The Loss of Two of My Heroes

If there are parties in Heaven, Tuesday there was a celebration I would have loved to see. Two dearly dearly beloved children of God were called home after serving their Father with everything in them. It's hard for me to imagine how God could think the world was ready to lose such shining lights for His kingdom here on earth, but I trust His plan and know that they are at home now after fighting a really really good fight.

Merle Watts was the peace amidst the storm. Circa 2001, Merle and his classmate from veterinary school, Marion Hammurlund (above left of me), scouted out an opportunity for veterinarians to serve among the poor in Mexico. That vision trip flourished into a recurring adventure for veterinarians and students alike, that continues to effect hundreds of dogs, cats, and pet-owners with Christ's love every December. The second year of the annual trip I joined the motley crew of surgeons, assistants, pastors, translators, and Christ-followers to help tackle the animal overpopulation problem in San Luis, and later El Golfo, Mexico. What I most remember about Merle's presence on the trips was his calm during the chaos, his smile in every circumstance, and his friendship even to the extent of keeping me company in my Phenergan-induced stupor when I was down with food poisoning. I remember spaying this little dog with gentle Merle, nearly 20 years after his last surgery. And I will never forget the constant support he's been to me since I moved on from Mexico to Bolivia.

Douglass Macintire, or known to the thousands who were fortunate enough to love her, Dougie, was a mother, veterinarian, professor, editor of prestigious journals, leader at the university level, sought after consultant and speaker, but more than anything servant of her Lord Jesus Christ. Her year and a half long battle with cancer was one of the most powerful testimonies of faith and walking with Christ through a storm that I've ever seen, and the innumerable stories of people influenced by her life, is proof that her life was a public testimony long before the storm came. She did not wait to share her faith until she had a platform or a captive audience, in fact, I don't remember a day that I knew her when she didn't energize me to know Christ more.

My favorite memory of dear, sweet, faithful Dougie is embodied in this picture below of her praying for one of the pastors' wives that we visited every year on the trip. Trini had a persistent cough and gastric reflux for years, that all the Omeprazole and Tums we left with her couldn't resolve, but the prayers of the Saints knocked out completely. Dougie never passed up a chance to talk to her Savior, and now she sits at His feet soaking in His every word.

This year's team of Auburn students and veterinarians returned from Mexico last week, after a week of spaying and neutering 110 dogs and cats. I hope Merle and Dougie were proud to hear of the continued impact their legacy leaves, and I hope they see now how many of our lives they touched, inspired, comforted, healed, and brought closer to Christ. Now that I think about it, with tear-filled eyes, God is probably right; they've done enough here, it's time for them to be home...

"Well done, good and faithful servant!" -Matthew:25:21

Doing Life With My Ladies

If I remember correctly what it felt like to hit the sweet spot all those years ago from my tennis life, I'd say that's about what it feels like when a weekly Bible study becomes more than a study but doing life together. It's so nice to have arrived in that spot with my lady veterinarians' Bible study. We used to meet and talk about the Bible, and inevitably the conversation would always turn toward family, and ironically they would always seek my opinion on being a wife and a mother. Now, if I don't have any more wisdom on motherhood than I did a year ago, I at least have a pool of parenting anecdotes to pull from when the chat turns that direction. And even better, we also spend our time together off the vet school campus sharing in our kids' lives.

Last weekend, we all shared in the joy of watching Gloria's beautiful baby Alejandra be baptized, and it lead to good discussion about baptism and making a decision to follow Christ.

During the week we celebrated the births of two of my favorite Cruceñas, with cupcakes and salteñas at the office.

Friday, after a close-of-semester faculty-wide cookout, Paola and I slaved away in the kitchen making these delectable treats for her baby boy's second birthday.

And yesterday, we all enjoyed watching the kids race around on sugar highs at Marco's unforgettable birthday party.

Birthdays and baptisms are sure great excuses to celebrate, but sometimes with these lovely ladies, I don't think we need an excuse at all.

"...and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people." - Acts 2:46, 47

Sharing my Passion for Castration

One of the hardest to reach places in Bolivia, just got a little harder to reach. An area of Southern Bolivia called the Chaco has some communities so remote that there aren't NGO's willing to work with them. In fact, World Vision recently asked us to do some training workshops there for them. So, we eagerly planned the first of three chicken and sheep workshops for right after the students finished their final exams, which, unfortunately, also turned out to be immediately after a landslide destroyed the only access into the community. :( With some quick re-adjusting our ever-resourceful Bill Janecke set up a little alternate trip to the campo (country) to replace our original plans.
Our friends at the G.A.TH.E.R. project have a model farm about three hours outside of the city where they show local subsistence farmers how they can use limited land to do some cool things with chickens, sheep, cattle, crops, fish, and honeybees. With that many animals running around you can always find some way to put some vets and vet students to good use, and that's just what they did...

We rounded up about 35 head of cattle to vaccinate, and without a chute or head gate that meant we got to practice our lassoing skills, and then after each injection our diving-out-of-the-way-of-hooves-and-horns skills. We castrated four lambs, three calves and two dogs. Then we topped it off with a female dog spay just to avoid the appearance of sexism. It was a great couple of days to give the students some needed practical experience, help out a neat project, and breathe the fresh air so hard to come by here in the city.
In January, we'll try again to reach the very very hard to reach in the little community of Kapiakuandi. Pray that God will make a way so that we can share some practical veterinary knowledge and the love of Christ, which as far as I'm concerned always go hand in hand.

My Little Girl's All Grown Up

My little girl turned 18, yesterday! No, not that little girl, my other one. Don't worry Angie's still 9, but my Talita Cumi sponsor kiddo who didn't quite weasel her way into my home, but definitely secured her place in my heart, Jenny, is all grown up now.

18's a big birthday for anyone, but for Jenny is was big for different reasons than most teenagers, and with a whole different set of emotions she's been unwrapping for the past year. You see Jenny's lived at the home for ten years, since its beginning, and now as an adult it's time for her to move on and say goodbye to the family she's known and loved for so long. And not only the "family" of rowdy kids and comforting caregivers, but also her biological 15 year-old brother and 13 year-old sister who she dreads leaving behind.

So, to take her mind off the huge changes looming in the near future, Ange and I took her out and filled her up with love, and sugar. She wanted to see the new Twilight movie, but I'm not even sure if I'm old enough to watch that let alone Angie, so we settled on "Puss in Boots," which was the first refreshingly non-environmentally-agendaed cartoon I've seen in awhile. Then the girls tested out the majority of the 100 zillion games in the adjoining arcade. And of course we topped off the candied movie popcorn with some ice cream loaded with dulce de leche, cookies and candy bars, just to spoil the surprise dinner Talita Cumi was preparing for her...

On the ride back to the home we prayed the Lord would guide her and give her strength in this next year, that she would be able to trust in Him and sense His love and presence with her always. That with each passing year she would know Him more. And when we arrived home there was a surprise birthday party waiting for her; a pack of 30 adoring sisters, brothers, and tias (aunts), to fill her love tank to brimming over. Studying the story of the woman who pours the expensive perfume on Jesus' head yesterday, I thought of how sometimes we can clothe the sick, feed the hungry, or visit the prisoners and it's as if we're doing those same things to Jesus. Or sometimes we can love someone a bit extravagantly, treat them to a little more than is necessary, spoil them with expensive perfume and maybe it's as if we're doing that to Jesus too...

"She has done a beautiful thing to me." -Jesus, Mark 14:6

Apolo - Take 3

Visiting the Lugtigheids in Apolo is kind of like having a baby. Hear me out, I know I don't have as much experience in this area as some of you, but from what I've heard, during the birthing process and for some time afterwards you tell yourself you're never doing this again, but then the pain subsides and months later you forget how awful it was, and you're only left with memories of the fonder moments and somehow you end up right back in that delivery room. In our version of parturition, labor is the trip; five+ nights on buses (some wet, some hot, many on the edge of cliffs, none with sufficient legroom), a few blockades, this time one of which forced us to get out of our bus with all of our luggage and walk until we could find other transport, in this case the back of a pickup truck. When, and if, they finish the airport they're working on for us, our visits to Apolo will be like getting a surrogate and just picking up the baby at the hospital. ;)

Just as your lovely newborns are worth every minute of pushing, our time with Linda and the kids is equally worthwhile. As Linda knows my life goal is to spay and neuter all dogs and cats, and as she forgets that I lean much more heavily toward the castrating, she always lines up some female dogs for us to surgerize. Unfortunately, when you're only visiting for 3-4 days you can't tell the large dogs in-heat to come back after their cycle ends, so we ended up agreeing to two fairly large bloody spays we normally would have postponed. I think Linda and I learned a good lesson about when to say "no," an area in which we both have a lot of room for improvement.

Last time we visited, almost one year ago, Angie learned to ride a bike, this time she'll proudly tell you she learned to ride with one hand. But what I'm more proud of is how she dove into their library of kids' books and ravenously read Spanish, English and bilingual books.

For us visiting the Lugtigheids is kind of a working vacation. We get to help control the pet population of Apolo, share Christ's love through spays and neuters, give Linda a hand with the kids so she can round up the chickens, run the Christian daycare they've started, sell some medicine, give some vet advice, and try to catch the runaway baby bunnies. But we also get to see the world (Angie's still a bit confused about where Bolivia ends and the rest of the world begins), relax along the way, enjoy the slow pace of a small town, the cooler climate of the Yungas, and the mountainous views on morning jogs. Linda, you're such a perfect hostess we'd travel twice as far to see you and learn from you, but we won't complain if there's a runway for us next time.

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." -Proverbs 27:17

So Thankful for This Little One

Of course there are many many, innumerable really, things I have to be thankful for, and I'm sure you have many very similar things, but I wanted to share one little miracle blessing with you in this belated Thanksgiving post.If you've been following along with Baby Jackie's story you know she's had an uphill battle all her life, and her open heart surgery and recovery were no exception. She initially did great after her surgery, she recovered well from anesthesia, had spunk and color, and an appetite for almost a week during her post-surgical antibiotics. But shortly after finishing her antibiotic she started to get a fever, diarrhea, and become pretty unsettled. After another week of doctor's appointments and treatments at home she was finally admitted to the hospital where she was diagnosed with an incision infection, sepsis (blood infection), osteomyelitis (bone infection), and pneumonia. We were all really concerned. So concerned, that all of the staff went in to the hospital to see her for possibly the last time as she was so weak and tiny fighting all these infections few adults could handle. But God could handle them, and He did. After a more than a week of the strongest intravenous antibiotics they could find she was able to return back to the Baby Home infection free. Her lungs were still full of fluid, but that too was starting to clear up as she was starting to cough more. We were already feeling extremely grateful for all this recovery, when we found out the hospital wasn't going to charge for any of her ten-day stay or the respiratory therapy and doctors' care, only her medications were being charged. What a blessing!

This morning Jackie was full of life at church. So much life that she was kicking me in belly, and she's strong! Thank you so much for all your prayers, when the doctors starting giving up God's glory started shining even brighter.

Recipe for a Perfect Weekend

What you'll need to get started:

A weekend with a forecast of partly sunny and a high in the 90s.

A dog that will forgive you if you don't spend anymore time with her on the weekend than you do during the week.

A lot of fun people.

To put together the perfect weekend, I recommend starting with a quince for three Cristo Viene quinceñeras. A quince is a very special 15th birthday party for Bolivian girls, similar to the US, less commonly hyped-up, Sweet Sixteen. On Friday, celebrate with the three beautiful girls many of their friends, cake, a little karaoke, and some lovely words of blessing for their futures as senoritas.

On Saturday, you'll need to round up your women's Bible study for an afternoon together at Gloria's new condo. It's a little far out of town, but don't worry you won't regret the drive. Take the kids along, the other moms will too, and let them enjoy the pizza and the playground, while you ladies read one of the last chapters in your semester long study of The Five Love Languages, then top it off with a viewing of Fireproof. (If I had it to do again, I might try to avoid having the kids all return from the park right at the tearjerker finale of the movie.) After your girl-time, take the kids to the condo complex's lovely pool and maybe even check out the weight room. If your nine year-old randomly starts talking about Jesus to the girl she meets in the pool, that's just like the cherry on top. ;)

Sunday, top it all off when "Family Day" at your church meets "Friend Day" at Talita Cumi. Let me explain. La Viña decided to have our church service in the park and invite our family and friends on the same day Talita Cumi Children's Home does their annual planning and sends all the children out in twos. So, pick up your two kids, preferably some of your daughter's favorites, and head to the park. Kick it off with some great worship in the outdoor amphitheatre that's so rocking it draws the passerbys, and is so loud it drowns out your own exuberant singing. Then take the kids during the sermon for a quick lesson on healthy competition and what the Bible has to say about races. Next, put it into practice with some classic winners like the egg-on-a-spoon race, water balloon toss, the find-your-shoe race, etc. After lunch invite the adults to join in the fun with potato sac races, tug-o-war, three-legged races, and of course the requisite soccer game.

Take your three girls to walk around the plaza and top it off with some ice cream before heading home and calling it a weekend, and a fabulous one at that!

A couple things I might add for the next time I use this recipe:

Sunblock, a little more never hurts.

A nap, not sure where to fit it in, but every weekend needs one really.