What a month it´s been. Forgive me for being so tardy in writing... I simply have not had the time to keep up with my blogging. It has been one whopper of a month or so. We were incredibly blessed in February to have a group of my friends from my home church come and work with us for a week.
These guys poured themselves into this ministry, sharing their love with our students and our workers... it will be a week that I will never forget. They accomplished numerous maintenance tasks (painting, installing cabinets in our new medical clinic, installing a new fence with razor wire, teaching english, doing wellness checks on the kids (thank you Dr. Paulding!) and even building library units to hold new books we´ve purchased for each of the projects. Our maintenance crew was deeply effected by the love shown by these men and they have established friendships that will last an eternity. What a blessing to see them working hand and hand together... without the ability to communicate well in language, but excellently in love! I guess love is indeed the perfect language!
We took them to the ravine to visit the homes of 2 of our sponsored kids and we were all touched by the need there. Poverty is hard...and yet the way these 2 families were coping was beautiful. One mother ran after us, following the visit, to give us duck eggs which she had collected. A precious gift that brought us all to tears.
We visited a rural project and the guys did alot of electrical odd jobs that we had not been able to do...they then played soccer and basketball with the kids and gave out some of the more than 100 balls they brought along to give away. What a blessing!
We ended our week with the most special communion I have experienced. Steve Morse led us through the Lord´s supper, coming to each of us one at a time and sharing thoughts and prayers for our lives. We continued as we felt led, sharing the cup one at a time with each of our brothers, offering our thoughts, encourgement and prayers for each one. A night I will never forget. Thank you Steve for this special time together.
Following the visit we experienced numerous challenges here at the ministry. We experienced a very dangerous threat when a gang called our El Limon project stating that we needed to begin paying extorsion or someone would be murdered. We immediately closed the school and changed our phone lines. This Tuesday we had a parent meeting and called on parents to help us with this situation. Many of the gang members may be siblings to our students and/or have relationships with AMG student families. So far we have not been bothered further. Please pray for protection for our workers in El Limon and specifically for our director there.
We have also had to deal with corruption and had to make hard choices in favor of doing things the way we best know God would be honored.
Yesterday we learned that our camp director Orfa had a brain aneurism and needs immediate surgery. We are praying for her and working to find the best solution to her medical needs and resources to pay for her surgery.
What a blessing to be in the midst of trouble! It is a priveledge to stand up straight and confide in our Lord and share the Truth! I consider it a beautiful confirmation that we are doing what is right... and that our adversary is not pleased! We have been working for several months on our multi-annual plan (2011-2015) and will be sharing it with both donors and our AMG Guatemala Board of Directors at a meeting in Chattanooga in May. We have many ideas to work towards implementing and a very solid structure for bringing about transformation here in Guatemala. Please pray for us as we seek to offer programming that will really make a difference!
On our family side, things are going well. The kids are very involved in school... music and sports and Mary is busy with the little ones and with serving at the school. (she substitute teaches among other things!) Abbie has her first high-school banquet this weekend and is very excited to attend this formal event with her friends. She found a lovely dress and looks just beautiful in it... I can´t stand that´s she´s growing up so fast!!! Our kids bring us such joy... we have a very full life!
Blessings to you from the Dennett Family!
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