Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Double-minded

We have been home almost 2 weeks now and we are still in this time of transition. I have discovered that life continued on here while we were in Guatemala. I knew that it would but have found that many of the things that I did or was involved in before we left, no longer have room for me. I have this "double-minded" thing going on in that I feel relief that there are no expectations of me yet I feel grief that I am no longer serving. The first chapter of James talks about being double-minded. James describes it as someone who has doubt and is "like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." (James 1:6) He also calls the double-minded "unstable". I feel like I can't find my place and am being "tossed" about by the instability of my emotions.

Don has been diligently searching for a job. He has had two weeks of first interviews, phone interviews, second interviews, shadowing and more interviews. There are three jobs that are calling and seeking more information. It is all good but we feel like we are being tossed from one option to another. Which is the right option?

We are also praying about selling our house. We would like to get out from under our mortgage yet we have an attachment to our house. We have taken the kids to look at a couple different homes that we could buy if we sold our house. The kids are also feeling this "tossed about" feeling so we have decided we need to slow down a little and allow them some time to adjust.

All of us feel like we left pieces of ourselves in Guatemala. We are happy to be home yet we feel sad that we aren't there. It is such an odd feeling of "where do we belong?"

We have no doubt of the Lord's provision and we have no doubt that the Lord has a plan for us. We just can't see it. James says "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" James 1:5. We are counting on the fact that the Lord will reveal His wisdom to us in His perfect timing and all the pieces will fit together. We are praying for a clear, straight path. We know that He has a purpose for us and that we just need to take the time to listen for His voice.

We know that many of you have your own struggles that you are dealing with right now. We pray that you will find your comfort, your strength and your provision in the Lord. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." II Corinthians 1:3-4

Friday, April 17, 2009

We are home!

We are exhausted, unorganized and overwhelmed but we are home. Our long flying day on Wednesday went really well. All of our 11 bags were 50 lbs. or less. We sailed through customs etc. and all three of our flights were on-time or even early. We were excited to sleep in our own beds but I woke up thinking I was in Canilla and someone was whistling at the gate! Today I woke up thinking Don had clinic this morning and I needed to get up and make breakfast. Then I remembered I was in NE and I fell back asleep! We are trying to get things put away and get laundry done etc. We plan on publishing an April newsletter soon. Thanks for your support and your prayers!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Our Last Days

We have three days left on this trip. We will spend today packing, cleaning and finishing some things up. Tomorrow Duane will fly us to Guatemala City (in two flights) where we will check into our favorite hotel and order pizza! Wednesday morning we will be at the airport bright and early for our flight to the U.S.

We will be giving this second borrowed computer back to the Fickers later today so this will be our last posting until we are back home. Thanks for reading and joining us in this adventure. We are unsure what the future holds for us but we know that we can trust the One who holds our future. We pray that you are trusting in Him as well. He has a plan and a purpose for you and He holds you in the palm of His hand. Blessings to you!

Easter

This year, we celebrated Easter with the Ficker family. Our Easter started off normal enough. Bethany and Hannah helped to hide Easter eggs for Sam, Gracie, and Abi. Here are pictures of the eggs being hidden and looked for.



After all the eggs were found, the scavenger hunt began. This being our first "Ficker Family Easter Scavenger Hunt", we weren't sure what to expect. There were three teams. Aaron, Katie, and Joe were on the first team. David, Rachel, and Adrienne on the second team. Our family made up the third team. Our clues took us all over and around the town of Canilla (and at times a little beyond!). From out in among the trees to the airport hanger and even under a bridge, the adventure took up most of the afternoon. Here are several shots of the search for more clues.




Easter baskets were the reward for all who completed the activities (even those who came in last, i.e. us). Turkey dinner followed - we were all stuffed! The day ended with the kids swimming in the pond (and a little more chocolate). It was fun to be able to share in this tradition with the Ficker's. We are really going to miss being down here with them.

Our Last Day at the Home

This last Thursday was our last trip to the home for this trip. Dena Stromstead was there hosting a team from Grove City College. There was lots going on there and it was a little overwhelming. Most of the guys on the team were tearing down an old piece of playground equipment that was falling down. Other members of the team were coloring with the kids and there were even guitar lessons. That afternoon, the pools were brought out - one of the kid's favorite activities. It was good to see Dena again and get to spend some time with her. Here is a picture of the 'deconstruction' on the playground.

Bethany was in charge of taking pictures on our last day. Most of the pictures taken ended up being her first attempts of artistic photography. Here are a few of the black & white photos she took of her little brother.


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Last Clinic

Since this week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), all the normal clinics were cancelled. They decided to schedule a clinic in San Pedro yesterday. They had several extra people to help out including a dentist from Guatemala City, Dr. Sherwood Pope from Quiche and two medical students who are serving with him. This made for about 8 people total (excluding Duane) which means 3 flights with one extra seat. Leslie asked if I would want to go with to see San Pedro. I didn't want to leave our kids for the whole day so they let me go on the first flight and then fly back when Duane returned to get the third flight. It was so incredible! The view from the plane was amazing. Don warned me that the runway would not be visible for those of us not trained to notice such things and he was right. The runway was a bumpy, obscure strip of grass but it was incredible to land in such a place. As we were landing, the people (mostly kids) were all lined up along the runway. They were so excited to see the plane come in, it made me giggle as I watched them wave and point. Once the plane stopped they ran over to help haul our stuff. Here is the plane taking off to get the next load.

A common treat around here are "helados". For those of you who know any Spanish, this translates as ice cream. However, here it also means popsicles. They make a flavored, sugared liquid (either based in water or milk) and put it into little baggies to be frozen. Since there is no electricity in San Pedro they do not have helados there. Given the fact that it is hot there plus the Fickers have a lot of extra milk, Duane wanted to make helados to take to the kids in San Pedro. Distributing them was going to be my job! It was so much fun! Here are a couple cute boys with their helados.


Once I had helped Leslie set up some of the medicine, distributed my helados and played with some of the little boys, I headed outside to listen for the plane. I wasn't sure I could find my way back to the runway. There was no reason to fear because as soon as the kids could hear the plane, they ran back to the runway to watch Duane land again. I just followed the crowd. The second load included Katie, Don and Craig. -Lori

Stepping off the plane, I was greeted by lots of kids and my smiling wife (empty cooler in hand). It was a good day for a popsicle - it was hot! I was sweating in the jungle heat before I even started my walk to clinic. Here is a picture of a few of the kids surrounding Katie as we made our way to the clinic building.

Here is a picture of Dr. Sherwood Pope and his medical students seeing patients. About 250 patients were seen in the medical clinic by the end of the day.

With all the extra help, I didn't have my normal clinic duties. Dr. Pedro had come to Canilla with his church El Shaddai earlier this year (see our post from Feb. 8). I acted as his assistant for the day. I loaded syringes, washed instruments, handed out meds and all sorts of other cool stuff. With very little health education and an abundance of sugar cane, there was a lot of work to be done by a dentist. With the limitations of a fly-in clinic and the severity of decay, tooth extractions were the work of the day. We saw 68 patients and were still seeing patients when Duane flew back for us - the last flight out. In this first picture notice the young man holding the post behind his head while his dental work was being performed.

The squeamish shouldn't look too closely at the bag that I'm holding.

My favorite picture of the day is of this little boy not too sure about what was going on in the dentist's chair.

It was a fun, hard, exhausting day. It was also a little sad to think this will be my last time serving in Guatemala . . . on this trip anyway. -Don

Friday, April 3, 2009

Back to the Doctor

This last Wednesday, we drove back down to Guatemala City so that Hannah could see the doctor and have the cast removed. We left early and stopped at Panajachel for lunch and a little shopping. Pana is right on lake Atitlan and is absolutly beautiful. Here is a picture of Lori and the girls at the restaurant.

We stayed at the HOJO's in the city and arrived at the Doctor's office right at 9:00 Thursday morning. After the cast was cut off, we did a little grocery shopping and started our six hour drive back to Canilla. Here are pictures of the cast coming off.


Things are back to normal today and Hannah is right back in the mix. Right now, Hannah and Bethany are swimming in the pond. Something Hannah has been longing to do since our last trip to the city. Here is a picture from this morning. These three were pigs wallowing in the mud.



With less than two weeks to go, things seem to be moving even more quickly. This next Monday, we will hold another clinic in San Pedro and a week from Tuesday we will fly down to the city. My job search has begun. We are even starting to pack some of our bags. It is a mix of emotions - excitment to return to Omaha, but at the same time it is sad to leave.

We may not be able to post again for a while. We are having trouble with the computer that Katie is letting us borrow. Our laptop has been repaired, but is in a box back in the States - bummer.