We often times don't have many pictures to share of what goes on in the clinic on a daily basis.  Stopping to take pictures, or even asking to take pictures, isn't always the most respectful of ideas.

What everyone is able to do there really is impressive though.  Especially when you are trying to provide good care to people that sometimes do not have the funds to help themselves with medicines, feel the need to half their doses to make medicines last, or face a litany of other hurdles to keep paces with the challenges of life and living it.  

I did get this picture recently of Maria.  She is 93 years old.  Her family abandoned her, but another family took her in to care for.  She was using a stick to help her walk...but they were able to remedy that with a new walking cane.  She wasn't a patient officially, but when getting her the new walking piece, they took her blood pressure for good measure while she was waiting out the in parking lot.   

We have also pushed to do some remodeling in the clinic.

The patient and staff bathrooms we installed ten years ago were not the best.  We knew that when we put them in, but we were out of funds, and when push came to shove...it was open with temporary bathrooms, or not open for quite a while.  

Those temporary bathrooms were usable, and actually held up pretty well for what they were, but after ten years...they were past their prime, and not very easy to keep sanitary/clean. 

So we swallowed hard, and took the plunge to build them so they should not need touching again (other than cleaning and maybe some equipment repair) with concrete walls, tile that can be wiped down and won't stain with time, and more individualized bathrooms (individual lights, extractors, doors and walls that go all the way to the ceiling.  

Blue for the walls of course.  

Remodeling both bathrooms wasn't easy, but it definitely was needed.

Somewhat unique to our situation, because we run on cisterns, and sometimes run out of water, we created a way to continue to have water even when our main cistern is out to still have water in the bathrooms.  As you can imagine, in a clinic, bathrooms are not just necessary, but often times necessary with urgency.  
  
So we built a tower and bought yet another cistern to make these bathrooms independent for those times.

While we were at it, we moved the pila outside for washing out mops and the like.  Again, more hygienic.  We could not have even dreamed of this ten years ago since the property was not fenced.

And...notice the red second floor is now blue!  We had some fading with the red paint, and to avoid rust and more problems...we just painted the entire building (and some of the roof that also had fadining) 
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Of course, it can't be all good news.  The ultrasound that just arrived...doesn't work.  We are seeing if it can be fixed. Thankfully we have the portable still in good repair.  
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And this lovely phoropter also arrived broken. It was able to be fixed at some cost...which is when it was realized that it is setup backwards, as they are when used by ophthalmologists.  So it is usable...but a bit of a pain to translate everything for use giving prescriptions and glasses.  You think it is confusing when a doctor gives you an exam normally...think of the poor patient and doctor that had to figure that out the first time it was used here!    

Please pray for the staff of the clinic to continue to strive for excellent thought and care given to their patients, transmitting via word and deed as well the love of Christ in all they do!

We are learning.  Sometimes it does not feel like we are doing it quick enough, but it does add up.  

How we work out the day to day activities of the Milk Project continues to grow, as well as how to get the kids involved in those activities.

We started a little garden experiment behind the clinic in the new area we finished this summer with groups.  What all will grow there is still in progress...but they are already able to harvest and use some cilantro.  

They also continue to look for ways to get involved outside the building.  Maria continues to want to instill in them not to litter and help take care of the neighborhood.  Sometimes that means helping pick up trash on the streets...or here on the clinic property as well.  

The avocado trees in Sampedrana may not get to be huge (they look more like bushes than huge trees) but that makes them much easier to harvest.  Eventually we think we will sell some of them, but right now we are happy to use as many as possible right back in the mission, especially in the Milk Project in Sampedrana.  We would not have the budget to buy these, and knowing how nutritious they are, it is great to get to see them added to their diet.  

Working with people, trying to help people make life changes isn't easy.  Last week one of the family's that has children in the Milk Project had major problems, with the estranged mother coming to their home at 11:30PM drunk, and threw their old, heavy TV, injuring two of her daughters.  Maria took them in for the evening after their father asked for help, just so they could actually sleep.  

Please pray for our staff and the kids.  We don't have this down to a science, but we are trying to look consistently for new ideas, new methods, and new ways to help grow the kids and families in our area​s, practically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  

If you ever have ideas or materials you think we could use...let us know!  

, ​Living our lives sneaks up on us sometimes.  Sometimes I feel like I get regular reminders of the following:

1. One does not know what the day will bring.
2. Everything is fine, until it isn’t. 

 
It is hard to prepare yourself sometimes given those axioms, but it is possible…to some extent.  I find that in praying, and in being mindful of the things I take for granted (well, as many as I can remember) and in practicing flexibility, it helps.  You might notice I am proclaiming, while also leaving myself an out.  We will get back to that.
 
In the past couple of weeks, there has been quite a bit going on around the mission.  The good news is…I can’t possibly cover it all in one blog post.  The better news is that I won’t even try.
 
One of the cool things was seeing 65 people come for a seminar on leadership and evangelism.  It was especially cool because the Church we work with next door let us use their building to do it, an organization provided the funding to get the trainer (Bring Good News), Walk through the Bible did the teaching, and we had The Milk Projects and several different Churches represented.  Bringing that all together was definitely a God thing.  And the good news is that we have a follow-up conference also to come on the same topic coming in November. 
 
One thing we had not really planned on, was sending Alexis from Cantarranas to help pastor Manuel in Talanga.  Having recently completed his pastoral studies up North, we have been watching to see how God might use Alexis going forward, and in seeing the need to help Manuel and try to find ways to add members to the Church, especially men and families…sending him there for a couple months to help do home Bible studies seemed like a pretty good idea. 
 
It was a normal weekday morning when I got a phone call from Maria.  And it was around 7:30, before she goes into work.  Odd I thought, I better interrupt my running and take this call, it could be urgent.  Maria had come across someone in our neighborhood who had apparently fallen in the ditch the night before, when it was raining, and had been convulsing.  She did not know her other than seeing her in the neighborhood trying to sell soap or find recyclables she could sell.  The public ambulance system had been advised, but would not take her to the hospital, as they could not lift her.  I wasn’t clear on what our official ambulance policy was as a mission/clinic, but I did not really need a policy fresh in mind to tell us what to do.  Jorge took the guys getting ready to do construction, went in the ambulance, and they got her to the hospital.  I was glad we had an ambulance that day (thanks again to FAME and IDES) and staff to not only drive it but provide care along the way (one of our nurses goes with the patient.) 
 
It is often said that good deeds are their own reward, and in this case, after everyone sprang into action, I said a prayer for healing, and went on with our day…without a way to follow up, it would be hard to know who she was, and what happened.  It was not long though before Maria had visitors, it turns out that the woman died the next day after being taken to the hospital, but her daughters specifically came back to give thanks for the help provided.  Good deeds can indeed be their own reward…in this case though, we had no idea when providing the minimum of help we thought we could provide would be seen or appreciated by anyone else. 
 
The same day, Maria saw Mariza’s mother, who lives just down the block from the Milk Project, and she was very sick, and had not been able to go to the bathroom for over a week.  (Mariza attends the Milk Project.)  As the ambulance was gone…she found her another ride to the hospital.  Unfortunately, though, her condition was too advanced and she died by the next morning.  For a time, the family was asking Maria to be the one to break the news to Mariza.  Her father though was able to get there, and they did it together, but for a few hours it was tough to figure out what was going to happen, and how to best go about everything related to that.