Blockbuster News

Greetings and salutations to one and all.  Busyness was the operative word and we are just now getting respite enough to feel like we can breathe.

IHS Medical Dental Brigade had a wonderful year here with restorative dental being added to the repertoire of services rendered.  Here are the results of that brigade.

2015 Brigade Results

Total Visits: 1248

Medical visits: 908 Total
Of that: Minor surgeries: 2

Dental Visits: 173 Total
Of that: Tooth Extractions 175
Received Sealants 113
Received Floride Treatments 167

Eye Clinic: 167 Total (some patients received both)

Reading Glasses Dispensed: 56
Sunglasses Dispensed: 182

Pharmacy: 3249 Total
Of that: Prescriptions filled: 2399
Vitamins dispensed: 850

Annual Hospital Appreciation Dinner was a success.  We had an amazing group of workers and their families (about 22 folks altogether) that enjoyed fun, food (grilled pork chops, baked beans, fiesta coleslaw, with both banana bread and vanilla cake for dessert), and fellowship.  It’s a nice way to show our gratitude and thanks for their hard work.

Next up was a great construction team coming from New England to warm themselves and work up a sweat storm.  Here are some photos of what they accomplished:  Plumbing for both the hospital apartments (being turned into dormitories) storage closets for supplies, plumbing for the guest house that is being renovated into the new Wiles residence.  We have two couples joining us (Braxtons and Moras) this next year sometime so we need to upgrade the living quarters for everyone.

Carlos  stayed  behind  to  minister  to  Nicaraguan  pastors  and   continue  ministry  in  Olanchito  so  he  is  not  in  the  group  photo  at  our  celebration  dinner  when  the  work  was  finished  and  the  team  was  heading  home  to  the  states.    In  this  shot,  he’s  with  a  group  of  soldiers  that  he  helped  in  daily  Bible  Studies.

Fifteen minutes home and Wes started his string of emergency flights over the next several days.  Currently he is the ONLY emergency medical evac pilot in the area. 

We’ve implemented a program with Vitamin Angels (organization) which provided vitamins for expectant mothers and for children.  What a blessing!

As missionaries, we are great at encouraging others with stories of the Lord’s victories in our lives as we serve Him. We want to be a light that shines brightly of His goodness and grace. It’s in our nature to share how we’ve overcome through Him. What we don’t usually share is the struggle and discouragement as we fight for the things that we can share later how God brought us victory. We often feel overwhelmed. That’s a good thing, because we know for sure it was not us that did the great work but Him in us. However, there are times when we need to share that we need your prayers. Please keep your missionaries in your prayers. They need it every day in the day-to-day battle of being on the front lines. Thank you, prayer warriors, for you faithfulness in lifting missionaries up before the Almighty as we serve Him.

Prayer Request:  We are going to be doing a lot of traveling this month for several events (check up, wedding,

children to and fro to airports, MAG office, etc…)  we would appreciate your prayers as we travel about.  Thank you, faithful prayer warriors!  You don’t know how much you are appreciated.

Joyfully In His Service,

Westley and Denise Wiles

A Miracle Adventure!!!

Greetings and blessings to you, our Loved Ones.

Bet you've wondered where we've been -- read on and find out our adventures.

I am a walking miracle and each day is a gift.  What started out as a trip to the states to see Westley’s mom and other family members turned into something so much more.  (There were earlier signs, but we didn’t recognize them.)  We flew into Nashville and our son, Joshua met us.  We drove to Knoxville where we hooked up with our other son, David and his fiancé, Rachel.  We enjoyed a couple of days together.  It was great.  However, I was plagued with major migraine headaches the whole time. 

We drove to Arkansas and visited Westley’s mom in the nursing home.  I was so very tired and in major pain.  I had an episode of talking weird while visiting but we all just chocked it all up to me being very tired.  I laughed it off.  We drove to Hardy to spend the night with Westley’s brother. 

I have no memory of the next events but Wes related the story to me.  After retiring for the night, Westley awakened to me having a grand mal seizure.  I was rushed to the small emergency room not far from town.  On the way there I had two more grand mal seizures before they could get enough meds in me to control them.  I was stabilized and then sent to a another (bigger) hospital in Batesville.   They then transferred me to UAMS in Little Rock, Arkansas.  I spent nine or ten days there.  Wes said they ran tests, a couple of MRI’s and CT scans.  I don’t remember much from that time except for the last day when I was released.  Looking back, it was His timing.  If this had happened while we were in the jungle of Honduras I probably would have died.  I am grateful that He kept me safe until we reached the states.

Anyway, the results were very interesting.  I was then scheduled for surgery.  It was going to be a two part surgery.  The first one was cranial surgery.  A portion of my brain had fallen 2.5 cm and would be needed to be raised back into position and the “hole” filled so it would not fall again.  They cut along my hair line (to cut down on scarring so it’s along my forehead) and opened the brain cavity.  They cut a portion of the cranium bone (no rejection) to slide under the fallen portion to hold it up in place.  Carefully, they lifted my fallen brain and repositioned it.  They filled in the “hole” to keep it from happening again.  Yes, there are two titanium screws in there now.  They closed up, using staples.

After cleaning up from that surgery and restocking, the second surgical team came in and cut out the inactive brain material that was lodged in the top of the nasal cavity and made sure the brain cavity and nasal cavity were separated like they are supposed to be. 

Between both surgeries, I would be under five hours with a recoup time in the hospital of four to five days.  One big blessing was that our daughter, Rachael, made the trek from South Korea to be with us.  Westley’s family also came to offer support in many ways throughout this whole endeavor).  God’s hand was ever present.  He guided the surgeons and gave me a quick recovery.  After two days, I was released from the hospital.  The metal stitches came out eight days later.  Things are progressing in such a great way that even the doctors are amazed.  I’m not.  I serve an awesome God and He takes great care of me.  What blessings!!!

Everyone has been so supportive with prayers, gifts of support (good job on designating Wiles), and encouragement.  I have truly felt the prayers and good wishes that have been offered up for me and to me.  It made a difference.  Thank you.  We couldn’t have gone through this trying, faith stretching experience without all of you. 

Westley has had to make several trips back and forth during this time and take care of commitments we did NOT want to break.  That was a miracle too.  God provided by moving on the hearts of others to stand in the gap and make things happen.  Both of us reflect on this time and see His hand and your love and care for us as amazing.

I had a check up on February 6^th.  We believed for a good report so that we BOTH could return to Honduras for our next group.  And it was GOOD.  I have had stern lectures about trying to do everything I used to, so this time I will be supervising and resting only. 

It has been a blessing to spend time with family which we haven’t done in quite some time, but it is time for me (Wes tooJ) to return to our full time love of our heart.  I did want to extend our deepest thanks to you all for everything.  We have such an awesome team and we do amazing things together.  God is not finished with us yet and we give Him the praise and glory.

A special team came to minister to the children by holding Vacation Bible School.  Average attendance was around 50 children.  What a blessing!  A missive from Carlos:  “The children all had an opportunity to pray to receive Christ.  And they all received the Scriptures in Spanish.  The very little kids received a Gospel of John and the older children received a New Testament.

We took photography of every child as well as gathered everyone to secure some group photos.  The children will continue to receive ministry, play more baseball, and have fun at the river with myself and Mackenzie Jackson for the next four weeks.  So we are not done with the children whatsoever.”  We were delighted by their coming (how I wish I had been there) and they also helped with a project at the hospital. 

Carlos and Mackenzie will stay and help with the next group coming – IHS/MAG Medical/Dental Brigade.  We will be busy.  We usually see between 1200 and 1500 patients so we ask for your prayers as we gear up for this next adventure.  Much planning, getting of supplies, traveling for both team members and patients are just a few of the details.  Thank you for helping this ministry touch so many lives in so many ways.  You are appreciated.

As we sign off this time, we give all praise and glory to Him who has paid our price and given us overcoming power.  He gave us the opportunity to serve Him.  We love what we do and we also love that YOU have joined us in partnership to reach others in love.  Since my experience, relationships have come to mean so much more to us than before as special as they were even then.   We don’t want to take anything for granted, so forgive us for being a little mushy!  J

Joyfully In His Service,

Westley and Denise Wiles