With this new transition comes a leap of faith for our family.  We know that these are difficult economic times all around the world, and we will now be making the transition to 100% support based.  It is a scary move, especially with a baby, but we know that God has brought us together to this point, and He will continue to do the same.  Originally we were not planning a trip back to MN this year, due to the financial crunch, but we have now decided that it would be a good idea for me (Seth) to travel back for fund-raising purposes.  We would like to extend a challenge to all of you who read this blog.  If you are already sponsoring us, we are so incredibly grateful, could you consider a $10 increase in your support?  If you are not sponsoring us, could we talk about the possibility of you coming on board with us, $20 or $30 a month?  And to all of you, do you know someone that would be interested in hearing more about the ministry, that we could sit down and share with them? To give you a better idea, we are looking to raise another $700 a month.

I hope that this blog doesn’t come across as a desperate cry for help.  The Lord is providing and there is plenty of food on the table.  But at the same time it is something that we need to be very intentional about.  Please pray above all else, God will guide you in your decision and will help you to know how to pray for us and the ministry here.  And any time that one of you would like to come and visit I would be more than ready to have a place for you to stay and take you around.

Please check out the flickr pictures on the right side of the blog, there are some great ones of Natalia and of the community center building project.  We have a team coming in on Saturday to help with the construction.  I will have another update soon in regards to the building project.

Feel free to email me: seth_jurgenson@hotmail.com

This doesn't have a lot to do with the blog, but it's one of my favorite pictures!

You can check out more pictures of Natalia at:

(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135219&id=523392456&l=46e705e97b)

It has been an interesting experience for past 4 weeks.  I’ve done the best I’ve can to rest, while still trying to keep informed at work, as well as seeking out God during this time.  It has been difficult not being able to help out Leslie around the house nor with the baby.  I am unable to help out with the smallest of things, such as changing a diaper.  My wife has carried the extra burden with tremendous courage, even during her current fight with a throat infection. 

I have had a good deal of time to reflect and study my current situation during the last 4 weeks.  There are many areas in which God needs to continue to work in my life.  One area is that have involving Him in the day to day ministry that I am involved in.  Many times we get caught up in all the things that we need to do, the same being said in the ministry field.  But I need to do a better job of allowing God to lead the way rather than the other way around.  A recent falling out with our cleaning lady has shed some light on another area of need in my life, to share and understand the eternal love that God shines down on us.  I am a person that likes to seek justice, and many times that causes me to become angry at the people that are often causing an injustice.  This anger can easily transition into contempt, and that is no where near the sacrificial love that our Father shows us.  Everyone knows that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and most often we think of a little old lady or an abused spouse, but what if our neighbor is a racist or a drug dealer or worse…do we still love them as we love ourselves?  This is the question that I have been wrestling with over the last couple of weeks.  How would I treat the person that ran me off the road and caused my accident?  How do I treat the governmental officials that oppress so many and seek to gain a financial advantage in the process?  Those are difficult questions and they don’t have pretty answers.  We can say one thing, but are we truly going to act that way when we are confronted with them, and when they have wronged us personally?  I can’t begin to say that I have mastered this one, I think the first step is really looking inward and asking those questions.  The next step is to begin to live them out.  That is the direction that I hope I can begin to walk, because I haven’t. 

My recovery has gone well, and I think I can say that in every sense of the phrase, physically, mentally and spirtually.  Please pray as this process continues and as my wife continues to look after myself, our daughter and our home.

We are starting to settle in and deal with the “collateral damage.”  Insurance companies are a bit difficult no matter where you go, but even moreso here.  Our doctor gave us a really good deal on the surgery and the insurance company still only paid him half of that amount.  We asked him if we needed to pay the other half, and after beating around the bush a while said no, but we still feel the obligation to pay some of it ($400).   All things considering $850 for 3 1/2 hours to piece my collarbone back together is dirt cheap.  The same doctor will continue to visit me here at the house once a week to change my bandages and continue any treatment.  We are unsure of those costs at this point. 

Leslie just left for the impound lot to see if she can get my motorcycle back.  It will be interesting to see how much they charge us for that.  From there we will have to bring it to a mechanic to assess the damage.  Most people who saw the bike said it was still in really good shape, just scratched.  Thankfully mechanic work here is very affordable, and I’m in no rush to get back on the bike.

It has been wonderful to be surrounded such great S.I. family.  When the accident occurred a number of staff members helped out.  At the scene Rachel Kelly drove my wife, in our car, to the hospital, her husband Aaron accompanied my bike to the impound lot, Fernando was at the hospital waiting for me to arrive, Nic Bekaert came to the ER as well and lent a hand because the ER staff was aweful in their first care.  (They wanted me to stand up by myself as the took a standing x-ray of my collarbone, afterwards they wanted x-rays of my ankles to see if they were broken….a tad backwards, not to mention head trauma).  And since then many have visited me in the hospital and have taken my responsibilities as their own.  It is probably the busiest time of year, but many are standing in the gap.

So I will continue to be at home for some time.  Exhausted all the time, never finding a comfortable position, but loved, first and foremost by God, my family, co-workers and friends.  Thank you for your prayers and support and please continue to pray for us as we move forward.

Pre-surgery

My boss likes to say that there are never any problems, but there are opportunities. Today is a day of miracles, today I’m happy to be alive. I write to you from a hospital bed. I was involved in an accident on my motorcycle on Wednesday afternoon.  I don’t remember too much, but here is what I do…I was returning home from a staff meeting on a 4 lane highway, coming down a hill into Antigua. I passed a car in the left lane, a truck was coming up fast behind me. I didn’t cut him off, but he did have to slow down. After passing the car I got back into the right lane. The truck then proceeded to pass me, but to show his disgust for me he cut me off/ran me off of the road.  From there I imagine it was a combination of not having a lot of experience on a motorcycle and wet pavement. All I know is that I went down on my left side.  I don’t remember the accident but my wife and child were in the car 30 seconds behind me. Neither the pick-up nor the car I passed stopped. When Leslie arrived some people had stopped from the other side of the highway to help me up, traumatizing to say the least. They say that I was taken to the public hospital first and then to private hospital where I am currently.  There was quite the discussion regarding me treatment, thankfully my wife was here. This is the only private hospital where our insurance applies here in Antigua, but I’ve never had a good experience here. The supervising doctor/owner wanted to put pins sticking out of my collar bone and skin. So my wife called a family friend who is a traumatologist, his recommendation was only a metal plate. He performed the surgery Thursday at 11:00 am.  The x-ray showed 3 pieces of my collarbone, but when he opened me up there were 5.  It took 3 ½ hours of surgery and one metal plate to get me together again.  So I fell off my bike between 50 and 60 mph and suffered some road rash on my hands, a small hole on my left foot sewed up with 4 stitches and a collarbone broken in 5 places.  Leslie said my helmet was a mess.  Without it I would most certainly be unrecognizable if not dead. I’m so very thankful to be alive. Pray that the recovery goes well, as well as the extra responsibility for Leslie.

  I was looking at the X-ray with the doctor and he pointed out that I fractured the end of my radius in my arm.  I am no expert, but I wasn’t entirely convinced of the fracture (believe me I was convinced of the pain th0ugh).  So I figured that having a cast on for 4 weeks wouldn’t hurt anything.  Famous last words.  3 weeks later I managed to pull the cast off myself (fiberglass one, not easy, but can be done) and had another X-ray done.  About 5 minutes after I pulled the cast off I got the same piercing pain again.  So this time I took my X-ray to a traumatologist.  His words were, “this is a classic case of a scaphoid fracture, who looked at your hand the first time?”  So for those of you who don’t know, the scaphoid is in the hand.  Which meant, the first cast I had on was worthless because it did not include the thumb.  (With a scaphoid fracture you need to immobilize the thumb, thus immobilizing the scaphoid)  So that meant I was 3 weeks behind in my healing.  I got another cast put on, this time with the thumb, and he gave me a double cast.  I told him he was doing an extra good job by double wrapping it, and he quickly responded, “you did mention that you managed to pull your 1st one off.”  (Good point doc)

  He told me I needed to have it on for an additional 3 weeks.  So at 3 weeks I went back in and he was very optimistic in my healing, which gave me a big sigh of relief.  Then he promptly ordered me an additional 2 weeks with the cast.  So in all it will be 8 weeks with a cast.  My first broken bone/fracture in my life and I managed to do a good job.  Unfortunately it couldn’t come at a worse time…the birth of my first child.  Changing diapers is rather difficult, but I can do it….it takes me about 5 minutes, but it gets done.  I’m scheduled to get it off this coming Tuesday and then I can finally hold my baby properly in my arms, change diapers all by myself, and take a shower without a bag…..which is nice.

  Everyone is finally home and settled.  The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind for us all I think, but enjoyable nonetheless.  Leslie started having contractions on Sunday night at around 10….ok it was 10:06 pm to be exact.  We got our things together and slowly made our way to the city, first stop, my mother-in-law’s house.  We arrived at the house at 1:00 am and managed to hold out until 3:00 am, and we rushed off to the hospital, our doctor met us there at 3:30 am.  The doctor came in and did some initial exams and 2 minutes later decided that Leslie needed a C-section.  (Reliving this whole story makes me a little flustered, but it’s worth sharing.)  The doctor said that Natalia’s arm was next to her face and that was going to be the first thing out, which I believe.  But my personal opinion is that the doctor’s here get a little bit lazy and doing a C-section is quicker and more money.  The reality is we will never know and at that critical moment that one is writhing in pain and your child’s life may or may not be at risk, no one is really willing to fight against it.  So know one will ever know, but the important thing is that we are all home safe now.

  Leslie went into the operating room and the doctor initially said that I would be unable to attend.  Two minutes later she came back around and said I was able to go in (I think she picked up on my non-verbal communication).  The C-section went well, the baby came out well, and the 3 of us went in different directions…..I feel like I fell into no-man’s land for a while, not knowing anything about my baby nor my wife.  I found our room and decided to wait it out there, eventually they would have to come around….and the did.  The information card on our daughter’s crib said 5 lbs. 12 ounces, we found out a day and a half later that it was incorrect and she actually weighed 6 lbs. 12 ounces. 

  We spent two days at the hospital and then returned home.  My mother-in-law spent the week with us, helping us out around the house and learning the ropes with a new baby.  My father and brother flew in mid week to help out as well.  It has been a blessing to have people around to help, especially with Leslie not moving around so well with her C-section. 

  It has now been 2 weeks, my mother-in-law and brother have both returned home, leaving my father to help out around the house and getting quality “grandpa time.”  Natalia had her first doctor’s visit and she had a clean bill of health.  She got her first shot and cried for about 10 seconds (that’s my girl!).  She’s now sleeping in 3-4 hour shifts and doing better every day.  Leslie is now much more mobile, but still very tender. 

  I was fairly disappointed in our hospital experience here in Guatemala.  After hearing some horror stories of friends in the states I can’t say that it is that much better.  Again, I praise God that everything worked out in the end and that everyone is now home safe and sound.  There is still a great level of novelty for me.  In the back of my mind I think we are just taking care of someone’s child, but then I remember, this is a piece of me and a piece of Leslie…no turning back.

before we leveled the property

A handful of people started with a dream to one day have a feeding center for the children of El Gorrion (a community displaced by Hurricane Mitch in 1998).  Since then that vision has grown into something much more, a community center.  We plan to build a community center that will not only provide a nutritious lunch, but also provide classes for adult learners, a clinic and what ever other areas of community development arise.  We feel that we can establish a physical presence there and show the people that we are committed to long term development, and that we are inviting them to come alongside of us to participate.  So with all of these great ideas we have finally taken action, with the help of some great friends in the states.  Joe Foral, Vito Mazzara and other friends at Country Bible Church in Nebraska, they have helped this dream take form and to now take action. 

moving some dirt!

 The first week inFebruary we began phase 1 of the Community Center project.  God really opened some doors for us and touched some hearts for this project to begin.  The people that did the dirt removal are Christians and gave us an unbelievable price to do the work.  The property is leveled and ready to begin construction.  We are in the fund raising process and plan to begin work on phase 2 when the funds are raised.  If you are interested in becoming part of this project please email me and I can fill you in on all the details.  This is one of the larger projects that I happen to be helping out with here in Guatemala.  I can’t say that I know a whole lot about construction, but I’m learning quickly.  And more than anything God is moving in big ways.  Please pray for this project and pray for me as we move forward.  It is such an exciting time and the possibilities are even more exciting!

In light of us having a baby soon we knew that we had to have a different vehicle.  Sadly enough, the two door Toyota Tercel was not going to get the job done.  Our initial plan was to save up some money and place a down payment on a brand new car.  We went to the car dealership and explored all the potential scenarios.  Through the whole process, however, we just could not handle the idea of having payments for 5 years.  Feeling very unsettled by the idea we decided to pray (I know, we did things a little backwards here).  We prayed, “God, we want to do the right thing and we want You to open the right doors and close the right doors, and we know that Your plan is perfect.”  An hour later we received a phone call from a family member who told us he just found a car for us to buy.    It is a newly used car with low miles and in incredible condition.  And in accordance to God’s perfect plan, it was about $600 more than what our downpayment was going to be.  God is good, all the time.  So we sold our car and got ourselves ready for the new vehicle, unfortunately it took us another 3 1/2 weeks to seal the deal and we finally have our “new” car.  We are very excited to have something very reliable, stable and above all else, completely paid for.  We just want to thank God for this incredible blessing.  Please continue to pray for us as Leslie is entering into her last month of pregnancy and that everything will continue to go well as we welcome our new baby girl into this world.

Our baby flexing her muscles

Last Friday Leslie and I went to the doctor to get an ultrasound.  We just couldn’t handle waiting to find out.  Leslie is officially 23 weeks along and we are having a baby girl!  Now we will begin the process of choosing a name.  We still have a little ways left in the pregnancy, but it’s nice knowing as now we can be more specific when we speak with her.  We appreciate your prayers through this process and that everything will continue to go well.  Leslie and I will begin to decorate the nursery this next month, and then we will start having baby showers here for Leslie.  We also need to decide on which hospital we want to go to in the capital city, thankfully the city is only about 1/2 away from our home.  Leslie’s due date is the 23rd of March, we will continue to keep you updated on our family as things progress.