What a Month

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!

Sports Day!

This morning our weekly sports program was kicked-off in our elementary school with "El Día de Deporte" or Sports Day.  3 of the kids came in new soccer uniforms to our offices and took Ruth (Director of Education), Elisa (Child Sponsorship Supr.) and I out to the events.  I cut the ribbon to start the day off and then we were asked to play sports against the kids!  We had a great time and it was great to leave the pressures of the office for awhile! 

One Year in Guatemala!

We can´t believe we´re even saying it... but we´ve been here for an entire year already!  What a year it´s been!  Well, what are we up to and how are we feeling after a year here?  Well, firstly we KNOW we are where God wants us and couldn´t be more impressed with the ministries of AMG here in Guatemala.  The fruit we witness every day is such a blessing and keeps us going.  2009 was a very challenging year for us... so much to learn... so many new experiences.  Living here is quite an adventure to say the least...not knowing what we will experience around every corner...literally.  We have seen things that we wish we hadn´t seen and we´ve seen things that made us laugh our heads off.  We´ve come to love a people whose warmth is difficult to compare...whose traditions are culturally rich and incredibly festive.  There is so much need here and we are so pleased to be part of a vibrant ministry to provide for it!

Our children are back at school following their Christmas break.  Abbie is working very hard rehearsing as part of the school´s february broadway show.  She continues to study piano and voice and just loves music.  The boys are never without anything to do and love playing with their friends, sports and just being outside.  Eve is all girl, enjoying her new pretend kitchen...cooking up a storm!  Micah is now creeping along furniture and will probably be walking in no time! He has such a fun personality and is a wonderful addition to our family.  Mary is busy with a women´s bible study, many new friendships and caring for our family and home. 

Things at AMG are extremely busy with our year-end finance, strategic planning (we are working on our 5 year plan) new ideas, new partnerships with other ministries and the new school-year kicking off yesterday! God has provided for many great changes here and we are looking forward to great fruit in this new year.  We have made significant organizational changes that reinforce our "Theory of Change" which is our framework for working toward permanent transformation through Jesus Christ.

I am very much looking forward to the First Baptist Portland men´s missions team that is coming to help us on Feb. 20th.  It will be such a joy to show our ministry to my good friends from our home church and to have them here working with us for a week.  They will work on finishing our new medical clinic, painting our general assembly hall and other necessary projects.  Buen Viaje guys!!

What have we learned this year?  To trust in the Lord with all our heart, that there is such joy in having only HIM to rest in, that giving everything up for HIM is incredibly freeing, that working in the midst of poverty and pain brings you close to HIM, that working for HIM is so satisfying...

Merry Christmas and Thank You So Much!

From our family to your´s... Merry Christmas!  We are so greatful for your prayers, your encouragement and your financial support.  This has been one of the most challenging years of our lives...but one of the most blessed as well.  We have adjusted to life in Guatemala, learned many new traditions and have fallen in love with the people and ministries of AMG Guatemala.  I cannot for the moment think of anything more gratifying that we could be doing.  God is Great! As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  We miss you all so much!

Bundles of Love Missions Team

We had the great pleasure of hosting the Bundles of Love team from the U.S. and Canada...here to distribute new backpacks, shoes and supplies to several thousand of our sponsored children.  The team consisted of Ken, Dee and Harrison Ivins from Chattanooga, Megan Reese from Delaware, Ruth Reed and Linda Ivins from Pennsylvania, Fedde (Fred) and Grieta (Grace) Wielinga from Canada (originally from Holland), and Phil, Jen and Megan Wilson from New Hampshire (and working hard to get here to join us in ministry!) 

The team had a wonderful experience interacting with the children and their parents and then helping us treat our teachers and employees to a wonderful Christmas Party on Friday.  They brought along many gifts for our employees, did facials with all our female workers and joined us in celebrating a fruitful year of ministry.

We also had the joy of visiting with our sponsored kids and giving them Christmas Gifts...always a blessed time.

Thanksgiving Trip to Baja Verapaz - Cubulco

We headed out on Thursday morning for Cubulco, Baja Verapaz about 4 hours north of Guatemala City in the mountains.  This is where AMG operates a hospital and we have friends that are missionaries with FRMI, Ken and Jen VanMinnen.  We were excited to celebrate Thanksgiving in a very new and different way! We brought along a turkey and enjoyed the amazing views on the trip up.  The road through the mountains was amazing...sometimes with sheer dropoffs and no guardrails...a bit hairy! 

We arrived and I introduced Mary to Julio and Veronica, the directors of our hospital.  We stayed in the hospital guest house and our boys stayed at the VanMinnens.  Friday morning the plan was to head deep into the mountains and hike across a suspended bridge over a river then visit a remote village where Ken ministers to the Mayan people.  We arrived at the bridge only to find many Mayans there...Ken was very surprised telling us that normally noone was around! We soon learned that the President of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom was going to soon make a historic visit to this small village in order to pledge his support of the people and a new bridge for them... we were about to witness something no President had ever done!!!

We crossed the bridge, at 300 meter long and 70' high (above the river) this was quite the frightening experience.  Many other Mayans were attempting to cross along with us and at one point the bridge twisted to one side and gave us quite a shock! We made it across and then turned around to head back... about halfway across a helicopter came right down beside us and landed in a field.  We basically ran across and arrived just in time to see the President.  We listened to him a moment and then went down through the woods and visited with his security team.  We warmed up to them and they allowed us to cross the security line and get right up close so that we could meet the President when he returned to his helicopter.  The kids talked with the soldiers protecting him and one even gave Jordan a bullet from his automatic rifle.  We got to greet the President on the way out and thought the whole experience was just incredibly cool.  Afterwards we returned to Kens pickup truck only to find it full of Mayan people wanting a ride to town.  We obliged and had a nice ride back through the mountains.

We are incredibly thankful this year for our family, friends our ministry here in Guate and Gods goodness.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

New Playgrounds

We were all so excited to see a beautiful new playground installed today at our Verbena school.  We are trying to improve the quality of our playground equipment and have been soliciting donations to do so.  If you would like to help us purchase another one like this for one of our other 28 schools please click on the DONATE tab above and indicate that you would like to have your gift go towards the purchase of a playground.  There is also information, after clicking, on how to call or mail in a donation to AMG.

We are all so excited for Monday, when our daycare children arrive (our regular students are on vacation)  they will be so excited with this!!!!  They are not used to playing on something so nice (a fact many of us would take for granted!) and it will be a very exciting morning for them.  Thank you to those who helped to purchase this!!

Visit to Cubulco Projects

We travelled last week to Cubulco, Guatemala (North of Guatemala City) a large rural city of mostly indigenous mayans where we have our hospital, dental clinic, radio program and agicultural center.  Our visit was part of an ongoing objective we have had to expose each of our different ministries to each other in order to interchange ideas and understand how all the work AMG is doing in Guatemala relates.  Our group consisted all of our area supervisors, our Director of Education, Coordinator of Child Sponsorship and our camp directors. It is simply amazing to me how much fruit we are enjoying from this vital group of ministries in Cubulco. 

We are the only hospital within hours of this area and we treat more than 15,000 patients each year.  The hospital offers complete services with emergency room, labor & delivery, operating rooms, dental clinic, ultra-sound, xray and our own laboratory.  Our radio program reaches much of the population and is used as a vehicle to evangelize and teach on a variety of important health topics. 

Thank you so much Julio and Veronica (Cubulco Directors) for your excellent management, your creative ideas and your love for this community!  What a blessing!

GHO Medical Team

I had had the great pleasure of hosting the GHO Global Health Outreach missions team led by Mark and Joy Moores at AMG´s hospital in Cubulco Guatemala. They brought with them surgeons, doctors, nurses and a dentist. While here they perfomed many specialized operations and did medical outreach in the villages surrounding Cubulco. We are so grateful for their love of Guatemala, their many years of serving us in this way and their friendship as brothers and sisters in Christ!

It is always a wonderful opportunity for our staff to work alongside these professionals and minister to the spiritual and physical needs of the community. We loaned our entire english department to them for the week as translators and they made it possible to communicate well with our hospital staff there. Thank you so much team! We can´t wait for you all to come back!

Lives Transformed

Our purpose here at AMG Guatemala is to transform lives... not just here on earth but forever... the man I am speaking with in the photo above is the tailoring teacher in our Nahuala project in the department of Sololá in the west of Guatemala. We visited there recently and he shared with us how he was a former sponsored child in our program, became a Christ-follower while attending, graduated, attended our vocational tailoring program and went on to become the local tailor in his community. He earns a good wage working as the local tailor and also works with us teaching because he "wanted to give back that which he received from the Lord, through AMG". He had such a passion for leading these children to the Lord and to independence through their hard work and learning a useful trade.

This man filled me with joy! I was so excited after talking with him, seeing such wonderful fruit from our ministry here. This is what we are all about! Thank you so much to all you child sponsors out there... you are literally tranforming lives!