Quick Morning Post

Group shot at dinner the other night...

And apparently Angelica agrees it has been a great week!

So this morning we got off to an early start, and we are headed down to the hospital now to check in with Marta, our ovarian and cervical tumor patient.  There might be another patient or two waiting according to the local rumor mill from yesterday, which is why we decided to wait a few hours before flying out to the Fickers.  We will join them in their clinic in Chimistan as soon as we get there and Duane can drive us out to the clinic (about 45 minutes to an hour away, if I recall correctly-- probably faster if he takes us on a four-wheeler as I suspect is his plan!)

This trip has been loads of fun so far, and I pray and believe that people have really gotten to witness some true joy amongst us that can come only from Christ.  It has been all laughs and giggles and hugs and toys for the kids and warm smiles and silly faces and... well, you get the idea!  Our prayer is always that they see God's LOVE and not just the North American's MONEY when they come to see us, so we will continue to pray for these things and strive to accomplish them.

On a personal note, please also pray for me and my work colleagues-- i.e., all my dear, dear friends.  We just found out yesterday that another of our (already very low) number is leaving the program.  He will be dearly missed, and now the generalist division will add "help support the MFM division" to its growing list of "more things to do with less resources".  I can't begin to express, though, the quality and tenacity of the group that I work with-- I thank God for them every day, and am so blessed to have a group that is cohesive enough that Keith Nelson even texted me here in Guatemala to let me know when the announcement was made!! We will find a way to continue to provide quality care to our patients and quality teaching to our residents-- but again, prayers would be appreciated as we navigate through that!

Also on a personal note, I think one of the purposes of this trip might have been rekindling my old passion of uniting the local missionaries together and getting people in contact with each other to match up needs and resources.  More to follow later on that, but it's really great to see all of the people that I admire and love working with each other in ever newer and more exciting ways!