It's Catching

Clinics this week seem to have a dermatology theme. One baby came in with molluscum contagiosum (like a soft wart) and mom says several of the kids in the family have it. We saw an outbreak of impetigo in several families in one town and today scabies in an 85 year old lady who rotates staying with 5 of her kids' families.  She has 37 potential sources/contacts so, needless to say I didn't send home treatment for everyone.  I treated her and asked her to send someone from each family to clinic so we can get the whole family taken care of.  Yikes!  I'm itching all over!
After clinics we have been having meetings with the churches to get their approval for sex ed classes.  When we first started talking about this a couple of months ago, there were rumblings of discontent over the idea and the ABC coordinators were reluctant to schedule.  But so far everyone has been very supportive.  Today the elders even spoke up and said they were wholeheartedly for it and thanked us for the offer.  After they spoke up everyone raised their hands in agreement with the classes.  So maybe enthusiasm is catching too!

Thanksgiving Service

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a thanksgiving service of a family whose son, Manuel Fernando, had hernia surgery at Clinica Ezell in Sept 2011.  The family invited the church leaders to celebrate the blessings of the health of their son.  After a worship service they fed the group a nice lunch of chicken stew and tortillas.  We had about 30 people in a small room praising and thanking the Lord.  Great day.

As we sat there and thought about it, it must have been quite traumatic for the family to have their son and father travel 4-5 hours from home to an unknown place, to be taken care of by some unknown people, to have their son put under a knife and to think in their mind there was a chance their son would not come home.  But he did, God is good!  Thank you also to the HTI surgery group volunteers whose work makes this possible.

Road Work Ahead

We have this piece of highway right down the road from us that is falling in little by little.  The bad part is the drop is roughly a 900 ft sheer cliff (that's right, about 3 football fields down).  Earlier this rainy season half of the highway fell so they made a nice little guardrail for the remaining one-lane stretch of road.  Well, now you can see where part of the "good" road is getting ready to fall as well.  Finally the government has placed some importance on this (it is the main highway through Quiche) and began to carve out another road after haggling with land owners.  One night last week a truck came through(probably playing chicken with another oncoming vehicle and got stuck in the ditch, obstructing the one "good" lane.  So around 0600 the buses started piling up and honking.  The traffic had to go around, using the new road which was full of mud still. Good times! This is the photo coverage Kemmel got early the next morning of the traffic jam that ensued.  We had to leave our our truck at home and walk past the jam so Dr. Marcos our dentist could pick us up and take us to clinic.  Now if they could just finish the work--that hole is getting big!

The rocks mark the latest unstable area.

The crazy part is cars kept trying to squeeze past the truck--driving over the crumbling section.

 

One of many buses that had to pass through the newly dug road.

 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.  Psalms 34:4
One of our dental assistants, Maria had a fingerstick with a used needle last week while cleaning trays.  Unfortunately, the patient had already left and they didn't have any contact information from him to be able to do an HIV test on him.  As quiet as she is, we could still tell she was upset and worried.  We were all praying that everything would be alright.  Three days later, the same patient came back because of lingering pain and wanted to check the wound.  They were so excited that he had come back and were able to do an HIV test on him.  But it came back positive, so they repeated it and the second one was negative...Well, that got us all pretty worried, so we asked him to go to a lab to have a confirmation test done.  He was a little worried himself and agreed to do it when we offered to pay.  Thankfully the test was negative and we all rejoiced with Maria that she could enjoy the holiday weekend without worrying about her HIV status!  Thank you, Father for your mercifulness in sending the patient back to us!
 

Harvest Time

Gaspar and our new brother in Christ Manuel

It's Fall in the northern hemisphere and here in Central America while we don't get to see the autumn leaves, we also have a harvest time approaching.  The corn its tall in the fields and ears of corn are getting fat.  The squashes and beans are making more of a presence in the market and the wildflowers colors dominating are orange and yellow and red.  Beautiful!
We are also enjoying seeing the fruit of spiritual harvest around here.  The church in Mactzul V which has been dedicated in visiting and praying with the sick in their community had four baptisms last week.  We also got to do a home visit with a lady who has been sick for a month and was too weak to climb up to the church building for clinic.  The elders and evangelists there have been visiting  and teaching her and asked if we would come down and check on her.  What a blessing to be a part of that work.  Her family called the church leaders to let them know how appreciative they were of the care their mother was receiving from the church.  We hope she too will give her life to Christ soon.
In Xepol, where we have clinic as well, a family has been converted after many visits and prayer in times of trouble and illness.  The family are patients that Sheri has taken care of in clinic for several years now, and the church has faithfully taken time to further reach them.

In Choacaman, one of our long-time patients, Manuel has also come to Christ and yesterday was baptized. This family is precious to us and for many years we have visited them in their home, prayed with them and for them. Here are the pictures that Gaspar, our evangelist took. We know God is pleased to see His kingdom grow we are proud to work with so many loving, outreaching churches.

Shall we gather at the river?  They chose a place with a natural hot springs.

 

 

Martin taking Manuel's confession.



Who Ya Gonna Call...?

Earlier this week there was a slight wasp problem at the Clinca Caris.  They didn't have a nest, but seemed to be on a mission to find a new spot for one.  Kemmel and Gaspar decided to take things into their own hands and Sheri got some great pictures of our star extermintion team.  Maybe they can start their own service and even their own reality show like Billy the Exterminator!
Here is  the link to Sheri's blog for her great photography of the event!
Sheri's Blog

So That the World May Believe

Our home church at Eastside in Colorado Springs is focusing their teaching and studies on unity in the body of Christ.  It's seems like such an easy thing ("can't we all just get along?") until you realize that unity has to take precedence over being "right" or fellowshiping only with only those who "correctly" understand scripture. That's hard.  But it's the thing that will make unbelievers think twice and believe someday. It seems like Satan has figured this out and does his best work when he convinces us to divide or take sides.  He stokes our egos and encourages us to stand up for "what is right" knowing that a church divided, the body of Christ dismembered has no believeable testimony for the lost in this world. 
This week we have seen examples of great testimonies of unity and those of selfish, divisive attitudes by area churches. One of our partner churches has an elder who has begun some questionable acts of worship and prayer and is now sought after and compensated monetarily for his services.  The church is reluctant to let this continue as it is contrary to their spirit of volunteer ministry and prayer.  But the brother claims that the church has no right to correct him, a founding member of the church and elder and donor of the land for the building.  It is disheartening to hear about their struggle and know that the rest of the community is watching them take sides.
On the other hand, another of our partner congregations in the area has had a difficult situation between members' children and has had to deal with bringing the situation into light and addressing wrongs done without dividing the church.  The community at large is aware of the problem and and stepped in to fine the offending parties' families.  But rather that take the matter further down the legal road, the affected family is not wanting to give a bad name to the church, and has asked the eldership to help them work through it.  We have been asked to help give counsel, which is humbling as we don't have experience in raising children, but we've seen first-hand how God's Spirit is working in this congregation to maintain unity, praise God. 
Please pray for the body of Christ here and throughout the world as we strive for unity that testifies of God's love for us.
²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.