Medical Caravan Completed
Clinic staff is being formed
It was an exciting day yesterday that during our weekly Wednesday meeting, we welcomed some of our staff to the team.
In the final picture from left to right you see, Dr. Abimael Hernandez, Nancy Morales (who is helping us a nurse intern) and our nurse Myrian Molina. These are our staff members as they are working this week to prepare to open the clinic. The clinic’s opening day is planned for Monday, April 11th as our staff will be helping with a Medical Caravan in Lote 4 next week.
Covenant missionaries, Erik and Kristina Amundsen, were also in attendance at the meeting as we were planning our next steps on the agricultural front.
Singing for Ephraim
We received some great news this week and Simeon and Esther can’t stop singing. See the video below.
We learned last week that Ephraim has developmental deficiencies and so we have been a bit concerned about him. The neurologist noticed things like him using the left side of his body more than his right (instead of both sides equally which is the norm) as well as occasional tremors. He decided to have an MRI performed on his brain to see what could be determined. The MRI was taken last Thursday. Thank you for your prayers for that as we were a bit concerned about giving anesthesia (necessary to keep him still for the MRI) at such a young age. But everything went fine.
On Monday of this week we learned of the results of the tests and the kids are a singing because the MRI showed no major abnormalities!!! Praise the Lord!!! The neurologist recommended a little bit of physical therapy to strengthen the left side of his brain but he thinks he should be fine. We thank the Lord for good doctors who help us catch the little things and get them corrected quickly. Make sure you watch enough of the video to see Esther’s solo.
Easter Celebrations
He is risen! He is risen indeed!!!
Happy Easter everyone! Sorry we are few days late in sharing this post but we wanted to share some pictures from Easter. We were able to celebrate with friends. Enjoy the pics!
Sweet Surrender
I was standing in church the other day, trying to intimately connect with Jesus through worship. We usually sit in the back on a regular basis (with 3 kiddos that seems to be a necessity at this point). I had Ephraim in the car seat beside me and Esther in my arms. She is just precious during worship, she claps, she raises her hands, imitating what others do in the worship. I love it! This specific Sunday, as I was trying my best to focus, I was struck by a distinct picture. I was worshiping, I was praising Jesus, doing my best to raise my hands in praise, all the while trying not to drop Esther and every minute or so glancing over at Ephraim to see if he needed anything. I felt closer to God, although I was distracted, but God uses that time, no matter how short or how distracted, He uses it. While in the midst of this, it hit me that this is often what we do with God. We say we give Him everything, having our arms wide open to Him, but we still have…”stuff” in our arms. Much like the picture of me holding Esther and lifting my one hand to heaven with an outstretched arm, I was still holding on. My whole self couldn’t fully commit because I would have dropped Esther. Now, I’m not saying it would have been good to drop Esther, you get the metaphor, right? OK, moving on…here’s the point. We can’t totally commit and surrender our lives when we are still holding on to things. We say it, we even sing it (add in I Surrender All track), and we mean it, we really do, but if we are honest, we are still holding things, we are still holding our kids, our jobs, our ministry, our future yet still saying we surrender all. We can’t! Believe me, I have tried. But the bottom line is there is no better place for all of that “stuff” to be that we try and carry but in the arms of Jesus! (Can I PLEASE get an AMEN!) He is the master of balancing it all and carrying it all and guarding it all. Is it easy? Of course not. Are our lives going to be completely different when we can fully surrender in worship to Him? YES! When our focus is fully on Him instead of balancing all that is in our arms, WOW! What freedom, what sweet surrender. What are you holding on to? Know that God can do better with it than you can today. He is the author of whatever it is. Surrender it and embrace all that He has for you!
IU DENTAL SCHOOL PUT TO WORK
This past week we hosted a dental team made up of dentists and dental students from Indiana University School of Dentistry and we put them to work! We held a medical and dental caravan in the area surrounding Cayambe visiting Juan Montalvo, Lote Cuatro, Carrera and Guachala. Though we are still in the process of tallying all of the results after a week filled with a flurry of activity, early estimates showed that there were around 300 folks attended to for their dental needs and around 250 on the medical side. Praise the Lord for He is good!!!
Simeon turns 6!!!
Last week, we got to celebrate Simeon as he turned 6! The festivities started by taking Simeon to a water park with his friends and then concluded with a party back at our apartment, which included a “surprise” egg hunt as well as other games. The group was small but we were happy to be together to celebrate Simeon. Feliz cumpleanos Simeon!!!
Potatoes!!!
Last week, we harvested the potatoes that we have been growing to help fund the home and clinic. It was two days of hard work but it was neat to see the product of 6 months of cultivation. We are in process of selling the harvest now and we are estimating that we will have around a $300 profit. Is there anyone who would like to provide a matching gift to help encourage our efforts toward self-sustainability here in Ecuador? If so, please give here:https://www.santiagopartnership.org/give/
Thank you Canada!
This past week our partners from Canada and the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada came down to partner with us in ministry once again. This year’s project is building offices for the project as well as a an apartment for medical volunteers. A big thanks to to our Canadian friends!!!!