Bringing Guatemalan Girl home

We started day 4 with Rhonda’s devotion.  Be open to whatever God has in store for you.  Recognize possibilities in life.  Wow!  Did I ever think 4 years ago that I would have such a passion for these people in Guatemala.  I feel that going on these trips is such a part of my life now.  Today there was a little girl waiting for her Mom who was in the Spiritual Clinic.  I wanted to say something to her, but the interpreters were busy (interpreting, imagine that).  I held my arms out for her.  I got the biggest hug.  One that we both needed.  Don’t worry, Eric.  She’s not in my suitcase.  Tomorrow is Antigua day.  We will see what kind of deals we are able to get. 

Miss you all

See you on Saturday

Sue

Celia

I was blessed and caring for 10 year old Celia.  Her chief complaint was that her mother didn’t think she was growing fast enough and was always tired.  On exam she had a loud heart murmur and chest pain with activity.  The mother then shared that last year a sibling brought Celia to the clinic that had come to Sumpango and was told “she had a bad heart” but without money she just watched her.  She heard about our clinic and brought her in for an exam.  God blessed our team with Dr. Nick, who brought an ultrasound machine so he did an echo cardiogram.  It appears she has PDA(patent ductus arteriosis).  The mother again explained that she has no money.  I spoke with Oscar Chiquito whom thought there may be a services available in Guatemala City but to check with Dr. Paredes.  At dinner Wednesday, Dr. Paredes joined our team.  I asked about how we could help Celia and he will be calling his pediatric cardiology friend, but feels all the tests and part or all of the surgery will be free through a program he is aware of.  Thanks be to God.  Please pray for Celia that she will receive the needed surgery and can lead a normal functioning life.  Provide support and comfort to her family as they move forward, working through the tests.

~Diane

Greetings From Sumpango!

Greetings from Sumpango!  What a fantastic week of fellowship and communion with this wonderful team!  I am so blessed to be here—we had a successful week in gyne clinic and with our friends from Los Olivios.  I am looking forward to a day in Antigua, then back home in Stevens Point.  Thanks for to all my family and friends for your thoughts and prayers.  Can’t wait for Emy J’s with you MDW!!

Love, Rhonda

Hola Clase!

Hey all:

                Regreats to inform that injury has been suffered. Last night during a ferocious game of Mano-Tazo (SIappers) Lulu stabbed me with one of her nails. There was blood, but I hit it with the hand sanitizer (que quemacion!!) but Sue, my room-mother, gave it a kiss last night, it’s stopped bleeding and I have a bandaid on it now so it’s all good. I can’t believe that we’re to the last day of clinic already! It seems crazy that we’re already to the point of return! I mean, I’ll be happy to go back to the states (I’m especially looking forward to seeing my cat) but at the same time these trips are so amazing that I don’t want them to end.

Hola clase!

                Lo siento a decirles que yo habia rebecido un herido. Estaba sangrando! Estaba jugando un juego que se llama “mano-tazo” con los estudiantes que estan traduciendo, y alguin (Gracias, Lulu) me corto con su una. Me dolia mucho, pero ya no esta sangrando y por  eso estoy feliz! Y tambien quiero ensenarles como jugar cuando regresara – pero todos necesitan llevar guantes mientras jugaramos!

Anastasia

Hello From Guatemala

I am learning so much on this trip. I am seeing firsthand how God works through others and how much he cares for his people. Every patient that I see changes me in some way. I love listening to the people of Sumpango, even though I do not speak very much Spanish. I have been doing blood glucose tests, urine tests, blood pressures, and taking pulses. This experience is definitely going to help me as a future nurse, not only because I am gaining experience in medicine, but also because I am gaining experience on how to treat each and every patient the same and with compassion. Every member of our team contributes something different. We would not be able to help all of these people without each and every one of our team members. I believe that I have become close to all of the members on this team. I am having a blast, caring for people in need, and becoming closer to God. I especially enjoy the worship and devotions that we do as a team every morning and night. I have found that I love singing worship songs, whether I am actually good or not. I have been considering becoming part of the worship team at Woodlands for over a year now, and now I believe that I have been called to act upon that thought. I talked to Anna-Cheri about the worship team, and she said that it will not take up all of my time, which was my main concern. When I get back to Wisconsin I am going to get in touch with the worship pastor Doug Allord and hopefully get hooked up with the worship team. God bless every one. We will see you all in just over 3 days!!! J Please pray for the team, that everyone remains healthy and we get home safely.

-Alex Crockett

Last Day of Clinic

Today is our last day of clinic and is comes with mixed feelings.  It’s sad to think that our time here in Guatemala is almost over, but I’m happy to have been able to help the people we have and will continue to help throughout the day.  Our day started with Rhonda leading our devotion and she talked about God’s calling in our lives.  She shared a story from her own life about how she made a decision without God and then asked Him to bless it after the fact.  I for one have been in the same situation and I’m sure many of you have done the same thing.  The awesome thing is that once you have realized the mistake you made, you can ask God for forgiveness and make the needed change in your life.  She referred to Jeremiah 29:11 which says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’  God has a plan for our lives and we don’t need to know what it is, we just need to trust Him and know that this life is all for His glory.

We headed to the clinic for our last day and it went really, really well.  We were not open as long as the other three days because we had to tear down and pack things up before we went to Oscar’s for dinner.  Packing went well and the people from Los Olivos helped tear down the exam rooms, put away tables and chairs, and helped us finish up with the last few patients.  Once everything was put away we went to see the dump that is in town.  The dump is like a 200 foot deep ravine that has been continually filled with and just continues to fill the ravine.  People have compacted some of it and there is now a basketball court built on top of part of it.  It was sad to see because there are houses along the side of the road that are built out of sheet metal; it was a very poor area.  We went to Oscar’s for dinner and as always it was amazing.  I want to say thank you again to Oscar for opening his home to us and feeding us this week, we are all truly grateful for your generosity.

After dinner we went back to the orphanage and were lead in worship by our fearless leaders, Ryan and Anna Cheri.  As always, it was a great time to be refilled after pouring out God’s love all day to the people we saw in the clinic.  I can’t even explain how amazing it is to worship with a group of people who are all so passionate about God and serving him.  It is truly a blessing to have spent a week with this awesome group of individuals.  When we were done worshipping, we had free time before heading to bed for the last time at the orphanage.  Tomorrow we head to Antigua and get to spend a little time with the orphans, which will definitely be fun.  Please keep us in your prayers as we begin our journey home tomorrow, we will see you all soon!

~Jenny

From Guatemala with Love… and one kidney :)

Hola from Sumpango everyone!  I haven’t had a chance to blog yet so I figured I should just to let Mom and Dad know that I’m still alive and still have the same amount of kidneys that I came down with.  As far as the clinic is going, we’re very pleased and grateful for what a great team God has brought together to be here.  It is truly amazing to see so many medical professionals from different places with different backgrounds working together for a common goal.  This is what the body of Christ is supposed to look like.  Though our numbers have remained the same as in past years we’re running so smoothly that it feels slow at times.

I’m especially proud of the optical team which I get to work with during the clinic.  Half of our team doesn’t speak Spanish and none of us have any formal training with Optomology but we’re doing the best we can and from what I can tell, things are going very well.  Though not everyone needs glasses, everyone wants to come pay us a visit (I like to think it’s cuz they want just want to see me but the doctors assure me otherwise J)

Our times of worship have been very cool and as always I get the honor of leading us every morning and night into the presence of our Lord both to be filled up so that we might pour out His love during the day and so that we might praise Him for all He’s doing and all He’s going to do.  Please continue to pray for us!  Ohp- gotta go.  Optical needs me.  HASTA LUEGO!

-Intern Ryan J

El Yalu

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of joining Pastor Brian, Jon, Scott, Becky, Dave and Oscar on a trip to El Yalu so Oscar could show us what Los Olivos was doing in that area.  I don’t know how to describe what we saw because I have never seen anything like it before and have absolutely nothing to compare it to.  Poverty in the United States doesn’t even begin to compare to the poverty in this village.  The good thing is though, that Los Olivos is working with a woman named Maria who runs a feeding center in the village.  This feeding center feeds around 300 mothers and children 3 times a week.  For most of these people, these are the only healthy and complete meals they get each week.  We were given the opportunity to pass out the food to the children and mothers who came to eat that day and the experience was amazing.  I have never seen children that excited about something as simple as getting a good meal.  As Americans, I think most of us take that for granted and being able to experience that was really good eye-opening experience for me.  We were also able to walk around the village and see the projects that Los Olivos is helping to fund and some of the projects they would like to begin.  Oscar showed us two plots of land that have been purchased in El Yalu; one is the sight for a church and the other for a playground.  Los Olivos is also raising funds to help build latrines and stoves for the people of this village.  Both of these items are greatly needed to help decrease disease and keep the people of El Yalu healthy.  Please keep the people of El Yalu in your prayers along with Oscar, Los Olivos, Maria and the new missionaries that will be arriving to El Yalu in April.  I know God has amazing things planned and will work through the people of Los Olivos and the new missionaries to help the people of El Yalu get what they need.

~Jenny

Clinic Day 3

So here is an update on the number of people we saw in the clinic on Tuesday and Wednesday… Tuesday we saw 244 people and on Wednesday we saw 208.  Not quite as many as Monday, but still a good number of people that we were able to help and show God’s love to.  We have also had a number of people from Sumpango commit or recommit their lives to Christ this week.  There have been 7 people who have given their lives to Christ, 3 people have recommitted their lives, and there have been hundreds of seeds planted this week.  The most exciting part is knowing that God is using the people of Los Olivos to reach out to their own people and share the gospel of Christ with them. 

Our third day of clinic started out with Derek doing our devotion in the morning.  He talked about margin in our lives and what it looks like to have margin.  He referred to Matthew 11:28-30 which talks about coming to the Lord and laying your burdens on Him and finding rest for our souls.  Margin in life is our free time, and as Christians we should be looking how we spend that free time.  Does is take away from time we could be spending with God and growing closer to Him?  Once the time is gone, we can’t get that time back.  I know I have really looked at my life the past three days to see where I’m spending time doing meaningless things when I could be spending it with God.

From what I know, clinic ran quite well yet again on Wednesday.  We praise the Lord for the way He has blessed us in that area this week.  In the morning, we did have a patient come in with a possible case of tuberculosis, but the doctors handled it well and made sure all the right precautions were taken.  Derek and Ryan were in charge for a while in the middle of the day when Jon and Scott left and the clinic was still intact when they returned, so that was good!  God has continued to work through all of us today so we were able to continue to help the people of Sumpango that came to the clinic.  The bus ride back to the orphanage was an interesting trip that took about 30 minutes longer than it normally does.  This was because the streets in Sumpango are very narrow and sometimes the buses have a hard time getting past each other when there are a lot of other vehicles on the road.  There were times I thought we were going to get hit, but our bus driver as always was amazing and we made it back without incident.

Once we returned from the clinic we had dinner and Dr. Paredes joined us and told us how he came to partner with us and our clinic.  Dr. Paredes is the local doctor in Sumpango and takes care of a lot of people from the smaller villages surrounding the city.  When dinner was over, our fearless worship leaders lead us in worship as we lifted our hearts to God and asked Him to fill us again with His spirit so we could continue to serve Him.  After worship, the card games came out and rivalries continued as they have the past three nights.  The fellowship with this team of people is amazing and I’m blessed to be a part of it.  Please continue to pray for us as we go into our last day of clinic and start to get ready to head back to the states.

 ~Jenny

ONE MORE FOR THE KINGDOM

“At the foot of the cross where grace and suffering meet, you have given me life… yes, you were my heart, and now I can trade these ashes in for beauty and wear forgiveness like a crown.  Coming to kiss the feet of mercy I lay everything burden down at the foot of the cross. Where I am made complete, you have given me life through the death you bought for me. You are mine.”

Grace and suffering can take many forms in today’s world but nothing compares to the sight of Emilio.  A young 32 year-old Guatemalan walked into the Dr. Paredes office, who is our local national doctor and contact between his office and our clinic in Sumpango.  Dr. Nick, our team cardiologist, myself, and Mandy accompanied Dr. Paredes to help look after his patients this week. That Tuesday morning, I’ll never forget when this little 5 ft. hunched over man who literally looks like a youth sits down, Emilio. 

As I begin to translate and take down his patient history he begins to explain to me that he is on dialysis, shows me his surgically placed tube, that both his kidneys are failing, and that he just was fired for his job moving back into his parent’s home. Now all his time is occupied by changing his dialysis. When Dr. Nick begins to test on Emilio I said to him, “I admire you!”  And I repeated it twice more to him while testing.  When the examine comes to an end he starts to open up to me telling me how hard dialysis has been, that he attends a local Catholic church, how he feels hopeless, and how horrible his suffering is wondering why God gave this to him.  I told him I could not imagine what he was going through, but I did know TWO things; I knew he didn’t have much time left especially without a kidney transplant, and I wanted to know where his soul was going. God keep repeating to me, “share the gospel with him, share it with him.”  So I boldly told him, “Emilio, I don’t know how many days you have left but I want to know where your soul is going.  Come this afternoon, get some sunglasses and then I want to share something with you.”  He responded with joy and excitement and would not stop expressing his gratitude.

He showed up!  He got his eye exam and then I told him I wanted to share something with him.  Nick joined us in the room as I began telling Emilio my testimony. I painted Emilio the picture of how Jesus Christ is the fountain of life.  But how I used to come to that fountain with a pitcher trying to fill myself up with him asking him to do things for me, to help me with my tests, and sports, but when in turn I could have the entire fountain by just asking Him for himself. Therefore, I could have all of Jesus and all of His grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, etc than just asked him to do things for me.  This led me into sharing with him the Four Spiritual Laws.  He came to recognize that yes, he is a sinner who is in great need of a savior and that he cannot try to live longer by paying-back works to God for his mistakes/sins. He also realized that the gospel of Jesus Christ is about what He did on the cross and that salvation is Christ + nothing.  That means it is not Emilio + his good attitude or kind giving heart that saves him from eternal death, but that it is only by God’s GRACE that we are SAVED as God shows us in Ephesians 2:8,9.  He knew in his heart and mind that he had one choice to make in his life that would lead the rest of his life and he made that decision to accept our Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. WOOOO WOOO!!!  We prayed and then celebrated in joy, I mean I was flipping out inside filled with this love and joy that has no words to describe it because that is the Love of Christ. I just love how the Bible shares with us that angels in heaven throw a party for each of us as we become children of God, and accept Him. And a party was just thrown for Emilio.

The best part of this whole story is that Emilio is going to be in Heaven, and I will see him again.  And funny things is that before he left, he kept telling me, “I will see you again!”  I am convinced without a shadow of a doubt that in life there is no greater joy than leading someone to Christ. Praise the Lord for all the people who have influenced his life to receive the Lord on Tuesday January 11^th, and it was a day to GLORIFY our Saving Lord Jesus Christ.

Lastly, I would just like to encourage you to leave your everything at the foot of the cross and if you have not yet made that decision to follow the Lord please check out www.everystudent .com and you can see how to do that.  The ashes of Emilio’s life, his sickness, body, and situation, have now been exchanged at the foot of the cross and he has been clothed in a crown. Will you too be clothed and see him in heaven? I hear he has got an amazing story!

Love, Erin

Meet Tooky

This trip has been an amazing experience for me. God is teaching me so many things. I don’t have a lot of time to write a blog but I just wanted to have people keep in mind 3 children that I have seen that have pretty serious medical situations, Jose, Marline, and I haven’t been able to remember the last boys name but we gave him a Ty Tucan and so I have been giving him the name Tooky. Please pray that these children will know God’s love and that God will give them love as they are going through a difficult time (along with the families). I hope to give you more stories soon but just please keep the people of Sumpango in your prayers.

~Anna Peterman~

Hey all!

Hey all!

The week is going wonderfully. I translated for doctors Monday and Tuesday, but today for the big switch-up I got moved to optical. That’s been hard in a different way. We don’t have glasses to help people see in the distance. We have readers and sunglasses, that’s it. There have been a few people I’ve needed to tell, “We can give you sunglasses, but you need to go to a real eye doctor.” That’s been hard, just because I prefer to be able to do something – and it’s me telling them. That’s right, folks, I’ve been doing eye exams, not simply translating! It’s been really cool. Yay new experiences!

Hola clase!

Lo siento que no escribi ayer, ni el lunes. Estaba tan cansada que no pude caminar en una linia, y simepre me occurio cuando ya estoy en cama. Ayer una ninita me enseno un juego, si la Senora Hagen me permite voy a ensenarles cuando regresa. ?Les he dicho que estabamos aqui en Sumpango durante la dia de mercado? Estaba muy interesante. Tanto gente! Guatemala es un pais increible!   Ay, lo siento pero necesito ir al almuerzo. Hasta luego!

Anastasia

Clinc Day 2, part 2

I forgot to mention earlier that we were joined by four more team members this morning.  Dave Johnson, his wife Joyce, daughter Christi, and their friend Cherise have joined us and are working with us also this week.  We are glad to have them and it has been fun getting to know them throughout the day.  The rest of our day at the clinic went well.  It has been such a blessing that things are running so smooth and to see the way God is working in and through all of us here.  Oscar and his family have been so kind and generous, opening their home to us each day for lunch, making sure we are nourished and ready to go back to finish our day at the clinic.  Thank you to them, it would be a long day without the kindness you have shown to us while we have been here.  After clinic was over, we went back to the orphanage to another great meal and were able to listen to the story of how Lenore came to found the orphanage.  It is an amazing story and I encourage you all to check out there website to learn more about what this amazing women has done, is doing, and wants to do to help the children here in Guatemala. (http://www.misionerosdelcamino.org/)  After dinner we had another great night of worship, Anna-Cheri and Ryan do an awesome job of leading us so we can be refilled after pouring out God's love to the people of Sumpango while at clinic.  When worship was over, we had some time to relax before bed.  Needless to say, the environment is sometimes not even close to relaxed with the rivalries in eucher and cribbage games that have developed over the past few days.  Its fun to see everyone having fun and developing new friendships during this week.  Again I want to thank you for all your prayers, they are greatly appreciated!

Jenny

Greetings Reetz family from Guatemala

Working in the clinic here is so rewarding, being able to do God’s work by serving the people of Sumpango. I wish everyone could experience how God works daily through us to spread his word through our hands. I have developed many new relationships that I am sure will continue long beyond this trip. I am already looking forward to my next mission trip. I love and miss you all. Will see you soon. May God bless the rest of your week. Love Mom

Sue’s GOOD TIRED

We started our first day of clinic yesterday with me doing morning devotions.  I talked about Worry.  If things do not go as planned, it’s ok.  I wore 2 very heavy backpacks.  Those were my worries.  All we need to do is ask for God’s help.  I dropped the backpacks- God is always there for us.  The weights are lifted.

We have nothing else to worry about.  At the end of the day after 248 patients I was, as Harry Chapin’s Grandfather would say – A GOOD TIRED.  Loving what I was doing, getting pumped about seeing the patients.  I worked hard, got to teach some of our pharmacy helpers how to read doctor’s handwriting, got to teach them what some of the meds are used for.  Lots of good conversations in our dorm room late at night.  Eric, Kate, Raj, Sally, Lucas, Isabel, Amy, Tammy & Matt – I miss you & will talk next Saturday.  Oh, by the way, some of us have gotten sunburned  approx. 75 degrees

Peace,

Sue

Not sending stories, just sending love

Hola! This is my first post, and probably my last one, but my family really wanted me to say, “hi.” I am having a great time (of course…) and have been working in gynecology all week, so I can’t share too many stories (men read this blog, too.) But, I can tell you that we are helping a lot of people, and we are seeing a lot of people who came last year and had such great care they are coming back again!

                The quality of care I am seeing is shocking: everyone on the team has so much love for every single person who enters the clinic.

                Oh, the food is great, and the sun is wonderful.

                There is a large queue developing behind me, so I will let others share stories.

Mom, Dad, and Eric: I love you, guys. See you in just a few days. Dad, don’t forget to be by your phone, and have your phone on LOUD Saturday morning by 5:15… ;)

Kendra

Clinic Day 2

Anne Marie lead us in our devotion this morning and she talked about how God doesn't call those who are qualified to do His work, but qualifies those He calls.  She also asked us to think about why we were here on this trip, what made us decide we should come to Sumpango and help these people.  She read from Isaiah 40:26-31, which says that God gives strength to those He calls to do His will.  It also says that we may get tired and weary, but if we trust in the Lord, He will give us the strength we need to continue to do His will.  After devotion, Ryan lead us in worship and then we headed to the community center for our second day at the clinic.  So far things have gone really well and we haven't come up against anything that has caused us to panic.  I know we are all thankful that God continues to bless us and the people we are helping here in Sumpango.  Without His faithfulness and strength, we would not be able to accomplish everything that we have been able to do so far.  Thank you again for all your prayers!

First Day of Clinic part 2

Clinic continued to run smoothly yesterday and we ended up seeing 248 people from Sumpango.  It was amazing to see how our team worked together to make sure all the people who came received the best care that we could provide them.  We did have a little mishap at the end of the day when one side of the clinic exam rooms decided to fall down.  No one was hurt and we had a group of people stand and hold up the boards until the men who set up the clinic were able to get there to fix it.  We are so thankful that the people of Los Olivos allow us to come and help them put on this clinic, we definitely couldn't do it without them.  When clinic was over, we headed back to the orphanage with our new friends (translators from Guatemala City) to eat dinner, worship, and just relax after a great day at the clinic.

Hello to Everyone Back Home

Hi to everyone back home!  We’re having a great week in Sumpango helping Los Olivos with their medical clinic.  The church has done a great job preparing for our arrival and they are providing tremendous support in the day to day operations of the clinic.  The Woodlands team is doing a fantastic job as well– this is a very group of people.  It is wonderful to be serving the Lord again with our friends from Guatemala. 

We attended service at Los Olivos on Sunday night.  We were introduced to the church and had the opportunity to lead the congregation through a worship song in both Spanish and English.  Brian Berg spoke to the congregation about the Woodlands/Los Olivos partnership and how we are a team working together to do God’s work.  He did this in Spanish – which meant a lot to the people of the church.

Getting our medications through customs went very smoothly relative to the experience we had last year.  However, I had an interesting experience going through security in Chicago.  I arrived at church on Friday night with an empty carry-on in case we needed any extra space for supplies.  I didn’t  see it again until it was pulled off the bus in Chicago.  It weighed about 50 lbs and was zip-tied shut.  When the bag was going through the x-ray, the TSA agent stopped the conveyor and stared at the screen for a long time with a very puzzled look on her face.  She called one of the other agents over and he pulled my bag off to the side and called me over.  The agent asked me what was in the bag.  ‘I don’t know’, I responded.  Apparently, this is not a very good answer.  I’m sure the fact that there were 4 zip-ties securing it shut added to his suspicion.  The agent said, ‘Sir, you need to tell me what’s in the bag before I cut these off’.  My response was ‘I don’t know, I didn’t pack it’.  Also, not a good answer.  So, he cuts it open and inside there are about 40 small bottles of baby shampoo, body wash, and saline solution.  It was probably the biggest violation of the 3-1-1 rule in airport security history.  Thankfully, I wasn’t detained.  Great job packing my carry-on Ryan Groshek!! 

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support.  It is truly a blessing to be able to see and be a part of God’s work.  I miss you Carrie, Sam, David, and Keyva!

Scott

Guatemala

I don’t think that I have ever been part of a group like this in my life.  Everyone here is sacrificing their time, comfort and money to serve God and their fellow man.  Their selflessness is awe-inspiring.  Their companionship and presence is wonderful.  I feel very blessed tonight.

Jean Montgomery

Greetings from Sumpango

Greetings from Sumpango.  The weather is beautiful here, sorry it isn’t as nice by you

The flight was great and the hassles in customs were much less than last year

Oscar had the Packer game on at his house, I hope he doesn’t get evicted soon because of all the noise that the Wisconsin fans made when the Packer scored   The Guatemala version of Fox changed games just before Michael Vick ran in for a touchdown, probably a good thing

Clinic went great today.  Our patients were very grateful and good sports, they let our “youngsters” give injections on them for their first times, “doing shots” as well call it, and they all did a great job.  I  probably should have asked the last patient for permission for them to do it first, but she was a good sport, she remembered me from the shots that we did with her last year.  She said her carpal tunnel injection didn’t wear off for a year, which was remarkable.  She gave me permission last year, so that probably gives me blanket permission to have them give her injections again this year

We’ve got a great team of Guatemalan interpreters, 9 this year, some  of them look so young they could be my grandchildren.   My interpreter held in her laughter at my pathetic attempt to say simples phrases like please get down off the table as long as she could,  then she started laughing at me, then the patients started laughing at me too, very embarrassing

To my family, I miss you already.  Check your E-mails, I can send you messages by AOL if I can log on Lenore’s Wi-fi, I have been 1 for 3 the last 3 nights, her Wi-Fi must not be very strong.  If you text me, I can text you back

Good night, and good luck

Bill Benn 1/10/11

First Day of Clinic

Today started out great with Sue leading our devotional.  She talked about worry and referred to Luke 12:22-31 which talks about how we are not supposed to worry, but to trust that God will provide for us in all situations.  This was a great devotional for our first clinic day because we were all a little worried I'm sure about how things were going to go and if everything would go as planned.  It was a good reminder th

at we are here to do God's work, He is in control, and no problem is too big for Him to handle.  Its lunch time now during our first day of clinic and the morning seemed to fly by.  There were a lot of people from Sumpango who came out to see the providers we had at the clinic, which was really encouraging.  So far things have flowed pretty smoothly and we haven't run into any problems we haven't been able to handle.  Jon and Scott did a great job of working with Oscar and Los Olivos to get members of the church to come out and help with the clinic.  The members of Los Olivos take the people who are coming to the clinic to a waiting area and then when they have finished seeing a provider they take them up to pharmacy to get their prescription filled.  While waiting for their prescriptions, members of the church share the Gospel and pray with them.  The people who come to the clinic also get their picture taken by the members of the church so they have a way to remember this experience.  We also have the privilege of working with some medical students who are helping translate for the providers, members of the optical team, and the pharmacy team.  We continue to thank God for His faithfulness and help during this time, without Him none of this would be possible.

Clinic Set Up Day

Today was another great day here in Guatemala.  It started off with an amazing breakfast at the orphanage, all the food we have had here is absolutely delicious.  Ryan led our devotional and talked about how God uses us even though we all have weaknesses.  He referred to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 which says, "But he said to me, “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. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  Even though we all have weaknesses, God shows His strength to those around us by using us to do His will in spite of those weaknesses.  After breakfast we went to Sumpango and spent a few hours in the market that they have on Sunday.  It was cool to see all the different things the local people were selling.  There were a lot of fruits and vegetables, jewelry, clothes, toys, movies, cd's, and a lot of other interesting things.  It was a great experience to be able to see how things are done in their culture compared to ours.  The hard work began after we enjoyed market day because we started to set up the clinic so it would be ready for Monday.  Derek had the privilege of driving the pick-up truck filled with action packers down the steep streets, while Evan, Ryan, Brian, and Travis formed a human net so they would stay in the truck.  All the action packers got to the community center safely and we started to set up the clinic.  It only took us about 3 hours to get everything set up because the members of Los Olivos had already been there setting up the exam rooms and getting things started.  Once the clinic was set up, we were able to back to Oscar's house for dinner and watch some of the Packer game!!  Praise the Lord Oscar is a Packer fan :)  We then went to Los Olivos for their service and worshiped with them.  We were introduced to the members as a group and sang Mighty to Save for them mostly in English, but the last chorus we sang in Spanish.  The service was really good and you could tell everyone who was there really wanted to be there and praise God for what He was doing in their lives.  After another busy day we headed back to the orphanage and relaxed before getting rested up for our first day of clinic.  Thank you to all of those who are praying for us, please continue to ask the Lord to bless our team and the people of Sumpango!!

Jenny

Hi Cronce's

Everything is going great! Awesome team! Weather has been nice. Brian B. and Ryan have been fun to beat in euchre, but they don’t take it well. I really miss you all and look forward to seeing you next Saturday. I pray all is going well at home.
Love Jon

Set up day

Today was fantastic.  We went to market day in the morning.  I bought a few trinkets.  We had an excellent   lunch at Armando's house.  Next was the clinic set up.  We were able to bag up and label all of our vitamins.  I was so encouraged by all of the people willing to help.  We probably had 15 people helping for about 1 1/2 hoursI am so pumped for tomorrow to start.  Hopefully all of the people that need to be seen at the clinic will have the means to make it to our clinic.  It seemed like it was about 75-80 today
Talk soon
Sue

Ann Marie checking in from Guatemala

Hello to all the people who are following us on the blog and thank you for all of your prayers and support.  Our first couple of days have been unbelievable. As you have already heard by the grace of God (and a local lawyer) our team, medicines, supplies and equipment made it safely into Guatemala without delay or mishap.  We are staying in Sumpango at an orphanage called Missionarios del caminos.  The kids are amazing and so full of love, I saw Antonio (my little friend from last year) and I gave him a big hug...LOVE HIM!  The team learned how to sing "My God is Mighty to Save" in Spanish..."Solo Dios puede salver" and we are going to sing it tonight when we got to church at Los Olivos.  Today we set up the clinic and we were ready to get started bright and early tomorrow.

We are all here for a common purpose and that is to let God act through us so we can minister to all the people we encounter in Sumpango.  In Phillipians 2:3 it says... "Do nothing out of self-ish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves... your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ." I know that as this mission progresses these words will be fulfilled.

So good night for now and God bless you all!!

In Him, Ann Marie Belcore

Hey All!

I have tortillas in my tummy, I sun-dried my hair yesterday, and Guatemala is amazing. Yesterday we spent sleeping and playing with the children at the orphanage and I worked on some of my homework. I felt so dutiful. Better now than when I get back, though!
All the medicines made it through Customs, which made me happy. (We had some trouble with that last year.) I was translating for Scott and Jon while they explained to the customs lady what we were doing - that was fun!

Hola clase! Como estan? Lo siento que no estoy usando los accentos, pero estoy usando un PC y no se donde estas cosas esta. Ayer llegamos a Guatemala a las seis veinte y cinco, pasemos por Costumbres sin muchas problemas. Una de las agentes no le gusto que tenemos tantos cajas, pero explique a ella que somos un mision medica y no somos narcotraficos.  :)
Siga estudiando!
Anastasia Campion

Our First Day in Guatemala

We made it to Guatemala everyone!!  It's such a blessing to be able to be in this beautiful country with the amazing team we have for a whole week to do God's work.  The trip to Chicago went off without a hitch and the flight to Guatemala was good as well.  We made it through customs with all our supplies, so we were all really excited and thanking God for that.  Once we got to the orphanage we were able to meet the children and play with them for awhile before we had lunch.  Now we have free time until six to just relax and have some down time until we have dinner with the elders of Los Olivos (which is the church we are partnering with here in Sumpango).  Today has definitely been a blessing and a time to reflect on the awesome power of God.  Driving to the orphanage we saw the most amazing mountains, and Ryan reminded us all of God's awesome power to do anything, even move mountains.  Today is our first day in Guatemala and God has already been working to help us get this far.  This is just the beginning of the amazing work He will be doing through us and for us during this week.

~ Jenny