December 18, 2004
Our little family visited the States from November 10 to December 10 for Marilyn's sister, Katherine's, wedding. The time before we left was a flurry, getting all the projects we were working on finished.
We finished making 600 cement blocks for a cement house in the village. We also bought wood and started construction to finish a house for some orphans and old people that was partially constructed.
The trip to the states took 3 days and 4 different planes each way. All went smoothly and the wedding went well. We were greatly blessed to be able to give a presentation in 4 different churches, every weekend We were home.
People donated supplies and money for the mission, with which more supplies were bought. Marilyn and I are truly grateful for everyone's generosity. We returned with one box of clinic supplies and medicine, and one box of items for the people here. We also brought some things that we can't buy here, like a transit, come-a-long, cutting torch, and baby scale.
Upon their return to Francia, We found everything in order and looking very nice. The Pastor of the area (Pastor Santos Rimerez) is living here. He did a good job of keeping everything safe. In addition, there were lots of little construction improvements.
We have now been back a week now. We are settled back in and it seems like we hadn't left.
Yesterday afternoon, Friday, while cleaning and getting ready for Sabbath, a truck drove into the mission. The truck was bringing a pregnant woman from a village one hour's drive away. She got on the examination table in the clinic. Marilyn asked her questions while she quickly assessed her. She had been in normal labor, and then at 1:00 a.m., the witch doctor had given her a potent of herbs to "help" her. Her labor had stopped and she had not felt the baby since that time.
Marilyn quickly found the woman’s blood pressure was extremely low. The baby had almost been born, but now was dead. Another ½ hour or less of labor and healthy baby would have been born. Suspecting internal bleeding, Marilyn decided she needed to be transported to the nearest town, 2 hours away over our bumpy road.
Ten minutes later with an IV started and the group were on their way. We delivered the woman to the hospital, where every doctor available was consulted and worked on her. The doctors at the hospital confirmed the baby was dead, but were unable to restart labor. She had to be transported, ASAP, to a place where a C-section could be preformed. I left after an hour and got back home late Friday evening.
Then this morning, Sabbath, at 5:30 we were awakened in the dark to the sound of a siren. You have to remember we are 2 hours drive from the nearest city, and 5 hours from the next. In all the time we have been here in Nicaragua, we have never heard a siren, not even in the few times we have been in the towns. The siren went on for ½ hour or so, getting closer and closer until it came to our gate. We rushed down and opened the gate, and a government ambulance came in with its lights all flashing. Of course we figured it was another emergency, so we were up and dressed had the clinic gear ready to leave.
It was the government doctor over this whole area. They had been transporting the woman we had taken to the hospital Friday night to the more advanced hospital in Puerto Cabezes and she died in transit. They stopped on their way to the woman’s village to tell us the news. This woman leaves a surviving husband and 5 children.
This Sabbath we are saddened by the marked presence of sin in the world. It strikes much closer to home when you live here. We look forward to the time when Jesus will come and “wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
In His work, Clint and Marilyn, Francis Sirpi, Clinica Adventista, Nicaragua
Donation address w/receipt: Goldendale SDA Church, PO Box 71, Goldendale, WA 98620, memo to South American Missions.
