No Water!!!

Our town of Guaimaca has its water supplied by two streams. Now in the dry season, both the streams have almost dried up and the town of Guaimaca has almost no water. Two members of our church that meets in the hospital, one of our employees, and one of our translaters all came to the hospital yesterday and asked for water. We have a well at the hospital that continues to produce water.

Let me tell you about another part of our water ministry that I have not previously talked about. We have a large size pick up truck that we are able to fit a 900 gallon cistern into. We attach a gasoline powered pump to the cistern and can pump water at a gallon second. So I took Timothy, Luke, Gabriel, and Elijah and we went to deliver water (Dawn was in Tegus, Trey was still doing homework). This is a fruitfull ministry that I hope our family can continue to perform during the dry season. I first took water around in this manner with our team of college students from the U. of Georgia. They were here two weeks ago and did a great job with various ministries including this one. I am reminded of the passage in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, starting in verse 31 where Jesus talks of sharing water, food, and clothes with the less fortunate. I am glad we are able to share some of our water.

See the pictures below. One location we went is one of the poorest areas of Guaimaca. Notice that two 2 year olds brought their containers to get the precious water that they do not have enough of. I have struggled to get the image of the two little children out of my mind.

I pray that the Lord will continue to bless our well with plenty of water at the hospital so that we can share the water with others in the name of Jesus.



In this neighborhood, this little girl had no clothes to wear. They came to get water with no parents in sight!



Elijah and I filling a cistern. Eli had a great time helping others. The hose delivers water at more than a gallon a second.



This picture shows part of the cistern in the back of the hospital's pickup truck. Timothy is getting ready to pull the cord to start the gas powered pump for the cistern.



Luke filling the last pila of the day!

Birthday Traditions

There are two different birthday traditions we celebrate in Honduras. The first I think we have written about before but you break an egg on top of the birthday person's head, then pour flour and water on top as well: the ingredients for a cake. We have had fun with some of our teams when one of the team members had a birthday by showing them this tradition. Women have not been spared.

A second tradition is in church. The birthday child goes to the front of the church and then counts his age by putting lempiras bills into an offering plate. The congregation counts with him/her. When finished, the pastor says a prayer over the child and everyone holds up a hand pointed in the direction of the child. It is a wonderful time knowing that everyone in attendance is praying for your child.

Today Elijah turned 7 years old. We decided not to break an egg on his head (at his request), but yesterday we did go to church. The pastor called Elijah up to the front and he dutifully counted 7 one lempira bills into the offering basket. Then the congregation prayed for Eli as the pastor led the prayer.

May God grant Eli many more years of joy, peace, good health, and a love for God, family and his fellow man.

Beggar

So we were driving in the capitol, Teguscigalpa, last week and stopped at a redlight. I saw a lady out of the corner of my eye. I tried to not look at her or make eye contact but she kept coming towards us anyway. I knew she was coming to beg as happens so many times in a third world country. When we first moved to Costa Rica, beggars were definitely the greatest source of culture shock for our children. Maybe me too. They made me feel angry, guilty, and scared all at once. I definitely had alot of culture shock and lost alot of weight because of it. (Sometimes I jokingly think, "I wish I could get a little more culture shock now in order to lose weight.")

This lady walked up to the car, turned her free hand backwards and rapped on my driver's side window. I was reminded of the passage in Matt. 25 where Jesus talked of separating the sheep from the goats by sharing a glass of water, clothes, or food. So I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small bill, lowered my window and handed it to her. We then watched as she went to a group of motorcycles, and some other cars. No one else gave her any money this time.

This beggar was a little different from the many others we have encountered in that she was carrying a small child probably between 1 and 2 years of age. His head rested on her shoulder and he was sound asleep. It was sunny and very hot. She had him covered with a towel to keep the sun off of him but I am sure it made him hotter. Because of her poverty she was standing and walking and begging in an area of heavy traffic often moving fast. Very dangerous indeed.

Well, the light turned green and we all could leave and escape the sadness of the image of her and her little boy. You may wonder if I felt good that I had tried to help her. But as I drove away all I could think is I should have given more. I asked myself over and over, "Lord, why didn't I give more?"



Walking to the next car.







Going to the motorcycles.

17th Anniversary

So yesterday was Dawn's and my 17th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe we are up to number 17. I can still remember our showers, rehearsal dinner, wedding like it was yesterday. I remember the excitment and the nervousness.

Liliana is the wife of our head Honduran doctor at the hospital. She is an excellent cook and has started cooking supper for our teams. She surprised us Friday night by cooking us an excellent meal. We were able to eat in Jimmy and Bonnie Abbott's house by ourselves for a little mini-date on Friday night. It was a sweet time as we get little time to ourselves anymore.

I was saved when I was 7 years old but had really fallen away from the Lord during the years following. Dawn and I were married on March 27, 1993. On Memorial Day weekend of the same year, Dawn led me back to the Lord and I rededicated my life to him. So between the Lord and my wife (of course the Lord is first) the last 17 years have been the best of my life. This tribute is more for Dawn since it was our anniversary yesterday.

Dawn has been a great wife, mother of our seven children, friend, helper (she helps me to be a much better man) and lover. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with her!!!

It has been a fantastic 17 years and I do not regret a single minute of it.

Dawn, Te amo mucho. (I love you very much.)

Tully

My 1st Mountain Medical

A view on the way--our journey took us up the mountain above the tree line and we were rewarded with views like this.



The medical clinic--and Tully seeing his first patient of the day



Setting up the pharmacy


Three boys peeping in a window to see what we're up to in the pharmacy.


Esaú, who is one of the kids at the Good Shepherd's Children's Home in Zamorano. He is visiting us this week as he is interested in becoming a doctor. Here, he is translating instructions for medicines in the pharmacy.





Well, it was SO much fun. Where to begin? There is a group here from Pella, Iowa who enjoy doing mountain medicals, where we travel to a remote village and take doctors, nurses, plenty of medicines to dispense, and the good news of Jesus Christ. I helped out today in their pharmacy in a village called Agua Fría.

It was a great day all in all, then we packed up and started our return trip home down the mountain. Well, the brakes on the car I was driving went out, and, yes, we were going down the mountain. God is so good as I was able to maintain control of the car as it careened down the hill and finally came to a leveled out stopping place. We decided that was a little too much excitement for ending our day.

15 year old emergency

Three days ago on Friday we had a young wife, age 15, and her 17 year old husband come to the hospital early in the morning. The girl was 10 weeks pregnant and had a miscarraige. She began bleeding heavily around 4 a.m. and came to the hospital around 9 a.m.

When she first arrived her blood pressure was 50/40. Yes that is right--50/40. Her hemoglobin was 6.0 less than half of normal. She was still bleeding heavily. Our head doctor was able to use a pair of forceps and reach inside of her. He delivered the placenta and stopped her bleeding. We then had to transport her to the capitol for a blood transfusion.

She had to be transported in the back of a pick up truck. Look closely at the picture and you can see two IV bags. Her pressure was so low that we felt it necessary to start and run two bags of IF fluids. Would you continue to pray that we will be able to get an ambulance. I am trusting and believing that the Lord will supply it.

Yesterday

I drove to the Zamorano Valley from here to buy some palm trees at the agricultural school. During our furlough, many of the dirt roads along the "back" way were made smoother, almost ready to be paved, so I went the back way, along with Trey, Tee, and Lupe, a translator friend of ours and of the mission. It was only about 1 1/2 hours--as opposed to 2 1/2 or 3 when we went the back way, avoiding Tegucigalpa, in August.

Pretty much everything here is an adventure, yesterday's trip being no exception. The countryside is so beautiful here. Along the way, I dodged oxen, herds of cows, dogs running out into the street, donkeys carrying firewood on their packs, road construction where we could have literally reached out of our window and put our hands on the machine as it was working. The other day when we were driving, a herd of horses raced our car up an incline. Leading the pack was a mare and her colt, the baby having no trouble keeping up on those gangly legs!

Driving in Honduras, you have to have your mind at all times focused on the road as their are SO many potholes, so many dangerous things to avoid. I decided yesterday that I like it better when Tully drives so that I'm free to look around and take in all the intriguing sights!