18 January 2017

 

I've had some requests to post more about what Rebekah and Zabdi have been up to.  Here is an album documenting their time so far:

 

 

12 January 2017

 

Greetings from Guatemala! I was planning to title our first update something catchy like “Sex in the Aldea” but I decided not to.

 

“Aldea” is the word they use here to refer to a village or town.

 

We have been here for over a week now. Shortly after we arrived, I began helping with the clinics—six in a row. Some have been busier than others. The new official schedule is:

 

Friday: Clinic at Hospital Adonai in Canillá

Saturday: Clinic at Hospital Adonai in Canillá

Sunday: Clinic about 20 minute away in San Andrés

Monday: Clinic at Hospital Adonai in Canillá

Tuesday: Clinic up the mountain in Chiminisijuan [evening English worship and prayer service]

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: OFF [evening Spanish worship and prayer service]

 

As you can see, our Sunday is Thursday so my brain is often confused what day it actually is.

 

To date, there has been no surgery at the hospital. There was one pediatric overnight admission but no official inpatient service.

 

A huge burden of the care is prenatal which is part of the reason for my title. On Sunday, at San Andrés, there were about 75 pregnant ladies coming for ultrasound, which I think was record. Prenatal care consists of ultrasound for dates and basic anatomy and position when time for delivery is approaching. Many times, the main concern of the mother is the sex of the baby. Each patient then gets vitamins and a return appointment depending on where they are at in their pregnancy.

 

Hours prior to when we arrived on January 3rd, one of the missionaries gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the hospital. Praise God!!! Word of mouth travels fast here in the aldea and the rumor spread that the hospital was open for deliveries. A lady showed up in labor. In this area, many babies are born in the home with the help of a usually untrained midwife called a “comadrona.” Those who desire to have a “hospital birth” are sent when they are in labor by ambulance to San Andrés where they have a simple birthing center. If anything goes wrong, they are then sent by ambulance again to Hospital Santa Elena in Santa Cruz del Quiché about another hour away. In this case, the ambulance was called. All indications are that if the Hospital Adonai opens the door to full obstetrical care in the future, it will get very busy very quickly.

 

I was also a little surprised with some of the other reproductive health cases I had on Saturday. It reminded me a little of similar issues I often deal with in Detroit.

 

One lady had all indications of a genital infection. During the dry season, her husband works on the coast where agriculture continues year round. It is quite common that guys visit the local sex workers on the coast and bring their wives more than a pocket full of money when they come home. There have been some advances in the laboratory services at the hospital which I will talk about later, but there are still no tests for genital infections. I treated various possible infections before she left.

 

I also had a Quiché-speaking lady who was having some type of abdominal pain. After a five-minute discussion with my interpreter, the only thing I got was “she has abdominal pain.” (Note to self: don’t use the janitor for an interpreter unless you really have no other options.) It was a very busy day and we were short staffed on trained multilingual nurses. It turns out the husband spoke good Spanish and explained to me that a couple of weeks ago, his wife at about 8 months gestation was found to have no detectible heartbeat at a little health center in the mountains where they live. They then went to another government hospital on the other side of the mountain where she delivered the miscarriage. He spoke of stiches inside but clearly said that a c-section was not performed. We came to the conclusion that she probably had an episiotomy to aid in the delivery of the near-term fetus. He came to us for the famous ultrasound to confirm that all was well now since she was still having some pain. Of more value was a negative pregnancy test to confirm that the miscarriage was complete. We did do a “therapeutic” ultrasound to look for anything weird but all looked well.

 

Finally, I had an approximately 20 year-old (many people here don’t know their actual age) Quiché-speaking lady who had a two year old at home and apparently had been widowed. I never got the details about her husband (again I didn’t have the best interpreter). She was currently living with her parents due to her circumstances. Her chief complaint was that she was about three months late. She denied any sexual activity. In this case the ultrasound was extremely helpful:

 

 

Approximately 3-month old fetus with a strong heartbeat. Her first response was “I need to abort the baby.” She talked about a pill that she could get that would end the pregnancy. When we asked her about the father, she said she was raped. The local missionary talked to her about some legal action that could be done to make the father responsible. And we explained to her and showed her in the ultrasound that this baby was alive and that doing anything to stop the pregnancy would be killing the baby. We urged her to talk to her parents about what had happened. We prayed for her about this very difficult situation and that is where we left it. We hope and pray that the picture above will not be the only one that will ever be taken of this baby.

 

Please pray for these people and many others who are facing similar situations.

 

Please pray for wisdom, direction, staffing of the Hospital Adonai as they move forward.

 

31 December 2016

 

Delayed post due to Internet issues.

 

This year, we had the opportunity to be in Mexico City for Christmas. This was the first time Areli’s family got to meet Zabdi. In Mexico, we celebrate Christmas beginning with a huge feast on the night of Christmas Eve.

 

The family tradition on Christmas is to open presents followed by lunch from the feast leftovers. After that, we break two or three piñatas. Finally, we have a family baseball game. The kids are more excited about this than the food.

 

At this year’s baseball game, there was a special event: Ivan and Anai got engaged during the game. Surprise!

 

Later, we dedicated Zabdi to the Lord before the congregation of Masai Church. We appreciate the continued prayers for her. We are blessed that she has been healthy and growing perfectly.

 

Even though we had a LOT of family fun, we remember that this holiday is ultimately about God sending His Son Jesus into the world to save us from our sins so that we could be with Him forever. May God continue to do his work in you and us as we grow in Him each day.

 

Here is an album of some pictures from the day:

 

 

25 June 2016

 

Zabdi Rose Pope. Born June 25, 2016, 5:13 AM. 8lbs 1oz. 20 ½ in. Healthy mom. Healthy baby. Another amazing gift from the Lord.

 

Throughout the pregnancy, Zabdi had been measuring large for her gestation. This was of some concern to Areli’s doctor if she were to go to her full due date or beyond. Praise God that Areli went into spontaneous labor and delivered Zabdi at 38 6/7 weeks. Once again she made labor look easy and everything went smoother than we could have imagined. Areli didn’t tell me until shortly before we left for the hospital that the 25^th of June had been on her heart as the day that God had chosen for Zabdi to be born. It is especially significant because June 25^th was the due date for our first daughter, Esther Nina, whom God took to be with him after only 156 minutes of us enjoying her after her premature birth. We share this story at esthernina.com.

 

So why the name? Zabdi, like Areli, is a male Hebrew name that is rarely used as a female name in the Spanish-speaking world. It means “Gift of Yahweh (or Jehova).” This is the personal name of God that was given to Moses in Exodus 3:15. It was consider by the Jews to be too sacred to be spoken so the vowels were left out of the spelling and the exact Hebrew pronunciation is unknown. Therefore, many translations of the Bible translate this as LORD. We knew that Zabdi was a huge gift of the Lord since we found out that she had been conceived. And certainly, every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

 

God has answered many prayers along the way and we must give Him thanks:

--Prayer for pregnancy. Answered.

--Prayer for baby to turn head down when needed. Answered.

--Prayer for baby to come earlier rather than later due to size. Answered.

--Prayer for someone to care for Rebekah. Answered.

--Prayer for work interruption to be as smooth as possible. Answered.

--Prayer for healthy mom and healthy baby. Answered.

 

Here is an album with a few pictures:

 

5 March 2016

 

Greetings from Mexico City.   We have enjoyed some great time with family and friends including a surprise baby shower today. Tomorrow, I will be giving a brief missions message and a report of our time in Guatemala. Soon we will be heading back to Michigan. We wanted to give thanks to all who have been a part of our trip to Guatemala. Thanks to Covenant Community Care in Detroit for allowing me the time off to go and your generous gift of keeping my benefits going while I was away. Special thanks to those who have covered my work while I was gone. Also, thanks to all of those from Hope Community Church in Ann Arbor and Iglesia Masai in Mexico City and many others who have encouraged and empowered us through prayer. Finally, we thank Adonai International Ministries for letting us be a part of their ministry in and around Canillá. As we make another transition, saying “goodbye for now” to some and “hello again” to others, we are reminded that one day we will all be together celebrating the One we all serve.

 

Most of you have never heard what the Quiché language sounds like. The following is a 9-minute video of a Gospel presentation that I gave translated to Quiché by Rosa, one of our helpers. There are subtitles in English. The audio is not ideal but I tried to make it as clear as possible.

 

 

29 February 2016

 

During our month here, we have been blessed with awesome fellowship with other missionaries and Guatemalans. Our schedule here is completely different. We typically do not have church on Sunday but rather on Tuesday night for an English service and Friday night for a Spanish service. There are also several other prayer meetings and services throughout the week and sometimes special services and meetings. Saturday there was a special potluck at the Adonai School to dedicate the school year. Last night we watched a Christian movie out on the lawn: “The War Room.”

 

 

Today we said our last goodbyes, got in the little plane to fly back to city to catch our flight to Mexico City, and the little plane didn’t want to start. We are still here in Canillá. Our fellowship time has been extended! As they say, “If you’re going to be stuck somewhere, you might as well be stuck with people you like.” Or maybe I just say that, but in our case it’s true. Tonight we had dinner with a team from Spain that arrived this afternoon.  God continues to bring wonderful people from all over the world here to be part of His work. 

 

 

Tonight, as I was once again ruminating on how much poorer I will be due to the rebooking of flights, God spoke to me through some verses written on the wall of the bathroom where we are spending the night: 

 

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”—1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. 

 

It’s all His anyway.  At least it should be.

 

27 February 2016

 

In the clinics, we continue to see a mix of needs. Today, headaches were the common theme for me, athough the first guy was not typical. He clearly had some abnormal neurological signs concerning of a stroke, a tumor, or something not right in his brain. Some of it was from childhood but is was hard even with my Quiché interpreter to sort out what was old and what was new. Unfortunately, I did not have much to offer him other than some pain medicine. The nearest place to get some type of brain imaging, if he had the money to pay for it, is two hours away.

 

Another lady that has come the past three weeks has a very severe facial paralysis (Bell’s Palsy). She has to tape her left eye shut to sleep at night since she is not able to close it on her own. She seems quite discouraged by her condition for good reason. There is no treatment that exists anywhere to help her get better. We have been praying for her at each visit and she seems to be slowly getting more movement back on the left side of her face.

 

There continues to be a lot diabetic and hypertensive patients that followup regularly. And a bunch of other stuff.

 

 

This is Gerardo. When his 18 year-old mother brought him into the Chiminisijuan clinic (almost an hour by truck up in the mountains), I saw that she was carrying a tiny bundle. When she unwrapped him a little bit, I saw that she had a very, very, very tiny baby. With his bundle on, he weighed 3lbs 8oz. I was not comfortable unwrapping him for fear of breaking him. When the nurse who was bolder than I unwrapped him, he weighed in at 2lbs 8oz.

 

 

We think he was born on January 20^th but mom did not know the exact date, which is actually fairly common here. He was part of the prenatal program so we knew that he was approximate 31 weeks when he was born. Mother, who spoke no Spanish, originally said (through a translator) that she had no milk and he has not be eating anything since he was born about month ago. Later we found out that she had been expressing breastmilk into his tiny mouth as he did not have the strength to latch on and nurse correctly. The person on our team with the most neonatal experience was out of the country and out of touch for the week. So we prayed for wisdom. I messaged my sister, who works as a nurse in the neonatal intensive unit in Michigan and she gave us some guidance.

 

 

We gave mother some powder formula, a bottle of clean water, and some syringes to squirt this into Gerardo’s mouth along with some very detailed instructions of how to mix it and how and when to give it (through an interpreter) and hoped that she would understand it all. We asked her to bring him down to Canillá later in the week as we have better formula for him here, but we did not see him today. When we asked about her husband, we found out that he was at the coast working (also very common here during the dry season). It is also common that many men working at the coast spend their money on alcohol and other women, but we hope this is not the case with him. We prayed for Gerardo and his mom and continue to do so. We hope that he will show up on Tuesday and the next clinic in Chiminisijuan.

 

25 March 2016

 

 

Today was asked to speak at a lunch for the workers. These meetings have been going on for about a year. The workers from the hospital construction come and also some teachers from the school. Adonai is not only concerned getting the hospital built and keeping a school running but also sharing God’s Word with workers. Some are believers and some are not. Today there were also some men from a visiting team. Three of them gave testimonies and I gave a message in English and Spanish on Proverbs 3:5-6.

 

 

Audio: Short Message on Proverbs 3:5-6 (English and Spanish)

 

 

24 February 2016

 

Written by Areli:

 

Now that we have been in Guatemala for more than 3 weeks I have enjoyed looking at Rebekah having fun and enjoying life here.

 

Here are some of the fun, silly, dirty and cute things she has learned or done.

 

Since we got here she calls the house where we are staying “my house” so we called it “Rebekah’s house”.

 

The day after our arrival in Canillá, Sherwood was at the clinic and we had lunch with the medical people when they got back. It was such a long day for Rebekah that on our way home she felt asleep on Sherwood’s shoulders.

 

Rebekah is very affectionate, a Mexican characteristic. She likes to kiss, hug, touch, be by your side, spent time with you and doing things she can do for you. Since we got here, she calls the founders of the Ministry in Canillá Mister Duane and Grandma Leslie. She loves going to Grandma Leslie’s house. Pretty much every day she asks us if we are going there. Once we get there, she wants to see Grandma. She likes being with her. It surprises me the love she has for her although she hadn’t seen her for more than a year. I like the way she accepts people and the way she gets concerned when someone is hurt or sick. Well I can tell that it’s easier for her to be nice to grownups than kids since she spends a lot more time with us. A lot of the time she gets into fights over toys because she hasn’t had enough practice sharing--another reason for my desire of seeing her with a brother or sister.

 

We have a Christian lady Emi cleaning for us some days of the week. Rebekah has been talking a lot more Spanish since Emi doesn’t understand her English. She really likes to “help” and hang out with her even when they have many missing pieces in their conversations. I am surprised of how much Rebekah picks up Emi’s accent when she is here and the accent that she keeps when she says the words Emi taught her. My favorite that I don’t even understand very well is this: “que manda?” which means something like “what do you need?”  She is speaking a lot of Spanglish.  It’s hard for her to speak a whole sentence in one language or the other. 

 

Another activity that she enjoys when Emi is here is burning the garbage. She gets so excited that her impatience goes up a little bit more. I enjoy looking at her humbleness when she is with Emi burning garbage like it was the first activity she would choose to do while it is the last thing I would like to do. 

 

I love the way she likes to go to her favorite place to see people, cows, baby cows (as she calls them), horses, “cochinos perros” (dirty dogs), pigs, etc. She has something to say to everyone and everything that goes by and for sure she always lets me know what’s going by at any moment.

 

I enjoy the excitement she shows over little things like popcorn, chocolate, feeding the sheep, bunnies, chicks, ants, rocks, going to the store, eating fruit, buying strawberries, ice cream, etc. She gets so loud and her face bursts into a big smile, even with her eyes.

 

Since we got here I thought “Rebekah still looks like a city girl”. That in my mind means, clean clothes, face, feet, hands, wearing shoes and with her hair done (you may not know this but I think doing girls hair is very Mexican or maybe it is a routine in my family, that’s the way I grew up).

Well I can tell you that she is adapting at the way of life on the farm, she likes playing on the dirt trying to find pretty rocks (just like her Dad), finding all kinds of insects, flowers, etc. She loves walking barefoot (but I still don’t like her to do this because I keep thinking she is going to hurt herself, and I am Mexican. We like to wear shoes all of the time. It is even kind of a rule that if your feet get cold, you will get sick with a cold or a sore throat.

 

She likes to look at the mountains, sky, birds, and clouds. One day she scared me. We were walking quietly and she yelled “teddy bear!” I asked her where and she pointed up. I thought it was on a tree but she later told me with some frustration in her voice, “up, the white one.” Finally I understood it was a cloud that sort of looked like a teddy bear.

She enjoys going up the mountain on Daddy’s shoulders. She likes taking pictures of the pretty views. She is very expressive about it sometimes. One day she yelled “look Mama the mountains, so beautiful…” and it really was. I love the way her little eyes and brain grab the beauty of the world that the Lord made for her and us.

 

I have a lot of things that I would have liked to have written on a calendar right after she learned them or did them. But sometimes it is easier to record them, take pictures or just treasure them in my heart and memory. Sometimes I tell her to grow up but not too fast.

 

When I think of how she is growing and the things that she does that are good and not good (disobedience, rebellion, lies, unkind acts, naughtiness, etc), I wonder what the Lord thinks of us growing in Him. He sees us growing older and also in maturity. He sees us doing His will sometimes and messing things up other times.

 

To think and wonder about it breaks my heart and strengthens my desire to be more like Him as a Parent, with more patience, love, selflessness, self-control, kindness, understanding, willing to listen, and willing to teach.

 

I have seen a lot of things that I like and some that I don’t like in Rebekah but I love her. Because no matter what, she is a huge blessing and joy to us. She is a miracle in my eyes, an answer to prayer, our heritage, a gift that brought me more comfort and healing.  She will be my baby forever.

 

Album: Pictures and Videos of Rebekah's adventures in Guatemala.

 

15 February 2016

 

The vision for a hospital in this area of Canillá, Guatemala goes back many years. Here is a video describing this vision:

 

Guatemala Promo Video from Enspire Media on Vimeo.

 

 

When we were last here, a little over a year ago, the governmental authorities had just given approval to begin construction. At that time, the workers were dumping truckload after truckload of sand and gravel to prepare the foundation of the hospital. Two days ago, in the course of 12+ hours, the workers poured tons and tons of cement onto what is now the ceiling of the future operating rooms.

 

Here is an album with commentary showing the current progress:

 

Direct Link to album.

 

Video: 360 Degree View from the Roof.  Rebekah really wants to get down.

 

The next move forward for the medical services will be to move the clinic to the new hospital site. This should happen in the next few months. We had another meeting today discussing all of the details that go along with this including some necessary changes. Lots of questions remain including: Will some or all medicines be charged for instead of the current system of the price of all medicines included in the nominal visit fee? Should there be sliding fee scales for services based on one’s ability to pay? If so how can this be determined (most people don’t have the previous year’s income tax return? How can the clinic services be more self-supporting while ensuring that those most in need have access? Is it best to start an electronic medical record system with the move? There is a team coming down at the end of the month that will demo OpenEMR, a free open-source system. We continue to pray for God’s direction in all of this and much more.