I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust." Psalm 91:2


I have not written for a while. These have been challenging weeks for me personally. I have struggled with some health issues and have made many trips to the doctors here in Guatemala and ultimately in Houston where I stayed a few days with our daughter Hannah. There was a fear that I had an infection in my leg where I still have lots of hardware from my fracture many years ago. And while I have had as many different opinions as I have seen doctors, thankfully, there seems to be no infection. There was also a fear that I had a DVT (clot) in that same leg. The medication for that has made me weak and nauseated, but with the last ultrasound done, that clot seems to have thankfully, disappeared. I really hate thinking about myself and am pretty good at just ignoring pain, but as I watched the concern in my husband's face grow, I knew I needed to do something....so that is where I have been. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for me. What amazing friends God has given me!


And again, thankfully, I am surrounded by young people who continue the work here. As always, God is so gracious to not give us more than we can handle. Clinics have been quieter than normal and we have had no visitors in these last few weeks. As I feel my strength returning, I know that the pace will pick up again!


A final update on Rubidia....she went home to Jesus last week. She was never able to get rid of the infection nor did she have surgery. Please pray for her mama, Olga. Even though she is just 15, she never left Rubidia's bedside during all these months of hospitalization.

An update on Rubidia....She still waits in the national hospital. Her lungs have not cleared enough for the surgeons to do her PDA repair. Please continue to pray for her.

Our time here in Guatemala has taught us many things. One of those things is that there are seasons where we wait, and other seasons when we begin to see God move. We are beginning one of those seasons. Spurred by several things, one being little Rubidia, another being the arrival of Rachel who has come alongside to shoulder some of the responsibility, we feel that it is the time to begin to move on what the Lord spoke to us several years ago.

So here is our plan....we would like to use the existing clinic for just that. We want to build an additional dorm at the back of our property to house visitors (who stay in the clinic now) and teams. One of the churches who supports us in the US asked for a proposal which we gave them last week. As far as we know, they have not even talked with their board yet. So when we recieved a call yesterday from some friends who said that they would like to help us pay for the fence that we need to put up around the entire property (for security reasons) and for the well, we were a little more than surprised. Then in the afternoon, a friend wrote explaining that he had an idea for fund raising and did we have any projects that we needed funding for? It always amazes me how when we take that tiny step of faith, the Lord is right there to meet us.

I must admit that I am a little nervous about starting a building project. I have watched so many ministries loose their "simple devotion to God" in the midst the details of a project like this. But 2 Corinthians 9:8 says "God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." So we are trusting in His grace!

This is Rubidia. She is 5 months old today and we met her 10 days ago in Chiminisijuan. Before I could even get in the door I heard her cough and knew that she was in distress. She was continuously coughing and gasping for air, her sats (oxygen level) were in the 60’s (normal is above 90)…for how long, I don’t know. We started her on oxygen and gave her some medication and she calmed down and was able to nurse. She is a scrawny little thing, weighing only 8 pounds. At the end of the day, we knew that we had three
options….take her into the Quiche hospital – which her mom refused to do; let her go home knowing that she would probably die; or take her home with us. And when presented with those choices, her mom chose the last.

So for the last 10 days we have cared for and prayed over Rubidia day and night. Her mom is so young - just 15 - but she loves her baby, never leaving her bedside. Yesterday, after realizing that she was not getting better, we made the decision to take her into the City for an echocardiogram. She has a PDA in addition to her pnuemonia, so she will stay in the national hospital in the City until her lungs are healed enough to withstand heart surgery. We left Olga (her mom) alone in a place where no one speaks Quiche, where she has no idea how to get home, where her mom cannot enter, in an area where it is not safe to step outside of the hospital. And yet this is the best hosptial that this country has to offer the poor. I have been there when the entire hospital had no water. The staff frequently goes on strike because of the lack of supplies. One time I was in the ER and there were no paper towels or soap for the doctors to wash their hands with. I watched them wash with water and then dry their hands on the curtains. The hospital was full yesterday but somehow they found a bed for her. Often it is so full that they shut the Emergency Room. Where these children go then....I do not know.

It has been an exhausting 10 days and I slept like a baby last night knowing that she was in the hands of others who are smarter than I. Our hope is that one day we will be able to have a place where children like her could come, be cared for professionally in combination with the love and prayer that we are able to give. Without a lab, or ability to do chest x-rays, or most importantly, a physician....we can only offer half of what little Rubidia needed. At moments like these, I am overwhelmed with inadequacy. I find myself asking, "Why Lord, what is it that you want us to learn from this?" Maybe it is just so that we fight and pray harder to build that place where children like Rubidia can come. Would you pray today for Rubidia and her mom?

It is hot again. The winds have changed in the last week and the dust blows continously. We have had no rain now since September. And the widows are beginning to come again, asking for food. Our nutrition program is filling up. Men are trying to earn cash by cutting sugar cane on the "coast". It is exhausting work, swinging a machete 12 hours a day in 100 degree weather. Women are left to care for children alone, often with little food and no money. Tuesday, Fransisca came into the clinic in Chiminisijuan with her 1 year old, sick and weighing just 12 pounds. Mom is 8 months pregnant with twins. She will need to go to the hospital to have these babies but her husband is gone and there is no one to care for the one year old. When I told her that there were 2 babies, big tears rolled down her face....the desperation so profound. We loaded her up with as much food as she could carry and medicine for the little one and sent her on her way with a prayer that Jesus would give her the strength that she needs.

There are so many like her - in need and desperate. What we have to give is so little. But we are learning the power of prayer because we know that without Jesus, the cycle can not be broken. Only He can bring healing. Only He can make the wrong things right. Only He can...
comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty for ashes
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Isaiah 61:2-3

The hearts of the fathers

As Duane and I go on thirteen years of serving here in Guatemala, there are a few things that we have learned. One is that Guatemalans are so much better at ministering to their own people than we could ever dream of. We have learned that our most effective way to reach people is to help those who are called to serve here, those who have a heart to see their country changed. And so it is that we find ourselves beginning this new year standing behind two young men whom we have found to be faithful in that calling.

We met Armando on our very first trip to Guatemala in 1996. He is one of about 70 children (he thinks) born to a local brujo (witchdoctor). We have watched him grow from an insecure, fearful young man into a humble, gentle, Godly leader of his own people. He has a passion to see his people educated in the knowledge of God. He completed Biblical training at ASELSI - a local Bible school - two years ago. We watched him go through a very dark time last year as the church which he grew up in split apart and at the same time he lost his second son - and very nearly his wife. We have seen him pass through difficult times without bitterness toward his brothers in Christ or anger at God for allowing his son to die. About three years ago he began to help me in the clinics, evangelizing at the beginning of each clinic, translating for us and ministering to the sick and hurting in prayer and counsel. In September of last year we began to financially support him monthly so that he could begin to work out in the villages and continue to help us in the clinics. And now this year, he feels a call from God to begin a church in San Andres - not an easy thing to do here. We feel called to stand behind him and support him in this call.

The second young man is Victor whom we have known for about 9 years. He pastored the local church here in Canilla for some years and we got to know him as he came and shared his heart at our table almost weekly. His passion and call from God is to reach out to drug addicts and alcoholics both of which he has been deliverd from. Three years ago, he began in a more formal way to minister to these men when he opened a very small home. He started literally with nothing and has seen God's provision as he has stepped out in faith to do what God has called him to do. We have watched him struggle to provide food and shelter for these men whom he picks up off of the street in drunken stupors. We know as well that it is God's heart that he expresses as he ministers to men who no one else cares for, taking them in over and over just as our Heavenly Father takes us in time after time as we fall in our weakness. And so we have decided to help Victor in a more formal way in the administration of this ministry and by supporting it financially each month.

Malachi 4:5 says "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers." We believe that God has set us as "fathers" to these two young men. And just as with our own children, our prayer is that they will be used by God and that they will grow each day in wisdom and understanding of this great God that we serve. Pray with us for them, that God will abundantly bless these two young men and give to them all that they need to complete the call of God upon their lives.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will direct you paths. Proverbs 3:5,6

It's been a while since I have posted...I apologize. Over the holidays I worked alone in the clinics - with the Guatemalan young women and Armondo - all of whom were great. I was a little nervous about it but as always God was faithful to only give what we could handle. On the days when we had lots of patients we found that none of them were very sick and on the days when the really sick folks came there would not be as many people waiting. And now we have help! Rachael came with our children as they returned from the One Thing youth conference in Kansas City. She is an RN who lived here in Guatemala for several years until she felt the Lord directing her to study nursing. She is great! I think that if the Lord had asked me what kind of help I would want, I would have described Rachael. She is gentle and kind, loves the people and most importantly loves Jesus. And she is a really good nurse.

Katie and Aaron arrived back home this week after a couple of weeks with Katie's family in the US. It was a good time for Kathy and Dave (Katie's parents) to get to know little Ethan and to spend some quality time with Anna. It is so hard being away from your grandchildren...

And the new Guatemalan president has been inaugurated - along with the local mayors - and the transition was a peaceful one. For this, we are very grateful. Once again, I am in awe of God's provision and protection over our lives and over this small work that we do here. As we begin our thirteenth year here, we ask for your prayers for ministry direction. We want to be found doing only what He has asked us to do and at times, when the need is so great all around us, it is difficult to discern.

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