May June Prayer Letter

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Dear praying friends and supporters;
Of these almost 9 weeks of the months of May and June, the last two have become the most newsworthy. But we don’t want to skip over the things that the Lord did in the other 7. Those are the things that build your faith to trust the Lord in the two weeks.

May brings Mother’s Day! Robin worked hard the whole week before getting presents ready and baking 30 mini loaves of banana bread to give to all the mothers that came to service that morning. We praise the Lord for several visitors, even a couple of ladies we did not even know. We were able to give out 26 gifts between the morning service at the Miskito church and the Spanish church that evening.

On Thursday of that week began a Bible Revival in the village of Prumitara. This village is about an hour away by boat or almost two hours by jeep if the path is open enough to get through. We had several men go with us to set the tent up on Wednesday. Also, there was a good group of folks from the village that came out to help carry the tent from the boat up to the service site and then set up the tent. Thursday evening through Sunday evening we had services. We would get there around 5:00 in the afternoon and cover different areas going to each house, handing out tickets. They could bring a ticket to the service and receive a free Bible. There were 80 in attendance on the first night, and by Sunday evening we had over 150 people under the tent, not counting those outside. We were supposed to start at 7 each night, but the culture being as it is we did not start till well after 7:30. Thursday and Friday evenings there were people coming by 6:30 fellowshipping and getting their place under the tent. Friday night while preaching I hit really hard on the fact that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone, and not by works of baptism or any other form of work. Saturday evening it was 7:45 and absolutely no one was there. Not even traffic on the path. I began to pray and “told the Lord” that we would wait till 8:00 and if no one came we would sing and go home. When I lifted my head from praying, there were 2 flashlights coming down the path. Two teen girls came in and sat down. Within 10 minutes we had over 70 people and later filled the place up to over 100 people. (Oh ye of little faith) Praise the Lord for the opportunity to personally give the gospel to the majority of the people of the village of Prumitara

Carrying the Tent to the Shore

The next couple weeks were taken up with boat motor repairs from the week before, as well as drilling a well for a family across the channel from us. We will be needing to update our 40hp motor soon. It is over 20 years old and is in need of a complete overhaul of bearings, rings, and gaskets. For now it is running but with a lot of bearing noise.

On Sunday June 21^st Robin was not feeling well but went ahead and taught her Sunday School and played the piano for the morning and evening services. Monday morning, I had been out working for about 30 minutes when she called to tell me that she was hurting all over. She had fever and her joints and muscles were aching along with an extreme headache. These are the typical signs of Dengue fever. So we started her on Tylenol and bed rest. On Tuesday a rash came up on her leg, covering below the knee along the calf and shin areas. We assumed it was a result of the Dengue. Wednesday, we found a medical aid that tried to do an IV so she could get some hydration, but the veins would not take it. So the aid gave her a couple shots of pain and antibiotics and on Thursday evening tried again with success. Robin was feeling better physically but her leg was getting swollen and enflamed. We tried some more antibiotics on Friday and by Saturday afternoon it was still getting worse. That evening we were trying to figure out what we should do, so I messaged the Missionary Air Group pilot to see if they were available and he responded back in just a few minutes with a yes and asked where to? I hadn’t gotten that far yet. So I messaged missionary in San Pedro Sula to ask if he had a doctor that he would recommend. He also messaged right back and told us he had a medical group in at the moment and one of the doctors was a dermatologist and was willing to check it out and give his opinion. Within 30 minutes the plan was set to fly out Sunday around noon to San Pedro and the doctor would take a look at it. Then I had to start packing and putting things away because we did not know how long we would be gone. Despite rain and heavy winds, the Lord allowed us to take our boat across, and we got to Lempira dry and not beat up from the waves.

Robin Being carried to the edge of the porch

The plane made it in, but the weather prevented us from going on to San Pedro, so we diverted to Rus Rus, where the pilot lives. Hs wife is a registered nurse and communicated with a doctor in the US as well to give a diagnosis. She gave Robin medicines from what they had on hand and the next morning were off for San Pedro. When we made it to the clinic immediately the doctor and the nurse in charge of the clinic said we needed to get to the hospital “stat” and get IV antibiotics going. At the hospital that our fellow missionaries the Rolstons recommended, they began by asking all of the same questions that the nurse in Rus Rus, and the doctor and nurse at the medical clinic had been asking. This calmed our nerves some recognizing that they were thinking along the same lines as the others. They called in their infectious disease doctor to oversee Robin’s care, and he was wonderful and very open with what he was thinking, treatments, and what the medicines were. When her blood work came back, her white blood cell count was up from a normal of 10,000 to 19,000. Showing that she had an excessive amount of infection in her body. After 24 hours of antibiotics her count was still very high, so the doctor called in a surgeon to open the infected areas and clean them out. This is when we really realized how close she was to having lost toes or even the foot to this infection.
As best as we can figure they were calling this cellulitis brought on by a bite or parasite that came in through the foot. We are not sure if she actually had Dengue or if this was the infection coming on. We are so thankful that the Lord took care of us a brought us to the care that was needed in the right time.

              After we were in the hospital 9 days, Bro. Rolston found us a very nice AIRBNB where we are looking to stay for 2 weeks while we do follow-up visits with the 2 doctors, and Robin is able to heal to the point that she can travel. Our plans at the moment are to fly into the US on the 16^th of July. We will be at our church in Greenville, SC letting Robin recuperate and give these wounds time to heal. During all of this her blood pressure and sugar have been way out of normal ranges. She is currently taking medicine to help regulate those. We are looking to let her recover and then see if she will be able to regulate those with diet and exercise or if medicine will continue to be needed.
              There has been an army of folks praying for us in these days, getting updates through email and Facebook. We are so thankful for each of you who have prayed regularly for us, many of you not even knowing what was happening. We also want to thank those who have been following Robin’ s progress and praying as well.
              There have been several that have also sent in offerings to help with these unexpected expenses. There has already been $21,897.50 given for this. We praise the Lord for that. We had to pay the hospital bill before we could leave. The total amount for the 9 days was a little over $22,000.00. The Lord has provided greatly already. We haven’t been told the cost yet for the flight to San Pedro from the back country, and of course we have airline cost and will have US medical cost as well. When we find those out, we can let you know if you are interested. We are still just amazed to see the Lord working and moving, directing us to where we need to be each step of the way.

Thank you again for your faithful prayers and we praise the Lord for His mercy and guidance in these last few weeks.
In His Service,
Gene and Robin Trask