Nias, Indonesia - March 3 - 24, 2006

Each time I go to Nias I tell myself I will never go back. The working conditions are not good. The sleeping and eating arrangements lack almost everything. The roads are terrible and the driving is hazzardous. But the need is great, the opportunities are endless and the way seems clear for me to go.

This is one of the surgeries that was done at the Lukas Hospital last December. When the patient came to the clinic both eyes looked like the right eye. This patient was blind before the surgery and now can see with her left eye.

Working with T.E.A.R.S. and some service organizations in Madan, we hope to complete 200 surgeries and see 2000 patients in village medical/dental clinics between March 7 and March 20. The cost to do one cataract surgery is $125.00. We hope to complete 800 cataract surgeries in 2006 and BandS Ministries hopes to pay for 134 of the 800 planned.

Why do I go? This quote from Charles Coulston says it best. "We need to be standing at the giving end of human need." I believe that is where Jesus stands.

I will not be able to communicate with you while on the island of Nias. Please remember to check on Rosalyn often and I would appreciate your prayers.
Papa 

Guatemala Was Great

Health Talents International is doing a great work in Gauatemal. The Ezell Clinic is the base of their operation but it reaches into many of the villages where care is delivered on a regular basis.

Greg Dayton and I left on Saturday (Feb. 18) for Guatemala. We were supposed to leave on an early flight to Houston and join the rest of the team there. The weather did not co-operate, and we left later in the afternoon on a direct flight to Guatemala City. We spent the night in the City and left early on Sunday morning for the clinic. We arrived in time for the morning worship at the congregation meeting across from the clinic. The building was packed and we enjoyed a bi-lingual worship service.
We began working soon after noon. The clinic was for plastic and gyn surgery. We also had village clinics each day. This is a pre op of a little girl that the plastic surgeons operated on. The post op, even after 24 hours shows what a remarkable change can be made by skilled surgeons in a matter of an hour or so. 

John C. Bailey Family Blog

John C. Bailey Family Blog
I finally got to my blog site and was hoping to see messages from home, but I guess the blogging business is slow in our family. We are having a very success trip. After a little delay in arriving, we have been at full speed since arriving. The team is a very congenial group and some very gifted surgeons and medical personel make it a lot of fun.
I have worked in a village on Monday. Today (Tuesday) a I spent here at the Clinica Ezell. I watch the plastic surgeons do a couple of cases and learned a lot. Tomorrow we will go to another village. My assistant speaks no English so it should be interesting.
Greg Dayton is doing well and is much appreciated. He plans to go to one of the villages on Thursday.
This is a great place to work and to work out of. I don't know that I am needed here as much as most places I go, but I do enjoy coming and make a small contribution to the overall success of the mission.
Hope to be home on Saturday.
I love you all.
Papa

Guatemala Mission Feb. 18-26, 2006

This picture was taken last year in one of the villages we worked. There is never a shortage of patients and an over supply of on lookers.
















I leave February 18 for Guatemala. Greg Dayton, our local Tom Thum pharmacist, is going with me. This is his first medical mission trip, but I hope he gets hooked like the rest of us, and make this an annual visit.

I hope to work at the Clinica Ezell for two days assisting with clef palate/lip surgeries and then go to villages for two or three day. 

Sisters

I know, I kn0w. It's only been a few days since I posted the last photo of Emily Rose, but this one just appeared on my screen and begged to be posted.

Rainey has been a perfect big sister. She is patient and loving to Emily and doesn't seem to be jealous. Her attitude seems to be, "I know who I am and how much I am loved. Emily will just have to work her way up the ladder like I did." 

Emily Rose Update

Emily Rose is showing no signs of walking or talking. At three weeks she is right on schedule to be all that the cousins club could ask for. The seven who preceded her have all set the bar very high, but in conversation with her Papa, Emily Rose said she would soar with ease over the bar set by her older cousins and sister.

Emily's Dad is at work and her Mom is eating lunch at school with Rainey, so Papa and Rose have the high honor of baby sitting for an hour or two.

I don't think Emily cares if I inject a Rainey story here. A few days ago Stephen was playing with Rainey and they were pretending they were going camping. Stephen ask Rainey where they should camp. She replied without hesitation, "In the dam forest". Stephen was seeking clarification, so suggested, "the Dan forest". Rainey is never one to be detered so she strongly affirmed, "No, the dam forest. You know, where the beavers are."

Moral of the story is: communication is a delicate art. Don't rush is or you may jump to the wrong conclusion. 

Way Out West

Hey Gang,
Jordon, thank you for the update. Out West we roll merrily along. Reagan and Connor are enjoying basketball. Connor had a great game past Saturday. They beat the first place team by 30. Hutton and Bailey are making turn from basketball to golf.

Our biggest challenge right now is getting Lee Ann through the first phase of her work. She has to work 12 hour shifts and for the first couple of weeks she works 3 straight days from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. She is doing great, but it makes for long days.

Stream in the Desert is this weekend. I noticed that Nancy Bryant is coming froom Legacy. I wish you all could be here. We are back at the building this year so I think it is going to be a great weekend. I love seeing pictures of Emily Rose. She is beautiful. Grace.
Tod

An Update from the Oldest Son's Family

We can no longer be the Baileys of Hurst and using our address seemed strange, so I ran out of options for what to call us. Mom has been nagging me to update, so whether or not you have a desire to know, this is what's going on at our house. Caitlin's basketball team has been winning games right and left and are looking forward to play-offs. The picture is from my latest show Much Ado About Nothing, which is over, and we've started work on One-Act, which is The Last Night of Ballyhoo. I'm playing Boo, a cranky Southern Jew with delusions of grandeur. Dad is preaching and lawyering up a storm and tonight he had his first stint on the Legal Hour radio show the firm's doing. Mom is crazy busy as usual with subbing and saving the world one activity at a time. We're all in love with Emily Rose. Caitlin can't wait to train her in the evil ways of little sisterdom, and I'm excited about training Rainey to have the patience of a saint. We're all busy, happy, and healthy and can't wait to hear more from everyone else!

O HAPPY DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAILEY!

Emily Update

Sorry I've been so lazy, but my computer has been giving me problems. Check out more pics at www.stephenabailey.blogspot.com.

Hourly Report

 

Calling For More Pictures of Emily Rose

The response to posting Emily's picture has been great! Only Bailey Brown responded but I think she spoke for hundreds of you who don't have a blog address. 

Emily Rose and big sister Rainey - Jan 18, 2006

That's right! Emily Rose arrived at ll.01 a.m. at the North Hills Hospital. She weighed 8lbs. 6 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. She is as beautiful as her big sister and her mom is doing great. I am sure that Stephen will forgive me for beating him to bloggersville, but I just couldn't wait to share this photo with you.

Emily is grandbaby No. 8 - five girls and three boys.

Children are a gift from God and grandchildren are a gift with a bonus. If you are not a grandparent you cannot understand. If you are a grandparent there is no need for me to explain.

John

Tomorrow

Doc said he wouldn't let Steph go past Friday. FRIDAY! We're ready like, yesterday and so's the kid. After a quick phone call he told us to arrive at the hospital at 6:00 in the morning and let's get this party started. In other words, if nothing happens tonight we're inducing in the morning.

Come On Already

I had a meeting this morning at 7:00 (no disrespect intended MLK), after which I called home to check on Steph. She was out of breath when she answered the phone. "Oh boy!" I thought. "Here we go!"

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was just doing my aerobics workout." she replied.

One day past her due date and she's doing aerobics.

I met her at 11:00 for a sonogram. Baby looks good. Big feet, strong heart, probably around eight pounds. So what's the hold up? Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow at 10:00 when we see the doctor.

Stay tuned.

Guatemala - April 6-16, 2005

Working with Marie Agee and her team is always a pleasure. It is one of the reasons I try to go to Guatemala every year. The Clinica Ezell is a fine hospital with three surery suites, a large sterilization area, pharmacy and a large post op recovery area. There is a dental clinic with a full time dentist who works in the clinic but also goes to remote villages one day a week. I like to work at Clinica Ezell but I like going to the villages more. I have been fortunate in being able to do this each time I have visited there.
I try to take at least one person with me who has never been on a medical mission. This is a good place for a first trip because you have a good place to sleep, shower and the food is great. You are not overwhelmed like you might be if you just went from here to a village and saw the primative conditions we work in. 

Julie Plemons and Margaret Ball were very tired after working the night shift in the post op.
This was Margaret's first medical mission and both of them worked extremely hard and accomplished a lot. 

Guatemala - April 6-16, 2005

One of the most difficult parts of doing medical missions in developing countries is that you often arrive too late to help the most needy. This is a case that no one could help either in Guatemala of in a developed country. 

Rock On!

Rock on! I'm in! Thanks for sending another invite Tod.

Steph is starting to swell a bit and each day gets a little more uncomfortable. If nothing happens by this weekend, we will take a sonogram look on Monday and see the doctor on Tuesday. It's really working out well because we are getting further away from Christmas and closer to Emily's arrival on Thursday of next week.

We're excited and covet your prayers.

My first post

This is my first post that accidentally went to the wrong address.


Sometimes you fall into things. Other times you are shoved. I've been shoved. Rosalyn and I have enjoyed reading the blogs of several of our family members and the response they have generated. Now, with the gentle push of our son in law, we launch our blogging career.

Both of us are computer challenged. I am a function illiterate when it comes to computers and I'm better than Rosalyn at making them work. You can imagine the place she occupies in geek land.

We have no intention of writing daily or of making you feel inferior by telling the truth about our children and grand children. Those comments will be incidental to the major thrust of this site. We will try to share with you the things that are happening in our lives that some will be interested in reading. I plan to post stories from where ever I am in the world via my BlackBerry. We have experimented and it does work. There are only a few countries I have worked in where my BlackBerry didn't allow me to call home daily.

I hardly know how to sign off.
For some it will be Papa & Rose,
others call us Dr. John and Rosey Babe (not many)
and for the vast majority it's just John & Rosalyn

If anyone living out there in blogger land reads this, please respond to I will know that Tod didn't just set me up to make sport of me.