Tortilla's

Tortilla

One of the things I was looking forward to when we got back.

The second installment of our VBS is today - Why can I trust Jesus? Because He loves me.
Our scriptural exhortation is Psalm 56:3 ... When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.

Good song

Found here, something we have sung at our pre-clinic devotions.

And I was able to add a couple of photos to some previous posts ...

Sex Ed

Yesterday, the clinic nurse, Anita Chambers, and I went to the local primary school and taught some basic sex education.

Our target audience was eighth graders. She took the girls, thankfully, and I took the boys.

I discussed some basic anatomy, changes encountered in puberty and STD's. In discussing sex, I tried to stress that we are ready for it when our ability physically, emotionally, financially and scripturally all line up. Despite trying very hard to make it a talk about waiting for the appropriate time and the benefits gained from doing so, it was difficult to not sound like I was just saying "no".

And of course, them being 13-14 year old boys, no one came up after and hugged me and said "thank you, thank you, thank you, that is just what I/we needed to hear" - though I guess that would have concerned me if they did!

A side benefit in teaching this topic was that I realized that we may have been slack in educating our own children. Charity and I came across a series that starts with 3-5 year olds (Book 1), progresses to 6-8 year olds (Book 2), pre-teens(Book 3) and finishes with teenagers (Book 4)

I had no idea that I was already two book behind! The rare parent is ready for this topic.

September showers

A day of showers brought some mixed blessings.

Cooler weather helped us sleep without fans ... though covers are still not needed. And I am sure the cane farmers appreciated it.

But the clinic was slow today, and this ER doctor likes to be busy. And Grattan will attest that the fire ants were driven out of the ground!

Witch doctor

There is a strange (to me) mixture of medicine and belief here. Sometimes it is hard to think through how to think about these things.

In the first place, there are many treatments adhered to that are held over from the ancient Mayans. It seems odd to me that they would do this because the medicines I use have known chemical structures and modes of action - which my "Western" mind tells me is very important. But their medicines are similar in that they have specific indications and in many cases, proven effectiveness. It is helpful, from this perspective, to have a healthy respect for their treatments.

In the second place, there is room in their treatment for the spirit world. My neighbors wife had a headache. This was supposedly because someone sent her a bad spirit as a result of some sort of jealousy. I can't prove whether or not this is so - but I do know there are such things as spirits and demons that afflict us. "Modern" medicine, unfortunately, has removed any consideration of this aspect of our well-being.

Unfortunately, the local witch doctor (their word, not mine) who might equal me on the first count and surpass me on the second, fails on the third. Appealing to gods, the earth or other spirits for healing, he fails to acknowledge the Creator as the true source of healing.

God help me to learn. God help me to teach.

1/8

Today marks the 1/8th part of our time here. It is helpful to keep track like that ... both to see how long we have been here as an encouragement, and how much longer we have in order to put our "plows" to work.

We had our first VBS this morning. We met Jesus and learned that He is God's Son, sent because God loves us. After a time of bible reading, Charity led the children in craft-making (crabs from hand tracing and coloring) and then fed them some snacks. There was 12 attendees today. The way things work, we should anticipate more next week. Definitely pray for watering of these small seeds planted.

Today is a local 6-on-6 soccer tournament. I hope to play and not embarrass myself too much. It "started" at 9am. But this is Belize and things do not work like I am used to. Right now it is 1:30 in the afternoon, and we have yet to start.

Bugs

There is an old missionary joke about how to tell how long a missionary has been on the field.

When served food, if it is their first year, they ask for food to be exchanged if there are bugs in it. If it is their second year, they keep the food and remove the bug themselves. If it is their third year, and the bugs are not too large, they eat the food as is. And if it is their fourth year, and the food has no bugs, they send it back for food with bugs.

Anyway, Charity was reminded of this joke the other night. She was vigorously trying to remove all the bugs from our bed. I asked her to stop and to just please let us sleep!