Monday

I woke up at 4 am made the coffee, did devotions, ate breakfast, got dressed and made sandwiches to take for lunch at the hospital. We left at 7 am and headed down the dirt road into the jungle to the hospital. We stopped very briefly at Lisa's house since it was on the way and gave her a blessing of some left over flour we had and a DVD for the 4 kids with chickenpox to watch, then continued to the hospital. We arrive promptly at 8 am. Mary Ann and I did vital signs. There were a lot of patients to be seen. We saw many with asthma, coughs, a possible fractured wrist, pregnant, and of course worms, but the most interesting one was a 25 day old baby who had two bottom teeth already in! I have heard of babies being born with teeth but never seen one. We finished vital signs up at 11:30 .Karl and Glen worked on the C- arm which is portable x-Ray machine. 

We broke for lunch at 11:30 and after lunch Mary Ann and I were asked to pull lots of patients files for an eye team that is coming. These people are ones who have already come into the eye clinic and needed more than glasses, which is mostly all we can do without an optomologist,so they were put on a list for when a team comes down.The nurses will review each case and call the ones to come in that are likely candidates,setting up appointments for the team to evaluate. Sadly the team won't be able to see everyone.  There were many on this list and we finished the front and back for one sheet with two more sheets to do probably tomorrow. Karl and Glen continued working on the C arm in the afternoon. We arrived home at 4:30 pm, changed clothes, ate dinner, and got things ready for tomorrow.Almost time for bed.

Sunday

Got up at 5 am and ate breakfast and then got ready for church. We left for church at 8:30 am. Once we arrived we found that four church members have Zika and one doctor we know has it. In addition, 4 of Lisa's boys ( where we helped at the boys home this past week) have chicken pox. Praising God, so far we have been healthy except for a touch of diarrhea. 

 We found out how lucky we were the other day when we had the little accident. Apparently the men who hit us were gang members and that explains why our interpreter seemed shaken and in a hurry to get out of there.  We were told at church we were extremely lucky that they didn't go back and get other members. We had no idea how dangerous the situation was and felt God's peace within us. We were asked if we were afraid and I could only answer for myself and said no. I know it was only your prayers for protection over us and God's hand upon us keeping us safe. Thank you so much for continuing to pray for our health and safety on the road.

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Saturday

Day off ..sort of. Today we trimmed our trees, did laundry,cleaned the washing machine filters,and all the other household chores. Once done we went for a swim and before we knew it, it was time for dinner and soon bed. Praise God for a wonderful week.

Friday, 

We loaded the car with gospel tracks, candy,bracelets,rice and beans and left at 7 am to meet at Pastor Scott's house, which is also where we go to church. Once we arrived there he told us Elvis, a man who works with him will take us through the poor areas of town and show us where to hand out the food. We drove down some narrow roads and stopped along the way. Once we stopped we would walk to a house hand out the food and ask them if we could pray for them. We would ask if they had anything specific they needed prayer for. Often they did. After praying and blessing them, we would walk to the next house until we could walk no more and then drive down a bit until we came to another group of houses.The people were very grateful and gave us hugs. It was around 12:30 I think when we stopped along the rocky road to hand out more food. A motorcycle behind us hit us and I saw the man hit his head on our back window as I was sitting in the back seat. We all got out of the car. Although it certainly was not our fault, the men on the motorcycle wanted us to pay them for the damage to their motorcycle. Our interpreter argued a little on our behalf but felt because it was a very dangerous area we were in and he did not know if the men would harm us, so we should pay them off. We did as he said. They he proceeded to tell us we should go back so the men don't come looking for us. We had handed out most of the food already.We went back to Scott's house to access the damage on our neighbor's car we were driving since our car is not working. A dent in the back bumper that we pulled out and some scratches were the only damage. Praising God for his protection today. It could have been much worse. Please continue to pray for our health and safety on the road. We will be going to the hospital next week to work there.

Thursday  

Today turned out not exactly as we had planned. After we bagged all the rice and bean and corn flour up to take up the mountain we got a message from pastor Gary's wife that he was very sick and would not be able to take us at all before leaving for the states. We of course were disappointed. We called Pastor Scott to see if he may be able to take us and although he was busy today, he said he knows of many very poor people we can bless with the food tomorrow. The will be leaving at 7 am tomorrow and going to a village in the town he lives in for the morning passing out the food and gospel tracts. Then in the afternoon up the river to pass out the rest of the food. We had extra flour with no rice and beans that we will bless Lisa with for the boys. 

Today we just relaxed and worked around the house doing various things like trimming the trees and laundry, vacuuming as well as other household chores. 

Wednesday     

Today we went back to help Lisa. Mary Ann and I went up to the new house on the mountain to clean out a very dirty and dusty room full of plastic containers. We wiped all the dirt off them, clean out and threw away some item that had been around for years and some broken items. Swept the floor and cleaned windows sills so Lisa could start moving things into that room. When we finished we were treated to pizza made by her housekeeper. Then we packed up several bookcases. Karl and Glen worked on Lisa's car. We headed for home around 4:00. The neighbor's car we are now driving, as our car isn't working, stalled half way home. Luckily it started again. Please keep this in prayer that we are able to get our car fixed and not have car issues with the neighbor's car anymore. 

Tuesday

Today we got up, ate breakfast and headed out to Belfate to help Lisa with a packing and a few other things. Mary Ann and I helped pack the casitta (guest house) while Karl and Glen worked on her generator. We didn't get as much packing done as we had hoped as we ran out of boxes and bubble wrap. The men were able to fix the generator.  We ate our packed lunch then headed up to Dr. Dodsons house to fill up water jugs.i have heard so much about this wonderful man but never met him. We had a nice visit with him and his wife. They gave us a gift of coconuts and Guanaba, a sweet fruit. Once we returned to Lisa's house we had ballietas ( tortillas with beans) for dinner.This was a real treat! On the way home our car was having some problems and we prayed we would get home safely. God was faithful and we arrived home safely. 

Monday, 

  I got up at 4 am and did my devotions. Ate breakfast and we left for the mall to meet Scott who was going to show us where to buy the rice and beans. We got into the town and had to go to several stores for all we needed. We got 200 lbs of rice and 200 lbs of beans along with many sacks of corn flower to put with them so the people could make tortillas. After that we we went and got the few grocery items we had forgotten and stopped to eat lunch. Once we arrived home, Mary Ann and I put 2 lbs of rice in each bag and tied the top. Then we did the same with the beans. By the time we finished, it was time to start dinner. We made spaghetti for dinner, cleaned up and now it is just about time for bed. Karl and I moved over to our neighbor's house to help them out while they were in the states having surgery. We are caring for their two dogs and parrot while they are gone. we are happy to be a blessing to them and help them in this way.

Sunday

I got up at 4 am and cleaned up a little had my coffee, got ready for church. We left for church at 8:30.the electricity went out at 8 am and never came back on until after 6 pm. At church we had coffee and donuts. After a good service and communion at church, we went out to eat with friends since we couldn't cook at home. The food was good but we were there until 2:45. Then we went to the phone store to buy minutes for our cell phones. After that we went grocery shopping and headed for home around 6 pm. We are not usually out after dark but tonight we were due to the circumstances. Once home we put the groceries away, ate some peanut butter crackers for dinner, unpacked a little more of our things, when our neighbors stopped over to borrow a phone cable as theirs broke. Time for bed at 9 pm. A busy day tomorrow.