Missionary Update — Brent Dodd
Greetings from Mexico!
This summer is flying by quite rapidly (pun intended). The month of June was the busiest month of flying, so far, this year. Thank-you for praying for our safety, both in the air and on the ground. We praise the Lord all the flights were completed without incident!
Cataract Eye Surgery Clinic:
Two different remote locations were targeted for the most recent eye clinic. Two Cessna 206’s were used to help share the workload of transporting eye patients and guardians to and from the Hospital Misión Tarahumara (HMT). UIM Aviation has two new pilots that are in training – one lives about an hour flight away, and the other lives in southern Mexico. Both were able to join me, here, and they were checked out into one of the two airstrips. They were able to get everyone from that location flown safely to the hospital, and returned back to their home, post surgically. It was a great help to me, and I am grateful they have joined our team.
I flew the patients from the other location. That airstrip is one of the more challenging airstrips I fly in and out of. The airstrip is in the middle of a town, and it has an 11.6 % slope. I land uphill and takeoff downhill. The police block the entrance to the airstrip, while I arrive and depart. We are thankful for the successful surgeries that were completed. The eye patients were very thankful for their improved eyesight, and they were appreciative when I flew Dr. Mike to their airstrips, to perform their post op exams, about a week after the surgeries were performed.
VBS for some Tarahumara Children:
A Church in Arizona sent a group of young adults to help facilitate a VBS. They helped a missionary family who ministers to the Tarahumara indigenous people group. The materials were all written in Spanish, but very few young Tarahumara children, in their area, know Spanish. The missionary is married to a Tarahumara lady, who is a believer. Their children are tri-lingual, speaking English, Spanish, and Tarahumara. The missionary’s children were trained by the group of young adults from Arizona, and they were the ones who then taught the lessons to the Tarahumara children, leading the VBS. It is encouraging that young adults and children are purposing in their hearts to communicate the Good News to others. Because of their love of sharing the Truth with others, many Tarahumara children heard the good news of the Gospel in their mother tongue. We praise God for the work He is doing in the hearts and lives of these young Tarahumara children. Please pray for a great harvest.
Child with almost severed finger:
While the VBS was going on, the missionary contacted me and said he had a young child who had a finger that was almost severed, who needed to be flown to the Hospital Misión Tarahumara (HMT). I transported the young boy and his mother in the Carbon Cub, returning them to their village, once the finger was tended to. We are grateful the finger was able to be saved. (There is a picture of the little boy in the VBS group picture. He is being held by his mother, the Tarahumara lady in the white dress.)
Boy with a broken arm:
Dr. Mike, the man who started HMT, is an orthopedic surgeon. A young boy broke his arm, and Dr. Mike was able to cast it, at the hospital. Once it was time for the cast to be removed, I flew Dr. Mike to the community where the boy lives. Dr. Mike took with him the cast removal tool and a battery power supply to power it. It is a rare doctor, in the USA, who will bless someone with a house visit. Dr. Mike goes above and beyond for his patients. In a very short time, the little boy was on his merry way, and I flew Dr. Mike back to the hospital. The half hour round trip flight saved a six hour drive, over rough, mountainous roads, in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. We praise the Lord for the provision of the new Carbon Cub FX3, as it is a great blessing for safely accessing remote areas. It is a great plane for landing on short, dirt, mountain airstrips.
Overnight Hospital Ministry Outreach:
This summer, Brielle was able to be a part of two overnight ministry outreaches. She went with a missionary couple (who have been a part of reaching that village, for years), and with our co-worker, Delia, a Tarahumara lady, who is helping reach her own people group, in that area. Brielle and our neighbor slept under the stars the one night, because it was too hot in the house. Brielle enjoyed interacting with the young children, and she was grateful for the opportunity. It was different for me to be flying Brielle, to drop her off at a remote airstrip, as a part of the team. It was another opportunity to trust the Lord in the care of her life. She is growing up.
Retained placenta:
We presently have two midwives at the Hospital Misión Tarahumara (HMT). When a lady has a retained placenta, it is necessary to transport her by air to a facility that can handle that emergency. Recently, I received a text message saying a transport was needed. David and I prepared the Cessna 206 for the transport. I was able to fly the lady (with her newborn and a guardian, to help her and her newborn) to an airstrip that is about a 50 minute flight away. They were then transported by ambulance to a hospital that could assist her. We praise the Lord another life was saved. May she come to understand the Gospel, and accept Jesus as her Savior.
Solar system batteries died:
Our co-workers and we live off grid, here in Mexico. Both of our families are on the same system. We were using an old solar system that was needing to be upgraded, but we planned to limp along as long as we could. All was going well enough, until one day the batteries would no longer take a charge. Since then, we have had to run the backup generator three times a day to keep our refrigerators and freezers functioning, to pump water to refill containers in our home, and to recharge our phones and small battery packs. We depend on power to run our Starlink dish, so we can have internet communication, and to run our cell signal repeater, which allows us to be able to text and make phone calls, to stay connected with the outside world. When you receive this message, it will be during the time we are running the generator, so we can have internet to send email. (It is being written on the computer’s battery power.) Thankfully, the cell signal repeater doesn’t take much energy, and we can run it on a small battery pack, which we recharge when the generator is running. We tried running the generator just twice a day, but the food in the fridge was going bad, so we now typically run it three times a day, for around 2 hours each time. We are grateful for the back up diesel generator.
Without the power, at night, we could not use a fan to stir the hot, summer air. It was difficult to sleep in our windowless bedrooms. We prayed for a reprieve, and for cooler nights. The summer rains arrived, mid to late June, and since then, we have had cooler nights that haven’t needed a fan. We are sleeping well, once again. We are so grateful.
We are ordering another solar and battery system. It will need to be transported out here, and it will then need to be installed. Please pray the transportation and installation will go smoothly, and that we will once again have reliable electricity, around the clock. We don’t realize how dependent we are on electricity, until we lose it.
Our sincere thanks:
Thank-you for partnering with us! Hollie Mae, Brielle, and I thank the Lord for you. We appreciate your faithfulness. God has each of us on this earth so we can know Him and make Him known. He has chosen each of us to be a light, to faithfully carry His Good News to a lost and dying world. He is the One who enables each of us to carry out His work. We are a body – we are to work together to accomplish His purposes. Thank-you for the part YOU play in making it possible for us to serve Him, here in Mexico. Some sow, some water, and God has promised to bring the increase. May there be a GREAT harvest of souls in 2024.
Your co-laborers in the Gospel, representing the Lord in Mexico,
Brent, Hollie Mae and Brielle Dodd