Pre-Eclampsia is a pregnancy complication that effects some women, usually in the second half of pregnancy. Due to many our consultations being pregnant women, we are always on the lookout for this complication.  

Last week, we had a patient referred to us from a nearby health center for an ultrasound. She was 35 weeks pregnant and it appeared to be a normal prenatal checkup until I pulled her into triage to check her blood pressure......234/118! As you all know, a normal blood pressure is 120/80. At first, I thought that the machine had surely read the pressure wrong, so I did a manual check with my stethoscope and a BP cuff......240/120! At that point I immediately called in Dr. Martin to let him know what was going on. He called for a urinalysis to check for protein in the urine (another sign of pre-eclampsia) and we began trying to lower her BP. The only cure for this complication is to deliver the baby so Dr. Martin contacted the hospital in La Ceiba to schedule an emergency C-section. 

An hour later, after giving her Aldomet (a medication to lower her BP) and monitoring mom and baby she asked if she could go to the bathroom. As she was coming out, she said "nurse my stomach hurts and I think my water just broke." Sure enough, this sweet lady had gone into labor! At this point the only thing we could do was drive her to the hospital in the city because we are not doing surgeries yet. We quickly gathered the supplies we needed and Dr. Martin drove off with the lady and her husband, while Ms. Wendy and I stayed back to give the rest of the patients appointments to come back.

Driving to La Ceiba from Rio Viejo normally takes about an hour, but Dr. Martin made it in record time. During the ride down the patient began feeling stronger contractions and the need to push. Keep in mind she had only been in labor for about 30 minutes. As they were nearing the last village, she told her husband to take off her clothes because the baby was coming!! Dr. Martin began to feel the panic, not wanting to deliver a baby in the vehicle, and started driving faster. As they arrived at the hospital she was crowning. Thankfully, the staff was waiting outside with a gurney to take her immediately inside. Minutes later she delivered a healthy baby girl. We are thankful that both mom and baby are doing well, and that God protected everyone in this situation! 

Here are a few other updates from the jungle:

• Before the pandemic began in March, we had a group from City Hope College who helped us host the third Teacher’s Conference here at the Jungle Hospital. The teachers from our entire Cuenca area participated - almost 100 teachers! The week was filled with dancing, laughter, door prizes, gifts and ended with an amazing opportunity to hear an encouraging word about our Savior.
• We are in quarantine here as well due to the pandemic. The country was shut down completely March 16th and I was “stuck” on the mountain for 10 weeks without leaving the compound. No walks to the river, no grocery shopping, nada.  Talk about going stir crazy! A system was put in place that you could begin circulating one day every two weeks according to the last digit of your ID, so we were finally able to buy groceries again once every two weeks. Masks are required and before you enter any business, they check your temperature, ID number and provide you with gel to clean your hands. Our area also has a military checkpoint at the bottom of the road that checks your ID to make sure it is your day to circulate. On the way home, they make every person get out of their vehicle and they spray you and the vehicle down with a bleach solution. They are being very thorough. The government has now put in place a four-phase system for reopening the country and we are currently in Phase 0. Thankfully, we discovered that with our government issued medical ID's we can go to the city more often if needed. However, the borders remain closed as well as all airports.
• All medical and educational teams have been cancelled for the entire year due to do the virus, which means all our medications are stuck in the U.S. Normally our teams bring down enough medicine and supplies for us to operate a full year. Our interns were also unable to come for the summer. That leaves just the three of us here (Dr. Martin, Ms. Wendy, and me) running the hospital and keeping construction going.
• We have delivered two beautiful babies during the pandemic with more soon to come!
• The expansion project is still in full swing. Construction has taken a bit longer than expected due to the pandemic, but progress is surely being made. The machines came back in June to finish leveling the 8 acres of property where we will build the new family housing. A gate has also been created that connects the current hospital property to the new family housing property. The next step will be securing the property with a fence and starting the construction of the first two houses. That will all take place this year! The volunteer apartments are progressing. The first-floor apartment will soon have the doors, tile and windows installed. Unfortunately, the second-floor apartment is in a holding pattern because of borders being closed. As soon as visitors can enter in the country again, we will have a construction team come to continue work on the second floor.

 
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers! If you feel led to pray, here are a few specific things to pray for: 

1. Continued protection for our staff as we see patients through the pandemic. 
2. Open airports and borders so we can bring much needed medicine & supplies from the US. 
3. Pray for the people of Honduras. 
4. Pray for wisdom for the government during this time of uncertainty. 

 
 
If you feel led to give:
 
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A few days ago I went on an afternoon stroll with a small group of ladies and our goal at the beginning of this hike was to make it to a certain electric pole and then each day after, we would go a little further until we eventually made it to the top of the giant hill. As we were walking (and sweating A LOT) we decided that we were going to keep going and push through until we made it to the top and man were we glad that we kept walking! We made it just in time to see the sun setting over the top of the mountain and it was absolutely beautiful! 


Here's a look at what's been going on here in the jungle:​​
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• On February 20th, we welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world. He was the first jungle baby of 2018! The number of pregnant ladies that we attend has increased since the opening of our L&D ward, so we are anxiously waiting for more babies to be born this year. ​
• In March, we hosted our first midwife conference at the Jungle Hospital. Our goal in hosting this meeting was to equip them with the tools they need so they can safely and knowledgably deliver babies. Dr. Martin and Dr. Amy Wood, a neonatologist from the states, facilitated the event which included teachings and exercises so each midwife felt comfortable with the entire process of delivery, from beginning to end. Ultimately, we would rather all ladies go to the hospital during their delivery, but we know that deliveries happen frequently at home. We had a great time and each midwife walked away with a bag full of what they need for an entire year. 
• The first medical team this year was a group from City Hope Church who was also joined by three Canadian families for a total number of 46....YES, 46 people!! It was an incredible week of ministry which included three medical brigades and five school visits. Many people who joined us from this team had never been to Honduras before.....seeing them experience missions/Honduras for the first time was so refreshing! It was like I was seeing it all again for the first time. 
• I absolutely love it when jungle family comes back to visit! Mark and Heather Younger, who lived and worked here for 6 years, brought their family for a week visit! It was so incredible to have them back in the jungle (even if it was for only a week) and to hear about their goals and dreams for the future. During their stay we finished putting the drop ceiling in the dorm, completed a few other handy projects around and visited a school to provide vitamins and albendazole. I miss them already and can't wait to see them again.
• Our second medical team of the year came from River Valley Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota. This visit was the first medical mission for this church and they knocked it out of the park! From the first moment they stepped foot on campus until they reached the airport on day seven, they were so eager to serve and willing to do so in any capacity. 

So much has happened this year, yet there is so much more to come! Stay tuned....

Busy, busy, busy has been the theme of our summer! We have hosted a number of medical and educational teams and accomplished so much with the help of these amazing groups. I still can't believe that our summer is ending and our interns have gone home. It seems like just yesterday that we were beginning the year 2015! 

If I were to go through each team and tell you of all the things we've done since my last blog, we would be here until next week! So, here are some high points of what's happened since March: 

• We gave away a total 1200 backpacks between our students in Las Minas and here in the Cuenca. 
• With six medical teams we saw more than 1600 patients out on brigade.
• We provided health education, gave out vitamins, de-wormed and presented the gospel to more than 1800 students. 
• We painted (4 classrooms, the exterior and the latrines), remodeled and decorated the school in the village of Toncontin.
• We installed shoe molding in the Labor and Delivery portion and the ER of the hospital.
• We had a group install the Operating Room lights, scrub sink, and equipment in the OR.
• We FINALLY finished clearing out all of the cardboard boxes. Praise the Lord!
• An AC unit has been installed in the back of the hospital.

We wouldn't have been able to complete this long list of things without our groups and our AWESOME JTeam. I'm so thankful that God knows our needs and sent us an amazing group of interns to help us serve this summer. 

For a quick view of what we've accomplished, check out the slideshow below. 

Have you ever taken a moment to just stop and take in everything that is going on around you? These past few weeks have been incredible for me. I've taken the time to look at my surroundings and see where God has brought me in just the two short years of being in Honduras. WOW! God is such a big God.

Mid-May, we had a team of Canadian nurses join us for a week of ministry. This was a week of firsts here at the jungle hospital. This was our first team of only nurses, so put on our thinking caps in order to come up with something new and creative for them to do. Our nurses helped us host our first ever women's health screening here in our village of Rio Viejo. During our screening, we checked Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Weight and BMI on nearly 100 women. WOW! Two new diabetics and two new hypertensives were discovered and are now being treated at our hospital.

Later that week, we hiked up to the villages of Nueva Suyapa and La Lucha for some school visits and camping. Finishing these two schools, helped us complete a 100% first visit to all of our schools here in the Cuenca. This is the first time that has ever been done.

This past year we received two containers full of medical equipment and supplies. Our storage unit that we had would not fit all of the boxes, so we ended up storing them in the back of the hospital. The second container, that was donated by Samaritans Purse, we were allowed to keep the actual container. We connected this container to the old one, insulated them and installed an AC unit so that our medical supplies will have a longer life. Once these were connected, we began the huge task of transferring boxes from the hospital, into the awesome, new storage containers.

BEFORE PICTURES:   

Two weeks ago, we had an incredible team come down from HPC in Louisiana. With the help of these guys and our J-Team, we were able to complete so many tasks. We hosted two days of clinic, went out on a brigade in the village of El Paraiso where we saw 92 patients and 60 students, and we completed many projects around the hospital:

AFTER PICTURES:

In two weeks we will receive a group of students from Lee University. We are excited to be hosting medical brigades and school visits with these guys. I'm believing that God is going to touch the lives of many people. Keep us in your prayers as we finish out the summer strong with many teams from the states.

1 Corinthians 10:31: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

I realize that it has been a few months since I've posted updates on what's been going on around here, Well, I'm going to try and catch you guys up month by month. 

December was filled with lots of family, friends and fun. I returned to the states mid-December to visit family for the Holidays. Needless to say, it was a blast getting to hang out with my family. We had game nights, movie nights, and we ate A LOT! I'm pretty sure we had about five Christmas dinners before it was over haha :) What can I say, we are from the south! 

While I was away spending time with my family in the states, we had a container full of medical supplies/equipment that arrived in Honduras. Brandi, the Younger's, and myself were all in the states, which meant that Dr. Martin and his family were the only ones there to receive the container. They were able to recruit some guys from the village to come down and help unload that thing. The container was dropped off right in front of the hospital and all of the boxes were unloaded into the courtyard. Brandi and I had a lot of work waiting for us back at the hospital! 

January came along and it was time for me to head back down to Honduras to begin the new year of teams and visitors. Once we arrived, our duties were to figure out what everything was in those boxes and try to put them away out of the courtyard. In the midst of our "war with boxes", we were also preparing for our Las Minas Christmas/Back to School Bash for about 600 kids in a village four hours away from us. On our container, Samaritan's Purse sent us Care Packs. Inside those care packs, there was notebooks, pencils, rulers, erasers, stickers, etc. Things that a child would need to start school. We were able to put a care pack in each of the 600 gifts for those kids!!!

Toward the end of January, we were able to take those 600 gifts to the village of Las Minas and distribute them. As we were arriving, there we more than 600 people, including parents and children, waiting for us. It took a few minutes to get everyone organized by grades and gender. Once we were finished giving away gifts to those wonderful children, we stayed to give consult to our patients there. We stayed overnight in the clinic, sleeping in our hammocks and enjoying the peaceful night with no electricity.  The next day, we gave consult again during the morning and were on our way home to Rio Viejo by lunch time. 

February rolled around we were getting ready to welcome our first team of the season from Florida, along with beginning our first ever school blitz. During a school blitz, we provide each student with vitamins, de-worm them and we do a quick reminder that they should remember to wash their hands and brush their teeth. We also used this time to cover each school and community in prayer for the beginning or their school year. 

We began our school Blitz here in Rio Viejo and the village of Paraiso. For the students in Rio Viejo, we had extra Christmas bags and school care packs left from our outreach in Las Minas. So, each student in Rio Viejo received a Christmas gift and a care pack to start out the year. In the village of El Paraiso, every student also received a care pack along with vitamins and de-worming. It's was so amazing to see how excited these kids were to receive these packs and vitamins! 

Now it was about time for the Across the Globe team to be here. Before they arrived, we had to make sure that everything was in order. You could call it, Spring Cleaning!! Basically, we went through the buildings on the whole property making sure that everything was clean, dusted and put in order for the season to begin. We were also remodeling some things in our dorm. It looks FANTASTIC by the way. You guys should come down and see the cool things that are happening down here!!! :) 

The team arrived February 15th. We spent the week with Across the Globe, hosting medical brigades and participating in the school blitz. That week, we reached more than 500 patients and more than 300 students!!! Come on Jesus!!! 

We finished out the month of February with the Senecal Family, who stayed a week longer than their team. Mr. Doug, a Physician's Assistant, worked in the clinic Monday-Wednesday and his awesome wife, Lauren, helped us in organizing the mountain of scrubs that we had just gotten from the container. They also helped us reach more children on Thursday and Friday by doing more school visits in Yaruca, El Pital, El Naranjo and Las Mangas.

March was also filled with lots of work and FUN! The first weekend in March, Dr. Martin, Mrs. Wendy, Rachel, Brandi and I, traveled to Siguatepeke for a 3 day missionary retreat. We were able to participate in bible sessions, worship and fellowship with more that 240 missionaries from all over Honduras. It was a great weekend getaway. 

On our way back from Siguatepeke, we stopped in San Pedro Sula to pick up Dr. Bunch, a Cardiologist, and his daughter to spend the week with us in Rio Viejo. These guys were from Fairhope, Alabama. During this week, we were able to pull our our new EKG machine and run some tests on our hypertensive patients. We also broke out one of our cardiac monitors from the back so that Dr. Bunch could show us how to use it. Now, we are set up to run EKG's! We have been using our machine weekly performing tests. We hope to continue to do this and get a baseline EKG for all of our patients with high blood pressure. 

Dr. Bunch and his daughter left on Friday and our next team from Bay Community Church arrived on Saturday afternoon. These guys were awesome. They were a group of thirteen people, some medical and some non-medical, who came to serve with complete enthusiasm. This week, we held medical brigades and continued working on our school blitz. These guys helped us see more than 300 patients and 281 students!!! 

BCC left the following Saturday. The next week, we had no group, but our patient days were FILLED with people. Each day we had more than 30 people at consult. 

The next week, our roofing crew came from Alabama. They consisted of Mr. Tim, Mr. Bryan and Pastor Steven Metcalf! These guys came to assist Mark in putting a roof on two buildings. They were the most hard working guys! They pulled 12 hour days out in the hot sun. Now, King George, our new bus, has a place to be parked. I have to say, it was pretty cool having Pastor Steven here in Honduras. He is the first person to come down that is connected to me. He had a blast and is hoping to come back soon and bring a team down! I can't wait to have him back!!

As of right now, we don't have any visitors/teams here. However, this weekend, we are hosting an important guy from Texas. He will be here a few days to scout out our Operating Room in hopes of helping us with obtaining the rest of the equipment that is needed to make the OR functional. We are also hoping to get the OR and Labor and Delivery Ward certified and operational soon. Please be with us in prayer as he is here. Pray that God's will be done and that divine appointments are set up in order to get this OR and L & D ward up and running.

The next few weeks are filled with projects and working on finishing up our school blitz. We are hoping to have a 100% first visit rating this year. We are only two schools away from our goal! We love our schools, which consists of nearly 1,500 students and 87 teachers. We are praying that God work through them to reach their communities and that they will continue being educated into their high school years. I'm believing that these students can become spiritual leaders! 

Now that we are all caught up on what has happened these past few months, here is a slideshow to show you guys in pictures what has been going on around here. Thank you for continuously supporting and praying for me. I pray that God bless you a hundred fold!!  

Howdy folks! I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and friends. This year, I had the pleasure of spending my first Thanksgiving here in Honduras. Although I missed my family, I ended up having a wonderful time!

Before I begin telling you all about Thanksgiving, let me take you to a few days before. We are currently in our rainy season, however, it has been a fairly dry season until last week. The rains began and didn't seem to stop for DAYS!! We had originally planned to travel up the mountain to Urraco and have a big feast with all of the missionaries from up and down the mountain. Due to the rain that never ended, our once small creek turned into a raging river that prevented anyone from crossing to go up the mountain. This usually happens when it rains non-stop for days.

We currently have two students from IER spending their vacation serving at the hospital. Brandi and I are teaching them how to check blood pressure, pulse and weight, along with other things that take place around the hospital. Because of the rain last Wednesday, the girls were stuck, unable to get home. They ended up staying in the apartment beside ours for the night. I have to say, they were the cutest things. 

They live minimally in a village way up in the mountains where there is no electricity. To them, it was like they were staying in a five star hotel.  They LOVED our rug! I guess you could say that Brandi and I were their moms for the night. We talked about life and cultural differences, fed them dinner and then we watched The Little Mermaid. This was only the third movie that they've seen in their entire lives! They loved it and were still talking about the movie the next morning! Once the movie ended, they went into their rooms for a nights rest, but were right back over with us as soon as they woke up. On Thursday morning, Thanksgiving day, the creek was still to high to pass. They stayed with us and helped us cook for our Thanksgiving lunch. They were able to see a piece of our Thanksgiving tradition. A little after lunch, the creek had gone down enough for them to cross in the bus and go home.

Even though the river had gone down enough to cross, it was still raining. We didn't get to go up to Urraco, because the river could go back up at any time and we didn't want to get stuck away from home. We ended up staying in Rio Viejo and having a nice lunch with all of the ones that were stuck on this side of the river.

To end a wonderful Thanksgiving day, the Williams invited us over for a Christmas tree decorating party! We ate MORE food, decorated the tree and ended the night with a movie. It truly was a wonderful day.

The rain continued for the next 3 days, the electricity was out most of those days along with the internet and water. Thank God for bucket baths and board games :)

The festivities continued on Sunday with another, more traditional, Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with our staff and family members that were here. All in all, it was a wonderful week, despite the rain and power outages. I'm thankful for wonderful friends and family that I've made here in the jungle.