Last week, we had Julia for dinner, as she will be going back to the states soon and we had been in the US much of her time here in Honduras. Our attention was somewhat diverted from her when Josh stopped by, interrupting our patio dinner with his iguana. He and said iguana joined us at the table. Only in Honduras!
We celebrated Easter for the first time in the new church building, made more special because it was the first anniversary of the dedication of the building also. It was a quietly festive time, meaningful to all. We hiked up the hill on the church property at 5:30 for our second annual sunrise service, and shared hot coffee and cinnamon rolls in the church when we descended. Because of our own church activities, we missed the missionary sunrise service on the beach, in which Mariah, one of the MK's, was baptized. But we were all together at the annual Easter dinner in the cabildo, sharing a drama by the kids and awesome food. We had invited 2 couples from the Canadian Resort near us, are trying to integrate them a bit into the social life here. John and I had driven after our church service to La Ceiba to meet up with Sandy Hurst, the anesthetist who comes to us a week at a time from Tulsa area. So she too was able to share the Easter activities.
Tuesday, John and I and his helper Xiomara, went with 3 workers from the local health department up a mountain by pickup about half an hour and then hiked in with daypacks another half hour to a mountain clinic in Satal. It was a rugged walk! We spent until late afternoon seeing OB and Gyn patients, doing papsmears, etc. It was our first outreach there, the beginnings of an effort to meet both physical and spiritual needs in remote areas. This was an exploratory trip, and I think a positive encounter for all. Locals prepared us a huge lunch of typical food- rice, beans, spaghetti, a kind of white squash and tortillas. I was bushed by the time we got home, but a good day! Next time up, we hope to take materials to do some stories with kids, play guitar with them, etc.
Below is the group beginning the hike in, and 2 girls having brought their baby brother in on horseback to see the nurse in the clinic. Please pray for "A", a good friend who struggles with mental health. She feels better and then discontinues her meds, and goes into a downward spiral and ends up causing a major crises for her family, as she has taken on the task of raising her son's wee one. Now the family has had to accomodate the care of this baby with 2 others in the extended household. Her daughter works at the hospital, and has not been able to come to work because of the additional burdens falling on her.
Got off to a quick start yesterday with a call from the nurses, saying our friend Juana was having an emergency and needed us! John has followed her VERY diligently, as she is a gravida 9 and overdue. We have had her to the city twice now, and each time they send her back! Luckily I had arisen early and had already walked and showered, was ready for work right after 6. So only had to comb my wet hair and run. John had not even showered yet. We assumed she was close to delivery in her home, so hiked up the steep red dirt hill to her house and found her still the same as the day previous but in obvious labor. With some encouragement from us and her husband, she got down the hill to the truck and we got here to the hospital where the fetal monitor (bless you, Tulsa Bible church!) showed good baby response and we prepared to drive her again to the city so as to have the option of a c-section.
Only while she was showering, a pickup pulled up to the back door and unloaded another laboring woman from the bed, carrying her in on a cot mattress. Her story was that her water had broken several hours earlier and she couldn't deliver. So in she came, putting a halt to our plans to transport Juana temporarily. I had already driven out to Dr. Rene's house to wake her up and ask her to take over John 's Rio Esteban clinic day while we traveled to the city , so we beefed up that call to get her in for the delivery of the other baby! It took over an hour, but a wee one was successfully delivered and the mama cheered for as she rode triumphantly to her room in the wheelchair after delivery.
We were then free to load up Juana and her 19 yr old daughter to go to the city. She was miserable, bumping over those awful ruts for over an hour, but we successfully got her in and admitted, despite the backlog of laboring patients waiting to be tended to. The Lord was surely paving the path ahead of her and us! We heard that she delivered a few hours later, not needing a section if we heard correctly. Finally we will be able to climb the red dirt hill and cuddle this baby, the 9ith girl, instead of just pat the mamma's tummy.
One of our long term visitors, Sue, has taken on the awesome and needful task of doing some hospice-type care for the ministry. Right now, she and Peggy, our wound care person, are visiting little Maribel more than once a week with her increased endcare needs of pain control and getting liquids down, and today added Maria, an open and close case with metastatic cancer. She lives about an hour from here, but Sue is not deterred. Families here are already so strapped with physical demands and poverty that terminal care does not get much emphasis. Sue will be a great blessing, helping to rock these two into eternity.
Was thinking how many people it takes to make our weak efforts successful here. One person who tackled my need to make a mirror image of a diagram for a medical chart page, another who collected baby blankets for "our babies", another who sends me links for patient education materials in spanish, another who got paper for John's fetal monitor, ....the list goes on and on. Thanks to everyone who addresses our spoken and unspoken needs with such love. You all are the "wind beneath our wings", the ones who cheer us on as we "run the race".
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