Roll the Stone Away

Although we are not currently hosting medical or surgical teams, we are busy upgrading our facilities in preparation for future work. Our surgical facility is in need of a waste water treatment plant in order to comply with environmental law. So our latest struggle has been against red tape and big rocks. The rocks keep showing up as the workers dig the space for the treatment plant. Thankfully there are people whose livelihood is breaking up big rocks--some with dynamite and others with chisels!  We pray that the work crew will be able to work fast as rainy season has started and will intensify. On Saturday we had a surprise scheduling of our first environmental license inspection. Kemmel texted "We got a score of 100%! So poco a poco--we are grateful to God for the progress.

Alfredo, Kemmel and Jorge down at the end pumping out the water that accumulated over night. These are the "smaller" pieces of rock after the dynamite crew got after them.

Our clinics continue to be full at Caris and Ezell and we have even been able to host a few wheelchair distribution clinics with Faith in Practice. We love being a part of such a good work, helping families improve the mobility options for themselves and their loved ones. It always amazes us how much people have endured before coming.

This kiddo is getting a new chair that will help improve his posture.

In our community work we are able to do small group check ups on our ABC families, doing well-child checkups, fixing water filter issues and consoling families during hard times. One of our ABC families suffered a house fire and lost all of their clothes and most household items. Several churches and area Christians have helped raise funds to replace their things and help rebuild. 

Thankfully everyone was safely evacuated.

Another family from church had a baby born at 30 weeks gestation and spent 40 days in the hospital-no family was permitted to visit during that time. At one point they called the family to say there was nothing else they could do and were just waiting to the baby to die. But he survived and after fattening up to 4 lbs. they let him go home. Praise God for his mercy!

This baby is getting fat after two weeks at home and breast feeding like a champ!

 When we are faced with difficult struggles, when our patients are confronted with complicated medical issues, and when we hear about heartbreaking real life problems of our neighbors, let encourage one another to put our trust in God and remember that our Lord has strength to do things we think are impossible.