Home for Christams

We are safe back in the states and are enjoying visiting with family and church friends. I have had a little difficulty adjusting to the finer foods of the American cuisine, some medication should help this. Neva is visiting her parents this weekend and I am home with our favorite dog Sandy. I will have time to meet with members of our church family.

It snowed this afternoon for several hours with only a trace of accumulation, wow it was beautiful ( sorry I did not have the camera). I'm sitting in Panera Bread a wifi hot spot and they are playing Christmas caroles

My Christmas list is much shorter this year and is only 2 pages single spaced for those of you who are following our blog and want to buy us a little something. Just kidding, you know after a while when we are slightly older our wants and needs list become very minimal. Frequently the only thing we want and really need is quality time with God, family and friends.

PS. We will not be celebrating with firecrackers or hosting a precession as our Guatemala friends will be this Christmas season.

Catching up on the week. Glenn helped with the ABC celebration, while I went to clinic to help Lisa and Josephina on Monday. We had 32 patients and everyone worked together so that we could join the group in the afternoon.

Edison and his mother came to clinic as they prepare for a second operation to have his cleft palate repaired. He is a little guy that Sheri has written a lot about on her blog. She continues to work with the mothers of these babies to help them through the pre-operative preparation required before surgery.

At the ABC celebration, a little girl from La Palma came up to me and clearly wanted to be friends. At first she just wanted to sit by me, but within a few minutes she had curled up in my lap. I asked her if she was sleepy and she said, yes. She had probably played hard and had very big day.

Tuesday we all met at Clinica Caris and worked to clean up the clinic, inventory pharmaceuticals and prepare pill packs for upcoming clinics. Kemmel had planned a special lunch of pizza and cheese cake (from the Cheesecake Factory no less!) Needless to say, we all enjoyed ourselves very much.

Today was a day off for Sheri, Glenn, and I as we all still needed to pack for our trips home. Lisa covered clinic. Tomorrow we will reciprocate and go to Chuchipaca.

Marilyn Grows

Dr. Lisa, Sheri, and I were very happy today to see Marilyn and her mother return to clinic at Mactzul I. Marilyn was initially seen during the November Medical Mobile Trip as a 3 month old premie who weighed 6 lbs. Today, one month later, she weighed in at 9 pounds! Her mother was relieved to know that she is growing. Baby seemed quite content and this picture is worth a thousand words.....their doctor is happy, too! We thank God for answering prayers for this little one.

ABC Clinic in Mactzul V

Clinic today was for children who are in the ABC Program in the Mactzul V area near Chichi. Glenn was measuring the height of this little sweet girl...she finally smiled for the camera. I think at first she may have been a little sceptical of this tall, gringo guy. The second photo is one of many that we took of the darling children that came to the clinic with their mothers and fathers. All in all, there were a total of 64 children seen today. If you don't know about the ABC program, check out the details on HTI's website. For only $30 a month you can support a child and help a family in one of the churches of Christ in Guatemala.

To Lake Atitlan via Xela

Yesterday, we updated our blog with a picture of beautiful Lake Atitlan. We headed there for the first time a week or so ago driving along the Inter-American highway from Chichi. The scenery is beautiful, so we drove and talked and drove some more and realized we hadn't seen a sign for the lake. Suddenly, we saw the city of Xela (two hours from Chichi......been there and recognized it)! After a turn around and more than an hour later, we arrived in Panajachel. Now Glenn wants a GPS for Christmas or a good back seat driver! Anyway, we enjoyed eating fresh fish at a restaurant overlooking the lake and checking out the town before we returned home.

Spiritual Care for the Community

Today we had the opportunity to attend an all day church service at Xepocol, a local congregation in the mountains surrounding ChiChi. There were approximately 600 people including those that came from surrounding churches. As you can see it was held under a tent like structure for shade.

Many people came from surrounding villages by bus, trucks, cars and walking. Acapella came to sing from the town of Quiche. They were very good and several of their members are related so they travel as a family plus Dad is a preacher.

Gaspar, the gentleman pictured above who is a leader in the church and is one of HTI health promoters, assisted in the meeting. It was a good time to talk with many of the people in the congregation and for them to start to know us better. On the way home, Kemmel gave a ride to people who needed transportation. I rode in the back of the pickup with several younger women and children, while a few more mature Guatemalans rode in the cab.

Every Job Counts

Daniel and his sister Mercedes, ABC/Scholarship students, spent the week with us in Montellano. At last count, Daniel and his sister had made 3048+ packages of multivitamins. These will be ready to give out to the many patients in the mobile clinics.

The Eye Clinic finished today with 21 surgical procedures completed and many patients seen on consult and provided with medical treatment. As we talked tonight, even though it was a small group this trip, it was also a blessing to work and praise the Lord each night together. This group enjoyed singing and we spent more time than usual in the evening learning new songs and singing old familiar tunes. As we all leave and travel our separate ways tomorrow, most expressed the hope of returning again to serve these people who have such tremendous faith and trust in God and in those he sends.

Eye Surgery at Clinica Ezell

We are enjoying a week of eye surgery in Montellano with five team members from the states and a very supportive Guatemalan staff. Dr. Meredith Ezell is our ophthalmologist and here she is removing a patch from Maria, a 47 year old woman that has bilateral cataracts and hasn't had sight in a year. Maria laughed and then she cried. It is always fun to be a part of these early morning events! She hopes to return in March to have surgery on her left eye.

We were preparing Pedro for surgery when his wife arrived. He was so excited to see her. I ask him how long they had been married and he said for 62 years. He was 19 and she was 15. They have 10 children and 15 grandchildren. She walked with him back to the outer doors of the OR and waited patiently in the post-op area for his return. It is now nearly 7pm and she is still at his side.

The past week was filled with new opportunities to allow God to work in our lives. What impacted me the most was on Thursday, I was working with Josephina, one of HTI's physicians, and only a few patients came to the clinic that day. God places us where we can work for him the most, as there was a 6 year old child that was bought to the clinic by her mother. For the past 2-3 days she had nausea, vomiting and some diarrhea. When we examined the child the abdomen was tight, there were no bowel sounds, and there were several positive physical signs for appendicitis. Josephina instructed the mother to take the child directly to the hospital and we prayed for them before they went their way.
The last patient, was a 50-55 year old women who was extremely thin and her husband stated she had been "ill several years but worse now" She weighed 80 lbs and was skin and bones. On examination her liver was very large and her abdomen was slightly tender at all points. There were no other significant physical signs. Josephina ask him if he would take her for an ultrasound and lab work to determine a possible diagnosis of cancer. He conveyed that we did not want to, that his wife was the shepherd for the family and they would leave it in the hands of God. We gave them some supportive medications and ask them to please come to Clinica Caris for follow up, and again it was time to pray to God for this very sick women and her family.
Neva spent the day Thursday with Dr. Lisa at her referral clinic at Caris. They saw a young man who is in similar shape and his labs and clinical presentation raise concerns about about the possibility of leukemia. He, too, was sent to the hospital for further testing and the hope of treatment. Then, a little guy, four years old and only 20 pounds, was brought to the clinic by his mom in obvious distress related to malnutrition. He was treated for parasites and his mother was given information on nutrition and hopefully he can be referred to a milk program that is available in Chichi. If we had any questions about why we are working in Guatemala, they were all answered in one day!
Saturday, we headed for the coast for a week of eye surgery. More from Montellano in the next few days.

Getting Settled in Chichi

Since our last blog, we have covered a lot of ground! In September we returned to the states to see our son baptized and married (yes, all in one week, wow, what a time of blessing!) Then we attended the October surgical clinic with a wonderful group of people who obviously love the people of Guatemala.

A few days later, we took a shuttle to Chichi to look at where we will live, a nice place, which used to be a bed and breakfast. We will rent the upstairs and will share a kitchen with a lovely woman, her son, and the 97 year old father of the owner of the house. Every morning while we were visiting that week, we woke up to the sounds of older Christian hymns, like the ones we grew up singing and in the evening to the reading of the Bible in Spanish. We also had the opportunity to meet the Guatemalan staff who work in the highlands. What a treat! We have attached a couple of pictures that we took as we sat in a restaurant having coffee and desserts. On Friday and Saturday of that week, we went out to mobile medical clinics and spent this time shadowing Lisa and Sheri as they saw patients. After the weekend, it was time to return to Antigua to finish a few days of Spanish school and as my teacher said, now it is time to practice!

This past Monday, October 26, Lisa and Kemmel arrived at our door with two trucks and we loaded up and headed to Chichi. We are getting settled here and looking ahead to several busy weeks. We are going to attend a youth conference in Santa Cruz this coming weekend. We are told to anticipate somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 attendees! There is a group coming from Oklahoma, too, so it will be a time of fellowship, meeting many new people from across the country, and worshiping the Lord. We continue to be thankful for the opportunity to serve with Health Talents.






God Bless All of You, we are so thankful for your support.


Love,


The Berkeys

Southern Comfort

We finished a surgery trip which completed 53 cases. The focus for surgery was for ENT, Plastic and General Surgery. The majority of team members were from the south, Alabama,Georgia,Tennessee and other states. This was the first time for many of the members and once they were assigned, they were busy at making the whole body work to the glory of GOD.

I know you have heard this before but the cases seem more difficult because of the amount of time span people have lived with the illness affecting them. Regardless God used his people to repair/remove thyroids, cleft lips, cleft plates and hernias, lumps and bumps.

It is so great to work with a group of Christ focus people who put others first. The last evening one of the anesthesia team members stated he was so move to see the staff praying with/for patients prior to going to surgery, he was going to offer to pray with patients when he went home.

We have attached some photos and one is of Rosario, one of the nurses scrubbed on a surgery case. This was her first time and she stated she really enjoyed it and I promised she could scrub again with us in October for GYN cases, when her schedule allowed.

In 2 weeks, we pray to test out of the present section of Spanish which has more verbs than Carter had pill for the aches and pains of life. It will be good to move on and expand our understanding of different tenses for speaking.

In Christ love

Glenn & Neva

Home in La Antigua

We returned from an eye surgical trip at Montellano, were approx 46 patients shad cataracts removed or overgrowths of tissue removed from their eyes. The staff group was a small in number but very efficient and we were able to translate when needed. Neva and I had a chance to go with Dr. Walter to a medical clinic and evaluate some patients.

Next week we return to Montellano for an combo Plastics/Ent/General surgery. One of the nurses, Shery, in ChiChi, her home church is sponsoring a 2 year old for a cleft palate repair. She has as us to assist with the coordination of the visit, paying the bill and transportation. We are really looking forward to the trip, Neva knows a few of the people on the trip. Should be an encouraging trip and a chance to meet more christians from the states.

We are in school for this week and are focusing on reviewing the section so we can test out and move on- please pray for us the God put spanish works in our brain and on our tongues.

Love
Glenn & Neva

From US to Guatemala

Sorry it has been awhile since we have written. In May we went home to visit parents, and church friends. Megan has visited her academic studies and came home a few weeks prior to her internship starting in DC for 2 months then on to San Francisco for 1 year. Jess was working and busy planning wedding details with Brooke. Neva’s parents are doing well per se, Bob needed a partial knee replacement and is doing well post-op. Marje continues to be feisty as usual.
When we returned to Guatemala, Megan came with us for approximately 10 days and we visited many of the ruins in Antigua. Neva and Megan acquired some ameba but, this was corrected with medication.
This past week was very busy as we had Spanish school in the afternoons and in the mornings I went on a local medical mission trip to 2 villages surrounding Antigua. Preston Crest Church, in Dallas Texas has an annual trip to Antigua the first week on July. Dr. Raul, Physician/Evangelist supported by Preston Crest Church ; Neva and I have grown fond on him and his wife. Dr Raul invited me to attend clinic with him when I was not in school. Four people were baptized and countless of contacts were made. Approximately 1,000 were seen and evaluated for medical, surgical and denital problems. It was very encouraging to see the combination of medicine and evangelism. This is the great example Christ used in the Bible.

Love Glenn & Neva

Dia de Madre-Mother's Day

Dia de Madre (Mother's Day) is a grand celebration in Guatemala We were surprised by the special events of the day when we arrived at church. Each women received a rose and the church had been decorated very festively by the children the day before.


Children young and old had a gift for their mothers (and husbands for their wives when children weren't present) as seen in this picture of the preacher giving his mother a gift. All mothers received a Guatemalan bible cover, which fit Neva's bible perfectly. The members laughed and clapped when I spoke a few words to Neva in Spanish after being prompted to do so by one of the members. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the special program of the day.


After the service, it was time for a tipico Guatemala meal of pepian con pollo
(a special sauce, chicken, veggies and rice) plus tortillas. All the women and children were seated and waited on by the men (a practice which I personally can not find in the Bible:) but it was the custom of the day. We had a lot of fun and there were lots of laughs. We went home feeling very much a part of our new church family.

Onto Grado B

With the tremendous help of GOD, we have passed our test on the first part of our Spanish lessons, Grado A. Neva being more gifted of tongue than me passed her test last week and I passed mine today. The next session is mostly working with verbs (verbos). There are approximately 501 verbos and we hope to learn them all (just kidding).

Enclosed is a picture of our teachers (maestras) who have patiently taught us during these past weeks. Notice they are now smiling as opposed to crying, this is a good thing, muy bien. On the left is Sandra (my teacher) and on the right is Blanca (Neva's teacher). We appreciate both of them so much for putting up with us for four hours each day and for the program at the Christian Spanish Academy, which is an wonderful way to learn a new language.

April Surgical Trip

The Bible, Guatemalan angels, and Garfield.

Who would believe you can do surgical cases using the same grounding pad all day--it's true. Hopefully AORN will provide a grant to complete further research on this subject. Regardless we completed 85 surgical cases with only minor issues. We had great people working in the surgery area and Rick was in charge of sterilizing the instruments and supplies. One of our surgical teams kept "borrowing" our supplies but at least they were using them.
Above is a picture of one of the "little angels" that had surgery during the week. He was sleeping peacefully after a little Demerol. One image that will remain with us for some time is of his young father kneeling at his bedside praying for him. We had a very committed group of nurses and assistants working in the post-operative area. The 12+ hour days went so fast. There is no way to tell someone of the joy that comes from serving on one of these trips. The June surgical clinic is coming up quickly and there is still an urgent need for nurses. Please consider coming to Guatemala!

God works in ways we can only imagine.

Stop the Clinic: A Midday Baptism

We had the honor today of attending a baptism with other members of the church of Christ here in Antigua. Dr. Raul, a member of the church, was conducting his weekly clinic at the building when Paola, a 25 year old woman expressed her desire to be baptized. Dr. Raul stopped the clinic, gave several members a call, and we all drove out to a nearby village where there was a pool (from hot springs). It was such a moving experience, as Paola's mother, sister, brother, and her young son were there to watch her baptism. We were told that her mother had prayed for a long time for this to happen. She cried as Paola came out of the water. It was also a time for Dr. Raul and the minister of the church to witness to others who were at the pool. Dr. Raul told us later that the church in Antigua has had from 3-4 baptisms each of the past several months! In like manner with HTI, Dr. Raul and the ministry staff address not only physical needs at the clinic, but also hold a devotional and teach the message of the gospel of Christ to those in attendance! After Paola was baptized, it was nearly 4pm. We returned to Antigua, where Dr. Raul still had 10 patients waiting to be seen.

Holy Week

Several weeks have passed since we updated our blog. This is partially due to being in school for four hours a day and studying about four hours a day, and the other excuse is that we have been going to many of the celebrations surrounding Semana Santa here in Antigua for the past week or two. School is going well. Our teachers, Blanca and Sandra, are both very patient and intelligent young ladies! After a few short weeks, we are beginning to communicate in Spanish in the market, when ordering meals, and with the couple from whom we rent. On a day when we were a little discouraged about our studies, we received a card from my parents which read, "I believe if Jesus calls me to get out of the boat, He is going to be there to help me walk on the water. If I start to sink, which sometimes I do, He'll reach His hand down and He'll lift me up. God will give you everything you need to do everything He has called you to do. You are in His hands and there is no better place to be." How true this is, and we thank Him for every word he has helped us to remember and speak! We are also very grateful for a family that is supportive.

Please continue to pray for our language studies, as we know this is essential if we are to serve. Please keep Kimmel's da

d in your prayers as he faces a serious surgery on Monday. Also, please keep Dan Shoemaker, the son of Sam and Nancy Shoemaker (missionaries in Rwanda) in your prayers. He is quite sick following a recent surgery.

We would love to hear for you.

In his love,

Glenn and Neva

Spanish School Begins

We returned from the Eye/Ortho surgery clinic at Montellano on Friday. What a week! It ended with a gentleman who had suffered electrocution about a month ago and required amputation of his L hand fingers. God works in miraculous ways, as this man presented in a mobile medical clinic where the orthopaedic surgeon had gone to spend the day. Within a couple of hours, surgery was in progress, and the necrotic fingers were removed. He was recovering nicely when we left, thanks be to the surgical team and our Lord and Savior!!
Lisa and Kemmel Dunham, and Sheri came from Chichi yesterday to go to church with us. There were about 50+ people in attendance, including two couples who stayed following the surgical clinic to go to language school this week. We met a physician who holds a clinic each Tuesday at the church. He invited us to visit and volunteer. It sounds like a good way to help here and to practice our Spanish, too.
Spanish school starts this afternoon. We will attend from 2p-6p each day. Glenn and I are anxious to be able to communicate and likewise, understand what others are saying. Please keep us in your prayers as we start this important part of our work.

Another Day in Paradise

We arrived safely, the flights were good with very short connecting times. Our luggage arrived with us and everything was intact.- thank GOD. Alex and Danny with HTI arrived at the airport iapproximately 30 minutes later and we on our way.

The drive to Antigua was beautiful, warm and relaxing. We learned our first lesson with house numbers. Our apartment house has the same number as one around the corner. Mary Johnson was their to help us adjust. Over the next several days we walked around Antigua and learned our sense of direction, there are 2 volcanoes in close proximity. Neva has been setting up our small apartment very nice, we had a bed, chair, desk and a clothing closet. Small bathroom and cool water showers. Our kitchen area is separate from the apartment and is very nice with a propane stove and refrigerator.


Saturday evening we had dinner with Lisa & Hemmel Dunhum and Julie and it was really great to see and talk about with them. Sunday AM we went to Guatemala City to connect with a surgical team ( ophthalmology and orthopedics ). After waiting for all team members on different flights we were off to Monteanno with approximately 50 members. Many of the membera of the group are Pharmacy and PA students.

The members are working well together and this is a low key trip compared to others and gives us a chance to adjust to being in country and role expectations. This is the first operational trip for ortho and will take a few years (trips) to establish. We were blessed to be able to remove a femoral nail (rod) from a 13 yo girl this morning. The rod had been in place for several years and was starting to migrate out, causing pain.

Many of the students are working the with local school doing physical assessments and the dental team is also doing evaluations for future follow up when the parents are presents and can give permission and participate in their care.

Reasons to rejoice: We are meeting and making new friendships. Carl Agee is well and gone back to work. Carlos and Sylvia with HTI are to be married possibly this summer. The supply container that has been in a Guatemala port since November has been released and should arrive this week. The container has needed equipment and supplies.

God has blessed us to be able to serve these people.

Headed to Guatemala!

It's after 8pm in Kansas City, and we are at an airport hotel, ready for a few hours of sleep before we get up at 0330 to make our 0600 flight to Guatemala City. (for those of you who were on the first trip with me in 1999.....yes, the alarm clock is on). It is hard to believe that our dream is finally becoming a reality. Yesterday, we said goodbye to friends and family, which was made much easier by the overwhelming support and prayers offered on our behalf. We are looking forward to seeing the many special people we have come to know during our years of short term missions. Yes, there are a few butterflies as we anticipate tomorrow. (Glenn says this is because I am trying to move our entire house to Guatemala and don't know if Continental will help us....)
We just pray that you will keep us in your prayers as we attend a surgical clinic next week in Montellano and the following week begin language school in Antigua.
In Christ's Love,
Neva and Glenn

T- 2 Weeks

The time is fast approaching for us to travel to Guatemala on March 3. We are busy with completing our needed paper work such as, retirement options, legal paperwork and last but not least our veterinarian certifications. We found a pre-vet student to foster our Australian shepherd (who is a good will ambassador for young and old) until we can bring her with us when we are finished in Antigua.

With much assistance from our friend Mary Johnston, we now have a small apartment in Antigua while we study Spanish. We know it will take approximately 6 months to grasp enough background so we can communicate without sounding like we fell off the back of the turnip truck. Fortunately we will be attending surgical trips at Clinica Ezell and medical trips with the teams to break up the studies.


We are spending lots of time with our family, talking on the phone with our daughter who is in graduate school in New York, eating meals with our son and his fiance who live nearby, and visiting Neva's parents. Tomorrow we will travel to Kansas to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. Anticipating lots of candles with the fire department standing by to extinguish the flames!

We are definitely getting excited to become a part of the family of HTI workers and being with the people of the country of Guatemala who we love so much.

We pray all is well with you,
Glenn & Neva Berkey