Public Health

Jackson and Mauricio visiting a family to check on their water filter in Xejox.

A lot of what we do around here is public health related--education about prevention, spiritual health teaching, primary care and clean water. We load up the trucks and take off into the hills. I think Jesus might have enjoyed using 4-wheel drive vehicles to get out the villages to teach and heal in the more distant areas!
We are enjoying having an intern with us, Jackson Higginbottom who will be starting his Masters in Public Health at Yale this fall.  He has been helping us out with water filter delivery to new ABC families and maintenance of existing filters. It's hard work, involving a lot of walking and visiting and lots of Kiche and Spanish!

Happy mama showing off her filter. Love how the spigot is just right for thirsty little people to reach.

Cesar, Maurico and Manuel showing a family how to clean out a stopped up filter.

Jackson and some of our other staff are also working on getting in a round of dental hygiene classes to all of the kids and application of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) as well.  The SDF helps slow down or stop tooth decay in existing cavities.  We are excited to get this started and keep data on outcomes over the next few years.

Tomasa and Maria working on SDF application.

While they wait their turn for the SDF application the kids go over brushing and flossing and the parents learn about good technique so they can supervise better.  Today we had a 3 year old whose older sister is sponsored in the ABC program come up to mom after her sister's class and said

she wanted to learn how to brush her teeth too.  So she did with the next group of kids and and came back proud of her accurate tooth brushing efforts.  That's the kind of change we get excited about seeing--the next generation of kids exposed to good hygiene efforts early on.

Future leadership of the Mactzul II church.

Meanwhile, Sheri and I have been adding in some extra mobile clinics in the churches offering Pap smears and cervical cancer screening with Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid.  It's going well and more churches are asking for women's health days.  This is a good way to get ladies to invite their friends and neighbors and sit around and commiserate about getting their checkups! We have found some abnormal screenings so be praying for our patients that they get the follow up they need.

Appropriate technology--gyn exam stirrups adaptation to our mobile massage/exam table.

Cold day for pap smears! Maury and Teresa and Emilio getting patients ready for us.

Today's lineup of gyn patients--plus an ABC coordinator waiting to welcome the dental exam kids.

Jackson and Sheri enjoying yummy lunch from the ladies at the Chichicastenango Church of Christ.

Precious in the Sight of the Lord

Carlos Riquiac Xirum, nos veremos en La Gloria--we'll see each other in Glory.

Last weekend we lost one of the young men from the church in Mactzul Sexto.  Carlos Riquiac was a relatively new Christian, but was very active in the church and area youth events. Soon after becoming a Christian he decided to study at the Bible Institute of Central America (BICA) in Guatemala City.  After graduation last year, he had plans to start evangelizing and planting churches in this area.

On Sunday morning he was passing through town around dawn and hit a tractor trailer parked on the highway.  He was killed instantly.  He leaves behind his parents and siblings and innumerable friends.

The funeral was impressive as people from most of the area churches came to console the family.
There were truckloads of people coming into town and meeting up at the edge of town to walk the rest of the way to the cemetery.  It was a sad but poignant moment to see how such a young life could touch so many people. Be praying for his family, especially those who don't yet know Christ.  May this outpouring of respect and love for them and Carlos be of consolation and encouragement to them.

Escorting the family and the casket through town.

The number kept growing as we got closer to the cemetery.

Standing room only as we said sang together and the family said farewell.