These 1st 2 are of our team after church on Feb. 20th.

The red banner in the background was made by 2 sisters on our team, Peggy & Pam.

A cleft lip & palate surgery going on.

Daisy in a gown made by Pat Ivy from Columbus, NE.

Thank you, Pat, for your hard work & donations.

Dean in surgery.

Cleft lip & palate surgery.

Dean waking up a baby after surgery.

Dr. Tellez & Dr. Ingram

Bone graft being done.

New aprons for the kitchen & laundry ladies.

Group pictures

Our team picture

Karl & Sue Tillinghast, Pastor Earl Bowie, Carolyn & Dean Athey

Dean & Carolyn Athey, Julio, Sue & Karl Tillinghast

Pastor Earl owns the Verbo compound where we stay & is pastor of the Verbo Church. 

Julio is the man in charge of the feeding station in Puerto Cabezas that feeds 1 meal a day to anywhere from 600-1000 children EVERY day.  He also takes food to the dump where people live & provides the children there with 1 meal a day.  Such a kind & generous man!

More pictures

                 Dean couldn't find any pictures with Iowa Hawkeye logos but I did!! 

Dean & I

Keveta (originally from Cedar Rapids) & I on "Hawkeye Day"!!  Iowa was well represented with our scrub hats, tops, bandanas & drinks!

Home again.

Hopefully better late than never will work for the followers of this blog. Apparently some of our posts never uploaded to the blog. I will try to make up for that. I can never rate one mission as better than another. This was another great mission. We may not have done as many surgical procedures as some years but this team is much more about quality than quantity. Sue and I did around 15 surgeries on our bed and they probably did about as many on the other bed. These were 2 to 4 hour operations and a lot of them were on young patients. I am always humbled by the fact that God has allowed me to a part of the way He is touching these patients lives.  I will include some pictures. Hopefully they will upload. The banner was made for the church on the compound where we worship on Sunday. One of the members of the California part of the team made it.  It was beautiful. She and her sister have done several of them for the church. Please note the Husker caps on the men in the first picture. Mom made those.  The guys loved them. She made some women's caps in Hawkeye logo but somehow I couldn't find those. Thank each and everyone of you for all of your support. Dean

What a week!! We are now in Managua at our hotel across the street from the airport. Internet connection was bad in Puerto Cabezas the last few days. We were busy with surgeries & then with packing. Lots of cleft lip & palate surgeries throughout the week. We had such amazing doctors. Lots of experience & top notch skills. Will post pictures after we get home & have more time. We fly tomorrow & will get home tomorrow nite. Thank you for all your support!

Greetings from Nicaragua what an amazing day. Our second day of surgery went really well all things considered. It takes a bit to get use to the surroundings. 
The nicarguan creativity in dealing with lack of supplies, equipment has and still amazes me. We were a little creative ourselves no OR light just tape a flashlight up . The best part is working with a team that is all pulling the same way. We know what a privilege it is to be able to answer the call of this mission.
 what a gift to be here. Thanks for all the continued support. SUE

Some of our patients who have had their surgeries.