Where there is no doctor....

This email came in from Zambia. It is an amazing example of what our Rescue Unit facilitators deal with.

> Greetings,
> Yesterday I sat in the office listening to Mike Monze and Mathews Shikishi and just shock my head. The plight of the people when there is no doctor is just tragic. Mathews said that last week a lady came by the Mukema unit for medical help. She had walked about 7 miles to come to the unit, crossing two rivers. She couldn't really say what was wrong just that she was having pains. Mathews wasn't really sure what to do as she didn't really share anything that he could recognize as wrong. He referred her to the clinic at St Mary's and she left. Her younger sister was with her and also a young boy. They hadn't walked but a short distance from the unit when they had to stop because of the pains. They went behind an ant hill and found a place for her to lie down. While there she delivered a baby. Out in the open, with only grass and leaves for a bed, there was no doctor not even a mid-wife. Mathews helped her and they got her to St Mary's clinic. The mother and baby come by the unit the next day and thanked Mathers for his help and the new mom left to continue the long walk home. Just another day where there is no doctor.
>
> Mike then shared that recently people brought a lady to Luswishi on a bicycle ambulance. She had just delivered a baby and the baby was fine but she hadn't delivered the placenta. The lady was in pain and extremely weak, unable to talk. While they were trying to assess the situation the lady stiffened up. They saw her eyes roll back into her head and she became limp. Queen rushed up to her and began praying, rebuking death and commanding life back into her body. They immediately prepared her and began the long journey to the clinic. Queen continued to pray. Maybe about half way there the lady opened her eyes and seemed to revive and short time later she began to talk and shared that she had died but now was feeling fine. I don't know how true, in fact, that was except that is what the lady shared. They did get her to the clinic but the clinic wasn't able to help her either and they took her to Kitwe where they were able to remove the placenta. The mother and baby have since returned to the unit and they are indeed fine. Life and death can hang in the balance where there is no doctor.

Latest Video

Check out this video of our summer in Nicaragua!!!

http://bit.ly/4btBkv

Soccer and Glamour

Saturday, Maddie and Zoe both had soccer games in the heat! They played hard! Afterward, Zoe was invited to a birthday party at Snip-its for her friend, Kenya. They girls enjoyed getting their hair done and dressing up! It was a fun Saturday.

Home at Last!

After 4 weeks of boot camp, 4 weeks in Nicaragua and 1 week at Debrief, we are home at last. It's amazing to think how much work was accomplished on the church in Nicaragua and how many new friends we made over the summer. The pastor and his family that we stayed with were so warm, welcoming and fun that it was very hard to say good-bye to them. The friendships we made there will never be forgotten. Here are a few pictures---I hope to blog more about the summer later.

BOOT CAMP!

Mustard Seeds

Well, we are halfway through the boot camps now....early boot camp teams leave on Sunday and our team arrives this Friday. Zoe just finished up her Mustard Seed Team. Taylor and Canaan shared duties as her chaperone. She had an awesome time and loved every minute of it!!! It was a great four days for her---she really liked having her "own" team. Please pray for our team as we get to know each other over the next few days and train together. We leave for Nicaragua on July 8 and return August 11. You can keep up with us through updates on the Teen Missions website...www.teenmissions.org and click on the Team News tab. Thanks for all of your prayers and support....we can't wait to see what God does in and through our team this summer! Adios!!!!

It's hard to believe that we are only a few short weeks away from the start of Boot Camp! We have started putting up the Big Tops this week and May 2 is “Big Top” Day when the main Big Top Tent will go up! This will be a family event where we will all work together to put up “Big Top 1!” It is very exciting to see all of the tents going up and boot camp starting to take shape.

We are already starting to pack and prepare for our summer. It takes a lot of time to pack 5 people to travel overseas for a month. We (Shannon, Vikki, Madison and Zoe) have been asked to lead a team of teens to Nicaragua this summer. Our project will be to continue construction on a church that was begun by a team last summer. We have been trying to learn some basic Spanish before we go so the language barrier is not so hard. We have also started praying for our team members and assistant leaders as well as for ourselves. Spending extra time in prayer and in reading God's Word is essential to preparing our hearts to lead the team each summer.

Canaan has chosen to serve on a team that will travel to Papua on the island of New Guinea. He originally wanted to go on the Orphan Angels Team to Zambia where they ride motorcycles, but has to wait a little longer to get his driver's license. He will soon reach the “6 month seizure free” milestone and can then be cleared by his doctor to get his license, but his doctor does not think it is safe for him to be on a motorcycle at this time. He is very excited and can't wait for summer to get here. His team's project in Papua will be to construct the first building for a brand new Bible School that Teen Missions will be opening there. This will be the sixth bible school that Teen Missions has in Indonesia and the 28th world wide.

Taylor will be staying in Florida this summer. She is looking for a summer job to earn money for college. She will also be helping at the Teen Missions base during Debrief, when teams return to Teen Missions for classes before returning home.

Finally, we would like to thank all of you who came to volunteer this winter! So much was accomplished and we are so grateful for your help! At one point, there were so many Ohioans around here working, it seemed almost like home! We hope you all come back real soon and hope to see even more of you next winter!

We are all doing well as we work daily to support the global mission of Teen Missions. We are doing well health wise except for Shannon he has been struggling with disc problems in his lower back but recently he has been feeling better.

Thank you again for all of your faithful support, encouragment and prayers! We are truly blessed!!! GOD IS GOOD!!!!

Prayer Requests:

Financial support for the kids summer expenses.

A summer job for Taylor.

Safe travel over the summer.

Safety and good health for Canaan.

Healing for Shannon's ruptured discs in his back.