Saturday, February 10, 2018

From Skip's Heart (Thanks for the Guest Authorship!)

Our day is winding down after a marathon clinic at Good Samaritan Hospital seeing prospective surgical patients. The Mayan women and their families are very patient. We started at around 8:45 and finished around 8:00 this evening. 32 women were evaluated, treated, and 9 were scheduled for surgery. We have several operations scheduled over the next few days and will be busy but our patients will be much better and back to their daily normal activities soon. We are exhausted but in a satisfying fashion. I am always reminded of mercy, God’s mercy, when I come in contact with these women and their families. Their families, by the way, are so caring, supportive and participate in their care and recovery. They do it with style and with sincere love, appreciation and support. We learned so much today from the interactions with the patients and their loved ones. We learned patience, compassion, out and out honesty with no secrets, faith-faith in our ability as well as in their belief in a mighty power, trust- in us and the blessing of God, the power of a smile or a laugh and the power of a touch, a human touch. We ask for your prayers for us as surgeons for agile, healing, skillful hands and prayers for the quick and full recovery of our patients.

Dr. Heidi has had a most eventful week thus far. I was amused by the fact that she volunteered to check her carry-on in Raleigh through to Guatemala City but failed to pick it up at baggage claim. It has been entertaining watching her make call after call to American Airlines who has now issued a statement informing Dr. Heidi that  they will make a one time exception and deliver her bag to Chichi tomorrow. Tag the bag and your finger Dr. Heidi!!! Don’t forget the bag! Secondly, she arrived in Chichi with a horrendous cough. After clinic this evening, she experienced an ill timed coughing spasm and has pulled a muscle in her lower back. Poor Heidi! We will support her and care for her and pick up the slack. To top it all off, she somehow managed to microwave her tea this morning with a set of keys still in the microwave~  Mind you, she and Tom have used the “leave the keys in the microwave as you come or go” system for the last almost ten years, so that statement is not as weird as it sounds.  Luckily, it seems the vinyl and leather wallet keychain thingy that they were in seems to have saved them from actually combusting.  So there’s that.  Feel better Doctor!  And also, please try not to burn the place down?

More to follow. For those of you reading this blog who are not a part of any missionary work, listen to me! I am very new to this concept and, in fact, I shunned the idea for years! Believe me, I had many opportunities and requests, but felt that I should care for women at home. I finally gave in and accompanied Dr. Heidi to Chichi in 2016. My life changed in 24 hours and I realized that the needs of women in third world countries far exceed the needs of women in the US. So, I ask you to involve yourself in some form of missionary work. Agape in Action is a great choice. Time or cash! Remember, Jesus tells us that what we do for the least of my children, you do for me. Think about it. Double shot. You do for Christ and your fellow man!

Let us know if you want any further information about how to get involved~  sending money, of course, is pretty easy.  Unfortunately, you will find that most missionaries have learned to kind of dread the question, “what do you need?”—because the answer is pretty much always “money” and missionaries HATE asking for money!  So if you ever want to make a missionary’s job easier, that’s how to do it.  But also, please don’t ever, ever, ever forget or underestimate the power of prayer.  Every missionary—definitely including use this week!—covets your prayers and appreciates them more than you will ever know.  Let’s go change the world together, folks!

In Christ~

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