Thanksgiving here in Guatemala doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving. Today promises to be warm and sunny. There has been no television hype to prepare us, no one to say that we will have the weekend off, no college football to watch. But of all the holidays that we celebrate in the US, this is the one that I want my children to appreciate. A day set apart to remember all the good gifts that our Father has given us - how great is that! So today, I will bake a turkey with all the fixings. We traditionally invite all the North Americans who are in our area. This year there are only the Allisons - and we are thankfull that they have become like our family here.
Our weekend in the clinics was as busy as usual even though the fiestas are beginning here. Sunday was the start of the weeklong celebration in San Andres. It will begin the following week here in Canilla. We had to drive carefully to avoid all the men passed out drunk laying in the streets. We are thankful that we no longer live in town as the mirimbas play all night long, marked by the "bombas" which expode at frequent intervals, making sleep difficult.
Little Helen Diana (the baby with hydrocephalus that I wrote about last time) came in with her mother on Saturday. They spent several days in the City again, seeking someone who would help them with her - but to no avail. They did not repeat her CT scan, nor did they ever even get the chance to speak with a neurosurgeon. They asked her to return to see the dermatologist! I was so frustrated! However, through a series of "circumstances", we were able to speak with the pastor of a large church in the City who has said that they will help us help this family. We have asked them to help us connect Helen's family with a family there who is willing to help them navigate this system and provide them with a place to stay while they are there. Please remember to pray for them.
In the morning, we will travel out to the Zona Reina to do a day of clinic in San Pedro. It has been a while since the weather has cooperated enough for us to be able to fly out there. When Duane took Fredi (who had his cleft palate repair done 2 weeks ago) back to this village, he was met by the entire community who had worked all morning cutting the grass on the runway - with machetes! There were shouts of amazement and joy when they saw Fredi's repair. Silvia told us later that the community had wanted to get rid of this little baby, thinking that he brought a curse to them. For the first time, this Momma took the towel off of his face so that everyone could see him. Tomorrow we will meet another baby born with the same problem - along with many pregnant women and the sick children that they have asked us to see. Would you pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal the love of Jesus to these people?
Today as you celebrate Thanksgiving, we pray that the Lord would bless you and keep you in the palm of His hand!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Tractors, Planes, and Clinic Buildings
As the cold winds come in and the dust and brown so characteristic of the dry season start to settle into place, we have also found ourselves starting back in on outside work that can be done without the needed shelter during the rainy season.
Last week David and Juanito (our Guatemalan friend who helps out with construction, especially the welding work) were able to help out some of the guys in town when the canal became blocked due to rocks that had fallen in it during the heavy rains. The canal, which was put in place several years ago by a European company, is the main supply of water during the dry season as it travels from the mountins and down throughout the town of Canilla. They were able to work on it for a couple days with about 10 other men using lots of cables and pulleys and one chain hoist to lift out 3 huge rocks. Although they tried to remind us how much work it was, we knew that they had a fun time, and it was great to be able to use the equipment we have to be able to help out a project that would have taken these guys days to do by hand.
David and Juanito have also been working hard on the clinic in Chiminisijuan, working to get a fence built completely around it as we have had trouble with tools and other supplies being taken. It has been encouraging to all of us to see the construction coming along again on this building; we were able to spend a day up there a few weeks ago, and it reminded all of us of the various dreams that God laid on our hearts for this building outside of the weekly use it gets for clinics. Please continue to pray for the hearts of the people up there as they are very very slow to trust anyone, let alone us gringos.
Aaron has been working on the Aztec which is now almost complete and ready for the propellors. Duane hopes to fly up to Brownsville with Joseph in the next few weeks to get the props and bring them back. After that we will just be waiting on the paint, and then it should be up and running shortly. Aaron has also been able to help out a missionary friend of ours recently by doing an annual insepction on his airplane. This is his second annual (including our Cessna) he has gotten to perform since getting his Inspection Authorization, and he has not only enjoyed the work itself, but also being able to help out another missionary.
Duane and Joe have also gotten to get in a lot of airplane time these past couple weeks between medical flights and a few flights these past few days for speakers at a church conference in Guatemala City and a couple other towns in the country. Included in the medical flights was little Fredi from San Pedro who returned to his village on Thursday after a successful cleft palate surgery! We continue to thank God for His provision of safety as we travel by plane and on often less-than-ideal road conditions.
Last week David and Juanito (our Guatemalan friend who helps out with construction, especially the welding work) were able to help out some of the guys in town when the canal became blocked due to rocks that had fallen in it during the heavy rains. The canal, which was put in place several years ago by a European company, is the main supply of water during the dry season as it travels from the mountins and down throughout the town of Canilla. They were able to work on it for a couple days with about 10 other men using lots of cables and pulleys and one chain hoist to lift out 3 huge rocks. Although they tried to remind us how much work it was, we knew that they had a fun time, and it was great to be able to use the equipment we have to be able to help out a project that would have taken these guys days to do by hand.
David and Juanito have also been working hard on the clinic in Chiminisijuan, working to get a fence built completely around it as we have had trouble with tools and other supplies being taken. It has been encouraging to all of us to see the construction coming along again on this building; we were able to spend a day up there a few weeks ago, and it reminded all of us of the various dreams that God laid on our hearts for this building outside of the weekly use it gets for clinics. Please continue to pray for the hearts of the people up there as they are very very slow to trust anyone, let alone us gringos.
Aaron has been working on the Aztec which is now almost complete and ready for the propellors. Duane hopes to fly up to Brownsville with Joseph in the next few weeks to get the props and bring them back. After that we will just be waiting on the paint, and then it should be up and running shortly. Aaron has also been able to help out a missionary friend of ours recently by doing an annual insepction on his airplane. This is his second annual (including our Cessna) he has gotten to perform since getting his Inspection Authorization, and he has not only enjoyed the work itself, but also being able to help out another missionary.
Duane and Joe have also gotten to get in a lot of airplane time these past couple weeks between medical flights and a few flights these past few days for speakers at a church conference in Guatemala City and a couple other towns in the country. Included in the medical flights was little Fredi from San Pedro who returned to his village on Thursday after a successful cleft palate surgery! We continue to thank God for His provision of safety as we travel by plane and on often less-than-ideal road conditions.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Faithfulness
As Duane said this week, our lives are like a roller coaster ride - somedays up and some down but always God is faithful. Last week I wrote that the social worker came to evaluate our home for Abi's adoption. We thought this a very good thing. However this week, our lawyer called to say that the judge (whose signature we need before we can proceed any further) was threatening to take Abi out of our home and place her in an orphanage. The social worker's recommendation to us (as she is a friend of our lawyer's) was to hide if anyone came to our door. The judge had no legal grounds to do this and there was talk that she wanted money. We were scared and prepared to take Abi out the back door should anyone come. And we prayed - alot! Early the next day, the PGN (the government agency which gives final approval for all adoptions) called to set up an appointment with us to sign a resolution saying that Abi is to stay in our home until the final paperwork is done. To have them call us was an enormous miracle - we waited months to see them to finalize Grace's adoption. God is so faithful - I don't know why it always surprises me when He does what He does! As a result of this judge's harrassment, we think the adoption will go much faster now - they had to move our paperwork to the top of the pile!
All 5 of our cleft lip babies will have their surgeries this week - 3 on Monday, 2 on Tuesday. Please remember to pray for them. Duane flew out yesterday morning to bring little Fredi in from the Zona Reina but the weather was too bad so they will make the very long bus trip into Antigue. We are so grateful to our friends at ASELSI who have organized all of the details of not one, but two trips into Antigue for this; and to Agape in Action who have helped to offset the costs. Once again, God is faithful to provide!
Clinics were pretty routine this weekend. San Andres was unusually quiet. Preparations are being made for the anual celebration to Saint Andrew, the patron saint of San Andres and the corn god. It will be a weeklong celebration marked by Mayan ritual and drunkeness - not our favorite time of year! Canilla will celebrate two weeks later. Here, there is less Mayan influence but the drunkeness and sexual sins will be no less distressing.
Would you pray for a 3 month old baby girl named Helen? She was born normally here in Canilla but within days after her birth a large hemangioma (birthmark) began to grow over the right side of her face and head. She was in the hospital in Quiche for a few days and then sent to the City where they spent all of their money and were never actually seen by anyone who could help them. They returned home, the growth of this hemangioma continued until her lip broke down to the point where she could no longer nurse. That is when we began to help her as we would a cleft lip baby - with formula and special bottles. In the last 2 weeks we have noticed that her head is growing too fast and believe that she now has hydrocephalus. She needs surgery asap so we will take her into the City in the morning and try to help them navigate through the frustrating maze of the national healthcare system. I cannot explain how distressing it is to know what someone needs, to know that it is available but to have no idea how to help them get that help.
And so throughout rollercoster ups and downs of life, God's amazing faithfulness has remained evident. We praise Him today and thank Him again for His constant provisions in our lives.
All 5 of our cleft lip babies will have their surgeries this week - 3 on Monday, 2 on Tuesday. Please remember to pray for them. Duane flew out yesterday morning to bring little Fredi in from the Zona Reina but the weather was too bad so they will make the very long bus trip into Antigue. We are so grateful to our friends at ASELSI who have organized all of the details of not one, but two trips into Antigue for this; and to Agape in Action who have helped to offset the costs. Once again, God is faithful to provide!
Clinics were pretty routine this weekend. San Andres was unusually quiet. Preparations are being made for the anual celebration to Saint Andrew, the patron saint of San Andres and the corn god. It will be a weeklong celebration marked by Mayan ritual and drunkeness - not our favorite time of year! Canilla will celebrate two weeks later. Here, there is less Mayan influence but the drunkeness and sexual sins will be no less distressing.
Would you pray for a 3 month old baby girl named Helen? She was born normally here in Canilla but within days after her birth a large hemangioma (birthmark) began to grow over the right side of her face and head. She was in the hospital in Quiche for a few days and then sent to the City where they spent all of their money and were never actually seen by anyone who could help them. They returned home, the growth of this hemangioma continued until her lip broke down to the point where she could no longer nurse. That is when we began to help her as we would a cleft lip baby - with formula and special bottles. In the last 2 weeks we have noticed that her head is growing too fast and believe that she now has hydrocephalus. She needs surgery asap so we will take her into the City in the morning and try to help them navigate through the frustrating maze of the national healthcare system. I cannot explain how distressing it is to know what someone needs, to know that it is available but to have no idea how to help them get that help.
And so throughout rollercoster ups and downs of life, God's amazing faithfulness has remained evident. We praise Him today and thank Him again for His constant provisions in our lives.
Monday, November 10, 2008
His grace is sufficient!
Well, all five of our families who traveled to Antigua will be rescheduled for surgeries in 10 days. Apparently when they arrived, there were so many children there who came for cleft lip/palate surgeries that they could not care for them all. So Duane will go into Quiche this morning to meet the family from San Pedro (in the Zona Reina) and fly them home. The rest will travel home by bus. It is disappointing but definitely a "Guatemalan moment" and an example of however well planned something may be, it is always subject to change - even in the last moment.
Last Thursday,we had an unexpected visit from the Social Worker - and her 2 fully armed body guards. It is a little disconcerting to serve lemonade to men dressed in military garb carrying M-16 machine guns! But this was a moment that we have been waiting for for some time now. It is an indication that finally, work is being done toward Abi's adoption. She charmed the social worker - and the guards -by giving them all hugs and saying "It's nice to know you!" and then going outside to bring in her 'popcorn popper' and make as much noise as possible. Please pray with us that her paperwork will finally be completed.
Duane made 2 emergency flights out to the Zona Reina last week - both for the same woman who needed a C-section. Unfortunately her baby died somewhere in the midst of that - we are not sure what happened. His second trip was to return her to the hospital with a very severe infection.
On Friday, David saw the surgeon who repaired his finger. They removed his dressings and he has a complete finger and will soon have a fingernail as well! God is so good to us! Thanks for all of your prayers.
This weekend in clinic was especially busy - probably because we didn't work last weekend due to the Day of the Dead celebrations. We saw about 75 people here in Canilla - most of them pregnant women. However, one very emaciated young man named Mariano came in saying he was loosing weight and could not eat. He tested positive for HIV. He lives alone in a village called Cruz Chich - a Mayan village where a lot of guerrilla hid during the war. It has been my experience that there is very little help here for those with AIDs. None of the medications available in the US are available here. So we had nothing to offer him medically - but we spoke with him about a God who offers eternal life to those who accept his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. He knew nothing about this God but allowed us to pray for him and said that he would return in a week. Please remember him in prayer.
Yesterday we were greeted by over 100 people waiting to be seen. Armando (our translator in Chiminisijuan) was waiting as well and asked us to visit a gentleman in his home. He was too weak to walk and they had carried him down from his village the day before. I found him in bed, very thin and weak but without anything physically obvious. He did not look any of us in the eye but listened to every word that Armando and his son were speaking (in Quiche) about Jesus. When we asked him if we could pray for him, he said "please" and as we prayed, I saw his eyes fill with tears. It is very unusual to see any of the Mayan people cry, but to see a older Mayan man with tears was amazing and an indication to me that God was touching him. Armando told me as we left that he was a good friend of his father's - who was a brujo (a witchdoctor). Please pray for this gentleman as well. The rest of the day was filled with a seemingly endless line of sick children and pregnant women.
I have to admit that I yesterday morning, after a sleepless night, I did not feel that I had to strength to face what I knew would be waiting for us in San Andres. As I got ready in the morning, I just felt like crying but I didn't say anything. We always begin our clinic days with prayer and Katie prayed 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." How perfectly He meets our needs! Sometime in the early afternoon when we always begin to feel hungry and ready for the break that we never take, I realized that I no longer felt tired...and that His grace is always sufficient!
Last Thursday,we had an unexpected visit from the Social Worker - and her 2 fully armed body guards. It is a little disconcerting to serve lemonade to men dressed in military garb carrying M-16 machine guns! But this was a moment that we have been waiting for for some time now. It is an indication that finally, work is being done toward Abi's adoption. She charmed the social worker - and the guards -by giving them all hugs and saying "It's nice to know you!" and then going outside to bring in her 'popcorn popper' and make as much noise as possible. Please pray with us that her paperwork will finally be completed.
Duane made 2 emergency flights out to the Zona Reina last week - both for the same woman who needed a C-section. Unfortunately her baby died somewhere in the midst of that - we are not sure what happened. His second trip was to return her to the hospital with a very severe infection.
On Friday, David saw the surgeon who repaired his finger. They removed his dressings and he has a complete finger and will soon have a fingernail as well! God is so good to us! Thanks for all of your prayers.
This weekend in clinic was especially busy - probably because we didn't work last weekend due to the Day of the Dead celebrations. We saw about 75 people here in Canilla - most of them pregnant women. However, one very emaciated young man named Mariano came in saying he was loosing weight and could not eat. He tested positive for HIV. He lives alone in a village called Cruz Chich - a Mayan village where a lot of guerrilla hid during the war. It has been my experience that there is very little help here for those with AIDs. None of the medications available in the US are available here. So we had nothing to offer him medically - but we spoke with him about a God who offers eternal life to those who accept his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. He knew nothing about this God but allowed us to pray for him and said that he would return in a week. Please remember him in prayer.
Yesterday we were greeted by over 100 people waiting to be seen. Armando (our translator in Chiminisijuan) was waiting as well and asked us to visit a gentleman in his home. He was too weak to walk and they had carried him down from his village the day before. I found him in bed, very thin and weak but without anything physically obvious. He did not look any of us in the eye but listened to every word that Armando and his son were speaking (in Quiche) about Jesus. When we asked him if we could pray for him, he said "please" and as we prayed, I saw his eyes fill with tears. It is very unusual to see any of the Mayan people cry, but to see a older Mayan man with tears was amazing and an indication to me that God was touching him. Armando told me as we left that he was a good friend of his father's - who was a brujo (a witchdoctor). Please pray for this gentleman as well. The rest of the day was filled with a seemingly endless line of sick children and pregnant women.
I have to admit that I yesterday morning, after a sleepless night, I did not feel that I had to strength to face what I knew would be waiting for us in San Andres. As I got ready in the morning, I just felt like crying but I didn't say anything. We always begin our clinic days with prayer and Katie prayed 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." How perfectly He meets our needs! Sometime in the early afternoon when we always begin to feel hungry and ready for the break that we never take, I realized that I no longer felt tired...and that His grace is always sufficient!
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