What a Way to End the Trip!

One last amazing update...

This afternoon we received an email saying that the baby had been approved for surgery in the United States!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is such a huge miracle and blessing.  Our hearts are overjoyed.  At this point the group who will be providing the care wishes to remain anonymous.  We aren't sure if we are allowed to post pictures of him or not, but when we can we will.  He is such a cutie!!!  

We were very surprised by this news as typically a group will not bring a child over that has more than one medical need. Since he may have down syndrome, there might be other medical issues the come along with that, so we thought that they would say no.  When you see this mother and father look at their baby, your hearts would have been breaking as ours were.  The love him so much and are so sweet with him.  

Please pray that things go smoothly on the Cambodian end, that he gets a medical visa, and please pray for his family.  This will be a big deal for the mom to come to the United States away from the rest of her family.  Oh my gosh, we are so happy right now!!!!

We will keep you updated!

Thanks!!!!

Last Day!

I was hoping to be able to update the blog more and post pictures, but we haven't had a consistent internet connection.

This week has been eventful.

It started with me (kacie) getting a really bad stomach bug of some sort. Fortunately no one else got it. I was really sick. Not fun! I have been better for a few days!

We had 4 days of clinic that went very well. I think over 450 patients were seen. The team did an amazing job! We were able to provide physical therapy, first aid, consultations and more. There is one patient that stands out in particular. A little boy, that needs heart surgery. Pat is looking into some groups that sponsor this type of surgery. We don't know where that will lead. The type of surgery cannont be done here in Cambodia. If this little baby (4 mo. old) doesn't have surgery within the next few months, he will die. It just breaks our heart. Today Pat and I just looked at each other and cried thinking about that. His parents adore him. He has a big sister who adores him. It is just so sad. We think he has Down Syndrome but we are not 100% sure. Please pray for him and for his family. Please pray that the Lord will provide a way for the surgery.

Some of you asked if the people at the HIV village have been sent there... I don't know. I don't honestly know the level of the stigma here. It is hard to get a straight answer at times. Not everyone in the village was positive. We don't think they had access to medicines. This is something we want to work on. We want to have Sinat the health promoter continue going to this village and build relationships with them and assess their needs...spiritually, physically, and emotionally. In time, we hope to test the people in this village and see who is positive and then get them medicines. They would also be taught good health and hygiene because that is a key part of the treatment. We do not know where all of this will lead or if it will happen. But we are praying about it and moving forward as much as we can.

The trip has been amazing, it has also been difficult in many ways. Some of you have complimented us for coming, thank you... but please know that we are not doing anything amazing or special. It is something that the Lord put on our hearts and we are doing it....at times, not so well. (You should have seen my attitude the first few days.... not so great!) :-)

We truly have appreciated your prayers. One last request is that we have a safe flight home! We are excited to come home!!!

I will post pictures when we get home and have a good internet connection!

God Bless!
Love,
Kacie and family

HIV Village

Today (Sunday), we took a 1.5 hour tuk tuk ride to an HIV village. Not everyone in the village is HIV+ but several of the people are.  We had a wonderful time with them.  It is a very small village.  There were maybe 15 huts/houses.  We hung out with them, did a craft and painted some nails.  There was one lady there who was so beautiful and so skinny.  Her disease had definitely progressed to AIDS.  Her mouth had some sores and bleeding in the gums.  It is just so sad because if she had proper care, she would have the chance to live a long, normal, healthy life.  You will see her and Diana sitting next to each other in the picture.  Diana especially loved here.  Diana was amazing today!  She played with the kids and painted nails!  Trent was a little moody, but he did control himself.  Taliah wondered down the path a few times and was crazy as usual.

We had to cross a bridge to get to the village and walk about 20 minutes.  The bridge was pretty scary.  It might look easy to cross, but it was pretty freaky.  About 10 feet below was some pretty dirty water, not a place one would like to fall!  We all made it across safely.  Some locals and Lois (missionary) here, helped the kids across.  

It was a great day, but a sad day.  We met a little boy that was unmedicated and HIV+.  His grandma is also positive and both of his parents already died.  They will remain in our hearts and prayers.  I wish we could do more for them.  

On Saturday, Trent, Diana and I went to a different village and helped Kitivat with her weekly visit.  Kitivat is the daughter of Sunat (the health promoter we told you about).  Kitivat visits this village weekly and works with the kids there.  She teaches them, tells them Bible stories and helps them with their overall hygiene. This week she had promised to wash a few of the kids hair, so the kids and I helped.   It was a lot of fun!  We of course had to add some fun clips in the girls hair after!  We also did some crafts and of course, Trent passed out lollipops!

Thanks for your support!

Health and Hygiene

Hi Everyone!

I wish we could update more often, but the internet has been slow making it hard to do.  I hope you are all doing well.  We really miss everyone and we miss home!  Diana is especially homesick!  She is doing fine, but often says (in her sweet voice), "When are we going home?"  Overall, the kids are having a great time and have honestly been the best part of the trip.  Traveling with 3 little ones has been challenging at times, but it has been worth it!

The Health and Hygiene Training Talks went really well!!!  Pat, George and Denise (another teammate) taught the classes.  At the end, the locals taught Pat, George and Denise what they learned and they did a great job!  

Yesterday, the team went out into the city and local villages and let them know that there will be a medical clinic.  The locals also accessed some of the health and hygiene needs.  One family that was visited use their toilet as a bathroom and a kitchen!  They use the toilet as one normally would.  However, after they eat their meal, they wash their dishes in the toilet.  It is their only water source.  One of the locals that attended the Health and Hygiene seminar, will be teaching them that they need to do their dishes somewhere else.

There is a river here known as "The Black River."  It contains all the sewage waste in the city.  Something that the locals love to eat are clams.  Guess where the clams come from? .... The Black River!  Can you even imagine? Again, they don't know that eating those clams can make them very sick.

We have one week to go.  The next part of the trip will consist of the medical clinic.  It will be for mostly first aid type of stuff and immediate needs.  Please be praying for the families that come.  We really want to show them Christ's love.

Thank you again for your prayers!

Love,

Kacie and family!

Pictures....

1. Pat, Trent and George (medical student) on a tuk tuk

2. Streets of Phnom Penh

3. Kacie and kids on tuk tuk

on next post...

1.  Temples of Angkor (they were part of the Amazing Race).  Super old temples.  They were amazing.  They were so big and details.  And there were so many of them!

2.  Children in a local village

3.  Traditional Cambodian house

Hi Everyone!

We finally have an internet connection!  We thought we would have one daily, but that has not been the case.  Thanks for all the emails!  It has been fun hearing from everyone!

We are doing great!  Pat is really excited about how things have been progressing.  He is especially excited about one of the health promoters he is working with. Her name is Sunat.  She has four wonderful daughters.  One works with World Vision and the other is their church's Sunday School teacher... a really neat family.  Sunat has the same vision we have and that the missionaries here have.  She is passionate about working with people living with HIV.  That is somewhat rare here, because many don't have the education that we have, many don't have the meds here so they watch their loved ones waste away and in general, the just have a huge fear of it.  She also has a passion of working with local villages and teaching them about good health.  She wants to mentor them spiritually, physically, and emotionally.  Life here can be very hard.   Sunat is truly a light in here!

Pat, Matt (wonderful missionary here) and George (wonderful medical student with us) were able to meet with the man who recently translated Where There Is No Doctor into Khmer (Cambodian language).  That was a great as this is the curriculum they plan to use to teach the health promoters.  They guys were also able to meet the director of Angkor Wat Children's Hospital (thanks Scott and Andrea!).  He is doing some amazing work here and is a great connection for us!  .

My role has been different than we thought it would be.  We envisioned that we would do a lot of this work together.  The isn't really possible with the kids here.  However, the kids and I are able to participate in other ways though.  We are helping out with the kids' program on Sunday mornings, we are doing Vacation Bible School activities during clinic and we will be visiting a local village on Saturday.  It took me some time to adjust my expectations and role here, but now that I have, we are loving it.  The kids are having a blast.  They have fun wherever they go! Overall, they have been such troopers and have been so good!  We are blessed.  We can't imagine the trip without them.

Today, the health and hygiene team comes.  We will have three days of health and hygiene talks.  On Saturday, the clinic teams arrives.  We will have 4 days of clinic. 

We genuinely appreciate your prayers!  We definitely need them!  

We hope you are all doing well!  We miss everyone!

Love, 

Kacie and family

And, We're Off!

Today is the big day! We leave tonight from LAX at 10:50. We will fly for 14.5 hours to Tawain change planes, then we fly another 3 hours to Cambodia. Please pray that the plane doesn't fall from the sky (this is Kacie talking... I don't like to fly).

We truly appreciate all of the phone calls and emails of well wishes. It means so much to us. Thank you!

Strangely enough, we are feeling calm about the trip and we are just plain excited! It will be fun to see what God has in store for us.

We will post as soon as we can once we arrive.

Happy 2009!

Love,
Kacie for the Van Winkles