We shared with you a few days ago the few details we had about the problems with the Fickers' plane. And that was basically all we knew until we saw them this weekend.
After the "hard landing", they took a few days to leave town and regroup spiritually. So we hadn't talked any. So when we arrived at their house Saturday morning for clinic, we had lots of things to share with each other.
Duane, Aaron, and Joseph had flown up to Ixcan early last week to scout out the landing strip we were hoping to use for this weekend's planned clinic. They had spoken with several people there regarding the condition of the runway and heard that other planes were using it. They even circled a few times to check it out. Everything looked fine.
They came in and touched down with the perfect airspeed, set the entire plane on the ground, then went for the brakes. The second Duane hit the brakes, the front landing gear snapped, dumping the nose of the plane onto the ground and dropping the (still spinning) propellers into the dirt. The plane came to an abrupt halt.
At that point, about a hundred villagers (not an exaggeration - read on) came running out to the plane to check on them. Everyone was fine, but the plane is BADLY damaged. The engines cannot be reused until they are disassembled and have the shafts checked. The props are trashed. The landing gear is trashed. And the nose of the plane has a serious amount of body damage. And, at that point, the plane was still sitting in the middle of the runway.
So the hundred villagers literally lifted the front of the airplane up and carried it about 4,000 feet to a safe storage spot away from the runway. That's where it sits now, awaiting some help. It looks like the Fickers will have to drive their dump truck and a flat bed up to the plane, take it apart, cart it back to Canilla in pieces and start tearing engines apart. This will require some help and we're not exactly sure where all that is going to come from yet.
Anyway, that was their story. God's hand was evident in every piece, though, from the safety of the guys to the willing help of the locals, who desperately need medical attention.
So then we started clinic. One of our early patients (whose picture we'll spare you) had been badly bitten by a dog on her way to clinic this morning. We worked on her hand for quite some time, and it turned out that she decided that whatever she HAD been coming to clinic for wasn't such a big deal - she only wanted treatment for the dog bite. Good thing Heidi's a surgeon! This woman had walked about two hours to get to us and was still shaking when she got there - she was pretty upset - but we think she'll end up being okay.
We also saw our friend who is pregnant with her third child (two prior C-sections) and concurrently with her pregnancy, has a massive abdominal hernia. The way this normally works is that the baby is inside the uterus, which is inside the abdominal wall. In her case, less than a centimeter of skin and uterus is between the baby and the world. Her skin is stretching so badly that it's beginning to tear. We (with the help of Dr. Hoak) had provided her with a support brace she could wear to help hold the baby in and provide some protection for that skin. She refused to wear it, saying that it hurt too badly. So we tried giving her some ACE bandages for support, which we think she's going to use. But her sister called last night saying that she was starting labor (maybe), which wouldn't be good because she's only about 34 weeks, which is still WAY too early around here. Please pray for her.
We got to spend the rest of the day working around the house with the Fickers and sharing some wonderful spiritual recharging time with them - just like usual. Aaron spent a few minutes with our truck and helped us determine that we have two bad glow plugs (out of four), which explains why it's very hard to start in the morning. Luckily, we were planning to have those replaced in a few days anyway. We also got to help adjust the pH of their tilapia pond, change out some bushings under their 4Runner (roads here are very hard on suspension systems), and start decorating for Christmas.
This morning, we headed out to clinic in San Andres, somewhat sad that we won't see them for 5 or 6 weeks now, but so thankful for their friendship, prayers, and support. In all of the tough times they're now facing, they spent so much time encouraging us. Amazing thing, the love of God.
The woman pregnant with the anencephalic baby (the baby will be born without a brain - and therefore will die very, very soon) came back today. Remember we told you that her husband left to work on the coast two days before her diagnosis. Also remember that she has never been to a church and doesn't even know anyone who goes. We grabbed Mateo, the dad of our two translators, and he ministered to her for about 20 minutes this morning in K'iche (the only language she speaks). Please pray for this awful experience to at least function as a gateway through which God can enter her life.
We also saw our typical blend of malnourished kids, completely uncontrolled diabetics (one who we had given a glucometer to and just had it stolen from her this week), infections, rotten teeth, babies with diarrhea (which can kill children here), and people who really just needed some ibuprofen and tums.
During the morning, though, a friend of the Fickers', a man named Rodi, came by. He has had several prophetic visions about the Fickers before and today was no different. He had been told by God last night that an attempt had been made on Duane's life and that God was going to send people and money to help repair the plane. He didn't know about the crash. So he told Leslie he had "some words to share" but didn't know what they meant. She told him about the crash and he was visibly startled and amazed. We live in a strange world. There are spiritual events occuring all around us that we don't get to see, but occasionally get to hear about. We know that The Enemy is not happy about this plane being here because he knows how we're going to use it. But we know that our God is stronger and will prevail. So we pray that help will come, just as Rodi has told us he knows it will.
Anyway, we have three more days here in Guatemala before we leave for a month. We're very excited about seeing our friends and family, but it's going to feel very strange to not be in this place that we have come to love very deeply. The affluence in the United States is going to seem very obvious to us, we're sure. It's familiar to us in so many ways, but things that we took for granted before will suddenly seem very... well.... different.
Ah, pictures. The first is Matt holding a child we treated in clinic yesterday for some minor ailment we can't seem to remember. It's hard to tell from this picture, but he had the most infectious smile! And it was nice to see a chubby one, too!
The next picture is of three girls whose mother we treated in clinic today. The oldest was caring for the two younger ones while we had Mom on the exam table and we just couldn't resist the picture!
The last two are of a truck we followed part of the way home today. In the first pic you can see the general state of the roads here. This is why a 20 mile drive can take two hours. In the next pic, you'll see all of the people and stuff they managed to pile into (and onto) this truck. He was making about 5 mph and was probably 15 miles from the closest town, which may not have been his final destination!
Okay - tomorrow is laundry, packing, and lots of last minute stuff to get done here before we leave. Tuesday is our last clinic of the year, and Wednesday we leave for the City.
