Always something different

It is almost 10 PM as I sit here outside the wireless connection at Misión Victoria. I was going to do post this blog 2 hours ago, but as I was eating my cerviche tostados we got word of a patient arrival. It turned out that she needed a lot of care, so I just got away to post this.

Language School at Roca Blanca!

Eric, Timothy, Correen and Issac Anderson with Spanish Academy director Dave Nelson

Maestra Paulina and Joanne with Paulina and Dr. Eder's little girl, Nelly

This January David Nelson started the Spanish Language academy with 5 students. The Anderson’s are a family of four preparing to work in a children’s home north of here in Oaxaca. Joanne, the other student, is getting ready to start her Master’s work in ESL and wants to experience learning Spanish as an adult.

I try to check in with them to see how they are doing often. Eddie and I both remember what a challenge it was to study this intensive language curriculum. We fixed dinner together Wednesday night, fried chicken and baked potatoes! On the weekend I showed them how to use the micro to go to Puerto Escondido, and I introduced Joanne to her first Tlayuda! They seem to be doing good. They are smiling a lot more this week than last week. I cannot think of a better place to study Spanish than Roca Blanca!

Bethany from Lancaster, PA experiencing her first Tlayuda!

...and more students

Vernessa with little David Solomon

Last Friday we received a group of student from Elim Bible Institute, Lima, New York. Elim is a missionary training school that is over a century old.

Drs. Dave and Mary Kay, and Clinica Corban are hosting a Community Health Assessment and Development course for medical missionary students. Today we started classes with Dr. Jody, a pediatrician and missionary who lives north of here in Zihuatanejo. Jody works with CHE (Community Health Evangelism), a global community health mission organization. She is with us for a week teaching a effective, holistic model for improving community health and sharing the gospel.

I will be attending as many of the class hours as my clinic responsibilities will allow. We began today by looking at the scriptural imperatives of living in the Kingdom of God; God’s plan for His people to live in the fear of the Lord and worship Him, as well as be stewards to nurture His creation. God’s word directs us to act “justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8). And we spent a lot of time discussing what that meant.

Dr. Jody helping us consider how to involve community involvement and ownership of their own health projects

We considered what many have called “the social gospel” which seeks to meet the social and physical needs with little recognition of the individual’s need for a Savior. One of the students said that was like getting them all cleaned up and nice and pretty for hell.

And also we recognized that to just preach the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ without obeying his mandate to be stewards and to stand strong for justice was ignoring the whole gospel.

Rosie and Angela show how the community's solutions to their own problems can be more sustainable and effective than those solutions brought in by outsiders

It was a stimulating time, including thoughts on how to utilize community health models including missionaries, health care professionals and individual members of the community.

If you have read any of my blogs or heard me share about the indigenous group we work with in the mountains of Oaxaca, you are aware of the darkness and the emotional and physical health issues we deal with. This afternoon we looked at the beliefs that were the roots of the values that lead to the behaviors (domestic violence, witchcraft, drunkenness, kidnapping young girls to make them wives) that result in the consequences of poverty, depression, illness, illiteracy and hopelessness that dominates the Mixteco people that come to our mountain clinics.

Katlyn and Katie assessing and assigning care to patients!

We agreed that their belief that God doesn’t love them results is no hope and no vision. We believe that this is key to understanding the health problems of the Mixteco. Recognizing this we talked about how we can bring in hope and model the love of God, and how evangelism can be relevant to the needs of a community. Medicines, sanitation and clean water is just the tip of the iceberg.

And today was just the first day!

Dr. Jody cited Multiplying Light and Truth Through Community Health Evangelism by Stan Rowlands. I hope to obtain this book when I return to the States.

Finding ways to make Community health evangelism practical

As I listen to Jody’s teaching I am inspired to consider what God would have me do with this information. When I left Seattle 3 weeks ago, I told Eddie that I thought God had something to say to me while I was here alone without him. Hopefully many of you know what it is to have an experience or hear a message that gets your attention, and you go to the Lord and say “is this going to change my life?”

So if any of you out there are still thinking that you want to get involved with our work in medical missions, or community health outreach…keep your ears open. We may be getting together latter this year to begin considering what God may have us do.

Life without Eddie

Well, I am grateful for a good phone connection (when I walk 4 stories up to the top of the guest house) and I talk to him every other day, at least.

Just a little info on my life here without Eddie. God has blessed us with such wonderful friends here. Berta (Bertha) comes from upstate New York with Drs. Dave and Mary Kay. She has become a close friend, and my partner in crime. We can get rather silly, and she goes right along when I make up words to some old Mexican ballad about the guacamole.

Berta came to the U.S. from Colombia when she was 16. My grandmother’s mother was born in Colombia, and Berta sounds, and acts…and tells stories like my grandma used to do. Sometimes I hear her down the hall telling one of her stories, and it sounds just like my grandma with all the exaggerated expressions, with the same vocal cadence and the same accent. Perhaps my family will even look at her picture and see a little resemblance! She is a great comfort to me.

I have moved into a tiny room in our bodega (storeroom) but as my air-conditioner is still in route, I am using Dr. Eder and his wife Paulina’s room (they are not using it this week!) Their air-conditioner works and I have been enjoy comfortable nights of sleep!

Yes it is hot! The students keep saying, “I cannot believe it is January”. But this is a normal January for me since I have spent every January in Mexico since 2004. As usual I am covered with mosquito bites, I think my repellent must be out of date. But all the same, this is still the most beautiful of places. Sunrises and sunsets, palm trees, water lilies, beautiful white herons, dramatic magpie jays, funny little geckos, and the crashing surf…and in the evening a cool breeze off the water, yes I am glad to be here.

Just wish Eddie was here too.

Roca Blanca Again! with a difference (sigh)

Well, here I am again listening to the sound of waves with the sticky feeling of sweat and bug repellant on my arms and legs. I am sitting outside the mission office grateful to have internet service and also grateful that the air is cooling down. The heat is pretty constant here year round, it is either hot and humid, or hotter and miserable. But right now it is pretty nice.


We saw the Oklahoma Baptist University nursing students off this morning, and I took it easy most of the day. Dr. Eder, Dr. Mary Kay and I just now saw one of our old diabetic patients, dressed his new wound, and gave him a big injection of Rocephin, then I rushed over to the comedor to eat a couple cow's liver tacos.

I arrived a week ago at Roca Blanca. When I arrived the nursing students had already been here for a week. I arrived on Friday night and on Sunday morning we left for two day medical outreach. I also filled the roll that both Eddie and I usually perform together, showing the team around Puerto Escondido on their off days. I took them shopping and showed them where to find the various gifts and goods they were looking for. Then we went to El Jardin for Franco's fantastic pizza.

the team purchased kilos of fresh coffee at "La Casita"

Playa Manzanilla

Yesterday Laura, our clinic director, took them snorkeling while my partner in crime, Berta, helped me do the rest of their shopping. Juggling their money and their lists was a real feat. We ran all over the Benito Juarez Public Market looking for tortilla presses and lime squeezers. But I finished in time to join them at the beach and have some tacos dorados and limonada con aqua mineral!

Yucucha'a

Two days after I arrived at the base we left for the Mixteco town of Yucucha’a, about two hours up the coast in the foothills.

We saw about 100 patients and enjoyed good fellowship with the Mixtec Christians of Pastor Baltezar’s church. We enjoyed their hospitality and even got to join in on a birthday party. The most memorable part of the outreach, beside some very interesting cases, was dancing with Adina and her husband.

The birthday girl dancing with her husband

Dr. Mary Kay and OBU Master's student Brenda get down!

I interpreted Spanish to English for Dr. Dave Ness for a day and a half. We did use a Mixtec interpreter, but many of these villagers spoke a lot of Spanish. We saw many interesting cases. One 15 year old girl presented with what Dr. Dave said would be diagnosed “tuberculosis until proven otherwise”. She was cachectic (skeletally thin), had a chronic cough, blood tinged sputum, night sweats and fever (102.1). We saw a woman with uncontrolled diabetes who needed to be on insulin, a man with emphysema and one with alcohol induced hepatitis and a woman with a possible mild bowel obstruction.

With emphysema, this patient gave the students the opportunity to hear many kinds of abnormal lung sounds

There are times the mobile clinic setting is limiting. We found ourselves having to refer many of those we saw to the hospital. Some had already been to the hospital but had not received sufficient care and treatment, so Dr. David and Laura had to write letters to the hospitals to make recommendations which we hope will be heeded.

We also saw a thin, lethargic young mother with the most doleful expression, who brought us her one year old. She said he wouldn’t eat. Indeed, he wasn’t quite 20 pounds, his skin was dry, his hair was dull and patchy on his head, and he was fretful as his mother held him. She said he didn’t eat more than a little tortilla, and some atole (gruel made with milk and cereal). She admitted that he drank refrescos (sodapop) and dulces (candy), but he refused to eat beans or other foods, and refused to drink milk.

We did some teaching and I tried to encourage the mother to take the child to the public heath center where they could register her children in a program for malnutrition, and maybe assist and teach her. After she left, our interpreter said she knew the family, that the husband smoked marijuana and mistreated the young mother, and that they could not afford good food. She was so depressed, I pray that she has the motivation to take advantage of what the government has to offer them.

Where's Eddie?

Well, as you may realize, Eddie did not accompany me to Oaxaca this year. He is busy working on getting Riverclay Studio completed. Hopefully he will start working in the clay by the time I get back in March.

We have many friends here at Roca Blanca. Everyone I see wants to know where Eddie is. They all miss him, he is such an important part of our work here. It has been one week, and though I do miss him, I more regret his absence because of how others value his presence,. He brings such encouragement and laughter to everyone, and he has made so many friends.

Well It is getting late, and my battery is running low so I will say good night.

Christmas Blessings!...don't miss the video at the end...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is just a few days away and although I have spent aimless and unproductive days where I could have been writing Christmas cards these last couple months have been so busy that we have been overwhelmed.

As you may know Eddie is opening a ceramics studio in old downtown Mount Vernon. The building we purchased has been a challenge. We are fixing it up for not only a studio and show gallery, but also for us to live in. Our 5^th wheel “cabin” located in the Alger community called Whatcom Meadows will soon be our "weekend cabin" as we join the downtown community.

This will be our kitchen!

Micah putting in the floor in the loft

We have spent many a day, morning to night, working. After the loft is livable, the clay studio needs to be outfitted and Eddie needs to begin working on his art. We have two potter’s wheels but Eddie is currently focused on hand built pieces and developing new decorative techniques. A few family members, including myself are looking forward to getting our hands muddy and seeing where our creativity will take us.

So, you may wonder, are we going to Oaxaca this year? Well, yes and no.

On January 7^thI will be returning to the mission where we have worked for the past 6 years. I plan to stay at Roca Blanca for two months.

It will be difficult in many ways going without Eddie. I have spent several weeks there without him before, and quite honestly, I missed him terribly. Also, Eddie’s contribution to the clinic outreaches as well as what his humor and ability to build relationships brings to the experience of our visiting teams will be missed. But it is essential that he stay, work on the studio and begin what has been a longtime dream.

As I prepare to go I look forward to working with Laura and David Nelson, Drs. Mary Kay and Dave Ness, and our dear friend Bertha, as well as the Mexican clinic staff.

with Drs. Dave and Mary Kay at a Clinic family bbq

I will be returning to Roca Blanca after 10 months absence. There have been many babies born while we were away, I am eager to hold them and see their parents who are dear to us and are part of our Mexican family life.

There are new programs and groups this year, Medical missionary students from Elim Bible, the new language academy and others. When we return there is always some kind of change in staff and housing. It is always a little scary to know that I am going into a new situation.

distributing medications and giving administration directions with Inez who is interpreting Spanish to Mixtec

Still every year the Father proves His faithfulness. The new faces of the outreach teams, the open hearts, the longing to know God’s presence, the desire to serve, this is what outreach teams bring with them from the states. What they bring gives me life which I seek to return to them as I minister to them.

The faithful missionaries like the Nelsons and the Kershners at Roca Blanca, or PastorMiguel and Pastor Carmela in the Ixtayutla region, or dear Rebecca and Arnulfo in Nopala inspire and challenge me with their faith, constancy, and honesty dealing with real life and big challenges. Sometimes for me all I do is arrive and let God do His work.

Brrr...it's cold!

Unlike Mexico, it is cold here in Washington in December! Eddie and I did have a months respite from the cold when we made a visit south to Cofradia where our daughter lives.

We spent a few days with friends who have a schooner in Mazatlan with our family! Here is our granddaughter Elisabeth.

Kai kept us on our toes, he seemed to get a little seasick when we went sailing, he didn't say so, but he got real quiet and just wanted to sleep. But we did have a wonderful time...and saw the first whale of the season!

It was great joy to me to see my grandson helping with the rigging. Thank you Pat and Jeanne for your hospitality and kindness to our family. If anyone plans to be in Mazatlan check out the Schooner Patricia Belle for a wonderful diversion. www.patriciabelle.com/

A time for Thankfulness

This has been a difficult month for me physically. I am not used to the cold which creeps into my joints and makes everything an effort and saps my motivation. I find myself wanting to whine and complain.

But then I remember a sermon our youngest son Micah gave at Thanksgiving this year. The point was that we are so blessed (and Eddie and I are SO VERY blessed) and yet we complain when things are not perfect and in so doing we ignore what God HAS done for us and in so doing display our ingratitude for His goodness.

I have been so guilty of this.

Little neighbor Nathan with Sarah, Grace and Josh at the Christmas parade in Mount Vernon, we watched from outside of Riverclay Studio, our downtown studio location!

So, may Eddie and I express our gratitude to God, and to you dear friends for your love this year. Look at what we have to be grateful for!

Eddie hold Damien, our newest grandbaby. How happy we are to be able to be close to them. We rarely say "no" when our kids ask us to babysit.

We celebrated Christmas early with Micah's kids as this year they are going to spend Christmas with Amanda's mom in Montana.

Joyous Christmas to you

So as our Christmas greeting to you, may you rejoice and be comforted by a grateful heart this year. As you look into the new year may you be held by the knowledge that God's faithfulness never fails. And may you care for those you love and hold them close.

Thank you for your prayers in 2009, for your love and kindnesses towards us and our children.

Love Eddie and Leeann

P.S. I would like to share a song that has ministered to me this Christmas

Gavilanes...one little Cora church

On November 11 we flew from Santiago to Gavilanes, a small, inaccessible Cora village perched up on a rugged mountain deep in the Sierra Madres in the Mexican state of Nayarit. We had been invited by Pascual the pastor of a small group of Cora believers.

Gavilanes is north of Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. It can be reached from the end of the road by 6 hours on a donkey, or by foot...or by plane in 25 minutes.

A phone call informed us that our host was transporting bags of cement on donkey train all day long and wouldn't be back until dark on the day we arrived. So we were left to find a place to wait.

The airstrip runs through the center of town. We were let out of the plane and the pilot said he would pick us up at 9 in the morning on the 13th. We talked to someone who said that Pascual lived "over by those trees" and so we headed off in that direction. When we got to where we thought the house might be one of the few people passing us said that Pascual wasn't there. So we sat down in front of a house, in the shade and waited.

It turns out the place where we found to rest was Pascual's house. It was right across the street from the Albergue, a boardinghouse for children who had to travel to Gavilanes to go to school.

Soon a giggly little girl appeared and told us that her daddy was Pascual. Soon her grandmother came out, greeted us, and led us just one house down and showed us simple rooms that had been prepared for us. We had been waiting on Pascual's doorstep. There were two rooms swept clean, with beds where we stretched out and fell asleep.

We woke starved, I was wishing that we had packed a lunch, as our host and hostess were not to return until later. They had not expected us until the next day. But their daughters Ester (9) and Delicia (12) made us some hot tortillas and served us water....and did that simple meal taste wonderful!

It got dark early it seemed and by 6:30 P.M. the Milky Way was bright in the sky. Lina arrived, and then Pascual and we ate some more tortillas and a little eggs with tuna and talked into the night.

A lonely Cora church
Earlier that day, as we sat in the car waiting for the plane to take us to Gavilanes, Jay outlined his purpose for our visit. He said we would be going to encourage Pascual and the church and also assessing how to support Pascual's ministry without creating dependency.

In Oaxaca we work with a Mixtec church that is well supported in many ways, with fellowship, leadership, plus physical and medical support. They know that they are not alone. But here on this mountain is a man called of God, and his extended family with very few other believers for miles around.

Pascual sharing his testimony and what it is like being the only Cora believers in their village. It is quite a remarkable story. His father's testimony is also remarkable. Make no mistake, God can make Himself known to the seeking heart without a missionary if need be.

Of course everyone hears about the believers who are out by themselves, alone, persecuted by those around them. But this was the first time I witnessed the hunger for fresh springs of living water from a visiting minister. Pascual quickly called together the church of about 10 adults and we had meetings at 10 AM and then again at 6 PM.

Jay preaching on the importance of using the gifts God gives us to serve the body.

Preaching to the Cora
To reach the heart of a people the gospel needs to be presented in the language of their heart. And so Jay and Faith have been working at learning Cora, studying and having biweekly sessions with their "maestro" in Mojocuautla, the Cora village nearest their home and mission base in Cofradia de Cuyatlan. Jay and Faith lived with their family in Mojocuautla last year to try and get closer to the culture.

Jay and Faith found that the language of the Cora in Gavilanes was clearer and more precise than what they are trying to learn. However, although there are those who do not understand Spanish, almost all of the people, especially the children, speak Spanish. This is very different from the areas we serve in Oaxaca where only the men seem to speak Spanish.

Jay with his "Proclaimer" the New Testament in Cora. The battery is rechargeable by plugin, crank and solar power.



The Cora Church in Gavilanes


Lina and Pascual sing a duet.



The Cora people in this village are very different than the Mixtec we work with in Oaxaca. They are open and friendly, the little girls giggling as they walked by us. They responded with "buenos dias" as we greeted them. Eddie and I were used to suspicious looks and avoidance in regard to strangers such as ourselves and were impressed with the difference.


Pascual and Lina's children, Ester 9, Delicia 12, Eliezar 1 and Josue 4. They have two teenagers in a school in Durango.

Eddie and I have made more trips up into the mountains and eaten more indian prepared tortillas than we can count, but we have rarely had this kind of reception. The kind where you are given the best beds, and when you eat you know that the people can barely spare what they are giving you.

Breakfast, yes, that's a blue tortilla!

The most trying part of the trip was the bathroom situation. Simply, almost no one has bathrooms. When we asked Delicia where to go she looked at us blankly and gestured toward the hillside that drained downward toward the canyon. There is a boarding home for the school which serves other villages in the area and on three occasions Faith and I asked permission to use their bucket flush toilets (oh, ah, heaven!)

The bathroom area, not the shack. Actually, it didn't smell, and the pigs seemed to keep it pretty clean.

But at night we had to walk out to the hillside to the communal toilet area turn off our flashlight and squat in the dark. Gratefully most people experience convenient constipation in these situations.
We toured the Central Salud, a clinic manned by one doctor and aide which serves at least 5 Cora villages in the region.

Merchandise and supplies are brought in either by plane or donkeys.

There is always a little celebration when you return to toilets and civilization. We celebrated by going to SUBWAY!

One last word, please keep Jay and Faith and their children in your prayers as they seek how they are to fulfill their call of "church planting" among the unreached Cora people.

Fear of Flying

This blog has turned into two, just because once I started writing it got too long. Ever since I watched Julia and Julie I have been self-conscious about blogs that are all about me, but here goes.

When I arrived in Jay and Faith's village we began to discuss the trip to the Cora village, Gavilanes. I found that as Jay described the area as one that had been evangelized by Hermana Fe and her husband as early as 1964, I became more and more anxious about the impending small plane ride up into the mountains.

It so happens that Hermana Fe was widowed the first time when her pilot husband crashed, and then widowed again when her second pilot husband crashed as well. It didn't help that the mechanic that worked on our car told me of a trip he made in the same area by plane. The next time his pilot went up, he flew into the mountainside and died.

When I realized that I was becoming depressed I wrote a few letters to some praying friends who I knew would hold me up in prayer. How wonderful are those faithful women.

I was calm when we arrived at the airstrip. Then, as the pilot and Jay discussed the cost of the flight, it was determined that we could not afford to take the plane that would hold all of us (four adults) and our gear. So the pilot began asking our weights, and determined that it should be okay for us all to take the smaller plane. We left about a third of our gear in the car, loaded the rest in the back of the plane, and climbed in.


I was so grateful to be the "Señora". The pilot gave me the only available seat. The others had to pile in and sit on our luggage on the floor of the plane. Hmmm, I had been comforting myself with the expectation that the pilots who had crashed their planes were in old planes without the modern equipment and instruments....yeah right!



There in front of me was nothing that remotely resembled "state of the art." the radio appeared to be ripped out, replaced by an ill-fitting unit attached to headphones that were lying on the dash the whole time during the trip.

Still I was calm. And as I looked at the fuel gauges in front of my nose I saw that they were bouncing on EMPTY. Hmmm, I nonchalantly motioned to the gauges and the pilot who had been chatting loudly the whole flight, pointing out the landscape and towns, laughed and said those where the auxiliary tanks. Then he pointed to other gauges that we bouncing just below the FULL level.



And as he continued to talk, he had learned to fly in Sacramento, California, I leaned my head against the window peering down at the lush mountains, rugged canyons and winding riverbeds. I was calm the whole time with that strange kind of peace that I hope you understand. The kind that says, "hmmm, where would be a good place to land in a pinch...or crash, hmmm" and almost lulls you to sleep. That is the peace that passes understanding.



Later the others said it was bumpy, the pilot said we were fighting a headwind, but I was singing to myself...

"He is no fool, if he would chose
to give the things he cannot keep to buy
what he can never lose.
To see a treasure in one soul
that far outshines the brightest gold.
He is no fool, he is no fool"--Twila Paris

Gavilanes


The trip back was great, a quick 25 minutes...such beautiful scenery.

In January I will be flying from Seattle to Houston on a big jet, then taking a smaller jet (the kind with one seat on one side of the aisle and two on the other) the rest of the way to Oaxaca. As I get older I am finding that flying is harder the more I do it rather than easier. But I do believe it is a choice to believe and trust when the flight is out of obedience to the call.

The song I sang flying back to Santiago was...

Come and join the reapers, all the kingdom seekers
laying down their lives to find them in the end.
Come and share the harvest, help to light the darkness
for the Lord is calling Faithful men. --Twila Paris

Oh that I would be found faithful.

Thank for the prayers!