El Pericon, Nicaragua 2015

This past week I had the privilege of being with the VanHulzen team serving the people of El Pericon. It was about a 6 hour bus ride north of Managua (the capital of Nicaragua) to get to the village. This was the first BMDMI team that I was able to go on this year and my first team with BMDMI doing ultrasound! I saw about 92 patients in 3 days this past week. One of the women was about 3 months pregnant with twins and she didn't know until the ultrasound that she was having twins! She was pretty surprised to say the least! The last pregnancy I had that week was pretty sad. She told me that she was 3-4 months pregnant but when I did her ultrasound her baby only measured 8 weeks and I couldn't find a heartbeat. I found one of the doctors and we told her that her baby died and to follow up at a health clinic if she doesn't have a miscarriage naturally. She didn't have much of a reaction at first but once she asked for prayer she started crying. We were able to pray with her and leave her in God's hands. One of the local pastors found her later on that afternoon and was able to take her to the hospital to be seen and taken care of. I didn't just see babies this week though. I did ultrasounds of the gallbladder, liver, veins to check for a DVT, uterus and ovaries. It was a busy week but so good! I look forward to growing in my Spanish to be able to talk more with the people I do get to see with ultrasound. I am also excited to see how God will grow and use this ministry for His Kingdom and glory!

My favorite testimony of the week though was one that Omar told us. One of the local men was in the hospital a few years ago and he was dying. He ended up having surgery on his head and, praise God, he lived. After he left the hospital he started praying that God would bring a medical team to his village to help his people. Once he started telling people that he was asking God to bring a medical team there, the people started mocking him. They told him that no North Americans would come there and they thought the surgery made him crazy. Well, we were the second medical team that came to that village! God worked through the prayers and faith of one man to change the lives of thousands! It was so humbling and encouraging to hear his testimony.

Here are some pictures from the week! :-) Enjoy!

"The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16

"La oracion del justo es ponderosa y eficaz." Santiago 5:16

 

Part of the beautiful view we had from the medical clinic!

This was where we had the medical clinic and pharmacy.

Ultrasound!

She has the most beautiful smile!

This was one of the medical students that was with us this past week. She, her fiancé and her friend are graduating in May and starting residency this summer! They will make amazing doctors!

My little corner of the room for ultrasound!

The other side of the room! They were doing pap smears and checking for signs of cervical cancer. They used cryo to treat any patients that showed signs of HPV.

Ambulance

Someone ran out of paper and started writing ultrasound referrals on tounge depressors!

Himself by A.B. Simpson

Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted, Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.

Once 'twas painful trying, Now 'tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost.
Once 'twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast;
Once 'twas constant drifting, Now my anchor's cast.

 

Once 'twas busy planning, Now 'tis trustful prayer;
Once 'twas anxious caring, Now He has the care.
Once 'twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says;
Once 'twas constant asking, Now 'tis ceaseless praise.

 

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;
Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.

 

Once I hoped in Jesus, Now I know He's mine;
Once my lamps were dying, Now they brightly shine.
Once for death I waited, Now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored, Safe within the vail.

Nicaragua :-)

"I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other." Isaiah 45:5-6

I have been thinking about what to write about all that God did in Nicaragua. This post won't include all of it but it's a start! :-) This year was my third time to Nicaragua. Every year I am amazed at the ways I see God. :-)

What do you do when your plans fail? This year God showed His Sovereignty and Power. As Emily and I were on our way to Nicaragua we got a call from the team leader saying that the rest of the team will be delayed until Monday, instead of arriving on Saturday with us. (Also, at this point, all of our cargo that was sent months before was still in customs and it didn't look like it was going to be relased.) We arrived in Nicaragua ontime and later that evening about 6 more people arrived. Out of a team of 50 or so we had 9 people. Monday morning arrived and we were all so excited to leave for the village, set up and wait for the rest of the team to arrive. However, once we were all packed and ready people started getting text messages saying there was a problem. All of us gathered in the main room to pray and pray and pray..then we got the final word...they weren't coming. So many things were running through my mind at this point. I didn't think we were going to the village. I mean, how could we? It was a medical and dental team and we didn't have any doctors in our group, they were all stuck in the states. There were only 9 North Americans and about 20 or so translators. How could we take care of thousands of people? Not too long after this the missionary in charge came in to ask if we were ready to go. "Go where?" I asked. "La Fundadora!" he said. We were heading to the village anyway, trusting God to provide everything the people in the village needed because He was the only one that could do it! We had a 6 hour bus ride to the village and once there we needed to set up the clinic to start seeing patients the next morning. In order to see patients, though, we needed some doctors. A few of the missionaries started calling around and visiting clinics to see if any doctors would be willing to help. In one day God provided 6-7 national Nicaraguan doctors, many of whom just got a moments notice! All they were offered was food to eat and a mat to sleep on the floor. We were able to see and treat all the people that came to the clinic that week! Most importantly we were able to share the love of Christ with them. It was evident to everyone that the glory belongs to God alone that week. We were small in number but God is big! We didn't have all our supplies, but God provides! During this week the team saw over 2,800 patients and during the 2 weeks I was in Nicaragua the teams had the privilage of seeing over 190 people come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior!

It's amazing to see the contrast in the two weeks. The first week we had a small number of people but the second week we had over 70 people on the team not including the translators. With the translators it was probably closer to 100. God can work in any and every situation!

Here are some numbers as to what God did during these two weeks:

5, 132 people seen in the medical clinics
over 9728 perscriptions filled
over 80 people seen in the dental clinic
109 women screened for cervical CA and 8 were treated
over 1174 animals treated through the vet ministry
$3500 of rice and beans given away
250 Bibles given

The best part...we now have over 190 new brothers and sisters in Christ!

Here is a video of my two weeks in Nicaragua that was made for church. ENJOY!:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLEVoOC4244

 

 

Faith

I was going back through my e-mails to try and find something and came across an e-mail I sent to some friends. It was dated 7/24/2011 and it was about what God had been showing me at that time. I completely forgot about it until now. I still find it amazing that even in the moment when God teaches me something that I never fully know all that it implies. When I re-read this today I just had to smile as now I'm in the process of raising funds to be a full time missionary in Nicaragua. He was showing me a lot more than I realized at the time! God is so amazing!

Here is what I wrote:

God has been showing me a lot about faith recently. Last week’s bible study was in Numbers 13-14. It was the story about when spies were sent into the land of Canaan, the land God promised to the Israelites. Of the 12 people sent to spy out the land for 40 days, only 2 came back encouraging the people to take the land God gave to them. The others were discouraged by the size of the people and the strength of their cities. God told them that this was their land but yet when they saw the “obstacles” they trusted in them and not in God. They didn’t see God as greater than the size of the people or the strength of the city. This story showed me how important it is to trust in God’s promises at all times. God often puts us up against things we cannot do on our own. That’s where faith comes in. He did that with salvation. We can’t do that on our own. It’s by faith in Christ that we are saved and reconciled to God.

 

This week’s bible story is about the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6. As I have been studying for it I keep thinking about Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” These weren’t just any ordinary walls. This was a fortress. I learned that these walls were built onto an embankment. There was a retaining wall with a stone wall on top of it, then further up the embankment there was another stone wall. From where the Israelites were this could’ve looked ten stories tall!  Yet God had them march around the city once with the ark and sounding the trumpets but not saying a word for six days. Then on the seventh day, they were to march around seven times and only on the seventh time at the right time everyone was to shout and the walls came down! It’s by faith that we enter our “promised land”. What’s keeping you from trusting God? From going into your promised land? Fear, doubt, the past? Whatever it is, God is able to break down the walls that are keeping you from where God wants you to be. We just have to turn to Him and have faith that He will break those walls in our lives.

 

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

 

Isaiah 7:9b “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.”

 

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 

 

Thinking about the faith God requires and the wisdom I’ve been asking for I was reminded that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” (Psalm 111:10)  Also seen in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” In this passage, I was reminded that to know God is wisdom. To truly see how Holy, Mighty, Sovereign, Powerful, Loving and Great He is will change our whole perspective. We will no longer see the obstacles; all we’ll see is the Promised Land. To live by faith is to trust that God is greater than anything that stands between us and Him and what He has planned for us. God is good, His plans are the best and He will be with us every step of the way. His glory will shine throughout all generations when we live a life characterized by faith. Nothing is impossible with God.