Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter! He is Risen! He is alive!
We had a wonderful sunrise service at church this morning. We got up at 4:30 (really early, even for me) and walked to the top of the hill on the church property to have a sunrise service. The sunrise was beautiful, but what was even more beautiful was the worship that was sung to the Lord. I love worshiping the Lord in Spanish. Sometimes I wish I knew more than two languages so I could worship Him in other languages as well. There are different ways to express our adoration of Him in other languages.
As I was reflecting this morning on the resurrection, I was just thinking about the sunrise and why we do sunrise services. I like that in English, the word Sun and Son sound the same, so that we we talk about the sunrise, we are also talking about the sonrising that we celebrate today. We celebrate the death and resurrection of our dear and beloved Savior who rose conquering death!!! I was thinking about the sun and how it rises day in and day out and without it, there would be no light or life on the earth. It is God's way of providing light and life to the earth. Without the sun, the plants and animals and life as we know it, wouldn't survive. Well, Jesus' rising is God's way of providing light and life to us in our lives. He wants to provide that light and life to our lives daily as the sun does to the earth. Jesus is the light of the world and in Him, there is no darkness at all. We praise Jesus today for coming to earth, suffering and dying for us and being raised to new life. I pray that we are raised to new life in Jesus daily as the sun rises, that we will rise as well with Jesus at the forefront of our minds and hearts.
Many blessings for a blessed Easter celebration!
Jesus esta vivo! Jesus is alive!

It's been a long time.

It's been a long time since I have posted here on my blog. Sorry to those of you who have wanted to read updates.
This week is Semana Santa here in Honduras and Central America. The week before Easter is called Holy week, however is not very holy at all. Most people use the week of vacation to visit family and go to the beach along with all the worldly stuff that goes along with that. The hospital is closed Wed, Thurs, and Fri this week for the Semana Santa holiday.
Eventhough the hospital is closed today, there were surgeries scheduled, so I am here anyway. I just got finished helping give a blood transfusion with 20ml syringes in surgery. They couldn't get the back to work and the blood to infuse, so we punctured the bag and gave her about 20 syringes full of blood. This is her second unit today and we had to get it in her. We don't waste blood around here if we can help it.
Please pray for the young lady in surgery (still in surgery as I write this). She is 22 years old with 5 kids and has a very aggressive ovarian cancer. She was operated on 2 months ago and was supposed to start Chemotheropy (donated by a very generous person in the states) last week. Her tumor came back within 2 months and more than doubled in size in 3 weeks time. Please pray for healing. Please pray for wisdom in councling this young couple.
I hope that you have a blessed Semana Santa. Happy Easter. He is Risen. :)

*Lab Need*

We, as a lab, desire to provide the best, most accurate results possible to our physicians allowing them to treat our patients with the best care possible.

I want to buy a new machine called the EasyLyte Plus (pictured right) which is a small, user friendly electrolyte analyzer that would give us a Sodium, Potassium, and Chloride result in under a minute. This would make a huge difference in how we are able to care for many of our patients that come to our hospital, sometimes the difference between life and death. These three lab tests are simple and basic lab tests that are taken for granted and ordered daily for nearly every in-patient in more developed countries.

With this machine, we will be able to monitor the condition of patients with:

Burns

Kidney Failure

Severe dehydration (very common with the heat here)

Diabetes Isipidus

Adrenal Insufficiency

Addison’s Disease

Acid/Base disorders

Severe Diarrhea or Vomiting

Bowel Obstructions

Conditions causing muscle breakdown (Rhabdomyolysis)

And many other conditions…

~This is where I need your help.~
It will cost $3,600. We will be able to provide good, reliable
results for less than $1 per test after purchase. Please prayerfully consider how you can help us get this necessary piece of lab equipment.

If you decide to take part in this special project, please send a donation to Cornerstone International, PO Box 192, Wilmore, KY 40390 marked Bell-Lab. Cornerstone has set up a special account for this machine and will keep me updated so that when the funds are available , I can purchase the machine.

The goal is to have sufficient funds to buy this analyzer by August 1st since it is such an urgent need. Thank you for your prayerful consideration in this.

Lab update

I got back from the states on February 2nd to start back to work in the hospital on February 3rd. One of my good employees, Ruth, left the hospital without notice the friday I got back. She had found another job in Balfate that pays more and is closer to her house. One of my other employees Veronica left for vacation the same day leaving only myself and Irina working in the lab for two weeks. We have made it through the two weeks with some help from some wonderful visitors who have helped us with secretarial type stuff. I will start interviewing this week to find a new employee and hopefully will have one sooner rather than later. Please pray for wisdom as I do interviews this week and select a new employee. We hire people with no experience with the lab making it hard to find someone that would be a good candidate. Lab is so detail oriented and math based and they are not culturally any of that.
I will post pictures later of my new Honduran house and family.
Thanks for your prayers! :)

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.