Week "off"

Last Saturday officially ended our summer teams. So this week we have "off". Our team mates took this opportunity to go to the islands, while we each are playing some small roll in watching their 4 kids. Mike and I are staying in town as Madison has school, so can't get away, and our team mates Shannon and Bethany are keeping our team mates kids during the night, so are hanging in town as well. However, in a small way, each of us are taking some time for ourselves. But, as you may know us, we can't completely take time off. For some reason it's just not in our make-up (unless we get away and are forced to take time off). We have dental appointments this week, and I am headed with my team mate to a meeting with Child Protective Services this afternoon to see how we can better serve abused children that we come across.

Mike and I are still trying to determine how we are going to be doing our ministry in Armenia. Bethany, our intern, is the last intern to be leaving in a few short weeks. In the midst of Madison in school, no more interns, etc. it's just Mike and I doing English Class, Kids Club, clinic, and special events. So...prayers for clear guidance and wisdom would be greatly appreciated as we figure this all out. The continued pull between being a missionary, mother, wife and nurse. To be there for those we minister to, but to be there for each other, and our family as well.

Covenant Presbyterian Church Mission Trip to Honduras

August 20-27, 2011 we hosted a short-term mission team from Covenant Presbyterian Church of Paso Robles, CA. The team put on a medical clinic in Armenia Bonito and treated 38 patients. They also did construction on a house and a ministry center, taught English and organized Kids Club.

Watch this 2 minute 30 second video to see their amazing work:

The week has ended

It's been a long week. I've been sick, then Madison got sick. Pretty bad too. High fever, severe cough, and other symptoms you don't need to know :-) Just that she was sick...and is still sick. What's a missionary to do when there are pulls from the team...pull from the long term team...and pull from your family. It's hard. Hence the name of my blog - Missionary, Mother, Wife, Nurse. It's hard - filling all those hats. Unfortunately, Madison was most sick on Thursday - I say unfortunately because that's clinic day. Fortunately, as we didn't need too many interpreters, Mike was able to come out with us to the village, set up, then was able to go home to be with Madison. But it's hard - being a mom - you want to always be there for your kid. But Mike's a good dad - and a great nurse - brought her home some gatorade, and took care of her. We were able to serve 38 people in clinic, a few who were as sick as Madison - so I felt good being able to bring them medication to make them feel better and get well. Madison still continues to be pretty sick, but I was able to put her in bed with me last night (as Mike is at the dorms), and take care of her during the night. Today the team is off to the local islands enjoying the beautiful water and the amazing day, and I'm hanging out with my kid and my husband. Tomorrow we send the team off - and it's the last team of the summer. We are currently making decisions on what our ministry is going to look like.

What does our current ministry look like? Bethany who has been an amazing intern, will be leaving us in a few short weeks. Shannon is starting her full-time ministry with high risk moms, and John continues to be our foreman for construction. Kathy is monitoring our scholarship kids. That leaves only Mike and I to continue the ministry in Armenia. So, we are trying to figure out how to do English Class, Kids Club, clinic, discipleship, etc. with just the two of us! Going to be quite a challenge indeed! Oh - AND be a mother/father, getting Madison to and from school etc. We are hoping some interns will come soon so they can help out with the ministry. It's the first time in 2 1/2 years we haven't had interns! Boy do we miss them! But - this is how the ministry all started...just Mike and I...doing all the ministry...so it's kind of interesting seeing it come back that way.

Final team

Our final team of the summer is here. My schedule has been SO crazy lately, that I'm so behind on so many things! Pulling 15+ hour days can leave you that way. So, yesterday, I stayed behind in town. In the morning I spent some time with Shannon going from house to house assessing and evaluating potential young ladies for her future ministry house. She will be opening a house for high risk young moms. Got home around 1pm after going grocery shopping. Cleaned house, and then went to pick up Madison. Got her home in time to run back to the school for open house. Was there for almost 2 hours, back home to make some dinner as I missed dinner with the team. All in all a productive day, just not in the way I had planned. Today I will be trying to do some data entry - I have over 500 patient data sheets to enter into my computer! Yikes! The team will continue construction, and this afternoon will do Kids Club in Armenia.

Coming and Going, Rats and Lizards

Tropical Storm Harvey came in with a boom! The rains came it rained pretty heavy all night - we monitored the track of the storm because our team leaving needed to get to the airport! Gratefully there was a break in the storm long enough to get them where they needed to be. Our final team of the summer has been traveling since late last night - so we know they will be exhausted when they arrive. We continue to pray for the weather that it will not hinder their arrival.

On an interesting note - we have a rat in the house. We've seen his evidence. However, last night we had Max in our room with us - with the Tropical Storm, we wanted him in the house and out of the storm. Right before bed, he jumped up, looked under the bed with a lot of interest and went nuts. Uh oh...we thought...and the next thing we knew, there was a rat streaking across the floor and climbing up my robe that was hanging on the back of the door. I'm not afraid of rats, and Mike was sitting up on the bed with his legs curled up under him - so I opened the door and managed to scoot him out of the room. We were so exhausted, it was no time to chase him around the house - so we will set out poison or traps soon. Sorry no pictures, I was too busy chasing him and Mike was too busy squealing like a girl.

This morning I went outside to check on my water-soaked garden to see what had managed to survive the deluge last night when I looked over at our washroom in the back. There, sitting on one of the window slats trying to keep out of the storm was a pretty big lizard that lives in our yard. I had seen him earlier this week in our tree. From head to toe he's probably at least a foot and a half long. Pretty cute.

In our tree earlier this week

Trying to stay dry

Medical Brigade Day 4

Today started out with a bang! One our way to clinic, we had gone about 10 minutes down the road when we saw a motorcycle coming toward us on the opposite side of the road. He hit a patch of gravel, started fishtailing, and then totally spun out and flipped his bike! I guess the best place to have an accident is right in front of a truck full of not only doctors, but medical equipment! So Dr. Greg and I jumped out of the car, grabbed our stuff, and took care of this guy. Had he not been wearing his helmet, we may have been driving him to the hospital. He hit his head pretty hard on the curb, and then flipped over and face planted! As it was he will probably be VERY sore tomorrow, perhaps a mild concussion, neck strain, but mostly some pretty scraped up skin which we cleaned, bandaged up, prayed with him, and gave him some supplies to take care of his wounds at home.

The day continued by seeing 22 ultrasound patients, 24 dental patients (for 72 teeth), 65 medical patients, for a total of 111 today.

For our weekly totals:

Ultrasound2 - 72 patients

Dental - 79 patients, 179 teeth pulled

medical - 181 patients

Total seen in the clinic - 332

Total seen during the week (including the school) - 457

Tomorrow we are all ready for a much needed day off - this team has worked VERY hard and have been a HUGE blessing to all.

Medical Brigade Day 3

Our day started out GREAT! We worked at the local public school in the village. There we had different "stations" throughout the school - stations like Parasite prevention/information, Bible Story, Crafts, Food Pyramid, Physical Fitness, Dental Hygiene, and a vitamin/deworming station. The other station we had for the 5th and 6th graders was abstinence. After that we grabbed a quick lunch, then went back to clinic to finish out the day. In 2 1/2 hours we did 13 ultrasounds, dental had 19 patients for 45 teeth (they did not come to the health day - so were there all day), and our providers saw 30 patients - so 62 patients in total.

Jairo teaching parasite prevention

Greg, Gina and I at the vitamin/deworming station

Shannon and Nancy telling a bible story

Katie and Bethany teaching Dental Health (each kid received a toothbrush)

Pam and Kathy teaching the food pyramid

Matt and John with physical fitness

Heidi with her "train" taking them to the next station