you called my wife, "a psychotic bitch"

Let me give you some background: my wife wrote a blog discussing a missionary (Jhon) and the sacrifices of following Jesus. 

Unfortunately, shortly after my wife posted her blog there was a coward of a man/woman on her facebook friend list who decided to anonymously post my wife's blog on an atheist forum and encouraged great hate against my wife, her family and the missionary. My wife received thousands and thousands of views and dozens of responses; and quite frankly, the onslaught of disgust and vehement hate toward her didn't stop until she took the blog offline:

"Psychotic bitch"
"Retard"
"Your family should be executed"...

That's just a small taste of what my wife had to deal with that night while I was away at work. Delightful, isn't it? So, what is intolerance again...who is being intolerant exactly? 

At the the end of the day, people are going to read what they want to read...whether it be in my wife's posts, in my posts or things written in the Bible. But let me try to clarify a few things. I STRONGLY encourage you to continue reading if you are one of the many that have written us over the past few weeks...
 
One: Do You Really Think We Endorse Child Abuse?
For those of you who think that Viviana and I serve, "a god who wants parents to kill their kids so he can be honored" or that Jesus supports rape, completely miss the point. And quite frankly, you don't know us. You definitely don't know Jesus. You will probably hate followers of Jesus (my wife and I included) regardless of what is said, written or done.

The two main arguments regarding bringing children into dangerous areas:
A) The argument that I hear most (both in and out of the church) is that the missionary, Jhon, was absolutely wrong for bringing his two children with him to such a dangerous area. "If he wants to go then by all means go, but he shouldn't bring the innocent children" is something that we have heard all too often over the last few weeks.

B) The second argument -- and the not-so-popular belief -- is that the missionary decided that his family would be a better force as a whole...together. And instead of having his children shipped away to boarding school, they would enter the village with him.  Because if you, (yes you, the reader) actually went into some of these tribal villages, you would quickly realize that children are so vital to building relationships within these tribes. After all, the children all interact together, the adults will discuss parenting together and families will eat meals together...building relationships, which is key in these dark areas. If you want to save many children, often times, it means you bring your own, knowing full well what that could result in.

I guess my question is this: a child who is molested is horrific, but if THAT specific family being in THAT specific dark village can bring Light into it, and save many other dozens and dozens of daughters from being touched, raped and killed, is it not worth it? I don't think there is an easy answer... honestly, I don't. I ask this question of myself and I'm wrestling much with this idea. But I want to strongly encourage you to think about this too.

Two: If You Actually Care About Child Abuse, Where Are You Now?
It's horrible to think that sons and daughters can be hurt because of their parents' "calling"...but if this is such a huge concern for us, then why don't all of us SINGLE or MARRIED people in EMPTY NEST HOMES go to these risky areas instead? Why don't we head out in order to free up all the young families from going into these dangerous villages? And why aren't we down-sizing our lifestyles in order to support those who actually are going?

Why not?

I don't see a long line of single men and women or empty-nest homes lining up to help these children who are abused, raped, who are tied to trees and left to die...However, I do see some families willing to go, and I say...with God's strength, they should go!

And unlike what most non-Christians, atheists, and Christians believe, the Bible actually talks more about loving and caring for the broken and poor of this world at all costs than most of the topics that are highlighted from the pulpit.

Three: Anonymous writers, please stand up! Atheists, please stand up!!  Christians, please stand up!!!
There was an orphanage in Kenya that I tried to raise money for that ended up closing down. Why?  Because no one in their comfortable wealth in Kenya (or Canada) wanted to help them...and the end result was 14 children (under 12) being sent back to the slums to prostitute themselves. Tell me, do we actually care for these children? 

You know, it makes sense why we do what we do: we call people who actually care, "psychotic bitches" and "retards" (horrible use of the word, by the way) because we can avoid the reality of how little we do for anyone in dire straits (like, I mean dire straights. Not "my car was dented on the weekend" or "my grandmother of 95-years old passed away peacefully"; I mean, "my home was torched in flames by radicals" or "my young 8-year old girl was raped and forced to have sex with 6 men"). 

For those of us who point fingers at human beings who actually give a second thought to the poor of this world, I encourage all of us to step back and be very careful before we open our mouths... for there will be a time when things will be revealed and our nakedness and unbelievably selfish attitudes will be exposed. And that is true for all of us...yes, all of us. I don't care if we're Christian or not, it's for US!

Mr./Ms. anonymous, my wife's good ol' Facebook friend, stand up and take ownership. Answer me this: Are you going to be bold enough to confront us, or do you still sleep well at night knowing that you gave my wife a sleepless night , with our photo plastered over the internet and where hate ran so easily against our home...?

Thank you for "educating us". You did much for the poor of this world that night. Sleep well!

what's the worth of a little girl's life?

How much would you pay to save a 4-month-old's life? Honestly, how much? Is the life worth a prayer? Worth a 24-hour fast? Worth $5? Worth $100? How about $1000?

She was one of a hundred patients seen on that sticky, hot afternoon. I remember when I first saw her: adorable, cute, beautiful; all perfect descriptions of the 4-month-old girl who was held tightly in her mother's arms. When I glanced at the mother, she didn't seem worried; quite honestly, this was reassuring. I figured the mother was bringing her daughter to see me, not unlike many mothers that day, to take advantage of seeing a doctor for a second opinion instead of strictly following the local witch doctor's advice (which often times is to stay away from all doctors and medical personnel).

The little girl was unwell, but not toxic-looking. I assessed her. She had a fever and a few crackles in her right lung, but otherwise was feeding normally. Her respiratory and heart rate were slightly elevated, but the baby gave a good cry and then sucked well on her mother's breasts (both very encouraging signs for a doctor). I gave them antibiotics and analgesics that they would otherwise have no chance of receiving and sent them home.

The next morning, an hour before lunch while I was in the thick of another flock of patient consults, a student informed me that the child and mother were back...and it didn't look good. "The child was vomiting blood all last night", was all I remember hearing. I pushed back all the other patients and brought the child forward. The mother was in tears and the child's appearance shocked me. The child was barely moving and had a very slowed respiration rate (very scary sign). The heart rate was through the roof at ~200 beats/minute, and I could barely get a cry from the child. Our fabulous pediatric nurse (and only nurse), Mindy, grabbed a thermometer and we checked a rectal temperature. I did want the temperature, but quite honestly I was more hoping for the baby to cry, to move, to be annoyed that we were sticking a thermometer in her rectum. Nothing. We saw very little movement.

I suspected the bacteria that was in her lungs the previous night had now made its way into the bloodstream. She had become lethargic; I couldn't hear anything in the lungs during her few breaths. I was worried. Sometimes, in situations like these, the mother would go to the witch doctor who would inform her to find a snake or frog, and boil them and have the child breathe in the steam. Thankfully, on this day, we were able to convince the mother and the surrounding villagers that the baby was at risk of dying in the next 24-48 hours (or sooner). They needed to find a boat and head to the closest hospital for intravenous (IV) antibiotics immediately. Our team had IV fluids and antibiotics, but not the right cocktail of drugs that this child needed...and needed urgently.

The mother and a local villager agreed to head to the hospital immediately.

Over the next few days, we prayed. We hoped for healing. We hoped for the child's life to be saved. We hoped for the villagers to see that not all doctors are evil despite the witch doctor's preaching of this message.  We held tightly to our Hope.

Three days later after some intense IV antibiotic treatments, the mother came back to our clinic the last day of our trip. The mother was smiling from ear to ear, and her baby was sucking on her breasts. It gave our team instant chills and joy. And that's when it hit me: if all I did on this trip was convince a mother to step into a boat to seek help from a hospital, then it would've been the most successful trip regardless of my expectations. So I ask, if supporters gave to a medical mission  trip and heard very few heroic stories, but a young babe's life was spared, was it worth the investment?

I ask again: how much would you pay to save a little, 4-month-old girl's life? Honestly, how much...? Is her life worth a prayer? Worth a 24-hour fast? Worth $5? Worth $100? How about $1000?

Was it time well spent?
Was it money well given?
I know for the medical team that day, we wouldn't have traded our sweat, our work, our time, our money for anything else...

...afterall, a baby's life was saved that day.

The monotony in the Amazon jungle

It's almost an oxymoron: The monotony in the Amazon jungle. But medically, it was true.

I have struggled over the last two and a half weeks as I lived out and debriefed my time serving the Ticuna people of the Amazon. The months of preparation definitely didn't prepare me for all I was going to see, and more importantly, feel. I was one of two doctors (the third was a medical student who was a month away from his MD) providing medical care to people who would otherwise have no access to a doctor. Despite knowing the poverty of this village, however, I quickly realized that all the prep work didn't perfectly match what was actually experienced.

Simply put: my expectations were not perfectly satisfied.

What were my expectations?
...I expected to see the weird and the wonderful,
...I expected to see the challenging,
...I expected to see some pregnant mommas needing help on deliveries or fathers needing abscesses drained (I only drained one and it was very small, and ended up being a lil' pus around a bigger tumour),
...I expected to do more surgeries or at the very least, I expected to send more patients off to the hospital that NEEDED emergent care by a surgeon,
...I expected to use skills that I had previously needed in other rural villages around the world.

I expected to see the sick-- like-- the deadly sick.

Instead, I felt I was working through more monotonous, family medicine complaints of headaches, sore backs and bowel problems. I found myself prescribing analgesics and teaching people that drinking directly from the Amazon river will give you diarrhea.

I found myself unchallenged after a 100 patient day because only 10 of them required critical thinking and a somewhat challenging management plan.  My physical exams yielded few interesting findings; and the handful of IV solutions could've been left at home.

But then it hit me.
Why shouldn't their headaches or sore backs be taken seriously?
Why shouldn't these people be offered the same care we receive in Canada? 
Why shouldn't they???

Prescribing simple analgesics to these people shouldn't be any less important than to us North Americans. And despite my head knowledge, I still completely underestimated that poverty is more than just a one-dimensional beast: it involves poverty of resources, poverty of spirituality, poverty of knowledge, poverty of relationships...etc. Teaching proper lifting techniques and stretching could relieve much 'suffering' for a group of people that lack this basic knowledge to treat muscle pain.

And more importantly, I completely missed that teaching them to boil the river water for 20 minutes will literally save dozens of children's lives (far too many lives have been lost in this way and the stories are heart wrenching). The witch doctors have a powerful grip on villages like this one, and sometimes, the darkness can be too real.

Education, especially health education, is key on medical missions. You may sow much, but not reap any benefits. Individuals and families, however, will reap many more years of young lives being saved-- that is well worth the education. As the long-standing missionary informed me: education will mean many less burials each month. How is that not worth the monotony?

Here's to hoping it works...
...and here's to hoping this village finds true hope.

"My little girl was sexually assaulted, but I stayed..."

His little girl was sexually assaulted...
In a place that was not his home...
But it was his harvest (Matt. 9:37-38)... 
and he stayed.
What would you do?

Your choices:
1) You seek revenge
2) You  pack up and go home
3) You stay...you forgive...and you love with the love of Christ that turns your right mind into one that can only be defined as crazy by the surrounding world (2 Corinthians 5:13-15).

Honestly, who in their right mind would choose to stay in a village where sexual assault and rape are accepted as the norm? What pathetic human beings would cling to a HOPE that states a beautiful Light will shine through in the midst of constant hardships (Hebrews 11:36-38; Matt. 5:14-16)? And who with all their educational training would actually grasp for a HOPE that isn't even fully realized in this lifetime (Hebrews 11:39-40)? 

What crazy humans would not only hold onto that HOPE, but REJOICE in it despite all the sufferings?  And no, I don't mean the majority of our North American, middle class sufferings... I mean the real, down to the core, your-daughter-being-raped type of sufferings (Romans 5:3-5).

I'll tell you:
a crazy family who I met in the remote Amazon jungle would.

In Canada, we will read verses like 2 Timothy 3:12 while sipping our $3.00 latte and discuss our life insurance plans, our ongoing renovations, and how our broken down material possessions are causing such a headache. But in a rural village in the Amazon jungle, a man and a woman read the previous verses and others like Luke 14:26-28;34 and took them to heart: loving Jesus so much more than their two young daughters; and each other. A couple who were convinced that a dark village must hear the Good News at all costs (Romans 8:1-4). A couple with whom my wife and I cried with... not knowing what to do other than to be there in that moment, where the Spirit was real, active, moving in a way that no Friday night worship service in all its grandeur and flashing lights could ever produce.

In Canada, we will quote, 'our first priority and ministry is to our family and household'. Yes, true... to an extent. But it's not the full Truth. The full Truth is that our FIRST priority is to love Jesus with all our heart, mind, and soul (Luke 10:27). To love others more than ourselves; to do all we can to spread the Good News to the remaining 2000 villages/tribes that haven't heard of the Christ (and again, let them decide to accept or reject...but they must at least hear it).

Our FIRST priority is to count the cost before even committing to Jesus in the first place (read Luke 14 again, especially verse 28). 

Our FIRST priority is to glorify our Lord Jesus. Period. 

Before getting married, before having children, the question must be asked, "Will I continue to love Jesus more than the family God will give me?" This question (and others), cannot be taken lightly...

thank you

Thank you much for everyone who has stepped up and joined us on this upcoming medical trip to rural Amazon. We leave for the jungle in a matter of hours. We arrived safely in Bogota and have purchased all the medications and supplies. Now, it's a matter of faith and seeing where God takes this one (so far, we've survived two airplane rides :-)...).

Again, this is a trip that will focus on providing basic medical care to people who would otherwise have none. Please be praying for God's will to be done...and, well... really that is all! 

Keep us on your mind much and in your prayers as often as you can. For those of you who have financially supported us, THANK YOU! We surpassed our $5000 goal. It was so encouraging for us. I assure you that all the the medications will be well used. We've calculated with numerous people and feel we have all that we need. For those of you who said they'd join us through prayer, THANK YOU! Please do so and oh boy, is it ever needed. Do not forget to be lifting up the rest of the team who will be dealing with some very, very dark beliefs and strongholds in these areas. May God Who has gone before us continue to be our Lead... our Source... our Hope.

Obama? Harper? Right or left...at the end of the day, we're a bunch of cowards. BUT WAHOO, my wifey is comin' home!!!

Over the last many weeks, I have been in discussions where people have taken the poorest of this world and used them for the benefit of their own political agendas. 

Examples? Sure. Several liberal people have openly told me that Harper is evil because he harms the poor, but when asked directly, "How do you assist the poor?" They answer: "I pay taxes." I have heard conservative people bash Obama for exacerbating the brokenness of homes in the United States, but when asked directly, "How do you care for all the orphans who weren't aborted? Do you adopt them?" They answer: "I pay taxes that help pregnancy and adoption centres." 

I think the key concept is: do we have to live within our means? How many of us actively live below our means for the sake of others? No, I don't mean we decide to not hit up The Keg every Friday night because we can't afford it, I mean we ACTIVELY sacrifice things that we can afford for the sake of the less fortunate. Do we? Do we, really?

We're a bunch of cowards.

We are a people of much talk, but little action.

I'm so thankful that I married a woman who despite the fact that we are only 40% of our support for the upcoming Amazon trip, she still believes in giving thousands of dollars to the poor and other worthwhile programs... she is someone who is willing to give up her 'right' to have a family full of biological children for the sake of children who are already born with no home in this world... she is a woman who has given up plenty of luxuries (whether that be cover-up or make-up or that dazzling dress-up in the mall...), for the sake of those who have never experienced clean water, let alone our North American luxuries. She talks, yes, but oh baby, does she ever walk it; action always follows her talking. And that woman, ahhh, that woman blows me away.

(She also comes home tomorrow, which by the way, I can't wait for!!! She was gone 10 days too long!!! She's been on my mind...can't help it).

Amazon Trip

As mentioned above, we haven't raised even 50% of our planned support for our upcoming Amazon trip. As it stands right now, we can only buy minimal medical supplies and medications. It's a shame. I'm not going to write here and pretend that we've been blown away by the givings or encouraging prayers thus far because we haven't been. But I will write on here that our God is good, and quite honestly, what more can we desire? Truly, it gives me the chills realizing how good, good and more good God is. And it shakes my entire being knowing how in life or death, serving Him is the only right and honour that we actually have in this world. And it is that God who will be with us as we embark on a very uncomfortable trip to the Amazon... with much or little from North America.

a call to help

a call to help
There's a reason why I mentioned in my last post that the exotic Amazon, and travel, and heat are really not my thing... because if you weren't aware of it, my wife and I are part of a team destined for the Amazon jungle this April (as always, prayer much needed... so needed). We’ll be partnering with Viv’s old high school in Colombia (ECA) and serving there for a week. I will be one of three doctors heading over, and the last I heard, we could use more medical recruits. The need is there. Viviana will be helping with translations (and probably making sure I don't shrivel up from dehydration).

We’ll be serving in two distinct villages. This trip is literally their only access to health care, seeing that the government doesn't follow through on their responsibility to provide care. We have been in contact with locals who have asked for our help (which is key: how many short-term trips actually HELP those on the ground? Great harm can be done with the all-too-common short term mission trips...). Currently, we are in full “prep mode”: our group plane tickets have been purchased, we’ve contacted pharmaceutical companies looking for donations and we’ve been in contact with local missionaries and past team members.

After some quick calculations, we’ve estimated that the trip will cost approximately $5,000 total. Currently, we are at about 4% of our totally support. If you would like to join us through giving, please keep reading. You will see a full breakdown of our expenses (try not to Zzz too much while reading). All donations will qualify for tax-receipts.

I hope helping those in dire need is/becomes your thing...whether through this trip, or through your giving to other worthwhile organizations. The present need for help is desperate; please don't wait for the next natural disaster to write a cheque. 

the boring details 

We are hoping to raise $5000, but if we manage to raise more, any additional funds will be used to buy more medications. Below is a rough breakdown of our expenses:

          Plane Tickets to Bogota: $2,000
          Travel Expenses: $200
          Jungle Part (paid through ECA): $1,000
          Supplies and Medications: $1,500 (more if depending   on...well... your giving)
          Bogota Stay: $300
          Colombian nurse: $500

We will be raising funds through an organization called RCE (Resourcing Christian Educators). It is one of the main sending organizations that ECA works with and they have allowed us to raise money through them so that our donors can receive tax-receipts and exemptions. This organization works in both Canada and the USA, so if you need a tax-receipt, follow your country-specific instructions. If you do not need a tax-receipt, do whatever seems easiest to you. 

FOR CANADIANS:

The easiest way to ensure you receive a tax-receipt is by writing a cheque. Please write “Acct #11958” on the memo line and mail it to:

          RCE Canada

          #3 T/C Plaza

          1335 Trans-Canada Way SE

          Medicine Hat, AB T1B 1J1

          Ministry Project Acct: 11958- Lucas& amp; Viviana Spicer- RCE International

FOR AMERICANS:

US donors can give online by credit card at https://www.rce-international.org/donate/credit-card-donate-page/. Make sure your find our names in the drop-down menu under “Missionaries!”

Or, if you’d prefer to use a check, please write “Acct #11958” on the memo line and mail it to:

          RCE International

          PO Box  4528

          Wheaton, IL 60189

          Acct # 11958 

If any of this doesn’t make sense, do not hesitate to contact us, as we’d be happy to help you figure it out! If you would like to be a part of our semi-regular email updates, please contact my wife at viviana.spicer@gmail.com