Young and Pregnant

2 April 2018

Each time I come to Guatemala, the same thing seems to happen. The interesting quickly becomes common. As time goes on, it becomes more and more difficult to know what to share. But there must be something interesting enough to cause you to keep reading.

The first week, there was this 14-year-old girl who came in with her mother to our clinic in a remote Mayan village up the mountain. They were both late on their menstrual periods. While the mother’s pregnancy test was negative, the 14-year-old was pregnant. The ultrasound showed an early normal pregnancy with a beating heart. After a private discussion using multiple Mayan translators, she revealed that she had been sexually active with an older boy who had left for the United States. It was never exactly clear to us whether or not this was consensual. She begged us not to tell her mother, because she was afraid of being beaten by her. However, when she began to talk about taking poison hoping to cause an abortion or even kill herself, we felt it necessary to do so. When the Mayan translator, who is also a Christian pastor, explained to her the situation, her first response was for her daughter to have the baby removed. The pastor explained to her how this would be in fact killing her baby and would not simply make the issue go away. He shared similar situations where the church came alongside the family to help. Adoption was an option. But she did not seem much persuaded at the time. We have not seen either of them since. The age in this country for reporting an early pregnancy is thirteen. In previous cases, when the missionaries have reported such cases to the police, there has been no response. Especially in this remote Mayan village, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would even try to follow up. Last year when I was here, there was a similar situation. This is far too common and many times involves incest which makes it even more complicated.

Abortion is common enough here. Sometimes, it involves taking bitter herbs like oregano which doesn’t actually work. Other times, different poisons are tried. Minimally trained midwives may try other procedural forms of abortion. If one has enough money, there are likely gynecologists that perform a “safe abortion.”

But the reality is that there are no abortions that are “safe” for the baby or the mother. I have seen very difficult social situations on in both rural Guatemala and inner-city Detroit. I have never seen where abortion fixed the problem.

May God continue to shine His light into very dark situations. May many receive His Truth and may He empower them to walk in His ways. May a spirit of life overpower the spirit of death.

A Thankful Heart (Esthernina.com update)

29 March 2018

Today is the 8th anniversary of our first daughter's birth and passing away. We posted the following on esthernina.com:

It has been 8 years since our first daughter, Esther Nina, was born and passed away during our time in Guatemala. For the first time since we initially left Guatemala, we are here again for Easter. After praying about whether or not to travel 2 ½ hours from Canillá to Chichicastenango where Esther is buried, God provided us with a reliable truck and a place to stay for two nights.

While we were there, we had the opportunity to visit some of our missionary and Guatemalan friends. It was a blessing to see them again and have the opportunity to share stories about what God has done and is doing in their lives and the people around them. Their families have grown. Many of their children are now involved in the ministry.

Eight years ago, during the days around Esther’s birth and going to be with the Lord, these brothers and sisters in Christ from different parts of the world surrounded us with their love and used their different gifts and abilities to carry us during this time like a perfect example of the Body of Christ.

It has been several years and many of them have moved on to different places and ministries. And many of them are going through their own trials but they continue to be firm in the Faith. We now share in the burden of their difficult situations. We are thankful that these circumstances will not last forever. Jesus has already overcome each one of them.

Jesus said:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33, ESV).

A lot of things have changed since we left in 2011. Some roads are awesome. Some are better. And some are a lot worse. The towns are getting more populated and the streets seem to be getting smaller. The little kids that we used to know are growing up. The cute little gray pigs that we used to see on our drives to the clinics are now elderly sows.

However, a lot of things are still the same. The locals still stare at gringos (and Mexican gringos like Areli). There are still a lot of speedbumps--even on roads that are so bad they are clearly not needed. You still have to give your (or anyone else’s) tax ID number to get a receipt at many places.

We are thankful that we could go back to Esther’s grave with her two sisters. God has been good to us. He has given us so much more than we deserve. We are thankful that even through a difficult situation, God showed His love, peace, and strength in our weakness. For when we are weak, He is strong.

Even though many people have now left the area or even the country, we praise God that He put each and every one of them in the right place at the right time when we needed them most. We will never forget this and we will be forever thankful of how God cared for us through them.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, ESV)

Here are some pictures of our time visiting friends:

Surgery Day at Hospital Adonai

20 March 2018

A few days have already gone by since the surgical day at Hospital Adonai. Thanks to the many of you who prayed for this day. Everything went relatively smooth. Things have come a long way over the years to get to this point.

In the end, 5 people received hernia repairs including a little boy, a really little girl, and an 84-year-old who got both sides done. One other young man got a different surgery done. We will be seeing them back in the next couple of weeks if all remains well.

I was more focused on the work and didn't take many pictures. Our friend, Don Allison, who was also quite busy the day of the surgery posted an excellent summary with pictures please check this out:

On another note, the guy who did this excellent video from 4 years ago about the vision of Hospital Adonai before any work had been done was onsite to get updated footage to put together a new video.

As a teaser, he posted drone footage of the hospital and the surrounding area of Canillá.

Preop and Xrays

12 March 2018

We are back in Canillá, Guatemala after about 14 months. Things have moved forward since we were last here. Most of the hospital construction was done last time we were here, but now some of the final details are complete. Just recently, the hospital received a governmental approval to function pretty much as a hospital but is not yet officially considered a hospital. I’m not exactly clear on the details but I’m told it is a good thing.

Although the main services of the hospital continue to be prenatal care, other outpatient visits, laboratory, and pharmacy but there are couple of new things. There will be a surgery day on Saturday, March 17. This has been done once before. This week, the surgical cases will be hernias. We did some preop visits today. Not everyone who was expected to show up for this did. There are a lot of hurdles for the people to get surgery done even if it is free. Many of our patients come from hours away and rely on people who make trips where the buses don’t go for a price. But the people do get up crazy early here, so a 6 a.m. arrival isn’t that big of a deal.

On another note, there is a functional digital x-ray machine. The pieces were received from multiple donations. It works! Check out my right ankle.

However, there is still a lot of training and practice that needs to happen to make this more useful.

In conclusion, a lot of great things have happened since we were last here, but there are many more pieces of the puzzle that remain to be found in order to move towards the vision of a fully functioning hospital.

Please, pray that the surgical day would be a blessing to those who receive services and that they and their families would know that ultimately, the True and Living God has provided this for them.

A Tribute to Alda Araujo—Missionary in Mexico City

8 October 2017

Written by Areli

It is always difficult to say goodbye to the people we love. But when we are in Christ, this “goodbye” is really a “see you later.” Before starting college, God began to put a desire in me to serve God through missions. And this desire grew through the example and testimony of my aunt Teresa and a missionary couple from Brazil: Pastor Solon Araujo and his wife Alda Araujo.

I had the privilege to receive teaching about missions through Pastor Solon Araujo. His life, testimony, and love for my country were a great example to me. It was such a blessing that Pastor Solon Araujo performed our wedding on July 21, 2007. On September 13, 2008, our beloved Pastor Solon went to be with the Lord through a bus accident while traveling in his country with a group of Christians to minister.

When this happened, his wife Alda Araujo was also in Brazil with their two children and other family members. Despite these difficult circumstances, she returned as a single missionary to Mexico. She didn’t care about the fact that she had to live alone, make decisions alone, walk in dangerous streets, live in a very different culture, and deal with many difficult situations. Her love for the people of Mexico compelled her to return. What an example she is to me of a person who has strength in Christ and faith in Him. It is difficult to be a missionary and even more so without a companion. But in Christ, everything is possible and Sister Alda is an example of this.

Tomorrow, she will return to her country, Brazil. I just want to thank God for the blessing that Sister Alda Araujo, Pastor Solon Araujo, and their two children have been to my country.

Thank you Sister Alda for the love you have for us and our daughters. Thank you for your encouraging words, your sincerity, your advice, your example of speaking the truth in love, for the wonderful memories, for making us laugh, for your hospitality, for your delicious cooking, for giving us your beautiful friendship and love in Christ, and for so many other things that only a woman after Christ’s own heart could give.

We miss you and wish we could be in Mexico to give you a hug. But if only by this means of communication, we want to thank you for your love for Christ’s work in Mexico. See you later Sister Alda. We love you.

Areli and family

Worship

5 February 2017

Worship of God is the reason why we exist--to give glory to God for who He is and what He has done. Whenever I give a missions talk, I usually quote John Piper from his book Let the Nations Be Glad: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate.” Worship is not just about singing, praying, reading the Bible, and telling people about Jesus, although these are awesome and essential ways to worship God. Worship is also about carrying out our daily lives in a way that is dedicated to Him. The way we live our lives in the areas of family, work, leisure, and interactions with people on a daily basis should bring glory to Him.

The biggest reason that we are sad to leave Canillá and eager to go back is that God is there. God no longer dwells in a physical location but rather through His Holy Spirit, He lives in the hearts of those who belong to Him. There is a special communion among the missionaries with whom we work in Guatemala and therefore God’s presence is evident. Areli and I often talk about how we feel God’s presence more during our times in Canillá.

As we finish our time here in Mexico and head back to Michigan tomorrow, we know that God is with us. We look forward to rejoining our fellowship with the members of Hope Community Church, Covenant Community Care, and all of our other brothers and sisters who belong to Him. We're thankful to all of those who made this trip possible and who have been praying for us and those to whom we have ministered. At this point, we don’t know when will be the next trip to Guatemala but we know that God will make this clear to us in His time.

Interesting Cases

3 February 2017

This little boy was brought into the Chiminisijuan clinic (up in the mountain) by his mother and grandmother because they “saw five worms come out of his mouth yesterday.” That's not very unusual for this area, but while I was listening to his lungs, I found this interesting congenital mole. They said he was born with it. Nothing too exciting but it looks kind of cool.

This lady came to the clinic in Canillá because she had this itchy spot on her face for a couple of years. It didn’t get better with any cream. With that story and its appearance, it almost certainly was a basal cell carcinoma. This is a common form of skin cancer that rarely metastasizes but can cause significant skin ulcers that spread locally.

In this location, I wasn’t too excited to remove it, but one of the other doctors was willing to do it.

She came back a week later to have the stitches removed. She was told to keep an eye on it for any recurrence.

One morning on our day off, I was about to sit down to a breakfast of Huevos a la Mexicana (Mexican Eggs) prepared by none other than Areli my Mexican wife, when one of the missionaries came rushing in on the four wheeler. He said that a man had fallen into the small canal that is alongside many of the streets of Canillá and was bleeding profusely from his right arm. I rushed to the hospital in the Dusty Chevrolet dressed in sandals and shorts. Jacob, a visiting EMT student was holding pressure through a blood-soaked dressing.

It was a 91-year-old man who had somehow managed to slice open the back of his right hand. We suspect that he may have fallen onto his machete or possibly cut his hand on a sharp part of the canal. It was quite suspicious that he had cut through at least two tendons as he wasn’t able to straighten his last two fingers. It is also possible that he had a wrist or hand fracture. After a long discussion with various family members explaining that he really need to see a hand surgeon to repair the tendons, they decided to just have me sew up his hand and hope for the best. They didn’t have the resources to travel all the way to Guatemala City to find a hand surgeon that would charge a lot of money to fix this problem in a 91-year-old man.

Hospital Adonai (January 2017)

1 February 2017

The construction of the hospital building and the initiation of hospital services has been the main focus of Adonai International Ministries and DOCS for Hope for the past 3 years. Here is a 7-minute walkthrough video describing where things are at today:

This is a video from 3 years ago describing the initial vision for the hospital. It is exciting to see all that God has done since then:

There is much work yet to be done. To find out more or to become a part of the vision, check out the following links:

Adonai International Ministries

DOCS for Hope

Salvation

31 January 2017

We left Guatemala yesterday and are currently in Mexico City. Where does the time go? This week I will publish some more reports from our time in Guatemala including some interesting cases and a tour of Hospital Adonai in Ultra HD, no less.

It is the desire of Areli and me that we continue to know God more and reflect His glory back to Him. And as we do so, we want others to see Him and to do the same. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). He is real. He is perfect. He loves us. He desires to reveal Himself to us so that we can experience the joy of knowing Him. But, there is problem. We all have said and done things that God cannot stand. This separates us from Him. Because of His love for us, He sent his only Son Jesus to the earth to suffer and pay the price for our bad behavior. There is nothing we can do to fix this or to earn our relationship with God. We can only accept this and be thankful that Jesus did this for us. And Jesus also gives us power to live better. We begin a new relationship with our Good God and this relationship will last forever.

Have you ever tried to describe the Gospel of Jesus Christ as simply as possible without using complicated or “religious” words? I just spend quite a while attempting it in the previous paragraph. What are the essentials? Which things are most important? Which things are secondary? Which things are cultural? Will the whole audience understand this? Or will it be confusing to some? Are there any points in my Gospel message that are just plain wrong? The good thing is that there is no perfect Christian who has a perfect understanding of God. OK. I feel better now.

I am not frequently asked to give a message in front of a group of people. But when this does happen, I am often drawn to speak on something related to salvation. Maybe this is because I spent greater than 17 years of my life in church without being saved.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a message on Titus 3:3-8 at the Spanish-speaking service that members of Adonai facilitate. Sorry for the quality of the recording.

The following is a longer message I gave to the teen group 4 years ago in Mexico City on the same passage. I dubbed in into English for a preaching class I was taking—not because I was bored and had nothing else to do.

Dusty Chevrolet

25 January 2017

We’re thankful for our borrowed sweet ride. Thanks Becca! Thanks Aaron, David, and Duane for getting her ready for us and instructing us on how to operate it.