"Living the high life"

A few days ago myself and Carol (a physical therapist who is with us this month) were able to get Blades a new foam mattress for his bed, hoping it will help to reduce his bed sores. Can you guess which one is the new one? Blades was SO VERY grateful for this small gift. When we put him in bed on the new mattress he said, "wow, now I'm living the high life".

Now I am not exactly sure if he was referring to the height of the new mattress, or to the fact that it is much more comfortable and new, but regardless, this small gift was a BIG blessing. Same with him being able to sit in his wheelchair. The smile on his face is priceless!

"now I'm living the high life".... Most of us are way overly blessed with "things", and yet we always want more. The life each of us have been given is so abundantly more than we deserve (and often need). Luke 12:15 warns us: "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

May we live to give generously of ourselves and our things out of the abundance of God's blessings.

Blog on the "back burner"

Wow! The past 2.5 weeks have been quite the whirlwind! Between Hannah being gone for a week, all craziness here at the clinic, and the many sick sick people, I had to put many things on the back burner, and blogging was one of them. The things I tried put to the forefront of my priority list were God, family and patients. But, things this week have sloowed a little so I thought I would try to catch you guys up.

Hannah had a great trip visiting family and attending her Aunt Pam's wedding in sunny San Diego. We sure missed her a BUNCH but the kids and I stuck together and did as well as could be expected. Hannah returned on Aidan's 4th birthday, which was a special treat.
















We had Aidan's birthday this past Saturday. He had a good time. Aidan invited some of his friends and we even had an uninvited guest: a tarantula (which was appropriate as it was a Spiderman party)!! No joke. Needless to say ole Spidy did not survive long enough for cake and ice cream. Aidan and everyone else had a fun time regardless.





























Blades continues to improve. His major wound on his backside is still healing albeit slow. however he has developed some small ones, but we are working on that. Hannah was able to bring back a "camel-pack", a water system used by hikers/bikers and runners. Now he can drink water by himself without help which is a good thing in many ways (physically, mentally and emotionally). He is able to sit up in a wheelchair now! YAY! Today was his third time and he was able to sit for 2 hours!!! He absolutely loves it! Today he was able to eat lunch while in the chair which was the first time he has had a meal not lying on his back in over 6 months! Keep praying for his healing and his spirits.

So much more has happened but those are the highlights. Please pray for God's guidance for our future. It is hard to believe but we have less than 10 weeks left here (and we still do not know what we are going to do (job etc) when we return. Our replacements (Dan and Maria) will be arriving here in Belize at the end of August, and we will begin their training. Pray for that too!

I have been studying 1 John a good bit lately. What an awesome book! ^3:1"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" Good stuff. More later...

Home Alone

Hannah traveled all day yesterday to San Diego, California for her Aunt's wedding next weekend. Her first flight left PG at 7:00am and 3 flight later she arrived on the west coast at 9:00pm PST. Praise God she made it safely! Sorry for not telling anyone of this trip but we were trying to surprise Pam and family (and I think she was successful). I know Hannah really wanted to go on this trip but she was very, very hesitant to leave us. I finally convinced her that we would be alright and that she needed to take this trip. I think she is glad she did. I am glad too for her sake. We miss her terribly of course, but she'll be back on Aidan's birthday (the 13th). Pray for us this week. My schedule is PACKED and hectic so pray I'll find "Lily and Aidan time" throughout the week. thanks!

Peace despite circumstances

Today when I had finished caring for Blades wounds, I was chatting with him as I often do, I asked him about the small bible he always has lying on his bed. He says it makes him feel better to know it is close by but he cannot read it "because I cannot hold it with my hands". Despite being in a bit of a hurry on a Saturday (my "day off") wanting to get to the sea where Hannah and the kids were swimming, I asked him if he would like me to read to him. He eagerly accepted the offer with gratitude. I asked him what he would like to hear and he chose Psalm 23:

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

As I read it, he quoted verse 1-2 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters". As I read these powerful words my heart was convicted and touched at the same time. Here is a 48 year old man, who will never walk again, who is suffering from sores caused by the lack of people in is life who take the time to care about him. No means of earning a living, poor, totally dependent on others for everything, little dignity, who lays in bed 24 hours per day in a small dingy room. Yet, he does not complain, though he has reason to, and above that he is able to say "I shall not want". Oh that I would have the same heart, to depend on God despite the circumstances of life. To find comfort only in God, and to not search for peace in anything else. To not fear, in the face of danger, and to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Please continue to pray for Blades and for us as we daily speak and show hope and love in this dismal situation.

Caye Caulker: Nice once we got there

We had a great time in Caye Caulker, that is once we got there!

5:45am
We walked to the end of the road to catch what we thought was the express bus (AC, nicer seats) to Belize City, but come to find out that bus was not running on that day so we took the next available "school bus" like bus. Well I forgot to mention that it had been raining a good bit overnight and well, the rain was apparently too much for the make-shift bridge crossing over one of the many rivers.

8:00am
We arrive at the bridge which is overrun with water. We along with half of Belize wait while they attempt to fix it and let the waters recede enough to cross.

9:00am
Still waiting...

10:00am
Still waiting...

11:00am
The waters have begun to recede and they have dumped a bunch of rocks onto the make-shift bridge. However, all of the sudden our bus decides it is heading back to Punta Gorda! So we had to make a quick choice, go back to PG or hop off and figure some alternate route of transportation... well we hopped off.

11:30am
We noticed a small boat down by the river bank with some military personnel on it so we trekked in ankle deep mud (in flip-flops mind you) to this boat. They were kind enough to take us across the river to yet another muddy bank where we trekked back up to the road. By this time a few 4-wheel drive vehicles had made it across the river so we hitched a ride with a dutch couple (I rode in the back and Hannah and the kids were able to ride inside).

12:00pm
We got out at a junction where they were going to be heading in the opposite direction of our destination. We thanked them and started walking to a near by gas station.

1:00pm
We were at least able to hose off our feet and go to the bathroom (it had been ~6 hours by now) and get some gas station food for lunch. We figured there would be a bus heading where we wanted to go, so we waited.

1:30pm
And waited... (oh by the way, it is pouring down rain by now)

2:00pm or so
And waited

2:30pm
I had noticed a very nice 4 door Ford F350 truck in the gas station parking lot (it kinda stuck out like a sore thumb among the many not so nice trucks). Anyways we were standing on the roadside across from the gas station and I see this gentleman get out of the truck and begin walking our way. I make eye contact with him and we meet near the road. He explains that his is heading to the western part of the country but he could take us to Belmopan (the capital) that is about an hour away where I figured we could surely catch a bus. We gratefully accepted and we were off. Yet another bridge had flooded out along the way but we were able to take detour around it. Come to find out he was returning home where he lives in Spanish Lookout from PG where he has a farm. He was a very nice Christian Mennonite and we had a great and interesting discussion about God during the drive. It sure was nice to ride in a comfortable a/c vehicle!

3:30pm
We arrive at the Belmopan bus terminal to only find out that the next bus to Belize City would not get us to the water taxi terminal in time to catch the last boat to Caye Caulker! So what do you do? You do what you have to do because by this time we were committed to getting to the island, so we charted a vehicle ($$) to take us directly to Belize City.

4:00pm
We get to the water taxi station in time to catch the next 45minute boat ride to Caye Caulker!!!

5:00pm
Finally there! A really long day but worth it once we got to the island!

After that all was absolutely wonderful! The weather was mostly overcast but nice all the same. We relaxed, ate some awesome food, relaxed some more, saw some beautiful sea life, swam, relaxed even more! We stayed in a house near the water. The kids enjoyed being able to watch some cartoons and Hannah and I loved the air-conditioning! It was great. Today was tough, trying to get back into the swing of things. I think I am still in "island mode."

Here are some pics of the trip:


Waiting, waiting....

This is the bridge we were supposed to cross


I had another pic with Hannah
in it but she did not look too happy.
This was certainly the low point
of the trip.


Trying to find a ride


At the water taxi station


Finally in Caye Caulker!


The kids enjoying some Saturday
morning cartoons while we enjoyed
some Saturday morning sleep!


Loving the sea life


Father's day breakfast- YUMMY!


A very special Father's day supper


We had a great time!

I posted a lot more pics of the trip in the sideshow at the top of the page.