On June15th, the Guatemalan government announced that all schools would be closing until July 1st due to the increased concern about Swine Flu. Buena Vista, a community that we serve every week, closed a few days earlier because of a several confirmed cases in a nearby town. If I understand correctly, the schools typically have a 1 week break in June, so the break was simply extended.
Unfortunately, the kids in our scholarship program were sent home with the same amount of homework that they would have had if they were in school. Obviously, the glaring problem is that in many cases the children weren't in class to learn the main concepts. So I guess it's a good thing that we have "reinforcement" (tutoring) on Mondays and Fridays which are led by Oscar and Ruth.
According to the June 29th report from the WHO (World Health Organization), 254 people in Guatemala have been confirmed to have Swine Flu and 2 have died. Over the weekend, I received an email from my missionary friend Britney in El Salvador. Their schools are now being closed as well due to the Swine Flu. Today's WHO report shows that El Sal has 226 positive cases but no deaths thus far.
For comparison's sake, the same report shows the USA to have 227,717 confirmed cases and 127 dead. Guatemala has roughly the same # of square miles as Virginia (my home) and almost double the population. According to the Virginia Health Dept. report for June 29th, Virginia has 249 confirmed cases. Of course, Guatemala doesn't even remotely have the same medical access or quality of care...so numbers don't tell the whole story. Per Wikipedia, the median income for Virginians is $59,562, and median income for Guatemalans is between $2,800 and $4,800.
Monday, June 29, 2009
NIT! Finally!
We've finally got our NIT!
A NIT is a series of numbers assigned by the government that basically acts as a tax free ID #, and generally shows that the government has officially reviewed our paperwork and recognized us as a ministry here in Guatemala. Now we can transfer items such as vehicles out of individuals' names, and transfer them into the name of the ministry.
I know this probably doesn't mean much to you, but it means a WHOLE lot to us. Kevin, Sandra, and others on our Guatemalan team have been working on this since last January, and we've very thankful to God for this part of the puzzle to come together.
A NIT is a series of numbers assigned by the government that basically acts as a tax free ID #, and generally shows that the government has officially reviewed our paperwork and recognized us as a ministry here in Guatemala. Now we can transfer items such as vehicles out of individuals' names, and transfer them into the name of the ministry.
I know this probably doesn't mean much to you, but it means a WHOLE lot to us. Kevin, Sandra, and others on our Guatemalan team have been working on this since last January, and we've very thankful to God for this part of the puzzle to come together.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Visit from a friend
Russ and I met on a missions trip to Guatemala in 1997. We're both members of West End Assembly of God in Richmond Virginia. Since then, Russ has visited Guatemala many ties, including this week. This time, however, he came in a day early to visit me and see the new ministry God has planted here. It was a short visit, only one day, but I was great to see my good friend from back home. One of the things we did was visit Rosa (the diabetic Guatemalan I've mentioned several times)...see the pic. Russ dedicated one of his suitcases on my behalf so that he could bring down donated medicines and other supplies. At the time, we had no idea of just how useful or how quickly some of the supplies would come in handy. I've already mentioned in an earlier blog about how God used a pair of reading glasses to help fill an immediate need in a person...see the blog titled "Falling Flat on My Face" Plus, it seems that I was chewed on by some insects (fleas?), and the itch medicine he brought with him helped me to keep me from going nuts as I itched and scratched throught the night (20 bites on one leg between my knee and toes). Additionally, he was a link in a really cool sequence of things that God did to provide a miracle for Carlos, a paraplegic. Look for more details in a blog that I hope to write soon.
Thanks to those of you who donated medical items and muchas gracias Russ for the visit and helping hand.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Imagine this
Imagine this...
Two "Easy-Up" tents on a concrete slab, one for the adults Bible study and one for the simultaneous childrens ministry. (An Easy Up tent is the kind of canopy covering that I've often seen at outdoor craft shows, usually blue nylon tops, about 10'x10'). Part way through the ministry time it starts to rain pretty hard. The people sitting near the edges of the tent are getting wet. The adults don't miss a beat, they just move off their plastic stools so that they can huddle close together in the center and Manuel continues with his teaching. The rain starts falling even harder than before. What are you going to do? There's nowhere to go. People come to our program on foot; they're certainly not going to walk in the pouring rain to return to their homes which may not be too close. I don't think many of the folks own a rain jacket or umbrella. So, it was decided to move the tent under a nearby tree which offered some protection from the rain. But how exactly does one move a tent with about 20 women under it? Four of our leaders each took a corner leg and slowly walked the tent to under the tree while the scrunched up ladies in the center took itsy-bitsy quick steps to shuffle along as the tent moved. Don't know why this struck me as a little funny....but it did. Then, under the protection of the tree, most were able to again settle on their wet stools and quickly refocus on the teaching, which never really stopped. I may be wrong, but I think in the USA we would've probably gotten in our cars and gone home as soon as the rain started....or we wouldn't have even gone to the study in the first place if we thought it might rain and we might get wet.
And what about the kids? The kids got off the concrete and they also huddled tight together under the center of the tent. Their tent was originally set up so that it was at least partially under a tree. But how in the world are they going to finish their Bible story or do their craft?
Simple, Ruth was huddled with the kids, and she simply raised the Bible story book high enough so that they could all see the pictures as she read. Then, at craft time, the kids aligned themselves so that they were all looking at the next person's back and then used that person's back as the surface for coloring their Bible story picture. No problem :)
How about that!
Two "Easy-Up" tents on a concrete slab, one for the adults Bible study and one for the simultaneous childrens ministry. (An Easy Up tent is the kind of canopy covering that I've often seen at outdoor craft shows, usually blue nylon tops, about 10'x10'). Part way through the ministry time it starts to rain pretty hard. The people sitting near the edges of the tent are getting wet. The adults don't miss a beat, they just move off their plastic stools so that they can huddle close together in the center and Manuel continues with his teaching. The rain starts falling even harder than before. What are you going to do? There's nowhere to go. People come to our program on foot; they're certainly not going to walk in the pouring rain to return to their homes which may not be too close. I don't think many of the folks own a rain jacket or umbrella. So, it was decided to move the tent under a nearby tree which offered some protection from the rain. But how exactly does one move a tent with about 20 women under it? Four of our leaders each took a corner leg and slowly walked the tent to under the tree while the scrunched up ladies in the center took itsy-bitsy quick steps to shuffle along as the tent moved. Don't know why this struck me as a little funny....but it did. Then, under the protection of the tree, most were able to again settle on their wet stools and quickly refocus on the teaching, which never really stopped. I may be wrong, but I think in the USA we would've probably gotten in our cars and gone home as soon as the rain started....or we wouldn't have even gone to the study in the first place if we thought it might rain and we might get wet.
And what about the kids? The kids got off the concrete and they also huddled tight together under the center of the tent. Their tent was originally set up so that it was at least partially under a tree. But how in the world are they going to finish their Bible story or do their craft?
Simple, Ruth was huddled with the kids, and she simply raised the Bible story book high enough so that they could all see the pictures as she read. Then, at craft time, the kids aligned themselves so that they were all looking at the next person's back and then used that person's back as the surface for coloring their Bible story picture. No problem :)How about that!
When I grow up.....
I was having a wonderful conversation with Oscar, one of our Guatemalan missionaries, and I was asking him what he wanted to be "when he grew up". If money and education were no concern, what would you want to do with your life? This was the question I presented to Oscar. After hearing his reply, I took the next natural step, reflected inwardly on my own life and suddenly realized something that stopped me in the tracks. WOW! I am doing exactly what I've always wanted to do! How many people ever get to say that?
Ever since I was 15 years old and had the fantastic opportunity of spending the summer in the shadow of a missionary nurse and teacher, I knew I wanted to be a full time missionary. Does this mean that I always wanted to be in Guatemala or that I will spend the rest of my useful years in any one particular country? No. Does this mean that life is always a bunch of roses? Of course not. But I had always hoped and prayed that the Lord would allow me to serve him as His missionary in Latin America where I enjoy the people, culture, and language. And here I am, at this very moment in time, living out my dream! And it strikes me that not everyone gets to live out their dream; and for that I am extremely humbled and grateful to God Almighty and for those He has put in my life to make this possible. As one good friend recently said, it's a wonderful and beautiful thing when our will and God's are the same.
Ever since I was 15 years old and had the fantastic opportunity of spending the summer in the shadow of a missionary nurse and teacher, I knew I wanted to be a full time missionary. Does this mean that I always wanted to be in Guatemala or that I will spend the rest of my useful years in any one particular country? No. Does this mean that life is always a bunch of roses? Of course not. But I had always hoped and prayed that the Lord would allow me to serve him as His missionary in Latin America where I enjoy the people, culture, and language. And here I am, at this very moment in time, living out my dream! And it strikes me that not everyone gets to live out their dream; and for that I am extremely humbled and grateful to God Almighty and for those He has put in my life to make this possible. As one good friend recently said, it's a wonderful and beautiful thing when our will and God's are the same.
Yay God!
Having a van is SO nice! Just to make sure I (we) really appreciated this gift from God that was sent through His people to us, we had to do without our wonderful van last week while we had some basic maintenance work done on the van. Of course, one of those days it rained like crazy all the way back from Buena Vista and due to the traffic and the rain, it took us 2.5 hr to get home. If I had just been standing outside in the rain it would’ve been miserable enough, but to be bumped around in the back of the pick-up truck with rain striking me like millions of tiny needles and being chilled to the bone by the wind rushing at me….well, let’s just say that I am WAY thankful for the van which is now back in our possession. Thank you God!
And by the way, I think I misunderstood some information and therefore accidentally passed on some incorrect details. There was indeed a person in a recent team who gave us a very generous donation. However, the donation was not designated for the van or any other particular need. Additionally, there are several other generous and wonderfully kind people who specifically gave money to help us buy this van. So, it’s a rare win-win situation where we were able to purchase the van and have the resources to purchase other necessities for the ministry. We do so much appreciate every one of you!
And by the way, I think I misunderstood some information and therefore accidentally passed on some incorrect details. There was indeed a person in a recent team who gave us a very generous donation. However, the donation was not designated for the van or any other particular need. Additionally, there are several other generous and wonderfully kind people who specifically gave money to help us buy this van. So, it’s a rare win-win situation where we were able to purchase the van and have the resources to purchase other necessities for the ministry. We do so much appreciate every one of you!
Falling flat on your face
We’ve probably all heard the expression, “falling flat on your face.” Well, now I’ve seen this expression in action.
Last night, one of the folks here in our ministry house was going upstairs with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands and somehow tripped, causing her to fall flat on her face on the concrete stairs. I felt so bad for her! She has various cut areas on her face, mostly from her glasses, but nothing too serious. She also sustained what I’d consider to be a mild concussion, but seems to be recovering pretty well. With Band-Aids on her face, impressively swollen eye and cheek (will turn beautiful shades over the next week I’m sure), she looks like a prize winning champion boxer….but you should see the other guy!
In reality, we’re quick to acknowledge and thank God through all of this…it could have been so much worse. She was only an inch or two from contact with her jaw/teeth. She received no injury from her broken mug. There were lots of Christians immediately lifting her up to The Healer in prayer. As nurse, I was able to immediately provide medical care and check on her various times throughout the night and today. I was also able to consult a doctor friend in
It’s so good to know that in the midst of out humanness, like falling flat on our face, God is faithful to take care of us!
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