Successful Spaghetti Feed

Global Passion Ministries-Nebraska

2015 team members

(L-R) Dean Athey, Carolyn Athey, Tamra Boettcher,

Sue Tillinghast & Karl Tillinghast

 

We had a great turnout for our spaghetti feed & it was a huge success.  Thank you to everyone for your attendance, generous monetary donations, donated baked goods & supplies & especially all the workers who volunteered their time & talents to help us make it all possible.  We have been so blessed to have the support we have received year after year which makes it possible for us to continue with our mission trips to Nicaragua.  Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for the team's 6th trip on Feb. 5th.  Carolyn

Spaghetti Feed & Bake Sale

It's that time of year again!  Global Passion Ministries-Nebraska is once again busy preparing for our 6th medical mission trip to Nicaragua from Feb. 5th-14th.  Team members are Tamra Boettcher, Sue & Karl Tillinghast and Dean & Carolyn Athey.  We will again be partnering with Global Passion Ministries-California.  A couple nurses from their team has already spent time in Puerto Cabezas & in the villages in the surrounding area seeing potential surgical patients for cleft lip and/or palate repairs. 


Our excitement is building as we prepare for our biggest fund raising event, our spaghetti feed & bake sale.  It will be held this Sunday, December 7th from 11:30-1:30 at First United Methodist Church, 2710 14th St. in Columbus.  The spaghetti & sauce were donated by the Barilla pasta company (who, in my opinion, make the BEST pasta) & we owe them a huge "Thank You". In addition to the bake sale, there will also be some Nicaraguan made items that we purchased in Nicaragua that we will be offering for sale.  Vi Bella jewelry will be on display & items may be purchased as well.  Vi Bella is a company that sells beautiful jewelry that is handmade by artisans in Haiti, Mexico & USA from recycled materials.  Tamra is a new distributor & is excited to be part of a company that provides jobs for the underprivileged as well as offering fund raising opportunities for groups such as ours.  Come & take a look and do some Christmas shopping.  The jewelry is gorgeous! 


Hope to see you Sunday!
Carolyn

Money well spent.

I wanted to let you all know that the picture below is from the morning we left Puerto Cabezas. We used some of the money donated by our faithful supporters to purchase school uniform tops for some of the children in the orphanage. This is in the shop next to the church where we purchased those uniforms. School started the next Monday and the children cannot attend unless they have a uniform. We chose this as our special project because as Sue said "We are where we are today because we have an education." Food for the orphanage was also purchased out of team funds. Just another way that those of you who support us are changing lives.
Dean

10 days in Nicaragua

I am home after 10 incredible days in Puerto Cabezas Nicaragua.  First, my apologies to all my family and friends for saying I would post everyday and then did not get one posting done.  The long days took it's toll on me-physically, mentally and spiritually.  I come home beat-up, bruised and bone tired on the outside.  But I am overflowing on the inside.  I have been witness to live changing moments for children with cleft lips and palates and with severe burns who will now not be disfigured physically.  And now will have a chance to regain their strong spirits.




If you have been reading the blog you know how much we were able to accomplish. 50 OR cases, 100 minor (or no so minor) cases and many clinic visits.  That only is possible when everyone sets aside their own desires for the benefit of the team and our mission.  For 10 days in February that is exactly what happened.




I am so pleased to have gained the professional respect of nurses I so admire and use as role models. Dean Athey, Tarma Boettcher, Suzie Smith and Keveta Anderson all I have work with on other trips made me feel I one with them.  I so appreciate Keveta allowing to step up and take responsibilities in the OR that I been have wanted to do.  The generousity of our surgeons especially Dr. Kurt Berry made my job even easier.




Renew friendships with past team members and making new ones is always a joy.  Seeing Nicaragua friends and their witnessing their perseverance is inspiring. Those Nicaraguan nurses caring for patients in conditions and lack of supplies that would make most of us turn and walk the other way. It make me see my work here at home with new eyes.



And of course, watching Karl whose every action comes from kindness, concern for others and cooperation.  He is my hero!  I don't know how I got so lucky to be part of his life.  It is my biggest blessing.


One of my favorite memories-if I am pressed to pick only one is of a beautiful girl from one of the small villages, I think her name is Ana.  Her right arm had been badly burned in a fire and terribly scarred.  Dr. Berry did a beautiful repair. Every morning and night she was waiting at the hospital before and after her surgery to give me a hug and flash that wonderful smile.  She lifted me up.  I hope only good things for her and hope her life is blessed.


This mission trip like the four others before has filled and enriched my life more than I could possibly put into words.  I will continue to hope and pray that I will be able to return again for as long as I can heave myself up into the back of that pick-up!!


PEACE
Sue

Back Home

After many tries of getting a post on the blog I made it - better late than never!!!


It was amazing trip even with the 10 hours in the Huston airport going down we did manage to get past that and arrived in Puerto Cabezas in pretty good shape.  Went through the totes that were left in Puerto from past trips and got what was needed to do the clinic on Saturday.  This years totes arrived on Sunday (most did some came on Tuesday ).  Moved into the Hospital on Sunday evening and had to hire a guard ( $15 a day ) to watch the  supplies because the hospital was in pretty bad shape.   Surgeries went well this year considering everything - electricity seemed better this year compared to others - it went off once at the hospital and it was off for a bit at the compound one morning. 


RJ (brother from another mother ) and I spent our days making sure that everyone got to the hospital and that they had everything that they needed.  The truck left at 6:20 for the first wave and at 7:20 for the 2nd wave,  Every day started with worship in recovery room at hospital( one fan and 30 people = shower gone by 7:30 ).  It got the days started in right direction!!  This time is also the time that the schedule is set as near as it can be for the day. 
We also got drinks and lunches and did repairs in between.  Hauled bags of concrete for the new school that was being built by the Verbo Church and pastor Earl's men.  30 bags on a pickup that we used to haul everyone back and forth to hospital and etc.  ( capacity was probably about 10 ea ) .  A little air in tires and we made the trip! 


Every day brought tears and smiles.  Several 16 hr + days cut into our daily highs and lows but it was something that was necessary to keep perspective on what we were seeing and trying to accomplish and kept everyone up on what was going on in different areas of the mission. 


Our meals were prepared by the compound where we stayed and kept us from loosing any weight for those thought that the heat would help with that.  The beans and rice that we had every day (almost) never got tiring,  it was so good, something about fresh.  Seafood and plantains were common also. 


It has been asked why we go back to the same place but it becomes more plain on every trip.  It is the friendships that we rekindle every year and start new ones.  It is differences that we make even though it may be only one " starfish" at a time. 


When we return we are definitely exhausted but we say every time that we get far more out of this than we give.  Its spiritually rewarding and rejuvenating and puts the right perspective on our lives.


Thank you all for listening and as the stories come back to us we would be more that happy to share.  Make sure Sue is with me so she can pull me away in case the story gets too long!!


Thank everyone for all your prayers and continued support. 


God Bless -- Karl

A Suprise

I wanted to share with you the surprise I had when I went to turn on my anesthesia machine the other day. I was the first one in the OR. I was getting things ready for the day. I turned on the anesthesia machine and then turned to my left to attach the breathing circuit and this little fellow was attached to the monitoring cables. I was needless to say VERY surprised but contrary to what you may read on Facebook I did not scream like a girl. I found out later that he is known as a Jesus lizard because he can walk on water. He was apparently cold from the air conditioning. Once he was released outside he warmed up and was running on his hind legs. This was not the interaction with Jesus I came to Nicaragua for.

These are pictures of a few of the patients we served last week. I cannot begin to tell you how great it feels to be given the opportunity to have touched their lives.  The final total was 50 procedures in the OR and another 100 procedures in the Ditzel clinic. I am not sure of the breakdown in type of procedure but we must have done around 15 or more cleft lip and or palate surgeries.
The whole team worked great together or this never would have happened. I am proud to work with a great group of proud Christians who are willing to take their time and talents to go to Nicaragua to serve the Lord and his children.
I am sure the rest of the team will want to share some of their thoughts and I don't want to 'steal their thunder.'  We have lots more pictures. If you ever want to hear more or want a presentation for a group or organization we are always happy to talk about this trip.

It is already Thursday, unbelievable!  We have been working so hard and such long days we just haven't had a chance to blog much.  I was lucky and got to come "home" tonight at 5:30 so I could try and touch base with you all and get some important emails off to some other villages for Suzie.
I just can't explain how great things are...we are organized, calm and SO VERY lucky to have the most amazing, generous and God-fearing docs to work with.  The outcomes are truly beautiful.  We have been told that their expertise accomplishes almost perfect results in only 3 surgeries compared to 7 that it takes in the USA.  I believe it!!  All of our spirits are high and the only tears shed thus far are from joy.  These pictures were taken by Dean...1) Karl, RJ and Keveta 2) Sondra the other anesthetist 3)Scarleth and her new 1month old baby, she helped Carolyn and me last year 4) Mrs Rigsby's granddaughter.
I hope that the rest of the crew can share tonight or tomorrow...thanks for all the prayers, encouragement and support. 
Tamra

I will try again.

Sorry it has been so long since I blogged. So far this thing has eaten 3 of my posts. I am sure it is NOT MY FAULT. We have had 2 long surgery days doing cleft lips, cleft palates and a couple of combination lip and palates. We have also done some ENT, plastic surgery and general surgery. The people of this ethnicity tend to form keloids where there skin has been cut or damaged. For those of you who do not know what a keloid is. it is an over growth of scar tissue (Google it). We have done a lot of scar revisions in the OR on children and Tamra has done a lot of keloid removal and injections in what we call the Ditzel Clinic on older patients. We have seen a lot of children who have been burned in cooking accidents or house fires etc. and formed some terrible scars. We are really seeing the poor of the poor this year.  Suzi and Sarah came down a few days early and went into the villages and found patients. Dr. Carstens arrived today from Managua. We have been waiting for him for the patients with the large cleft palates, bad cleft lips etc. He did an ear reconstruction tonight after he got to the hospital. The next three days won't be any shorter than the last two. Sue has been working hard in the OR. Keveta has returned but is trusting Sue and one of the new members from CA to do a great share of the work. I tend to get the babies on my bed. Those of you that know me well, know I love (not really) giving anesthesia to small children. It is very stressful but very rewarding to see these beautiful children's lives changed. We have a RULE that we don't do any kids younger than 10 months or smaller than 10 kilograms. That lasted until our first patient. She was 7 months and 9 kilograms but we called her Kid too Cute. Meaning she was too cute not to do. We have had several Kid too Cutes in the 5 years we have been doing this. Karl and RJ (Suzi's husband) have been running the town to supply us as well as other projects. I am going to close this and try to get some sleep. Sleep never comes easy for me on these trips but without Carolyn along it is even more rare. Hopefully this will not get eaten before I get it published. Please forgive all spelling and punctuation errors.
Dean

Sunday AM

Well after many starts and stops (including not being smart enough to log onto the blog) things are beginning to flow. We had a great clinic yesterday. No one can keep track of how many people we saw but it was several hundred. Everyone worked together to make for a very smooth day. Tamra and Sue were the main triage nurses working with Mary Alena (a local RN) to find out what the person's chief complaint was and getting them directed to the correct doctor's table. Then Suzi and I would get them scheduled for a surgery date if it was a problem we could help. We have 10 or so cleft lips and 6 or 8 either cleft palates or combined lip and palate.  We also have numerous ENT cases as well as some general surgery cases. We got to see a few of the patients we have been privileged to have touched on previous trips. It is a blessing to see them and how their lives have been changed. It is great working with our other half from CA. I feel we have truly melded into one team. The return of our Nicaragua Doc's has been great. They serve with a humble spirit and feel they have been sent here by God just like the rest of us. Karl and RJ have an ever enlarging list of things to fix or build. The supplies arrived some time during the night after a 24 hour cross country road trip. I will try to add some pictures after church but you know I am technologically challenged. Carolyn we all miss you. All the locals have asked about you and send their greetings. I hopes this finds all of our USA support team (that is YOU if you are reading this) well.
Greetings from the rest of the team. We are well and excited for what comes next.
Dean

Good Morning Managua!!!  It was a tough day yesterday spending 10 hours in the Houston airport.  We had clean and comfortable accommodations last night and a tasty breakfast today.  We are off to La Costena to get ready for our flight to Puerto Cabezas - praying for a smooth flight...we will keep in touch!  Tam