Sometimes it´s hard to explain the full range of emotions I often experience in the course of a day here on the mission field. I drove home last night from the mission office thinking, wow! what more could I have experienced today????!!
I began my day listening to the results of an audit of our organization by the Guatemala taxing authority, which we had labored over for a week. Thank you Lord, all was good! I then spent an hour or so on the phone discussing the legal requirements for our residency here, which made my head spin with bureaucratic dizziness!! The process is absolutely amazing and is going to require many trips to the immigration office here, other offices with purposes unknown to me, photocopies of things, authentications from embassies here and in the U.S., seals from various courts here and the list goes on! Well, I am going to seek out some help from an attorney friend and deal with that after the birth of number 6!
Next, Bob and I drove to the Radisson Hotel and picked up the De Witt family from Holland. Their 15 year-old daughter is suffering with bone cancer and was granted any wish by the Make-A-Wish foundation. Her choice... not Disney World, not a Safari, not a home makeover... her wish was to fly to a third-world country (Guatemala) and meet the child her family has sponsored from AMG. That alone threw us into deep emotion...and the fact that we were so privileged to be taking part in such a wish! They arrived at our offices here in the city, had a complete tour of the school and administration and then we piled into a van and headed to their sponsored child´s home. Miriam (the child) was ill with hepatitis, but still anxiously awaiting the visit from her sponsor.
The story of Miriam´s family is like many we find here... father a drunk and missing for along time, mother trying desperately to raise her 3 children in the 2 dirt-floored rooms offered her by her grandfather. Their living quarters consisted of a room approximately 10 x 10 with 2 beds and a few personal items and a room for cooking and eating. The ¨kitchen¨had a concrete platform with a camp-fire going...on top was a kettle of black beans, their coming meal. I saw little else in the way of food in the house. Thank the Lord the children eat in our project each day and receive supplements and nutritional drinks!
The family from Holland brought gifts for Miriam and her siblings. While she was opening them we were standing in the doorway to the bedroom. A man asked me if I wouldn´t mind moving into the room a bit so as to not ¨get hurt¨. I agreed somewhat questioningly. A few moments later I was shocked to see him wrestling a large bull (roped around the mouth and head) through the house and out into the street!! A bull in their home! This was certainly something you don´t see every day! The bull struggled, knocking things over on his way through and then hitting his head against the door. I thought for a moment that he would run into the room, injuring us all!
Leo from Holland is a pastor. He shared with Miriam´s mother that it must be difficult living this way, however, if she knew Jesus then all this would be temporary and that she would have an eternity without struggles. Miriam´s mother said in a very sweet and humble way that she had ¨learned to live with what God had given them in this short life¨. I wanted to burst into tears. I was reminded of a story Meredith Kerr (Good friends from First Baptist Church in Portland) wrote in a note regarding the loss of our home Easter Sunday to a fire... she said a women stood watching her home burn and said, ¨Oh the blessedness of nothing!¨ We could all stand to learn to live with what God has given us, huh??? Leo and his family had prepared a little dutch hymn to sing for the family and did so...so sweet. We then continued visiting and ultimately left.
Back at our office, Leo shared with our entire staff the great blessing for them of the trip... his daughter shared that her #1 desire had been fulfilled. Nidia in our accounting dept. (a student here since 3 years-old and now senior accountant) shared that without sponsors like them, we could not do what we do for these more than 7,000 children. What sweet moments.
I asked myself if I have learned yet to live with what God has given me... and what my final desire would be if faced with such a thing? I ended my day with a devotional surrounding these thoughts and others with my kids... I am so grateful for the experiences God is bringing my way.
Below is a video of our visit to Miriam´s home in Colonia Verbena, Guatemala City.
Make-A-Wish Foundation
Trip to Nairobi, Kenya Africa
I had the amazing opportunity to attend a conference by our partners Word and Deed, from Holland, in Nairobi, Africa for 2 weeks the end of March and into April. I learned so much about world development and relief and had the opportunity to contribute to their planning for the future. What a blessing to share fellowship, ideas and our minsitries with Christians from all over the world. I feel better informed and have many ideas on how to improve our ministry here in Guatemala..serving the poorest of the poor of Guatemala with life-changing opportunities in education, health and of course, the gift of salvation through our Lord! These pictures are of our stops in Amsterdam and some of my time in Africa. If you wish to view them more slowly just click anywhere on the slideshow.
Goodbye 45 Beacon Avenue
We lost our sweet little cottage in Alton Bay to a horrible fire yesterday. You can read all about the fire at:
http://www.wmur.com/news/19161844/detail.html
We will post more as we have time.
Abbie's 8th Grade Banquet - A Special Night
The Christian Academy of Guatemala is such a purposeful school! We are continuously amazed at how they encourage our children and minister to them. Last night was no exception. Each year CAG has an 8th grade banquet to honor the students about to enter High School...it is completely organized by the 7th grade. They plan, decorate and then manage the entire night of events. Each child is recognized with a slide show with funny stories, a little history of their life and then awards them based on their talents. Afterwards they had a party at the home of fellow missionaries here and had a beautiful time! Click on the slideshow below in order to enlarge it, or watch it right here from our blog:
Trip to Las Vistas
My daughter Abbie and I visited Las Vistas, one of our city projects which sits high above Guatemala City in a very poor part of the city. The great joy of this trip was the fact that 2 of our sponsored children (we have sponsored 3 AMG kids for 3 plus years now) attend Las Vistas and we finally got to meet them. We had only seen them thus far through letters and photos.
Elvis is 6 and Andrew Alexander is 9. Elvis´s brothers and sisters also attend the project. His eldest sister is a graduate of AMG and has now returned as a teacher. It was an amazing thing to see how AMG has changed an entire family´s life! They seemed so happy at the school, their second home. We visited Andrew´s home and met his mother, who was very humble and kept asking forgiveness for not allowing us in her home. It is customary in Latin America that if you are to have someone in your home, you must offer them something to drink or a small bite to eat. She had neither to offer.
We concluded our trip by visiting the classrooms and talking with the children in each grade. When I walked in to Elvis´s room, he shouted 'mi padrino!' 'mi padrino!' which translate to my sponsor/God-father. He was so proud that he walked around the class announcing to many of his classmates, 'my padrino came to see me!' Several children came up and asked (seeking to confirm his claims) 'are you REALLY??? his padrino?' I was sad for several that said, 'who's my padrino? Can they visit me?' Earlier I had explained to Elvis and Andrew that Mary and I and the kids now lived in Guatemala and work for AMG and we want to be part of their lives. I am going to be praying about ways we could help. If you too are interested in sponsoring a child...and maybe one day coming to visit us and them, click on the child sponsorship button to teh right of our blog. I hope you enjoy the video below as much as we enjoyed our day there:
Trip to Matochos
On Tuesday of this week we visited Matochos, Guatemala, southeast of Guatemala City. We have a rural school there, serving the poorest of poor. We visited 2 different homes and it was very humbling. The squalor that so many are living in is hard to see. The first home we visited was the home of a boy named Jonathan, who is sponsored by our friend and coworker, Steve Hodges. He brought gifts for both the children and their Mom, along with huge bags of rice and beans to help out with food. The home was small with dirt floors. Tim Peloquin from New Hampshire was along with us. Last year, Tim actually purchased a home and land for the family of his sponsored child, Lester. Lester and his family were living in horrible conditions...small, wet and unhealthy. Thanks to the love and concern of Tim, the family now lives in a newer home with a concrete floor. We had the pleasure of joining him to see the home he purchased for the first time! This trip was so humbling and made me cringe at the times I complain about anything in my life.
Trip to Volcano Pacaya
We set off on Saturday for a trip to Volcan Pacaya one of the many active volcanos here in Guatemala. It was an amazing trip...my first time experiencing lava up close! Once we got to the top we were surrounded by lava fields...so hot that we cooked marshmallows over them! Thank you Jenny for brining them along! My friend Froilán Mazariegos led the way through a small town and then up the trails to the cone. On the way down we encountered an elderly woman warming some children by a fire in the woods, beside the trail. We ended up chatting with her and then gave her a gift in order to help the children. Here is a video of our trip:
Happy 33rd Anniversary AMG Guatemala!
On Friday the 14th we had the pleasure of celebrating 33 years of serving Christ here in Guatemala. Hundreds of thousands of young lives have been touched for Christ over these 33 years...how amazing. The children all put on presentations thanking the ministry and some shared how their lives had been changed forever by AMG. What an exciting day! The fifth grade surprised us here in the office by singing a song recognizing what AMG does for them...it was so special! We asked them to perform it again this morning outside so I could video it. Here are some pictures from our celebrations and then the video:
Thoughts this Afternoon
The most disturbing thing I saw this week was a poor elderly woman's body laying covered in newspaper on the side of the road. There were several plastic cones keeping cars away and a few police officers standing guard. She had most likely stepped off the curb to cross and was hit. In Guatemala, a death must be verified by a Judge, and sometimes takes hours. I hurt deeply for her family, probably yet to know. Or would they even be able to tell who whe was, if she had no identification? It was not a good start to my day.
Filedelfia Project
I visited our camp in rural Guatemala today and then our Filedelfia School in a poor neighborhood not too far from the camp. After leaving the city, I was struck by how undeveloped it was... I enjoyed meeting our camp directors...such Godly people. Jose Luis and his wife, Orpha, have dedicated 30 years to AMG... 22 of which has been sharing the love of Christ with all of our students as they visit our beautiful camp.
A team from a church in Grand Rapids, Michigan is here for 2 weeks building new classrooms for a school in the area. It was such a blessing to see how much progress they had made in just a day and a half. Here are some pictures with captions from my day: (Feel free to click on the slideshow to open up picassa web to see it larger.)
