Grace....Webster's dictionary defines it as "unmerited divine assistance." Grace was what I experienced last week as we hosted the largest team in our short history. Joyce Meyer's ministry sends medical teams all over the world and when they first approached us, we said "no." They send large teams into heavily populated areas of great need...and they do an amazing work. They typically stay in hotels and eat in restaurants but there are none of those here...at least not to their standards. When they agreed to cut their team in half, we agreed to host them. They all arrived on Saturday - a wonderful, Godly group of people from all over the US and even Victoria who came from the United Kingdom. It was awesome to hear their stories of trips from all over the world.


Because virtually all of the villages that we planned to visit speak Quiche and very little Spanish, we needed not only English to Spanish translators but also Spanish to Quiche translators as there are very few people who can translate from Quiche to English. So we traveled with a group of over 35 each day....slightly overwhelming logistics - for me anyway. We went to three different villages in five days, treated around 1200 people, planted seeds of the Gospel in each heart and prayed for most.


On Thursday Little Ethan Aaron (Katie and Aaron's second child) made his entrance into the world. Duane and I flew them into the City early in the morning for the birth. Our daughters, Hannah and Rachel, stepped in to prepare and serve breakfast and get the team up to Cruz Chich. Thanks to God's grace, Ethan was born without problems and we were all home in the afternoon, just in time to get dinner ready for the team.


Even as I write, I am overwhelmed by God's grace to us. There was not a moment when we did not feel this completely "unmerited divine assistance." Our prayer is that each one who was touched last week - whether team member or patient - felt a touch from God and was changed in some way by His power and love. Because that's what it's all about.....


"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." 2 Corinthians 3:4-5