May Update

HELENE HAPPENINGS
May, 2006

I am now in the states--Portland, OR--to be specific, even though I left my heart in Helene. Much is happening on the island, and my friends there are kind enough to keep me in touch. I will do the same for you.

ONE MORE LAP AROUND THE MOUNTAIN

Early in March, I began to experience some severe back spasms that did not seem to respond to exercising as they had in the past. Being the alarmist that I am, the first thing that entered my mind was the possibility of metastases-- the spreading of cancer to other areas of the body. And when I returned home for my scheduled break, I found my CA-125 count that denoted the presence of cancer cells was elevated. So the oncologist ordered a CT scan, and I was relieved to find out that there were no mestasteses to the bone.

However, we still needed to address the elevated CA-125, and the oncologist recommended another course of chemo--my third. At present, I am awaiting information as to when we are going to start treatment.

All this means that I will put off my return to Helene--scheduled for June 10--until the chemo course in finished in about six months. Naturally, I am disappointed; yet I know our Lord well enough to realize that I am still on active duty--only the area of combat has been changed. And we've read the last chapter--we know we win!

Thanks to all of you who are standing with me in this. I am reminded of Moses, when he watched the battle of the Israelis against the Amalekites; as long as he held his arms up, the Israelis prevailed, and when he dropped his arms from fatigue the Amalekites prevailed. Aaron and Hur came alongside Moses, and held his arms up when he began to tire, and the Israelis won.

Thanks for holding my my arms when I tire.


MENTORS AND MENTEES ON THE NORTHSIDE

The women on the Northside of the island continue to amaze us as we witness their increasing compassion to others in their community. Recently, they took on the responsibility of praying for the men of their community, each woman volunteering to pray for four men.

Now, in addition, they are reaching out to other women, and each woman in the
study group we hood each Thursday afternoon has picked one women outside the group to reach out to in a special measure of friendship. We have already seen one women respond to their overtures of friendship by starting to come to the study. And we sense this is just the beginning.

Deirdre Greer, one of the nurses who has come to the island recently, is taking over the facilitation of this group. But these women are becoming a power unto themselves, and we thank God for blessing their community through them.


INFRASTRUCTURE

The Helene Project is now reaching the ripe old age of ten, the first Alternative Missionaries having come to the island in 1996. And, as any homeowner knows, structures have to be maintained. A building might be almost maintenance-free for the first seven years, but then repairs must be made.

We are in the process of working on our infrastructure, putting in place a plan to maintain what we have built with God's help. One of the first phases has been to update our power system. We have replaced our generator which provides all our electricity, and have also built a new housing for our inverter system which stores electricity from the generator in batteries to supply power when the generator is not running.

Our next step in beefing up our infrastructure is to move toward solar/wind power. This system, costing nearly $40,000, will be maintenance-free for nearly 20 years, and in four years will pay for itself in what we would otherwise pay for diesel fuel to run our present generator.

We're thankful for such a system being made available to us. Now we're in the process of raising funds to put it in place. We sense this is a major step in being responsible for the resources God has given to us to work with.

I am so sorry this newsletter has not been an on-the-scene report. But, thanks to my friends on the island, I will continue to give you as-it-happens news from Helene in the months to come. Helene is a microcosm of God's Kingdom coming to earth, and we praise Him for letting us witness what He is doing in this corner of the world.

Marjie Thompson
Helene Clinic