Month's worth of update

church picnic

About a month ago, we had a church picnic. Everyone helped cook the beef and chicken for the barbarq. The kids played several games of futbol, tag and frisbee waiting on the food to be done. It was an enjoyable time getting to know people better. We always find when we do stuff together like that, the members of the church work together so well and grow closer as a body.

Game to win a Bible, took about 15 mins
 to put together a 25 piece kids puzzle

We went up the mountain about two weeks ago to a village called Las Balles. There is no established evangelical church there and the youth group from our church have gone up a couple of times to evangelize. I went up one day with the youth group to do a service in the school. We went up by car because walking is about 3-4 hours. Anael, a young man in the church, has gotten 80 Proclaimers donated from the Bible Society in La Ceiba. This was our first time taking the Proclaimers up to the mountains. The mountain people are very uneducated and many cannot read. Proclaimers is the recorded Word of God that they can listen to. They were super excited about it.

Anael sharing about the Proclaimers

I just got back on Monday night from a Christians in Action Conference in San Salvador, El Salvador. Christians in Action International has a conference once a year for Latin American church leaders. I went with two other leaders from the church, Anael and Jose. It was about a 15 hour journey on the bus. I had a few problems getting into El Salvador because of arriving by plane and leaving the country by bus. God is sovereign and He gave me grace with immigration and I was able to attend the conference.

Us with leaders of the conference

We had 2 days of lectures and then church on Sunday. Sunday afternoon we went to the mountains with a small group from San Salvador that has a ministry about and hour and a half from the city. They go up once a week to share Jesus with a small community. It was a blessing to see their ministry. It was a blessing to get to know some of our brothers and sisters in Christ that are serving in Guatemala and El Salvador.

Ministry in the mountains

video of hospital loma de luz

Just wanted to share a video of hospital Loma de Luz that a recent vistor made. This is a good general overview of how the hospital functions day to day. I hope you enjoy getting a little glimpse of what we do day in and day out. I hope you see and feel compassion for the people as we the missionaries do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1lI-PZANwo

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!