Happy Anniversay

Today if Joe and my 14th anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to the best husband and friend any girl could ever have!  We have had some amazing adventures and hopefully that will continue.  Very blessed to have such an amazing, funny and loving family.

Prayer Needed

** Warning, this is a very honest post.  If you believe (and want to continue in your paradigm) missionaries are close to perfect, the picture of faith and incapable of questioning God's plan- DO NOT CONTINUE READING (I am smirking, but really we don't want to burst anyone's image of us)

I have a feeling that there will be lots of "prayer needed" post coming your way in the next few weeks, no months to come.  I'm not sure if it is spiritual warfare, trying times, or just life, but honestly things are hard right now.  We are tired from 2 years of work with almost no break, and emotionally spent trying to determine what path we should take next, where things are going with the hospital and how everything is going to get done with a quarter of the "human" resources we need- all the while appearing to "have it all together" and be a pillar of faith.  So... tired, yes we are tired.

Specific Prayer Request-
        God's leading for the direction of the hospital
        God to send Ecuadorian physicians to work at the hospital
        God's grace to cover all of us as we try to figure things out
        God's energy to continue on

Pray For US!

Please pray for us and the hospital as many things are changing here.  We will be leaving the last week of June for Ghana and won't return until January.  There will be many different short-term working visitor Family Practice (FP) physicians here while we are away, but no full-time FP docs.  We know our God is big and can do amazing things, but we need prayer.  The hospital is looking to hire 2 Ecuadorian FP doctors but so far we don't have any applicants.  We are praying that if God wants our hospital to continue that he will send national physicians to take over.  As it stands now, there will only be 3 FP doctors between now and August and then 2 between August and November and then only one doctor until we get back in January (now doesn't your job look good!)  We know this is God's work and we know he works in mysterious ways, but please pray for provision for the hospital and faith for us.

Isabella and School

Here is a link from Isabella's teacher's blog ( I think that was all grammatically correct).  She has a video of Bella's class reciting the entire chapter of Psalm 34.  Enjoy

http://jennifermkendrick.blogspot.com/2013/04/so-proud-of-my-1st-and-2nd-graders.html

40 is Old.... But Still Younger Than Others I Could Name....

Well I did it- I finally turned 40 and received the best present I could imagine.  Joe conspired with my parents and my nephew C.G. for a wonderful surprise visit.  We had such a great visit and hopefully they did too!  Here are just a few pictures.

Enjoying dinner in Cumbaya (yes, just like the song)

C.G. and Isabella  being "Quichua"

The guys at Pailon del Diablo

Grandma enjoying the Waterfall.

Cousin Time

My favorite picture of the trip.  This bridge was A LOT!! scarier to step down onto and walk across than it looked and the rope there is the middle came in handy when we were walking back up.

The waterfall from the other side.

Mom and Dad being "Quichua".

The famous bridge in Shell.

Family is the Best!

Copataza

Paul's Epistle in Achuar

It's hard to believe that we're already into March of (the not so new anymore) 2013.  It seems like only yesterday that we were coping with the New Year's crowd of patients in the hospital ER.  Since then we've made several trips into the jungle and one in particular was very satisfying.  I recently flew in to an Achuar community called Copataza.  It's about 30 minutes by air and fortunately the weather was cooperating so it was an uneventful flight.  It had been my first time to Copataza and we were going to be there 2 days in order to examine the kids sponsored by Compassion and to see any others that had any kind of medical problem.  We've been doing these caravans for about 8 months now and this was one of the first communities that had its own church.

Copataza's pastor, Pedro Vargas

Pedro has been the pastor in Copataza for several years now and what's more important is that he's actually from the community and very burdened for the hearts of his people.  He has a new church building (where we set up our tents) and is able to hold services at least twice a week.  In addition to being the pastor he's the father of eight girls - talk about being busy!

 

This is what keeps Pedro busy

Interior of the church

Some much needed help.

We were able to see over a hundred people including 80 to 90 kids.  Fortunately the kids were for the most part, fairly healthy.  They all got antiparasite medicine and many received vitamins to combat malnutrition.  We did see a child with a forearm fracture that had occured right outside of the community hut where we were seeing patients.  He had been climbing trees with his friends and had fallen.  He was only four years old and in obvious pain.  Taking a page out of a first aid book, we were able to use some small sticks to stabilize his arm until he

 could be flown out.  We had 
equipment to deal with lacerations and abscesses but not fractures.  Soon he was off and we were able to see the others that were there.  Overall it was a great time and we were able to see how the Lord was actively working here. As you remember us, please keep Pedro and his family in your prayers as he continues his ministry to Copataza and many of it's surrounding communities. - Joe

Making Plans and Freaking Out

Ok, so maybe we aren't freaking out, but that is only because we are constantly reminding each other that God is in control and everything will work out.  So, onto the point of this whole post.  We get to come home this summer- YEAH, but that comes with lots of planning.  Planning to get our house situated here, planning to get all of our jobs turned over to someone else, planning so we don't have to walk everywhere we go in the states and planning so we have a place to sleep without pitching a tent while there (I am not a huge fan of camping and sometimes I feel like my whole life is like camping.)

So, here is where the audience particiapation comes in-  please join us in praying for our HMA (Home Missionary Assignment).  The last HMA we had was amazing.  First Baptist Church of Round Rock (where my parents attend) has a mission house we were able to live it and it was amazing (although I think I already used that adjective)- only 10 minutes from my parents house (yeah from the kids), and only 5 minutes from Papa Murphy's (our favorite meal of the summer of 2011).  Unfortunately the house was already booked for the time we will be in the USA.  We were also blessed the last HMA with my grandfathers old car which my parents lovingly provided.   Being the Good Samaaratins they are, the car has since found a very needed home.  So, as God likes to do, He has brought us to a place where we have to be prayful and have faith.

              Please pray:
                            - that we can find a place to live from August to January (preferably in the Waco area.) While we love our friends and family, honestly it is very difficult as a family to live with others.  It would really be a blessing to visit friends and family but then have a "home" to get away to and have private family time. 
                            - that we can have a dependable car to drive for that same time.  We will need to travel a lot to see friends (some with new big amazing houses-but I'm not jealous) and family all over the US who also happen to be amazing supporters of God's work here.
                           - that we remember that God already has this under control.  In the past 5 years He has provided for us so far beyond what we could imagine that we wait patiently to see what he has planned this time. 
                           -that we will finish well here.  Honestly we are tired and ready for a break, but we know that it is important to do our jobs just as well in the last few months as we did in the first- but without the excitement of the first few months, it can get difficult to give everything all the time.