Catch up!

Sorry it has been so long since I posted…a lot has happened, so this is only a recap. I went to the states in early October and was there for a little over 2 weeks. I was able to spend some good time with family and friends and really enjoyed being there. I spoke at 2 different churches, one in Virginia and another in Peachtree City. I am still in the process of raising support to stay my second year here.

The day after I got back from the states, I moved out to San Luis and off the hospital grounds. I moved in with 2 other girls, Kristel (since has left to go back to the states) and Joelle to a house we decided to house sit out in the community. Joelle and I have wanted to move out to the community since we arrived, and just now have had the opportunity.

One week after arriving from the states, I had my moto accident. I didn’t realize that it had started to get dark earlier, and had Monday night bible study with the girls as I had before I left. I wrecked trying to get home afterwards on a dark, rainy night and was taken to the hospital. I arrived at the nurses station by myself, dripping wet, covered in mud, with a broken finger and blood dripping down my leg. I asked for the on call dr. through all the tears. They helped me out of my wet clothes and got me cleaned up. One of the nurses held my hand as Dr. Mckenney, our surgeon, shot me up with Lidocane to set my finger. I got my first cast ever that night. The X-rays the next day showed that my pinkie was broken and also my metacarpal bone of my hand with what they call a boxer’s fracture. My cast said you should see the other guy…I really beat those horses up good! I am on my 4^th cast and get it off on Friday!!!! I am stoked!!!

So, the rainy season has started. Right after I got back from the states we had a lot of rain that washed out the approach to the bridge in Lis Lis and wasn’t passable for about 24 hours. Then we had beautiful weather again for about 3 weeks and I was wondering about this thing they call rainy season. Well, the rains have started. It has been raining almost steadily since last Thursday. The road is starting to get really slick and the approach to the bridge is almost gone. We will see how and when they start to repair it. Planning to go to La Ceiba this Saturday...we will see if able to get across.

Joelle and I decorated a borrowed Christmas tree with paper and playdoh. We had so much fun! I just bought lights to go on it…and it looks so cute!!!! We decorated the lab for Christmas as well.

It’s been interesting to learn how the Hondurans celebrate Christmas. They typically go to church on Christmas Eve, then stay up all night eating and hanging out with family and friends. They may get a new shirt or a new outfit, but they definitely do not have the commercialized Christmas we have in the states.

Well hope you have a blessed and Merry Christmas!

Please pray for one of our short term missionaries

Please pray for one of our short term missionaries named Karli. She is 17 years old, just out of high school. She came down here to work with Orlin, one of the very sick babies at the childrens center. She was here for about 6 weeks before she got sick this last week. She got sick last Saturday with what seemed like gastroenteritis, which is pretty common here. She seemed to be getting better last Tuesday and then Thursday we admitted her to the hospital with tingling and numbness in her extremities. I spent Thursday night with her at the hospital and into the night she got more tingling, numbness and pain. We didn't sleep but an hour that night because she was scared to go to sleep because she was afraid she wouldn't wake up. She was not getting any better and her parents were requested to come and get her. She went home yesterday and went straight into the children's hospital in Seatle, Washington which is three hours from her home. Please pray for her recovery. We have not heard yet what she has been diagnosed with. When she left here, she still was not able to walk, but was able to use both of her arms after she regained some of her strength. I talked to her briefly today on facebook and she said she is going to be in the hospital a while and won't be back here for quite a while. She was so sad to leave, but we do not have the capabilities to test her and take care of her like she needs. She really needs prayer for what looks like may be a long road to recovery...but God is able to do far more than we could ever imagine. She can't wait to come back when she is fully recovered. Thanks guys for uniting with all of us missionaries here in prayer for her!

Please pray against discouragement

Please pray against discouragement, our missionaries are really under attack from the enemy. We have had a lot of missionaries sick lately...some who are in the states and are delayed coming back and some who went back because of sickness.
As of tomorrow we will have 1 doctor here at the hospital and a midwife. Thankfully the midwife takes call too. For about the last 6 weeks there have been only 2 docs out of 8 and as of tomorrow we will be down to one. Please pray for Dr. Joel Tumlison as he is tired and worn out already and starting tomorrow will be by himself for the next three days or so until another doctor comes in from the states on Saturday. On top of being by himself, it has been a really rough week. We have had several serious emergencies which two of resulted in the patients passing away. So, in the last three days, we have had two deaths and some really sick patients. Please pray for the family of Suyapa (a lady who works at our childrens center) whose brother died on Monday from some kind of toxic chemical (they think) that left him in severe respiratory distress. Please also pray for a family that brought a little 14 month old girl in who they thought had fainted and wasn't responding. She was not breathing on arrival and they were not able to revive her as it took them half an hour to arrive at the hospital. After hearing of what was going on I ran to get one of the paramedics to help as they were doing chest compressions and no one had arrived yet except the doc and a nurse or two. I ran back to the lab and began to pray with the girls in the lab. I don't know why sometimes God chooses not to answer our prayers. I don't know why God did not revive this little child. I don't know why God does what He does...but I know He is good...and I cling to that! Life is not easy, it is hard...but God is there to get us through until tomorrow and the next day and the rest of our lives.

Hospital needs

As you know, the financial situation in the U.S. is not ideal at the moment. As a result, ministries such as the hospital here in Honduras have been affected. Here at Loma de Luz, we have been struggling financially for close to two months now. I have been denied ordering some lab supplies recently because of finances. First I ask that you would pray for our financial situation. Please pray that God would provide and that we would trust Him to supply all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. He has upheld this ministry here for the last 10 years and I really don't think His plan is to drop it and let it all go. Please go before the Father on our behalf to ask for His provision for this place. I have waited so long in notifying you, trusting that He was going to provide, but He has not yet. We are still waiting on His hand and trusting in His provision.
There are several needs we have here at the hospital because of this financial crisis. We are of course in need of finances, but we are also in need of supplies so that we would not have to buy supplies. If you have medical supplies that could be donated such as: gloves, gauze, syringes, alcohol swabs, cotton balls, microscope slides or cover slips, lab timers, etc. These are just a few things we are in need of. If you think you could help provide some supplies please email me at christine@lomadeluz.net to figure out how or to get an extensive list. If you would like to give financially to the hospital, please email me as well and I can direct you as to how you can best do that.
Thank you for all of your prayers in advance!

Please pray

Please pray for a little 11 year old girl named Karen (pictured left). She was brought into our hospital on Monday afternoon after looking very malnurished, and having not eaten for 2 days and having diarrhea for months. She had surgery in the city 3 months ago for an abscess and since has withered away to almost nothing with a wasting diarrhea. I think when she came in she weighed about 35-37lbs. The rumor is (I say rumor because the public hospital in the city will not release her medical history to our private hospital) that the during the surgery she had 3 months something happened that caused her to not be able to absorb the nutrients from food that her body needs. She has not been getting any nutrients for the last 3 months and is very malnurished. You can't really see in the picture that she is just skin and bones, but I have never seen anyone so thin in my life. She literally looks like the national geographic magazine picture of someone dying from malnurishment. She is such a beautiful girl, and has such a beautiful smile. She is feeling better, but somthing has to be done to make her body absorb nutrients or she will not survive. She had been passing out due to severe pain and a low potassium. She is receiving fluids and some other helpful components via IV and hopefully will recover soon. If it is something she needs another surgery for, our surgeon is in the states and will not be back for about another 6 weeks. I ask you to take her before the Lord in prayer. Her mom is very hopefully and already has lots of people praying for her, but I ask that you would be praying for her as well.

James 5:15 "...and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him."

Please also pray for safe travels. My sister is coming tomorrow and we will travel to Costa Rica to spend the next 5 days for my visa trip. Pray for safety and wisdom in travel.

One night

I wrote this last night after this experience and just thought I would share it with you guys:

Rode my motorcycle up to the overlook point tonight right as the darkness was about to overtake the light. As soon as I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the peachy orange color, the only color still left in the sky that hadn’t been overtaken by the darkness of the night. I stood in awe of the beauty and magnificence of it all. The sky reflected the sun that had said goodnight over the horizon more than 20 minutes before. As I looked out over the jungle and the ocean, it was almost as if the ocean and the sky ran together because they were so dark. However, the light was not giving up so easily and there were streamers of orange and peach woven in and out of the clouds. They stayed this way for a while before giving way to the darkness of night. The ocean looked so calm that I almost couldn’t tell where the ocean stopped and the sky began. As I began to listen instead of just stare in awe, I heard the sound of the waves way down below crashing into the shore. They were faint, off in the distance, and it took effort to hear the beautiful music they were making. I never would have thought that you could hear the waves from that high up the mountain, but it was almost like they were echoing the sound of the ocean and nothing, not even the jungle was going to get in the way of it’s singing unto the Lord. Their echoing was so distinct that it was almost as if I was standing on the beach at night, staring at the darkness listening to the tranquil sound as the waves naturally crested and broke onto the sandy shore. As I took my focus off the waves, I heard the sound of the jungle insects, singing their night song in such harmony. I knew night was here by the symphony that was being played out by the insects, but the sky said otherwise. As I stood there in awe staring into the darkness, listening to the music that creation was playing for the Lord, I began to hear more sounds off in the distance of the monkeys. I heard the very distant sound of the monkeys adding to the music creation was making for the Lord. They were adding their own special effects to the sounds creation was already busy making. “Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” Psalms 69:34 Thank you Lord for letting me hear the praises that your creation sings to you.

Mom's visit

Mom had a wonderful visit here at the hosptial. I took her on the motorcycle, up to the water tower, to the beach searching for sand dollars and star fish, showed her around the hospital, took her into balfate, went to a restaurant on the beach out in Rio Esteban. We were able to paint my room, which I have been wanting to do since I arrived...it was an aweful dirty cobalt blue color. We had a wonderful mother/daughter time. I was very glad that she got to see where I am and meet just about all of the full time missionaries that are here that I am working along side.

Mom got to see one of the miracles that sometimes I write about on my blogs...and see that the sign in front of the hosptial...Dios obra aqui (God works here) is true and that he does truely bless us here. There was a baby that came in one night when I was called in about 7 or 8pm. It was the daughter of one of the employees here that is about 3 months old. She had been having some constipation and so they took her to a midwife out in the community which is what most of the people here do. (The midwives here are clueless and sometime perform witchcraft, and most of them are completely uneducated.) She went and bought mineral oil for the baby at the local pulperia, heated it up, added salt and poured it down the baby's throat. The oil was way too hot and scalded the babies mouth and esophagus. After a couple of hours because the burn was so bad, the airway started to swell and the baby started having trouble breathing...that is when she arrived at the hospital. After arriving, we decided there was not much we could do for her since her airway was closing and didn't have needed equipment to deal with the situation, they gave her a steroid injection, and sent the family to the city. After a little over an hour car ride, they arrived at the public hospital (sidenote: they will not even take patients if they don't look sick...there have been so many patients just turned away at the door). After I got back home, mom and I prayed...prayed for the missionaries who were taking this family to the city, prayed for the family and for this tiny baby. The Lord heard our prayers that night! The baby was sent home the next day and is now doing fine...praise the Lord!

As mom's time was wrapping up here, we started to hear about a strike on Spirit Airlines (her airline) and kept attentive to it. We found out on Monday after checking Spirit Airlines website that mom's flight had been cancelled for wednesday and her money refunded. As we were looking for tickets and finding they were about double what she had paid round trip to come, we contacted a friend who appeared on skype. He used to work for Delta and let us buy a buddy pass. Mom was able to get on the first flight on wednesday as planned. She also was able to leave at noon instead of 1am, had a direct flight and was placed in first class...we are guessing because of his seniority...and she only had to pay $30 more for this ticket than she was refunded. What a huge blessing that was...and what a huge blessing it was to have mom visit! :)

Pizza making

Since I have been here I have really enjoyed making pizza. I learned how to make the dough a couple of months ago and it has been one of my favorite meals since. It's quick, easy and I always have leftovers! Sometimes I bring some to the girls in the lab and they just love it. Today I went to Lucinda to teach Veronica how to make pizza since her children absolutely love it! She was so surprised at how easy it was. We made two pizzas and this was the one she made all by herself. She is now hoping her husband will build her an oven. (They build them here out of clay.)

I also finished teaching the 10 Commandment to my sunday school class today. There is a song here that one of the doctors teaches to the kids in the schools and we sang it in front of the church this morning. It was so cute, I wish I had a video of it!

Catch up

So, I have been back in Honduras now for about a month since my first visa trip back to the states. I had a wonderful time with family and friends at weddings and new baby outings. It was a very enjoyable time and I am very thankful to all of you I was able to visit with. Thank you for the encouragement and the prayers.

On Mother's Day, we had a wonderful celebration at church with a the baptism of a new believer. Jorge who became came to know the Lord about a month and a half before that was baptized right after the service out at the Rio Estaban river. Many have seen his life change since he came to know the Lord. Please pray that he would grow in wisdom and knowledge of the Lord day after day.

There were 4 birthday celebrations with lab employees and their children in this month in a span of about two weeks. I was able to go and visit both of their families and celebrate with them. This is Veronica's family and this is the first family photo they have ever had taken (I did take one for her without me in it).

Things in the lab have been crazy as usual, but good. Right after getting back from the states, Irina left for her vacation. Their vacation here is a lot different than in the states. They take their vacation all at one time around the month they were hired. It leaves huge voids when people go on vacation here for a month at a time. It is very difficult to cover areas when everyone is already busy…somehow it seems to work though. So, for the last month since I have been back, Irina has been on vacation. It has given me a great opportunity to get to know the other girls in the lab, Ruth and Veronica.

I have seen the provision of the Lord just in small things. Some of you may know that almost every piece of equipment in the lab has broken in the last four months since I have arrived. It was very discouraging at first and was difficult to handle, but now I know what to do and when things break, it is not such a big deal. Just in the last several weeks I have had three centrifuges break out of the five that we have. One type, we just recieved several on the container from the states right before two broke. Another centrifuge broke that we bought about 3 years ago and one of the girls who was on her visa trip was able to get the part from the man who goes to her church that owns the company we bought the equipment from. She brought the part down and the centrifuge is working great. Another centrifuge broke that we use everyday to spin specimens down and a man was here from the states that comes a couple of times a year with his wife and was able to fix that centrifuge in the time he was here. Some of you who are not lab people will have no idea what I am talking about, but hopefully through all the lab talk, you can see how the Lord just provided and knew ahead of time what was needed.

My mom is coming this coming this Friday, June 4th to visit for the first time. Please pray for safe travels for her. Hopefully will get a chance that week to post about some of our adventures.

Can't believe I have been here for 2 months already

Hey everyone...sorry I haven't posted in a while. I am staying pretty busy here at the hosptial. I have been busy working some weekends as well as having spanish and other studies at night. So...where do I begin. First I will tell you that I have started discipling a young 11 year old girl from the children's center who accepted the Lord about a month ago...very exciting. We do a study together once a week. I would ask you guys to pray for her, her name is Andrea. Please pray that I would be able to lead her and that she would grow in her walk with the Lord.

We have had several sick children at the hospital lately, two of which are from the children's center. A little 7 year old boy named Luis who came straight to the children's center from a hospital in La Ceiba. He had just had surgery to remove a ball of worms from his intestines and last week had surgery here again. He has been through a lot in the last several months with the loss of his parents, two surgeries and moving to a new place. Please keep him in your prayers as he is very fragile right now.

I also ask that you pray for a little boy named Orlin who is 8 months old. He has been here in the hospital now for about 3 weeks and maybe even a month now. He is a little boy who has so many health problems I don't even know them all. One of the problems he has been having is aspirating his formula which was causing Pneumonia and very fluid filled lungs. He now has a feeding tube that goes directly into his stomach where he is getting food and all of his medications. What a blessing to have our surgery team here last week to help with him and Luis.

I want to tell you a little about the children's center that is associated with the hospital. It is run by Ian and Liz Mckenzie from Scotland whose vision was to build an orphanage where there wasn't one out here in the middle of the jungle. They opened their doors about a year and a half ago and have had many children come and go, and right now they have about 16-18 children. Because they are associated with a very well equiped hospital, they have become known as the orphange for very sick and disabled children. It is such a joy to spend time with the kids and just see them playing and having a good time. Most of the children that are here, are here to stay and will not ever go back with thier families. We will get to watch them grow and change and hopefully come to know the Lord.

Hopefully will get to see most of you when I come home in a few weeks for my visa trip. :)

Have a blessed Easter weekend! Praise the Lord! Christ is Risen!

Giving

I have been very encouraged this week by a young lady here at the hospital. Her faith has challenged mine. I have known her now for about 3 weeks and she has been very slow to open up. She is a very timid young lady who I desire to see blossom. I was talking to her a few weeks ago and found out some days she wasn’t eating breakfast or lunch because they didn’t have any food, so I bought her some food. The basic staples here are very simple: rice, beans and manteca. She was very excited to have the food, but especially the manteca as she said they had run out and she didn’t have any money to buy more. They use manteca here for everything because it’s cheap. It also is one of the main reasons for high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes (or at least that’s my theory).
I was talking with this same young lady yesterday as we had some one on one time cleaning urine cups of all things. I asked her when she became a believer and was baptized which I found out was about 3 years ago. As we continued talking, she told me that she felt like God wanted her to give her entire first paycheck to Him. That is such a huge sacrifice for someone here who makes as little as they do. Just to give you a little background of about how much they make in a month…the average salary for someone out here in the campo (the name of where we are, where the majority of people are poor and uneducated). Minimum wage here is just over $200/month which means they make about $50/week or $10/day. Could you imagine working for around $1.25 an hour? And this is considered good pay out here in the campo. So, she is saying yes Lord, I will give you the only $100 that I have and trust you to provide. She needs closed toed shoes for work as she only has sandals right now which are not good for the mile and a half walk she has to and from work everyday or for the work that she has. Her two children have needs as I know she has not had money to buy them clothes or shoes in a very long time. Her husband works some milking cows and gets paid around $50 when he has work, but that work is few and far between. Her family has great needs, but she knows that the Lord knows her needs.
Proverbs 3:5-10 “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
This truly is a picture of someone giving the first fruits of their labor and giving out of her poverty. She is giving all that she has to the Lord and trusting Him to provide for her and her family. She reminds me of the shortly mentioned story Jesus tells in Luke 21:1-4 about the poor widow giving more than the rich man. If you don’t know this story, I would encourage you to read it.

Resting today

Today I am taking the day off and resting. Thankful for the day off to rest...the Lord knew I needed it. I am on oral antibiotics and just had an IM injection of antibiotics as well for a cellulitis that came to appear yesterday. Praying this would be a day of rest as I spend most of the day on the couch with my leg propped up. Probably the price I pay for going to the waterfall last Saturday.





We have a new staff member in the lab who has started training named Veronica. Please pray for wisdom as Irina and myself try to train her from no previous knowledge of lab stuff. It is more difficult for me to explain stuff in Spanish with my limited language. I am going to try to get something together for her with pictures today on my day off to help her learn the different areas of the lab.





Last week was a very busy week at the hospital as we had one critical patient that had never really recovered from his surgery the week before. We also had a little 8 year old boy come into the emergency room who had been bitten by a Barba Amarilla, a very poisonous and deadly snake down here. He had been bitten 4 days prior to coming to the hospital and was close to dead upon arrival. For those of you lab people, his hematocrit was a 10 and his blood would not clot at all. He was completely anticoagulated from the venom. He had a bite on one finger and on one of his legs. He immediately recieved the antivenom, and then a blood tranfusion. I had already tested the donor's blood the day before, so I just had to crossmatch her and draw the unit. What a blessing that I had done all the work the day before for our other critical patient who had not needed it. The Lord provided all in his timing. Within about 2 hours of coming to the emergency room, he had recieved the antivenom and was recieving his blood transfusion from one of our missionaries here. It is truely a miracle that he is still alive and is doing well. Two days after coming to the hospital for treatment, he also accepted Christ as his savior. I know that God has a purpose and a plan for this little 8 year old boy, just as He does for each and everyone of His children.

Blessings until next time!

Please Pray!

Please pray for a little church in the community of margarita. The church was started as a church plant from patients at the hospital coming to the Lord. It has had a pastor from Guatemala over it for the last two and a half years, but he and his family left in December. This church has really been struggling since the pastor left and really needs prayer. Please pray that the people of this church will just be filled with the Holy Spirit and will strive to keep their church. This church and group of people are very dear to my heart. I was baptized 4 1/2 years ago by this church after witnessing a Honduran baptism. The Lord has really spoken to me here and there is such a language barrier. I would hate to see this church fall apart...please pray for God's spirit to move in His people and for Him to do a wonderous work.

Please also pray for me as I have started at the hospital and been here for just over a week now. I have had alot of things fall in my lap and do not want to become overwhelmed which I have a tendency to do. One of my Honduran employees is leaving and one will be on vacation for the next two weeks. Staffing is going to be really short for the next several weeks. Please pray that we would find a good replacement and would be able to train them in a timely manner. There are many supplies I have to find to order and find a way to get them here. Please pray that I would not get to overwhelmed and busy that i would not have time to spend with the Hondurans outside of the hospital. My desire is to spend as much time with them as possible outside of work time. Please pray I have time to do that and don't get bogged down with the many other things going on.

Thank you for your prayers in advance. Thank you for your prayers for the salvation of the honduran people. Thank you for your prayers against the attack of the enemy especially in this busy time. Thank you for your prayers to our heavenly Father who hears us and loves us.

I have arrived!

I arrived at the hospital today after flying in yesterday afternoon. We drove 3 hours from San Pedro Sula (airport I flew into) into La Ceiba last night and stayed at a hotel in the city overnight. After my inital grocery shopping and looking at a motorcycle, I made it out to the hospital earlier this afternoon. After a restless night sleep in the noisy city I am so glad to be out here where it's quite and the only thing that will wake me up is the monkeys and the geckos.

I am trying to readjust to living life in Honduras as it is totally different than the states. I have to remember to throw my toilet paper in the trash...I have to remember to not drink or brush my teeth with the water anywhere but at the hospital...and I am still trying to get used to the bugs...bugs, bugs everywhere! Not to mention the language and totally different culture.

When I arrived in my room, I had to rearrange some furniture to make it more livable. I didnt have a dresser or any hangers for the closet, so couldnt really unpack this afternoon, but had dinner with the Lent family (went to training in KY with them back in August) tonight and they were such a blessing. They gave me hangers to hang stuff and something to hang in the closet I could fold and organize clothes on. I am hoping to get some kind of shelving in my closet this week, whether free standing or built in. I have not doubt they will take care of me.

Well...off to do some more unpacking then bed and church in am.

A

Tomorrow's the big day

Well, getting ready for the big day tomorrow. Still trying to get my packing done...going to have to consolidate as both my bags right now are overweight. I talked to the missionaries today and they were heading out to San Pedro Sula to pick me up tomorrow. The river is down and crossable since they have not had rain in 2 days and it's not supposed to rain again until saturday.

So...will let you guys know when I get to the hospital. We are going to make the 3 hour drive from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba on friday and will stay in the city that night. I will do my grocery shopping in the city before going out to the hospital on saturday. I will post as soon as I can after I arrive at the hospital to let you all know I arrived safely. Thank you for your prayers already and in the weeks and months to come. :)

Leaving Friday the 15th

I am leaving this friday the 15th of January. I will be busy this week getting last minute things together to leave in 5 days. I just heard today that the river between the hospital and the city is unpassable at the moment and there is supposed to be a storm moving in sometime this week. There will be one clear day but I am not sure if the missionaries will be able to make it to the airport to pick me up or not. I am hoping to not have to stay in the city for too long before going to the hospital. Who knows how long after I arrive that the river will be passable again. Please pray for safe travels.