Newsletter July/August 2013

Greetings from Guatemala! Take a peek into the latest news.


VISITING TEAMS
We were blessing in the last couple of months with visits from two special church families.  Hennessey Church of Christ from Oklahoma came down bringing Lisa's sister Dr. Anna and her husband Dr. Charlie Ferrell.  They joined us in ABC well-child checkups for two communities as well as other regularly scheduled mobile clinics.  This team also brought Dr. Ed (veterinarian) and Sandy Ferrell who went out and offered home visits for families with livestock health questions.  It was a week of good interactions outreach with local families, Christian and non-Christian alike.  We are grateful to partner with this group in the work and thank them for their generous support for our nurse Sheri Kretzschmar. 

Eastside Church of Christ from Colorado Springs is our own supporting church family.  It was so good to get to catch up with everyone and get to share in the ministry together.  This group's specialty is VBS productions and technical labor expertise!  The VBS team took a program to three different area elementary schools and taught about the Sovereignty of Jesus and how we should listen to Him.  Very straightforward and well put-together material and activities.  We utilized the help of local Sunday school teachers during the week, and based on the positive comments from parents, teachers and church volunteers it was a success.  We were even invited back by each school director for future educational activities, which opens up more opportunities for outreach.
Another part of the team brought down Sawyer water filters to install in ABC family homes and also in our Clinica Caris.  The church helped raise funds for the filters by several sales events over the last year.  Thanks so much for this work!  We see first hand the difference that water filtering makes in these families' health.
To round it off, we enjoyed the help of Ted and Jackie Mogey and Craig Thomas and Caitlyn Mogey and Sara Von Thun in our mobile clinics.  They went out each day doing nursing care and offering interventional prayer for our patients.  It is a privilege to spend time with these dear friends again!

CHURCH NEWS
Our outreach efforts through the clinics have gained us two new Christians, both in areas where there is not currently a church of Christ family.  One of the brothers is Manuel who despite his lack of Bible knowledge, is an avid evangelist, always telling others of his conversion and what Christ has done in his life.  He then calls Gaspar to help talk to the new people about the Gospel.  Be praying for this new brother and the possibilities of a church plant in the future.

ABC NEWS
Guatemalan children commonly have very poor oral hygiene and subsequent cavities and permanent tooth loss before adulthood.  Our dental hygiene program for the ABC kids is an attempt to reverse this pattern and teach lifelong oral hygiene skills that will protect from further loss.  This July we started seeing some results.  After two disastrous initial checkups (averages of 80-100% of surfaces with dental plaque) and multiple tooth brushing classes, we finally began seeing scores below 50% which qualifies the kids for further dental work such as fillings and sealants.  How exciting is it to see children develop good habits that will impact not only their health but also that of their children one day.  Be praying for our team as we focus on not only on curative care but also health education and prevention.

Favorites

I always wonder if God has favorite people.  Although the Bible says the God is no respecter of persons, I can't help think that he must like some more than others.  One of our favorite people and surely a gem in God's eyes is an elder in the church in Paxot II named Tomas.  He is one of the first Christians in this area and began early on to share the gospel with so many people--family, neighbors, neighboring communities and faraway areas.  He is a loving and personable man who has always been so kind to us.  Today after clinic I (Lisa) went with one of the other elders to visit this brother who has been pretty much bedridden for almost a year.  We visited with him and listened to his frustrations with illness and pain and wondering why God has let him linger on in this state not "useful" in the kingdom work.  I certainly didn't have any good answers for him but we left him with some medications for various aches and pains and prayed together for God to remember him and bring him relief.  He was sweet to ask about Kemmel and how we have been doing and every so often we would see a spark of his old self before discomfort and sadness crept back into his voice.  So, please remember Tomas in your prayers and thank God for the years of work that he has given to Christ.

ABC Baptisms in Xepocol

Baptism of 2 young people in Xepocol back in April of 2013.

 

This is Erik

 

This is Jose Estuardo

 

Dirty Business

One of our clinics canceled today so we decided to use the day to go pick up our passports/visas from the capital. We were planning on spending the night in the City and heading straight for Lake Atitlan for a little weekend getaway tomorrow.  But...we ran into a demonstration held by several local communities protesting the situation with trash disposal for the municipality.  Our local dump was shut down about two months ago when neighbors got fed up with trash ending up on their land.  So the muni has had to look for other options (other deep ravines) that apparently haven't been formally approved.  On several days the trash truck has just set up an overflowing trailer as a makeshift dump at the local soccer field--NICE!  Hence the protests today.  They blocked all the roads heading out of Chichicastenango to the main highway, including all of the back roads the we know of, trying to get the attention of the mayor's office.  One of the firemen said their might be one road open, but not something well maintained in the rainy season.  People were walking along the highway and fighting to get on minivans that would take them to other destinations as no buses were getting through. We thought about offer folks a lift and making some extra cash but decided against that! We certainly understand the anger over this situation, but selfishly are pretty bummed that it interfered with our plans for the day.

So, we turned around and waited at the house until 1:30 when all of a sudden the buses started plowing through town. When things quieted down we headed out and decided to just go to the lake and try for the visas on Monday or Tuesday.  Everything looked pretty back to normal on the highway except for the residue of burned tires at the road block sites.  As we drove it was getting darker and darker from the rain clouds building--not a good sign for us as we still had to get to Panajachel and take a boat to place we rented.  But, we made it, whew!

Now we are hanging at our favorite casita in Santa Cruz La Laguna and watching one heck of a rain storm.  The creek next to the house is flooding from all the rain up in the highlands.  But we are safe and sound and got here without getting soaked--unlike our Eastside venture on the lake!

This is the view we are hoping for tomorrow morning.

 

Eastside Church of Christ on Mission

We enjoyed another extra special team in July/August made up of our friends from our supporting congregation of Eastside Church of Christ in Colorado Springs.  This congregation has been such a blessing to us as they brought us into the missions committee when we first placed membership there and helped us develop our plan to enter the mission field.  They have been faithful in prayer and communication and financial support from the beginning and it is always a pleasure to spend time with them here on the field. 

 

This year we had three focuses with their visit: VBS in the local schools, placement of water filters in ABC family homes and mobile clinic.  The VBS theme was "Listen to Jesus" with scenes from Jesus' baptism, transfiguration and crucifixion.  It was a resounding success thanks to the team's hard work and cooperation from bible school teachers from the local churches lending a hand.  Our water filter team helped install Sawyer filters  in the homes of 32 ABC families and even gifted a filter system for Clinica Caris.  They taught them how to care for them and everyone was excited to find out that they will last essentially forever without need to change!  Clinics went well and we had the help of Ted and Jackie and Caitlyn and Craig to work in prayer and vital signs.

 

What a blessing to be a part of this family.  Thank you Eastside for your support of us individually and the Health Talents Ministries!

Beginning the week with worship in Chijtinimit

Stage crew Debbie and Janelle prepping for Jesus' baptism

Previous years assistance with the ABC Celebration in form of VBS with crafts has inspired other churches to do the same.  Xepocol had a VBS in their local community at beginning of 2013 with around 300 kids in attendance.  More importantly it is helping local church youth leaders and parents see the importance of interactive children learning.

We are soooo happy to have these 4 new shelf units! Thanks Wally, Allen and Scott!
Also grateful for a new paint job which saves us a bunch of time as we are the maintenance team.

Benita and Manuel showing the kids where Colorado Springs and Chichicastenango are on the globe



Jesus died for ME

Noe explaining the gospel origami craft 

Boat ride to the lake house!

Anyone motion sick yet?

Thomas family with Eastside's ABC child Ana Gabriela and her family

Von Thun family with Tomas Eliseo and his family

Hard working Health Talents staff and volunteers for the VBS

Fish Noe telling the baptism story

Benita and Venecia demonstrating the concept of the Trinity with an egg

 

Lined up and ready for action

We ran into the apostle Peter played by Matt

Rare photo of Kemmel and Lisa

No fear! Scott, Sara, Caitlyn and Janelle riding without seatbelts...

 Family happy to have updated water filter.

 

 ABC Coordinator Manuel's family with new filter

Scott in action prepping the filter.  Kemmel reviewing with the family and

local volunteer coordinators of the ABC Program

 

 

Scott and Wally putting Sawyer water filter together at clinic. 

 Using plastic box to safeguard filter since must place in the ground. 

No missing parts!

 Scott and Wally with the finished product

 

Group minus Allen showing work, all before lunch time!

 

 Finished off the filter with a concrete box for protection

Lid weighs about 50 pounds or more with reinforced rebar so

 should have no future problems of people stepping on it.

 

All ready for clean drinking water at the clinic.  Sent a sample off to a lab

 last Friday to check out the results.....more to come in a week or so.

Hennessey Church of Christ on Mission

What makes a visiting team extra special?  When they are family and friends!  In July we had a visit from the Hennessey Church of Christ where my (Lisa's) sister and brother-in-law Drs. Anna and Charlie Ferrell worship.  We really enjoyed spending the week with this team, especially getting to share the ministry work here as they also help to sponsor Sheri.  We accomplished all of our scheduled ABC well-child checks for Mactzul V and Mactzul VI.  We also took advantage of Dr. Ed Ferrell (veterinarian) and his wife Sandy being here to go out and visit local families with livestock to talk about nutrition and health issues.  It was a great week of hard work and fellowship.  Thank you Hennessey Church of Christ for your friendship and support of Health Talents!

 

 

The team!  Kind of chilly this day.

 

Anna and I at the hotel.

Tucker the Water Man!

We worshiped in Chijtinimit on Sunday. 
 

Sheri, Becky, Megan and Paul getting ready for ABC kids to get checkups.

Alan keeping things sterilized in dental.

Lunch break in Mactzul V

Dr. Charlie' s exam room

Megan and Becky getting vital signs

Dr. Ed and Kemmel and Enrique holding consults in the field.
 

Vanessa drawing up disclosing liquid to evaluate the kids' oral hygiene.

Dr. Anna's exam room

Happy Anniversary Anna and Charlie!

Enjoying the ruins in Hotel Santo Domingo in Antigua

Dr. Ed and Sandy

Paul and Tucker in the children's activity area

Alan and Becky