quick update

Dear Family,
It is early in the morning and the children are still asleep, so I thought I would drop you a quick note. Things are going well here. Last Sunday and Monday we worked at our new land in Tronquera. We were there on Sunday, then I went to town to do some Christmas shopping. I met the director of the government hospital who demanded our presence at a meeting on Monday. Since I needed to return to Waspam on Monday, I dropped off Clint at Tronquera to work another day. Clint figured out the amount of land that they "gave" us (they can not give any land away permanently, just lifetime lease). It is almost 160 acres. We found a place not too far away that has good soil for a garden and plantation. We won't be able to plant that right now because there is no one there to tend it. And when we arrive in April it will be the dry season so no planting then. Next June we will be able to plant.
Grandma says she mailed of CD's of pictures and video's to the rest of you so you should get them soon.
The puppies are growing fast but Princess still has them hidden under the porch.
It is raining again.
We put up our Christmas tree yesterday. Now we just need to decorate it. We will take pictures when we get it done. I need to make a few ornaments first. There is plenty of craft stuff here so that will not be a problem.
We made Christmas cookies the other day. They didn't turn out so good. I made a batch of blonde brownies to make up for the poor cookies. That seemed to settle everyone. Anyone have some good cookie recipes from scratch? No mixes down here. :)
Got to run and get Breakfast.
Love
Marilyn

Newsletter November

November 27, 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
What an exciting and busy couple of months. Here are a few recent highlights.

Clinic news
Boy with a fish bone caught in his throat recovered nicely after transporting him to the Hospital in Waspam.
Young girl delivered breech baby. Mother in good health but the baby did not make it. We are continuing to pray for this family.
Young girl delivered health baby boy with the help of prenatals at our clinic and supplies for the midwife delivering the baby.
Young girl delivered a healthy 11 lb little boy by cesarean after she developed pre-eclampsia and was transported by us to the Hospital in Waspam.
Numerous sick babies received antibiotics and recovered nicely.

Mission news
We have a new looking fence at the mission now. The current fence was woven with bamboo pieces to keep the pigs and children out and the dogs in. The added benefit is that it looks really nice.

Village news
We have been beset lately by a number of tropical storms in the ocean near us, resulting in more than normal rain. It has damaged the rice and cassava crops. Some people were still able to harvest but others are left with nothing for the next year.
There have been reports twice this last month that the President of Nicaragua was going to visit Francia Sirpi. Each time it was delayed. He is supposed to visit in December and the people are excited that he is coming.

Runway news
Clint has been working full time on the runway. He has it all cleared of brush and trees. Now that it is getting drier he will be able to burn the piles of brush. He has just started digging the topsoil out so that he can lay a foundation of gravel. It is slow because it is all done by hand.

Personal news
Brandel and Bethany are growing fast. They are both talking up a storm. Brandel is getting pretty good at phrases and concepts. Bethany is still at small phrases and single words. Bethany's longest phrase so far is "Mommy, Bethany need chips". They both like to sing the song Alleluia. They will go around singing it all the time. Brandel turned three in November complete with singing, balloons, presents and cake. It was a highlight for him.

Thank you for all your prayers and gifts. We are extremely blessed and protected by the Lord.
Sincerely,
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

*************
Mailing Address:
Clint & Marilyn Hanley
Tasba Raya Adventist Clinic (TRAC)
Colegio Adventista Porteño
Bo Peter Ferrera
Bilwi - RAAN, Puerto Cabezes
NICARAGUA - CENTRAL AMERICA

hanley@softhome.net
www.hanleymissions.org

Donation Address:
Goldendale SDA Church
PO Box 71
Goldendale, WA 98620
Check Memo: South American Missions

*************

weekly update

I think that you all missed out on the last weekly update. I will see if I can find it and resend it.
Marilyn

October 8, 2005
Dear Family,
Hi. This week has gone quickly. Thursday we went to Waspam. I tried to call both Mom and Dad and Katherine. I thought it was costing me every time I dialed so I didn't want to try any more. It turns out they didn't charge me for the calls that didn't go. I am sorry I couldn't get a hold of anyone.
This week also had an experience with a baby being born feet first. It was a scary experience for the people here since often the baby and the mother die. By the time they got me it was too late for the baby. I was able to deliver the baby the rest of the way, which saved the mother's life. So it was a day of sadness and relief at the same time. It was the first time that I have ever seen or helped with such a birth. We didn't have a good start date for the pregnancy so with estimation we thought she had another month. We knew the baby was not in the right position but thought that the baby would turn in the last month (which a lot of babies do). Well it didn't happen because she was farther along than we thought. So that was exciting for me but also sad. We were not able to revive the baby. I am not sure how long the cord had been pinched before I got there.
Bethany got her MMR on Thursday when we went to Waspam. Brandel understood what was happening and talked about how Bethany was going to get a shot and she was going to cry. He has been watching me give shots to sick babies lately. He sees a sick baby coming and he tells me "no shot, baby cry".
More later
Marilyn

change

Dear Family,
We are heading out this morning. Rilla has everything under control and has the money she needs to survive.
Write to our hanley@softhome.net address only from now on. We will be checking it on the road.
God Bless!
Clint and Marilyn & Kids

hello to all

June 25, 2005
Dear Family,
We are doing well this week. Only a 10 more days till we leave. We are working semi-frantically to get everything done before we leave.
Clint put a new metal door on the clinic yesterday. It looks good. We found out the new wood door frame we put in less than a year ago was totally termite eaten under the new nice white paint. None of the wood is good enough to be used for anything but firewood. The termites are so fast here. We are replacing every piece of wood in the clinic as fast as we can. It is worrying the termites who are eating as fast as they can. The rafters are all wood so the termites are going to town on them also. We have almost finished a proposal to ADRA to replace the roof in about a year with metal.
Bethany and Brandel are doing well. Bethany learned to climb into Brandel's bunk bed this week. She has also learned to crawl underneath the gate on our porch to escape. She is doing very well with signs for "please, bottle, done and big". She tries to speak the words for "banana, please and Hola". She copies Brandel making drilling noises. She loves the little rocking horse and really gets it moving sometimes. She knows she is not supposed to be outside with out her shoes so she will bring you her shoes when she wants to go outside. She will get a book and back up to you so that you will pick her up and read her the story. She loves the water and her bathes even when they are cold.
Brandel is talking up a storm. He probably knows at least 50 words. He is riding his bicycle back and forth on the porch regularly. He also works on it regularly with his tools. He wants to turn the rocking horse over and work on it but we are afraid he will hurt it so we tell him the horse doesn't need fixing but his bicycle does. This morning he "found" the mouth on the horse. He spent a long time pretending that it was biting him. He likes to go to church and wear his church clothes. This morning he saw Clint had his church shirt on so he got excited that today was church day.
This week on Wednesday or Thursday, Clint is going to Puerto. Rilla's parents are flying in to visit her for a couple weeks. She is really excited. Her parent's pathfinder club took on the Francia Library as a project. They went door to door collecting books for it. Rilla's parents are bringing almost 300 books for our new library. We are very Thankful for the people that take on challenges such as our library.
We have been extremely busy planting this last couple of weeks. We have planted 42 orange trees. Local oranges are not the type of orange that we are used to in the States. Mostly these are good for juice. They are sour with lots of liquid. So we planted a lot of them. We have planted quite a few coconut and papaya. The rice we planted a few weeks ago is growing well with all this rain. The sweet potatoes are also growing well. I have taken a chance and replanted some radishes and cabbage. I don't know if they will grow or not. Our bucket tomatoes are doing very well. We have gotten a few tomatoes off them now but not nearly as much as we would like to eat. When we come back I will plant a few more buckets now that I know it works.
Clint has started his antenna tower. He has the wood that he got a few weeks ago. Now he is worried that if he leaves it on the ground for the next 3 months while we are gone that it will rot and get termites, which is a completely valid worry. So he is anxious to get it up before we leave. This week he poured the four anchor pads. Now he is facing the enormous task of engineering a way to put up a 35 foot tower with our limited resources. I am still not sure how he is going to do it.
The clinic is going well. We are seeing patients regularly. It is now set up so that it will continue to function without me. Rilla and our local nurse will be able to keep it open and serving the local people. The last group that came down, Union College, brought a large donation that has been used to purchase lab supplies and medicine for the clinic. This will keep it supplied while we are gone. The two reasons in the past that the Clinic has been closed has been lack of medicine and lack of staff. Now we have regular local staff and the Lord has been providing donations to purchase medicines. We give the Lord praise for the work done down here.
Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.
Lots of love
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

Weekly letter

June 11, 2005
Dear Family and Friends,
A lot has happened since I wrote my last letter. From May 24 until June 3 we had a group of nurses from Union College. Their work was a blessing; seeing almost 1500 patients in 7 day of consulting. In total their 10 days were well spent with the Miskito people and in the Miskito culture.
At the same time the group was here, Bob and Ingrid Hirschi (TRAC board members) and Bob's mother, Deedee came to help. Bob was able to replace the clutch in the deuce and it was used for the remainder of the group's visit. A big Thank You to Bob and Ingrid for their work on the deuce and shuttling the group around to all their mobile clinics. Dee Dee was a wonderful help back here at the base. It takes a lot of people working at home to keep the nurses on the front lines. She was instrumental in helping to repair our treadle sewing machine, which she promptly put to work mending Clint's pants. She repaired many items while she was here that I had not had time to mend. She also sewed a curtain for our community guest room, by hand before the sewing machine was working. Thank you Dee Dee for all your work.
This week Clint finished our part of Rigaberto's house. They poured the top bond beam. Now Rigaberto (our Miskito teacher) is ready to put on a roof and move in.
Clint started building a rack for the truck this week. The old rack is rusting out and falling apart. He hopes to be finished this next week.
The clinic is running well and smoothly as we recover from having a group here. Thursday the Catholic Clinic and the government health agency presented a program on diarrhea to the whole Tasba Raya Region. All of the leaders from the other villages were invited to Francia to attend. The Adventist Clinic staff had a special invitation. We were also able to help by lending our sound system for the conference. It was a good conference and everyone had fun and seemed to learn a lot.
We are starting to get ready for our trip north. We will be leaving Francia on July 5. I am excited to be able to see friends and family in America. Our trip will be about 15,000 miles of driving. If you would like to see a copy of our schedule it is posted on our web page at hanleymissions.blogspot.com . My sister Evelyn has also started posting pictures on the web page. So for updated info and pictures please check out the web page!! As always it is a work in progress.
Sincerely,
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

Photo Gallery

There is an update to this website. Marilyn and Clint's now have a photo gallery and it is linked to this page. Look on the right side of the screen under links. Or click here.
You can down load pictures that they have sent out. Please be patient, I am still uploading pictures.

Please do not bookmark or save the photo gallery; the url may change. Also, the format of the pages may change, do not be allarmed. The galleries will work the same no matter what the pages look like.
-- Evelyn

quick update

Dear Family,
We are very busy this week with a group of nursing students from Union college. They arrived on May 24 and will not be leaving until June 3. We are letting them do a lot of the hard work and go to the other villages on the mobile clinics. I am staying here with the children and the clinic in Francia.
I think that Bethany may be teething. She is running a low grade temp and is very fussy. Brandel is fussy too but I think that is because our schedule has been disrupted and I have been gone a lot.
I will write more again after they are gone.
Lots of love
Marilyn

Weekly letter May 16

May 14, 2005
Dear Family,
What a busy week! This week the rain started again. Actually it started a week ago Friday as Rilla and a group of youth was leaving on a campout. It rained them out. They returned Sabbath evening wet and cold. After supper and dry clothes, they were able to complete their activities at the church. On Sunday morning they taught honors for knot tying, first aide, and trees. It was a huge success. Rilla is looking forward to planning their next activities.
Since the rain has started we are trying to shore up all of little ends that cause such misery, such as leaky roofs and missing gutters.
This week also has seen the finishing touches put on many of our clinic remodeling projects. The wall is up in the med room with a new window to fill prescriptions. The lab has tile and paint. It is still lacking a shelf but for the most part it is done for now. We have painted until our paint ran out. The outside of the clinic all has a new coat as do many walls on the inside. More painting is needed at a later date. They poured the lid for the septic system on Friday morning. The well and pump have been shored up, a little deeper with new water coming in. It took three days of cleaning to put the clinic back so that we can start seeing patients on Monday.
On the home front� Brandel and Bethany have made lots of little steps this week. Brandel can say "Bethany", "rain coat", "Rilla", "hammock", "church" and some new Miskito words. He is also pedaling his bicycle. He has discovered "bomboms" which are the suckers on the stick. He loves them and asks for them every time he goes to the village with us. He knows the store ladies and always go behind the counters, where they give him one when we are not looking. Brandel has decided that most all clothes are hot. If you ask him if he wants a shirt or shorts or pajamas, he will say "no hot". He will get the hymnal off the shelve and walk around singing. He really likes rice and potatoes. When we tell him it is time to eat first he will ask if it is rice, if not then potatoes. We had pasta the other day (which he can also say) but he was very unhappy that we didn't have rice. This is in contrast to Clint who does not like rice and needs it disguised any way possible, like with gravy or tvp or cabbage.
Bethany is continuing her independence. She will now not let anyone feed her. She has to do it herself, and actually she is not too bad, more times than not the spoon makes it to her mouth. She has also learned to climb on and off the rocking horse. Her feet don't reach the floor when she is sitting on it but she gets on and off rather quickly. If you leave any gates open she is gone in a flash, shutting the gate behind her. Of course she doesn't stop to put on her shoes before she goes!
This week celebrated Fatima's (the pastor's wife) birthday. She is 22. Rilla baked a cake. We all decided that it was so good that we should celebrate birthdays for our family so we could get more cake. I don't think that Rilla was excited about doing all the work to bake a birthday cake every week but it was a nice thought.
Since the rain has re-started we have begun planting. We had 20 coco plants that we were waiting to plant. We started planting them this week. We also got some more banana plants. I think that for us the key for growing things is going to be trees, banana trees, mango trees, tropical pear trees, coconut trees, avocado trees, papaya trees, citrus trees, etc. So I started buying and planting again this week. Papaya takes less than a year to grow and start producing. Avocado, mango, and citrus all take much longer. We probably will never see them grown and producing but the next missionaries will have them to appreciate. The coconut trees can be faster producing in 3-5 yrs. We might see some of them bearing, depending on how well we take care of them.
I also have some small plants in pots on the porch. My tomatoes and peppers have flowers on them. I was out in the garden to look it over also. We stopped watering it a few weeks ago since nothing was prospering. Now there are two small (very small) pepper plants that have one little pepper on each of them. Also, I am trying beets again in a large pot just off the porch so that it gets some of the rain. We will see. One of my bags of beet seeds germinated and the other one didn't. I don't know which was which. Now I will have to try them both separately to see which one works. They tell me that now is a good time to plant corn too. Unfortunately, I wasted all my corn in the last two time I planted it. We will have to purchase some corn seed in Port this week.
Love
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

May 1 update

May 1, 2005
Dear family,
Hi. Just a short note this week. Most of us have been sick this week with a viral intestinal bug. Brandel was the worse with vomiting for 2 days and 3 nights. We worked to keep him hydrated and he is feeling much better. Bethany has not gotten sick, so I hope that she doesn't get sick now.
The clinic will be closed this week so that we can replace the wall in the medicine room. Clint is going to put most all of our regular workers on it so that it can be done quickly. The wall has to be replaced, plastered and shelves put back in before the Union group comes in 23 days. We are also trying to get the lab done and some painting done before they come also.
In the midst of all these last minute projects we have to add another big project, digging the well at the clinic deeper. We found it dry last time we went to pump water. It is only 24 feet deep. We dug our well at the house deeper from 24 ft to 32 ft in Feb. Now we are going to do the clinic also. And just to make sure we don't have any water trouble with 30 extra people, we are going to dig our well about 18" deeper so that we can add one more length of pump tubing.
So all of this will keep us very busy for the next few weeks. Our outhouse is almost done. It is just waiting for the top of the sides and the roof. The toilet seats are even installed! But Rilla and my vote is to wait to use it until there are walls. I was hoping that we were going to be able to rebuild the showers before they came but the outhouse was more urgent. It was going to be much worse for someone to fall into the 15 ft hole for the outhouse, than for the flimsy showers to fall someone. So the outhouses got the cement ear marked for showers. Oh well, the Lord will provide when the time is right. :
We sent all of you our proposed itinerary. Now you will have a better idea when we will be in your area. We are willing to do any presentations you can schedule for us. Please write to us if you want us to speak in your area or church. We are willing to speak on Sabbath morning but are also willing to do presentations in afternoons and evenings. Please contact your church or group and make tentative arrangements. You can then confirm with us via email. This trip home is as much a fund raising trip, as a visiting trip so please schedule as many presentations in your area as you think people will attend. The presentations can be 10-40 minutes long. We do not want to impose upon people or churches so if they are not interested, do not push. Thanks for your help.
Don't forget to check our web page. Evelyn has done a really good job on it. I can post items and letters directly from here in Nicaragua! hanleymissions.blogspot.com
It is only two months before we start home to see everyone. We (I) am getting excited!
Lots of love
Marilyn

Our trip this summer

Our Itinerary for summer 2005
July 5 - Leave Francia for Managua

July 5 - 10 Managua
Email: Hanley@softhome.net from now on . . .

July 10 - 14 Travel Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala

July 14 - 20 Travel through Mexico

July 20 - 22 Travel to Chattanooga
July 22 - 26 Chattanooga, TN
Evelyn Hillmon
423-605-7288 Home

July 26 - 27 Travel to Oshkosh, WI
July 27 - 31 Oshkosh, WI, AirVenture

Aug 1 - 4 Traveling to Sacramento
Aug 4 - 6 Arriving Sacramento, CA
for ASI and TRAC board meeting

Aug 7 - Travel to Napa, CA
Travel to Redding, CA

Aug 8 - Travel to Grande Rhonde, OR
Dan & Ellen Butler
503-879-5005

Aug 9 - Travel to Goldendale, WA
Aug 9 - 14 Goldendale, WA
Stan & Dolly Parker
509-773-6223

Aug 15 - 16 Travel to Eureka, MT
Aug 16 - 21 Eureka, MT
Glen & Rhonda Hanley
406-889-3968 Home

Aug 22 Kalispell, MT
Travel to Stevensville, MT

Aug 22 - 28 Stevensville, MT
Leray & Sandra Hillmon
406-777-3792

Aug 28 - 29 Travel to Laramie, WY
Aug 30 - Sep 1 Laramie, WY
Harry Benson
307-761-1447

Sept 2 - 5 Casper, WY
Myra Hanley
307-234-3060

Sept 6 - 9 Travel to Harlingen, TX

Sept 9 - 10 Harlingen, TX
Don & Cristina Vargas
956-423-8631 Home

Sept 11 Cross into Mexico
Sept 11 - 16 Travel in Mexico
Email: Hanley@softhome.net After we leave Mexico we will not check our email again until we arrive in Managua

Sept 16 - 21 Travel though Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua

Sept 21 - 23 Managua
Email: Hanley@softhome.net

Sept 23 Francia Sirpi, Nicaragua
Email: yn4rra@winlink.org

Weekly update April 23

April 23, 2005
Happy Sabbath!
Mike and Diane have been visiting us this week. It sure is nice to see them and visit with them. They have kept us busy this week also. We went to get them on Tuesday from Waspam. We did our errands and shopping also. We returned home about 6 pm that evening.
At 9 pm that night a large truck pulled up to the gate. Of course any vehicle that comes after dark is usually assumed to be a medical emergency, which it was. A 16 year old boy had been playing around with his friends. Someone gave him a little shove and he fell into the river onto a rock. He landed on his head/neck. When I saw him, he was talking, breathing and in very little pain. However, he had no sensation or ability to move from his shoulders down. We immediately strapped him to the boards he was laying on and transferred him to our truck for the long trip to Puerto. Clint left at 11 pm that night with the boy. He arrived in Puerto at 4 am. He reported that the boy seemed to regain a little bit of sensation in his upper arms during the trip. The boy will probably be transferred to Managua for continued medical care. Please pray for this boy. It is extremely hard being handicapped in a country like Nicaragua.
On Tuesday morning on the way to Waspam, Clint discovered that a piece of the left rear spring had broken. It seemed to be holding ok but needed replaced. Clint was going to try and do a temporary fix for a couple of weeks until the next trip to Puerto. Well, the next trip came much sooner than expected. Clint was able to find someone in Puerto who could order the part from Managua. He stayed an extra day and came home Thursday with a new spring that he put on the truck Friday morning. We are very thankful that the spring breaking did not put the truck out of commission. We are also very thankful to have it fixed.
We have run out of English sermons to listen to. If anyone has some extra sermon CD's or DVD's, we would love to have some. We don't have a cassette or VHS players so they have to be CD or DVD. Thanks.
Love
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

weekly update april 16

April 16, 2005
Hi.
We thank the Lord that we are safely through another week and are resting on another Sabbath.
Bethany and Brandel have been very busy this week. Bethany is walking all over the place. She refuses to crawl and will stand up to walk even a couple of steps to get what she wants. She has also started climbing. She climbs into Brandel's bed, which she thinks is great fun. Especially when Brandel is in there, then they play together. However, it usually ends up with one of them crying, most of the time Bethany. She also likes steps. This week she figured out how to go down the steps. She holds on to the railing and goes down the side. We are trying to teach her to turn around and go down them backwards, which is much safer. She likes to spend a lot of time going up and down the stairs. We don't let her on the stairs inside the house because we have a cement floor on the bottom and they are long stairs (for a baby).
Brandel is talking more and more. This morning he said "Morning" when we greeted him. He is trying to say bodega. He says "broke" which is a favorite word since many things get broke. He is also trying to put words together to convey ideas. For instance, "Ri book laalaa" meant that Rilla came to get her song book. Rilla has also been teaching him Spanish so now he is learning all of his body parts in Spanish. He now says "boca" for mouth, but he can also say "mouth" but prefers to say "boca".
It has been very hot so the children have been playing a lot in the water. Brandel sometimes is in up to 3-4 times a day. We haven't been bothering to get them dressed since their clothes are coming off by about 9-10 am because of the heat.
This week on Monday, Clint was planning to go to Port to get our monthly supplies and money. On Sunday afternoon we found out a boy had gotten in a bike wreck and broke his foot, and the bone was coming out. We drove on the 4-wheeler (the truck wouldn't make it) to get him and transported him directly to Port that evening since Clint was already planning a trip to Port. He is recovering there in the hospital and will not loose his foot.
We had been able to confirm that the mission money was in the account before we went, which was very nice. However, the bank was bought out last month by a larger bank. They have to switch all of the accounts, trimmings, names and other misc. items. Since we do not have new checks yet we were not sure what would happen. Well the old checks did not work and so we were not able to get mission or personal money. This is why we try to keep an emergency fund at the mission. It will be put into use this month. Clint was not able to get many supplies but he got some necessary items. He will have return to Port and maybe Managua in a few weeks when the checks are ready.
Upon Clint's return on Tuesday afternoon from his unsuccessful trip from Port, he had to leave immediately to carry a 16 year old girl in the middle of a miscarriage with her first baby. She had been bleeding for 15 days. It was a long day, but that is what we are here to do. It is the first time that Clint has been to Port and to Waspam in the same day in the truck. He returned home about 8 pm that night.
The rest of the week has been swallowed up in work. We started replacing the outhouse this week. We only have a couple of months before the next group comes and other visitors are coming this week. The outhouse was in sad shape, so much of the floor and supporting structure was rotten, we have been afraid that people will fall in. We pulled off the top and are building a cement floor with block walls about 3 feet high. Then we will use the wood from the old building to put up the rest of the building. Hopefully that will be done this next week before our next visitors get here.
I have had the clinic open a lot this week. Two days it was open all day, along with the normal amount. It was hard on Brandel and Bethany, especially since Clint was gone at the beginning of the week. They both got real clingy when I got home. MINSA (the government health clinic) has sent in a doctor to Francia. It has been nice to work with her. On Wednesday we had almost 10 people come from Santa Clara (a 1 � hour walk) and then about 20 people came from Tasba Pain (a 2 hour walk). They kept both clinics swamped all day. The construction work on the clinic has slowed down a little since the main worker has to do some personal work for a few weeks. The back room got the plastering finished. We have to build a room for the doctor/nurse to sleep in and finish plastering all the other walls. There are two windows that still need replaced in the back. Then we will be ready to paint and put beds in.
Rigaberto's house is almost done. We have made the decorative blocks for the windows which now need to be placed. Then a cement band on top and our part will be finished.
Our lab is starting to prove useful. This week we had a little baby with diarrhea. I was just telling them that we should try and get a sample to test, when the baby had diarrhea all over everything. There was plenty for a sample. The lab report said that the baby had amoebas and ascarasis (an intestinal worm). It sure was nice to be able to give her the right medicine.
Mike and Diane Halverson are coming to visit starting this next week. We are happy to be getting a visit from America. They are going to be building a house/store in Francia for a young man they have taken under their wing. Clint has spent a lot of time getting supplies ready for their visit this week. They will be here until May 3.
Last night it rained and today the wind is blowing. Thanks so much for all your prayers.
Lots of love
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

January and February Newsletter

At the end of February I delivered my first baby here in Francia. Actually Dr. Caldera was also here. The 16-year-old girl was having her first baby. It was very slow progress, partly because we did not have a good place for her to stay during the last part of labor. She was at the clinic so that we wouldn't have to transport her at the last minute when it was time for the baby. However, the in-patient ward is not yet complete. She spent most of her time on a cot in our dental room. Needless to say it was not a great situation. Mother and baby are doing well. The baby is eating well from a bottle. Praise the Lord for His mercies.
At the end of February a nursing group from Southern Adventist University visited us. They were able to do mobile clinics to outlaying villages for three days. On the fourth and fifth day they helped me at the clinic in Francia. We saw 90 children in a Well Children's clinic (most of whom were sick). We gave each of the children some vitamins, worm medicine, soap and some clothes (donated by Catherine Patterson). Thank you SAU for coming. Praise the Lord for the time and supplies you were able to donate.
Near the beginning of February, Glen and Rhonda Hanley (Clint's parents) visited. Another couple from their church, Bill and Catherine Patterson, were also able to come. Glen helped Clint pour the floor for the house we are building in the village. Rhonda thoroughly enjoyed her time with her grandchildren. Bill and Catherine made significant progress in helping our agriculture program grow instead of wither.

Your money was used for:
Agriculture: To improve the garden mostly by hiring locals to work.
Clinic: To purchase copies for charts and some medicine.
Maintenance: To hire some locals that needed work, for bike, road repair, etc.
Projects: This money was given to local people who needed to go to the hospital
Clinic remodel: We have replaced some rotten wood walls and windows.
Rigaberto's house: The house we are building in exchange for Miskito language lessons is almost complete for our part. The floor is done and the walls are almost high enough.
Lay Pastors: The supplemental support of five lay pastors for this area
Vehicle expense: We repaired a broken axle on the Toyota truck, allowing us continue with local and extended trips and medical transports.
Industry Produce: We purchased 800 lbs of rice. Local children would bring fresh beans from their plantations which we would trade straight across for rice. The rice harvest was extremely poor this year and so rice is expensive to get. We are storing the beans that we traded so that in six months when beans are scarce we can have beans available for the people. The rice that we bought (800 lbs) was traded out in about two weeks. The people, again, are asking for rice.

Future planned projects:
Agriculture: To continue to improve the garden mostly by hiring locals to work.
Clinic: For hiring local help as well as purchasing supplies and medicines.
Maintenance: To continue hiring locals to assist in this area.
Projects: To continue to provide families of ill patients with financial help.
Clinic remodel: We still have a lot of work to do before we can declare it done.
Work for food: To continue to provide needy families with work.
Lay Pastors: The supplemental support of five lay pastors for this area.
Industry Produce: To purchase more rice to help meet the demand for this staple food.
New showers with wash area on the mission compound (currently ours are falling down).
New outhouse structure (again ours are falling in).
Radio antenna: Currently our main temporary radio antenna has broken. We are going to need to build a tower for a permanent antenna.

We are looking forward to this summer when we will be visiting in the States. Until then we trust that the Lord is keeping everyone in His good care.

Older Pictures

This is a test for uploading pictures. I hope you enjoy them.



Brandel and his rocking horse he got for Christmas.




Brandel and Marilyn




Brandel discovers a calf.




Brandel is taking apart the "car" his dad built him.

Republished from Southern Adventist University's Website

COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. -- On February 25, Southern Adventist University will be sending students to the Dominican Republic, for spring break, to rebuild a church destroyed by hurricane Georges last September.

The group of 41 students, 28 from Southern Adventist University and 13 from Georgia- Cumberland Academy in Calhoun, Ga., will be staying 12 days in La Romana, which is 110 kilometers. from the Dominican Republic's capital city, Santo Domingo.

Besides giving their time and energy to the church rebuilding project, students raised $575 each to cover costs of their adventure.

In another spring break project, 19 student nurses from Southern Adventist University will be holding medical clinics. Divided in two groups between Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, they will work along with teachers from Southern and other volunteers from the medical profession.

Radio E-mail System

The Radio E-mail system that we use has been having 1500 virus attempts per day, so they are wiping out the acceptance list. We sent out a letter that will put you back on our list and enable you to send us letters for 180 days from this point. Each letter we send you renews this time period. If you did not recieve that email and need to be on that list, please send us an email at our Softhome address or place a comment on this page. We will see what we can do.
We are all doing well here and enjoying Nicaragua.
We enjoy hearing news from you.
God Bless
Marilyn