Thursday, January 29, 2009

My First Blog

Mom, Dad, Emily, Sam-
Soooo, I decided that I should post something to prove that I was on the trip. I am so glad that I decided to make this trip (just warning you, I think I'll have to come back). I can't wait to see you all so that I can tell you my stories. Today was the last day of the clinic. Emilia-I saw the cutest little girl today; she looked just like you did as a baby. We visited an orphanage after closing the clinic, and I need to give you all advance notice that I'm bringing home ten Guatemalan children with me. Tomorrow we go to Antigua-it's absolutely beautiful, and although I'm excited to see the city, I'm even more excited to see you all again.
I miss you all so much, but I'll see you soon.
Love,
Megan

Bill Benn's Brief Blog

Well, while I was working hard seeing patients (I never played basketball this week, so the myth is still alive) Jon Cronce was making up stories about me, nice!

We had a great last day in clinic, the people are all so grateful, even when we can only give them a diagnosis sometimes

Part of the group visited an amazing orphanage run by a Cuban lady for 23 years entirely by donations It touched all out hearts, and the kids wore us out, including the one little girl that wouldn't get off my shoulders

Lynn, Rachel, Leah and Casey, I can't wait to see you on Saturday, I miss not talking to you. Keep warm, we'll see you on Saturday

Love

Bill

Los Olivos Blogs.


Armando Chiquito, 32 Member of the Council of Los Oilvos

1. How has the team and clinic helped fulfill the plans and vision of the church?
The people of the church are happy to receive the groups that come from the US because it helps them with the vision of impacting community and society. Also helping with physical and medical needs.

2. What are results in individual lives?
The biggest is a challenge to us to serve in the same way.

3. How can we help fulfill you vision? What is it?
Vision is to win and transform lives for Christ. The team helps to accomplish this because they could not reach out to 800 people in four days. They have many testimonies of people who have trusted Christ in the last three days.

4. How in personal life has the team helped?
He has learned with the team to put in good use his potential, resources and skills; so that when he stands in front of god he will hear “Well done good and faithful servant.”. God does not give us riches and resources just to use for personal benefit.

5. Why did the church bring the people from these three villages – San Jose El Yalu, San Jose El Arado and Santa Marta.
As a church they are trying to reach the three communities that we served this week. In each community they already have an outreach (Bible Study or evangelism) established. They decided to bring them here because no good place in the villages to hold the clinics, plus logistic problems moving equipment and doctors, etc.

Story: He will always remember Steve’s unselfish attitude. That even though they were unsuccessful in locating Rosa, Steve still came! And God worked!!

Comments: Thank You to the team for coming. Through them they have been able to serve almost a thousand people. Many of them do not have medical care. The cost of the cheapest doctor visit is ten dollars and they can’t afford it. He also wants to THANK all those who work behind the scenes to make these trips happen. (To numerous to start to mention.) (THANKS Woodlands Care and Support Team!!! Don for the team.)
He would ask and hope that the teams would keep coming as there are five additional villages to reach out to. They would also like them to come back because it is important to follow-up with the care. More importantly to follow-up the spiritual care. He would also like to put out the petition and prayer of help in fulfilling their vision of establishing a permanent clinic and pharmacy, because they do visitation and find many sick people. They pray but wish they could help more. Because their vision is to present the gospel and have the clinic available at an affordable cost.
They want us to know that they pray for us throughout the year.

Julie Thursday AM.


Hi, everyone in cold Wisconsin!! I won’t remind you again of how wonderful the weather is here in Sumpango!! In less than 48 hours we will be back to Wisconsin. We are just starting our last day of clinic. Yesterday was a very emotionally draining day for me – we are seeing God do some amazing things and we are seeing much sadness and things that cannot be treated. But as Quique reminded us in our devotional time this morning, we just need to love God and love people and we will be “successful”. So even though we may not see all the tangible results that we would like, God is still being honored through our time here. A little blog like this cannot possibly capture all that is taking place, even in the lives of team members. Thank you again so much for your support and prayers.
Please pray for Don – he has a major tooth abscess. Thankfully brother-in-law, Don Orth, who is a dentist, is with our team this week and diagnosed the problem yesterday. Don is now on antibiotics and will have to see the dentist as soon as we return home. Right now his face is rather swollen on one side, and he had a little trouble sleeping last night, but he is feeling better today.
Ellie – thank you for your message! I love you and I’m excited to see you again. Remind Dad that he needs to pick us up at the church on Saturday. And Ana will be with us!! We will go to our house to sleep a little Saturday morning (because we will be travelling all night to get home) and then we are coming to your house for lunch on Saturday, along with Ana and her mom and dad.
Daniel and Maddie – we will try to call you this afternoon. Aunt Peggy has a phone that we can use to call the United States. We love you and wish we could see you soon too!
Sarah- how did the ice storm turn out? I’m praying!
Time to get to work. We finish about an hour early today because we have to pack up everything in the clinic – medicines, dressings, equipment. Much of the stuff is staying here for Dr. Paredes, but we still need to pack it all up and get it out of the community center.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

Cronce Answers.



Jon Cronce
What an awesome team! I really see God working in the people of Sumpango. Miss my family a lot. Love you Tracy, Shelby, Tanner, Sadie. I’m looking forward to shoveling snow again. I really like walking around with Bill Benn because everyone thinks he’s Dirk Nowitski from the Dallas Mavericks. People keep stopping him and asking for autographs and he got a key to the city. There’s a basketball court across from the clinic and after the people saw him play they asked for their key back. Seriously, Bill has been a great addition to the team and his love and care for the people of Sumpango is obvious. Love, Jon

The KINGSton Blog.


Scott Kingston
Hi family – I hear you made a trip to the ER! That seems to happen every time I’m out of town. Sammy, I’m glad you’re alright. I hope you learned a lesson - if it’s not your finger don’t put it up your nose. Carrie, sorry you had to deal with that alone. The trip continues to be a great experience – we have an amazing team. I miss you guys and can’t wait to see you on Saturday. Love, Dad

Ana Blogs!


Anastasia Campion
Hey y’all again! Ms Peeling Skin here- I got a little sun a few days ago and now I’m peeling like a potato, but oh well, it doesn’t hurt much. 
Everyone on the team survived what a bunch of the veterans called ‘hump day’ (friend people, clean out your minds- it’s not THAT bad. ) Apparently this was the worst day of all of the clinic days. That’s good news- today was hard, so tomorrow must be better, eh? (I think I miss the Minn-eh-SOH-tan accent- I seem to be stretching my vowels more than normal…) I can’t believe that we only have one more day at the clinic, it seems like we’ve been here forever and not very long at the same time… wonder how that works?
I’ve learned way more medical jargon on this trip than I ever wanted to know (Sinusitis, anyone?) but no knowledge is ever wasted. At least I keep telling myself while I’m helping with ear irrigations or whatnot (and when I get back to the states, I never want to watch one of those again. I’ve seen more than enough to last my life time, and someone else’s life too!)
Random news for anyone who cares or knows about my extremely random extended family: I’ve met some of Dons’ family! I have now met Don and Peggy Orth! They’re dental/missionaries here in Guatemala. Very kind people- Peggy let me use her cell phone to call home and surprise my parents. I think they enjoyed that!
Anyways, not much more to say… We’re shutting the clinic down an hour early tomorrow to get everything cleaned up. Then Thursday night we pack, Friday is the culture day, and we fly out Friday night. Or Saturday morning. Whenever.
Looking forward to seeing y’all pretty soon.
Ana