Psalm 25:5 Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long

 Psalm 25:5

“Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.”

Okay LORD.  Now what?

I’ve just returned from a medical mission trip to Guatemala.  My husband and I have been going yearly for the last seven years.  The team includes medical providers, a pharmacy, a dental team, nurses, van drivers, and interpreters.  The medical team, with all the supplies, fits into four vans.  We stay at a church hostel in the city of Quetzaltenango and drive to five outlying villages during the week of our mission.

The villages we visit have been selected by a pastor/doctor in Quetzaltenango who is in contact with our mission director.  When we arrive at the village, we often times set up our mobile clinic in an available school.  In Guatemala, the schoolrooms are usually arranged around an open courtyard.

During the clinics, the people we serve go to various classrooms where they will find:  the Registration Station, the Intake Station, Medical Providers, the Pharmacy, Nursing and then Dental.  It can be challenging to channel hundreds of local people to their needed stations and difficult for the stations to coordinate services.

If there are people with medical issues that cannot be aided by our team, they are referred to a specialist.  The pastor/doctor from Quetzaltenango sets up the appointment with the specialist and arranges any transportation needed by the patient.  This is all free of charge.

I am an interpreter.  I love speaking Spanish, interacting with the local people and helping the team and the patients to connect.  I have worked with the nurses, with the medical providers and even in crowd control.

This year, in each of the five villages we visited, we did not need to set up the clinic in separate classrooms.  In each case, we were given the use of a large auditorium-like room.  There was much less confusion for the people we served because they could see their next station, be it Medical Providers, Nurses or Pharmacy.  It was much easier for the stations to communicate with each other, also.

While surveying the action in the busy auditoriums, it struck me how the team was working together as one.  We weren’t puzzled, exasperated, uninformed stations struggling on our own.  Nursing or Pharmacy.  Medical Provider or Registration.  We were one.  It was a short mental leap for me to go on.  Patient or Doctor.  Guatemalan or North American.  Old or young.  “Happy my blood sugar level is good” or “I need a referral for the lump in my breast.”  We are all one.  All dependent on the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life.  And I could clearly see God is good.

Now, back in the U.S.A., I admit I feel a bit aimless.  However, I wait upon Him, the Three in One, for my next adventure. 

I am one of the bloggers for the Joy International blog!  That blog site can be found at http://www.joyintl.org/web/columnid/6412/articles.asp

Psalm 118:24

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad!

I haven't heard back recently from the folks who interviewed me for the social work job in Williston.  They did contact me once to say they had received my online application.  One of my references told me they had called.  What he told them will be tough to "make so."  He said I walk on water!!!  Hoo Ha the kind people in my life!  I know I trust the LORD for what comes of the interview.  I also know I don't wait very well.  Dear LORD give me patience.  Right now.

I indulged in my passion for geocaching the other day.  I found the two caches I sought in the wilds near the Missouri River.  Who a thought there would be so many burrs along a river???  My brand new tankini will never be the same.  I suppose I can work those pulled threads back in, if I really try.  Finding the caches was a blast.  The treasure of that day was being nearby when a pair of Canadian geese and their two half-grown babies slipped into the river.  That's living!

Today I broke down and began washing clothes in preparation for our annual trip to Guatemala with the medical team sponsored by the Episcopal Church from Fargo.  This will be my hubby's seventh trip and my fourth.  I was a no-show one year when I fell with my motorcycle and broke my back.  That's another story.  Then a couple of times I stayed home because I did not feel needed.

The team this year consists of 22 people acting in the roles of medical providers, nurses, pharmacology students, dental students and interpreters.  We are a clinic on wheels; namely two vans.  We are based in Xela, Guatemala and travel to five surrounding villages to provide medical care, medicine, vitamins, physical therapy, dental care and fluoride treatments.  In past years we have served approximately 2000 people with medical needs.

This will be my final post until I get back.  I will keep a diary and share what develops.  I will be acting as an interpreter and may help with crowd control.  Whoop whoop!

Let's return to Habitat for Humanity training, 06-13-90

Oh I like strolling to devotions, chatting and drinking coffee!  I love it!

C.S. is so supportive and interesting and full of life.  She says the Honduras have 30 Habitat for Humanity projects.  It appears that Bolivia is beautiful and pristine, the people work hard, and it is not urban like we think of urban.

I'm attracted to Bolivia having no malaria.  Really. We could cope with the cold. 60 - 30 degrees F.  Really.

I'm intrigued.

I love the people in my class.

06-15-90

Totally aggravated.  Despite my early morning mothering efforts, the kids were not merry and gay when I left for devotions.

They just don't like to see me go?  They are sick of the whole routine?  I'm making it worse than it is?

I'm looking forward to being truly settled Somewhere.  Our little family with people coming and going and getting to know the locals and maybe even building a house.  Or two.

I could be wrong, but other people in the class look a little peeved too.