The Girls' Prayer Won

Hello from Guatemala,

Imagine you live in a third world country and you are not a real doctor. But everyone within a 100 mile radius thinks you're a doctor. You tell them that you are not a doctor but a lowly Paramedic and they shake their head up and down and say OK doctor Bryan. Well, you finally give up and just do the best you can. But sometimes the people think you can heal or fix everything. On the outside you act confident and try to show them you are willing and able to help them, but on the inside you are praying to God for wisdom on what to do, because sometimes you don't have a clue to what is wrong with them. Welcome to my world…. Thankfully I have the Lord and Riechelle and Christian teams that come down and help me.

This past week we had a team from the mountains of North Carolina and a team from Missouri at the same time while hosting the Guatemalan team for the weekend to do the JungleKids Program. The Jungle Kids program is going better than we ever expected.


The Mommas help make the breakfast and the kids are learning how the program works and loving it!

We have made a 10 year commitment to these villages but I believe we are going to see Christian leaders raised in half the time. The villages love the program and can't wait for their turn each Saturday. One of the team members from Missouri is a pre-med student named Brandon. He is chomping at the bit to do some hands on medicine. So he asked if we had an emergency if he could help. Well, that night an ambulance brought in a man who had fallen and cut his head open. After we got him on the table I realized he had been drinking and said, "Hey Brandon, Praise the Lord, this guy is drunk so you can suture him and up and he won't even know who did it." Brandon was like a kid at Disney World. It was his first time to suture and he did a great job. Fortunately the patient was a nice guy and cooperated with very little anesthesia. (What a nice guy, huh?)

Then next day we hit the river to do a medical clinic at one of our target villages called Los Brisis.

People stood in line to get medicine but they also got a good dose of Love and that is what this team gave a lot of.

When we got done with the clinic one of the ladies invited us into her home and with what little flour she had she made us an Indian pancake to eat. It was all she had but she gave it all. I saw one of the ladies on the team tear up when she realized this lady had given us food that would have fed her kids. We could not say no, but it was hard to eat.

The next village we went to, I let Gabby triage the patents. She speaks three languages. Spanish, English and Quetchie. So when she speaks their language they tell her things they won't tell me. She will someday be a doctor, I just know it. She is great at it. (It may look like I am sleeping because I was up the night before with emergencies but in actuality I am uh well, praying that’s it. I was praying.)

One of the clinics we did in a village far up a mountain. They had never let any one come in there before. The chief from another village talked to the chief of this village and said, "Yes, Dr. Bryan is a Christian and will not steel your children." So, they let us come in and half way through the clinic, to our shock, the chief brought us all a Coke. It was hot but it was a big sacrifice for them to give us a Coke they had carried up the mountain.

Riechelle doing her thing of loving the kids.

Riechelle and I will celebrate being married 30 years this year. I have been in love with the same woman for 30 years. (If Riechelle ever finds out she will kill me). You know I am kidding, OK sorry, I know it was bad. I can't help it. I heard it on Red Skelton.

Seriously, you can't imagine all of the behind the scenes work she does while raising three kids and being a full time missionary. I don't mean to brag but she is one in a million, believe me. We still do not have water and we have hand dug our well down to 30 meters (90 feet deep). Our last two teams could not even take showers. Fortunately, our friends Phil and Niki have a place on the river they said we could take the team over there at night and they could all take showers. Then Niki would make us these wonderful dinners like you can't believe. This gave Riechelle a break from having to work all day and make all the meals and let her have a night off. "Thanks Niki, what a blessing to us and the team."

On one of the days we took a break and went to the Mayan ruins of Tikal. They loved it. Here is the bravest man on earth. This is why they call him the Junglemedic, because he is totally at ease in the jungle with wild animals. (Especially if they are like this tarantula, dead). The team climbed the temples and got some really good photos.

It seems that the women on the team were praying at the same time I was praying. And it seems as though the Lord answered them and not me. Let me explain. You see, I was hitting the bed at night after seeing 300 patients and asking the Lord to not let there be any emergencies so I could get some sleep. But the girls were praying that the Lord would let them help deliver a baby. Well, they won!

I got a call from a women's husband in the village of Santa Elena which is on top of a mountain. He said his wife was having difficulty with her 7th baby. She is about 30 years old. They wanted me to come all the way up there and deliver the baby. So I took two of the ladies on the team with me and we arrived there 45 minutes later. Her water had not broken, so I said, "Lets get her in the truck and deliver this kid in my ER."

On the drive down the mountain, they called me by radio from the ER to say, "Hurry up and get back here." I said, "Why?" They said, "There is another lady here who is in labor!" I told those women on the team to 'stop praying, and I mean it!' What a trip down that mountain. We had just made it home and in no time, she was ready to deliver. Almost everyone on the team helped. We delivered an 8 lb baby girl and Mom and Baby are doing fine. One of the ladies named Laura is a nurse and she and Lisa were up most of the night taking care of Mom and Baby so I could sleep, may God Bless them both!

Thanks for all of your prayers. Please pray that we hit water soon. We need it desperately. Well there is a lot more but I know you have to get back to work, so thanks for listening to me.

Thanks and God's Blessings,
In His Service,

Bryan, Riechelle & Kids

Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce, Izabal
Guatemala Central America

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

This page was last updated 03/17/07