Thank You and Merry Christmas

As 2010 draws to a close, I just wanted to say thank you to all of those who have supported me this past year.

Its been a great year, full of many accomplishments and improvements in the clinic. I am so proud of my amazing staff, many of whom are new. The four new women in the clinic: Tatiana, an ambitious doctor with lots of heart; Mary, a skilled medical assistant, always ready with a smile; Luz, a new Christian who is full of enthusiasm and Heidy, our dental assistant who is eager to learn more. I have learned so much from each of these women, their lives and their struggles. I feel privileged to call them friends.

Dr. Maria and her assistant Diana have taken on the new Community Health Program with an energy and love for Bayona. Their educational talks, seminars and tours through the community are changing the way that we help the sick. Prevention is so key and in many cases very simple. People just lack the knowledge to prevent common ailments.

Dr. Jose Miguel has provided great dental care to the children of our schools as well as assistance on 2 dental trips that benefited the community. We hope to be able to see all 500+ school children in the clinic for cleanings before the end of the school year.

In 2011, the ADR/ME partnership will culminate in an Early Intervention Program that I am very excited about and that will greatly benefit many special needs children. I know that Aquilino looks forward to working with therapists, a psychologist and a learning disabilities specialist.

Please continue to pray for the clinic, its employees and their families as well as each and every patient that enters our doors. Our hope is that the love and light of Christ shine brightly in everything that we do.

Merry Christmas to all! Many blessings this winter and a Happy New Year.

Thanks again for all you do,

Anna

God's handiwork

As I mentioned I am here in beautiful Colorado Springs, CO finishing up my 3 week training at MTI (mti.org). I kept meaning to take pictures of the breathless scenery, but didn't get a chance until today at lunch. These beautiful images are just a little glimpse of God at work here in nature. Its amazing to wake up to these views every day!

Inner Intentions

There are times when you think you've discovered everything about yourself. When you think you know all the dark and dusty corners of your heart. As a good friend recently reminded me, its usually then when there is more to learn.

I know that I have good intentions for most of what I do. That I want to love and help people. That I care about people and I want to be there for them. I also know that inside sometimes I am a mess. Emotions and humanness mean that I have "dark and twisty" (to borrow a phrase from a TV show) places in me. Before I guess I thought that they were inside and I was dealing with them -- as making messes clean is a process. Its becoming clearer though that the messiness is on the outside too.

Intentions are only half of the equation. My impact on others is the other half. I don't know what my impact is all of the time. Usually when its good I know because of the feedback I receive. And when my impact is negative and I know about it, I try to make it right. But I'm learning that I can make a positive impact more of the time. Perhaps its okay for that messiness to come out a little more so people know I'm struggling too. Perhaps its okay to be a little less confident and admit when I don't know because other people don't know either. Or say when I'm scared or unsure because we are all human and messy on the inside.

The thing I love most about H2O church at OSU is that they aren't afraid of their brokenness. They openly share it with one another and they care for one another as they heal. Jesus came to heal the broken and love the sinners. He is the only one who can clear out all of the mess and make it clean. So, we should share that with others so that as He puts our hearts in order He may be glorified through our transformation. And so that others may hear of His good works and believe.

Philippians 2 is a great chapter on this (v. 1-13):

¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

My prayer is not to be free of my messiness because it is what makes me human, but for God to search out the offensive way in me and burn it out. To change me and mold me and to make me more like Christ, so that I may love His people as He did.

Psalm 139: 23-24

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.