, and cheese for breakfast though.

I walked out of the room to check to see if we had any gasX or alfalfa for her gas pain, and she was happily chatting with her friend while lying on the table. So I gave her some tums since that was what we had, and sent her, limping back to class.

No sooner had I sat down to the computer than a whole crowd of teachers come rushing in carrying an unconscious student. He had been convulsing in the stairwell, and it was unknown if he had hit his head.
I tried to wake him up, but he was not responsive for about 5 minutes. He was breathing, and had a good pulse though, so I finished getting vitals while rubbing his sternum. Some of his family members work at the school, so they all came in too to check on him. He opened his eyes after about 5 minutes, but was very confused, did not know his name, where he was, and could not follow instruction. When he closed his eyes again, he started mildly twitching. It only lasted a few seconds, but I am pretty sure he was seizing.
I was scared for him, but it definitely looked like he had had a seizure.
His family told me that this has happened before, that he had a neurologist look at him. Apparently everything had been negative.
He needed to go to the hospital, so the Principal tried to get a hold of his parents, so they could drive him an hour to the nearest hospital. At this point, he was starting to remember his name and birthday, and recognized his grandmother.
His parents were not answering the phone, so his aunt and grandmother decided to take him home in a taxi, so they could decide what to do.
I firmly told them that he needs to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible so they could put him on medication. I told them what to do if he seizes again, and how to watch him constantly. I was concerned about the possibility of concussion too, so I educated them on watching for that also.
The taxi came, and he went home with his relatives.

Another student had come in also during this time and was patiently waiting his turn to see me.
Just as we were about to get him into the system, the girl with the gas pain came back in. She was limping, supported by three people, gasping in pain.

So I brought her back again, did another full assessment, and again determined that she just had a giant ball of gas in her stomach, and it was radiating to her shoulder. I had her lay down for a few minutes, since she was comfortable in that position, and went to take care of the boy who had come in earlier.

He was easy, just a sprained wrist, so we got him all squared away quickly.
While I was out, the girl was chatting with her friends, not acting in pain at all. So I let her lay there for a few minutes, then I tried massaging the gas out of her belly. We figured out that she may have an intolerance to a certain food, so I told her to make a food diary for the next few weeks, to see if this happens again. She was happy with that, and went back to class with her teacher.

I took a deep breath, and caught up on my paperwork.
Afterwards I realized I hadn't really asked God for help in taking care of these kids. The girl probably had something going on besides the stomach pain, that we could have prayed about, since she was in pain when I was paying attention to her. I failed in that.
God, please take care of her, and give me another chance.

The next day, Elvin called the boy with the seizure's parents, and they did indeed take him to the hospital (Thank you Jesus!). The doctor said that there was the possibility of a tumor, so we are still praying for him.
Another praise was that a girl I had seen weeks ago with a possible appendicitis actually did end up having appendicitis. She had been taken to the hospital, had an operation, and was doing well at home. Thank God that He gave me the wisdom to see the symptoms.

It is definitely hard here, because we do not have a lot of equipment, we don't even have oxygen. God is good though, he helps us to make do with what we have. God please continue to guide me in this. I am no doctor, but You are the Great Physician. Thank you for your hand on this place.

Antigua

I love traveling.

There are many beautiful places in this world, one of the most beautiful is right here in Antigua Guatemala.

I got the chance to go with the PA team to Antigua last weekend for a little vacation.
Antigua is one of the best preserved old spanish settlements next to three active volcanoes. It has been destroyed many times by those same volcanoes, but it still survives.

Cobblestone streets, Tiled roofs. Fernando's Coffee. Mmmm. I love this place.

Ahh, volcanoes. 

What is it about them that just sucks me in? They are so fascinating. 

Seeing them in person takes me back to elementary school and the Magic School Bus TV show.

I am definitely putting on my bucket list volcano surfing. 

If you want to know more, see here: Volcano-boarding.

Antigua is a wonderful tourist attraction. It is a little weird to come here after living surrounded by poverty, and people who live on a dollar a day.

But it is certainly a place I really enjoy going to.

Early breakfast at Fernando's

Fernando's is one of the best coffee places in Antigua. I highly recommend it. Yum. 

We had the chance to do some touring around Antigua. We visited some ruined cathedrals that had been destroyed in some earthquakes.

We also saw an old convent that was only open for a few years due to a major earthquake in the 1700s. 

Back then, the firstborn was always given away. Boys either could be sent to the army or the priesthood, and girls were sent to a convent, never to leave. 

If I had to spend my whole life locked away in one building, this one would be a pretty awesome one.

The back of an awesomely big oven.

1700s version of a spa, complete with an oven to boil the nice-smelling herbs for the bath.

Water pipes through the kitchen.

1700s version of a toilet.

The room where the new nuns would stay for a week to pray and fast.

The three alters for Holy Week.

The Crypt. Best Acoustics Ever.

Guatemala is a very large producer of Jade. We had the chance to visit the Jade museum, and learn a bit about the history of the Mayan Kings who first used jade. Apparently, they also did a game similar to a mix of soccer and basketball that you could only use your knees, chest, and upper arms to hit the ball. The winner of the game got to be sacrificed to the gods.

Yep, the winner.

Jesus won everything in my opinion. He paved the way for us in blood. He did it so we wouldn't have to. I think that's the thing that is really hard to tell people here. Here, it is about doing all the things you can to appease the gods. adding one more god is just something you do. I don't think people die for the gods here anymore, but they do mix religions quite a bit. Any church you enter here has a mix of Christianity and Mayan polytheism going on, that is supremely muddled. If you want to know more about the syncretism, please see my post in April titled "Time is Speeding Away".

Thank you Jesus for giving us Truth. My prayer this week is that the Truth would spread through Antigua, just as it has in Tactic.

Machetes With Minds Of Their Own.

The end of the week has come.

It's bittersweet, but the team from PA and I have had some good times this week.

I told you about some of our interesting cases in the previous posts, but let me tell you about a few more of them.

People use machetes for many things. It is not unusual to walk along the street and see men and women carrrying unsheathed machetes around. It's not even unusual to get on a bus and have a machete next to you. 

Machetes however, sometimes have a mind of their own. 

Last week we saw two machete wounds. Both of them were female. One of them was a little girl. 

The first one we saw was the girl. She had cut open the inside ankle, right over the bone. Around here, it is common to stuff wounds with limestone to both stop the bleeding and to prevent infection. In this case though, it probably wasn't a good idea. She needed stitches, badly. Elvin can stitch people up no problem. The problem was that with all the limestone in there, even with careful cleaning, we don't know if we got it all out. If even a little bit of a foreign object is still inside a wound, there is a much higher likelihood of infection. 

Some of the ladies of the PA team had worked really hard to re-organize our storage room. Inside we discovered one set of butterfly bandages, which we snapped up. After a thorough cleaning, and large amount of polysporin, we got her sort of closed up, with room for oozing. 

We put her on antibiotics, told her to come back at the end of the week for a recheck, and sent her home. She is in the school system, so it is fairly easy to check up on her. 

She didn't end up coming in for a check up though. Elvin went to her school to take her some extra dressing supplies, and found out that she wasn't taking her antibiotic. She also was walking a lot, which was pulling the butterfly bandages off. Poor kid, she most likely has to walk everywhere, and who knows why she wasn't taking her medication. Thankfully Elvin was able to follow up with her.

Our second machete wound was severely infected. The poor woman did not have access to clean dressings, and had let it fester for many days. Her leg was swollen, red, hot, and the wound was oozing yucky goo. 

A thorough cleaning later, some hefty antibiotics, and she was sent home too, with instructions to return every day for a check to make sure the antibiotics were working. 

She didn't come back until this week. She was almost done with all the antibiotics when I saw her for her re-check, The wound looked slightly better, but was definitely still infected. Thankfully, the NP from the team that saw her is a friend of mine, and I could Facebook message him for advice. In our newly re-organized and clean storage room I found a bunch of wound dressing equipment, and wanted to give her the best that we had. 

I was going to put up a picture of the healing wound, but it is not for the faint of heart. Sorry guys.

Anyway, we decided that for now, she just needed to finish the antibiotics, keep it covered and clean, and let her body heal. We had enough dressing supplies that I could send her with a large amount. She should be coming in on Tuesday next week for me to see it again.

Those were some of our most exciting stories from the week. I really like being here for the longer-term, because it is so fun to follow up with our patients, and make sure they are keeping up with their medication. God also does miracles. What does not seem like a medication or intervention that would work, God turns into something amazing. I am so blessed by that. 

God really used the team last week. God always works here. He always works everywhere. 

Our Big God

Today was a precious day.

We started off the day without water again, but we had power and that was a blessing.

God brought us quite a few patients, and gave us strength. A few of the team members were pretty sick today, but they relied on God for strength and help, and worked right through the pain.
"May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 15:5-6.
It could have been a bad day. We could have been at each other's throats, because of people not feeling well, and being tired. But God, our God, is a God of endurance and encouragement, and that is all I heard today. Everyone was helping each other, and praying hard. God came through.

It was a hard day in another way.

We had a little girl come in. She had been raped a few months ago. They reported the man to the police, thankfully, but she was still struggling. Two team members were able to share their testimony with her, because they understood. They understood the anger, and desire for revenge. They understood the feeling of smallness. We even had a Guatemalan woman sitting with us in the room who had experienced that also as a child, and she shared her testimony too. That is honestly unheard of for a Guatemalan to talk about trauma. I was praising the Lord in my heart, because now this girl knows she is not alone. We were able to share the dollar bill analogy with her, to remind her that no matter what, her value never changes.

You take a 100 Quetzal bill, and ask, "how much is this worth?".
"100Q" she answers.
Then you crumple the bill, and spit on it.
"How much is it worth now?"
She pauses, and looks at you hesitantly. Can she believe that it is still worth the same?
"100 Q" you tell her.
She looks up at you for a second, slowly nods her head, then looks down again.
"This bill is worth 100Q because the government says it does. You are worth far more than that bill. God says what you are worth, not man, not friends, not valuables. God. No matter what happens to you or by you, your value NEVER changes."

This little girl has a long road ahead. I was so grateful that she came to the clinic. We were able to share the love of God with her. We could encourage her to find a church that cares. We could make sure that she did not have an infection. We could also show her that she is not alone.

Join me in keeping her in prayer. What a horrible thing to go through, but what a Big God we have.

Water and Power

We have had a lot of fun this week.

This lovely lady came in for some prenatal questions. She is 7 months along, having her first baby with her husband. And, she has been having some contractions. Thankfully we concluded they were just Braxton Hicks, and not premature labor. Poor Karl was a little nervous though, because he does not usually do prenatal visits. This was also the first prenatal visit she had ever had, so there was a lot to go over. Thankfully Karl called his wife who is a labor and delivery nurse, and I gave my opinion also, and we got her all set with some prenatal vitamins and some good education on what to expect.
The beautiful woman seated on her left is her midwife, and we did some further education with her also.
It has been a joy to work with this team.

Christy and Elvin working in the pharmacy

Lisette taking a breather from translating.

                                                           

Arianna working on the blog, and Jeff finding some meds for Christy.

Kathleen enjoying some sunshine,

We had a girl come in with difficulty seeing, so we got her all set up with the eye machine, and found her a pair of glasses. Oh the smile on her face!!!

We started off with a miracle this morning. 

All week we have had NO water. At all. 

We have been using hand sanitizer, and the second day with no water they finally brought us a big tank of water so we could at least flush the toilets. 

Then today the power went out.

So we all got to the clinic, and the computers weren't working, the internet was gone, and we couldn't register any patients. 

We were prepared, and ready with some paper and pens. 

Then, after a devotional and some heart-felt prayer in which we petitioned God for light and water, while our eyes were closed...

We hear water gushing out of the faucet. 

And the lights came on.

It was all God, and it really made Him feel so close to us. He heard our prayers, even though it was for something as silly as electricity and running water. He knew our need and he met it. 

God is good.

For me personally this week has been so wonderful. Not only are my friends here, but they brought a little bit of home with them for me. My mom and Gramma sent down a care package filled with love, and my Bible Study sent a card. The card was so encouraging, and I look at it and pray for you guys, with the end of the semester and travel and jobs. 

I also got Algernon the alpaca and some very cute finger puppets.

Algie has now joined Birtha as our team mascot.

God bless you all. 

Hearts

What a difference a team makes!
This week we welcomed the medical team from Calvary Church from Lancaster PA. It is like welcoming my family. I first came to Tactic with this team two years ago, so I know a few of them really well.

We have been hard at work all week, seeing patients in the clinic. 

The first day was a little rough around the edges as the team was figuring out the computer system, and working on getting a work flow. The rest of the week has been really good, everyone works together really well.

At the end of the day everyone eats together, and we do a debrief of the day. We have had a few cases that have tugged on the heartstrings of us all.

We had a little girl come in, She is very young, and her mother told us that she has heart palpitations when she does a lot of activity. When we listened to her heart we discovered that she has a galloping murmer. One of the loudest murmers I have ever heard. With her having trouble with activity it is really important that she goes for more testing and possibly surgery. The only problem is, in Guatemala even with a referral, it could be years before she is able to make her way to see a cardiologist. The family also has to be able to afford the testing and the surgery. 

The team really struggled with this, because as rich Americans, we have money. 

However, if we just give the money, it may help this family, but later down the line, it causes dependence on the Rich American Problem Solvers. 

God calls us to give. We should give. 

However if it is not coming through the ministry, or the churches in the area, it is not the people helping each other, it is the Americans solving the problems.

Thankfully in this case, the community the little girl lives in is putting together a gift so she can get the testing she needs. 

That is what the ministry is aiming toward. Having the Guatemalan people showing God's love to each other. 

Another case that gave us some worry was a little boy with a fever. 

He came in with his family, lethargic, breathing rapidly. Fever of 102. Our Nurse Practitioner Karl couldn't find a source of infection. Then we heard that he had been in the hospital a few weeks ago with the same thing, and that he had low white blood cells. That is not a good sign. The concern with that is the possibility of Leukemia. This little boy needed testing, and probably IV antibiotics. His family was traveling to Coban that night anyway - Coban has the only hospital and it's about an hour away - so we sent him there. The next day we hear that they family could not afford to have the blood work done, so they just took him home. We all have been praying very hard for him because without that test it is very hard to figure out what to do. A few days later we heard that he was doing better with some tylenol, he was eating and playing. God is good. I am hopeful that the ministry can help that family out, or that the church can take a special offering. The church here is so good. They really come around these families, helping as much as they can. The ministry also has a fund specifically for helping with expensive medical procedures. They need more money though, and that is something we can do. 

If you would like to contribute to the clinic and would like to send some kids or adults for some major tests or surgeries, you can send a check to Impact ministries.

Impact Ministries

P.O. Box 550

Duvall, WA 98019-0550

If you put in a note that designates the money for the clinic, that will help get the money where you would like it to go. You can also go to this website which is specifically for the clinic, and use a credit card: Medical Clinic Support

Walt is making airplanes. He is very popular.

It can be really hard to come into the clinic and have half your patients in with stomach pain; Especially when their stomach pain is because they don't have any food at home. 

We had a little boy, 12 years old come in with stomach pain. "Did you eat breakfast?" Karl asked. 

"No. We don't have food." The boy said with his eyes down.

"were you able to have dinner?"

"I don't remember."

He was the first. 

He won't be the last.

Sometimes I just want to yell at God and say, "Why can't they just have food on the table?". 

Why can't life be fair?

I guess the answer to that is right in my face. There is sin in this world. However we may want to change it, God does have a plan. He does not want little children to go hungry. We must do what we can to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners, and help the sick. We must welcome the strangers, and show God's love wherever we are. It isn't about earning heaven. It is about loving God enough to tell others about how awesome He is. Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving your neighbor as you love yourself.