Clinic in Chutzorob I

"Where is Chutzorob I ?", you may ask. Well to be exact, it is 20 minutes down the road (by truck), from Chuchipaca II, and about 10 minutes before you get to Chumanzana! This is a new community that Sheri and the team started doing clinic in, and Saturday was my first time out there. Kemmel stayed back at the house and played computer-repairman for mine and Sheri's computers. He could open his own fix-it-up shop!
The brethren are so organized in Chutzorob, that they have nine members signed up to help with clinic, and are divided into 3 teams of 3 that rotate weeks with us. They even made up some signs to announce when we are scheduled to be out there. This time we worked with Sebastian, Manuel and Tomas who were did a great job praying, counseling and translating for us. We only saw 13 patients this time, but more than half were non church members, and several did not attend church anywhere at all so we felt like we made some good contacts. Afterward, we went to Sebastian's house and did a home visit to see his daughter who has been weak since her miscarriage a month ago. Phyisically she appeared to be recovering, but she was dealing with some depression and issues with her in-laws. So, we spent some time counseling with her and praying for her. The family invited us to have lunch with them, and we enjoyed chicken soup and tamalitos together. When we left, the patient seemed be perked up a little and said she appreciated our visit and prayers.

Today, we slept in (6:30) and went for a walk to town to do some errands. The great thing about living here, is everyone is open on Sunday morning and all the churches meet in the afternoon. So we wandered around town some and saw several friends we hadn't seen in a while. It's good to be back! Then we headed home, got ready for church and walked back to town. We were welcomed back to church by all of our friends and saw how the church had grown some with new faces in the crowd. They told us that they had had 4 baptisms in the last month alone. There had also obviously been a new crop of babies while we had been gone--very cute!

Well, tomorrow we head to the capital to renew our visas and then hurry back to get ready for clinic on Tuesday. Thanks for checking in, and keep up the prayers for this work.

Back in the saddle

As Lisa mentioned we are back in Chichi and took off on full force. Since returning we have been able to attend a few clinics and visit some of the communities we have been involved with for the last few years. It feels good to be back and to have the opportunity to serve with these brothers and sisters.

On Tuesday, we had our education day where we have volunteers come from around the area (up to 1.5 hours away) to spend some time together worshiping, learning about health issues and to catch up on each other. We have been doing this since the beginning of the year and we started out kind of slow. However, the last couple of months we have had 25-30 volunteers come for the classes. The volunteers are coming from 15-20 different communities, most from the communities where we hold clinic which means we have more than a 50% participation. From these promoters we have 2 now seeing patients in their communities and we hope to start many more during 2009. Josefina and Marcos have been teaching the classes this year and have done an excellent job. The promoters take a test each month so that we can monitor how they are doing. At the end of the class the staff had a cake of welcome for Lisa and finished the day with a meeting to review all that is going on.

Today we headed to the clinic in Las Trampas with Sheri, Gaspar and Juan, praying for patients all the way there; however, God had other plans for us today. We arrived to no patients, but had some good conversations with the church member that was present. The volunteer in Las Trampas is man by the name of Diego Tol who used to be an alchohilic who eventually came to the Lord at another church in the area, converted his family, started a church in his community and today is a growing church of more than 60 adults plus children with 2 buildings built with only local funds. This is a very outreaching church but it does not seem that a clinic ministry is a need in the area. There are a few other organizations who host clinics in the area and this may be part of the issue. They announce and normally some people show but not many. So we agreed to finish out the year so that both HTI and the church can fulfill their commitments and then we will probably cease this clinic in 2009. We hope to find other ways to maintain contact and work with this church as they are active in their area.

After waiting for patients, visiting and listening to Gaspar and Diego talk about the Bible, we headed off to visit the home of Tomasa Chicoj Salvador. This is the young girl who had an eye tumor and has been receiving treatment. Notice I mentioned had! She has received glowing reports and now just must present every 2 months to watch for a recurrence. The family has been trying to invite us to visit for a number of months so the opportunity finally presented itself as they live in the community next to Las Trampas called Chujulimul, meaning rabbits and caverns. We arrived to a great welcome in a very humble home and got to spend about 3 hours with the family. They prepared us a meal and we had plenty of time to sit and talk and teach the kids bad habits (just kidding). They are currently looking for a church home so we took the time to invite them to the church in Las Trampas and will see if we can get Diego Tol to visit them. They seem to be a very happy and content family.

Afterwards we met up with Josefina and headed down to Montellano where we will be in some management meetings for the next couple of days.

As always, thanks for checking in and we hope to see you again soon.

Women's Seminar

This weekend we enjoyed a visit from Linda Henry from Continent of Great Cities and our Rosario Poncio one of our nurses at Clinica Ezell. They taught a women's seminar at Paxot II over the topic of recovery from sexual abuse. Everyone was a little apprehensive about presenting such a heavy theme, but it was a success, and several of the ladies came to them expressing thanks for taking the time to address it and share God's word in a way that offers healing and forgiveness. We are so proud of both of them and pray that God blesses the seeds that were planted, and that the ladies can go forward and be a comfort to those in their own congregations who might be dealing with past or present abuse.

Yesterday, we headed to the capital to take Linda and Rosario back and got to worship at the church in Zone 18. It is a very loving and dynamic congregation and alway enjoy visiting them. After services, we witnessed the baptism of a new brother in Christ who has been ministered to through the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program offered at this congregation. It was a joyful moment in heaven and there in the auditorium.

Today we are back home just enjoying our day off. We checked out a new ecologicial park in town which actually offers some great recreation facilities for large get togethers or camping. Then we headed to Santa Cruz del Quiche to check into the swimming pool at the phys-ed building at the school. They actually allow anyone to use the pool for Q5 a day ($0.70). Quite the bargain! The only catch is it is outdoors--can be really cold water (non heated) and Kemmel came home with a sunburn on one half of his face because he turns to breath on one side! He will have to work on that one, and remember to take his sunscreen. All in all, he was very excited to get to swim again!

Tomorrow is education day at Clinica Caris and time to spend meeting with our staff.
Have a great night.

Home Sweet Home

We are back home in Chichicastenango!!!!! It feels so good to be back. After our week at Clinica Ezell, we took off for a little vacation time in Roatan, Honduras. If you don't know where that is, it's an island off the carribean coast of Honduras surrounded by the second largest barrier reef in the world. Now we are not scuba divers, but there was some great snorkeling and the beach was just beautiful! We saw squids, a sting ray, a sea turtle, some barracudas and lots of beautifully colored fish and coral. It was so nice to get to spend some time together again and just relax. But, we are definitely ready to get back to work now. (UNDERWATER CAMERA PICTURES TO COME SOON......)

Today we spent the day cleaning house and getting our stuff moved back in. It is fascinating how many bugs move in, live and die in our house over 6 months. Our floor looked like we had set off a bug bomb. Anyway, we are back to a liveable state now and can start off our work day tomorrow all organized.

Tomorrow we head to Clinica Caris for our pap smear clinic. We are trying to drum up more interest in preventive care and offering special clinic days just for pap smears. This should streamline things a little and help the ladies feel more comfortable seeing other women there for the same reason. It will be so good to get to work with the team again.

I (Lisa) am working on getting my license processed. The good news, is I passed the final exam (with a whopping 60%) so I know I will pass the year! Now I just have to wait for the administrative office to get my transcript of grades from the various departments and then they can write my reference letter to get my diploma. Yesterday, they said sometime this week they should get the grades in..........we'll see.

Well, before we go, just want to say Happy Birthday to our sister-in-law Kelli and our nephew Lance who celebrated their big day this month. We celebrated for you on the beach! We miss you and wish you a blessed year to come.

Surgery Week

We are enjoying a week at Clinica Ezell with the visiting surgery team. The special of the week is cleft lip and palate repair and general surgery. We have several cute babies here for the first time to get their cleft lip repairs, and some returning for followup procedures. Miguel (from Chuacaman IV up in our neck of the woods) is one little boy we operated on last year with a double cleft defect, and he has really grown this last year. He struts around in his little man jeans and gets into everything. This time we are working on his palate repair so he will be able to speak well. His mom has been so patient and has been good to talk to the new moms. We also have a little boy named Gregorio from La Palma who is 8 years old and has never been operated on. His dad has been by his side the entire time and has been so emotional seeing the difference in his son post op. We will post pictures when we have a better internet connection.

Miguel after his palate surgery--his lip repair from last year turned out so well!

Gregorio after his lip repair--he is giving us a smile here. Dad is so proud.

Also, this week, we the staff physicians and nurses are learning colposocopy technique (followup evaluation of abnormal pap smears) from Dr. Kristina McCain. We have been reveiwing indications for coloposcopy and seeing patients with abnormal pap smears as a learning oportunity. Already we have seen one advanced cervical/possibly endometrial cancer and another severe dysplasia/possibly early cancer. The goal is to diagnose and treat these lesions before they spread. We learned that 60% of all the cancers treated in the Cancer Institute in Guatemala City are cervical cancers. And we have seen at least one advanced case of cervical cancer with each Gyn surgery week here at Ezell. This service will be a big step in our women's health services. Pray that we are able to stimulate more interest in the communities for preventive care like pap smears for women.
We also got to go out today and visit a Cacao farm (cocoa). They showed us where the pods grow on the trees and got to taste the flesh covered seeds fresh from the pods (kind of a sweet melon taste). Then they showed us the dried seed product that gets roasted and ground into cocoa.

Kemmel next to a cacao tree--pointing at pods of cacao.

Lisa standing in front of a volador tree trunk.

Well, thanks for checking in. We will post again soon.

No More White Pants!

Well, hello all you loyal family and friends out there in Blog Land. I just want to thank all of you for your constant prayers and attention during this last year. I have to confess there were days that I thought about quitting but God upheld me and I know he listened to and answered each of your petitions in our behalf. I told my mom, that I only asked God to let me pass Internal Medicine and he let me have the highest grade--and she said that she asked him to help me ace it! I also am so grateful for having the blessing of a husband like Kemmel here with me. I know I could not have done this without his help and love and encouragement. And I know God will bless his faithfulness and endurance.

Today I woke up and thought to myself: Yea! I don't have to go in to the hospital today, and I never have to put on those crazy white pants!!!!! Instead, we get to meet the team coming in for the surgical week and pick up Sheri and take her back to Quiche. It will be so nice to get back to Chichi and start working again with our team.

Also, I will be calling home today because my family is having a big birthday celebration for my Aunt Jane who is turning 70. I will sure miss seeing them, but it will be nice to hear their voices again. I also missed both of my brothers' (Drew and Kriss) birthdays this month and my nephew Kyler's birthday in June--so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, guys, and I promise to be better next year.

Well, have a nice weekend and a blessed Lord's Day, everyone...