More than Conquerors By Helen Laib, MD No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:27 A phone call at 3:32 AM is never a good thing. Especially when you just got your team of 6 with all 11 pieces of luggage on the bus for the airport to start the mission trip to Guatemala. The message was that our flight scheduled for 7 AM was now delayed until 12:45 PM. It was painful to think of the extra hours of sleep we could have had but too late to get off the bus. Preparation for this trip had been extraordinarily hard, especially for my partners at New Hope for Guatemala. We had great difficulty getting the customs papers for our medicine. Since most medicine in Guatemala is imported, it is much cheaper to buy it through our mission supplier and to bring it down but this requires proper customs forms. Initially our papers were approved but when they were taken to be registered, they were rejected because the expiration date for each medicine was not on the invoice. I had already packed everything so we had to take everything out, write down the expiration date and send it to my partner to add in on the papers. Then there was a lot of paper work to get the town council certified as the importer. The papers were resubmitted a couple days before our arrival, but then unexpectedly rejected because 5 medicines out of 65 outdated after six months but before one year. 6 months was all that was required previously. It took a lawyer and a congressman to get the needed approval the day before we came. Then we found, the rental agency where we had reserved a microbus wanted a deposit of $2400 which they would keep for a few weeks after return of the vehicle. So we made other arrangements mostly to hire a local bus to take us back and forth from our hotel to the village where we would work. I had an extraordinarily difficult time buying tickets for our team as well. Initially I found a good price but by the time I had the team firmed up, those tickets were gone. I had to split the team in 2 with half going through Dallas and half through Miami to get a still high but doable price. So it was the Miami team traveling with me that got delayed from 7 AM until 2:45 PM. Then we missed our new connection and had to stay the night until the next day at 4 PM. We were booked on a different airline so they charged us again for our excess baggage. Our arrival in Guatemala City then messed up the transportation arrangement and we had to send some people to Antigua by taxi. On our first day of clinic, an essential duffle bag was inadvertently left at the hotel when we went to our work site at the war refugee village of El Tesoro. We couldn t start without it so had to send our microbus back to get it. On the way back, it was run off the road by an impatient driver into the ditch where it got stuck. Some people came to help push it out so we could finally start. On the second day, one of our painters got something in his eye and developed an infection. That was the day we ran out of eye drops. We left before the pharmacy opened so could not buy any. One of our examiners (doctors and nurse practitioners) was sick on the third day, so when we sent someone to get the eye drops, we took her back to rest. Both team members recovered quickly. But the next day someone else was sick. The day the examiner was sick, we freed up one of the interpreters to fix the glass in the broken windows at
the school. Our last day there, we were going to send our painters early so they would be sure to finish on time but found a flat tire on the microbus in the morning that had to be fixed first. Then when they got going, 2 motorcycles tried to pass them at the same time and crashed into each other. They stopped to help direct traffic. The injured motorcyclists pulled their dazed and bloody bodies out of the road and left on their broken cycles. (at least one did, the other cycle was not drivable.) Our medical team saw 382 patients and gave out 795 prescriptions. We also shared the Gospel with each family. 163 people made a commitment to follow Jesus as their Savior. Since 135 patients were children and many others already believers, there were only a handful of people who left without being in relationship with the Lord. We praise God for that. We also gave our many Bibles and new Testaments. It was fun to see patients who told us they had given their lives to Jesus in past years and were still serving Him faithfully. It is amazing to see how the spiritual health of this village has improved through the years. Both churches in town have grown. While the medical team worked, our building team scraped off and painted the roofs of the school buildings with anticorrosive paint. The buildings were painted in a new color scheme of white with blue trim. It looked quite nice and fresh. There were 4 buildings at the school that were painted. We also changed out some broken windows. We gave out about 80 hand made quilts to the children of the school and they gave us some pictures they had drawn with the crayons we gave them. The children had great fun playing with our team and especially liked putting flowers in the hair of our young ladies. Friday our team went to see the middle school at Chuchuca. It is the only middle school in the region and has students from 22 different neighboring villages. The school is doing exceptionally well. It had a 100% graduation rate and 97% pass rate. It is considered one of the best school of its type in Guatemala. So far all the graduates have made commitments of Salvation through Jesus. The churches who have students in the school have all at least doubled in size and some have tripled. Students walk and bike to school from long distances. They are really motivated to study and do well. The terrain there is very hilly and their commute sometimes takes over an hour each way. Recently they had a problem with their water source and Circle of Love was able to help them dig a well through a memorial gift from the Dee Ann Neveln family. The well is 104 feet deep and is giving good water to the school. The road to the school was out and we had to walk the last section. That made us late so we missed seeing the Mayan ruins in the area. Perhaps next year. The school is also excellent in sports and both the boys and girls teams won the championships in their league. The girls team also came in 3 rd regionally. New Hope for Guatemala needs to raise about $7,000 more to cover teacher s salaries in Chuchuca for the year. Please let me or Andrew Loveall know if you can help. Saturday was a day to rest and relax in Antigua. We had another flat tire but everyone was able to do and see almost everything they wanted. We had a farewell pizza dinner at Andrew s house in his new rancho (roofed seating area) in his back yard. We were pleased with the Lord s blessing on our outreach.
Sunday morning early, we started for home. Other times, when we had a lot of problems and opposition before and during an outreach, we usually have a smooth trip home. Not this time. Our Miami team started out with a slight delay. We had a limited connection time in Miami. Immigration was horrible! Only one kiosk out of 25 was working for Global Entry. Those without struggled through multiple lines and conflicting advice taking about 2.5 hours to get through. Since I went through relatively easily with Global Entry, I pulled all the luggage while I waited for the team. 3 out of 8 made the connection. The remaining 5 of us were rebooked on 3 different flights. These flights then got delayed due to weather and having no fight attendants. When we finally flew, we had to fly an hour longer to go around storms. When we arrived, all the gates were full and we had to sit around for a long time before we could get off. By then, there were no more buses to Rockford. Thank God for Aunt Edie who came with her van to give the last 4 of us a ride home. Our Dallas team only had a 2 hour delay. All of us were thankful to be safely home. We praise God for all the lives that were touched! What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. [j] 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 Dr Dave with a family Joyce listens to the heart
Dr Janet runs the pharmacy Dr Helen with a baby Jenna & Marissa painting trim New school colors
Quilt distribution, Marissa Liz Chuchuca school girls El Tesoro school girls
Lonna makes bubbles Andrea and kids take a selfie Our Team: Janet Lei, Lars Freeman, Joyce Palmer, Carolyn Higgins, Danny Baxter, Kaytlynn Harris, Liz Blair, Jenna Madero, Ledy Hernandez, Dave Laib, Pam Easton, Helen Laib, Andrew Loveall, Amanda Urban, Thad Young, Andrea Young, Lonna Young, Marissa Best