Happy Thanksgiving

We are back home after a week of staff meetings and planning for the year to come.  The last few years we have had our staff meeting over Thanksgiving, and it has become a tradition now that we have Turkey dinner.  This year we had both turkey and ham with sweet potatoes, veggies, and several pie choices, including pumpkin!  It was good and good to see everyone.  Our trip to Clinica Ezell on the coast started out uneventful, but the normally 2 hour trip took 7 hours due to traffic nightmare after a collision between two trucks.  Sheri and Gaspar and Juan, who were ahead of us all actually saw the accident and stopped to help, but realized there was nothing they could do and got through before the highway shut down.  We all made it finally and were grateful.
This week we start wrapping up the last 2 weeks of clinics and getting ready to have our end-of-the-year party for our ABC kids.  Should be a busy and fun end of the year. 
We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving weekend, and give thanks to God for the many blessings he gives us daily. 

It's been cold here the last week or so, and was especially chilly while our visiting medical/dental team was here.  Our November team, made up of several from Memorial Road Church of Christ in Edmond, OK as well as some Texans, Alabamans and Tenneseens, is used to the cool damp early November weather that usually accompanies All Saints Day.  But this time, it was harsher than expected and we all found ourselves shivering through clinic and hovering over fires whenever we got the chance.  But, we enjoyed each other's company and that of the local churches as we ministered to their communities. One thing that stands out about this trip is, despite the cold weather, people in the towns were willing to stand in line patiently, all day just to get in for a consult.  I can't imagine doing that myself.  But, as someone pointed out at devotional one night, working together we are the body--the hands and voice of Christ in this world.  And this is what must be attractive to people.  It is humbling to think that people see Jesus in us.

After the hustle and bustle of the big clinics, we got back to our routine schedules this week. Kemmel has been busy reviewing the ABC program here in the Highlands area, gathering information on grades, behavior and participation at church, and helping the ABC director calculate how many will receive prizes.  On one side we are seeing more kids earning prizes this year (better grades, etc) but  we also have more kids who have failed this year.  We hope to be able to analyze the information and  give a report back to the program coordinators to help parents encourage and discipline their kids in thier studies for next year. It's also good information for us to know if our efforts are productive, and where we can improve.
For now we will honor and reward those kids and families who have put forth the extra effort. We talked with one dad today who has two honor students.  He said he is so grateful to Health Talents and the sponsors who make it possible to send more kids to school.  He made mention of the cost of education and the financial difficulty educating kids past grade school.  It felt good to have that kind of positive feedback and encourages us to keep motivating parents and kids to stay the course.

Mobile Medical Team

Just a note that we are still here!  We just have not had much time to write.  All is well and we will post a blog over the next day or so.  Please see Sheri's blog for what has been going on   and keep checking in with us http://sheriinguate.blogspot.com/ .

It is cold here right now - back to sleeping with hats and sweats.

God bless and thanks for checking in.