Year-End

 

The end of the year is a really busy time with graduations, church tent meetings, youth rally events, and don't forget, Christmas and the Fair.  We finished up a year of ministry and fellowship with feelings of both satisfaction and frustration.  There are things that we would like to improve upon or change and get frustrated at the resistance we meet along the way.  But God has been so generous this year to show us some successes and advances so, despite our end-of-year fatigue we are content on many levels.

Several of the area churches are growing significantly in number and maturity and what makes us joyful is the subtle change in attitude of many church leaders who are looking at how to better serve their communities and focus on being the example of God's love to non-Christians.  It is difficult to teach people to steer away from legalism and toward gratitude and grace, but little by little the light is shining and people are drawn to the Jesus they see living through the Church.

So we end this year by saying thank you, Lord for your love, forgiveness, salvation, patience, guidance, and life-changing Spirit.  And thank you, to you back home who support us personally, this ministry and who work in the Kingdom to share the Good News.  Merry Christmas and a Happy 2014!

Random Pics

 ABC High School graduate - Brenda and her happy parents

 Noe - future Physical Therapist - current #1 in his class!

 November HTI Crew

 Guatemala National Flower - Orchid -  Monja Blanca

 This is what we are about - encouraging hope in our faith

 Developing life-long mentorships

 Providing opportunities for young people to better their lives

 developing Christian leaders of the future

 improving the experience of life

 developing family relationships

 providing young families a means to encourage schooling and health for their children

 Teaching and encouraging better dental hygiene and restorations with responsibility

 Changing timid children into interactive children

 Before these children from a remote village would stand-off to the side and watch and not interact, now they are changing and becoming more outgoing and interactive with people they have never met.

 We even got a few to kind of smile....

 These 2 young girls are our stars of dental hygiene.  They are the daughters of a young widow whose husband died of cancer.

 Happy ABC family with 2 girls going to high school and next year 2 kids in middle school as well.

Last but not least - Thanks for the donation of the fishing tackle box for the dentists!  These are great!

HTI Group - ABC Clinics and Clinic in Chuchuca

This past week we had a group of physician, dentist, nurse, and non-medical volunteers join us to assist with clinics of the ABC children and normal community clinics.  We did not get many photos, but you can also visit Sheri's website for other photos - http://sheriinguate.blogspot.com/  .

 

On Saturday around 18 people consisting of US volunteers and Guatemala staff headed up to the villages of Chuchuca and Xejox to host the clinics and to spend the night.  We had a great 2 clinics, got to spend more time in fellowship with the brothers and sisters of the area, and enjoyed the excitement of the kids in those 2 communities. 

 

One of our goals this year is to reduce the amount of children who fail their grade and we are off to a good start!  Last year we had over 50 children fail their grade and this year we think we may have less than 15 and maybe less than 10!  In Chuchuca, which is one of the more remote villages we had no one fail!  Not sure about Xejox yet, but will know soon enough.  We also had 100% pass in the community of La Palma and only 2 not pass in the community of Paxot 2.  In Paxot 2, at mid year we had almost 6 failing so we consider that a win!

Here are some pics of the clinic in Chuchuca.

Sandra and Micaela and ABC student Marta helping with suction

 Pedro P helping with suction as well.  Pedro is one of the first in middle school and continues to do well with a greater than 85% average.

 

 This is the younger Pedro, in 6th grade and normally a A student.

 We put the miniseries Bible on the wall with a projector and explained it was in English and they would not understand what was being said but they were still glued to the show and telling us about the stories.

 

This area has been affected by quite a bit of rain so we are glad we did not make the trek 2 weeks ago or we would have had a bunch of mud!  One time  more than a year ago our team got stuck about 4 times on the way up to the villages.

 Beautiful views

 

More mud, but almost dry, thank the Lord.

Newsletter September/October 2013

We are getting close to the end of the year!  This is the season for fairs and holidays and the last fews weeks of rainy season.  The road situations have been a little up in the air at times but hopefully we have found a reasonably long-term solution for the caved-in road.  Although it puts traffic just past our back yard it does allow us to travel again with fewer headaches for everyone. Here are some highlights from the last months.  Thank you for your support both financially and prayerfully.

Leche For Life
This year we started a program called Leche for Life.  It's goal is to begin nutrition counseling for first-time pregnant moms and try to affect change in the chronic malnutrition that is so prevalent here in Guatemala. After several starts and drop-outs, we had our first mom to complete the course and have a healthy baby girl in September.  The baby will continue in the program, with mom receiving education on breastfeeding and complementary feeding and health so she is equipped with information that promotes good development in her children. 

Baptisms in Xepocol
The church in Xepocol has been busy visiting the sick, teaching, and keeping their youth active and it shows!  Last month we witnessed along with the church as 11 new Christians confesses Jesus as Lord and his resurrection and then were baptized in the tiny river that passes at the bottom of the ravine.  It was such a great day for worship and fellowship and made a repeat picture of the members in front of the building.  Look at the difference between 2007 and 2013!
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Women's Health
Our push for women's health made another step forward when Dra. Sara Castellanos and I (Lisa) completed training for the VIA method of cervical cancer screening.  This will allow us to offer
screenings in the communities at very low cost to the women and help reach many who have never been examined.  We are thankful to Faith In Practice for providing this course here in Guatemala.
We have plans to purchase equipment for cryotherapy treatment as well this coming year.  May God go with us as we offer compassionate care for women and give us words that will convey God's love for them.

ABC Program
The children in the ABC program have spent all year learning, practicing and re-learning proper dental hygiene.  It's been slow going and sometimes frustrating but we are beginning to see improvements and some of the churches are joining in on the push--requiring the kids to bring their toothbrushes to Sunday School!  We began scheduling the kids with the appropriate hygiene index for their fillings and sealants and they were proud of their accomplishments and so are we!

Personal Notes
We are excited to see the successes the churches have had this year in growth, health, community outreach and fellowship.  We have days and weeks when we have frustrations and setbacks but at the end of the year God is gracious to let us see some progress!  It seems like this year we have had more health issues than before.  Nothing serious, but one of us or the other seems to be down with something every couple of months.  We are making changes to add more exercise and intake of the Word more regularly, but it's easy to get sidetracked.  So please pray for an extra measure of health and peace as we work here!
May God bless you in your part of the world.
Kemmel and Lisa Dunham

And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

Graduation and Church Conference Season

We have entered into the graduation and church conference season here in the area of Quiche.  Many days are filled with either attending a local conference, a graduation ceremony or a graduation celebration lunch.  No dinners here, all is during the lunch time in the afternoon.

The other day Gaspar, Tomas and Kemmel attended the graduation ceremony for some of the ABC students and scholarship students graduating as elementary school teachers.  We had 4 graduates this year, 1 only in the scholarship program, 1 only in ABC and 2 in the ABC program and Scholarship program.  329 students graduated and Gaspar told me that 14 graduated from his community of Xepocol.  That is pretty amazing, that 10 years ago, it would have been 0 and now it is up to 14 this year, 8 last year, and more in the years to come, all from the same community.

Here are some pictures (most are not very good which means I should not look for a job as a photographer!)

 

Pretty large crowd, by the end all of the seats were full.

 Tomas, scholarship student receiving his diploma

 

 Marvin on the right with his diploma.  First in the family to graduate.

 

 Brothers Julio and Tomas graduating together.

 

 Santos David on the right

 

Julio



 

 Juan Sebastian

 

Juan Sebastian and his proud parents - This is child # 2 to graduate from this family.

 Santos David (he always looks so excited!)  Also # 2 graduate for this family.  Santos David hopes to continue to medical school and is waiting to take one more exam.

 

 Marvin with his proud family - His dad Pedro was one of the first to begin the churches of Christ in the area.  Mom and dad were both in tears.

 

 

Another picture of brothers Julio (left) and Tomas (right)

 Party at Julio's and Tomas's house - Julio in pink shirt

 

 Julio and Tomas with mom and dad on left and

a friend of the family (Tomas has the grey t-shirt)

 

Receiving council from the elders of the family

 

All in all a good week!