love God•love others•reach the world

Thanks for your prayers for us during our recent health concerns. Here’s the latest scoop.

Both of us are doing fine. Donna is feeling great and will return to the cardiologist for a check-up in early August. She has more energy and appears to be back to normal. I (Alan) went for a stress test last Wednesday and the doctor did not find any cause for concern. I will be taking medication for cholesterol and changing my diet a bit (ugh!). I’ll have another blood test in a month and see the doctor in 6 weeks.

We are deeply grateful for your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, emails, and visits. We also deeply appreciate the way that Southern Baptists provide for us and our medical needs while on the field. To God be the glory!

Before I was released from the hospital on Wednesday, our long-time friends and partners in ministry, Ed and Matt arrived from Sierra Vista, Arizona. We were very glad to see them and to have them with us for a few days. Ed (staff) and Matt (member) are from First Baptist, Sierra Vista, and were here for their 4th visit to Hermosillo.

Over the next three days, Ed and Matt participated in prayer walks, worship services, and Bible studies. They encouraged the brethren and handed out numerous tracts to persons on the street. On Friday, we were prayerwalking in Las Lomas and a very interesting thing took place.

We separated into 2 teams of 2, and headed out to prayer walk. It was early, as we were trying to beat the heat. Each team had a general route to follow and we had a meeting point planned where we would hook up and walk together back to the car. After a few minutes of prayerwalking, Donna and I passed a house that had a large number of (empty) beehives. Now with all the citrus near Hermosillo, bees are not uncommon. But stacks of empty bee boxes in an inner city neighborhood are.

As I was talking to the Lord, and saw the boxes, the first word that came to my mind was honey. When I thought of honey, I immediately thought of the promised land. I remembered Joshua and Caleb telling the people that it was a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. As I talked to the Lord about Las Lomas, I asked him to give us that neighborhood for the gospel. The thought crossed my mind…I see the honey, where’s the milk?

We continued prayerwalking down the street. Within about 10 minutes, a man came out of his house and started walking down the street. As we passed, I greeted him and noticed….he was wearing a milkman’s uniform. OK, Lord, I see it!

Later, we went downtown so that Matt could buy a gift for his granddaughter. We went from shop to shop looking for bracelets and necklaces and earrings. We finally ended up in a shop that we had never visited before. As we were looking around, Donna asked the clerk a question. The clerk called the security guard to come over, and he said politely, “I see that you are Americans and I speak very good English. Can I help you?” We began to converse, partly in English and partly in Spanish. After talking for several minutes, we talked a bit about spiritual things. He said, “I believe in God, and I need a church home.” He told me that very morning he had arisen and had told God, “send me anywhere you want me to go today. When he arrived at work, his boss told him that he was needed at the gift shop to train a new security guard. He said, “I’ve never worked here before.”

I told him, “I don’t believe in coincidences. You are here today so that you could talk to us.” He agreed, and promised to visit our church.

God is so good. We are thankful for faithful partners like Ed and Matt, and for God’s faithfulness to bring people across our paths.

Well summer is officially here, although we’ve been experiencing summer conditions for quite a while. Summer in the Sonoran desert is brutal and this year is no exception. Daytime highs are ranging from 105° to 114° with nighttime lows ranging from 79° to 84°. Over the last week, the humidity has been on the increase, in anticipation of the summer rains. As I write this, at noon on Monday, it’s 104° with 23% relative humidity. While that may sound “dry”, it’s really quite humid by comparison. Normal humidity levels run around 8-10%. Most locals use evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) to cool their homes and they don’t function well at all at 25% humidity or more. That means, most folks here don’t have anything but a fan to keep them cool.

Our Sunday service yesterday was well-attended. Some of our members prepared special music accompanied by guitar and it was great. (Normally we sing along with tracks.) After church we had a fellowship and enjoyed chatting with one another. A calendar planning session helped us all focus on the possibilities to reach our community and to grow as a church family over the coming months. One effect of the heat: Everyone was drinking plenty of water during the service. Even I brought a 1 liter bottle and drank the whole bottle during the sermon. Praise the Lord for cool water.

I am blogging this on Thursday morning from Donna’s hospital room. (Yep, we have wireless internet in the room.)

Donna had a fairly good night. She has still been experiencing periods of queasiness, and she said she was “hot” all night long. The doctor was in to see her at 11 p.m. and again at 9 a.m. He seems pleased with her progress. Throughout the day, he will diminish the rate on the IV every hour and disconnect it after lunch time. She will be sitting up and walking around the room today, and afterward, up and down the hall. If she feels OK, she will be released this afternoon. (She really, really wants to go home today.)

The hospital is very nice and the staff is courteous and professional. Donna was chatting with the nurses in the cath lab yesterday, and learned that she is the first “gringa” that has had the heart procedure done here. The hospital celebrated its first anniversary in May. Donna’s room is called a junior suite. It’s huge–about 18×20 feet. There is a marble sink and vanity, a flat-screen TV, and a leather sofa. The whole place is immaculately clean and well-staffed. I had lunch in the hospital restaurant yesterday, and it was tasty and very moderately priced. Interestingly, the whole hospital goes on lock-down at 10 pm. The only doors that are unlocked are the emergency room. I suppose that’s for security, and when you think about it, I like that.

Curiously, we’ve noted that no one wears name tags here. Most of the staff has had some familiarity with English. We’ve met several who have lived or studied in Arizona, but are back in Hermosillo to work. Everybody wants to chat up the gringoes, but most are hesitant to try their English. We’ve noted in our time here in Mexico that many Mexicans can understand some English (from all the time they’ve spent watching English TV and movies) but few want to risk the embarassment of trying to speak it.

Thanks again for your many emails, calls, and prayers!

Based on the results of some recent tests, Donna is scheduled for a heart catheterization on Wednesday, June 18 at the San José Hospital in Hermosillo. Dr. José Roberto Victoria N. will be performing the procedure to address two partial blockages in the heart. Donna will receive one (or possibly two) stents to correct the blockages. Donna is (and has been) feeling fine, but had the exams done as routine follow-up to the procedure that she had in 2004. It’s an important, but not emergency procedure. She will enter the hospital on Wednesday morning and should be home by Thursday afternoon.

As always, we appreciate your prayers for us!