We are ALL home!

The remainder of our team made it home this morning during worship. There were many happy reunions! Thank you for your prayers this week! The were answered! A few more pictures will be posted here as soon as we recover a little, and we may even keep the site active to post ongoing news about our work with the Jose Dolores congregation. Check back soon!

Travel Update

Well, here's the scoop........ We are safely in Houston and happy to be on U.S. soil (except for Dr. John who currently doesn't like the United States since he was detained by customs). Eleven of us are coming home this evening and the rest tomorrow morning. The group staying will be given hotel and dining vouchers.

John, Dale, Steve, Patti, Dana, Mike and Martha Ellen, Monica, Betsy, Eugene and Jimmy are arriving at the Nashville airport around 5:15 p.m. and Jerry Duff, our knight in shining armor, is coming to our rescue.

Everyone else is coming home tomorrow morning, except for Terry and Sue who are in Honduras visiting Chad and Shelly. The morning crew will arrive at the airport around 9 a.m., and will arrive at Greenwood Park during morning worship (10:30-11:00). Be sure to give them a grand homecoming because they're really dissappointed to not be home with their families tonight. We're sad to be broken up right now. We started this as a team and we wanted to finish the same way. Please continue your prayers for our safe travel. We can't wait to see you all!

Okay, start praying!

Well, we hit our first real snag. We are sitting in the Managua airport and our flight is delayed. They have told us that there is no way we will make our connecting flight in Houston. They have also said they are trying to ticket 10 of us to Nashville on a later flight, but they have not told us who. We are praying here in Managua. Please pray for us back home, too. Pray that we make it home safely, and preferably all of us today. We look forward to seeing you! Love to you all!

Thursday with la iglesia de Cristo Jose Dolores

Please forgive the delay in updating, but we haven't spent much time at the hotel in the last two days. Thursday was our last official work day with the church. The day started on a happy note. Karen and Virginia were so heartbroken that we were out of most of the giveaways for the children. That is until Dr. John brought an entire suitcase of adorable children's gift bags. God truly does provide. The ladies were able to rework the bags around to have enough gifts for every child that came to the clinic, as well as the children in the church.

Benny Baker was also in town staying at our hotel waiting for a mission group to come to Nicaragua to work with the ministry to churches of Christ he organizes. He was able to come to our work site and observe and encourage us.

The medical team continued business as usual, just with fewer patients. We still saw a good number, but the traffic flow was much less, which allowed for some much-needed lighthearted moments (or just downright silliness, depending on how you look at it.) Some of the ladies decided to sport matching pigtail hair-dos. Several of us got to try our hand at making homemade tortillas. Some did better than others, right Dr. John? Even the construction crew had a little time to breathe.

The construction crew finished the "upper room" at the church this afternoon, including painting it inside and out. The only thing they were unable to do is tile the floor because they ran out of time. At the end of the day, several stayed behind to undertake a little project above and beyond their call of duty. Garry, Steve, Eugene and Jimmy built a wonderful new bookcase to house the books and Sunday school supplies we brought for the children at la iglesia de Cristo.

Evening brought the farewell party with the entire congregation. We had pizza and spent the night visiting. We all sat in a giant circle in the courtyard singing, praying and taking turns sharing our thoughts about the week and thanking each other for all that was done. Above all, the theme was that what we did was for the Lord. This party resembled the last night of camp each year at Taylor Christian Camp. There were lots of sentimentalities expressed, an enormous amount of hugs shared and many tears shed. We laid out all the cards, pictures and photos of the children at Greenwood Park to share with the congregation. They loved seeing our beautiful children and reading the sunshine cards and notes that were written.

The evening culminated with everybody climbing the stairs in the dark to the newly finished classroom and the light being turned on to reveal the beautiful room and the beautiful new library.

The young lady we have been purchasing jewelry from all week wanted to take a picture with all the ladies because we collected money (of course a few of the men pitched in, too) and raised enough to buy her and her son a box spring and mattress set and some sheets. They were sleeping on the equivelent of a crude hammock stretched between four bed posts. She was so very grateful.

We will post pictures of our Friday adventure to a local national park to see the volcano, as well as a great lunch and a little shopping trip soon. For now, please know that we are looking forward to coming home to all of you tomorrow afternoon. We have to be in the hotel lobby at 4:15, so it's time to wrap this up. Love to you all!

What has the team been up to?

Monica has been locked in our pharmacy for a few days now, and is doing a fabulous job. Today she was crying because Dr. John had to drain an abcess on a baby's leg and the baby just cried and cried.









Usually if there is a picture of Jimmy, he is climbing on top of something, but he was holding this baby last night and today he was helping a little girl put barrettes in her hair.





It's hard to catch a picture of Mike because he's been on the go so much. He gets sent to local pharmacies for supplies, stores for chocolate and hardware stores for paint. When he's not looking a little stressed and helping us have all we need to get our jobs done, he can be seen talking to the locals and playing with children. Garry has been working hard with the crew upstairs and Karen is sad because we are out of teddy bears an dthe kids keep asking for them. Today she was singing songs with them. They had no idea what she was saying, but they were laughing at her anyway!

Dulce has been Patti's personal interpreter. She loves the little children and got to hold several small babies today. This one was only 5 days old. She also spent her lunch break brokersing our jewelry deals. Patti is keeping very busy with lots of kiddos, ans she enjoyed the babies today.








Melody and Dana have gotten so good at being pharmacy techs, you wouldn't know they hadn't gone to pharmacy school themselves.





When Steve is not working hard on the construction project, he's snapping pictures.










Sue is the best post-triage waiting room nazi ever. She keeps them in line, in order and moving along.

Mike got to play with putty today. I think they eventually got him a putty knife. Then I think they took it away.

Martha Ellen has been amazing. She has walpapered two whole walls of the church building with colored pictures from the kids and has been helping them trace their hands.

Vivian has been working hard at triage without a single complaint. Today after we had triaged everybody before lunch, she put on her practicioner hat and started seeing patients with the doctors so they could get finished up for lunch.

Mary has been doing the other half of triage. The doctors said they were doing such a good job, he could already tell what was wrong with most of the patients before they ever spoke to them based on what the triage nurses wrote.

Dana has taken so many blood pressures in pre-triage her ears feel bruised. She was also very taken today with this little woman. She is 100 years old and in great shape. She was just being seen for arthritis.

John and Dale were caught today catching a little rest after lunch. It's much cooler upstairs, so that's the best spot to take a break.

Tim has been locked in the farmacia for a few days, also. Today we let him out for lunch and he spent much of his lunch break playing with this little boy. They were scaring each other with rubber insects.

Betsy will have a medical degree by the time she gets home. She has been seeing minor medical problems with occasional physician consultation and has been dressing lots of wounds. Today she caught a little boy with Hepititis, which Patti confirmed.

Virginia has been doing such a good job helping pass out the goodie bags and toys to children. Today she had them all laughing catching the bubbles she blew.

Eugene has been working hard with the construction crew. He seems to be incredibly resourceful.

The end of another day....time to head back to the hotel for showers.


Terry wasn't in many pictures today because he was off buying paint and supplies. But, he is working very hard, and was "so thrilled" to be painting today.

There were three more baptisms at church last night! Praise God! There have been so many local brothers and sisters studying with the people here. They are so passionate about teaching the gospel, it's no wonder they are adding new Christians!

Lots of children

What would you say makes a large family? 6 children? Maybe 10 children? Seventy years in the United States it wasn't uncommon for families to have 12 children. Well, see the little lady in red in this picture? These are four of her children. Four of her 25 children! They are all hers, including 4 sets of twins. She has given birth 21 times! Our ladies were all amazed and told her how brave she was and how we thought she was quite a woman, but she didn't seem to think it was any big deal. Can you imagine how hard it must be to feed and clothe 25 children in Latin America?

Today was another long day. It flowed much more smoothly than yesterday, but there were definitely more people. Yesterday we saw 217 people at the clinic. Today, John saw more than 120 by himself. (He speaks to his patients as much as he can in Spanish and doesn't just rely on hi interpreter.....very impressive!) We're guessing we saw 270 or so today. We'll let you know when we get the final count. Today was very busy, but relatively uneventful. There are a few highlights to share.

This morning, a mother and two daughters from Idaho that are staying at our hotel asked if they could come with us and help because they all speak fluent Spanish. They were here at the end of their own mission trip. We were glad to have their help.


There seemed to be much more Bible studying going on today. Members from the Jose Dolores congregation, as well as other area congregations have been studying with the people as they wait for medical attention.

Our construction crew now has all four walls and the roof on the second story of the building. It looks great. Although their local foreman doesn't speak English, they work like they've been together for years. Some of our crew makes us a little nervous when we hear a loud thud on the tin roof and look up to find them climbing rails and balancing on beams. They're holding up well. (Fran, Dale is doing a great job! He did have some tylenol today though.) Their area is actually cooler than the downstairs because they have a breeze.

One of the Chavez's relatives that lives across from the church makes jewelry to sell to pay her rent. It is very inexpensive, and Dulce has been our broker helping us place orders and get prices. The jewelry we are buying will make her rent for a month or two. She pays 500 Cordovas a month (about $25) to rent a small room for her and her child.

Some of you may know Jonas's daughter Shari. She brought her boyfriend by today to meet us. All our ladies were making a fuss over how she was special and she needed to be treated well. He was born here, but moved to Maryland when he was little. He came here to visit and decided to move here. (Our ladies all thought he was very handsome, too!)

Our interpretors have been so amazing. Today we had eight. They work as hard as we do and are also great company. Also, Brenda and the ladies that cook our lunch work from in the morning when we get there cooking outside over hot coals to make us incredible meals. They pull out fabric table cloths and treat us very well. Then it takes them much of the afternoon to clean up. They definitely work as hard as we do!

Hopefully we will have more good news for you after the campaign tonight. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers! We love to get your messages, too!

Wow! What a day!

We had a very long day today, so this may be a very short post. We arrived at our clinic this morning and set up our stations. Registration and triage was in the church building, doctors were in "booths" under the overhang ourside, the pharmacy is in the classroom area behind the church building, and in prizes and hygene items were handed out in the courtyard. Martha Ellen also did a great job keeping the children occupied in the waiting area with crayons and hugs.

Ministers from local churches of Christ were on hand today studying the Bible with patients. Brenda Chavez and her family cooked us a wonderful lunch. The construction crew was able to get the roof on the second story of the classroom buiding, as well as most of one wall. We were very productive today, but it was also a day to work some kinks out for the next few days.

Probably our greatest struggle today was finding a way to make the pharmacy more efficient. In the morning, it became very backed up, but over lunch we restructured a little and it ran much, much smoother. Tim and Monica deserve very big pats on the back. They worked without breaks today, and by the time we started seeing patients again after lunch, they barely finished the morning's patients, so they only got to eat a quick bite standing up while working.

We saw roughly 220 patients today. One of the saddest cases we saw today was a woman with this leg wound. Dr. Adams called it Elephantitis with a secondary bacterial infection. He said it would be hard to treat even at home. We dressed it for her and told her to come back tomorrow to have the dressings changed.

Tonight, we attended worship again where a very dynamic speaker presented a lesson about Peter waling on the water to Jesus. He told the audience of about 200 that Jesus could reach out and take your hand right now just like He took Peter's and save you also. And he did exactly that for TWO MORE NEW CHRISTIANS! Yay! There were two more baptisms tonight, totaling 6 we have witnessed this week.

The tickets for tomorrow's clinic were passed out tonight and, although there were not quite as many distributed, we still expect tobe very busy tomorrow.

Buenas Noches!

Tonight we attended the worship service/gospel campaign at the church. This morning, we sat inside, but tonight there were too many people. The chairs were set up in the courtyard outside the building, and though they weren't all full at the beginning, as the service went on, they filled and more and more were added. There were 260 people present tonight. The gospel was preached and the plan of salvation taught. There was one response and at the end of the service, there was another baptism. You have another new brother in Christ! After the service, the visitors all raised their hands and were given tickets with numbers that they could bring to the clinic tomorrow to be seen. In order for them to attend the clinic and see a doctor, they had to sit through the gospel meeting. We got back to the hotel late tonight and waited quite a while for dinner. The pharmacy was stocked and organized this afternoon, but tomorrow is going to be a very early morning becuase we have to arrive early to set up the stations for the first day. So, good night from Managua!

Buenas Tardes!

We had a wonderful worship experience this morning. We were welcomed with open arms, hugs, handshakes and smiles. There were many happy reunions for those who have been here before on trips. We sang in Spanish, and Terry Lofton led singing in English for those of us who only know that language. He, of course, implored us to sing out and not leave him hanging since he was the one standing alone in the front of the audience. The congregation had prepared a song for us which they sang in Spanish and English. It involved shaking hands and hugging during the song. Hugo Rivera, the minister, delivered a great lesson this morning and Gary Hall from Baxter translated it for us. Hugo and his wife Velasqua (sp?) have a two-year-old sone named Sanders and are expecting a little girl in a few months.

At the end of our assembly, members were called by name and given instructions to go in pairs and take one of us with them to canvas aq six block radius around the church building giving out Bibles and invitations to the gospel meeting this week, as well as the medical clinic. So, we hit the streets. Jonas explained that while there were 400 people at the assembly we attended last night, there were only 23 visitors. He said that even though this congregation is much smaller, we will have MANY more vistors to minister to in the next few days. Afterward, we came back to the building for water and shade, and another young man was baptized. Praise God!

We went to the local mall for lunch. There was a food court with some familiar restaurants and some not-so-familiar ones. Burger King and Subway got a pretty good bit of business from us today and many opted for ice cream fo dessert. Who could blame us when we're wearing church clothes in Taylor Christian Camp heat? The fact that two scoops of ice cream in a waffle bowl was less than $1.00? We were able to hang out at the mall for about an hour while we waited for Jonas to come back. During this time, many of us were able to make phone calls from a store of phone booths. A 10-minute call was about $1.50. This is super cheap!

After we left the mall, we drove to a historic part of downtown Managua where the presidential home is located, as well as a beautiful old Catholic cathedral. The cathedral hasn't been used since it sustained damage in the 1972 earthquake. There were children at the historic area willing to sell you flowers and other shapes they make from reeds while you are there.

Our pharmacists are setting up their drugs this afternoon, while the rest of us hang out at the hotel fo a little rest. This evening, we will return to the church for worship at 6:00.