Friday, November 30, 2007

Catch Up!!!

Okay, I realize it's been a long time since we posted regularly. As Bethany explained, our internet connection has been a source of frustration lately. We've got internet right now, so I'm going to give you a very very brief synopsis of the last week. Be sure to read Bethany's update on her clinic duties. Her post appears below this one.

On Saturday we drove to the mountains with Mordegai.

On the way, Uncle Bob "enjoyed" some durian.

We hiked down a mountain...
...and through the jungle...
...where we saw a goat...
...and a man plowing a field with his carabao.
On Thursday we went to Samal Island...
...where we saw some small waterfalls...
...and some big waterfalls.
We also went to a fishing village.
Uncle Bob and I had fun taking photos on the beach.

That's about it. Mordegai left for Cambodia on Tuesday. It was sad to see him go. The welder finished the steel mold yesterday. He did a really good job. We delivered it to Joe's backyard, where we will build our first water filter on Monday. We're having a great time with the famous Uncle Robert and Aunt Sylvia. Having the truck has been a great blessing.

Cheerio,
Tim.

Sorry!

Greetings! Things have been busy and hairy here as of late...but we are trying to get new posts up! :) Internet has been down frequently and we have been oober busy. As you can see, I have been VERY busy in the clinic....sometimes I tell the ladies that are still assisting to not be too eager to handle and catch because that's when all the work begins!!! Between birth shifts that are BUSY, and classes, homework, clinic, and student group, I have baby checks up the whazooo now! And they are all a blessing, but very time-consuming. And I am tired!

So pictured above is 6 week-old Ryu Jean....one of my very first patients.....I assisted in her birth and her momma brought her in for one last check-up.....she is a beauty....ears pierced and all. :) What a blessing to see her!

And here is Jenevieve's baby Tiffany that I wrote about in last post......doing well at one week :)

And then I delivered two more babies this week! Above is Carmen and her new baby, Jayramene! Born November 26th, Carmen lost a LOT of blood and needed to be sutured, but she is doing okay now.....please pray for her as she has had a fever the last few days and a lot of pain. We have been praying for her. She was the very first birth that I did a manual rupture of membranes (whent he midwife breaks the water) and my first nuchal hand (when the baby's hand presents before or with the head). It was a tough birth, but God was there!


And here is Divina and her eldest daughter and newborn son, Christian John. He was born November 22! She was pushing so hard that her cervix swelled and my supervisor needed to push up on her cervix while I delivered the baby! It was crazy, but once again, God was faithful to birth another healthy baby!

So, Uncle Bob and Sylvia have been with us.....Tim has pictures from our journeys with them, so stay tuned! We have been thoroughly enjoying our time with them and wish they could spend Christmas with us!

In other news, we have been using our new truck to get out into the mountains and on to Samal Island to make connections with other ministries to set up clean water sites and medical ministries....it's been an eventful week! God has also opened up the opportunity to get a good welder here in Davao that is currently building a water filtration system mould to get these water filters moving! YEAH!

I feel like I am in a whirlwind....so much going on....and I am just on the outside looking in at everything happening....it's a blur. And humbling.

Be blessed.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Birth-days.....

Greetings! Yesterday (Saturday), Tim and I went to our first Filipino birthday party! My dear friend, An-An, from Mercy invited me to her daughter, Zoe's, 4th birthday! An-An works in the prenatal room and I have just soooo enjoyed getting to know her and her family. Zoe is the little chic in red. She is a cutie and a lot of fun. All the neighbor kids and some from House of Jubilee came for the event and we had a great time.
Dear An-An is the one in the dusty rose shirt....
And there is 4-year-old Zoe and her AMAZING cake!


And then this morning, I had day shift! What a crazy shift it was, too! I was just about to deliver a baby boy for a dear 17 year-old patient of mine named Grace, when my dear continuity named Jenevieve walked in fully dilated and ready to push!

So I handed off my Grace to my friend and midwife, Laura....head was already visible, too!

But less than 15 minutes later, at 9:11 am, Jenevieve delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl. My supervisor was so gracious to let her stay as she would've certainly been a transport! She had a 29 hematocrit, which mean she was anemic and could've hemorrhaged! But God protected her and she did great!

So here is little Tiffany Villagonza with her midwife.....

And Jenevieve resting after a quick delivery! God is so good. And with every delivery, I am learning tons more and today, I did all my paperwork completely by myself! It's pages and pages of signatures, exams and check-ups....but this was the first time that I didn't have to ask TONS of questions with each step. Little by little...getting stronger everyday.

AND, I found a mouse in our house last night! I thought it was a RAT, but regardless of its size, Tim assured me it was "just a mouse". Needless to say....it is NOT a welcomed visitor and though we have not been able to find it again, it is somewhere in my house! My bunnies are poor watch dogs....they don't eat rats or mice. I had trouble getting to sleep last night as a result!

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragements this week!! We feel very cared for and that keeps us focused and confident, our ears perked up ready for the next instruction from the Lord!

Be blessed!

Tim will write the next one with more updates!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Manila

I returned from Manila a couple of nights ago, but this is the first chance I've had to sit and write to you about it. I'm not gonna write one of my long tales today, because I don't feel like it. (The fact that I used the word 'gonna' was the first indicator that I'm not feeling particularly literary. The fact that I'm writing entire sentences in brackets is an indicator that I'm always feeling at least a little bit literary. But I digress.)

Manila is a very big city. The traffic is very bad, and the smog is worse. I was very glad to be with our dear friends Uncle Bob and Aunt Sylvia. They are the water gurus for Impact Nations. I was in Manila to join them for the first week of their two week water project. I'll be receiving more training in February, but since they were so close it made sense to get a head start.

We were working with a man named Pastor Lito and his wife Leah. They have a few churches around Metro Manila. They also have a ministry that works in Payatas, which is a community that is built in and around the dump. Pastor Lito intends to install many water filters in the homes of Payatas. We spent most of our time in a neighboring community called Kasiglahan (stress on the last syllable). I think this is where they will set up their shop to manufacture the filters long term. This week we were making the filters in the small school house that Leah manages. The school is made out of two shipping containers.

One of Pastor Lito's men is a guy named George. He seemed very eager to learn how to build the water filters. He has a background in construction, so he's already used to working with concrete. We really enjoyed working with George. I think he will be able to run a small business installing these water filters around Manila. He's already got some great ideas. Uncle Bob told George to stop calling him "pastor". George had a hard time with that, but soon he was calling him "Uncle Bob" which seemed to make him happy.

Things went pretty slowly. When working in the third world, one always anticipates that things will go different than planned, but I must admit that I was not prepared for all of the delays and miscommunication that we experienced during my stay. The welder worked hard, but he was confused on several points and we had to have him redo a few things. The training seminar was a couple days late because the welding took longer than anticipated. Regardless, we did make some progress and I was able to learn a great deal from Uncle Bob. I now feel that I have a pretty good grasp on the process and that I too will be a water guru soon.

More than anything, however, I think the Lord was teaching me patience and grace. I really felt stretched this week as we experienced all manner of delay. I had to continually go back to the Lord and ask for forgiveness as I would give into the temptation to become angry and complain. Thankfully, His mercies are new every morning; because I'm grumpy every morning.

I had a wonderful time with my friends. Bethany and I are eagerly anticipating their arrival in Davao next Thursday. We're gonna have a great time visiting with them, and I think we might even get started on doing some water filters here in Davao. There are a few families that we know of who live outside of the city who don't have access to clean water. Perhaps we could fix that right away! I'm trying to track down a welder and some materials so that I can have a steel mold built by next week.

I think that's all I have to say. Perhaps I will tell you more in the coming days. Thank you all for your prayers. I'm trying something new with the photos today. I've put them all together in a slide show for you. If you click on the photo below, you should see the slide show start on a new page. It will probably take a few minutes to load, depending on the speed of your connection. The quality of the photos suffers a bit with this presentation, but I thought I'd try it to see how it comes out. I'm afraid I don't have any pics of Aunt Sylvia because I didn't have my camera with me on the day that she was doing her hygiene teaching. She spent much of her time with Leah, making connections around Kasiglahan.

Cheerio,
Tim.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Kim Warren Cabillo

Greetings! My Tim is coming home from Manila this evening! YEHAAAAWWW! I will have him write the next post complete with updates on his trip and pictures, too. But first....

I got to welcome little Kim Warren Cabillo into the world this morning. His momma, Rowena (pictured above with her new son) came into Mercy at 6:05 am FULLY dilated and ready to POP... I had JUST begun my shift and could barely keep my eyes open....until Ate Elsa, who was on night shift, endorsed her new labor with...."Bethany, she is pushing...."

I jumped up not even knowing her name or who she was talking about and donned gloves and a pink pad.....

And went and met my new patient....she was certainly pushing, but nothing seemed to be happening...not even any opening. So my supervisor suggested she change positions to the birth stool....she pushed and pushed.....and baby's heart rate went down significantly.....we were somewhat concerned, but it was too late to transport and this baby just needed to come out....

She changed positions again to the bed and after many "Maayo Kaayo, Wen-wen!" (Very Good, Rowena!) and "Ginhawa!" (BREATHE!) And "Abre, Wen-wen!" (open up, Rowena!) and finally "Ha, ha HA!" (breathe while baby's head is crowning...DON'T PUSH!)....."VOILA!" (WOW!) I pulled baby out and it was followed by oodles and puddles of meconium. But Rowena did awesome and despite the difficulty in pushing, at 6:47 am, Kim Warren was born weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces. And he is CUTE!


The sad part was that her husband could not be at the birth as he was delivery buns to a business, but came in time for the baby's bath and newborn exam.....all went well....he was VERY happy that he FINALLY had a boy after two girls! Praise God for healthy births! We prayed a blessing over Kim Warren together and I was able to discharge them before the end of my shift! Awesome.

And then, do you remember April!? She was my continuity from last month, but was transferred in a frenzy to DMC as a result of going into labor at 34 weeks....but then when she had her baby there, they found it to be FULL TERM! That's what happens when you are inaccurate with the timing of your last menstrual cycle! But she came into prenatal exams yesterday to visit me! And here she is with her son, Harl Christian.

She was excited to show him off and had many questions to ask about breastfeeding and his "yoohoo" as she referred to it... I will let you guess what THAT is. :) But everything is perfect with him...yoohoo and all.

AND, I finished my 3rd exam yesterday, as well.....not sure how I did, but I will continue to pray!

AND I took another continuity named, MJ! She is due in March and I am very excited to be able to take her as my patient. She is a high school teacher here in Davao and has high hopes of traveling abroad with her husband. It is her first baby and she is so nervous, but FULL of joy and excitement....she was more hyper and bubbly than me! I loved it! We had so much fun during her prenatal exam that I nearly forgot to give her a tetanus shot and remind her of her impending urine analysis! I am excited to get to know her and her family...her bana works for "Jack and Jill", a chocolate and cookie company unique to the Philippines....they make my FAVORITE yummy cookies called Milky Knots....Mmmmm...AND she is bringing me some goodies next prenatal! "I like cookies" (not candy, mom....COOKIES!...inside joke)

Anyways, today I actually felt like a midwife...I did! I felt a bit (though not totally) more confident and made VERY few mistakes today. I was so blessed. God is so faithful and good to me. And the most amazing part was that as tired as I was, I was totally enjoying myself and my birth shift team.

What a joy and a blessing. After quite a few days of transports and continuities delivering at DMC, today was a gift. I am truly thankful....AND MY BANA COMES HOME TONIGHT!!!!!!!

Be blessed.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

God's perfect and everlasting faithfulness.....

Greetings! Do you remember this little guy pictured above!? Well, this is Glenn Robert, the son of our dear friend Rezel who goes to our church. She had him at Mercy and I got to help at the birth! What a handsome boy! To watch him mature, grow and develop is such an enormous blessing and privilege for me. He is a very sweet boy.

And another blessing is this miracle baby! Remember Ludina (pictured below with our friend, Nene who is presently holding the baby) from our church? We had been praying for her during her pregnancy as she had placenta previa meaning her placenta was low-lying in her uterus and she was experiencing heavy bleeding during her pregnancy...NOT GOOD. She could not have her baby at Mercy because of the condition and so we asked God for a miracle....


And here they are! Ludina's placenta moved in the last few weeks of her pregnancy by God's mighty hand and her baby was born naturally without any intervention in complete and total health! A BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL named Keisha. What a mighty God we serve! I am always happy to see them on Sunday and look forward to witnessing their growth and continued joy in God's faithfulness.

And pictured below is just a bit of what Tim has been up to with Uncle Bob and Sylvia in Manila this week.......



Pictured above is a few of the kids playing in the crazy rain in Payatas near the dump site they are building water filters for.



This pic is actually from a shack in the dump site....Tim says Manila is noisy, crowded and dirty....he feels very blessed to live in Davao now!
The Three Muskateers (Uncle Bob, Sylvia, and Tim) have been having some ups and downs with the planning and the implementation of their plans as the process has been slow and somewhat frustrating.....but they are plugging away and hope to have 5 water filters built and installed before the end of their stay. Exciting!

This morning Tim preached at a church outside of Manila and from what I hear, it went fantastic....please continue to pray for their safety and for the work to be completed before returning to Davao.

In other news......we have some BIG news.....

Ya know the truck we have been praying for to use for mountain water and medical ministry??? Well, a youth group in the U.S. decided to make it their mission to purchase the vehicle for Impact Nations so that we can get to the mountains to do medical clinics and water filtration!!!! This will cut our travel time by like...well....100%! Now we can haul meds, filters, supplies and lots of people all over Mindanao! Talk about the Lord enlarging our territory!

We are so excited to see how God is bringing together people from all over Davao for a common goal! My favorite part is that we white people are getting taught by the Filipinos! They are educating us on primary health care, how to relate to villages and the tribal people, how to bridge the gap between Western society and thinking to Filipino values and cultures....and yet we are all serving and working towards the same goal....to show Christ and His love and power to the poorest of the poor.....it is so humbling a such a blessing. Wow. God is so good. I wish I could really put into words how special and amazing the people we have met here...and how pure their hearts are....you just gotta come and visit!

So please continue to pray for God's guidance and direction as we begin looking towards the future.....please also pray for me as I am coming up on my third exam and I am back in the birth room for Monday's night shift and I am fighting a persistent cold/flu bug....

Thank you all for your encouragement, support, prayers and comments! I am sure Tim will give me more updates soon and I will be sure to pass them along!
Be blessed!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Tim's gone....

Greetings! And Merry Christmas! While it has been the Christmas season since October 1st for us "Davao-dwellers", we know that most of our family and friends have to wait until American Thanksgiving is over to pull out the Christmas cheer! I only have to wait until Tim is gone!
And so, Tim left yesterday for Manila to join up with Uncle Bob and Syl to work on water filtration and serve the poor. He will give you updates later, I am sure....he arrived there safely and is enjoying seeing our dearest friends!

As for me....I finally finished my assignment from the place of eternal punishment....it was a loooooong one! But praise God it is done! Test next Wednesday so please pray! And so that freed me up to find all the Christmas decor left here by the missionaries before us plus some things Tim and I had brought and go Christmas-nuts!! Listening to Christmas Harry Connick Jr. and trying to feel cold and festive, I decorated our place.

It's really hard to FEEL Christmas when it's 90 degrees outside, fans blowing every direction and mosquitoes biting any uncovered flesh....

But you know, I had a wonderful time with the Lord....it was so peaceful.....as I cut paper snowflakes and hung them from the ceiling, I felt a joy bubbling from my intestines.....I know it was them because they ached earlier, but they started to feel great!

Then I got a text from the Orange House where all the other students live saying that two of them wanted to come over and study....I was glad to have the company....and even having them over with the Christmas lights felt festive....we had a great time....

Christmas will certainly be different this year, but I am looking forward to learning how to celebrate Filipino style.

Pictured below is dear Christine and her new baby girl. The crazy night swing shift I worked last week resulted in transferring this young, dear patient of mine. She was not a happy camper when we had to transfer her. But her amniotic fluid had been leaking for 15 hours already and we were concerned, so we sent her to be monitored by the hospital.

I went looking for her at DMC the next day to see if she had delivered and see how she was doing, but no one knew anything.....not even the OB ward! I was a little concerned.

So I finally paged her bana and he came running to me to give me the update that she was just now being prepped for a C-section! That's almost 48 hours with a leaking bag of waters! BAD news. I was really concerned by that point, but promised him that I would return the next day to see her and her baby. I prayed for him and gave him some food and he went scurrying off to the surgery waiting room.

Well, yesterday, I found her! I walked through the lined-up beds at DMC looking at every face checking for Christine....because I had been there just a day prior, everyone knew who I was looking for and where I was from...they pointed me in the right direction....and they giggled. White chicks are funny here, I guess.

But I found my dear friend, Christine, sleeping with her new baby girl....she's feeling a bit of pain, but doing great and LOVING her new baby. Praise God. He is so faithful.

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing left to give here....so tired and worn....wanting to just sleep....feeling like what I have to give is broken and ratty....but the Lord keeps reminding me of Luke 21 and He tells me that all He desires is what I have....even if it is the "widow's mite" because He can turn it into the "widow's MIGHT". In my time of greatest weakness....He is the greatest strength.

Be blessed.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Whirlwind.

Greetings! Pictured above is my team from shift this morning....Jenny, Jonna, Jordan, and Rochelle! By lunch time we were STARVING, so Jenny ordered INDIAN FOOD!!!! It came over an hour later, but it was warm and tasted like heaven!!! We were so grateful to enjoy such a feast for our busy birth shift!
After working swing shift from 2-10pm on Saturday, I was so tired. We had a pretty busy birth room and had to transfer one patient of mine and then two others during night shift. Then I worked this morning, I worked again from 6am to 2pm....not seeing Tim for 24 hours was tough since he had been struggling with a fever and chills....he is feeling much better....thank you for your prayers.

After my shift today, I went to DMC to check on the patients we had transferred last night and only found one. :( But she was doing great with her brand new baby boy. The other two were C-sections and were waiting for the busy operating room. But Susana (above) had her 7th baby without any problems! Praise the Lord! God is so good!

And then this morning at 7:35 am, I got to deliver my second baby at Mercy!

Below is Paula Samson...precious 6 pound 15 ounce baby girl. It was a great delivery and her mama (below), Cherry, did an amazing job!

Tired Bethany....cranky Paula!
Midwife B, Juamito (daddy) and Cherry (mama)
Yeah, that's little Paula! I was so grateful for my classmates' help today, too! They were awesome.....Jenny charted, Jordan assisted and Jonna supervised the whole thing and even had to do some manual extraction of a few pieces of her placenta and membranes because they were causing her to bleed! It was an interesting adventure! But all are healthy and doing great. I was humbled to be Paula's very first voice into the world....


And though Tim and I have no children....we do have our "little ones".....and they do what just what babies do, too!......Ummm.....poop, eat, and sleep! :) Yes, our bunnies (one boy and one girl) are growing big and it sounds like we're gonna have baby bunnies by Christmas to give away! AHHHHH! At least they have a midwife on call! :)

Thank you all for your prayers and comments on our posts...they have been an encouragement. We are really learning and struggling through what it means to be a "missionary" and how to bless people without trying to "change" them or expecting them to change. We are also learning how to be truthful, speak the words of Christ without being timid and how to face our fears knowing that Christ died for those, too. God has been so faithful.

It has been rough to be learning so much in the physical, experiential and in the spiritual! Whew....exhausting. But we know we are being obedient and as hard as it is, He has given us such peace and like Tim was sharing about Willy, God is giving us people to encourage us and speak the truth of who we really are. It's hard to see what God sees when all you feel is inadequacy.... and yet, God's strength is stronger than my greatest weakness.

Be blessed.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Fever in the Morning

My phone beeped at 8:30 this morning. It was Mordegai, asking if I wanted to join him for a tour of the local slums. I'm trying to be in the habit of saying "yes" to everything, so I wrote back immediately, and jumped out of bed.

It takes me a while to get going in the morning, so it didn't strike me as odd that I was feeling extra groggy as I threw on some clothes and wandered out onto the street. It wasn't nine o'clock yet, but I was already sweating by the time I had reached the corner to catch a motorcycle to Mordegai's.

I'm not a morning person. Apparently my reputation precedes me. When I arrived at Mordegai's house, he seemed surprised to see me so soon after he had sent the text. He wasn't ready yet, so I spent some time sitting on the couch playing with his children and visiting with his friends who are here from South Africa. As I sat on that couch, I realized that I was not recovering from my groggy state. In fact, it was getting worse. I was starting to get shivers and back pain.

There has been a fever going around this week. Bethany and I were just praying for Jenn last night because she is sick. The fever has already taken out several of the students over at the clinic. As I sat in Mordegai's living room, I realized that I was the next victim. I didn't want Mordegai to call me a sissy, so I didn't let on that I was feeling ill.

Mordegai took me and his South African friend, Willy, for a walk through the neighborhoods where he first ministered when he arrived here 11 years ago. He showed us houses that he had helped to repair. He pointed to the place where he cleaned and dressed his first wound, the bed sore of a paralyzed man. He introduced us to the poor who have benefited from his obedience over the last decade.

Mordegai and his family are moving to Cambodia at the end of this month. As Bethany mentioned, we are contemplating buying his truck. Impact Nations asked us if we could make good use of the truck by doing what Mordegai does. At first the idea intimidated me, but as Bethany and I discussed it with our dear friends Jenn and Joe, I began to warm up to the idea. On Thursday night the four of us went to Mordegai's home for dinner so that we could discuss his ministry and talk about how it could continue in his absence.

He was so encouraging. He told us that we don't have to know all the health care stuff right away. He learned on the job so we could too. He's going to connect us with a local doctor who can train us. He also spoke to us about what medicines he uses and where he purchases them. Mordegai continually made the point that the most important part of the ministry is just being there for the people. He has rescued many lives just by recognizing many fatal but curable illnesses and getting the person to a doctor. He says that there is a free hospital on the highway, but people cannot afford the transportation costs. By simply paying $10, he has been able to save many lives by getting them the medical attention that they need. When we left his place on Thursday night I was feeling very encouraged. I was actually beginning to think that I could do this.

This morning I felt as though I came crashing down to reality. As we stood in those hot busy streets, I was surprised by the feelings that began to well up in me. With each passing minute, my heart was becoming more hard. As Mordegai pointed to the wounds on a man's leg, I was repulsed. As strangers shook my hand, all I could think about was how dirty their hands were.

I don't like icky things. The thought of even being in the vicinity of a bed sore gives me the creeps. I still can't figure out how dentists keep from retching every time they peer inside someone's mouth. Exercise and I don't get along. I nearly died from a one hour hike a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how Mordegai does it, but he is a very different man from me.

All of these feelings were rushing through me this morning as I stood there realizing that I am, in fact, a sissy. I wasn't sure if it was the fever talking, or the enemy trying to cut me off at the knees, or perhaps I was just being reasonable. I began to think about the ministry that I had always wanted for myself. I wanted to deal with musical instruments, not medical instruments. I wanted to lead powerful worship, which doesn't usually involve pus. "What have I gotten myself into?" I asked myself.

When we returned from our walk, I entered Mordegai's house feeling dejected and lost. My fever was getting pretty bad too. I sat quietly, trying not to wallow in self pity. That's when it happened. Psalm 40. He picked me up out of the slimy pit. Willy (with the South African accent it sounds like "Villy") sat down across the living room and simply began to pour into me. I don't think he even realized that he was doing it, but he ministered to me in a very profound way this morning.

Willy started by saying that he had listened to me on Thursday night as I spoke about my desire to support the locals in their ministry. Specifically, I was referring to Beth and Murli, the two women that have helped coordinate Mordegai's trips into the mountain villages. I was simply saying that we wanted to encourage them to continue on in Mordegai's absence and that we could learn a great deal from them. My heart is to be a support to them and help facilitate their desires for the region. Willy said that he was blessed by my servant attitude.

Essentially as Willy spoke, the Lord used him to hold a mirror up so that I could see my true heart. Willy began to affirm me, speaking the truth of who God had made me to be and that God had prepared me for this time. I began to realize that God will provide me with everything I need. Even if I don't "feel" like I have a heart for the people, my obedience is a sure indicator that I do.

I sat quietly and cried as this man spoke about sowing and reaping. He told me that we (missionaries and pastors) need to stop spending so much time searching for the fruit of our ministry, but instead must continue to spread the seed. I wept as the Lord removed the incredible pressure I have put on myself to see results. The Lord was simply telling me that my obedience is all He requires of me. The rest is up to Him.

I'm still not sure what all happened this morning. It was just another of those "heart surgery" moments I guess. I'm really sick, so my mind is in a fog right now. We're gonna try to buy that truck and get some primary health care training. I don't know what adventure God has us on, but I'm just gonna keep saying "yes", even if it is way more than I bargained for.

Please pray that I don't have a fever all through the night. Last I checked I was at 101.5F. Bethany is taking good care of me though. I've attached a picture that I took of a Volkswagen. It's got nothing to do with anything, but I like it, and people seem to like pictures. Apologies for the Peggy Lee references.

Cheerio,
Tim.