July Update :)

In May, we had a team from St. Francis University. They were a large group of 18 people, made up of vets, doctors, and students! Every year I enjoy serving alongside this team. The week is shorter than our normal teams’ schedules, but the week was full; full of laughter, emotions, and lots of work. 

We spent the week doing elderly visits, mobile medical clinics, spaying and neutering cats and dogs, deworming animals and wound care. It's incredible watching all of the people and their animals in one location getting medical care. One of the projects this group has been focusing on for the last couple of years is women's health, specifically, breast cancer awareness. During clinics, they had a survey of questions they asked to those who wanted to participate. In one of the communities, they actually asked for one of the Doctors on the team to come out and chat with all of the women and answer their follow up questions. It was great to see women in the community aware and wanting to know more about their health. At our clinic in Rosa la Piedra we arrived in the morning, gave a short tour of the building, and started organizing our work stations for the day. I was handed an adorable baby swaddled up in his baby blanket who was born the night before. To my surprise, I felt something squishy.  As we unwrapped his blanket we saw that he still had his placenta attached! We got his cord clamped, cut and all cleaned up. Mother and baby are both doing wonderful!

We brought the team to the nutrition center run by the Missionaries of Charity. We typically do this with all of our teams at some point during their trip here with us so that they are able to see and spend time with the kids that we bring down the mountain. The Sisters who run the nutrition center called me on Monday asking for our team to stop by during the week to check on two of the kids. One who is 8 months old and 7lbs, who has a cleft palate and is going to need surgery. She is now home with her mom in hopes that we can help her gain weight by October so that she can have surgery. The other child was 4 months old and weighed only 4 pounds, had been at the nutrition center for almost a month and was not thriving. One of the Sisters was holding the baby and the second we walked in the door to the nutrition center, I could see that he was not doing well. We took the baby into a private room to do more examining. As medical professionals, we are always trying to figure out how we can help fix a problem; to heal others. We sat in this room trying to figure out our next steps. Do we bring him to a hospital? Get him home to his family so he could die with them? We didn't know what was the right thing to do. We did get a hold of his family, letting them know that he wasn't doing well. As we sat there coming up with a plan, the plan was made for us. This sweet baby was held, loved on, and prayed for as he took his last breath in our arms. 

Wiskinlove finally had surgery to remove her right eye and has been recovering well! She is still in Santo Domingo, where she is close to the hospital because she occasionally spikes a fever, and her eye socket still needs to be cleaned out regularly. We are hoping that she will be able to go back home soon to the mountain where the rest of her family lives.  

In June, we had a surprise going away party for Olivia. We are blessed to have had her serving alongside us for 3 wonderful years. She will be greatly missed by everyone! We are all sad to see her go, but we know that wherever God leads her next, they will be blessed to have her. 

During the first week of June, the owner of Palo Seco, our mission house, was here visiting. During his time here we learned that he is going to be selling the house that we currently are renting and farm land attached to it.  We needed to decide what we were going to do; Buy Palo Seco and renovate it or build somewhere new? We spent a lot of time going over pros and cons and ultimately, as a team we decided to build a new mission house. FUMSIL has property in El llano that was originally purchased over 15 years ago to protect the source of potable water for the town. We will use this land to build a new and improved mission house! In August, we have decided to host two fundraisers, one in Pinckney and the other in Belmont (close to Grand Rapids). Dr. Angel, Adam, Padre Rafael (president of FUMSIL) and myself, will all be stateside for both events.  

Please consider coming to one or both of the events to support this next big project.  Click the link below. 

https://bboh2025.weebly.com/

Pinckney Event: Friday August 8th, at Saint Marys Parish In Pinckney Michigan. (10601 Dexter-Pinckney RD, Pinckney MI 48159)

Grand Rapids Event : Sunday August 10th at Assumption BVM Parish (6390 Belmont Ave NE, Belmont, MI 49306). Doors to the gala will open at 6:30PM. Please feel free to join us at the 5:30PM Mass before the event. https://bboh2025.weebly.com/store/p10/Grand_Rapids_Gala.html

Prayers: 

-For the success of the two fundraisers in August. 

-For the upcoming planning and preparation of construction of the new mission house. 

-For the little girl who needs to gain weight before she is considered for surgery. 

-For my time in the states in August, that I can rest and spend quality time with family and friends.