Dear friends,

Our dear friends from Discovery Bible Fellowship brought a construction team, a medical team and a dentist. This is their second medical and dental team this year. We saw 130 patients on the medical side Thursday and Friday. We picked up about 40 people from Kilometer 30 Friday morning. Teresa was one of the 40. She is 28, previously lost her right arm above the elbow and often has seizures that are controlled by medication that her sister often brings by in exchange for Teresa raising her two children. Her most recent seizure was in our clinic Friday about three in the afternoon.  She was paralyzed from the neck down for about 3.5 hours. Her sister hadn't brought over any medicine recently. We offered to get the medication, but she didn’t know what it was, just that it was a purple colored injection.  After helping her into the van, we went by her sister's house and she was not home. Next we stopped at Teresa's house, but found no medical containers or wrappers and her husband also had no idea of what medication she takes. Her husband carried her into the house, we prayed and left. Teresa came by this morning with the Spanish name and price of the injection, about $6 a treatment.  We gave her enough for six injections and told her to return with the American medication name.

The dentist, Dr Scott, was making his second visit this year also. He doesn't count teeth pulled, he just makes entries in the medical charts. Many have abscessed teeth and have had tremendous pain for quite some time. The nearest dentist is about 15 miles away, and many don't have money for food, much less for dental work. Most have never been to a dentist. When we interviewed Phillipe and Isabel, the family that received a new home, Isabel's jaw was badly swollen from a bad tooth. We gave her antibiotics and Tylenol for the pain last week. Casey brought her over during the painting and dry walling of her house and two teeth were removed, so at the dedication of the house, her pain was gone.  Standing in her new home, she was very, very happy. One six year old had six teeth pulled, and she just wanted to stand next to Dr. Scott, to show her gratitude and thanks after her surgery.

We had family night with the team on Thursday night. I think about 100 employees and their families attended. We rented a great jumping balloon (Titanic), as had pizza, fruit, trail mix, ice cream and special personal items brought by the team as well as door prizes of bicycles (donations) and futons. Thank you to everyone that has helped us with our family nights!

Thursday, a small contingent went to Kilometer 30 to pass out tracts and 51 Bibles. One family we met mentioned that a few Americans came by last year and prayed for the dad's sister before she passed a few days later, and that was very comforting to them. They were very grateful for the Bible and invited us back anytime. Just as we passed out the last Bible, a truck drove up with about 10 people in it. They also eagerly requested Bibles, so we found one more and the group left happy. It would be hard to imagine anywhere in the U.S. where anybody would jump in a truck, grab their friends and neighbors, and drive over hoping for some Bibles.

Dr. Andy from El Paso came with his medical team on Saturday. There were 75 people waiting before the doors opened at 10AM. His most amazing patient was Ana. She is a 58 year old female, and has had pain in her leg for over six years. She started losing skin and soft tissue over a year ago. Most of the skin and a lot of the muscle tissue is gone between her foot and knee on her left leg. Maybe in the U.S. her leg could be saved, but in Mexico her life is in jeopardy. She does not want to have her leg removed today and went home thinking it will just fall off like a tick and she will be fine.

Blessings from Juarez,

jeff and jenny