Our week and weekend have been full of "lasts". Don received his last paycheck on Friday. He worked his last day at work on Saturday. He drove to and from work for the last time. We went to church as a family one last time before he leaves. It has been a little tough and emotional.
We also heard that Don's aunt passed away on Saturday. She was almost like a grandma to him and our whole family was close to her. We know that she has now joined his dad in heaven and there is a rejoicing in that but it is still hard for those left behind. We feel bad for his uncle.
We do have an answered prayer to report. After many e-mails back and forth and even a phone conversation, our application for medical insurance was accepted on Thursday, August 28th. Just in time, since our other insurance was done on the 31st! We have learned that God's timing is perfect, never as early as we would like but He is never late! Thanks for praying. Please keep praying for the Swenson's house to sell. They have a really good prospect and hopefully something will happen this week! Again, the Lord's timing is perfect.
We have yet to start packing Don's truck. The basement is almost ready for the inspection on Wednesday so we have been working hard on that. We will get to the packing one of these days soon! We will try to post more often as we get closer to Don's departure and his travels through Mexico. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Google Map
We have gotten lots of questions regarding where we will be living these next seven months. Here is a link to the Google maps satellite view. The Ficker's home is the larger building. The dark rectangle at the back of their home is their Talapia pond. The dark circle at the back of their house is their trampoline. The clinic building (where we will be staying) is closer to the road and linked to the house with an angled sidewalk. If you pan back and look to the North, you will find the airport. If you look to the North and East, you will see the town of Canilla.
Google_Satellite_Map_Link
Here is what it looks like from the ground at sunset.
Google_Satellite_Map_Link
Here is what it looks like from the ground at sunset.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Clinic
We received an e-mail from Leslie, the missionary who runs the clinics that Don will help with. In her e-mail she had a list of some recent patients that she has seen. We wanted to share a few of them with you so you could pray and so you could get an idea of the needs of the people.
"Angelica is a young woman whose husband has been in the US for four years. She is pregnant now with another man's baby. The other man has a family and does not want to help her so she is alone. She is a quiet and gentle young woman and when I asked her about whether she was in the church, she answered that she had been but that now she could not be - that after the baby was born, she would return. Her guilt and remorse were so great and now she is alone and feels that she cannot return to God. Pray for her, that she will understand that He is waiting for her to call out to Him and return to Him. She came asking if we could take her baby when it is born and raise it as our own.
A little baby boy with pneumonia who needed to be in the hospital with oxygen and IV fluids at the very minimum. When I asked the mom if she could take him, if I could find a way to get him there, she told me of her husband who was drunk at home and would beat her if she asked him for money. What do you say to someone whose baby is dying and who has no one to help her and no where to turn? So I told her of a God who could see all that she was going through and understood; who could, in a moment, heal her baby and restore her family. She began to cry, big gulping sobs and as we prayed, I watched the baby's oxygen saturations rise to almost normal levels for the first time since he came in. Pray that her baby lives and that she sees it is the result of the power of a God who loves her.
Then came the skinny little baby - seven months old and barely 10 pounds with her pregnant sister and her obviously psychotic mom. I wanted to help her with food and milk but who would prepare it for her. The sister does not live with the mother and when I asked about the baby's father, she told me that yes, he would help. She called him in. He was drunk, the staggering, falling down kind of drunk. So who will care for this baby? No social service here....
I turned to see the next patient. A 2 year old with the worst malnutrition I have seen. She was swollen and covered with sores. Her mother had a new baby to care for so this child was carried in by her 6 year old sister. The baby cried listlessly, not having enough energy to cry lustily when I approached her. She had a fever and an ear infection so I gave her antibiotics and milk and vitamins and a protein drink and as she left the mom told me that she wanted to put her in the orphanage - that her father did not want to care for her anymore because she was always sick.
Then there was the mom in labor, whose baby was in distress and needed to go immediately to the hospital but she would not because she was treated so badly there 15 months ago when she had a C-section with her first baby. No where else to send her...
And the woman with the huge uterine tumor...no where to send her either.
And then the 90 others waiting to be seen. I am not qualified to care for them...I have nothing to offer except Jesus. I know He is more than enough. Pray that He would manifest His power and love in the form of the miracles that these people need: that they would know Him as a God who cares about their circumstances, who can deliver them, who wants to demonstrate His love." - Leslie Ficker, Adonai International Ministries
We really appreciate your prayers. Thanks for reading.
"Angelica is a young woman whose husband has been in the US for four years. She is pregnant now with another man's baby. The other man has a family and does not want to help her so she is alone. She is a quiet and gentle young woman and when I asked her about whether she was in the church, she answered that she had been but that now she could not be - that after the baby was born, she would return. Her guilt and remorse were so great and now she is alone and feels that she cannot return to God. Pray for her, that she will understand that He is waiting for her to call out to Him and return to Him. She came asking if we could take her baby when it is born and raise it as our own.
A little baby boy with pneumonia who needed to be in the hospital with oxygen and IV fluids at the very minimum. When I asked the mom if she could take him, if I could find a way to get him there, she told me of her husband who was drunk at home and would beat her if she asked him for money. What do you say to someone whose baby is dying and who has no one to help her and no where to turn? So I told her of a God who could see all that she was going through and understood; who could, in a moment, heal her baby and restore her family. She began to cry, big gulping sobs and as we prayed, I watched the baby's oxygen saturations rise to almost normal levels for the first time since he came in. Pray that her baby lives and that she sees it is the result of the power of a God who loves her.
Then came the skinny little baby - seven months old and barely 10 pounds with her pregnant sister and her obviously psychotic mom. I wanted to help her with food and milk but who would prepare it for her. The sister does not live with the mother and when I asked about the baby's father, she told me that yes, he would help. She called him in. He was drunk, the staggering, falling down kind of drunk. So who will care for this baby? No social service here....
I turned to see the next patient. A 2 year old with the worst malnutrition I have seen. She was swollen and covered with sores. Her mother had a new baby to care for so this child was carried in by her 6 year old sister. The baby cried listlessly, not having enough energy to cry lustily when I approached her. She had a fever and an ear infection so I gave her antibiotics and milk and vitamins and a protein drink and as she left the mom told me that she wanted to put her in the orphanage - that her father did not want to care for her anymore because she was always sick.
Then there was the mom in labor, whose baby was in distress and needed to go immediately to the hospital but she would not because she was treated so badly there 15 months ago when she had a C-section with her first baby. No where else to send her...
And the woman with the huge uterine tumor...no where to send her either.
And then the 90 others waiting to be seen. I am not qualified to care for them...I have nothing to offer except Jesus. I know He is more than enough. Pray that He would manifest His power and love in the form of the miracles that these people need: that they would know Him as a God who cares about their circumstances, who can deliver them, who wants to demonstrate His love." - Leslie Ficker, Adonai International Ministries
We really appreciate your prayers. Thanks for reading.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Prayer Requests
We have a couple specific prayer requests that we wanted to share with you. If you think of us would you pray? We strongly believe in the power of prayer and trust in the Lord to hear our requests and answer. The answer may not be as we expected or desired but we believe that He hears and answers according to His plan and purposes that He has for us.
Our first prayer request is for the family who will be living in our house, the Swensons. When we first heard the Lord's call to go to Guatemala for a longer period of time, my first hesitation was "what will we do with our house?" We had returned from Guatemala in November. In January, I was at a homeschool PE class talking to a mom new to our group (Susan Swenson) and was telling her about a possible 6 month, or more, trip for our family to Guatemala. I told her that I had no idea what we would do with our house. Her response was "we'll live in it." As a simple as that, the Lord confirmed our trip back to Guatemala.
The Swensons live in Fremont, NE but had purchased a family business closer to where we live. (Click here for their website.) They would like to live closer to their business but aren't yet ready to buy another home. Living in our home would help them decide where they want to live. It seemed that this would be a blessing to both of us. This leads us to the prayer request for them. The Swensons have their house for sale in Fremont and need for it to sell before we leave. Otherwise, the situation becomes for them a burden instead of a blessing. Will you please join us in prayer that their house would sell? We feel that the Lord has orchestrated this situation and we trust Him to take care of it. However, just as we, as parents, want our children to come to us and ask, the Lord also desires for us to humble ourselves and seek Him.
Our next prayer request is for our medical insurance. We applied last Saturday for insurance with a company that specializes in insurance for missionaries. We have heard from them that they need more info on a health issue that happened with Don about 8 years ago. Thankfully, he had gone to the emergency room at the hospital where he works so requesting medical records was not that difficult. However, it is a big hospital and it may take some time for the information to reach the underwriters. We need to have insurance as of September 1st. Would you pray that we are approved and everything is in place well in advance of Don leaving for Mexico?
We would also appreciate prayers for some other "little" issues that we are dealing with. We would like to have our basement finished in two weeks so that we have two weeks to focus on family time, packing etc. before Don leaves. We have trim, flooring, and plumbing in the bathroom and kitchen remaining. We are still battling nighttime potty training with Samuel. We would really appreciate the Lord's wisdom in this situation. The Lord has been so faithful with financial provisions for this trip; however, based on our "budget" numbers, we are still a little short of raising all of the funds that we will need. Please pray for places where we can cut unnecessary amounts in our budget as well as His continued provision to cover the amounts that can't change. Thank you so much for your prayers! Supporting in this way is of far greater worth to us than anything else. Blessings to you and your family. Thanks for reading!
Our first prayer request is for the family who will be living in our house, the Swensons. When we first heard the Lord's call to go to Guatemala for a longer period of time, my first hesitation was "what will we do with our house?" We had returned from Guatemala in November. In January, I was at a homeschool PE class talking to a mom new to our group (Susan Swenson) and was telling her about a possible 6 month, or more, trip for our family to Guatemala. I told her that I had no idea what we would do with our house. Her response was "we'll live in it." As a simple as that, the Lord confirmed our trip back to Guatemala.
The Swensons live in Fremont, NE but had purchased a family business closer to where we live. (Click here for their website.) They would like to live closer to their business but aren't yet ready to buy another home. Living in our home would help them decide where they want to live. It seemed that this would be a blessing to both of us. This leads us to the prayer request for them. The Swensons have their house for sale in Fremont and need for it to sell before we leave. Otherwise, the situation becomes for them a burden instead of a blessing. Will you please join us in prayer that their house would sell? We feel that the Lord has orchestrated this situation and we trust Him to take care of it. However, just as we, as parents, want our children to come to us and ask, the Lord also desires for us to humble ourselves and seek Him.
Our next prayer request is for our medical insurance. We applied last Saturday for insurance with a company that specializes in insurance for missionaries. We have heard from them that they need more info on a health issue that happened with Don about 8 years ago. Thankfully, he had gone to the emergency room at the hospital where he works so requesting medical records was not that difficult. However, it is a big hospital and it may take some time for the information to reach the underwriters. We need to have insurance as of September 1st. Would you pray that we are approved and everything is in place well in advance of Don leaving for Mexico?
We would also appreciate prayers for some other "little" issues that we are dealing with. We would like to have our basement finished in two weeks so that we have two weeks to focus on family time, packing etc. before Don leaves. We have trim, flooring, and plumbing in the bathroom and kitchen remaining. We are still battling nighttime potty training with Samuel. We would really appreciate the Lord's wisdom in this situation. The Lord has been so faithful with financial provisions for this trip; however, based on our "budget" numbers, we are still a little short of raising all of the funds that we will need. Please pray for places where we can cut unnecessary amounts in our budget as well as His continued provision to cover the amounts that can't change. Thank you so much for your prayers! Supporting in this way is of far greater worth to us than anything else. Blessings to you and your family. Thanks for reading!
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