Inauguration Day

This is Clinica Caris located on the border of the towns of Sepela and Lemoa in the department of Quiche of Guatemala. Both of these pictures are taken from close to the highway that passes about 50 meters in front of the clinic. There is a more open porch and land on the other side of the building that you can see in other photos below or on our photo site.

The inauguration of Clinica Caris was held Sunday, April 22, 2007. The day started very early for those who were prepping for the day, but it turned out to be a great day and extremely blessed by God. We had a worship service at 9am hosted by some of the local leaders with congregation singing led by Voces Acapella (watch for a future blog entry about Voces Acapella, they are a local acapella group from one of the churches we work with), Martin Turquiz (a local man dedicated to evangelism and worship) and the message being brought by the president of the Talentos de Salud International board in Guatemala, Nery Castillo. Of course, I could name many, many people to thanks for their assistance and support but will not bore you with all the names. After the worship service which included communion complete with drinking the wine with medicine cups, we enjoyed words from Carroll Osborne of the Caris Foundation which provided the funding for the clinic, Nery Castillo and the mayor of Chichicastenango followed by the oficial cutting of the ribbon and entrance into the clinic! See the pictures below.

Picture from the porch looking out to the crowd and the land of the clinic. We have about a 7th of an acre.

Board members, local church leaders praying that God will bless the work of the clinic.

Carroll Osborne (left) from the Caris Foundation and Roger McCown (right) from the Health Talents board. Roger is translating for Carroll.

We provided lunch for all those who attended and finished the day with more worship and praise led by Voces Acapella. The inauguration was attended by members of the board of Health Talents International from the US and , members of the board of Talentos de Salud International from Guatemala, staff members of Talentos de Salud in Guatemala, and most importantly by the many church leaders and volunteers in and around the areas of Chichicastenango and Santa Cruz del Quiche in which we work and also hope to work in the future. Without them we would not be able to provide a ministry that reflects the love of God and provides Him the glory and honor for the work he allows us to do.

Oficial ribbon cutting by board members from HTI - Charles Campbell, TSI - Nery Castillo and Carroll Osborne from the Caris Foundation.

For more pictures, please click on the photo link at the top of the blog page.