hi and prayer update

Hope all is well you all of you this weekend. We are good. Tomorrow after church we are going to be going to Big Falls (a small village near PG) to a lodge for a swim (if the weather permits) and dinner with some friends as a part of my birthday celebration. It should be really nice.

An update from my last blog: Avelina safely made it to and from Belize City this week. She was able to get the tests that we needed. Praise God that she does NOT have a brain tumor and her lab work was 100% normal!!! It looks like she had a non life threatening condition that will not require further treatment! I told her that many of my friends in the states would be praying for her and when I saw her yesterday she told me, "your friend's prayers must work"! Thank you all.

I am still working in getting Roynel where he needs to be... keep praying.

Pray continually

These are some new friends of ours who need your prayers. The little one is Roynel. This precious 5 month old little boy has several congenital defects. I am worried that he might also have a defect in his heart. I am trying to get him to see some specialists. Pray that I can find some and get him to them in a timely manner. Also pray that we gains weight.















This beautiful lady is Avelina. She has symptoms that strongly suggest a tumor in the base of her brain. She is actually traveling to Belize city as I write this for some crucial tests. (Thank You God for helping us to raise funds to pay for the tests). Pray that God would heal her by providing the funds to treat her condition.

TS 16... gone without damage

The tropical storm (# 16) passed us up to the south for the most part without damaging winds. It did produce a LOT of rain (like 10 inches in 24 hours) so some of the low lying areas and those near rivers had some flooding but nothing serious. Most of our mobile clinics that go to very remote areas of southern Belize had to be canceled last week due to impassable roads. Thank you all for the prayers.

new video and tropical depression

Hi everyone! Check out the newest vid from the polson production co. You'll love it, no doubt! Apparently there is a tropical depression (named # 16 I think) that is headed toward us. It should make landfall Friday morning possibly as a tropical storm and is likely going to produce lots of flooding and potentially some high winds. Please pray for the safety of the people of the area.

Rest for the weary

We spent this past weekend in Placencia, a small peninsula north of us. We had not planned on taking a break this soon but since Monday was a holiday we took advantage of the long weekend. Another reason we chose to go now is that there are two key personnel (natives of Belize) of the clinic and one long term volunteer that are all leaving the clinic within the next few weeks. We knew the one volunteer was leaving (we are taking on her responsibilities), but we just found out about the head nurse and clinic manager were leaving for other jobs. Anyways, we figured that things were about to become even more busy and ever harder for us to get away so we jumped at this opportunity. We had a really great time. No technology (well except out ipods), no stress, just plenty of God’s beautiful nature and our sweet family. Some student nurses and another volunteer family also stayed near by for the weekend. We really rested and got re-energized for our mission here!

Check out our vid about it!

This week Hannah is back to her clinic responsibilities and I am learning how to coordinate the student nurse portion of the clinic. The head nurse who is leaving does this now, so I suppose I will take this on too until she is replaced. Next week we will pretty much “be on our own” so to speak. I think we are ready…

Too busy to blog!

You know I have been busy if I have gone this long and not emailed or blogged! Last week was very, very busy with the HOPE event that I told you about on my last blog. We left early in the morning and usually got home at supper. I did not spend any time at the clinic last week so I was unable to email anyone or blog. Sorry about that. I really miss communicating with you guys when I can’t do it. So if I don’t blog or reply to an email, I promise it is not because I don’t love you! I am just really busy trying to be the best heart, hands and feet for Jesus that I can (or the internet is down)!

This past weekend and what’s up in our world

Hi there. Hope and pray all is well with you and yours. Sorry it has been a while since my last blog. We did not have internet access this past weekend and yesterday we were out of town all day. Let’s see, Saturday we did our big weekend shopping in the market (in the rain) and around town. It rained just about all day so the rest of the day we just chilled (well really more like sweated) at home. Sunday we slept late (8 am) and went back to the same church we went last week. Once we got there, the pastor approached me and officially asked if I would be interested in helping them by working with some of the “members” in developing a worship team (more or less) and by leading the worship/music when I could until a Belizean leader is ready or becomes available. I told him that I would be interested (thinking I would start next week) and he said “great, let me show you my guitar and our song book!” Apparently a visiting missionary gave him a guitar (a pretty nice one at that) sometime ago but he cannot play. He told me “I have the heart (for worship music), but no gift”. Anyways, Hannah and I picked out a few songs that we knew and we both led the congregation of ~ 20 in 4 songs. It was like old times in early Restoration days (almost like in cell group). It was fun. Everyone was very receptive and thankful. I think it will take some time for them to learn a different style of singing/worship. It had been quite some time since I had played for any extended period of time so my fingers hurt! I need to build up my calluses again.

Like I said, yesterday we were out of town all day. We left Punta Gorda at 5:00am to travel to Belize City (for some nursing licensing business) which is a ~5 hour drive by car and ~8-9 hour drive by bus. Fortunately one of the clinic’s Land Rovers needed servicing so we were able to kill 2 birds with one stone! We got back home about 7:00 pm ate a bowl of cereal and all went to bed. We were pooped!

We then got up early this morning and started our week here in PG. This week is going to be a bit different because Hillside is partnering with an organization called H.O.P.E (helping older people equally) in a week long health fair for every elderly person in PG and the surrounding area. Hannah and I will share our time with this HOPE event and our other clinic duties. Other than being very busy, we are all good. There is a visiting physician and her family from Alaska that have 2 kids (one of them a daughter that is very close to Lily’s age) so the kids have had a good time playing with them.

Family ministry

Hannah and I are very excited that Lily and Aidan are able to "help" us in ministering to the people of Belize. I think they have touched as many lives here as we have! When Hannah and I are not working together, one of the kids go with each of us. Lily and Aidan have already stolen the hearts of the clinic staff, patients and students!