Adonai International Ministries started when the Duane and Leslie Ficker and their six children moved here in 1999. They started in an orphanage in a town about 30 minutes from where we currently live, but soon felt God leading them to move to the town we currently live in and work in the areas of medicine and agriculture, with the planes and aviation program coming a few years later.

The heart of our ministry finds its foundation in Matthew 25:40 “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did unto Me.” We believe that Jesus is all about relationships and that these three areas of ministry are simply tools which God desires to use to bring His people unto Him. Our desire is to serve Him and bring glory to His name in all that we do!

And currently, we find ourselves in exciting times here as God seems to be moving us into a new season again. When Duane and Leslie were in their beginning years here 15 years ago, God gave Duane a vision of a hospital. Duane put this on the back burner, knowing that something this big would have to all fall into place in God’s timing. However, over the past couple years we have seen God start to bring that vision back, setting important things in place in order to be able to move forward in this…

Medicine: Adonai currently has 3 weekly clinics and 1 monthly clinic. Last year, we started to have a vision for opening up a 24 hour care center where we could provide basic medical care such as IV fluids for children with intestinal viruses/amoebic infections that have led to severe dehydration and IV antibiotics/oxygen therapy for children with pneumonia (the top two killers among children here). However, God had other plans in mind! In March 2013, we got a phone call from a group of 8 doctors that were looking for a place to serve. They had set up their practice so that one individual or family unit out of the group would be available to serve on the mission field for three months at a time while the others covered the practice at home. This way, they would cover an entire year for a mission hospital, creating an ideal set up for both parties! We were amazed, and have been further amazed as we continue to move forward with confirmations from God that this is His plan for all of us,  with the doctors planning to start full-time rotations in January 2014.

However, it does not end there. These doctors have been trained and served in third world country settings in mission hospitals for a few years already, receiving training and experience in procedures and operations that are not offered here and would drastically change the services available to the people of our area, as well as their ability to receive these operations. So, we have realized that God is moving us beyond simply a 24 hour care center, and we are already in discussion about opening up a hospital that will be able to provide a variety of out-patient, in-patient, and surgical options for the people here, hopefully in the next couple years!

Nursing School: A couple of years ago, as we started to see God opening doors to head down this road towards a hospital, we quickly realized (along with the advice of friends and other medical missionaries) that we were going to need to be able to staff this hospital, and that a nursing school where we could train up local Guatemalans interested in this line of work would be the best way to do this. At this same time, people from local villages started to come to our doors asking us if we had ever considered opening a nursing school where a higher level of education could be provided at a cost they could afford, and we began to realize that this was a call that He was placing on us (specifically me) for this time. Since our initial thought in training up staff for our own facility, God has stretched and focused the heart and vision of this nursing school over the past year and a half as we have sought to provide a place that will equip others to help meet the immense health needs of the area we serve in.

The doors opened in the high school program in 2013 and for the professional nursing program in 2015.  We are excited to see how these students move to impact their country in positive ways.

Aviation: Adonai currently has two planes, a Piper Aztec and a Cessna 182. Both of these are invaluable to the ministry as the Cessna allows us to land on the narrow, short, dirt/grass runways of the bush areas for medical clinics/evacuation flights, and the Aztec allows us more space for medical evacuations/general travel between here and Guatemala City or other longer, well-kept up runways.

Agriculture: Almost everyone in our area are farmers who still hand cultivate and plant their fields and crops, using oxen to till up the soil when necessary. We have been able to use our tractors to aid in cultivating the fields for some of the local farmers who have flatter pieces of land that the tractors can get into. We have also dabbled in other agricultural projects throughout the years including crop rotations, water projects, and getting people set up with chickens to provide them personally with a source of protein and/or income if they choose to sell the eggs or chickens.

For more information about Adoani specifically, please visit their website at http://www.adonaiinternationalministries.org where you can find a link to other blogs, YouTube videos of the planes landing on crazy bush airstrips, and updates.