Machacalha

Wow! What an amazing trip. We left early yesterday morning and drove the 2 hours or so to the town of Dolores, where literally the road ends. We then strapped on our packs and headed out on the 2 hour trek to our destination of Machcalha, near the Guatemalan boarder. It was a long hot (and more than any thing heavy) hike but great company and awesome scenery.

Once we arrived in Machcalha, we visited with the family of the village chairman, where we ate lunch and then set up camp. After the tents were up, half the group went hunting for supper, and the rest went with me as we went house to house to provide whatever medical care was needed.

I saw about 100 people in about 4 hours. These wonderful people were very welcoming and appreciative. That evening we went for a dip/bath in a nearby creek which was oh so refreshing! We then ate some supper and met with another village leader about the well that is being planned for the village. Once this meeting was over, since there is no electricity and very dark, we went to bed, but this was certainly not the end of our night.

About midnight, we all headed down the river in a 40 foot hand made dory (canoe) to hunt Gibnut (a rat creature that is very popular with the locals). It was quite the experience. We did not get the kill but had a blast regardless. We made it back to camp around 2:30am and hit the sack.

6:30am we were up and broke down camp. I checked on a few patients and then on to breakfast (flour tortillas and beans) at 7:30. After sweet goodbyes, we started the hike back at around 8:30am. However this time we had a friend in the form of an unnamed horse to help us with our packs (at least for 1/3 of the hike).

God is so good to have allowed me this opportunity to show his compassion and love to these wonderful people. He loves and cares for them them so much and I pray that my actions and words over the past 2 days will have shown them exactly that.

Please pray for the folks with LOL ministry as they continue to work on this well project over the next 2-3 weeks. Time is of the essence as it has to be done before the rain starts otherwise the drill will not be able to get to the village.

I will post a lot more pics of the trip on the slide-show at the top of the blog.

Jungle village trek

Tomorrow I am going to take a trip to a village in the southern most part of Belize. I am going with a group of guys with Laugh Out Loud Ministries (lolministry.com). The trip has a two fold purpose, to assess the area for a new well and to provide medical care all in the name of Jesus. The village is so remote that there is no access to medical care. We will drive 2 hours and then hike 2 hours into the deep of the jungle to get to the small village. Everything you need has to be carried in on your back (and my backpack is packed to the brim)! I am bringing much needed medicines and I will go house to house providing any care that is needed.

We will bathe in a creek and sleep in small tents. They tell me that the howler monkeys keep you up all night and wild pigs eat your camp fire coals! It ought to be fun!!!

We will leave at 5:30am in the morning and will return Saturday evening if all goes as planned. Please pray for our safety and for peace of mind for Hannah and the kids. This will be the first time she has been alone here. The earthquake this morning has not helped her anxieties either!! I will take plenty of pics and let you know how it goes when I return.

Rude awakening

This morning a little before 2:30am a 7.1 earthquake hit Central America. We were awakened to our house which is up on stilts shaking pretty hard and to terrible noises of ours and other buildings creaking. Hannah and I awoke about the same time, dazed and confused, rushed to get Lily and Aidan and ran outside. It must have lasted at least 20 seconds or longer and ended seconds after we were outside.

There have been no reported deaths in Belize, however a teenage boy died in Honduras. Several homes were destroyed in Southern Belize and a town just north of us had a water tower fall down. Some stuff was knocked out of our bathroom and kitchen shelves but thankfully no real damage.

Needless to say we did not sleep very well after that. I felt a small after shock at some point that got me heart racing again. Praise be to God that although we were shaken, we were not moved!

Lily's birthday

This past Saturday was Lily's birthday and her party. It is SOOOO hard to believe that we have a SIX year old child. Man, has time flown!!! She has been beyond excited about this party for MANY days. See anguished over and spent hours discussing with us who to invite, what to do etc. All the details of the part were planned out well in advance. She is so funny. We have proved that you don't have to have all the "stuff" to have a fun party. She had a BLAST and so did her "friends" that came. The theme was of course, "Princess." They colored princess pictures, decorated princess crowns, and did whatever else little princess' do.

The day started out with breakfast of her choice (blueberry muffins) and the rest of the day was consumed with party set up, celebration and then clean-up.






Probably the most special part of the whole thing was that Tanika, one of our special needs friends, got to come. When Lily and I went to invite her, her eyes lit up SO MUCH and she immediately asked her mom if she could go. We saw her a few times in between then and when we picked her up for the party and she would ask me how many days until "Lily's birthday." This was the first birthday party she had ever been to!!! She LOVED it. Even though she could not run around with the rest of the kids, she loved every minute watching them. Marcella, Tanika's mom also got to come which was very important to her. In 8 months, I have never known her to leave her house, so she really appreciated the adult socialization.

Hannah's birthday and Mother's day

May 7th Hannah turned 27 (for some reason this was a birthday she dreaded...). The kids and I got up and surprised her with breakfast and some special birthday cards. Lily even made her a gift! That night we got as gussied up as we can here in Belize and went out to eat at one of our favorite "eat'en places' as the kids call it. Then we came home and had some yummy birthday brownie's and sang happy birthday with the Quick's via webcam which was cool.






I am so blessed by God to have such a wonderful awesome wife to be the mother of my children. So many often take this blessing for granted. The kids love her SOO much, and they wanted to show her so they gave her an award, it was very sweet!

Bad, bad blogger...

I know... I am sorry it has been so long. Don't know... I have just not been in the blogging mood. Maybe a little depressed although not sure why. On top of that I have been extremely, extremely busy. I think things are beginning to calm down a little now. Either way, I am determined to look up to where my help comes from (psalms 121:1) and also get back on the blogging train.

So much has happened, not sure where to start. I think what I will do is make a few small blog entries to catch things up. More to come!

"Help" is not always what you think

On my last post I told you about a 103 year old lady (Mrs. Victoria) that Hannah and I were taking care of. We were seeing her daily (even over the weekend) checking on her, cleaning and treating her wound etc. I would pray with her although she did not know I was there most of the time. Her family asked us to eat lunch with them Sunday. We had a nice time getting to know them more. They were so gracious, seating us at the table while the waited on us, and only eating after we were finished.

After lunch I went in to Mrs. Victoria's room to check on her. She had stopped eating several days prior, and by the way she looked to me, I felt she was very close to death. We discuss this with the family, and I told them I would be very surprised if she lived through the night. After a while longer, we left to go take care of another lady with a wound that lived near-by (who happened to be related to Mrs. Victoria), and when we arrived at her home in less than 5 minutes, we had a message waiting for us to come back quickly. So we cleaned and changed her dressing and returned to Mrs. Victoria's home where were told that they thought she had died. After confirming that indeed she had, we spent some more time with them talking and offering what little help we could, at least that is what I thought.

This afternoon I went to her funeral that was held at her family's home. Strangely, Mrs. Victoria and I share the same birth date. She was obviously a very special woman. I hate that I did not meet her when she was well and vibrant, but I am grateful to have known her none the less, regardless of the circumstances. So many people came to show their respects and celebrate her life. As a part of the service, they thanked us for being there when she died. They said it helped them so much. I was so touched by this sentiment.

You see, I thought I was helping Mrs. Victoria by trying to "heal" her wounds and illness (which in a way we were), but God had a different kind of "help" and healing in mind. We did not do anything special or spectacular, and most of what we did, does not require special training or skills. It was not our knowledge and expertise that impacted this wonderful family. What we did that had the most impact was show love, compassion and care in a real and practical way. These are things that we can all do everyday to show the awesome powerful love of Jesus.