Pastor Dave's Health Assessment Summary Report

Now that we're back stateside, it's a little easier to post some summary thoughts.  First up, we thought those who have been praying for us and the people of Quince de Julio may be interested to read the summary of Pastor Dave's interviews:

4 of the 23 families visited in their homes by our mission team were almost never sick each month. They had one thing in common. They had clean living quarters, inside and out. Jeny had 5 children but a total of 27 children and adults living in five houses in her living area. She said she prayed daily to God, the “Keeper of all things and people” to heal sick children and adults and to watch over and care for their health. David says, “Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you. I say to God, ‘Be my Lord!’ Without you, nothing makes sense” (Psalm 16:1 in The Message). Her family was one of the four healthy families.

Sadly, 13 children among these 23 families died, 9 from dengue fever. 3 children died in Maria’s family, the last family visited.

The average meal these 23 families ate each day was rice and beans. Some added eggs and/or cheese, chicken and/or fish. 14 drink coffee each day. 11 drink juice daily. 6 drink coffee and juice daily.

17 owned their own wells. 5 of the other 6 walked to nearby wells for their water. Only one said they went a long distance to a well to get their water. A few of the fathers and mothers we visited said that contaminated well water causes most of their serious health issues in Quince de Julio. While we were walking to homes, 3 homes were being fumigated to kill the mosquitoes carrying dengue fever, for which there is no known vaccine. Our mission team visited Basilicia and her baby on Monday, July 8th. We found her rolling back and forth in bed with dengue fever. They were taken to the hospital by Pastor Silvio after the mission team came around her bed and Pastor Dave prayed for God to do His healing work in her and her baby’s life. Thursday, July 11th Pastor Silvio told us that Basilicia and her baby were doing much better at the hospital and would hopefully go home soon. Praise God!

Conclusions: This year our team combined the Tippy-Taps with the water filters for the home education and installation of them. This will connect their dual usage with the community. The goal is to improve the health of the families using them in tandem.

Our team also wrapped plumber’s tape around the rings on the water filter so that hopefully they would last longer than last year.

Sharing the Water of Life, Jesus Christ, with the Tippy-Taps, water filters, hygiene training and VBS are essential for the families’ health in Nicaragua.

Pastor Silvio told Pastor Dave that the short two-day team visit last year under Lisa Marshall’s leadership produced life-saving results of good health for ALL of the families receiving water filters. All glory be to God!

I would recommend sending a mission team one more year to Quince de Julio to meet the needs of  more families on Pastor Silvio’s long list that we did not have near enough filters to meet this year.   

Pastor David Bottorff

Nicaragua Day Eight

Having finished our work in the Chinandega province yesterday, today was our day to see Nicaragua as we made our way back to Managua for tomorrow's very early flight. Our first stop for today was Volcán Masaya, one of the many active volcanoes here. Masaya last erupted in April 2012 so we weren't permitted access to some areas, but we were able to look into the smoking crater:

Afterwards, we were able to eat lunch at Bucaneros, another restaurant with a beautiful view, this time overlooking the Masaya lagoon:

Our final tourist destination for the day was the artisans' market in Masaya, which has existed for over 100 years:

Everyone, including Paul, enjoyed shopping for some last minute remembrances of our trip to Nicaragua:

Then we headed to the Best Western in Managua which is conveniently located directly across the street from the airport, a fact we know we will appreciate when we have to be there at 5:00 am tomorrow!

So this is our final post from Nicaragua. We have plans for more posts stateside as we all would like to share some final thoughts, but for tonight we would ask that you pray for our long day of travel tomorrow. 

Finally, we would like to leave you with the passage that Lisa shared in our last team devotion tonight, 1 Thessalonians 5: 12 - 24.  Paul's final instructions were exemplified for us so many times this week in Villa Quince that these are words we all want to hold onto:

¹² Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually,¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹ but test them all; hold on to what is good, ²² reject every kind of evil.

²³ May God himself, the God of peace,sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Nicaragua Day Seven

Today was our last day with the people of Villa Quince (Quince de Julio).  Pastor Paul led the morning devotions with a message about building your “Casa” on the rock….the Lord Jesus Christ.  Pastor Brian helped in the role of the Wise Man and Sam hammed it up as the Foolish Man:

Sam and Pastor Brian worked diligently to fix the rusted door to the church.  Brian spent most of the day creating a temporary fix, but it will serve to secure the church until some welding can be done. We were also blessed to be able to give a gift to the national church that will pay for the repairs. 

Our work of installing the Tippy Taps and water filters finished yesterday, so all that remained for that project today was Pastor Dave's interview with Pastor Silvio since he was the recipient of the last filter. Besides discussing health matters, they also discussed Coca's interest in the ministry. In between translation work this week, Coca has been constantly asking Dave about being a pastor, so Dave figured that the interview with Pastor Silvio today was a God-given opportunity to connect these two men. Pastor Silvio also let Dave know that the MOST team that had been in the village for just two days last year had brought so much improvement in the health and the lives of the people with the water filters that this year his congregation had highly anticipated our visit. 

VBS continued this morning with even more children -- 64 came today!   The students played a servant relay game in which they ran across the yard to get a piece of candy for the next person in line as a means of serving them. 

To go with the Bible story of “Fish for Breakfast” from John 21, the students made paper bag fish.  They especially enjoyed adding stickers and Spanish Bible verses to them.

Pastor David and Pastor Paul presented a Gospel message lesson using the colored bead witness bracelets with both the children in the morning and the adults in the afternoon.

Some informal games of Frisbee  took place during the lunch break and with the children during the afternoon adult class.

During the afternoon health and hygiene class, the 52 children on site used watercolors to decorate their copies of some healthy habits books. They also enjoyed playing playdough, bubbles, and Frisbees.

While Julie kept the children engaged, Pastor Greg and I (Diana) had one last health and hygiene class with 36 adults. Before the Gospel presentation (via the witness bracelets) by Pastor Dave and Pastor Paul, we discussed the three-legged stool of nutrition and were glad to have Sam's help for demonstrating the giant teeth and toothbrush. 

After our final class concluded, the congregation had a special farewell program prepared for us. Pastor Greg was invited to sing our favorite Spanish praise song with the worship team again:

Pastor Silvio, Paula, and Hermana Aurelia all spoke words of gratitude and blessing to us:

The most entertaining part of the program was the skits performed by the youth. Here they are telling the story of Jesus' visit to Mary and Martha:

After that it was time for pictures, hugs, and goodbyes. It was hard to leave our brothers and sisters!

We will continue to hold our new friends in our prayers and in our hearts. Tomorrow we'll be American tourists for the day as we head to Managua, but we wanted to close today's post with some of the faces of the many people who touched us this week.  As we wrapped up our team devotions tonight, we came to the conclusion that the people of New Jerusalem Lutheran Church were truly servants. In our Bible study preparation for the trip, we read this quote from Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline":  "We must see the difference between choosing to serve (an activity) and choosing to be a servant (a person/a lifestyle). When we choose to serve, we are still in charge...when we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge...we become available and vulnerable."