Here is an e-mail from Don and Elena, our team leaders:

 

Greetings from Panajachel!

We are enjoying a morning off after two days of amazingly productive medical clinics in the indigenous villages across Lake Atilan, seeing almost 200 patients with one provider, two nurses, a pharmacist and multiple interpreters and helpers. In the evenings VBS has shared the gospel with about 300 children!

It was a long boat ride over to the first village across the gorgeous lake surrounded by volcanos. We saw children with malnutrition and many with infectious diarrheas and pneumonia.

Our pharmacy team worked tirelessly to provide medicines. Lee filled an average if three prescriptions per patients, or about two to three hundred a day. We were well supplied with critical medicines from several sources the majority from Crosslink International.

The young boy you see with his hand tied is Pablito. He was unable to walk and through San Juan 10:10, a local ministry founded by Jim Guffey, our host, he is now able to walk and play. His hand was tied to his waist by his mother to allow burns to heal.

Both days, we rode home across the lake on rough waters, at night, with no

lights! (In the photo, from left to right, is Lauri Cox one of our

nurses; Maria, Don's interpreter; Lee Harman; and Sharon Barth)

We are having an incredible life-changing experience. Please remember to pray for us as frequently as you can! Love, Don and Elena

 

Hi everyone,

Our Guatemala team has made it safely to our R+R in Belize but not without a few trials! I will tell you about them in the next installment.

On the second day I came down with a raging fever that finally broke in the night. The next day we saw about 80 more patients in another village on lake Atitlan. We continued to see between 70 and 80 patients daily. We treated many who were suffering and several who would have died if we had not been there. The people were so gracious. We were amazed when they provided us wonderful meals.

The VBS program went very well with 300 to 400 children daily.

Attached are some pictures of the experinces we shared with these unforgettable people.

The first is one of Cherie, LPN, examining a patients throat.

The second is one of a young girl that was sitting outside an alley just outside the clinic. I found it an interesting to contrast this beautiful child with the evironment in which she exists.

The next is a picture of Sharon, one of our evangelists, with Hector, a wonderful Christian and Jim's right hand man in Panajachel. They are fitting a woman with glasses. Many are illiterate but those are able will now read their bibles for the first time in many years.

The next is Lee, our Pharmacist and Lori, RN, who are giving a diabetic woman a monitor for her blood sugar and teaching her how to use it. She has had vision problems and her feet have become numb as a result of her high blood sugar.

The next is just another innocent young child who lives a life of uncertainty in a tiny Guatemalan village, cut off from all hope. She is one whom God cares for enough that he gave His life for her. This little one deserves a future. We pray that we have given her even a small portion of hope for a better life in our mission to Guatemala.

don

 

Hi again,

As promised, the rest of our story.

We left VERY early Thursday morning to fly to Flores, Guatemala. We met a wonderful man named Renee at the airport who then took us on to Tikal, site of Ancient Mayan Ruins.

The first photo is one taken as we drove through the lovely island of Flores.

We checked into a VERY rustic hotel at the entrance of the ruins. We then hired a guide and began the hike into the Jungle of Tikal. The next picture is a howler monkey in a tree. If you look close you can see him.

The ruins were absolutely breathtaking. The next photo is one of Sharon at the base of a large Temple.

We were caught in a downpour at dusk and left in a hurry. Lee lost his GPS (a $300 instrument) on the way out and had to return into the park after dark to look for it. Miraculously, his guide found the device along the trail. Lee returned cold and wet and was sick the next day.

Renee took us on to Belize by way of the 'highway'. The next picture is one taken on the road that Renee somehow by God's grace navigated to the border.

We are now safely in Belize but, sadly, Lee became even more ill and has had to leave this morning. Elena is ill as well but she is okay, resting in the Hotel. Tomorrow, God willing, we will go on a snorkel excursion to 'Shark Alley'. I can hardly wait!

don