lately
well, i did not meet my goal of blogging once a month, but i am hoping since it is only october 2nd, we can pretend this blog is still part of september. we are also trying to do weekly or "every-other weekly" updates on our website - http://www.adonaiinternationalministries.org/ - so i am hoping that my recent posts there have counted towards this ;)
as summer is now offically at an end, we watched some good friends and some new friends come and go. as life has settled back into somewhat of a routine, we have been lucky to add the allison family to our "little farm" here as they stay in the clinic for the next 7 months. they have four children and will be helping out with an orphanage in san andres, as well as helping out around here as needed. don will be joining us in the clinics each week as well, a much welcome help.
on the website and above i posted about a lady who came into clinic a few weeks ago. she came back this past sunday, walking in with a small smile on her lips and sat down, her back straight and her hands calmly folded in her lap. she said that she was just there today for some general aches and pains type stuff, so i questioned her further about how things were going in her house. she smiled at flor (our translator) and said that her husband has not hit her in this past month and has been drinking less. i asked if she was continuing to pray for him and with the same smile she told us that she has... and that her children have been reading the bible to her.... and that they really enjoy it. i could not help but have a huge smile on my face as well as i listened to her talk and promised that we would continue to pray for her and her family.
we have also picked up a couple of clinics for matt and heidi while agape in action is in between doctors. aaron and i have gone out to chicabracan (a village about 30 minutes from quiche) and nueva santa katarina (about 4 hours from us) once a month for september and now into october. it has been very different to do clinics by myself without heidi or leslie next door to ask questions to, although the patients and people we have met have all been very accomodating. it has also been a quite different feel to have government hospitals so near by to refer people to. here, as i have written about before, we find that to refer people to the hospitals is usually "por gusto" (for nothing) because they do not want to take the trip out there just to "see their family member die in the hospital" (a quote we often hear). although we have still heard stories about patients with bad experiences at the hospitals, it has made me realize how "alone" we are out here in many ways without any hospital or other medical services anywhere near here to refer people to.
although we are mostly watching over their chronic patients, keeping them stocked with the meds they need to keep their blood pressures, diabetes or pregnancy under control, we have had a few acute cases as well... like a 35 year old woman who looks to have pretty advanced ovarian cancer. without the proper equipment and resources to diagnose, we are left with prayers and referals to places that also have poor equipment in the hopes that we can find a way to help this woman stay on this earth a little longer with her children and family while still holding in balance the hope and knowledge that this woman will find herself in a better place if the lord should choose to take her now.
on a much lighter note, aaron and i celebrate our one year wedding anniversary tomorrow! i feel like it has truly flown by, although it is crazy to me the things that already feel so "normal"... like my last name being ficker... :)
God bless you all today, for real.... and may you be finding those moments and relationships of joy in the midst of what we all call life.
as summer is now offically at an end, we watched some good friends and some new friends come and go. as life has settled back into somewhat of a routine, we have been lucky to add the allison family to our "little farm" here as they stay in the clinic for the next 7 months. they have four children and will be helping out with an orphanage in san andres, as well as helping out around here as needed. don will be joining us in the clinics each week as well, a much welcome help.
on the website and above i posted about a lady who came into clinic a few weeks ago. she came back this past sunday, walking in with a small smile on her lips and sat down, her back straight and her hands calmly folded in her lap. she said that she was just there today for some general aches and pains type stuff, so i questioned her further about how things were going in her house. she smiled at flor (our translator) and said that her husband has not hit her in this past month and has been drinking less. i asked if she was continuing to pray for him and with the same smile she told us that she has... and that her children have been reading the bible to her.... and that they really enjoy it. i could not help but have a huge smile on my face as well as i listened to her talk and promised that we would continue to pray for her and her family.
we have also picked up a couple of clinics for matt and heidi while agape in action is in between doctors. aaron and i have gone out to chicabracan (a village about 30 minutes from quiche) and nueva santa katarina (about 4 hours from us) once a month for september and now into october. it has been very different to do clinics by myself without heidi or leslie next door to ask questions to, although the patients and people we have met have all been very accomodating. it has also been a quite different feel to have government hospitals so near by to refer people to. here, as i have written about before, we find that to refer people to the hospitals is usually "por gusto" (for nothing) because they do not want to take the trip out there just to "see their family member die in the hospital" (a quote we often hear). although we have still heard stories about patients with bad experiences at the hospitals, it has made me realize how "alone" we are out here in many ways without any hospital or other medical services anywhere near here to refer people to.
although we are mostly watching over their chronic patients, keeping them stocked with the meds they need to keep their blood pressures, diabetes or pregnancy under control, we have had a few acute cases as well... like a 35 year old woman who looks to have pretty advanced ovarian cancer. without the proper equipment and resources to diagnose, we are left with prayers and referals to places that also have poor equipment in the hopes that we can find a way to help this woman stay on this earth a little longer with her children and family while still holding in balance the hope and knowledge that this woman will find herself in a better place if the lord should choose to take her now.
on a much lighter note, aaron and i celebrate our one year wedding anniversary tomorrow! i feel like it has truly flown by, although it is crazy to me the things that already feel so "normal"... like my last name being ficker... :)
God bless you all today, for real.... and may you be finding those moments and relationships of joy in the midst of what we all call life.
posted by katie at 3:40 PM
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