He's My Son

Hello from Guatemala,

I wanted to write sooner than this to just touch base and let you all know what is going on around here but I have been on a break. It is so nice just taking care of emergencies and finishing up the building projects with not having to see 300 patients in between.

I have some good news to share with you all. About a year and a half a go when we were in the States speaking, we meet a family up in the mountains of North Carolina. Jeff and Carol Edwards. He was a supervisor of the county EMS system and a Paramedic. They have two teenage sons and their hearts were to go to the mission's field and serve the Lord. They did come to Guatemala but went to a different area than we are in and found after they got there that, there was already a clinic just a few blocks from where they lived. So they began to question if they had gone to the right place. So, after being here in country for a few months they came to visit us and realized they needed some training in family and tropical medicine. We told them we needed a family to help us and maybe we should work together for a year and it would help us and give them the experience and training to someday go out on their own and be prepared for medical missions work. Please keep them in your prayers as they return home for Christmas and decide where God is calling them.

For some reason we have had a lot more emergences to take care of lately. I don't know if it is just the time of year or if it is because we are home more now than being out in the jungle for weeks at a time. But man we have been swamped.

This last week we had our second son Lance here with us visiting before shipping out to Iraq. As we were on our way to the city to get him we came upon this.


A car with a Pastor and friends hit a Tractor Trailer Truck

So, we went to work and ended up with seven patients. The Fire Dept Ambulance in that area was again only a pick up truck that could carry two patients so we took five in the back of our pick-up/Ambulance. We drove with lights and siren for 60 kilometers to the nearest hospital in Guatemala City. After getting into the city it was dark and rainy so we flagged down a police vehicle and they escorted us code red to the hospital in Friday night rush hour traffic in the largest city in Central America. If you ever want a rush of a lifetime, try driving an ambulance in Guatemala City under these conditions. Some people like football and soccer and even NASCAR but there is no sport like driving code red in Guatemala City. It is the best!

After dropping the patients off at the hospital, I took the family out to a real restaurant TGI Fridays, in the city. It has real American Onion Rings (May God Be Praised).

Here my wife Riechelle got to have her picture taken with Sylvester Stallone who happened to be in the restaurant. (He is a great guy and very humble)

Well, Lance ended up getting into Guatemala City a day late due to his connecting plane being late in Miami, but he made it the next day and we headed to Rio Dulce. He bonded with his new brother Beto and new little sisters Gaby and Debora like they had been siblings for life.


Digging a foundation for the new dog house.	Deborah wrestling with her big brother Lance.


Lance teaching Deborah to blow BIG bubbles	Lance & the Girls in Antigua

Riechelle trying not to cry… He leaves tomorrow.

Lance got to see what it is really like here and since he loves emergencies he jumped right in and was a great help.

Lance holding the little boy down so I could sew him up.

Later that night we had the ambulance bring in a man in CHF (Congestive Heart Failure). Two minutes on my treatment table he went flat line with no pulse. Lance had to do chest compressions while I got a line in and meds on board. He died because he had waited three days before coming to seek help. Lance said, "Shouldn't we call for back up?" I said, "Lance, we are back up! The pick up truck that came here was an ambulance". He just couldn't believe it. Lance has lived in Belize but now in the U.S. Coast Guard he has the best equipment money can buy so he is amazed at what we have to do with so little.

Later, on the highway, we came upon a car that hit a boy on a bicycle and then a tractor trailer coming the other way.


Lance helping me load the driver who had a broken hip and tib/fib and ankle. We had no splinting supplies because we had used them the night before and had no more with us.

Lance said, "Dad, does this happen all the time?" I said, "Lance, this is easy, we don't have teams here and I didn't see 300 patients today. This is like taking candy from a baby." I said, "Lance we do more before 7:00 than the Coast Guard does all day…." He laughed and said, "Yeah, right!" We both have the same since of humor.

Today we had to get up at 5:00 am and drive Lance to the Guatemala airport. I knew this would be hard. As I have said to folks, 'being a missionary is not that hard if you are called, but missing your friends and family is the hard part.' We had not seen our sons for 1 ½ years and now we have to send our son off to the war in Iraq. Secretly when I heard the boys had done their time and were getting out I was relieved they had not been called to the war, but when Lance called us two months ago and said, "Mom and Dad, I have re-enlisted and am going to Iraq", we froze. I have been in the U.S. Air Force and the Army as a Paramedic on Helicopters and would have gone to fight for my country if called upon, but when it is your son, it is different. You feel helpless. This morning when we had to take him to the airport my heart was torn out of my chest. But when I saw Riechelle holding him and sobbing as only a mother knows, it was one of the hardest things in my life. I know God will keep his hand on him and we have to put our trust in the Lord, but man when it's your boy it ain't that easy, to let go. It’s like the song says, 'He not just anyone…….He my son!' I’m sorry to have rambled on about our son, I know you all have challenges in your own lives but sometimes just sharing these things with you seems to help. Thanks for your prayers. We love you guys.

God Bless,

Bryan & Riechelle and Beto, Gaby, Deborah and Lance

Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce, Izabal
Guatemala Central America

E-Mail: Bryan@JungleMedicMissions.org
Web Site: http://www.junglemedicmissions.org/

This page was last updated 12/15/06