MET 2011

The HTI MET Students for 2011 have arrived!   Each year HTI hosts a Medical Evangelism Training (MET) for students that are interested in medical missions and we accept around 12 students to participate in the various ministries in Guatemala so they can experience mission work in the field.  Lisa and I were in the program way back in 1991 with Dr. Mike Kelly in Quetzaltenango. 

The students arrived on the 14th of May, went to Quetzaltenango for a week of language study, then to Clinica Ezell in Montellano for a few days of medical evangelism orientation and now 6 of them are with us here in Quiche and 6 are in the area of Montellano and we will switch in 2 weeks. The 6 in Quiche are living with families in Paxot II. So far so good, a couple of sick students but that is expected. Getting sick is always a matter of when and not if. :)


Here are some pictures of the students at the homes of the host families.

Amber is with Manuel and Juana and family 

Zach is with Tomas and Cristina and family 

Haleigh is with Juan (canche) and Lucia and family.  Here she is with Lucia.

Abby is with Carlos and Marina and family

Meredith is with Juan and Aura and family.   Here is Meredith with Juan, Levi, Aura and Maria.

Molly is with Gaspar and Juana and family.

Gringo parade as we take the paths to the host families houses.  Good times!

Faith

The word faith is a complex concept to wrap my mind around sometimes. Words like belief and hope and certainty come to mind when describing faith. But what is it that we are hoping for or believing in? I am guilty sometimes of inwardly scoffing at my patients who choose not to seek a potentially life-saving treatment or surgery because they prefer to pray and ask God to heal them. The years of medical training in me try to convince me that God can heal them--through surgery or some expensive treatment regimen that costs more than the family makes. I try to justify that I have faith that they can be healed as well, if they follow the prescribed treatment plan, or if we raise enough money to cover the costs. And, I am not so nieve as to think that everyone who turns down medical treatment does it for faith's sake. There are a lot of people who just don't like going to the doctor or traveling to the big city.


A little girl came to clinic last month with a skull fracture from a fall and I referred her to the National Hospital. The family reported back that the National Hospital referred them on to the city because she would need specialty care not offered locally. They decided to pray about it because they did not have the funds to go, and after seeing improvement in the girl's appetite and relief of pain and vomiting, decided not to go for the MRI or the surgery. They said they trusted her life to God and believed that he could heal her. If she worsened they would consider taking her in. They graciously declined our offer to pay for the MRI and the transportation costs.
We have patients all the time with incurable illnesses or even curable ones with the right (expensive) work-up/treatments. These are the ones that make me rethink our modern approach to medicine of full-court press to the last breath. If we really only believe in our technological and scientific advances to heal and save us, what does that say about our faith in God? I am not trying to bash medicine. I love my profession and the fact that there are a lot of illnesses that God allows us heal quickly and easily with surgery or medicine, giving us more comfortable and productive lives. But I keep wondering how much I really believe that God can and will heal someone by faith alone. Why is it easy for us to forget that if God has the power to create the world, to form us, to heal people of incurable illnesses (blindness, leprosy, death) while here on earth, and to come back from the dead, that he still can today, especially if it glorifies him?

In our statement of faith we are stating that we do believe that God has the power to raise from the dead. (Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved). If we really believe that, then we can believe that he can heal us when needed (without medical intervention) if it is his will to do so.

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  John 14:11-14

Celebrating Island Style

  

  

  

 

Can you guess where we went?  This last week we celebrated our 20th anniversary a little early and joined our parents in Kauai, Hawaii!  We were able to celebrate Mother's Day as well--with both moms.  It was just beautiful and we enjoyed being together with our family, exploring the island, being right on the beach, and of course, checking out the local real estate magazines :) . We did make it out on a boat ride one day and had perfect weather, snorkeling, seeing a sea turtle, dolfins and two whales and the spectacular Na Pali coast.  Despite the rainy days we had, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip.  What a treat--thank you Lord!

A couple of cases from this week.

Yesterday in Chutzerob a 10 y.o. girl came in complaining of 3 days of lingering headche and episodes of vomiting after falling along the side of the road--avoiding getting run over by a motorcycle.  She had scratches on her face, but on further exam she had a palpable skull frature as well.  Her mom was agreeable to take her to the hospital, but reported that her husband was out of town and wouldn't get home til later in the evening. This of course meant that they would have to wait.  Our volunteer from the church, Sebastian, also an elder in the church offered to talk with dad that night and let him know that we were worried. Be praying for her and her family to make a good decision.

One our diabetics came in today with blood sugars looking better than they had in a while.  Being the week after Holy Week (when everyone is eating specially prepared breads covered in honey) I expected the worst.  She was excited to see her results and joked that she just needed a little honey in her system to get things straight.  She told me she wasn't taking her pain medicine any more because the knee pain had resolved, but that she was faithfully taking the diabetic meds and following her diet.  After reviewing her meds with her, we realized that in fact she had confused her meds and was actually taking the pain meds twice a day and no longer taking her diabetes meds....Yikes!  I sorted out the meds for her and congratulated her on geting her diet so well controlled, rewarding her with a lowered dose of meds. 

Holy Week Road Trip

We have spent Semana Santa (Holy Week) doing a hodge podge of jobs seeing patients and doing administrative catching up.  Since we scheduled to take off a different week for our vacation, we decided to keep our Monday clinic open at Clinica Caris and also help out with post op patients down at Clinica Ezell. Sheri was with us, so we took advantage of the time to go through our work calendar and make plans for education projects.  We also jumped on the opportunity to have Pizza Hut and McDonald's!   Post op clinic was busy, but pretty straightforward with good outcomes for all the patients.  Sheri and I saw all the gyn patients while Dr. Davd Lux and did the general surgery follow ups. Everyone was so grateful for their surgery and the wonderful care they received from our surgery team, and praising God for his healing. 

Thursday, we headed out to the Annual National Conference of the churches of Christ. They were being held in San Basilio, about 45 minutes from Ezell. We were a little skeptical, as it is a small town in the middle of a rubber tree plantation (that spells H-O-T!).  But the church there did a great job setting up a tent site to seat 4000 people in the middle of their town's soccer field.  The clouds had also rolled in, so it wasn't too bad once the breeze kicked up.  There were about 3500 people while we were there--from all over Guatemala.  It was fun to meet and greet people we hadn't seen since last year.  They announced that 30 people had been baptized over a day and half, so we expect several more were added by the end of Friday's services--Praise God! 

Our little road trip was a nice break from the routine and a great view of the abundant beauty in this country.
We are at the end of the dry season now with several  big rains under our belt down on the coast and the start of rain up in the highlands.  It's such a relief from the thick, hot dusty air and the building barometric pressure.  On the coast the big tropical plants are lush and green and the frogs are out every night serenading you to sleep.  In the mountains, the wet pine forrest scents fills the air and put everyone in a good mood.  What a blessing to see tesimony of the resurrection in God's creation every year.

Maltiox chawe***Gracias***Thank you

Our staff and visiting teams have delivered 160 water filters to ABC famlies here in the Quiche area. In addition we've made follow up home visits to 3 of the communities with nothing but good reports from the families.  A couple of weeks ago we were looking through the letters that the ABC kids write to their sponsors (that's not really snooping if they aren't in an envelope is it?)  and thought you would enjoy some of the comments made about the water filters they received.  It really makes you take inventory and appreciate the things that God blesses you with.  Thank you to all who contributed to this project.

"I have never had pure drinking water before in my home, but now I drink 3-4 glasses a day."  Cristina


"I take my water bottle to school every day filled with clean drinking water."  Candelaria

"Thanks especially for the water filter."  Lots of kids said that.

"I drink water everyday after school with my family which is very nice right now as it is the hotter season with lots of sun." Delmi

Last week we hosted a couple from Searcy Arkansas--Klay and Lisa Bartee. Klay gave a two day seminar on marriage and family counseling for local church leaders. Despite some deep subject matter, the attendees enjoyed the time together and working through concepts that will help them in their roles as couselors. Klay's wife Lisa, a nurse, joined me (Lisa) in clinic on Saturday, which was a great help, allowing us to send Gaspar  (one of my team's health promoters) to the seminar.  Our local congregation in Chichicastenango hosted the seminar and were generous to provide cooks and even extra goodies for break time.

On Saturday night we enjoyed dinner out at Los Cofrades after following the procession of Jesus of Nazareth through town.

We tried to hang around to see the procession come back to the church and walk over the sawdust carpet, but they were a ways out still.

 

Sunday, we drove the Bartees to Clinica Ezell on the coast, stopping at our favorite Lake Atitlan overlook. 

Usually we use the bathroom facilities at the nearby reastaurant, but they were closed.  A man close by overheard us and offered to let us use his house.  I must say, I'm not sure I would offer a perfect stranger off the street the use of my bathroom (at least not without a quick tidying up), but he assured us it was fine and led us through his living room, kitchen and back to the washroom.  Thanks for the hospitality Samuel--someday you will entertain angels!