November 13, 2002

Dear Family and Friends,

I apologize for the long lapse between my mission trip to Honduras in August and this thank-you letter!  As many of you know, I got married after a whirlwind romance in the end of September, and have just now started to complete unfinished projects that were dropped in the process!  I married Aaron Thul, a coworker and fellow nurse, and we plan to continue mission work together in the coming years.

My trip to Honduras this year was phenomenal.  Previous mission work Ive done has been more avant-garde, setting up traveling clinics in small towns or villages.  This year, our destination was La Ceiba, a large city on the Caribbean with an already established clinic facility.  The clinic had been built years before by the Great Commission church of La Ceiba, and sits high on the hillside overlooking the city and sea.  Salud Total, Total Health, as the clinic is called, is staffed year-round by volunteer medical staff from around the world.  During our stay, we worked with physicians and translators from Guatemala and Honduras.  There was also a construction team of college students from North Dakota working on constructing a permanent church building on the same hillside the clinic is located on.  Having the building to work from, as well as an established pharmacy and stock area, was a huge luxury that allowed us to see more patients and keep records of returning patients from visit to visit.  Although the clinic is only open approximately half the weeks of any given year, there are quite a few repeat customers who use the clinic as their primary health care provider.

As usual, the patient load we were able to attend far exceeded our expectations.  We struggled to continue our fast pace through illness and fatigue.  I struggled more this year, as I was exposed to contaminated water the first night of our stay, and became more and more ill as the days went by.  A verse my mother put to song echoed in my mind as I struggled to begin work each morning:  Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path.  (Proverbs 3:5)   Through Gods grace, we saw between 100-200 patients each day!  Most were families with small children suffering from respiratory infections, intestinal parasites and infections related to the poor water supply, and infections of the skin, eyes and ears, due to poor resources for personal hygiene and cleaning of wounds. We also saw quite a few adults with diabetes, seizure disorders, high blood pressure, and depression.  It was wonderful to have a well-stocked pharmacy with which to treat these regulars.  In fact, we were able to treat two emergency patients, both with seizures.  One little boy had been seizing for over six hours when his mother brought him to our clinic!  Without proper medical attention, he would have almost certainly died.  I felt very thankful to be there at that place and time to save this beautiful little boys life.  He will continue to take seizure medication for his childhood, and possibly his whole life.

Without the generous support of so many people, I would not have been able to go on such a life-changing trip.  It is amazing how humbling and powerful it is to work amongst such strong, beautiful people, full of faith and humor in the face of the most incredible poverty you could imagine.  I feel so blessed by God to be used of Him in ministering to the people of Central America each year.  I again felt like a sort of ambassador, representing the generous spirits of all those who sent me on the mission trip this year, whether through financial support or prayer.  I wanted you to know that your donations were used by God to bring physical, spiritual, and emotional healing to many people this year.  Thank you so much!  For those of you with the internet, more photos can be seen on my website at https://gforce09.tripod.com/mission_dios

In His grip,

Genevieve Thul, RN

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like noonday.  The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  ~ Isaiah 58:9-11  (NIV)