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