Mon. Night. 1st surgery day!

It appears that internet is working well at the moment so will try to get a post to go through. We are done with our 1st day of surgeries at the hospital. It seemed pretty chaotic when we 1st got to the hospital but things finally fell into place & things seemed to run smoothly. Some complicated surgeries with good results. I got things set up as well as I could for a minor procedure area but quickly found that it wasn't adequate. Thankfully Scarleth, a wonderful Nicaraguan nurse who I have worked with other years came to the rescue & found a much more suitable area. We worked till 6 pm. It's always fun on our 1st day to see the people who live here & who we have worked with for several years now & have become such good friends. Morning will come soon so need to get to bed. Keep all of our team in your prayers as well as the patients we are serving. Internet has been VERY unreliable so bear with us. Carolyn

Sunday evening

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It appears that I can post again. We spent the morning in church and then after lunch we did a quick setup at the hospital. Some of the group did a short boat trip up the coast. Carolyn and I chose to pass. We have a full schedule in the OR for the first few days and then we will fill in the rest of the week with carry overs and walk ins. We have a lot of big cleft lip and palates on some very small patients. I will try to add a few pictures.

Update with pictures

I am not sure how I did it but the middle pictue is of Sue and Carolyn on the front porch of our cabana. This is a before and after picture of Daisy the patient I was referring to in the previous post. We are going to be doing additional surgery on her later this week.

Day 3

I got up early to have a cup of coffee on the porch of the new cottage we are staying in. So much has changed here in the last year. There are 3 new cottages and we have hot water for our showers. Yes Hot Water! Last night Suzie had a big surprise for us after dinner she had brought the girl we had done a very large cleft and palate repair on 2 years ago to see us.  She sang a song for us in Spanish. Her voice was very clear and her repair looked great. Not a dry eye in the house. I am having a hard time figuring out how to add pictures but when I do I will do a before and after shot. We will have breakfast and then do our clinic. Suzie is still thinking this will be a light year. I will believe it when I see it. We will only do what God sends us. Dean

Starting day 2 of this adventure. We stayed in Managua last night after sailing through customs without one tote or bag being opened. We had what has become our usual problem with the bank card and our reservation was made for the wrong date. We got that all that  straightened out and had a good night. We are at the commuter terminal waiting for our cross country flight. We have run into one of the docs we will be working with and Julio the man who runs the feeding station you have heard us talk about. They will be flying with us to Puerto Cabezas. Go to go finish checking in.I forgot to ask for your continued prayers and sign this . Dean

Global Passion Ministries-Nebraska returning on their 7th medical mission trip to Nicaragua

Left to Right- Dean Athey, Carolyn Athey, Sue Tillinghast & Karl Tillinghast

Welcome back to the Global Passion Ministries-Nebraska blog site.  We are now preparing for our team's 7th trip to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, which will be from February 18-28th.  We always look forward to meeting up with our California team members as well as our Nicaraguan friends & co-workers.  

This year team members who will be going include Dean & Carolyn Athey from Columbus and Karl & Sue Tillinghast of Lincoln.  Unfortunately, our other teammate & good friend, Tamra Boettcher is not able to go with us this year as she is recovering from surgery.  Blessings to her for a speedy recovery!

Most of our totes of supplies are packed and the hardest ones to pack will be our own personal bags. The Nicaraguan airline we use does not afford us a generous weight allowance so we have to be very selective as to how much we can take.  

Thank you to all the people who have been so generous with their prayers, time & talents & extremely generous donations to help us return to Nicaragua again this year.  We might be the ones who go but you are all team members because we couldn't do it without all your help.  We are so blessed to return year after year to the same place and serve those people who have touched our hearts more than we would ever imagined possible. 

Again, thank you & God Bless You.
Carolyn