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! :)