Another great day!!

We had a great clinic in Lemoa today. If you get a chance, please read Lisa's blog at www.kemmelandlisa.blogspot.com She has great comments and talks about different patients.

Today, we had 35 medical patients, 5 patients for physical therapy and 7 patients for dental cleaning.

Lisa and Elaine saw patients for consult. Juan learned more from Jennifer, a physical therapist Jennifer works with ASELSI, a clinic that is in Chichi but has been working a few days with us.

Here, Jennifer and Juan work with one of our regular patients.

The dental cleanings kept Gaspar busy. I worked in the pharmacy and played with pills and money. I do not mind the pills but the money makes me nervous. As many have heard me say, "I do not like a lot of responsibility." But the count was correct at the end of the day...........whew..................

A young girl returned today that was burned as a very young child. Dr. Dwayne has agreed to see her in February, during the plastic surgery. I hope that that something can be done to help her. We will get her lab work completed so she will be ready for surgery, if accepted.

Pat Hile and his group are in Chichi from San Antonio. It is always good to see them. We enjoyed dinner and then Voces Acapella sang for us. As people know, I am a groupie! They sang three songs.....one in Spanish, one in K'iche' and one in English. They are a very talented family.

Catchin' Up

Not a lot of photos to share for the last few days. We have been busy but not "photo busy."

Sometimes, photos are not very appropriate or welcomed! For example, today was our ladies pap day at Clinica Caris. Not many women would welcome the words, "Relax, it will be cold, smile!"

But anyway, we had 4 ladies spend part of their morning with Elanie and the rest of us. After we finished the clinic, we cleaned. I mean clean! The clinic was washed head to toe.......

Yesterday, we started another round of diabetic classes at Caris. We only had 5 patients but all were diabetics I am very thankful that the patients seem interested and always participate in the class. Everyone asked questions and commented on the questions of others. Tomas translated today for me while Manuel spent time with Kemmel.

We are looking at different options to building on the the clinic in Lemoa. We have really outgrown it.........and that is good! Clinics, dental, education, services to ladies, ABC Program......it is good!

I Peter 4:10,11
Each should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully, administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it with strength speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

Church growth in India

Sometimes we only think of what is taking place around us in our small circle. It is easy to do because we are so busy with our daily activities......jobs, family, school and many other things. We have many responsibilities and do not want to fall short.

It has been over a year since I have been talking to the minister from the Kamepalli Church of Christ in India. I talk with him on AOL and it has been a wonderful correspondence. He and his family struggle in India but continue to share their faith in different areas and the congregation is growing.

This is the first photo that he sent me of the congregation.

His father and grandfather were also ministers. He has sent me many photos of his grandfather and father before they died, preaching at different gospel meetings.

Sometimes we talk about what his sermon will be on and he asks my opinion. He is very interesting to talk to and knows the Bible well. I can tell he is very strong in the faith.

This is the congregation sharing lunch together.

As you can tell by the notes on the photo, this is their communion time. Again, it is very interesting how different cultures do different things. This thatched roof is new. They recently built this because not everyone could fit into the room that they were meeting in.

Because of the growth, they have started building a new place to meet. They have had to postpone the construction a few times due to finances and the weather. They have had heavy rains than have ruined some of their building material. It has been difficult for them but they continue......they have not given up.

One day the children gathered to work. They moved stones and kept count of sand piles as they were moved.

The children will remember this time together and how they served.

The class of Sunday School Children.

How great it is to hear of church growth. It is not easy. As more people accept the gospel and are baptized there is comfort and strength. We need to rejoice as the angels do when the body of Christ grows.

Luke 15:10
There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

We need to share the gospel and the joy that it brings to others. Many people on earth do not have much hope. How sad this is.

Please pray for this congregation in India. That they may continue in faith.......never ceasing.

Clinic in Lemoa and staff meeting

Today, we had a busy clinic in Lemoa with 27 patients and Gaspar had 2 dental cleanings.

The majority of patients that I saw today were diabetics and they were controlling their blood sugars.

After the clinic, we had a staff meeting. We talked about possibly building an addition on to Caris. This is a great idea since we really need more room. Sometimes, Gaspar and Tomas have to do their dental cleanings outside. It is not too bad unless it is raining and then it is very difficult. Storage is also a problem so we will see what happens.

We also talked about different clinics and how we can improve them. There are communities that want clinics so we also talked about new ones that might be established. We will also be having more classes on diabetes and other issues. We are continuing to visit schools and talk about hygiene. It is very exciting. Everyone participated in the meeting and it is good to have Kemmel and Lisa working in this area with us.

Clinic en LaPalma

This morning we had to change trucks before we started out for clinic. This is one of the specialties that Kemmel has. He knows who needs to drive what truck each day, who has the truck and how they are packed. So, Juan and Maury brought me a truck but then Juan jumped in a truck with Lisa and Elaine. They headed to Xepocol for clinic as we headed to LaPalma.

During the changing, Juan told me that Nakko had left the house and was in the street. I did not see him leave. Grrrrr........Nakko has not left the house for quite awhile but I did not have time to go and get him today. I really do not care but he has been hit before and I would hate to be responsible for that. He is also strong enough to kill other dogs. What a dense dog!! I just had to hope for the best.

Tomas, Maury and I drove to LaPalma. I think that it is one of the prettiest drives that we have. It is beautiful.

When we arrive there are tons of people at the school, where we do clinic. Apparently, the government is giving out cooking oil, beans, rice and corn. It is amazing how much people can carry! Each family is getting 4 gallons of oil and 30-40 lbs of the other things. There are only two trucks but the rest is being carried on their backs. All of the family members help.......even the young children.

We had eight patients come to the clinic.

The first patient was, Noe. His grandmother brought him since his dad, Agostin, is helping distribute the food. Noe is the ABC Child of my parents. They had sent back some balloons and a photo for Noe for his birthday. Here, Noe is blowing up his first balloon with his grandmother nearby.

My parents have sponsored Noe for 3 years. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, knowing they are studying in school, receive medical and dental care and also receiving some clothing, let us know. Lisa and Kemmel recently blogged about children needing sponsors. The cost is $30 a month. Please see their blog at http://kemmelandlisa.blogspot.com/

When I get home, I open the gate and there sits Nakko on my porch like, all is well........little does he know, no bread for Nakko this afternoon.

Clinic in Patzite

Manuel drove by the house to get me this morning. Usually, I meet him at the road but standing in the rain did not excite me. Maybe I am getting weak!

So, he drove by the house and we went on to Patzite since Tomas would meet us there. Tomas had called Manuel to tell his that we needed to take the long way around since one of the roads had been washed away. While we drove, we listened to the noticias on the radio. There have been 15 deaths due to the earthquakes yesterday and still, people are missing.

When we arrived, we carried everything up to where we would have the clinic. Tomas and one man from the congregation helped us. It is not a long walk but it is steep.

We had a total of nine patients. We were told that with the rains, not many people would come.
After the last patient, the sun peeked out a little. I sat on the steps as we waited until lunch.

This bull was tied near the house where we ate. He was not happy and through the morning let us know about it!! How can one bull make so much noise?

This is the beautiful view from Patzite.

We were offered lunch and it was fantastic. There is special recipe here where they take a vegetable, dip it in egg and cook it. Today we had green beans cooked with egg, cold beets, tamalitos, chili and coffee. It was sooooo good!!

The rains started as we were packing up the truck.

Tomorrow, we have clinic in LaPalma............now, that may be an adventure!!

Lemoa Clinic

Today I worked in Lemoa with Elaine and the promoters. We had a good clinic with 28 patients.

Usually this is Ruben's clinic but he went home to Nicaragua to visit his family and friends. It was also time for him to renew his Visa We hope that he has a great time with safe travels and I am happy to help!

Elaine saw all of the diabetic patients and we announced the new set of Diabetic Classes. We had a great response to the last three classes that we want to do another run of them. They will be held in Lemoa again and it is central place for people to meet.

This is Elaine with some patients. She consulted the young girl next to her. The other little girl was severely burned when she was younger. She was set to have a consult last year with Dr. Dwyane but her dad fell off a roof and had to have surgery in Guatemala City. The mother said he is doing well and they will go to Clinica Ezell in February with us.

We have continued to have TONS of rains......most evenings and through the nights.

Many have asked about the earthquakes. Last I heard, there were three of them. Have heard of one death but some people are still missing.

It has been over a year since we had our storm, Agatha. I continue to think of that time often because it impacted this area so much. I remember living in Paxot II with a family and being scared through the night. They had already placed poles up to support a dirt wall but the hard rains continued!! They family was also scared and wanted to sleep in my room with me. I was so thankful to see light crack though the adobe in the morning and to know that we were ok.

I will go to Patzite tomorrow and see what we can see!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Happy Anniversay, Mom and Dad!!

Thank you so much for everything that you have given Mike and I. I hope today was very special for you and that you will have many, many more happy years together!

Happy Birthday, Sally!!

Today is the birthday of my dearest friend. I hope that you have a special day. Please take care and thank you for all of the ways that you help me!

I look forward to the adventures that we will have in December!!!

Happy Independence Day, Guatemala!!

Today, is the official Guatemalan Independence Day! Congratulations, Guatemala!

Elaine and I met near the soccer field this morning to watch the parade. There were bands and students marching from different grades and different schools.

I was wondering if this is the band that use to play so early in the morning and so late at night. I decided that it could not be them because this band was half decent.

The other band was hopeless.......totally hopeless. I do not hear them as I use to and I am not complaining. Maybe, they have given up or maybe their parents took the instruments away.

These girls were cute. Their leader was strutting along with the girls.

This group of students wore masks.

It was a fun morning. Elaine and I walked around the field and talked to people. We walked back up to town, went through the Catholic Church and had lunch.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning and washing clothes. I thought a few minutes about getting a maid but I do not want someone in the house when I am not here. Yes, I only thought about it a few minutes. Hopefully, I will get the bugs under control again.

Tomorrow, I will work on a new project. There are many patients that have problems with gastritis or heart burn that we will offer a class on this. I am working on a power point presentation and also a teaching sheet to use in the clinics for education. We will see how it goes....................

Guatemala, celebrates for two days!!

Today, Guatemala began celebrating their Independence Day! They have enjoyed this liberty since September 15, 1821 from Spain.

Through the day there have been parades and celebrations. Runners went through the streets carring torches and people threw water balloons at them. It started raining during the late afternoon and it changed the number of torches that were burning but it did not deter people from still throwing water balloons........go figure!! :)

The market was staying busy until the heavy rain started. The lady steaming the corn gave up! You can see the water pouring off the canvas roof to the left of the corn.

The runners continued but without torches.

Lisa, Kemmel, Elaine and I had dinner this evening. It was goood to spend time together again and catch up on different stuff.

Tomorrow, there will be more parades and activities. To see more of the events, check out the Dunham's blog at http://www.kemmelandlisa.blogspot.com/ They have some great photos.

Rain.....Rain.....Rain.........Cold and Wet!!!

33We had clinic today and our travels started early. There will be a lot of parades and activities in the streets and if we do not leave before they start, we will get blocked in town without an escape!

I met Maury, Gaspar, Juan, Marcos and Elaine outside of Chichi. Elaine is a PA Student from TX and she will be doing an internship with us for a few weeks.

As soon as we left Chichi, the mist started. When we got closer to Chutzurob, it was more of a rain and it did not stop. Juan and I were thinking the same thing........that we might have trouble getting down to the clinic. I don't fear getting to clinic, my fear is climbing back up to the road if the rains continue through the day.

When we arrived, Marcos had already pulled over at the top of the hill. We put our rain jackets on and walked down to see how many patients we had waiting and what the brothers thought. There were patients waiting and we decided to leave the trucks parked and carry the equipment down.

We had a great clinic of 19 medical patients and 10 dental patients.

Sebastian wanted a photo with his wife and Elaine. Does this photo look like it was his request??

These three little girls are usually at the clinic.

As soon as we were finished, Sebastian's daughter came to "present" her baby to us. His name is Sebastian Elias. He is 5 weeks old and very precious. Elaine jumped up on a bench to take our photo.

The rains stopped right before we finished clinic. We carried everything to the top of the hill without any problems. The owner of the store, where we parked the trucks had left but told the promoters he did not want us turning around at his store. Well, there is no other place to turn around.......and he was gone. So, we got the trucks turned around after making 8-point turns and we made runs for the top.......we had a lot of fish-tailing going on but we made it.

It was a good day and as always, we are thankful for safe travels.

Yahooooo......another election!

Well, hot off the news is that no candidate for the presidency won. As I had mentioned, one person had to win by 50% and that is almost impossible. So yes!! We get to live through another election!

In November, Otto Perez and Manuel Molina will go at it again. Perez, a former army general had 36% of the votes, while Manuel Baldizon a businessman had 23% of the votes.

There were some other races that involved some types of confusion or political scandals.........however you want to term them. We will see you it all washes out!

Voting Day in Guatemala

Today, is the day for Guatemalans to select or most likely narrow down the possibilities for the next president. There are so many people in the running and if no one wins it by 50% of the votes, there will be a second round in November.

The voting places were packed and the lines were long. There were at least two places to vote in Chichi alone.

The skies were dark and the rain would come and go.

Even though the streets were filled with people, the market was empty. There were less than 25% than the usual crowds.

It was a great time to look around and see what was available. I bought a bunch of vegetables and then forgot to pick up the cabbage. The man followed me around with the cabbage until I noticed him. How kind of him!

This afternoon I went to Xepocol for their worship. I saw Sandra and her family. It was good to see them. Afterward, the truck started filling quickly with people wanting a ride closer to their home especially since it was cold and raining.

I dropped everyone off and then went down the road until I found a place to turn the truck around. When I passed Sandra's house, they had all stayed outside to make sure I returned safely.

The voting places have closed for the day but the streets are still packed with people. I know people are wanting to know what the outcome is. Maybe they will know tomorrow or at least have a better idea. With all of the corruption, violence and poverty here, I hope they will have a president that will minimize the problems of Guatemala.

Clinica and Checkers in Choacaman IV

When we arrived in Choacaman IV, there were 11 patients waiting for us. I was excited and even more excited when the group increased to eighteen!

We saw many types of patients. Many had respiratory problems, a few diabetics, several with arthritis and two pregnant ladies. One lady said that she had an insect in her ear. I could not see it but I always try to be a good listener. Thankfully, we were in a clinic where we could get some warm water. Gaspar did flush out a small insect! Whew............I felt better and so did the patient.

During the last five patients, the skies began to rumble and I mean rumble hard! I thought, we are going to get drenched hiking back to the truck. When I stepped out after the last patient, Gaspar and the children were playing checkers.

It did not matter that it was a home-made board...........with bottle tops. They were very much "into" the game. I think that Gaspar, with his Indian Quiche tops, won.

Jesus, the lady of the home, rushed us to get ready for lunch. She was also concerned with the coming rain. We had delicious black beans, rice, fresh chili, tortillas and juice.

We packed up everything quickly and hit the trail.........and we made it. After we were in the truck for about 10 minutes, the skies dropped buckets!

We stopped by the clinic to pick up a few things and then returned to Chichi. Another good day..........and as always, we are thankful for the safe travels.

Tomorrow morning, Manuel and I will go to the city. We will meet Elaine, who will be with us for a few weeks.

Clinic in Lemoa

Today, we had clinic in Lemoa and the rains fell.......................

We had a busy day and that is good. There were 28 medical patients and 8 patients for dental cleaning.

After we got started, the first time I looked at my watch was 12:30 pm. I thought it was odd that no one had mentioned lunch. So, when I asked if we were going to eat, I found out that Maury and the guys had already ordered for me and I truly appreciated it.

We had a wide variety of patients. Some were diabetics, some were pregnant ladies and others with cough and respiratory problems.

One of my favorite diabetic patients visited today. When he first came to the clinic, his blood sugar was over 560. For the last several months, he has been 95-116. He feels so much better and is full of energy.

This mother brought her baby in and he was the last patient of the day. He has had diarrhea for several days so hopefully, we can get that under control.

We had rain all day and they skies were dark and gloomy. We waited until the rain slowed down enough to load the truck. Now we are ready for the next week.

Tomorrow, we head to Choacoman IV. I hope that the rains are kind enough to stop while we carry our equipment to clinic. Yeah.........that is a nice thought.

Class in the heart and the beatitudes

Today, was our education day in Lemoa and we had 15 people participate in the class. Ruben taught the class on the cardiac system. We talked about the circulation of the blood through the heart and the lungs. We talked about oxygenated blood and how it maintains life. It was a very good class and the health promoters enjoyed it.

As always, we started the class with prayer, songs of praise and reading some verses from the Bible that might pertain to the class.

The reading was from Matthew 5, where Jesus spoke to the crowds of people. He usually had many people following him and for different reasons. Sometimes they wanted to learn. Other times it was because they were hungry and wanted food, healing and other times they wanted to only criticize or condemn.

The question for us today is, "How do we apply the lessons of Christ to our lives?" The power of His words are the same today as when He spoke them. Application is the key. If we only read the Bible without application, it is nothing more than book of stories for us.

So, how can I show more compassion, show more mercy, be more pure? There are so many attitudes in these few verses that it can be overwhelming. Maybe, if I focused on one for a week. Just one. Really focused on it and repeated the verse several times a day.........maybe that would be a good reminder of how my heart should be. If the heart is right, so will be the actions and attitudes.

At the end of the day, I can say, "Yes, I am a good Christian." Maybe that is too general of a statement. Maybe it causes us to be too comfortable. Maybe we should me more specific in how we think.

Just a thought...............

Back in Guatemala!

Yesterday, I returned to Chichi. The three weeks in NC went very quickly. It is always good to spend time with family and friends. I always intend to blog more when I am in NC but it seems that time just goes so fast...........so, I will give you a quick review of the highlights.

1. Time with family and friends always ranks first.

2. I have never talked about it on the blog but I have had trigeminal neuralgia for about 3-4 years. Dr. Charlie, arranged for me to be seen at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Thank you, Charlie!! After two consults, I had the Gamma Knife procedure done. Thanks to everyone..........Sally, Mary, Jim and Trish who sat with my parents and helped pass the time. Everything went well and I expect great results.

3. My brother Mike and Angie took me out for a birthday lunch!

4. We had a wonderful dinner at the South Fork Church of Christ. Members of my sponsoring congregation were there and also people that I use to work with. If I begin to name different people, I will forget some and I do not want to do that. Thanks to everyone that attended. It was a fun evening!

5. Thanks to the Morganton Church of Christ for their "going away" gifts. I really appreciate the thought and support.

So, now it is time to get back to work.

More adventures in North Carolina

I have been able to spend almost three weeks in North Carolina. It has been a wonderful time with family and friends. I was able to zip line with my mom and Tom. That was an adventure. Today I was able to play in cement with my dad. He needed to do some work around the driveway and I wanted to help.

Me driving the tractor and getting the cement ready. After doing this, I am now ready to drive a Guatemalan chicken bus!

I showed dad how they mix cement in Guatemala. It makes sense and it works well.

Dad cleaning up after we had finished.

It was fun. I always have enjoyed working outside and it gave us something different to do.