On the Ground:

Community of Hope has been a dream in the making for years, and it is surreal to finally see children playing in all that green space!  Two of the homes have finally arrived!  Our nannies love taking the kids outside in such a peaceful space and just running with them.  And, the kids have a therapy pony!  This has been so healthy for all the kids, but has led to quite the breakthrough with one young man’s autistic and PTSD violent outbursts.  They take him to see the pony before he progresses to a melt down.   

We keep dreaming as the first of the accessible homes are under construction to one day hold all the childrens homes.  Also, the first steps toward sustainability projects are underway with gardening.   

I thought you might be interested in:   

Folks travel over an hour from the 28 surrounding mountain villages to our town on market day.  That makes market days our most busy at the clinic because that’s when our patients can find trucks coming to town.   

We have developed healthy relationships with so many local midwives or Comadronas, who bring their patients.  We confirm if the baby looks to be safe for a home delivery.  This saves lives as the comadronas don’t know how to take a blood pressure (or read numbers on an automatic cuff!), and the ultrasound can warn them when a baby or placenta are not in a safe position to deliver at home.  Warnings like this can help the family plan for a delivery at the health center, or a few hours away at the nearest city.  

This comadrona was weaving along as she learned that she can indeed deliver the ninth baby for the same mom from home!   

I’ve been encouraged by:   
 

Earlier this year I had the incredible surprise of helping friends at our local church take and deliver Operations Christmas Child shoe boxes to children in a mountain community.  My friend spent a lot of time training on how to deliver the boxes.  Then my local church teamed up with the village church to throw a children’s program with music, games, snacks, and a bible story about the greatest gift.   The children were given their boxes and asked to sit down and pray.  They prayed about what they needed or wanted, and shared with the group.  One prayed for a toy car, another for school supplies, and a little boy’s mom prayed for shoes. 

 Then, the kids opened their boxes and their joy was tangible!  Many kids and parents were moved to tears sharing how God had provided exactly what they had asked for.  Praises were lifted to God with tears for toy cars, school supplies, and new shoes.  He had heard their prayers!  This deeply impacted my heart to witness.   

Prayer requests:   

–  Please pray for continued growth in relationships with our patients and also their comadronas 
– Pray also for the health of our kids at Community of Hope- specifically Ruavis, Mimi, and David.   
– My car’s little engine simply cannot- pray for God’s provision for a more reliable car for these mountains.
– I praise God for his provision for a surgery I needed, and continued healing in the recovery.