A month has gone by since I last wrote....where does to the time go? We made a brief trip to the US at the end March being home for Easter for the first time in 14 years. Before we left, the girls asked if they might be able to see snow. Well, not only did they see it but they had the biggest snow of the winter while we were there. It was so much fun to watch Grace and Abi experience life in the US. Abi, who never wears pants or a sweater even on the coldest days here, played in the snow for many hours, coming in just long enough to let her hands thaw. It was wonderful to see each of our children, spend time with our grandchildren and go to church during the Easter season.

We returned to Guatemala in time for the hottest, dustiest days of the year as we wait for signs of rain. The construction on the apartment is going well - they are just about ready to put the roof on. Clinics have been super busy since we have been home with lots of sick kids. Amazingly, we do not have any guests scheduled for this month and have been using the time to organize the clinic in preparation for government inspections of the "pharmacy". This is a requirement for both the nursing school which should be up an running by January and for us to be able to continue to purchase medication through the government.  All of this is preparation for what we believe God is asking of us....that we open a 24 hour care center. We are making small steps toward this vision that the Lord gave Duane many years ago but they are big steps of faith. We have no idea how it will all come together with some big pieces of the puzzle still missing (like finances, and medical staff) but we trust that in His timing all will come together. Please pray for us that we "might live a life worthy of the Lord and that we might please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...that we might have great endurance and patience..."
Col. 1:11 (my paraphrase)

Chumisa is a small village at the top of the mountain where we have been working monthly, for about 3 years now. It is beautiful, cool, and always green. We worked for several months in an adobe hut with a dirt floor and beams so low that I (at 5'3") almost hit my head. It was quite a problem for those taller than I to work in! Later they moved us into a rented house that is dark and cold but at least we can work without hitting out heads. We carry all of our equipment and boxes of medications up each month and spend much of our day, scrambling through the boxes looking for just the right medication for each patient. So, when the community leaders approached us with a request to help them build a small clinic there, I was in whole-hearted agreement. We bought much of the block and cement needed for the project and they supplied the ground and all the man power. And they have worked very quickly - by this time next month we will be working in a new clinic - with light and power! I am pretty excited to be able to leave medications and some equipment there. And we are hoping to be able to work more frequently - at least every 2 weeks. We always see over 100 patients - which can be quite challenging when it is just Katie and I working!

There is alot of need in Chumisa. Each of our clinics is very different - and in this one we see so many diabetics. It is a challenge to teach people who eat 10 -15 tortillas at each meal to change their diets! Compliance is minimal because their understanding of the disease is limited. So much of our time goes into education. Almost all of the people are Mayan Catholic. Hearts are hardened toward the evangelical church and there are very few in the area. But we continue to pray and serve and love - trusting that God will do the work that only He can do in hearts.

God supplies seed to the planter. He supplies bread for food. God will also supply and increase the amount of your seed. He will increase the results of your good works. (2 Corinthians 9:10)
 

Our "season " has changed here, going from cool and dry to very hot and dry. We have not had any rain since October so the dust blows continually making it impossible to keep anything clean. I am not complaining though as I know many of you are anticipating yet another winter storm today. David's psalm has however, become my daily prayer...
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body long for you,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  Psalm 63:1

I see the weariness in the faces of the women. Last week as one of the women from Chiminisijuan brought her daughter in yet again, for the same infection, I saw it. She had not only her 9 year old daughter with her but the 3 year old who was burning with fever. He had walked the three hour walk with his mother who could not carry him except for short periods as she had the one year old baby strapped to her back. They were accompanied by her aunt who was sick with pneumonia and a large abdominal tumor.

I saw it again, as we asked the widows this week for prayer requests and the litany of problems too big for human strength flowed from these women. As we told the mama of 8 that she was now carrying twins...there it was again. It is a weariness that extends way past the physical fatigue to the deepest part of the soul. You know it, you have felt it...that weariness that only Jesus can lift.....Maranatha!

"The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing."  Psalm 145:14-16

Every once in a while, we have a day when it seems like all of the children are very sick. Yesterday was one of those days. It seemed as if each child was struggling to breath with respiratory infections. Of course, our nutrition children are the ones most affected. Because their nutritional status is so compromised, they are susceptible to any infection that comes along. Respiratory infections remain the number 1 killer of children here, followed by the dehydration that comes with diarrhea. We quickly used up all of our "stronger" antibiotics as we saw child after child with this - probably viral - infection. Once this supply was gone, we were scrambling to try and figure out what to do. We had one bottle of zithromax left but it was an adult dose. To scale that down to give to a child weighing about 20 pounds was....more math than my brain could handle. We made an "emergency" call to Katie's mom - who is a pharmacist. She quickly did  the calculations for us and we were rolling again!  

One little girl - Fabiola - was especially sick. I appealed to her mother to take her to the hospital as she really needed oxygen. But she is alone caring for her children as her husband abandoned her when Fabiola was born. So we prayed first, entrusting her to the care of the Great Physician, and then we gave her all the oral medications that we could. As always, when we have days like this, I spend most of the night in prayer for these little ones. Only He has the power to heal and to save....

I am grateful to have Don - and all of the Allison's - here for a few weeks to help. With the announcement that Rachael Needham will not be returning (see her blog at mountainofmyrrh.blogspot.com), I have felt a little overwhelmed with the load of responsibility. But He is always faithful to supply all that we need...and I have learned to just take today and know that His grace is sufficient for the day.
" My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9,10

Pedro is a young man who began to work for us several years ago. He is probably 18 now, born to alcoholic parents. We got to know his family when someone from town came and told us about how they were living and asked if we could help them. I went out with Tomas to find a family of 7 huddled under a piece of plastic that served as a roof. They had no food and had been asked to leave their last "home" because of the irresponsibility that comes with alcoholism. We gave them food and Pedro - who was probably 14 - began to work for  us. He hungrily accepted Jesus as his Savior early on and has continued to persevere on that path. He cannot read - never having the opportunity to go to school. His father never registered him with the government (kind of the equivalent to our social security). So he is unable to receive any help that the government offers - which isn't much but he is like a "non-person" - should he have any trouble with anyone, he is not recognized as having any rights, and now that he has a son, he cannot register his son as his own.  To be registered now would cost him several thousand quetzales in legal fees - which he does not have.

A few months ago, leaders from his village came and told us that we needed to let him go, that he had stolen some chickens, and they were expelling him from the village - which seemed a little harsh. We asked a couple of our indigenous workers to go out into the community to check it out - to find out what had really happened. They came back saying that what the leaders had said was true...that everyone said the same thing. But we prayed and waited. This young man had worked for us for several years by this time and had never stolen anything from us...and had had ample opportunity to do so. We have a group of 5 young men now who work together - all of them Christians - who watch over him and encourage him. As Duane does weekly devotions with them, Pedro has come several times, thanking Duane for giving him a chance, for accepting him when no one else would, and grateful to work with other young men who treat him as a brother, as a family that he never had.

During the Christmas season, Pedro came and asked Duane for some time off so that he could help his father-in-law make some adobes. Shortly after that, Antonio (another worker) came asking if we had heard from Pedro. He was very concerned, saying that Pedro had come and spent a fearful night with him, saying that 3 men were pursuing him with the intention to kill him. We did not hear anything for a couple of weeks but yesterday he showed up. As I drove in from clinic, I heard him with Duane, crying his heart out, telling him the story of how these men from his village have chased after him, driven him out of his home with his wife and infant son. We really have no idea what the truth is...lying is such a deeply embedded part of this culture. So we pray that the Lord will reveal the truth and give us wisdom.  Please pray for this young man who has, from the beginning of his young life, never had anyone to stand with him, to help him. Please pray that we as leaders have wisdom and discernment to do the right thing, to do the Godly thing.

I have been a Christian for a lot of years now. And I cannot count how many times I have read the Christmas story. But for some reason, this year, I have been completely undone by the story of the birth of our Savior. I have found myself meditating on why...why did He do it this way? Why was Jesus born in obscurity, in hiddeness, to poor young parents away from their home? Why was Mary alone having her first child? Why did the angels appear to shepherds - the lowest of all Jewish society at that time - why did they sing their praises to them? Why not announce the birth of our Savior to the religious leaders or the king or over at least, populated areas so that everyone would know that Jesus, the Messiah, was born? And what does that say about God's heart? What does it say about the poor? I think it says that God honors the poor and weak; that the things we count important - riches, fame, and recognition - are not all that important to Him.

Every week as we go up to Chiminisijuan, we pass the shepherds. They are usually young people or women who spend their entire day following after their animals. They do not go to school. They are alone all day, without recognition. It does not matter how cold or rainy it may be, they are there caring for animals. What do they think about all day? I can only imagine how amazing it would be for a host of angels to appear to them....singing praises to God.

May you find time today, in the midst of all the busyness, to rejoice with the angels who are still saying "Glory to God in the highest!" (Luke 2:14)

Juanita is a four year old in our nutrition program. She has cerebral palsy. We see many children like her, often due to home deliveries gone bad. She (as all of the children like her) has a special place in my heart. They are normal little people, with normal intelligence and emotions but trapped in a body which will not cooperate. Often times, they are mistaken as unintelligent because of their inability to communicate.  But when Juanita comes in she smiles and says "leche" (milk). She cannot sit or even hold her head up and she is getting heavy now for mom to carry her in every two weeks. Fortunately for Juanita, her mom has not yet had another baby. There is very little help for children like her...no therapy close by, no wheelchairs (yet....we are working on it). Because these children cannot contribute or help with the workload of the family, most often they are left lying on the dirt floor in a corner of the house, alone much of the day. They are truly one of the "least of these little brothers of Mine." (Matthew 25:40)

One of our goals for the coming year is to get a group of physical/occupational therapists together who are willing to come once a year. If we could get 12 therapists, we could ask them to work once a month with each of these children, in each of our clinics. We are asking the Lord to touch the hearts of those who have the expertise and knowledge to help these little ones.    

I am pretty sure that the Lord looks on us in the same way that He looks at these children. He is able to see past our weaknesses and failures. He sees our potential, not our handicaps. "Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God." 2 Corinthians 3:5.