A Huge Week for VetRed

We make quite a few airport runs around here, but two Saturdays ago was an extra special day for flying with VetRed.  At 5am I took Dr. Moira Martinez to the airport for her very first trip out of the country.  You may have read about Dr. Shawn Kari's three visits from California down to Santa Cruz over the past few years to train the university, and specifically Moira, in ultrasound.  His impact on her life, and subsequently imaging in the country, has been transformative, so why stop with Bolivia! Last week, Shawn and Moira met in Managua to teach ultrasound technique to students and veterinarians from around Nicaragua.  Dr. Jeff Bracht is a CVM veterinarian living there with his family and developing a university ministry similar to the one we have here in Santa Cruz.  Shawn and Moira's visit supported his efforts and reinforced his sharing of Christ's love through veterinary medicine.  This training of trainers to multiply into their own communities is exactly what we have in mind when we facilitate visits from North American specialists to Latin American schools.  Moira has no culture or language barriers when she teaches about ultrasound, or about God's Word, as we pray she'll want to do in the future.

I would have loved to join Moira on her trip, to calm her nerves and build our friendship, to witness Jeff and Bethany's ministry in Nicaragua, to see Moira experience the beach for the first time...  But when it rains it pours, so as Moira, Shawn, and Jeff were representing VetRed and CVM in Nicaragua, Brett Terhaar and Warren Waybright joined me in Bolivia to do the same.  Shortly after her family and I prayed with Moira for her send off, Brett and Warren arrived at the airport just as ready to share God's love through veterinary medicine.

The three of us visited Trinidad, Bolivia for four days to strengthen our relationship with the vet school there and lay some ground work for Dr. Coalson Lacey, the CVM vet who plans to live and work there starting in 2013.  The reception from Dean Francis, the faculty, staff, and students was wonderful!  Brett and Warren were rockstars as hundreds of students swarmed to see their first bovine c-sections and breeding soundness exams. 

We lectured on a variety of topics, demonstrated surgeries and procedures, and fielded questions.  We participated in the inauguration of the vet school's new building.  We worked on a convenio (agreement between CVM and Trinidad's university.)  We visited FexpoBeni, the province's annual fair, and oohed an awed at cattle, horses, and bugs nearly as big as both.  And we still found time to enjoy the really friendly people and the really yummy fried alligator.

At the end of our time, we got the contact information for those interested in a campus ministry, to pave the way for Coalson. Then Brett, Warren and I headed back to Santa Cruz where I showed them the chicken coop, Warren trained at the vet school here, and they participated in our Campus Alpha Bible study, where the Santa Cruz students and I started to pray for the students in Trinidad.  

That's what we're all about; exchanging ideas, sharing what God's blessed us with, multiplying trainers, and growing together.

At the end of our time in Trinidad they told us they'll be purchasing an ultrasound machine soon, you can probably guess who we recommended train them on using it....

I love my job!

Thank the Lord for Beer Cans on the Side of the Road!

Friday, was All Saint's Day here, so we took advantage of the three day weekend to join our friend Adreana and 40-some kiddos in Postrervalle, a town about six hours from Santa Cruz with two Nacer Ministries children's homes.

We toured their gardens, chicken coop, pig pen, duck ponds, and house.  They climbed on us, tugged on us, hugged on us, and practiced their English on us.  It was a blast!  Armed with nothing but a few dozen chocolate chip cookies and nearly as many board games we made friends with the sweet sweet kids, while Adreana worked on the home's sponsorship program.

We tried to imagine living in such a tiny remote town when we visited the shower-less, kitchen-less little house a missionary couple is about to move into to work with the homes. The cooler weather, near absence of sand and mosquitoes, and gorgeous mountains give Santa Cruz a run for its money even with its proximity to most everything and relative luxuries like grocery stores.

Of course, saying goodbye to all those adorably dirty faces was hard after their gracious hospitality and warm welcome. 

But the real reason leaving them was so hard, was that the LandRover's steering went out completely on the side of a cliff about 10 kilometers outside of town. On a Sunday morning, ~6 hours away from the nearest tow truck, with a baby in the car and no shade in sight, we lathered up on sunscreen and started to pray.  Between prayers, we made some phone calls, both requesting more prayer and investigating the local mechanic/tow truck situation.  In a town where everyone drives motorcycles, if they drive at all, it was a miracle that we were able to get a mechanic to come out to us and give us a hand. That was the second miracle of the day, the first being that we hadn't driven off the mountain when Jon lost control of the wheel.  And the third, when the mechanic used a steak knife and a beer can we found littered on the side of the road to temporarily repair the steering column linkage-thingy.  

Never have I felt any fondness for roadside litter until that moment, but the whole drive home we sited every beer can and thanked the helpful citizens throwing them out their windows.  Miracle number four was when we arrived home from those curvy mountainous roads safely!  Thank you for your prayers, sometimes you might not know how to pray specifically, but God loves to hear from you, and it might just direct His hand to hold that beer can patch in place till we can get the real linkage-thingy installed.