The Show Must Go On

You can imagine my disappointment when the FBC team canceled their trip to Guatemala this year.  Of all the teams coming after the disasters that struck Guatemala, it had to be from my home church....bummer.  However, that did not mean that the people who had been promised a dental clinic would be disappointed.

Manual Chavez is one of the most dedicated, energetic, committed people I know.  He was more than willing to carry on with the clinics on his own.  He is pretty much a one man show anyway. The pictures above were taken at the first clinic in El Durazno at a little church called Iglesia Fuerte Ciudad Majanaim.  The man in the picture with Manuel is Pastor Hector.

I went to the clinic around noon to take him some lunch and he was in the midst of extracting a tooth from the lady in the first picture.  These are some tough people.  He was having a hard time getting the tooth out and while I won't go into detail, just know that if I had been that lady, I would have been hollering like a banshee.

The next day's clinic was in Taxisco, about an hour and a half drive from here.  Again he saw around 40 people.  He also took 80 sheets of lamina (tin) for houses for which FBC provided funds.  The third day was in a village near Chimaltenango and again he saw another 40 or so people.  In three days Manual has relieved the suffering of between 100 to 120 people.

The last clinic was to be today, Thursday, but the pastor asked him if they could postpone it until another day.  He leaves tomorrow for Panajachel for a five day jornada (dental clinic) there.

Guess what....I get to have lunch with Scott, Julie, and Aidan tomorrow.  Nanner, nanner, boo, boo.

Luisa 

Let Me Tell You About Fredy

I almost forgot I had a blog.

Grandparents are notorious for saying "let me tell you about my grandchildren".  Probably the reason I don't have grandchildren is because I would be so obnoxious in my bragging on them that people would run when they saw me coming.  So, let me tell you about Fredy.

Fredy is my gardener, but he is more than my gardener.  Fredy's story is typical of a lot of Guatemalans.  His dad was killed when he was five years old and his mother was an alcoholic.  I didn't know at the time when I first met him that I knew his mother.  About three years ago we (FBC) helped pay for one of her son's funeral.  This was one of three of Fredy's older brothers who died in the last four years due to alcohol related incidents.

When Fredy's dad was killed, he and a brother and sister were taken out of the home and placed in Casa Aleluya where he lived until  a little over a year ago.  He came to my house looking for a job and I hired him as my gardener on a trial basis.  I didn't even know I needed a gardener, but if it weren't for Fredy, I wouldn't have a garden. 

Over the course of the next few weeks, Fredy and I talked, although I did most of the talking. He would hardly talk at all and very seldom smiled.   His answers to my questions were a short "yes" and "no", so I tried to think of questions that required longer answers.  A couple of things that I learned were that he is a Christian and that he did not finish school in Casa Aleluya, but that's another story.

He wanted to go back to school, so I am sending him to America Latino, a Christian school here in Chimal.  He goes on Saturdays to a special school for older students who, for whatever reason, did not finish their education.

He is a hard worker and is very talented.  He has made my garden a work of art.  Last week he said "come see".  He had carved out grass in the lawn spelling my name and was getting ready to plant flowers in it.  

Fredy has captured my heart, and God willing I will do all I can to keep him from following the path the rest of his family has taken.  His remaining brothers try to get him to go drinking with them and he refuses.

So, why am I telling you all this?  I would like to ask, if you think of it when you pray, please pray for Fredy.  He still does not have an easy life and it would be so easy for him to become discouraged.  Thanks for listening.  Now aren't you glad I don't have grandchildren?

Luisa

God's purpose....our reality

How do you reconcile God's purposes with our reality?  Only by the grace of God...His unmerited favor to us, and last week I witnessed His grace in action.  I went to the states last week for a selfish reason.  I needed to see some of my very best friends who had experienced a tragedy.  I needed to see how they were.  I needed that.  I couldn't stay in Guatemala not knowing, not seeing for myself.

In a lot of ways their lives will never be the same.  That's reality.  In a lot of ways their lives will go on as before.  That's also reality, but it is also grace.  When we suffer loss and tragedy and are unable to face the reality that life can return to some semblance of normalcy, we stifle God's grace and do not accept it.  This family has been covered with the prayers of God's people and God has answered.  Do they still have moments and days of sorrow and grief?  Sure they do, but in ways that probably they don't even realize, God's grace brings them relief.  

I'm back in Guatemala now and can rest in the fact that God's grace is at work, not that I ever doubted it, but I am grateful that He let me see His grace in action.  

We can try to guess and speculate as to God's purpose for what happened, but the truth is, we don't know and probably will not know in this life.  Only God knows the purpose, and that is also reality.

A Time to tear down...a time to build

One of the hardest things for me to do here in Guatemala is to discern who to help, when to help, and how to help. I have decided that the Guatemalan branch of the Feed the Sheep Shop was not such a good idea after all. My list of families had grown to 25 and there were people coming for food who I knew were capable of buying their own, but I found it very difficult to turn them away. Compared to J. Paul Getty, I am as poor as Job's turkey. But compared to most of the people here, I am rich.

In my attempt to save the world, I rushed off to Russia a little over 10 years ago to convert the whole country. People had been trying to do that for centuries, but I was convinced they were just waiting on me. I'm not really sure when the revelation hit me that "each one reach one" is a much better concept, but somewhere along the way, it did.

Right now, most of my efforts, aside from cleaning the mission house, are concentrated on the needs of particular individuals, such as Berto and his family. They have had to move twice in the last few months due to the fact that he cannot work and they could not pay for the property where their house was, nor pay the rent for the one they moved to. They are living in a very small house now with no water and no electricity. There are eight people in the family and the Q300 rent and money for food is just not there. Please pray that an affordable lot will become available that interested persons can purchase and on which a team could perhaps build them a house.

Luisa

Los Gozosos

Taking three hours to make a one hour trip is not my idea of a fun afternoon. Last week, Maureen Casey, director of Los Gozosos, a children's home in Chimaltenango, and I went to the city to buy some supplies for the children. Traffic in the city was at a standstill because of a demonstration by the teachers. They were blocking the main road and no one was going anywhere. Whether or not they accomplished their purpose remains to be seen. At one point, Maureen wanted to give up and turn around and go back. However, turning around was not an option as we were blocked in. All's well that ends well and we finally made it to Price Smart, made our purchases and returned home...a one hour trip this time.

Los Gozosos (The Joys) has about a dozen children and all of them are physically and/or mentally handicapped. These children attend the same church that I do and I marvel at their behavior. They are so well behaved, they love to clap their hands with the music and one little girl was doing the twist to "God is Good" last Sunday. They are always dressed to the nines and well groomed. One boy in particular, Daniel, has caught my attention. He is always smiling and Maureen said before Christmas when there were no gifts under the tree that he knew that God was going to fill their tree with gifts, and He did. Maureen has my utmost admiration for the job she is doing. Last year, a team wanted to go there to take pizza for the kids, so we did. One little girl scared the wits out of me eating so fast that she started choking. A worker came over and helped her and she went right back to stuffing in the pizza. I vowed not ever to do that again.

The season for teams is about to start. A team from Canada arrived yesterday. I really think the reason they are here is to get out of the cold and snow. Whatever their reason, it should be fun having a group from Canada here, ay.

And Time Marches..no..Races On

Just a little over ten years ago, we were told that we would probably be living as folks did back a hundred years ago. All our money would be gone, water supplies and other utilities would be shut down, and all computers would crash. And now we are to believe that global warming is a threat. Tell that to the people in Arkansas and the Great Lakes area, Al.

Three teams in as many weeks does not leave much time for blogging. But they have been good weeks...many houses have been built, food and clothes have been handed out, medical needs have been seen to and the gospel has been presented to many.


I was privileged to have in my home a missionary couple, Mario and Amuy Munroy, and their two children, Kathrina and Josiah, for almost two weeks. They had sold practically everything they had except the clothes on their backs to go to the mission field in Spain. They were here at the request of a couple of the teams to work with them in the villages. It was very hard to see them go knowing that I will probably not see them again in this life.


It was also my privilege to work one day with the medical team last week as "Dr.'s assistant". That consisted of writing down the prescription for the medicine needed to treat a person. Each person was seen by a doctor, given a prescription, then had to go listen to the pastor for a few minutes before they received their medicine. We saw 307 people that day and out of that number, twelve made a profession of faith.

They say it is approaching springtime here, but I really don't know how they can tell, except it has been close to 80 degrees during the day instead of 70 to 75. Maybe it's because it is time to plant the corn again so it must be spring.

There is a tad of envy in me toward those who get to preach the Word. One of the teams asked me to give my testimony and bring the devotional one morning and it blessed me tremendously. I don't know how they perceived it, but my spirit was refreshed. Is there an opening for a preacher at FFBC?

Luisa

Christmas in Guatemala

Christmas is a very big deal in Guatemala. In some ways that is good and in some ways not so good. It is good in that no one objects to being wished a Merry Christmas, the term Christmas, or Navidad, is still used in all the shops, and the reason for Christmas is celebrated without fear of repercussions. On the other hand, traffic from now until after Christmas will be a perpetual snarl. I can joyfully say that I will not be sorry to miss that. I leave for my homeland two weeks from Thursday.

The poinsettia in this picture grows on the hillside just behind my apartment. It is not as tall as some that grow here, but it is by far the most beautiful.

November has been a very busy month here in the mission house, with three teams in as many weeks. The last team left this week, some on Monday and the remainder Wednesday. Tomorrow will be spent with my neighbors, who are gringos, celebrating Thanksgiving.

This has been a good year for groups coming to the mission house. Many houses have been built, much food has been handed out, many people have received medical attention, and the gospel has been presented with good results. Only eternity will reveal all the fruit of the laborers. In 2009 there were 22 teams that came and spent a week at the mission house and as of right now 2010 promises even more with 27 teams scheduled. HELP!!!!!!!!!

The word "Thanksgiving" takes on new meaning here when people tearfully express gratitude for a house not even as big as my dining room made from a few posts and some sheets of tin. It goes without saying that my outlook on "things" has drastically changed over the last four years. Happy Thankgiving to all.