A couple of weeks ago we went to see the dermatologist. We’ve had our share of sunburns over the years and now we live and work in “the city of the sun”….Hermosillo. Donna was concerned about some spots on her face and nose, and she insisted that I go along for a general checkup. By the way, the whole process here is so easy. We went to the new hospital that is just two blocks from our house and went to the front desk. We asked about a dermatologist and were directed to the third floor, suite H. We walked up and asked for an appointment with the doctor. She said, “for today?” We said no, and she said, “OK, how about tomorrow?”
The next afternoon we went in and I was pronounced free of any evident problems of the skin. Donna was given some powerful cream to apply to one spot, and the doctor advised on taking two biopsies from the spot on Donna’s nose. We went back the following Thursday and it was a simple office procedure. We were given the skin samples and carried them to the second floor to pathology. We went back on Monday to get the results.
Yesterday, Friday, Donna returned to get the stitches out of her nose and for the doctor to review the pathology. (We had the pathology report with us.) Thankfully, there was no cause for alarm. It appears that the spots on Donna’s nose are common to many adults her age and are not cancerous (nor do they usual develop into skin cancer.) We praise the Lord for that report!
In the midst of all this, we hosted a great volunteer team from Foothills Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Dave was the layman and volunteer missions advocate who organized the trip. He was accompanied by Pastor Brian and 8 eager volunteers. They arrived on Saturday afternoon and departed on Wednesday.
This team worked with our church in Las Lomas. The new church had named a leadership team for some relationship-building evangelistic events and the Arizona team helped with these events.
On Sunday, we knocked on doors and invited about 400 households to the events. At 6 p.m. that same day, we held a mini-olympics on the community basketball court. Over 100 people were there, including about 12-15 adults that we’d never met before. The Arizona team (mostly Spanish speakers, by the way) were quite helpful in greeting and chatting with these guests. Kids and parents participated in sack races, tricycle races, and an obstacle course. Everyone got a chocolate medallion for participating!
On Monday we prayer-walked in the morning (a first time experience for many of the Foothills volunteers). In the evening, we had a volleyball tournament on the same community court. This was the first time we tried volleyball and it seemed to be a great success as well. We had over 50 people playing volleyball until after 9 p.m. on a school night! Again, there were several adults who came to play or to just sit and chat.
On Tuesday, we made some home visits in the morning. In the evening we set up the screen and projector and showed “Facing the Giants” to a crowd of about 50. There were more new people on Tuesday night that we had not seen on Sunday or Monday. Movie night was complete with popcorn and lemonade, and as the saying goes, “A great time was had by all.”
We are grateful for God’s faithfulness during these days and look ahead with great anticipation about building deeper relationships with the new people we’ve met. We suspect that we’ll see some of the Foothills volunteers in Hermosillo again.
