Long Weekend

We are just getting back tonight from a series of long (but fun!) clinic days with the Fickers. We drove out there Thursday night to get an early start on Friday, flying up in to the jungle. Some of you will recall a small village we went to a few months ago called San Pedro-- A place where there are no roads in or out, no electricity, and only one protestant church, with just a few families.

Leslie, Katie, Hannah Ficker, our evangelist friend Armando, Katie's medical student friend Malachi, and Heidi were all flown up by Duane on Friday morning. The village people were faithfully waiting for us, and had several hundred patients lined up! Our best guess is that we saw around 250 patients in about 6 hours, since we had to fly out before dark.

Luckily, most of the patients had pretty basic problems that were easily helped or treated. That meant that we had time to let Armando preach for a while, and the people truly seemed interested in his message. Time will tell, but we feel like hearts are beginning to soften there in that area and that God will continue to open doors.

We all got back to the house safely, but tired and sweaty and smelly! Everyone tried to get a good night's sleep before clinic in Canilla on Saturday. That clinic was not terribly bad with all of the help that we had. It was great to have some time in the afternoon for another beach volleyball match at the river. What great fun to have the entire Ficker clan in town at the same time!

Today's clinic was a little more challenging... We started out early with a one-year-old baby with pneumonia, for whom we recommended a trip to the hospital. The family refused to take her there, and essentially asked what was behind door number two-- So we gave her some IV fluids and some oral antibiotics, and hope that you will continue to pray with us for her recovery.

Another tiny baby came in, seven days old and unable to eat because of such bad fungal infection in her mouth. She was also bleeding quite a bit in her mouth, and Leslie gave her a shot of Vitamin K which we hope will help. (This is pretty standard procedure for most babies in the U.S., but few receive it here) We will also continue to pray for this baby's recovery and growth-- she only weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces today.

There was a prenatal patient who came in today for the first time in several months. Unfortunately, we found her baby to be dead on ultrasound, at about 5 months of pregnancy. She was there with her husband, who was very interested in doing what is best for his wife and will hopefully bring her in to the hospital sometime this week. He was also interested in hearing more about Christ, who he did not know much about before today. Katie, Heidi, and a local evangelist were glad to share with both of them what they could, and we will pray that He continues to seek the Lord and finds a good Church in his community.

Tomorrow is clinic in Chujuyub, the third time we will be visiting that village. This will be the last in a long string of long clinic days. We will spend Tuesday and Wednesday packing and catching up on other things, and Thursday we leave for Detroit for a few days. We'll get some R and R, grandparent time for Isaac, and visa renewal all in one!