Favorite Things

Today is Sunday...my favorite day of the week. The time spent in God's house this morning was, for lack of a better word, good. It's not FFBC, but it is pretty close....except for the language. The music is lively and uplifting and is one of the few churches here that doesn't blast you out of the building with speakers as big as all outdoors. After church I usually have lunch at Los Cebollines and think about my favorite people I used to have lunch with in the states.

It is so quiet up here on this mountain on Sundays that a person can hear the corn growing down in the valley. If I want noise, all I have to do is go a couple of miles to Chimaltenango.

My friend and resident nurse, Laurie King, and I went to visit Berto Friday to take him some stronger pain medicine and some antibiotic. He is so thin his arms look like bones with skin on them. Laurie made the comment when we left that she hoped that if she were ever in that situation, she would have the same attitude he does, always grateful and thanking God. I ditto that.

Tomorrow is back to work painting the inside of the mission house.

Luisa

FTSS - Guatemala Branch

We are in business! With the money sent by FFBC, I was able to buy enough food for ten bags and nine of them have been given away this week. Each bag contains rice, beans, consumme, dry soup mix, margarine (that doesn't have to be refrigerated, yuk), cooking oil, Incaparina (a vitamin fortified drink), and moosh (oatmeal) and the cost of each was approximately Q43.50 or $5.50.

Right now, each family is limited to one bag per month....that may change to every two weeks depending on circumstances. I tell them not to tell anyone else and they say "no tenga pena", don't worry, we won't, and I know they can't wait to get back to the village to tell someone. The one thing they would like to have that I don't provide is sugar. IMHO sugar is poison....clogging your veins, rotting your teeth, and causing all sorts of health problems. So if they want sugar, they will have to buy that themselves. See my mean streak.

I now have two English students, my gardener, Freddy, and Manuel Chavez, the dentist. Now I wish I had paid closer attention in English class, although it probably would not be helpful now if I had, it being 50 years since I sat in an English class.

Rain, Rain, It's Some Other Day

Normally, it would be pouring down rain about now, but this is obviously not a normal year. It has been about six weeks since we have had any significant rain. According to one of the local papers, the corn corp this year will be down by about 40%. That is devastating for a people whose staple food is corn. They can't eat a meal without tortillas. The road to Chimaltenango cuts through corn fields where there are corn stalks fifteen plus feet tall with tassels and small ears. If it doesn't rain soon, and a lot, the ears won't get much bigger. This is a crucial time for corn as it needs moisture to develop the ears. Some of the gringos who have lived here for over 30 years say they have never known the rain to stop for this long in the rainy season.

I went to see Berto yesterday to take a few things to him and his family. He is in a lot of pain and at this point, I think he is ready to go to the hospital. Whether they will take him or not remains to be seen. Please pray for him and his family and for us as we try to help make him as comfortable as possible and for wisdom to know how to deal with the situation. He is so humble and grateful for everything that is done for him. It hasn't been all that long ago that he was cutting wood, loading it on his donkey, and taking it to town to sell. Now he can hardly get out of bed.

Now that summer (for me) is over, maybe I can keep up on the blog a little better, you think?

Luisa

Where'd Everybody Go?

Every morning since May 28 there have been people staying here in my apartment and in the mission house. Thursday morning when I got up, it was deathly quiet. Everyone had sneaked out in the middle of the night and left me all alone. :-) There will be one more team coming Sunday and then a respite until October.

For the last three or four weeks it has been truly "The Land of Eternal Spring" in Guatemala. There has been a break in the rain and the weather has been too beautiful for words.

Sometimes I wish FFBC were here with the Feed the Sheep Shop. The word has gotten out that if you go talk to Senora Luisa, she will give you money for food. Now I'm not talking about lots of money. I'm talking Q5, Q10, Q20....that's from less than $1 to $2.50. Maybe I should never have started it, but when a mother comes here with a baby in her arms and three or four more hanging on her skirts and says they are hungry, I can't turn them away. Maybe I'll just start my own Feed the Sheep Shop.

Luisa

Summertime and the living is not easy, but it is fun

Summer is more than half over and I still don't know where the first half went. Summer for me is the end of May until mid-August. By the time the year is over, there will have been 21 teams that have come to the mission house for a week and have gone out to build houses, hold medical and dental clinics, pass out food to families, hold block parties, do evangalistic work, get sick, climb volcanos, overeat, make new friends, share their hearts, listen to some good singing and preaching, and a host of other things. A lot of them come here as strangers to me and leave as friends. Some of them I get closer to than others and it is hard to see them go.

It has been a while since I wrote an update on Berto. Someone left money here for him and his family for food and other needs. It is to be doled out to them weekly rather than giving it to them all at once. Last week I went to take it to them and every time I go my heart nearly breaks. They have absolutely nothing, and are always so grateful for anything they receive. He is in the bed most of the time now and Vilma cannot work because of needing to stay home to care for him. I have no idea how much longer he will live, but his main concern is what will happen to his family when he is gone. Please pray for him and his family.

Luisa

Where Have I Been?

Talk about hitting the ground running! When I returned to Guatemala on May 23rd, I thought I would have a few days to get ready for the team coming on the 28th, relax a little, and catch up on my blog. Was I ever wrong! Plans change hourly here.

We are on our fourth team now since May 28th and there has not been a day when there has not been a team in the mission house. One of those, of course, was FFBC which made me extremely happy. What didn't make me happy was that I was sick the day they left and didn't get to say goodbye to them.

Even though the days have been busy the people of Guatemala still have needs. For example, some ladies brought me a written diagnosis from an ob/gyn doctor in Chimal of the aunt of one of the ladies. Discretion demands that I not go into detail as to her condition, but let it suffice to say that she was no doubt in very much pain and discomfort and was in desperate need of surgery. The family did not have the money for surgery so pleas were sent out by email for help and the surgery was paid for. I visited the lady a couple of days after the surgery, the day she was going home from the hospital, and she was most grateful.

In a couple of other instances ladies have come to ask for money for food. Two ladies asked for Q10 each, the equivalent of $1.25. Another lady needed money for an x-ray for her son who had been beaten and robbed.

Health care here in the national hospital for the most part is free, but no one wants to go to the national hospital because of the poor quality of care. Doesn't say much for socialized medicine, does it?

I have a work crew this summer to help clean the mission house and it is great. I actually have a couple of days off each week. My crew fell in love with Don and his team. They call him Pastor Don, so I fully expect to hear him preach next time I am home.

Luisa

Shake, Rattle, & Roll

For some reason, I just happened to be awake in the wee hours of yesterday morning when my bed started to tremble, then shake, then really shake. Several thoughts went through my mind and being the slow thinker that I am you know that this quake was a long one. My first thought was, it will quit in a few seconds. When it didn't my next thought was, maybe I should get outside, but I didn't. My next thought was, o.k., it's time for this to stop. When finally, after 45 seconds, the shaking started to subside, my next thought was, wherever the epicenter was there is probably damage. When I did finally get up and check the news, I found that it was a 7.1 and there had indeed been damage and death. This was the longest quake I have experienced since being here. They usually only last 10 to 15 seconds....it only seems longer. The mission house and apartments have been built to stand a quake of the magnitude of 8 or higher, but when I look at some of the cracks in the concrete, I can't help but wonder.

In one of my early blogs, I stated that there were plans in the works to teach English to the principal of the school in Santo Domingo. So far, that has not come to pass and now another person has asked me to teach him English. What's up with this? Am I supposed to teach? First of all, I have had no experience as a teacher and also there are other obstacles to overcome, none of which God cannot overcome, in fact already has if this is His plan. Please help me pray about this and be open to His leading and enabling.

Luisa