It all started with...

THIS! In nine days of clinics a total of 1,043 people were seen; 815 in the medical clinics and 228 in the dental clinics running simultaneously with children's ministry. The flyer above was prepared for the first 3-day site in the town of Cachi at the High School. From there more flyers were prepared for another set of 3-day clinics at a church in Tuccirrique. With the first six straight days of clinics behind us, on Sunday we stayed at the camp and worshipped as well as prepared for the orphan home/mother's ministry on Monday and a free day on Tuesday. We finished the last three days in a church in Cartago.

Saturday, the team took medicine inventory, the children's ministry team cleaned the closet and placed things back in their rightful places. The team left at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. We cleaned the Celebration Center on Sunday morning for an evening church service with Puente de Esperanza welcoming back their Youth from a Youth Retreat! Today, we grocery shopped for our family as well as took a couple with us who are staying on for four more weeks to do odd jobs around the camp. This afternoon Ken worked on the new cabin "mudding" one of the bathrooms and we hope to paint in the next day or two to finish the cabin for the weekend rentals!

Pictures and more details of the last two week team from the U.S. and Canada to follow as soon as I get some rest!

A new friend

We have been really busy since arriving back home in Costa Rica. We have a team of 34 coming in on Saturday, January 14th, and have been having meetings with Pastors who will be hosting medical clinics and children's ministry in their churches with this team. With being gone for six months, our insurance on our vehicle had to be reinstated. Nothing in this country is easy or fast and it took the entire day to get the insurance again. We've had to go to the Municipality and wait in line to pay the camp's taxes. Today, we went up to San Jose and picked up the dental chair and equipment that one of our partnerships borrowed to prepare for the dentist coming on the team.

I was glad when I had a few minutes to get this "shot" of Cindy and Jordan enjoying one of our neighbors new baby parrots. She has an older parrot who is nasty in her personality, but this baby is sweet, loves to be stroked and just hang out.

Even with all the stress of running around this week trying to get things done in preparation for the team, God provided this moment of enjoyment and obvious BIG smiles!

I better get back to schedule planning and menu writing.

Finally...some picture updates!

I don't know why I've had so much trouble lately uploading pictures, but finally, I got these to get through! These are ministry pictures from our week with Team PBA here in Costa Rica.

This is Kyle's best Costa Rican friend and our neighbor, Osvaldo, or as we call him, "Osvi". He can often be found in our home hanging out with Heather & Kyle, or at work in town at the local grocery store, but on this day, his day off, he asked if he could join with us in ministry. He is working with the kids in Children's Ministry.

This year, for the first time on a team, we had a dentist and dental hygienist, Dr. & Mrs. Hesser. In between patients, Mrs. Hesser was reviewing with one of the students, Amira, the "correct" flossing technique! Just another educational moment for PBA!

Dr. Hesser averaged about 37 patients a day in the dental chair; examining adults as well as children; making recommendations on problem teeth treatments, and pulling decayed teeth. He was unable to do actual teeth cleaning due to the expense of purchasing as well as transporting a generator for cleaning.

As always, we try to invite our Pastor and Youth Pastor to join us in ministry whenever we have a medical or outreach event. This time, Jeffrey Prieto, our Youth Pastor represented our church and partnered with the church where we held the clinic in evangelism.

On the second night the team was there we had a "man snack" for the guys that were on the team; but of course, there was enough for everyone! Chicken Wings that tasted like home, made by a U.S. Expat who owns a restaurant right in nearby Cartago!

Wherever we go the kids squeal when we bring out the parachute!

Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, there is always a waiting line to see the doctor!

Before the clinics even started, we had a team who counted the most used supplies and placed them in small bags; vitamins, Tylenol, children's vitamins, prenatal vitamins, etc.

Along with the Maycroft Family who are three month missionary interns, came their family friend and babysitter, Miss Sarah Ax. Here's a picture of Sarah with some new friends that she made while doing children's ministry.

This is a picture of patient's waiting outside of Triage to get their vital signs taken before seeing the physicians.

On one of the days in the early morning headed out toward the clinics we got a rare, clear glimpse of the Turrialba volcano! Because the clouds usually cover this volcano early in the morning, we pulled the bus to the side of the road and all got out to snap some pictures....even me, since it had been weeks since we had seen its progress due to the start of rainy season. She still continues to smoke steadily! You too can follow her progress at http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/videoturri.html where I often have to take a look at the live web cam located 600 meters on the side wall of the crater to see what's going on when the clouds obscure our view from the valley!

Busy Day

We still do not have internet at the camp and the team has walked over to Orosi with Dr. Ferrell to use the internet cafe and make contact with loved ones at home! Today, was a fun day of unpacking medications and supplies from suitcases and repacking by category the medications that we will use for the first two days of clinic. The team also counted vitamins, Tylenol, etc. thirty day supplies in preparation for the clinic knowing that these medications are prescribed most often for simple pain relief. Dr. Hesser spent the afternoon seeing and treating the Costa Rican "staff" who work here with us at the camp; Coqui the camp gardener had a tooth pulled, as well as his sister-in-law, Gloria, the camp baker, and Isa's niece also had a tooth pulled that was causing her tremendous pain. Dr. Hesser was also able to do examinations on them letting them know which teeth might need attention in the future. He also took the time to see each one of our children informing us that Jordan had a cavity which will need attention soon; Kyle needs braces; and Heather has wisdom teeth coming in. He also turned his attention to the Maycroft Family, short-term missionaries serving here alongside us at the camp for two more months. What a blessing to all of us to get some dental attention! The team said that they slept well and tonight will be an early dinner at 5 p.m. followed by anniversary cake that I had Gloria make for Ken and I. Today, we are celebrating our wedding anniversary...25 years! God is faithful and while He loves us unconditionally and with an unfailing love, through Him, we have been able to love each other, not perfectly, but in a way that is difficult for man without Him! We Praise the Lord for this milestone in our lives! Then we have a special "man snack" planned for the entire team tonight; last night the ice cream social was with the ladies in mind, and I know they think they've figured it all out, thinking that it is Pollo Crispy, but they are wrong! Seems like everyone is feeling rested and ready for tomorrow to begin the clinic! So many new faces on this team this year, but already, I can say they are a very special group of young people and they are once again, stealing our hearts! So blessed to have them back!

Team PBA is in the house...umm...

I mean they are in the camp! They arrived safely today with ALL their luggage and ALL of their medications made it through Customs - Praise the Lord! Dr. Hesser and his wife also came in on time and were able to hook up with the team. Dr. Hesser is a dentist! We are excited about them working with us for the first time and we know that this will be a real blessing to the people of Costa Rica to receive "free" dental care! We have internet in our home, but the internet is still not working at the camp. Tomorrow, is our preparation day with sorting and preparing the medications for the first clinics scheduled for Wednesday, and Thursday. We hope that we can finish this task before dinner and if the internet is not restored at that time, we will walk the team over to Orosi to the internet cafe to make contact with their families. Tonight after a light supper, we had an ice cream social and while it is early here, it is two hours later in the States, and the team as already retired for the evening after their day of traveling. Please continue to keep the entire team, interpreters and other support staff in your prayers as we minister through the medical clinic, dental clinic, evangelism, music, children's minister, and ask the Lord to allow us to be ministers of His hands and feet!

Internet...FINALLY!

Wow...this weekend has been crazy with the rain. So many of the Costa Ricans keep telling us, "this is like October" which is the height of the rainy season! It has been raining here torrentially over the weekend. The first year that we were here I remember that the rains "built up" from May until October. It just seems like we are wide open already! We have had "in" and "out" internet service all weekend in our home (more "out" than "in") which has been irritating with Ken's father still in the hospital. Last week as you probably know from the news, we had an earthquake in Costa Rica which is to blame for a lot of the telecommunication problems that the country as a whole is experiencing. Today, we needed to do some last minute running around to pick up just a few things for the team and noticed a large water pipe that was broken on our way past the camp. I called the kids on the cell phone and told them to stock up on water from the tap, filling the washing machine and plastic buckets, so we could flush toilets; thinking that they will be turning off the water tonight or very early tomorrow morning to make the repairs. Well, I better run. I have to get up early in the morning to post the schedule at the camp, clean the bathrooms from the church being at the camp this afternoon and make sure everything's in place for Team PBA to arrive! Please keep us (the Team and our family) all in your prayers as we minister to bodies that seek healing both physically and spiritually.

Dad again and now Ken

What was supposed to be a work-in doctor's appointment, ended up being a five hour stay in the hospital emergency room as well today! Ken has flared again with his rheumatoid arthritis and he has been walking with the use of crutches for the past week. With Team PBA arriving on Monday, I suggested he call the doctor and have his knee and ankle looked at since it didn't appear that the new drug cocktail was really working too well, and working more on our bank account than his body! The doctor was gracious to fit him in today and drained six tubes of liquid off his knee, and injected it with an anti-inflammatory medication. We then proceeded to the ER for IV fluid to help with the swelling in his ankle.

Meanwhile, back in the States in N.C. since we have left the area, Ken's brother and two sisters have driven from Atlanta and New York State to check on his father who is again readmitted into the hospital this time for a very debilitating state of mental confusion and aggressive behavior. His MRI came back normal, but some other exams and blood work shows that his multiple myeloma is spreading. The physicians have discontinued any medications that may have caused this state of confusion, and it seems at this time that there is no real clear answer for his behavior.

I've wanted to post some pictures that I haven't been able to get up due to preparations for the team, that have been taken over the past two weeks. Maybe tomorrow. Today, was supposed to be grocery shopping day for the team, but we ran out of time with the morning spent in the hospital.

We have a group coming in to rent the camp tomorrow evening into Saturday evening, so tomorrow as early as possible we plan on getting out to do the grocery shopping and then return to the camp to finish preparing for the rental group. We've got one more cabin to clean after having the exterminator here on Monday, not because the camp was infested, its something we do routinely every six months! Maybe over the weekend I can get those pictures up! Please continue to pray for Ken's Dad and the family in any decisions they may need to make for him in N.C., and for Ken's recovery into remission from this round of rheumatoid arthritis!

The last two weeks!

Here's a pictorial review of what we have been up to over the last two weeks!


Yesterday, we were asked to do some children's ministry teacher training in a church about an hour from the camp. Two churches in a small town invited us and we arrived at 8:30 a.m. The training began at 9 a.m. and lasted until 4 p.m. This is Kyle doing a demonstration of some gospel magic and explaining how to do a rope trick.

I did a session on Bible Storytelling and one on Bible verse memorization for kids and this is Heather demonstrating just one of the fun ways that we illustrated an important concept of "bridging" from different parts of a children's program i.e. from the main story right into the Bible memory verse.

Ken's parents just returned to the States on Thursday after being here for almost two weeks. In preparation for the children's ministry training, I have Carolyn, Ken's Mom, helping me trace felt squares which we then sewed into Wordless Books.

Yesterday, at the training, each teacher was given a wordless book of their own and after teaching it, we divided them into small groups for them to practice what they had learned.

Seems like a blur, but somewhere in between having family visit, getting ready for teacher training; I also did a few days of inventoring medicines for the upcoming clinic that we will be doing with a medical team coming for a week in May. After about three days of this, I decided I needed a break to spend some time with family, not to mention that I was nearly blind even with glasses on trying to squint to check expiration dates so that those meds that were expired could be disposed of.

Here's a picture of all the things that my in-laws brought to us from our home church, Hickory Grove, in Four Oaks, N.C. We had asked for donations for the "needy" church in which we did the teacher's training, however, so much was brought to us, that we were able to give some to our church here and we were also able to restock our children's ministry supply closet. Thank you SO MUCH Hickory Grove. We couldn't do this without you!

And with all the supplies came a need to tidy up the children's ministry closet so the supplies could be put away. With needing to inventory medicines, I enlisted the help of Ken's Mom, Carolyn, and Heather to organize the closet. Thanks Mom and Heather!

Global Outreach Mission - January 2010 Team/Part 3

Here is a "glimpse" of only part of the work that got done during the two weeks that the team was here. There were 5 simultaneous ministries taking place through this team; children's ministry teacher training, orphan home ministry, children's ministry during the medical clinics, construction at the camp and construction at a church. I will try and get some pictures of the new ceiling that got put up at the camp in another post as well as some orphan home pictures.

Here's one patient no one expected to have to see! Ken unfortunately hurt himself when his thumb got smashed between two blocks at the church while he was working there. He had a huge blood blister form and then pop. Gary, a Paramedic, on the team is making sure it is cleaned and bandaged well before Ken can return to work!

A picture of some of the new walls at the church.

In this picture, to the left is the Triage area where a patient is seen to have their vital signs taken before seeing a physician. To the right is the waiting area to be seen by a physician.

This is only part of our construction team this year. Half of them stayed back at the camp to install the new ceiling in the Celebration Center. This small team did a lot of work under very hot conditions. We know it blessed the church in a BIG way!

8 days of medical clinics with simultaneous children's ministry!

In the Triage area Adrianna was one of the nurses who took the patients History & Physical before seeing the physicians.

Global Outreach Mission - January 2010 Team

A team of 35 people arrived at the camp on January 16, 2010. After orientation, the fun began of sorting and inventoring all of the supplies that they brought into the country to carry out their two-week ministry. This is just a small portion of the children's ministry supplies: Bibles, children's tracks, and all the necessary craft items.

This is a neat and tidy picture of how a pharmacy is made mobile for a medical clinic. All of the medications pertaining to "GI" (gastrointestinal) conditions are placed in one plastic bin or suitcase.

This is the pharmacy back at the camp coming to order; placing all the GI medications together in one location and then inventoring what we have to work with before the clinics even start. This has to take place for the neat and tidy picture to happen.

Update on Ken/Prayer Requests

The doctor's appointment went well for Ken on Monday. He had a hearing test and examination. The results were that he does not have "crystals" attaching to his inner ear that could be throwing off his balance and causing the dizziness. Instead, he has 30-40% hearing loss in his left ear from his years of doing construction and remodeling work with high-pitched power tools. Unfortunately, when Ken was younger OSHA didn't have "laws" on protective hearing devices, and quite honestly, Ken wouldn't probably have taken the time to put those on anyway! His medication that he has been taking for the dizziness and nauseousness does seem to be helping and this medication could potentially cure that problem altogether. It was recommended that he have a hearing aide, but that because a portion of his hearing is still partially good, that he wait awhile on that decision until after he finished the course of medication to take away the dizziness first. If the dizziness does not go away, then he will probably need the hearing aide. But, if the dizziness does go away, the recommendation was that he would actually hear things a lot louder with the hearing aide because of the good side of his hearing, and that the $1200 hearing aide would probably drive him crazy and end up in a drawer! For now, it wasn't a hard decision since we don't have the $1200!

The second night of orientation went well even though we were exhausted from being out all day doing errands, and a prayer was answered in that we told the Lord, "we are weak, please make us strong for You". We had 68 volunteers from the church show up to hear us do the orientation. They are on fire to reach the community behind the church, a squatter village, for the Lord! So, please keep this church in your prayers as they also continue to prepare for our short-term missions team that we will bring in to do three days of Medical Clinics, Children's Ministry and Children's Ministry Training in their church in January.

The Medical Clinic in Palomo; we had a good number of Youth volunteers show up with the Youth Pastor to help us out. We saw about 100 patients in six hours and did not run out of medications or vitamins. We brought in what we thought was enough food for just our volunteers as we closed the clinic for one hour to provide them lunch. At one point, Ken looked in the supply box and cooler and said, "I thought they would eat this, but we have more than I expected left"! So, he began cutting the loaves of baguette and making sub sandwiches for the kids that were there to be seen by the physicians. We had enough to feed every single child that was waiting! God so often multiplies our supplies that it is overwhelming to us! We were so happy and blessed to be able to serve the children sandwiches. Some looked like they hadn't been eating regularly.

Our family left the clinic just a little bit early to go to our friends house for Thanksgiving dinner. We really enjoyed being able to eat turkey which is very hard to find here and quite expensive, though we found a Butterball to donate to the dinner at a reasonable price this year. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and sitting around talking afterwards.

On Friday, Ken and I prepared the camp for a group that was coming in that afternoon, doing custodial-type work. When I was finished with that, I ran home to tidy up the "drop and run" house from a busy week of ministry and prepare it for a new ministry that we are involved in. Heather has always helped facilitate a small group Bible Study for Youth with the assistance of the Youth Pastor in our neighborhood. About six months ago, Heather decided that she felt she needed to step down from that ministry, having served in it for over a year, and give more attention to her homeschooling. At the same time that she was serving in that ministry, she was also teaching a Sunday School class during the church hour. We supported her in that decision and the Youth Pastor found someone else to lead the small group in the neighborhood with him assisting them. But, like most ministries in churches in Central America, it is difficult to find someone who will be consistent in ministry and the Youth Pastor after six months came back to Heather and asked her to consider leading the small group again, since they were not able to meet regularly and the group was falling between the cracks. She, along with Ken and I agreed, and every two weeks the small group of Youth meet in our house. Last night's group was bigger than the group two weeks ago and we thank the Lord for that! So, please add the Youth's small group meetings to your prayer request. Their next meeting will be December 18th in our home, and then they will return to their every two week meeting schedule in January!

Today, I am finishing up preparations for my sermon that I will share tomorrow.

Next week on Tuesday, we will be preparing the Celebration Center for a wedding that will take place on Thursday evening as two teenagers (in their 20's) who attend our church and have grown up in the neighborhood tie the knot! We will also be working on the final preparations for a short-term mission team coming to us from the Great State of N.C.; arriving on Saturday to stay for a week and do VBS! We need to do the grocery shopping and final preparations at the camp on Friday for this team.

On a frustrating note, when we returned to the States in August we bought a new digital camera and for some reason, it has died already! I apologize for the inability to post pictures on our blog. Please know with all the exciting things that God is doing here it is extremely frustrating for us not to be able to share that here!

10:52 p.m...just getting home!

So much to write, so little time! We literally just walked in the door and are ending our day here in Costa Rica. Just in time to roll into bed and be on the road again tomorrow no later than 7 a.m. Here's an update of what has been going on in our corner of the world!

Ken has been sick and is now entering his third week of being in a state of constant dizziness. The first week we thought he had a virus since Jordan has had similar symptoms in the past, but for shorter lengths of time (only a 24-hour period). Last Monday, beginning the second week of feeling dizzy we visited our doctor. An IV was started in the office, we were given instructions on fasting blood tests that needed to be drawn the next day, and he was placed on complete bedrest and was asked not to drive. On Thursday, we received normal blood work results, and began another trial of different medications for dizziness, nauseousness and were told he still could not drive and should remain on complete bedrest through the weekend. This Monday, we returned to the doctor's for a return office visit and examination. We were referred to an ear specialist who we will see tomorrow at 9 a.m., undergo a full examination and hearing testing, and while Ken can be on his feet when he feels good, which isn't often, he still cannot drive and is still suffering from dizziness. So, YES, you could pray for Ken!

We have had back-to-back rental groups on the weekends at the camp and last week we had a week-long rental group for a unique Pastor's retreat with Pastor's attending from all over Central and Latin America.

Tonight, we did an orientation for the volunteers at one of the church's where we will take one of January's short-term missions teams to do medical clinics. Ken spoke about Global Outreach Mission, I did children's ministry orientation and Katherine & David did the medical clinic orientation. Tomorrow night, we will do the same orientation, different church location in preparation for the January team. Please pray for us as we talk to this church!

When we return home tomorrow from Ken's ear appointment, we will head over to the neighboring town of Palomo, just about 4 miles from the camp, and set up for a medical clinic that we will be hosting on Thursday Day (Thanksgiving Day) from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. This town is of low-income and has a lot of problems with alcohol, drugs, teenage prostitution, etc. We will also be taking volunteers from our church here that meets at the campground on Sunday mornings to help us with evangelism. Please pray for this outreach!

We have some good Christian friends, Gary & Debbie, who live in Orosi who have asked if they could minister to "us" by cooking Thanksgiving dinner and having us over on Thursday. They have really been wonderful to us; they take care of our dog when we have to leave the country for VISA renewals and drive us to the bus station in San Jose to get on the bus at 4:15 a.m. to travel. They just go above and beyond what would seem even reasonable to ask someone, and always with smiles on their faces! Gary leads our Sunday afternoon Bible Study that we take in English...whoot-whoot!

On Friday, another rental group will be coming into the camp to spend the weekend.

This Sunday, I have been asked to share a message by the Pastor. Could you please remember to pray for me as I finish preparing and then share on Sunday!

So, some of this might explain why there have not been recent updates from me, although as I read this over, I realize that in a little over one week we have a short-term team coming down from Charlotte, N.C. to do VBS, and I haven't even mentioned all the preparations that have already been made in advance of this team coming. All of this does keep us busy, and more importantly, out of trouble!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and thanks for checking in on us!

Cops & Robbers, Fruit & Fun, and Prayer Requests

On Friday morning, David & Katherine with some help from Alianna, Ken & I picked fruit at the campground for a trip that we were taking today to do some logistical work. Pictured here are oranges, lemons, limes, guava and grapefruit loaded into the back of our van. We had a good time talking and laughing together! I wish I had my camera with me to snap a picture at the camp of Ken pushing Alianna around in the wheelbarrel full of fruit...so cute!

This morning we traveled about three hours away from the campground to the Caribbean, near Guapiles, to visit churches in more remote areas. This is the area that we will be bringing a short-term missions team to in January to minister through medical clinics, construction projects and children's ministry and training. In this picture is Pastor Jose, a Global Outreach missionary who introduced us to these churches and their Pastors; Ken and Katherine, who are discussing the logistics for this upcoming team.

Here's a picture of Ken & Katherine distributing the fruit that we had picked and brought with us on this trip to the Pastor's wives and families. We hope that this will bless them in some small way.

While it was much hotter and more humid than we are used too here on the Caribbean side of the country; it also seemed that everything grew bigger and prettier. I saw these hot pink flowers along the road and couldn't resist taking a picture. So vibrant and dainty.

On Friday evening, we had a rental group of ladies at the camp. After we finished picking fruit, we worked together to clean the kitchen, the bathrooms and cabins in preparation for this group. They arrived a bit later than we had expected them on Friday evening. Running behind schedule, they stored their baggage outside the Celebration Center and immediately began their evening service. Much to our frustration, three to four young men entered the campground and stole one of the ladies pieces of luggage. We are grateful for the quick response of the area police who were able to capture two of the men; one who was released (the laws are very lax here) and one who was taken into custody for possessing stolen items that were identified by one of the ladies as hers. Most of all, we are very grateful that no one was hurt!

How you can pray:

1. Pray for the upcoming teams coming to the campground to do ministry in December and January.

2. Continue to pray for our neighborhood which is experiencing more thefts and crime, and for the added police who have been called in to patrol our area.

An update and a lot of administrative "stuff"

I think I have been enjoying our last couple of weekends off a little "too much" since my brother-in-law, Gary, let me know on Facebook that I had not been updating my blog as of late. We were supposed to have a baptism service at the camp on Sunday, a group was supposed to rent the camp for the day, but they ended up cancelling. So again, we had a full weekend off! On Friday we took the day off and went to the amusement park here in San Jose with our children for a belated Children's Day celebration. Last year, we took the kids to the Children's Museum. The weather on Friday at the amusement park was gorgeous and we also enjoyed having a picnic lunch there. We stayed until dark and took a train ride through the entire park to observe all the lights on the rides, etc. It was a lot of fun! I personally enjoyed the water rides on what was a rather humid day! Quite unexpectedly, we got to the park entrance and it was a buy one, get one free day, so that was neat!

There's always a mound of administrative paperwork to do on a personal and a camp level. First, I have been in a slump lately with regard to writing. It is time to write another update letter to our supporters through Global Outreach Mission and there is actually a lot to report, but writing never does come that easily for me. So, you could pray for me in the next days as I scribble, erase, reword and attempt to write, that the words would be clear and that people could sense what we are doing here. And with regard to the blog, that writing does not come easy either. I like to include pictures as often as I can. Not sure that pictures of me folding laundry, organizing and moving furniture would be that impressive, but I have been doing some of that around the house during this slower time when a lot of it gets left undone. I do not function in my home very well with a lot of clutter and when we have our busy times it seems that we accumulate a lot of that from people "dropping and going".

And the camp; well, our fiscal year ends here in September and all of our receipts and book work need to be turned over to our accountant for the camp in October. With the camp being booked up now until the end of the year, and already receiving phone calls for bookings into next year, last night we had our annual discussion about rental rates and possible increases. Needless to say, this year we lost a lot of kitchen supplies, bakeware, silverware, even dishes and have had to make decisions about how we will manage that in the next year. So, the administration of the day to day operations of the camp always keeps us thinking and on our toes trying to stay one or two steps ahead!

This Sunday we will be going out of town with Katherine & David to do the logistics for the medical clinics for a January 2010 medical team. This always helps to see an area and location ahead of time to keep us within budget for the team in transportation, meals, and necessary medical supplies, etc.

And one last thing, a dear friend of mine and faithful supporter back at our home church in N.C. recently told me about a game on Facebook called Bejeweled Blitz when I was home. I heard what she said, but haven't really had a lot of free time to check it out. This last week, I checked it out and found that it is a pretty fun game. While it is addicting, I sit down with a very specific time limit on how long I will play and then return to my "activities of daily living" (I've typed too many medical reports over the years). Since I live out of the U.S. I am not able to play in the Bejeweled Blitz Tournaments. Now depending on how well you know me, you might sense an underlying level of competitiveness in my spirit. That being said, I rallied Kyle, our son, to try the game. So, now we compete (I hate that word, sounds so wretched, bwahahahaha) against each other sending little "smack" messages to each other on Facebook! We have stooped so low as to play in different rooms of the house from each other and tease each other! It's fun and keeps us entertained down here and our life balanced as "sick"as that sounds.

On a physical note, I feel exhausted from lack of sleep. You know you are tired when you look forward to leaving the country to have your VISA stamped! We do that every three months (90 days) and while expensive to do, this is when we get optimal sleep in a hotel! Last night, not sure how it happened, but even with our front gate closed, we had two or three dogs in our garage growling at each other and carrying on and one of them was the beloved "Miss Kooky". She has taken up residence on our front porch at night and feels this is her territory to protect, I guess!
I'll end with a challenge! Try Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, just one round and leave a comment here and let me know what you think!

Blessings!

Team PBA-Part II

This was the second scorpion I saw on Chira Island. The first was in the shower stall and this was the second by the water tank. He didn't last long!

This was the church building and I am helping some of the other ladies set up their tents. When ours finally dried out the second day it found its way up to the stage in the church.

Here's one of the showers of two for 38 people for four days. There was no hot water, of course, but I didn't find it very cold since the temperatures were oppressive.

This was on Thursday in a medical clinic we did in Cartago, much closer to home, in a church. Even Jordan helped out in the pharmacy counting vitamins.

This is Tortuga Island, not the one from Pirate's of the Carribbean, sorry, but even so it was beautiful. We spent one day here with the team as their "free day" and they more than enjoyed laying around on the beach!

Back at Chira Island, this was the stove behind the church kitchen where our food was cooked for us.

This was a school we got into on Chira Island and did some children's ministry while the rest of the team was back at the clinic. We are working on some beaded bracelets.

This was in Cartago, not far from home, in the church's school room where we set up for children's ministry. Lots of kids and lots of fun.

A puppet show!

Ministry on Chira Island-Team PBA

Here is "most" of the team from Palm Beach Atlantic University sitting down for a meal at the camp, though there are a couple of empty spots on the benches. The team consisted of 30 pharmacy school students, two pharmacists and Dean Mary Ferrill, one of their teachers.

To get to Chira Island we got up and departed from the camp at 2:30 a.m. last Saturday morning, traveled four hours by bus to the port where we loaded down one boat with the mobile pharmacy, tents and children's ministry supplies. The other boat carried all of the team and their personal belongings. The boat ride was 45 minutes long to get to the port on the island.

Once there, we quickly loaded our belongings on to a truck off of the boats and then we loaded a school bus (the public transportation system for the island) to get to this church where we quickly got settled in and set up. This is the patient waiting area.

Here are some of the pharmacy students, Elizabeth on the left, Alba on the right standing in the tan shirt, Jason in the back checking patients in to the Triage area where they have their vital signs taken and wait to see a physician.

Here we have set up physician examining rooms, not quite like the States. Elizabeth is escorting the patient into a "consult room" to see the doctor on the patient's right, Dr. Manuel.

While the doctor's see patient's, outside more are lining up in the patient waiting area. To calm fears and to begin to prepare hearts, Laurence, Heather and Elizabeth are singing worship songs in Spanish.

While all of the above is going on, underneath a tree, the Gospel has been shared by Amir, second to the left in the red shirt to a couple of patients in the circle. Kyle (you can just see his blonde hair in the background) has interpreted Amir's message into Spanish. Some of the other students who are on the evangelistic team have joined in praying for these who are accepting the Lord.

We spent our nights on the island inside the church buildings in tents. Initially, our family wanted to sleep outside in the church yard. We got the tent all set up in the yard, sleeping bags inside, suitcases, pillows and went in the church's fellowship building to have dinner. However, during dinner, it began to pour outside. Ken jumped up to check on our tent and not only was there standing water inside, but it looked like a mud slide went through our tent. This is the next morning, our clothes hanging out to dry on the fence.

Children's ministry is always a challenge with mobile set ups. This is the next day after it rained and a group of the "guys" decided to play some soccer with the kids, puddles and all.

In this picture, the team brought down lots of hygiene items that had been donated to them; new toothbrushes, shampoo and perfume samples, trial-sized toothpaste, lotions and conditioners, Q-tips and just a slew of things. Here, we are filling lunch bags with some of these items for all the cooks and volunteers from the church who fed us our meals and helped us with support staff. Katie and I are giggling because the camera was not working properly when someone was trying to take this picture and this was the third attempt.