Dental Hygiene Classes

Last year we started Dental Hygiene classes for children sponsored in the ABC program.  We have noticed over the years that we have been focusing on restorative care but have not done enough to hold children and parents accountable in dental care.  After one year we have seen significant improvement and we hope to continue the trend in 2014.  This last Tuesday Cesar and the team headed put to Mactzul II to work with the families there.  Here are some great pics.  We use food coloring dye to make sure they brush all of the food from their teeth.

   Cesar getting busy with the kids.  Cesar definitely has a gift to work with kids, we are glad to have him.

New ABC Communities for 2014

Over the past few months we have been speaking to some new communities about entering the ABC program and we are glad to announce that at least three congregations from the highlands will we be entering in 2014.  Many of you who have visited know these communities, as we have been working with some of them for years. These new communities are Chijtinimit (they have the unforgettable climb from the road up to their building), Chutzurob I and Chuchipaca II.

For those new to our blog or Health Talents International, the ABC Program is a child sponsorship program that we would define as a shared responsibility program designed to build leaders for the church and the community. We encourage the churches to get involved with the child and their family to help keep the child in church and school with the goal of finishing through high school if possible, or to go further than their parents did.

We would consider the program an overall success and have many examples to demonstrate that success, including higher retention rates in schools, less children failing classes, more involvement of the churches and formation of bible classes, numerous graduated teachers, bookkeepers and even a graduated physician.  In addition several churches that have grown by more than 50-100% in size.  And each year we see more positive outcomes and more church involvement in local ministry to the community.  For more information, please see the Health Talents International website (www.healthtalents.org) or write us.

We now have more than 50 children pending sponsors, so please pray about being part of this program or expanding your involvement in the lives of these families.

Here are some photos of our the church buidlings to jog your memory, pictures of our process and pictures of some of the children we would like to mentor to become leaders in their communities and families.

 Chuchipaca - our Saturday clinics

 Oldie but goodie - Chutzurob with Juan who worked with us.  He is doing good, active in the church, started a small pharmacy in his community and we see him about once a month.

 Eastside Group from Colorado Springs in front of Chijtinimit Church (the "small" climb)

 Manuel, Ceci and Martina getting family info

Lisa and Laurie gathering family info after seeing patients

Some kids/teenagers from Chuchipaca

Some kids and moms from Chutzurob

Some Kids from Chijtinimit

La Palma / Las Cuevas Thanksgiving Service and Baptisms

While trying to schedule the next clinic in the community of La Palma at the beginning of the year, the church notified us that they had a scheduling conflict as the church in La Palma along with the church in Las Cuevas was planning a Thanksgiving service and some baptisms on the same day.  

This presented a great oppurtunity for our team as the church invited us to join them and to assist in the services.  We mostly only see some of the communities we work with during our clinic environment and we are trying to open up to other possibilities to be a part of the local congregation.  These 2 communities are very rural and do not get much exposure to outside teaching, so we jumped at the possibilities.  The local team is very flexible and have a desire to help the churches grow in all ways possible.  Thus, Cesar volunteered to preach, Tomas and Enrique volunteered to help with the worship service and Gaspar, Mario and Sara scheduled a visit with one of the local families.

They also asked Gaspar and Tomas to assist with the baptism as they are both elders in their respective churches.

Great Day!

Tomas starting the worship service.

Crowd at the house of a member who is having a thanksgving service for the blessings of her family.

Enrique leading singing.. 

 Cesar giving a message

 Down at the river

 Antolino baptism

Domingo baptism

 Maria baptism

 Sara baptism

Enjoying Life

Today has been a great day of catching up around the house and yard, and enjoying homemade cooking.  Burgers and black bean salsa and lemon pudding cake on the menu tonight!
We ran to the City on Friday night to get some errands done and pick up a visiting intern--Laurie Bennie.  Yesterday headed out to Paxot II where Laurie is being hosted by Manuel and Juana's family.

Laurie about to dive into her soup and tortillas.  She made sure to eat two tortillas so her host mom wouldn't worry about her health!

 

 So we got to show her around the countryside and introduce her to her large host family.  The kids were thrilled to have a guest with them--to say the least.  They showed us their stuffed fox and posed for crazy pics. 

"What does the fox say?"  Not too much anymore!  Edgar, Roxana and Sara hamming it up.

After tasty beef soup lunch we headed to worship services--it's sure hard to stay awake after a big lunch--but somehow we managed to avoid getting tapped by the brother with the "wake up" stick!  Kemmel says we must have special gringo privileges kind of like the elders.  Ha ha!  After church we enjoyed coffee time and made our way back home.  It's been a good restful weekend and we are ready for a busy week at clinic and church meetings.  Have a good week!

Down to the Hot Springs

Cold day, hot springs!

On Saturday we spent the day with the church from Mactzul V celebrating the baptism of 9 people!  Eight of them are teens from the ABC program, which makes us proud and so happy for this church.  The ninth is an older woman whom they have been studying with and has decided to give her life to Christ.  Something we notice about this church is their sincere desire to reach everyone with the gospel.  They have teams who focus on visitation and evangelism of those outside the church, as well as a group who are dedicated to the youth and children's teaching.  They are always mindful of the changing face of their congregation and try to meet the needs that arise.  One thing that caught our attention was the fact that they chose to baptize in a pool this time rather than a flowing river.  There are some traditions in this area regarding baptism in a moving body of water.  There are no baptismals around these parts! But, this time they opted for the warm waters on a cold day and talked about the command of baptism, the faith that saves and the power of God that takes away our sins, rather than the current of the waters.  It was a beautiful day with family and friends.  On Sunday at Chijtinimit COC our lesson was on church growth--be it attracting new Christian families, converting our own children and converting the lost outside of the church, and how all three areas are important to the growth and health of the church.  Praise God for the work of his Spirit here and for letting us participate in it!

Getting ready for some pre-baptismal lunch with some of the families--beef with pepian sauce, rice, tamalitos and bottled cokes!

Sebastian and Sebastian waiting to get started

Ladies first--our new sister Tomasa first in line.  A sweet sister up top is encouraging her the whole time that it will be okay and not to be afraid.

Maynor listening to wise counsel before he takes the plunge.

Reborn!

Kemmel sharing words from Ephesians 3:14-21

Our new sisters and brothers

Fresh Starts

The New Year has brought us lots of patients in clinics as well as some changes to our work.  We are working on reorganizing some of our clinic routes to include some more weekly central clinics in the area.  Already we have two very interested communities that are centrally located on major routes into town, so this should be good for access.  Also we have had good starts to our regularly scheduled clinics and people have been happy to see us back--always a good thing!

On a somewhat sad note, we have had to temporarily say goodbye to Sheri as she goes back to the States to help with family responsibilities.  We are all hopeful that it will just be for a few months.  In the meantime we have put a lot of our education on hold and are focused on clinical care.  We miss you Sheri!

We had such a good time back home, enjoying the company of family and just relaxing, but it's been good to be back home and back to being productive again!  We have been busy already with church and youth events, and this Saturday we will get to witness 6 baptisms out in Mactzul V.  Be praying for our team as we work to lead people to Jesus and be examples of his compassion.

I'll end on a funny note:  we have a young neighbor named Elvis about 13 years old.  I always give him a hard time because he claims to have no idea who Elvis Presley is.  So this year I found an Elvis greatest hits CD at Big Lots for $5!  I got to give to him on Elvis Presley's birthday even--I hope he likes it!