Hit the Ground Running

Well we are definitely back into the swing of things!  We have had some good clinics and lots of new patients which is a good sign that the churches are still announcing the clinic and patients are telling their friends about us.  This week Kemmel and the dental team have been working hard to get all of the ABC kids and their families in for a check up and one-on-one education on oral hygeine and dental health.  It has been hard work and long days, but so far they have had great comments from the parents. It is not glamourous work, but we think it will impact their health and hopefully save money in the future. 

On a humorous note, the dentists decided to try food coloring to help stain the food particles left behind in the kids' and parents' mouths and show them how to brush better, and it worked great!  But Kemmel said everyone walked out of the church with bright purple or red lips and mouth!

My favorite medical consult this week is a patient of mine who has been married 3 years and struggling with infertility.  She came in accompanied by her sister-in-law, complaining with nausea, headache and breast soreness and a missed period for two weeks.  Of course we offered her a pregnancy test and it turned out positive.  The funny thing is her little 1-yr-old niece has been coming up to her for the last week and pointing at her chest and asking to breastfeed! She and her sister-in-law were so excited when they left--something I don't see here very often.  God is good!

Happy 2013!

If there's anything better than Christmas and Thanksgiving, it's the New Year!  Although I (Lisa) am not an organized person by nature, (unlike my sweet husband), it is the perfect time for me to at least pretend to be!  I love throwing out old stuff and cleaning out drawers and thinking up new ways to use my limited cabinet space.  I know the orderliness won't last, but I can dream!  Plus I now know that we have plenty of ketchup and mayonaise and canned tuna to last a while!  Who new those were back there? 
We are back home from a really great visit with our family. What a great time of much-needed rest and fellowship and catching up.  It's hard to believe we have been in Guatemala for almost 8 years now.  It seems like a long time when we see nieces and nephews growing up so fast, but when we look at the work that is still needed it is just a drop in the bucket.  This coming year has many changes coming in personnel and operations but we are looking forward to them.  We pray that we follow God's guiding and use this motivational season to rededicate our efforts to bringing people into God's presence and salvation.  Happy 2013!

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