Tuesday Evening

Today was a hot one in Belize.  The high hit mid-90s by noon and stayed hot all afternoon.  The medical team was in Benque today, a town very close to the Belize's western border with Guatemala about a one-hour drive from the BTC.  The church was not available, so the clinic was held in a home.  This in itself was a challenge, and the heat only made it more difficult.  Despite these challenges, the team saw over 100 patients.  After a long day they arrived back after dark for a late dinner.

The construction team made more progress on the sheep barn.  The floor is complete and four roof trusses are up.  Walls and the roof are next.  Materials for the pasture fence were bought and delivered.  Several of the corner posts were cemented in by late afternoon.  Tomorrow more posts will be set and some fencing may be started.

Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.  Jim Burgin has been documenting the clinics and the construction progress, but they have yet to be downloaded for the blog.

After dinner we had our nightly devotion and teams reported their day's work.  We enjoy sharing our day with each other.  Now, after a long hot day we are ready to get clean and have a good restful night.

Until tomorrow.

Monday Evening

Here are some pictures form the medial clinic held today at Camalote Baptist Church. Our doctors, nurses, optometrist, pharmacy and support staff saw many people over the course of the day.  During sharing time after devotions they shared that Jayme, our sonogram technician and Dr. Burton performed a cardio sonogram and diagnosed a heart valve problem that a young woman would not have known about without the procedure at the clinic.  We pray that she will be able to follow up with surgery.  This lady along with many other adults and children received treatment and medicine through the clinic.

A pharmacy is set up at each clinic to dispense meds prescribed by the doctors.

Dr. Luke Burton with a patient. What a joy to have Luke and Kelsea Burton serve alongside Mark and Vicki in the clinics .

Dr. Melanie Orange with a patient.

Vicki Burton assists with vision screening.

Dr. Mark Burton with a patient and Rachael Whittemore translating Spanish.

Dr. Jennifer Smith examining a young boy's eyes, and . . . 

Trying out his new glasses!

Hendrick Suarez serves as a translator, here helping Mary Jane Stahle with instructions for meds.

In addition to meeting the medical needs of individuals, our support staff talks with and gets to know the people.  The lady talking with Carolyn Young in the photo below is a teacher at a nearby school.  She told Carolyn about a high school student she has who has endured the loss of both her parents and a brother within a year.  She has no family or other relatives and is very depressed.  The teacher has a deep concern for her student.  At our devotion time Carolyn told of this encounter and added the student and this teacher to our prayer list.  Please pray for this student and for the teacher.

After dinner, we celebrated Pastor Scott Hagaman's birthday with a cake prepared by Jane and Laticia.  Happy Birthday. Scott!!

And so ends our first day of mission work.  We look forward to an new day tomorrow and the opportunities God will give us here in Belize.