Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus!
We hope this finds each of you blessed abundantly in every way, but especially in enjoying God’s amazing presence and activity in your lives each day! We can never be bored if we are walking with Him and allowing Him to guide us into new adventures each day!
Clinic Patients
Today we had an unusual incident in the clinic. One of the local fishermen came in with his foot bleeding and a shirt wrapped very tightly around his lower leg as a tourniquet. His friend said that a fish had pierced his foot with its sharp, long, saw-like fins. It had pierced through the top of his foot, and they pulled it out, but not without leaving a cut that had also pierced an artery in the foot, thus the profuse bleeding. The young man, a 16 year old from our village, had reacted quickly and tied the shirt tightly onto his leg, which did help greatly. However, when we took the “tourniquet” off to evaluate the wound, the profuse bleeding started again. Pressure and reapplying a rubber tourniquet was ineffective this time, so Dr. Enver had to work quickly and exactly to find the spot where the artery was bleeding (not easy with the active bleeding) and tie it off with a few sutures. Thankfully, the bleeding first reduced as he advanced with the suturing, and finally ceased. Praise the Lord! Many people gathered as we worked on the patient – other fishermen and friends concerned for him, and they went for his mother as well. Thankfully, he was able to leave the clinic in a wheelchair having tolerated the blood loss well, and only has to stay off the foot for about a week. Then I´m sure he will be back out in the fishing boat! That is way many of the men in our town make their living – going out at dawn to pull in nets that they dropped the day before and hoping for a big catch. It seems much like the way Jesus´s disciples fished – pulling in nets filled with fish.
A great victory which may not sound like a victory, but it is an answered prayer, is that one of our patients who had an extremely infected and deteriorating diabetic foot wound which had already caused her to lose about a third of the foot to infection, was able to receive a much needed amputation of that leg. It was a real struggle because of the family´s lack of financial resources, the patient´s fears about having the surgery, severe anemia which had to be corrected, among other factors, but we prayed over these situations, and God truly intervened and made this possible. We helped find blood donors, were able to help with donations which you all have generously given, and helped with wound care to help the patient and family go through with the surgery. The patient is doing very well now – we removed half of her sutures today and the wound looks great! The patient was one of the first cooks for our mission base about 30 years ago!
Cataract Surgeries
Another recent event that was a great blessing in the clinic was an eye surgery campaign! Dr. Belen Cruz, an ophthalmologist from about seven hours from the mission base, has been traveling to the base to diagnose and treat eye patients about every two to three months for the last few years. Many patients needing cataract surgery were diagnosed, and recently a local ophthalmologist in Puerto Escondido, offered his clinic for Dr. Belen to be able to operate on several patients. She has been able to do seven surgeries, and the patients have done very well. As many of you know, cataract surgery can be a real life-changing event, especially for our patients who usually have not been able to get the attention needed for a long time, and many have very seriously impaired sight, often making it difficult just to walk or carry out daily activities.
One patient whom I was especially thankful to see receive her surgery about three weeks ago was a lady named Maria Santiago. She was tripping and having difficulty walking because of her vision being diminished by cataracts. Her family had been looking for a way to get the surgery for her, but unsuccessfully. Even clinics that charge minimally for the surgery were too expensive for her family to afford. Dr. Belen was able to offer her the surgery for free – the patients were only asked to give a donation if they were able to, but it was not required. We saw her for follow-up this past weekend, and her vision is greatly improved – she can now walk without difficulty! We are so thankful for this provision!
These are just a few praise reports from the clinic recently. We also are extremely grateful for every medical team that has come and made possible many village outreaches over this past year, and those who have come and served helping to attend patients in our local clinic. We were in the community of La Bomba recently where Pastor Oscar and Anabel are currently building their church, and we were able to give medical and dental consults while the Spanish School students and teachers did a childrens program. Many patients and children were blessed, and a number of patients came to salvation as they heard the Good News of the Gospel!
Nursing School News
We continue to work on completing the building for the Nursing School. Much progress has been made! We mainly lack windows and doors, the ceiling, finishing out the floor, and some painting. School will not be able to actually begin until fall of 2026 because of the legal processes and requirements that have to be completed. This requires working with an office in Mexico City. Please pray for the process of getting the paperwork and curriculum development done for approval of the school. It will be such a wonderful thing to be able to formally train young people from our area to serve God through the profession of nursing!
At present, we continue to teach a Basic Health Care class as part of the Trade School classes to the first year Bible School students at a classroom in our Clinic Building. Here are four of our current students practicing bandaging head wounds. They had a good time with it!
Also pictured are Milca and Melissa, nurses working with us in the medical ministry, who have been the primary teachers in the Health Care class this year.
Bible, Spanish, and K-12 Schools, and Missionary Training
Dave is involved in helping with the planning and fund raising for a much-needed new High School building on the mission base. It is a very big project, but will be well worth the investment because of the fruit we are seeing from the school. Many young people´s lives are being changed through the discipleship program that runs alongside their school classes. Young people are being saved and Spirit filled and given vision to serve God with their education in the future!
The Spanish School continues to give language training to missionaries, and many are out serving in other Spanish speaking countries now – the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, among the Tarahumara Indians in northern Mexico, and in many other parts of Mexico. Please pray for God to continue to send those He wants to study and be trained here!
Another project for Dave and son-in-law, Ben Clark, this year is to create a mission sending department here for the first and second year Bible School students that they teach weekly. The goal is to continue equipping them, and then to be sending them to other nations outside of Mexico. They will be ideal missionaries to the nations!
Hurricane John
We had some very close calls during the hurricane season this year. God miraculously spared us from taking the full brunt of one recent hurricane – Hurricane John. It was headed from the ocean right for us, but some strong intercession went forth, and the hurricane changed its path and hit further up the coast. It did cause great damage up the coast around Acapulco, but we believe it would have caused even more damage had it hit us directly as was predicted. Thank you for your prayers and intercessions for us – God hears and is working!
There are so many more stories that could be told! It’s a been a full year. We desire God´s richest blessings over each of your lives during this New Year. Thank you so much for your faithful and generous giving which makes this ministry possible! God is changing lives and making a difference through your support of the work here!
We love and appreciate you!
In His Love,
Dave and Laura Nelson