welcome winter

well the rains have stopped, the air has become cooler, and i instinctively found myself looking for the first snow this morning... i guess it is a little harder to break our natural tendencies than i would have expected after two guatemalan christmases. despite the need to pull out my old winter sweaters, the days have been beautiful with blue skies only dotted with clouds, green grass, the in-between of muddy roads and blowing dust, and the deep blue of the mountains against the afternoon sky. which has been nice for the long drives that this country often requires.

as anyone who has read rachel and the allison's blogs know, david smashed his finger last tuesday night while working on one of the trucks. after doing all they could here, we flew him into the city wednesday morning (another thank you god for the airplane...) where they were able to bring him into the OR under the care of a hand specialist who told David at the end of the operation that he should fully recover and there is a good possibility he will also get his finger nail back. now, almost a week later, he is doing well with almost no pain (well, he is a ficker man, so at least we get no reports of pain - haha).

last wednesday also found aaron and i in nueva santa katarina (about a four and a half hour drive each way from here) to help out again with one of agape's clinics. we have found the people in this town to be very welcoming and accomodating, and as we talked with the pastor/translator, we learned that this entire town had been re-built by the government after hurricane mitch came through 10 years ago. this was quite surprising to us in a country where government support is often subject to corruption and not properly delegated or carried out.

our very first patient was the mother of a lady we had been treating for diabetes who showed up last month 7 months pregnant with a history of ecclampsia and emergency c-sections with her past two babies. i asked her to come back in a month (wednesday) and said that we would talk with her again then. so, when her mom showed up, i immediately asked her how her daughter was doing to which she replied that she had delivered her baby by emergency c-section in the hospital after having started with seizures again. we went to visit her and her family after clinic, finding a healthy baby and mom, and very welcoming and fun-loving family. as i took her blood pressure (normal) and we laughed over some warm milk, i couldn't help but be amazed at the grace and power of our God as i left the home of a lady who had three healthy children, all who had delivered under ecclamptic circumstances, and all three born at least one month early.

yesterday brought us to chicabracan for another agape clinic. we have again found the people to be very welcoming and surprisingly compliant in taking care of their health. all of these clinics have been different than our weekly clinics, mostly because almost all of our patients are there for chronic conditions. i have been very surprised at their willingness to take care of their health, even having one patient come in yesterday who hadn't been sure when our next clinic was, but had asked around to find out the date for sure so that she could get back on track with her medication for diabetes. it has also been enjoyable to get to know these patients better since we see them each month.

in our own weekly clinics, we have continued to see about 230 a week. we continue to be thankful for don's help, as it has helped lighten the load for leslie and i. i was calculating the other day different figures for our clinics and realized that about 60% of the clinic here and 40% of the clinic in San Andres is prenatal care, and we have been having a growing number of prenatal patients in Chiminisijuan. again, we have found this to be such a wonderful way to build relationships with these women we see each week.

this last saturday, we had a young pregnant girl come in with her mom. after doing the girl's ultrasound, i turned to her mother and asked how we could help her that day. she told me that a doctor in the puesto de salud had refered her here for an ultrasound, but she told me that at 42 years old, she was sure that she couldn't be pregnant in addition to the fact that she had receiving injections for birth control for the past 8 years. i agreed with her as i put her on the table, almost wondering if it was worth it to even perform the exam. however, when i put the porbe on her stomach, i found not only one, but two heads and heart beats!! they each measured at about 15 weeks, only 2 weeks behind the measurement of her daughter's baby! i gave the mother the news almost hesitantly, although after the initial shock, she told me that she and her husband would both be glad to hear this news, and she laughed to herself and her us as if she still couldn't believe it for the next five minutes as i filled out her card.

in other news, we have started a new "ministry" blog, so if you are interested you can visit us at http://www.adonaiinternationalministries.blogspot.com/ or click on the link on the side of my blog screen titled adonai internationl ministries. we plan on doing weekly updates on this page, since we have had some troubles with the website.