Monday and Tuesday in Central America

Hello friends in united states. Its been a couple of days since we've had cell coverage - sorry. Although I heard that there was a single spot (2 ft area) that was sometimes available, I was either too busy or too tired or too hot or it was not working. Don't know if wade got through...

We are on the river as I type (1 pm). We drove down to Sierpe (about 1 hour) and met the pastor there. At the moment we are being towed the last mile to the island. The boat stopped abruptly in the middle of the river during a rainstorm. After drifting closer and closer to the ocean for 30 minutes, we flagged down another boat who gave us a jump and a new battery. That one quit after 2 minutes. Fortunately the other boat in our group that had left ahead of us eventually came back looking for us. Fun! At one point the boat crew jumped out and were actually pushing us (standing on a sandbar).

Lots of good spirits while waiting, but a littlw underlying tension. Amazingly there is signal here! I haven't seen a tower, but there is coverage. Sending now in case I lose signal. Pray for the clinic. Yee hah!!!

When we pulled into the first island of guanaba (?) We were greeted by the pastor and the rest of our crew who had arrived about an hour before. We literally pulled up into a break in the trees about 10 feet wide, beached the boat, and waded ashore with our packs. The other group was hot and tired because they were in the luggage boat and had to unload all that. The side of the island we "docked" at was facing the river. The structure used for the church was about 200 ft away - halfway to the beach which made up the other side of the island. Think about a skinny barrier island about 2.5 kilometers long. My guess was about 95 degrees with about 97 percent humidity with no breeze. The only place to sit was in the church building which had 1 small widow on the side and a half wall front. Extremely uncomfortable. Bugs were bad, but the repellent we brought worked wonders. There was also a lot of smoke everywhere as they were preparing the fire for our dinner.

I got all that out of the way to focus on the important parts - the dental clinic and ministry. We set up in the pastor's kitchen/living room (about 10x20) with rough concrete floors (just poured on the dirt with no molds). We saw about 20 patients with very few extractions. In general they had good teeth with not many cavities, but a lot of tartar build up. Probably not a lot of sugar there. We were able to do young and old alike (one lady was even nursing her baby throughout the whole process!!). The generator quit mid-patient twice, but it all worked out. There were happy smiles all around.

I found out from the pastor there that about 45 of the 60 people on the island were believers. I think all who came to us were from that group. That was great, but I was kind of hoping we'd be able to plant more seed with the others. After speaking more with them, I realized that our trip was a great encouragement to the believers there. I was focused on evangelism, and missed out on the truth that we were also sent to be encouragers. We come for a few days bringing clean teeth, but they live there on the edge of civilization each day among friends and family that don't believe. They told us they get so discouraged sometimes. It was humbling to be on the end of so much gratitude for so simple a thing as going somewhere and getting sandy. One lady donated a pig that we butchered, cleaned and cooked that evening. It was interesting to watch. National geographic moment for sure. They gave what they had, which is not much.

An hour or so after dinner we drifted into a loose circle of conversation. We were able to share with and be shared at by the pastor. The man used to live in san jose, but asked god to send him wherever he wanted. God chose that place in the middle of nowhere. What sacrifice. He even lost his wife there on the island. But in the meantime he went from 0 to 75 percent believers. Wow! Humbling.

We spent quite a while praying for each person there. Most had children or a sibling that needed salvation. It was a very special time standing there in the moonlight with a low mist of smoke and listening to sobs as we touched them and prayed for them by name. There was a sense of unity among us. Just like in Russia I'm struck by how large the earth is, just how many people are scattered across it, and how many "lost" ones there are. In the US we focus so much on theology and dogma, but the simple message of the gospel and meeting human needs out of His love is needed around the world.

Monday night we slept in tents inside the sweltering church building. That was fun. Lots of noises in the night :-). A few souls pitched tents on the beach against the advice of the locals. I noticed in the morning that they were back up on the island near the church .... Evidently the tide DOES go up that high .....

Tuesday morning, we had a change of plans. Go figure. Because of the low tides, they were concerned about the trip over to the second island. So instead, tommy, debbie, stacey, dr bob, and I were to go alone (with jason to interpret). We hauled all the dental gear about 40 minutes down the beach to a spot the boat could launch from. Whew. The trip in the boat was great - a breeze!

Our boat driver Ricardo has a sister who lives on the second island and we were going to set up in her house. We got there and it seemed rather quiet except for the 10 scarlet macaws in a tree. Turned out that almost everyone was down harvesting clams because of the tide. Only women and children left in the village. Fishing nets everywhere, they even had a soccer goal made from bamboo and fishing nets. We set up quickly but the man who owned the generator was digging clams so we waited .. and waited. In the meantime we started talking with the kids and gave a bit of English lessons which they absolutely loved. We left a paper with words on it for them to "study". - so now there's an island down there that knows how to tell you that the red dog went to the big house and ate a fishing net, a t-shirt, four balls, a dentist and a teacher. And that a repollo is not a re-chicken.

Bob even let a few get in his chair and pretend to work on him. Priceless. It was totally unproductive other than laughs and smiles which I'm learning are next to useless when it comes to missions work. (Sarcasm).

We finally got the generator going only to find out it couldn't power the dental unit. We were disappointed - but that's not the same as discouraged. We packed up, but before we left we showed them how to brush their teeth. Jason read from Isaiah, and we spent some time praying for them. Pray that the tiny seed that was planted gets watered and harvested.

We pulled back to the other island and ate some smiling fish for lunch and waited in the sweltering church building until the other boat came to take us away. The pastor expressed his thanks once more and we loaded onto the boat and drove away. I have mixed emotions about the time there. We did a good work, but I didn't really get to know them as much as I'd like. I keep telling myself that we did what was needed. I can deal with that.

The boat ride to the eco resort was something else! I had a blast. We drove out into 8 foot swells and turned around because it was too rough. Then we got lost on the river looking for another passage back to the ocean. And finally we made it to the pacific only to drive around some massive rock formations in 10 foot seas. The driver had too wait and time it just right so we wouldn't smash up into them! Ha! 1 hour of bumps ... I think there were a few who were green around the gills. We had park outside the breakers and take a smaller motorboat ashore (timing it just right). Another cold shower out of a pipe (eco resort means eco friendly) but it felt awesome. Dinner tonight and sleep. The beds look great except for the inch long ants living in the foot of my bed. I think I need to find the housekeeper ...

More tomorrow. Maybe. Doesn't look like there's signal here either. Oh well.

Steven