Trip to Honduras 26 March-2 April 2011

Hello! This is an invitation to join Begee and me on an exciting first trip for us to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We leave in 4 days and are being joined by 5 others:

Drew & Lisa Horlbeck from Jacksonville, FL. Drew is a Pediatric Neuro-Otologist (Ear surgeon) and Lisa is a nurse.

Mark Vogelhut and Steve Mendoza are Anesthesiologists.

Bruce Albright is an Oral Surgeon.

The guys will be working at the teaching hospital for the medical school in our specialties. Begee will be working with a team of women with CCCI.

If this is a successful trip, we hope to go every year with a large, multi-specialty team. Hopefully, we will have great need for non-medical types who have a real missionary spirit. Begee will give you follow-up on this as she works in this women's ministry!

Your prayers are deeply appreciated. In His Service, David & Begee

Heading home!

Fun photos as we leave. I'll finish the explanation when we land in Korea. Begee has been wildly shopping for LaDiDaLife.com, her and Julie Ann/Laura's online place to find many fun things…be sure to visit their website at http://www.ladidalife.com/. Above is a roof top of a home in Saigon. Begee loved seeing what each home was growing!

This is where we ate breakfast this week! Overlooking the Saigon River, and I used to be just up-river in Cu Chi!

Flat Stanley is still around. Here he is.... packing!

Begee in her favorite shoe shop in the market, with Flat Stanley! They were shopping for LaDiDa together!

And this is my favorite shopping stop, near the market. This lovely family sells the Polo shirts to me for $3, etc. We love coming here as they always remember us!!!!

We are on our way to the airport and today has been the roughest of all... shopping with Begee! Wow! She has vast amounts of energy... and I thought she was frail! I'll send more fun photos when we hit Korea. The trip has been FANTASTIC!!!!!! Thank you for your prayers.

In His Service, David & Begee

Our last work day

Today was our last work day, and what a day it was! I have only heard from Craig in Hue and he had to do a very complex surgery on a child, the likes of which I have never seen before. I will see him tomorrow and am eager to hear how it went. The nursing staff is exhausted, according to Lien, so they must be working very hard in Da Nang!

A breakdown occurred in communication and Marcy may have had a day off. Lien left for England so our team is without the usual support as we prepare to leave. After 14 years, this is the first time we departed as a team alone!

Walter’s illness is definitely better. He went to the doctor and has better meds than we had in our suitcases! He stayed in bed again today, but his fever is gone. This alone may allow him to fly home with us. The rules have changed and you supposedly can’t get on an airplane when ill.

At Gia Dinh Hospital, I had great day. We did three surgeries with 4 doctors getting to show what they’ve learned. I am thrilled. They all did very well showing a real grasp of what we have been trying to teach. In my parting speech, I told the hospital leadership that the young doctors were not only good surgeons, but were now prepared to teach sinus surgery. This is one of our goals. Mission accomplished! Tonight we go out together for traditional Vietnamese food.

No photos today as Begee has the camera. She is out having fun. Tomorrow we fly home but have many hours to shop before departure. I will be off to get my $3 Polos! :o) I’ll try to report on the rest of the team as I see them over the next 12 hours. In H Service, David

Wednesday, 16 Sep - Our Children

Many of you have asked about our "children" in Vietnam. Begee and I have hosted 10 fellowships in our home, and you will meet several of them here. Their children have become our grandchildren, of course!

Here is Minh, our first fellow in 1997. She is the second from the left with her family. Tonight we were with Minh,s family. Our friendship is deep and we really love all of them.

This is Binh, 4th from the right, and her entire family. Last night we went to Binh’s home. This was a very special event as two attending surgeons come to her home to be with her family. It was extremely rewarding for us, as well. Marcy joined Begee and I as Binh was in both of our homes last year in the States. This night was entirely social but seeds have already blossomed so this was an evening of encouragement!

This is Male Minh but his family was sick on this evening. We still had a very special evening of encouragement!

and here are three former fellows and the next fellow... Luong, Dinh, Dinh's wife Hang who will be coming in the Spring of 2010, and Phong.

Hannah, I hope your class is still enjoying the blog. I haven't heard from any of you in a while.

Today I was alone at Giu Dinh Hospital. I went there last year and found it a very progressive hospital with a young faculty and a great desire to learn. They have some equipment, which we contributed last year, but no powered instrumentation. I will try to find donations for them next year, if possible.

The Vietnamese have asked me to come twice in 2010, and this will be a serious matter of prayer.

I haven’t heard from the team members in Da Nang or Hue. Walter is not feeling well and stayed in bed this AM. He is doing better this evening. I don’t know the cause but we are constantly reminded that no matter how good some foods may look, we have to abide by the time honored tradition of no uncooked veggies, thin skinned fruits and NO ice. Kathie was down for 24 hours last week and she felt ice was the cause.

Begee is doing wonderfully. She is being invited to the hospitals as the staff really wants to get to know her. Time for bed! In H Grace, David

Tuesday, 15 Sep, Kaleb's Birthday!!!!!!!!

Today is Kaleb’s birthday! 10 years old. Our first grandson! Love to you Kaleb and we pray your day is wonderful! Flat loves traditional Vietnames coffee, especially before surgery to calm his nerves. Unfortunately, he drank so much he almost became Unflat, AND, he had the shakes as VN coffee has lots of caffeine!

Here is Flat reading the CT scan's of our sinus surgery patient. It was tough surgery and he had to be prepared!

Here is Flat getting ready to operate. The patient is hidden under the sheets and Flat thought they looked a little alike!

Maddie, here is one of our children, Male Minh!

Here is Flat speaking with Uncle Ho. I don't think Flat had anything very deep to talk about; he was pretty shallow!

Here is Flat attending my lecture to 40 doctors. He gave me an "A+!" Since his Mangosteen, he has been without a fever or cough!

Here he is eating his Mangosteen. Loved it! He hasn't had any sinus problems since eating this!

So much to say… what a great day! A day of the best of everything. Last night, Begee and I had dinner with a former fellow. The conversation was extraordinary… exactly what we wished to hear. The individual is extending influence to family, friends, colleagues and parents! PTL!

On the way home we renewed our friendship with a tiny family store with great Ralp Loren golf shirts (not a spelling error but a quote from the lable) for $3.30 @! These, shirts are as good as the $76 look-a-like in the States, which have correct spelling!

This morning was surgery and we did four cases. The highlight of any teacher’s professional life is seeing former students who have excelled in the subject taught to be better than the teacher. Minh (our first fellow in 1997) is an extraordinary sinus surgeon and performed an extremely difficult frontal sinus dissection, and it was the best I have ever seen in 22 years of doing/teaching/watching this new surgery. It was done in front of a closed-circuit audience of 40 ENT doctors. So exciting! The Marcy did a sinus case and I was again thrilled and proud!

We had a very special lunch today and dessert was mangustin or mangosteen with a special tea for patients with liver disease! (Begee was with us and she was thrilled)

The afternoon was again lectures. Dr. Marcy Bothwell and I spoke. Marcy was a medical student and resident under me at the Univ of Missouri. She has blossomed into a wonderful surgeon, teacher and leader. We are blessed to have her on the team.

Wonderful day and Begee continues to be healthy and happy. She spent an hour today, one on one, with Dr. Dung, one of the most dynamic leaders in our specialty in all of Asia. We are happy!

Love to all! D&B

Monday, the second week.

I'm sorry, I forgot my camera today. No photos! I received a complaint from Madison Grace, our Granddaughter, that I have not included photos of our Vietnamese "children and grandchildren." She is right; you all are "related!" I will get better as the next three nights we will be with "family."

Today, the entire southern team is at the ENT Hospital in HCMC. It is the most advanced facility in VN and I have to keep reminding myself that 14 years ago, nothing plugged-in in the OR, ICU, etc. They had never seen an endoscope or heard of FESSurgery. Now they are superb. We saw patients all morning and will begin a sinus course this afternoon with doctors from the city and provinces viewing lectures, then tomorrow watching surgery on closed-circuit. The teaching opportunities have extended way beyond the walls of the hospitals. What a blessing. We lecture again tomorrow afternoon, then I go to a different hospital while everyone else stays here.

Medtronic equipment was distributed here today and is such a smashing success! What a blessing to have corporations that contribute so heavily to Third World medicine and health care! Our brothers and sisters at home are so loving!

On a separate note, I am giving a morning devotional to our American teammates based on what we are doing in our men's ministry at home.... How phenomenal God's love is for each and every one of us. It is easy to forget, so easy to feel we have to do works to earn it, but how constant and unchanging it is. What an encouragement it is every day! The trip is great and Begee is doing wonderfully. She is so glad she came. Love to you all, In H Grace, David

Last Flat Stanley for Maddie!

Hi Maddie! Here are photos of Flat Stanley having fun on his vacation in Da Nang, Vietnam. After going to perform the jazz concert (he is quite a singer you know, and speaks many languages!), he rested and drank some Dragon Fruit juice. It was excellent! After a good night’s sleep, he went to the beach and collected seashells, including a starfish. Then he sunbathed and finally went for a swim. He is a very good swimmer and did many flips in the waves! He even snorkeled. We hope your classmates enjoy hearing about his wonderful experiences in Vietnam. Soon he will be doing surgery in Ho Chi Minh City with me and he definitely will do some serious shopping with Grandy. Love! GrandyDaddy :o)

Ancient Vietnamese saying, “ Invest in a man and you invest in an individual; invest in a woman and you invest in a family; invest in a teacher and you invest in a generation!”

When we go to Mexico, I tell our participants to keep their eyes open, because they will definitely see miracles. We have not seen as many in Vietnam but today was miraculous! Let me tell you the story. Craig and I planned a wonderful morning of sailing in the Pacific. But last night, Craig received a late night call that a friend of Lien’s was ill. Craig arranged care and gave medicines. This morning, there was no wind and the ocean was quiet. Bummer, no sailing! “Let’s go have a great breakfast!” There was Craig’s patient. We ate with him and soon, his friend came by and we had a great conversation. There was the exchange of business cards, and his said, “Director General, Vietnam International Education Development, Ministry of Education and Training.” This man was extremely knowledable about REI (our organization) and helpful since its inception. He was the President of Hanoi University. But now he is in charge of nursing education and is very desirous of finding ways to improve nursing in VN. Our goal is identical! We called Elaine and Aja (our professors of nursing) and they came for an hour’s exchange of how we could jointly accomplish our very similar goals. Alleluia! No wind!