Children's Anniversary Mactzul V

On Saturday, Dec 1 we had the honor of attending the 2nd anniversary of the children's bible classes in Mactzul V.  This church started children's classes about 4 years ago and over the years the program has grown to having different classes for different age groups and the number of teachers has grown from 1 to six.  Here are some pictures of the activities:

Joel preached about God being our source of refuge and comfort in difficult times.  Joel is planning with another family to work as a missionary outside of Antigua.

Juan Sebastian from Mactzul V (sitting down) was the master of ceremony for the day and standing up is Marvin from Mactzul VI leading singing.

Tomas from Mactzul V and Diego Samuel from Mactzul V leading singing.

Acapella singing group from Mactzul I directed by the ABC coordinator, Tomas.  ABC students in the group are Jose Anibal, Tomas Gabriel and Elias from Mactzul I.

Second Acapella singing group from Mactzul II.  This was the most experienced group and they also assisted us in leading worship during the ABC Celebration held on Dec 4 and Dec 5.

This is a men's quartet from Mactzul V.  They did a great job!

Diego German from Mactzul V leading singing.  Armando Ismael is the teacher of the younger children.

Jose Erickson from Mactzul V leading signing.

Geber Tomas of Mactzul V leading a prayer

Everaldo from Mactzul V, son of promoter Tomas, leading singing

Clown activities and fun!

The kids presented a drama on Noah and the ark.

Children's education teachers from Mactzul V - Diego Samuel, Armando Ismael, Ana Elizabeth, Brenda Amalia and Pedro.  They did a great presentation for the families and the children!

Team Work

The countdown has begun for the last few weeks of of work (and the end of the world by the way). These tend to be the most hectic as well with heavy clinics, planning for the coming year, church activities and of course the year-end ABC Celebration. This year the the ABC event will be over 2 days with about 1100 people attending.  Sheri has offered to update all of our photos for the 376 ABC kids in the program as well as any families who want to pay for a portrait.  That's going to be a lot of pictures! 
Today we had the high school and scholarship students over to our house to plan out our craft stations. They were a great help and we got everything organized and ready for action. A big thanks to our supporting congregation Eastside Church of Christ for donating all of the craft materials and ideas for the event! Afterward we ordered chinese food (yeah, can you believe we have that here???) for 28 people--yum!

Here is a rare photo of Sheri.  While she is always johnny-on-the-spot with her camera, she usually finds a way to escape being photographed herself!  This one's for you, Ginny!

"Hey you know all those 700 bags you filled with pens?  I need the pens for the other groups' activity..."

Preparing lesson and the colored visors for the "Think on these things..." craft. Kind of a lavender gansta look going on there.

Poster work and lots of supervisors!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends.  We were blessed to spend time with our coworkers from the Quiche and Suchitepequez areas last night in Clinica Ezell.  We shared a turkey and ham dinner in honor of the American holiday with some local touches as well.  Our sides were sweet potato casserole, buttered green beans, salad toast, tomato salsa, and horchata to drink.  We rounded it off with several cake options and coffee.  It was nice to catch up with everyone.  We laughed because I was trying not to greet everyone with a kiss on the cheek because of my cold/sinus infection, but everyone said, "don't worry we're all sick here already! 
We hope everyone back home enjoyed their time with family or friends as well as delicious treats!  Thanks be to our Lord for his generous gifts in our lives!

All Saints Day

Kemmel and I are sitting in a hotel room in Guatemala City enjoying the local holiday.  We are both at our computers and drinking McDonald's coffee after Kemmel's morning swim in the hotel pool.  Nice!  We decided to come to the Capital because we received our absentee ballots and can turn them in tomorrow at the embassy. The other amenity we have here is U.S. news stations so we are just now seeing all the coverage of the damage from the storm in the northeast. 

Although this is a pagan holiday honoring the spirits of the ancestors coming down to visit, I can't help think of the verse in Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,...

Our blog has been neglected a little this last month, and wanted to update you on the work here.  We have all been so busy with clinics and classes and church activities in the area.  Our clinics have been getting busier lately, I think because of a respiratory virus going around.  But we have had some great evangelistic contacts through the clinics and pray that they will choose to follow Christ soon.

Our education programs have been going well and this last weekend we kicked off our reproductive health education classes in two of the ABC communities.  They were well received despite the giggles and shocked faces in the beginning.  Several parents thanked us for coming and enjoyed learning too.  Kemmel and I taught the class with Gaspar and Martina translating into K'iche' for us.  They did a great job and we are so grateful to have them working with us! Here are some pictures from that weekend (it was a 2.5 hour trip to get to the area Xejox and Chuchuca so we spent the night in the church building at Chuchuca so we could get to Xejox the next day without the long ride again).  To make the trip even more productive, Dr. Ruben Romano did all the ABC kid check-ups for the two churches on alternating days and we delivered water filters to new ABC families.  It was long and tiring but worth it!  We were treated to great meals and competitions of top spinning.

Martina with some of the young ladies at the class in Chuchuca. 

Kemmel and I passing out water filters to the newest families added to the ABC program.

Hot and heavy top spinning competition.  They throw them down, then pick them up on the palms and aim them at coins on the ground to try to skip the coin into a goal area.  Impressive!

"Roughing it" at our sleep over.  The ladies prepared our meals while we stayed there.

October and November are also big months for church conferences so we have been making the rounds.  Many of the churches are growing as well and we are starting to see more interest in bibe study and children's classes.  Sheri is doing some great classes for several ladies groups in the churches as well and we are noticing that the biggest challenge for people is reading comprehension.  We assume that because they can read a little that they understand the words, but most of the time there is uncertainty.  So be praying for us and them as we help guide people in their bible study and try to teach some basic reading skills as well.

Kemmel and Miguel in a baloon popping contest at Paxot II's childrens celebration.

Kemmel selling Bibles at the Mactzul 6 church conference.

Standing room only and mucho rain!  Over 1000 people that day in Mactzul 6.
 

Our pretty little orchid blooms in Oct/Nov.  So beautiful!

Well, we are off today so we are going to head out walking and maybe take in some kite sightings as people celebrate.



Support a Scholarship Student

Looking for a way for your donations to make an impact?  Please consider the scholarship programs managed through Health Talents International.  In Guatemala, there are 3 scholarship programs offered to young people who are interested in completing a career in high school, becoming a physician, dentist, or physical therapist or becoming a nurse.    As you can imagine each of these programs can make a huge difference in the life of a young person, the local church and the local community.

Here are some of the scholarship recipients and their hopes for the future.  In total we have between 15-20 scholarship students and at least 10 future hopefuls.

Meet Gabriel.  Gabriel is from Paxot II and is the first in his family to finish middle school and will be the first to finish high school.  His plan of study for now is to be an elementary school teacher; however, his dream is to become a dentist with the possibility of serving HTI and his local area of Chichicastenango. 

Meet Maria Cecibel.  Maria is from a rural community which harvests apples, peaches and plums.  Her parents have little education and work off the land that is available to them.  Maria is the first to graduate high school at the end of this month.  She plans on starting nursing school in 2013 should she be accepted to the school of nursing.

 This is Marisol, also from the community of Paxot II.  Marisol will also be the first in her family to finish middle school and also high school Marisol is training to become a teacher and hopes to teach in her community of Paxot II. 

Meet Tomas - he is the second person in the family that will graduate with a high school degree.  The first was his brother Sebastian who graduated last year.  There will also be a third who is Tomas's brother Julio who is attending the same high school as Tomas.  Imagine the difference this will bring to a rural farming family and community.  They are part of the Xepocol church who in the last years has grown substantially and now have ministries through the young people that include children's Bible classes, vacation Bible school for the community, singing/praise team ministry, tutoring ministry and a computer lab open to the students of the church. 

This is Marvin.  Like the others he will be the first to graduate from high school in his family and also in his church.  What a responsibility! Marvin is the next to youngest of 11 or so siblings.  His father is a an elder in the church and suffers from a siezure disorder but is still a leader in the church and the community and still finds his way to support the family.  Marvin will also become a teacher and will serve as an example to many. 

Meet Mauri.  Mauri is a single child which is rare here but also has some very close cousins that the family takes care of.  Her family struggled and found a way to send her to high school where she received a degree in bookkeeping/accounting.  She is now on a scholarship to become a certified accountant / auditor.    She too will serve as a christian professional example to many young women looking for hope in the future.

As you can see the story is about the same for everyone, parents with little to no education, struggling to make a living and a better future for their children, but with a hope that education will provide an answer.  Most will be the first in their families to achieve these goals and some the first in their churches to do the same.  As a result they will be examples and christian leaders in their communities.

Please consider supporting these programs.  Pretty much all donations go directly to the student to assist in their costs of attending school.  These include transport costs (most travel at least 1 hour one way each day), snacks, school supplies, computer and internet work, etc.  The scholarship programs are developed to ensure that their is a partnership in funding costs between HTI and the families.

Your tax deductible donations can be sent to Health Talents International at PO Box 8303, Searcy, Arkansas, 72145 or you can visit the website for more information.  www.healthtalents.org

It's Catching

Clinics this week seem to have a dermatology theme. One baby came in with molluscum contagiosum (like a soft wart) and mom says several of the kids in the family have it. We saw an outbreak of impetigo in several families in one town and today scabies in an 85 year old lady who rotates staying with 5 of her kids' families.  She has 37 potential sources/contacts so, needless to say I didn't send home treatment for everyone.  I treated her and asked her to send someone from each family to clinic so we can get the whole family taken care of.  Yikes!  I'm itching all over!
After clinics we have been having meetings with the churches to get their approval for sex ed classes.  When we first started talking about this a couple of months ago, there were rumblings of discontent over the idea and the ABC coordinators were reluctant to schedule.  But so far everyone has been very supportive.  Today the elders even spoke up and said they were wholeheartedly for it and thanked us for the offer.  After they spoke up everyone raised their hands in agreement with the classes.  So maybe enthusiasm is catching too!

Thanksgiving Service

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a thanksgiving service of a family whose son, Manuel Fernando, had hernia surgery at Clinica Ezell in Sept 2011.  The family invited the church leaders to celebrate the blessings of the health of their son.  After a worship service they fed the group a nice lunch of chicken stew and tortillas.  We had about 30 people in a small room praising and thanking the Lord.  Great day.

As we sat there and thought about it, it must have been quite traumatic for the family to have their son and father travel 4-5 hours from home to an unknown place, to be taken care of by some unknown people, to have their son put under a knife and to think in their mind there was a chance their son would not come home.  But he did, God is good!  Thank you also to the HTI surgery group volunteers whose work makes this possible.

Road Work Ahead

We have this piece of highway right down the road from us that is falling in little by little.  The bad part is the drop is roughly a 900 ft sheer cliff (that's right, about 3 football fields down).  Earlier this rainy season half of the highway fell so they made a nice little guardrail for the remaining one-lane stretch of road.  Well, now you can see where part of the "good" road is getting ready to fall as well.  Finally the government has placed some importance on this (it is the main highway through Quiche) and began to carve out another road after haggling with land owners.  One night last week a truck came through(probably playing chicken with another oncoming vehicle and got stuck in the ditch, obstructing the one "good" lane.  So around 0600 the buses started piling up and honking.  The traffic had to go around, using the new road which was full of mud still. Good times! This is the photo coverage Kemmel got early the next morning of the traffic jam that ensued.  We had to leave our our truck at home and walk past the jam so Dr. Marcos our dentist could pick us up and take us to clinic.  Now if they could just finish the work--that hole is getting big!

The rocks mark the latest unstable area.

The crazy part is cars kept trying to squeeze past the truck--driving over the crumbling section.

 

One of many buses that had to pass through the newly dug road.

 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.  Psalms 34:4
One of our dental assistants, Maria had a fingerstick with a used needle last week while cleaning trays.  Unfortunately, the patient had already left and they didn't have any contact information from him to be able to do an HIV test on him.  As quiet as she is, we could still tell she was upset and worried.  We were all praying that everything would be alright.  Three days later, the same patient came back because of lingering pain and wanted to check the wound.  They were so excited that he had come back and were able to do an HIV test on him.  But it came back positive, so they repeated it and the second one was negative...Well, that got us all pretty worried, so we asked him to go to a lab to have a confirmation test done.  He was a little worried himself and agreed to do it when we offered to pay.  Thankfully the test was negative and we all rejoiced with Maria that she could enjoy the holiday weekend without worrying about her HIV status!  Thank you, Father for your mercifulness in sending the patient back to us!
 

Harvest Time

Gaspar and our new brother in Christ Manuel

It's Fall in the northern hemisphere and here in Central America while we don't get to see the autumn leaves, we also have a harvest time approaching.  The corn its tall in the fields and ears of corn are getting fat.  The squashes and beans are making more of a presence in the market and the wildflowers colors dominating are orange and yellow and red.  Beautiful!
We are also enjoying seeing the fruit of spiritual harvest around here.  The church in Mactzul V which has been dedicated in visiting and praying with the sick in their community had four baptisms last week.  We also got to do a home visit with a lady who has been sick for a month and was too weak to climb up to the church building for clinic.  The elders and evangelists there have been visiting  and teaching her and asked if we would come down and check on her.  What a blessing to be a part of that work.  Her family called the church leaders to let them know how appreciative they were of the care their mother was receiving from the church.  We hope she too will give her life to Christ soon.
In Xepol, where we have clinic as well, a family has been converted after many visits and prayer in times of trouble and illness.  The family are patients that Sheri has taken care of in clinic for several years now, and the church has faithfully taken time to further reach them.

In Choacaman, one of our long-time patients, Manuel has also come to Christ and yesterday was baptized. This family is precious to us and for many years we have visited them in their home, prayed with them and for them. Here are the pictures that Gaspar, our evangelist took. We know God is pleased to see His kingdom grow we are proud to work with so many loving, outreaching churches.

Shall we gather at the river?  They chose a place with a natural hot springs.

 

 

Martin taking Manuel's confession.



Who Ya Gonna Call...?

Earlier this week there was a slight wasp problem at the Clinca Caris.  They didn't have a nest, but seemed to be on a mission to find a new spot for one.  Kemmel and Gaspar decided to take things into their own hands and Sheri got some great pictures of our star extermintion team.  Maybe they can start their own service and even their own reality show like Billy the Exterminator!
Here is  the link to Sheri's blog for her great photography of the event!
Sheri's Blog

So That the World May Believe

Our home church at Eastside in Colorado Springs is focusing their teaching and studies on unity in the body of Christ.  It's seems like such an easy thing ("can't we all just get along?") until you realize that unity has to take precedence over being "right" or fellowshiping only with only those who "correctly" understand scripture. That's hard.  But it's the thing that will make unbelievers think twice and believe someday. It seems like Satan has figured this out and does his best work when he convinces us to divide or take sides.  He stokes our egos and encourages us to stand up for "what is right" knowing that a church divided, the body of Christ dismembered has no believeable testimony for the lost in this world. 
This week we have seen examples of great testimonies of unity and those of selfish, divisive attitudes by area churches. One of our partner churches has an elder who has begun some questionable acts of worship and prayer and is now sought after and compensated monetarily for his services.  The church is reluctant to let this continue as it is contrary to their spirit of volunteer ministry and prayer.  But the brother claims that the church has no right to correct him, a founding member of the church and elder and donor of the land for the building.  It is disheartening to hear about their struggle and know that the rest of the community is watching them take sides.
On the other hand, another of our partner congregations in the area has had a difficult situation between members' children and has had to deal with bringing the situation into light and addressing wrongs done without dividing the church.  The community at large is aware of the problem and and stepped in to fine the offending parties' families.  But rather that take the matter further down the legal road, the affected family is not wanting to give a bad name to the church, and has asked the eldership to help them work through it.  We have been asked to help give counsel, which is humbling as we don't have experience in raising children, but we've seen first-hand how God's Spirit is working in this congregation to maintain unity, praise God. 
Please pray for the body of Christ here and throughout the world as we strive for unity that testifies of God's love for us.
²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Classwork

As part of our education program for our ABC families and their churches, we are launching some new materials for teaching sex education at the different age groups.  This last week we presented the material to our ABC coordinators and volunteer promoters.  We started out the time asking how many of their parents talked to them about puberty or sex when they were growing up.  A whopping zero raised their hands, which confirmed our suspiciones.  They were a little squirmish talking about it at first, but began to open up and especially the older ones spoke up about needing these classes in the churches and parents not knowing how to talk to their kids. 
Unfortunately, these classes are already too late for two of our ABC girls who have dropped out due to pregnancy/marriage--both are 14 years old.  Sometimes we think we have made great strides in promoting education, when all of a sudden we are hit with the reality that in this country, education is still a luxury and that teen marriages (and to some extent, premarital sex) are just part of life even in the Christian community. 
We appreciate your prayers as we begin taking the classes to the churches.  There are still some concerns over whether all the churches will be receptive to the material, but we are eager to work on convincing them!  We pray that God uses us to help strenghen families and churches in the area.

Mactzul V - Mobile Dental Clinic

Yesterday we had our first mobile dental clinic in Mactzul V with a full size dental chair (bigger than our patients) and dental lamp!  We started doing restorative care in some of our mobile dental clinics about 2 months ago and our biggest challenge is getting everything there in one piece without breaking things like dental compressors, dental units and such.  For those who have been down these roads you will understand the force of bouncing that reeks havoc on these pieces of equipment. 

We have had 2 different opportunities to either have chairs/equipment donated or purchased at a great reduced rate.  As a result, we have selected some key locations to try and put in some more permanent dental clinic items such as chairs to better the service to the churches, communities and patients that we serve.   We hope to place 3 more chairs in places like Paxot II, Chuchipaca and maybe Chimente, Totonicapan.  The first of these is Mactzul V as the church has donated us a room to place the chair and in the future hope to donate the room for solely clinic purposes and are even looking at leaving a church member on site as a live in guard.  Not only for us, but for their needs as well. 

So after suffering through breaking one compressor (which Marcos has diligently found a way to fix although we still need to find a part) and having multiple troubles with a dental unit, we decided to create some moving crates made out of 2 by 4's for both the compressor and the unit - thanks to Josue and Manuel our promoters/carpenters for getting these made!  No pictures for now, but will post later.

We were also able to have a dental lamp base with wheels made here locally with a metal worker so now we have mobile lighting as well which provides better light for doing the restorative care mobily.

Fishing tackle box also donated by Casa del Rey - found a great use for it.

We have to send a big thanks to the mission at Casa Del Rey here in Chichi for the donation of this dental chair, plus another yet to be placed.  Thanks Matt and Martitza!

The above picture is of Juan Marroquin and his son.  His son had surgery at Ezell a year ago and we hope to attend a thanksgiving service with their family in September celebrating the good health of their son.

One of the patients who had to pass through dental.  :(  We were afraid people in the communities would not be much interested in paying extra to save teeth, but we have been pleasantly surprised and are grateful to the dentists that work on educating their patients to take advantage of teeth cleanings and restorations - Thank you Marcos and Sandra!

It's been a while hasn't it?!  I guess we've been in a blogging slump lately.  The last month flew by as we hosted a mobile medical/dental team, went to the States for some family reunioning and then hosted a Men's Seminar and Children's Education Seminar.  Sometimes we get to going and doing and don't have the creative juices to blog.  But I think we are somewhat back on a regular schedule now (fiber cereal and your own coffee make a big difference)!

Today Kemmel and I are having an admin day, working on class materials for Sex Ed class that we are showing to the Volunteers class next week and getting bank deposits and accounting taken care of.  Our clinics have been good lately including some good work on the evangelism and church strenthening front.  But today, Sheri and Josue got half way to clinic and had to turn around due to a large nation-wide manifestation and road block over electricic services.  I bet the strikers are enjoying this rain that tropical storm Ernesto is bringing us! Well speaking of rain, I'd better get this posted or saved before the internet gets any weaker...

Thanks for tuning in from time to time!

New Contacts

     Our clinics have been up and down all month.  Some have had booming numbers and other just a trickle of patients, probably a reflection of both increases in GI bugs going around and visiting medical teams in the area.  We are also looking to add some new churches to our clinic ministry and have been making some good contacts.  Yesterday our team was invited to go visit and help host a clinic with the church in Chiul, about 2 hours from here.  It was a big day with lots of patients from the community and good collaboration from the church members.  Although it is pretty far, we would like to make regular visits there and help the church make new contacts for home visits and evangelism.  Kemmel took 4 of the MET students with them.  They were all well received and although thoroughly exausted at the end of the day, had great reports of the work. 
     Yesterday was also a day for Gaspar and Manuel to meet with the church in San Jorge to help iron out some interpersonal issues that have been brewing for several years.  The church had dropped so low in numbers that it had decided to close its doors.  But, recently there has been talk of reconciliation and renewed desire to worship and serve together.  So we pray that this will be just the start of a great work and that our clinic will be a tool for reaching new souls.
     Last but not least to report, we heard from the church in Mactzul V that one of the couples that came to clinic last week invited the elders to come talk to them more about Christianity and now are deciding to be baptized soon. What started as a medical consult quickly uncovered a void in their lives, and with the help of our volunteer elder that day, we began talking about the importance of our relationship with God.  What  music to our ears!  God is surely pleased.

Changing of the Guard

Last week we did our student exchange, bringing up the six students who started out in Clinica Ezell.  We all met in Xela at the mall for some quick Walmart time and a foodcourt lunch.  This is a good time for the students to compare notes and share tips on life with the host families.  We ended the day with our whirlwind visit to each of the host families, dropping off their new students and sharing refreshments (several times) along the way!
Here are some scenes from the day. 

Parking lot reunion. "How many bites did you get?"

"Burger King and Subway!"

Whitney in her new space (complete with new bed!).

Jeremy has a nice tall doorway!

Ruth with two of her admiring little brothers.

James sizing up his threshold.

Rachel checking into slumber party central (three teenaged sisters in this host family).

Meredith in her quiet casita (I'm sure Rachel will be jealous!)