Hope For Hispaniola - Jan 27, 2011 Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, IL

Greetings from Sunny San Juan de la Maguana,
It would be an understatement to say that we have had a very successful week!  The child evangelism team ministered to over two hundred children and had over fifty accept Christ.  There were several adults that were saved as well. 
The construction team also had an extremely successful week.  The forms for the roof will be ready for next weeks team to pour.  In additon to this the team was able to finish putting down tile and grout in one of the guesthouse rooms.
We have all enjoyed the experience of meeting the Dominican people and helping to bring the new building for the Buenas Nueva II Church one step closer to its completion.  The pastor and the members of his congregation were very gracious and served us a delicious lunch every day.  At the completion of our work today the Church presented each member of the team with a certificate of appreciation.  The love and generosity of the people we have met here is amazing.  We have all been blessed by our experiences here and we know that God has been watching over our efforts here.

God Bless you all and keep praying for our team.  Your continued support is critical to our success

Hope For Hispaniola - Jan 24, 2011 Northwoods Community Church Peoria, IL

Greetings from beautiful San Juan de la Maguana,
Another beautiful day here in the DR.  Both the construction and the child evangelism teams had great days.  The child evangelism team worked in the Liberacion Barrio both morning and afternoon.  103 children attended for the day with 20 children and 2 adults accepting Christ at the morning session.  The afternoon session had 18 children accepting Christ.  Praise the Lord!
The construction team had a safe and productive day as well.  All of the forms for the roof beams are constructed, the joists are in place, support beams installed, and about 85% of the plywood is in place.  The Teams are looking forward to another successful day tomorrow.  Please continue to pray for our efforts.  None of this would be possible without your prayers and support.

We pray that God will bless you all as much as we have been blessed by our work here.

Hope For Hispaniola - Monday, Jan 24, 2011 Northwoods Church Peoria, IL

Greetings from the Solid Rock Guest House.  We have had a wonderful 2 days here so far.  We all arrived safely Saturday evening with all luggage, supplies, and team members in tact.  Our Sunday was filled with morning worship at the Prince of Peace Church, lunch at the guest house, a relaxing afternoon wandering the barrio's and listening to the Bears - Packer game.  (no fights just friendly ribbing)  Packer's fans were happy, Bear's fans were not.  Then we attended the evening service at Central Church.  Many of our group were greeted by old friends and many of us made new ones.
This morning everyone forgot the football rivalry and pulled together loading construction and child evangelism supplies and headed out to the Buenas Nueva II Church.  The child evangelism team had over 100 children to minster to during the morning and afternoon sessions.  The construction team successfully constructed 2 of the 5 roof support beams and is ready to finish the other 3 tomorrow.  Please keep us in your prayers. 

What an amazing week...

Words cannot express how much this week has impacted not only the lives of the people who live here, but how much these people have impacted our lives. Each and every person that we have poked with needles, pulled their teeth, performed surgery on has left with a smile even though they were in pain. These people have been so grateful and we will never forget that.

We also cannot thank Joe and Shannon enough for the love and support they have shown us as a group. They are an amazing couple and we love them very much for what they do.

Until next time...
The Gainesville, GA Group

The OR vs Campo

Today was my first day as a physician in the campo.  Being an anesthesiologist I'll first blog about what I know best...the OR.  This morning we discharged after less than 24 hrs post-op a lady who had an OPEN cholecystectomy. She did well post-op with minimal pain thanks to a ON-Q type pain pump we fashioned out of IV extention tubing. I'm just amazed at the tenacity, resilence and graciousness of the Dominican People. Today we performed 18 surgical procedures from T & As, sinus surgery, hernia repair, and a total Thyroidectomy. The new OR anesthesia monitors which we brought, thanks to a generous donation from the Rotary Club in Gainesville, Georgia are working well.  Having reliable and versatile vital sign monitors is such a blessing.  We now need to work on getting two ET CO2 monitors. Also we replaced a dysfunctional Sevoflurane vaporizer with one donated from Draeger USA which I working flawlessly... now inhalational inductions are predictable.
My day in the Campo with the medical and dental teams today was exhausting...I personally probably saw 45 patients. After meandering though the language barrier with an interpreter, I was finally able provide some help.  These are amazing people, who inspire me with their graciousness and patience.  I only pray that I showed as much love and patience with them as they showed me today. What inspired me on a personal level was watching my 18 year old son serve Christ today.
Both the OR and Campo ministries are equally intregral to the ministry here. I'll find myself in the OR tomorrow serving Christ  and his children with my talents.

Bill
Both the OR and Campo

Gainesville, GA First Presbyterian Team

Good morning!  Pray for the roosters to get laryngitis!!!  We've had a lot of tonsilectomies as always, about 15 a day, then hernia repairs, gallblader, cyst removals.  We have a big thyroidectomy today!  As Joe posted yesterd, we need Nasonex, Saline sprays to give away.  They are asking for a Chiropractor and a neurologist.
Children are adorable.  No tarantulas this trip! :)  But lots of frogs.
10-4, we'll check later.

First Presbyterian of Gainesville Ga Mission trip

Today a group of dentists went to a local elementry school. We placed about a hundred sealants on the children's permanant molars. We treated the students with flouride and extracted 32 infected teeth. Several medical doctors did examinations and gave the children antiparasitic medications. At the Solid Rock Mission's operating rooms, our groups doctors treated several patient's hernias and gall bladders. Tomorrow they will be doing several thyroind surgeries. Childrens chewable tylenol, chewable ibuprofen, saline and nasonex nasal sprays, and chewable multivitamins are greatly needed. We could also use small scrubs and small gloves. My god bless you and the wounderfull people of this beautiful country.

DR Trip January 6, 2010

It is sad to say that today was the last clinical day of our trip. It was an exciting day to end with! God likes to keep us on our toes. He wants us to learn flexibility. On our way to our location, we heard news that we were schedualled there tomarrow instead of today. We weren't going to turn back. We wanted to reach somebody/anybody with the medicines and food we had. As we went on our way to the village of Pilon, our leaders and translators anounced our coming through the windows. Children started running after our bus. They were so excited that someone was coming to help them! We arrived and needed to find a place for our clinic. A gentleman was nice enough to let us use his home. The spot was tight, but we managed to find some room for our stations. The sun was hot and the breezes felt great! We were able to help 216 patients today! God never cesses to amaze me with his beautiful creation. We were right across the river from Haiti. The view was incredible! The children flocked around to recieve smiles and candy! We also gave away bags of food to many poor families. Poverty is great, but so is our God! We can make a difference my touching one life at a time.

VIMM

Greetings from our third clinical day! It's so hard to believe that tomorrow will be the last day of seeing patients. Regular work weeks never go this fast! Today the team traveled to Macasia, a town on the Haitian border. Getting there was half the adventure as we traveled 2 1/2 hours in our filled-to-capacity bus. Over half of the drive was on an unpaved road, winding through mountains and surrounded by breathtaking views. One-room homes with walls of mud and sticks dotted the landscape, reminding us of the poverty in the area and of the reason for traveling so far. When we reached Macasia, we set up clinic in the school. By now, we are all well-versed in set-up procedures! We had our usual stations: triage, pharmacy, physicians, eyeglasses, and vitamins/"deworming". In all, we served 261 patients, with diagnoses of hypertension, arthritis, anemia, pregnancy complications, gastritis, URI, allergies, malnutrition, intestinal parasites, and more. As the team served patients in the schoolhouse, the local children busied themselves by playing baseball with a tennis ball and a stick--no X-boxes here--and by catching a tarantula! Through generous donations, the team was able to purchase bags of beans, rice and other staples that we distributed on the way home. We stopped at homes that looked to be the poorest and were greeted at one with "We weren't going to cook tonight because there's no food in the house." It is such a blessing to see God's hand at work through this team and through the generosity of those who contributed to the trip financially and through prayer. We can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

January 1, 2010 VIMM Medical Missions Team: Dominican Republic

also 17 glasses were fitted.

vimm Jan1, 2011

The Jan 1 Vimm Team arrived at the guesthouse on Sunday very excited for a wonderful work week planned.  Shannon and Joe as usuall made our arrival pleasant and eventful.  We started to work immeadiatley unpacking and stocking our boxes for our first day in el cercado at the clinic.  Nicole had done a wonderful job of organizing the pharmacy making it easy to locate items that would be needed for the first day.  After a good breakfast we were on our way.  Arriving at the clinic the line was already forming to see our team.  After setup we were ready to go.  We saw approx. 230 patients ranging in age from 2 months to 75 yrs.  Most patients were seen for gripe(colds),  aches and pains, infections, rashes, blood pressures, andjust dont feel good.  After returning back to the guest house our job for the day was not finished yet.  We restocked meds for the next day, had a great meal, devotion and was ready for bed.  The team was excited about our first day and off for a good nights sleep.