[News] Guatemala mission, Feb.13 2009

[Berkshire Mission]

Friday, Feb. 13, 2009

 

Hola Berkshire Mission friends,

 

By the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, lives are being touched and changed
in Machquila, Guatemala.   

May each one of these lovely people reach out and touch the hem of His
garment!

Today has been incredibly busy in all departments.  It started out with a
rain shower that lasted for some time, causing the people who were lined up
outside to all try to fit under our small registration tent.  No one turned
back though; they just waited as best they could.  There were 281 patients
registered for treatment today before we shut the gate at 3 p.m. asking the
rest to come back tomorrow.  One young woman who has Down's syndrome had
come yesterday and the line was shut down before she was able to make it in
to see the dentist.  So today she came and sat in the dental van was not
moving until she was seen!  She did leave a very happy young lady though as
her teeth were taken care of at her turn. One very heart warming story is of
a young boy, 14 years old who came to the dental clinic by himself.  His
front teeth were very rotted and needed extreme intervention if he were to
grow up with a sense of pride in his smile.  Dr. Mark's heart was touched so
much by the condition of this young man that he did a root canal on one
tooth and a pulpotomy on another to save them.  He then went on to make a
compound resin tooth and bond it by making a bridge across the 4 teeth.
What a glorious smile the boy has now and will be able to face life with
much more sense of dignity when he speaks to people.  Glory be to God for
giving Berkshire Mission such selfless kind hearted workers! 

Oh, and just for those of you  who were waiting to hear this little tidbit,
Dr. Mark said he was sure the bridge came out better than what Judy at home
would of done:-)  I am sure that is a inside joke.

The dental clinic also had its first sedation dentistry done in the mission
field today.  A little 5 year old screaming boy who was to terrified to be
touched.  It turned out so well and the little guy later couldn't figure out
why his mouth was numb

Between the medical and dental clinic is a large storage garage that our
team is painting.  It is part of permanent clinic grounds. I aw Anna, Amy
and Alexandra busy rolling pink paint on the outside walls and it was
looking very nice.  I know they were working very hard but poor sweet girls
that they are must have had some trouble with the sun in their eyes, or
something of the sort as each of them had pink painted backs.  Also there
was a green lizard with pink dots sneaking around, I am sure feeling a
little embarrassed about his pink dots.  But oddly enough no one seems to
know anything about that either. Some times strange things happen on these
mission trips that just can't be explained, ya know what I mean?  Anthony
was busy painting with Paul M. on the same area, when I asked Anthony if he
saw a pink dotted lizard he just smiled and said nope.  Bev and Renita were
busy painting the high peaks of that building so the younger folks didn't
have to get up so high.


We had another crew working on laying tiles in the new clinic.  Ross,
Caroline, Zack, Emily, Marcie and Vicky were preparing tiles by scraping the
floors and putting mortar on the 2 ft by 2 ft tiles. This job is being done
very professionally and with the utmost of experience.  They are using a
laser gun to make certain all tile are level and the grid work is perfect.
Roger is in charge of construction and has years of experience.  Working
with him is Kevin, John B. Pastor Jon, Doug, and Steve.  There were 73 tiles
put down today and it is looking great. Pastor Dwight I call our "floater"
as he was at many places today doing what ever needed doing.

Miles and Courtney are working in the pharmacy and are being kept busy.

There is a local lady who has volunteered her electricity for us to run a
cord across the street to where we will have V.B.S.  Well her electrical
outlets amount to a bunch of hanging wires of such as would be shut down by
the city in the USA.  The great part of this story is because of her
generousness she will end up being blessed in a much greater way.  Pastor
Rigo went tonight to rewire her electric and give her a safe way to run her
lights.  Once again we are shown that you just can't out give God.  I am
sure she never thought we would have a licensed electrician with our group
who would bless her in this way.

We need you to join us in prayer for Maribell, a girl of 12 years who was
brought to the medical clinic today to see Dr. Tim.  She has been to the
town hospital and they refused to even see her as they knew right away they
could not help the girl.  It was the most pathetic and also frightening
scene to watch this poor little girl as she twitched and jerked, moaning and
trying to hide under her moms arm.  The mother has reported that the girl
has passed worms many times from every possible way.   Dr. Tim has said that
the girl obviously has some serious neurological symptoms, but from what
cause?  Have the worms infested even her brain?  And what kind would they
be?  He said he has seen more strange unheard of diseases in this area than
in any other 3rd world country.  He has put her on an anti psychotic
medicine to relieve her symptoms but it will not cure her.  Dr. Tim also
ordered a stool specimen and he will try to find out which type of worms she
has.  The girls' neighbors feel that the problem is demon possession and
that the worms are just another symptom.  After watching her continuous
agony myself I have to say as have others in our group, that it is a strong
possibility, it can not be ruled out.  It certainly is scary and reminds one
just how close we should walk in the shadow of Jesus.  But there is victory
in Jesus and none need be kept prisoner of a war that has already been won. 

 

The owner of our "hut hotel" is a well known herbologist and has a wealth of
knowledge of how to use the local leaves for healing.  He has graciously
showed us the many different leaves and herbs and told us what they are used
for.  Karen twisted her ankle today and he treated it with a leaf concoction
and she said it is not hurting her at all now.  He is also a man of great
humor.  He asked me if I knew how to grow pineapples.  Here is the way it is
done. You first need to plant a pine tree and then right next to it you
plant an apple tree! Voila, you now have a "pine, apple", tree.

 

Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.  And the peace of God
which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6, 7

 

Smiles as always,

Jennifer Young, mission reporter

Don't forget to P.U.S.H. (pray until something happens)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.berkshiremission.org/pipermail/news_berkshiremission.org/attachments/20090214/973f9de6/attachment.html>