Journal February 22-28

(Click on any picture to enlarge)

We have been building houses and doing wheelchair distributions with a church group from Washington State this entire week. It has been a busy but very rewarding time. However finding time to keep a journal has been next to impossible for me. Besides that I figured that it is about time you get a perspective of life here in Guatemala through someone else’s eyes. So this week some of the volunteers who are down here from Washington State are going to share some highlights from the journals that they have been keeping. I think that you will enjoy what they have written. I know that I will enjoy a few days off from doing the writing. I know that I have already published Journals for the first 2 days. (Friday, February 22, and Saturday, February, 23) But I have included those 2 days as well because I thought that you would like to see someone else’s perspective of the same days. I hope that you will find this week’s journals, that were written by various people, as interesting and informative and I have.

Yours in Christ: Dick

Friday, February 22

We woke up this morning in Chemaltenango. Some of us went for a short walk from the hotel. As we walked down the street, we were passed by horses being led to the market. About a block form our hotel, we stopped and looked down at the area below. It was the first look for many of us at how many of the people here live. Pieces of the tin siding patched together filled the approx. ½ acre area. They did not have power or water and the smells of garbage and dead animals filled the air. What an eye opener! At 8:00 a.m. several showed up with vans. We piled in and made a short drive to a restaurant for breakfast. Then we hit the road, headed for the hotel closer to Ronny’s family. We checked in quickly and headed to Ronny’s place. The drive there took us past fields of sugar cane and lots of ran shackled homes. We pulled up to the work site at about 11:00 a.m. and unloaded the tools. We said a prayer and then Dick took us to the family’s current home to meet them and see the conditions they are living in. I think we were all shocked at the living conditions. It gave us motivation to get to work and so we walked back to the jobsite and got started. With the help of two local block layers we added to the walls, moved dire into the building in preparation for concrete, dug ditches for power and water. We all struggled with the heat & humidity. But all in all a good day. I think we are thinking about how blessed and fortunate we are.

(Lane Stremler)


Sat., Feb. 23

A few impressions
Most popular means of transportation – walking; 2nd – bikes; 3rd motorbikes; 4th – old school buses; 5th – anything with Toyota written on it.
Weather: typical climate – HOT! Typical house, corrugated tin and cement block.
Typical family size – way too large.
Speed limit – none. Result…. Use your imagination.
The homes are very small with dirt floors, no glass windows. The family we are building for has seven children, the mother is 34 years old, pregnant – very friendly and loving!
Typical dog – sick looking and skinny.
Typical horse pony size.
The cattle are mostly Brahma with ribs exposed. We are so blessed in our country. The children come around every day – we give them toys and such that we brought along. We give them some of lunch each day – cookies, oranges or anything extra. Today we walked to Grandma’s house – she was a very nice lady. Her sons all live on the lane and she will give each a portion of the land legally. The more the children – the more divisions. We are so fortunate to have what we have. I don’t think I will ever complain again in my whole life.

(Don & Tres Kamphouse)

Sun., Feb. 24

This is the day the Lord hath made. Not only did we remember our church and church family today, particularly, but Jay & Debbie remembered our wedding as we celebrated our 17th anniversary. En route to our third day of house building, we stopped at a dirt floor hardware store. We were definitely in the minority as only a small handful ventured past our 4 armed guards, past the machetes for sale and the man sewing to the inside. Arnie purchased a plumb-bob and our crew chiefs (Chris, Dan & Jay) picked up the other misc. items. No one spoke much as unloaded our vans of people, protected tools, water and food. We knew the day would be full and the tasks ahead seemed burdensome. Our worker bees came alive, however, and forms were pulled, nails pulled, boards cleaned, new forms, block laid. Periodic breaks are necessary as the heat (over 95 degrees), humidity, sun & other factors drain our energy. The only physical injury today was poor Kim – when a piece of scaffolding fell on her head. By lunch time we were ready for a good break. We all ate our full & then shared our “5 loaves & 2 fishes” with the poor hungry mothers (2) and their children (approx 10-12) that were amongst us, but never begging. After lunch, most of us women went with Dick to visit a few neighbors. We shared candy, toys, clothes & love. The dirty faces of the sweet children completely light up when their photo is taken on a digital camera and then shown to them. One woman we visited had a broken femur – the doctors had put 2 plates in, but incorrectly and the nearly 10-12 inch incision was badly infected. It is amazing how one photo, one piece of candy, one item of clothing or one toy is a gift beyond words for these children. The children crave attention – they want to be near us. The girls love having their hair fixed and braided. They want to help, even spreading dirt or straightening nails. We journeyed to a second home – at one place a jump rope was given to the children. They had no idea how to use it, but were demonstrated to by Kim… the children were thrilled. On to visit Gabrielle who has spinal bifida. He is such a darling little guy – the one with the large soft-ball size tumor at the base of his spine… then back to the work site to pitch in. Meanwhile, this writer was still pulling burs from her under clothing from a walk in the weeds to water the horses. Never again!

Jesus had a heart for the poor! In John 2 and Mark 11 we read how Jesus was angry when there were those who used the temple as a place to inflate the $ the poor had to pay for the doves they would sacrifice. These instances were some of the few when Jesus showed a side not typically seen by Him – when oppression and/or hurt were inflicted on the poor. As the afternoon work picked up pace again, I silently prayed these people would not and will not be oppressed by those seeking to do them harm. Crime and jealously are rampant because anything is scarce and all are terribly poor! The afternoon finished with a flurry of cement pouring – columns, more brick laying – even more, the first cement floor in the house was poured. Nearly everyone was involved in one way or another as the mixer made several batches – then wheelbarrow load… one after the other were run up into the house (elevated because of flooding). Our Guatemala Team is most certainly a team. We are working – and working hard, but we are having fun bonding and putting our actionable and practical love for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ into action. (Matt. 25: 35-36) May His name be praised!

(Debbie & Jay DeJong)


Monday, Feb. 25

After breakfast & our morning ritual of push-starting the security guards’ car we were headed back to the house. There are so many people walking – usually almost on the road, on motorcycles – many times with 2-4 people and sugar cane trucks – bursting at the seems. We were pretty excited when we got to the house b/c the trusses had all been put up, which made it look more like a house and more importantly it meant that we could put the tin on the roof and be able to work in the shade some of the time. This was very important to us because it was 97 degrees in the shade and 107.5 in the sun. Everyone is working so hard to try to stay hydrated but we have to admit we are pretty new at this working in the heat thing. So today the roof got put on and cement was poured in 8 (ocho) rooms leaving 1 room and the porch to go for tomorrow. Ronny’s Momma & Papa & seven siblings spent a lot of the day with us – even Grandma came to see. They are almost speechless, they are just overcome with happiness at what they can now see will soon be their home. We took family photos at the end of the day in front of their new casa. Also today we had Ronny’s school class come for a tour. So many (30 I would guess) happy kids! They all wanted to get down in the dirt and help dig through the sand to pick out the rocks. We took lots of pictures with them & exchanged words in English & Espanola, needless to say they learn a lot quicker than I do! They all wanted to drink some agua from our jug & cup and then they each got a sucker. I think it is a good thing that it’s illegal to take these kids home! We ended up taking Ronny & Orlindo (his little brother) back to the hotel for a night, this will be quite an eye-opener for them I think.

(Deb & Dan Kuiper)


Tuesday, February 26

What an eventful day it was. The day started with breakfast at 6:15 a.m. Then some of the guys left early so that they could get the supplies from up by Ronny’s old house, so the whole team could start at a run to finish what we needed to. Once the frame had arrived the droning noise of the cement mixer started and the first batch of concrete. We had to finish the “dining” room floor & the porch. We also had a crew that stripped form boards off the columns. Then we had a crew setting up form boards for the wheel chair ramp off of the front porch. And then the electrical crew. We finished all the concrete work in time for Ronny’s class to stop by and sing us Guatemala’s national anthem. It takes at least 5 minutes to sing. We came to the conclusion that it would not survive in the U.S. Once the concrete was laid as smooth we wrote NVRC and 26-2-2008 because that is how they read dates. We decided to write NVRC because it was the church who donated to make it possible for us to build the house. We then had Ronny press his hand into the concrete as flat as he could get it. Then we gathered around with the family & the school kids and teachers. Chad said a prayer in English while the teacher said a prayer in Espanola. Once done with the prayer the teacher said a few words, then Chris & Ronny’s mama, and I don’t think there was a dry eye when it was over. We then went around & said our goodbyes to all the people we had grown close to. We then had 2 soccer balls to give away & couldn’t decide who we wanted to give it to. So we finally decided to give it to Alex to keep for the neighborhood kids to play with. And then we gave the other soccer ball to the teacher to donate to the school. The school children were so into the dedication that they bought string & balloons to decorate the outside of the house. So we were finally able to break away from them and head back to our hotel. We were able to eat there. We then packed up our bags and headed into Mazatenango where we will be doing the wheel chair distribution. Along the way, we saw road widening construction like the Guide Meridian & concluded OSHA would have a fit down here. We finally reached Mazatenango where we saw a saddle shop. Once we had dropped our stuff off at the hotel (12 of us) went and checked it out. There wasn’t much there but the quality was good. There was also a taxidermist so they had a horse head that was mounted which we found interesting. They also had snakes they were skinning there. We went back to the hotel & saw that they had a cool water slide into the pool.

In Christ, (Brent, Bruce & Kelby Stadt)


Wednesday, February 27

We once again woke up to the rooster crowing. Pretty sure he was walking back and forth on the walkways crowing! Our breakfast here in Mazatenango was more than most expected - buffet with eggs cooked to your liking. After breakfast, we loaded into the vehicles and headed to the wheelchair distribution.

My expectations are vague at best. What will I do? How should I act? Honestly, if I really got honest with myself – will I be uncomfortable?

Once inside, we unleaded the wheelchairs out of the truck and laid them on the yard. In the front of the building is a small court area where Guatemalans are gathering to receive a wheelchair. At this time they were only getting a number.

I find it strange how the brain will listen to emotion when intentions are good. God was working in me and preparing my hands to work – work in a way they have never worked… only at this time I was not yet aware of it. How should I know, we were working?

After unloading the wheelchairs, we gathered around Dick while he gave us a “crash course” on adjusting a wheelchair to fit each person. This took about ten minutes and we proceeded to the courtyard where the people were waiting. Chris asked that we lay a hand on a family or person while he prayed.

Feelings of extreme joy followed by valleys of despair. I seemed to be losing a “grip” on my emotions as I watched parents cry to God for their child or elderly praying with thankfulness. Voices, prayers, tears, weeping were heard in the courtyard, and I felt God broke down any perceptions I had in that moment. I was ready.

Chris and Juan prayed and our team excused themselves to begin preparing for the people. A small group worked on the more specialized wheelchairs for the children, while the larger group fitted wheelchairs for adults.

there are moments in my walk with Christ that I feel completely in His will. As if noise, busyness, temptations and greed all melt away and there standing in front of me is God with his hand out to me – showing me the way. I felt this, not literally, but in this moment – I knew this is what God wanted from all of us.

The adult wheelchairs took about 15-20 minutes to fit; however, the kids could take an hour or more. The people are thankful and we are too. After about three hours, the adults are all fitted and out the door.

Sometimes I use work as a distraction – a way of postponing a short term problem. I used it today. I even wondered if what I was observing, what I was experiencing, what I was doing, was too sacred or too intimate to share with someone. Or could I even get myself to say a word?

The children took another two hours to finish. Chris’s family directed us in the proper fitting and piecing together of each wheelchair. This organization takes extreme pride in making sure every part fits each child perfectly. At the end of our time together at the distribution center, a woman gave her life to Christ!

God is it this simple? Food, water, a chair brings a soul to you! You can make mountains move and yet you choose a chair to reach a lost woman. Jesus Christ smiled through those children and adults today. I felt it! We all felt it!

(Chad Van Ry)


Thursday, February 28, 2008

It’s Thursday, I think. Hard to keep track of days when it’s just been go, go, go. Today was our first day off really, so before I get into that I want to talk a bit about the wheelchair distribution yesterday. I didn’t think there would be anything as gratifying and emotional as when we left the building site. I was wrong. I only worked on three chairs, but what a blessing. The gratefulness of the people was incredible. The smiles of the kids and the joy of the parents knowing that a burden has been lifted from them by a single piece of equipment. It was as tough to leave there as it was to leave the house we helped build.

As far as today, part of the group went to see Erica and bring her some medicine (I’m sure someone will write about that). The rest of us drove about 3 ½ hours past some smoking volcanoes, motorcycle accident (miracle if the driver survived) Chris’s erratic driving, overheating and near misses. I had the fortune of riding with Dan in the pickup. We finally arrived safely by the Lake in Panajachel. Once there, we ate lunch and went to look at the street vendors goods. This is where Luke learned the fine art of bartering from “the negotiator” aka Don Kamphouse. It’s hard to believe we are only a couple days from returning home. This trip has been an incredible blessing for all of us - just in the realization of how blessed we are at home with homes, food and support from family and friends – not to mention…. No scorpions. I feel that for myself, and speaking for others, I have truly seen God at work on our trip and our lives will be changed for it!

(Len Smit)

Thursday, Feb 28 (second group)

After a great breakfast we separated from the group that went direct to the lake. We headed West toward San Sabastian with 12 people crowded into a 9 passenger van and immediately were caught in the first of many traffic jams. Eventually we turned north to Xela where we dropped off Liliana and Juan Davis to catch their bus home. Liliana is a friend of Debbie and Jay DeJong, they are helping her obtain a work visa to return to the US to join her husband. Liliana had lived in one of Jay and Debbie’s rental houses for a few months 14 years ago. Debbie received a Christmas card from Liliana this year after not hearing from her for several years. Debbie was able to contact her in time for her to meet us at the hotel in Mazatenango. Liliana and Juan Davis joined us at the wheel chair distribution, Liliana was a great help interpreting for us and encouraging the families that could only speak Spanish. This was a Godincidence, as Dick would say!

Three hours later after many construction stops we were in San Francisco. Yes, there is a San Francisco in Guatemala. Only the spelling is different, the town is much the same with narrow streets and steep hills. We took a few detours since we were too heavily loaded for some of the steep streets. Finally we were at the end of a street where the slide took out Christopher’s house three years ago. This is where we start the hike up to Erica’s home. We transferred Erica’s medicine to backpacks, put a rock in front of the van’s tire on the steep hill and headed up the half mile trail. We were greeted by a couple of Erica’s brothers on the way. We were overwhelmed with their friendly welcome! They quickly invited us into their cement block home (the sewing room area) making sure we all had a chair to sit on. Erica’s mother then came in with a tray of cups filled with something and we all looked at Dick, what do we do??? He said, “it’s okay, it’s just Pepsi”. Whew!!! As we all got settled in, (with Ben translating) they told us how thankful they were for all of us and the medication that we brought. We told them that it was from God and not from us and the grandpa responded with “it is from God, but you are His representatives”. It was a moving moment! We greeted a smiling Erica. What a pleasant change after eight months on the medication! (a year ago she stayed in a corner away from everyone). Someone carried in a 17 year old boy who had CP who lived 3km away from Erica’s family. He was quite bent over and crippled and could not walk. Dick held him and measured him and went over some motor skills with him to see if he could use a power wheel chair. With Ben translating Dick was able to determine if the area around their house was smooth enough for a wheelchair. In the end, Dick decided he would be an excellent candidate for a power wheel chair. Once again the parents thanked us over and over again! Chad offered a prayer of thanks, praising God for His Presence with this family and allowing us to show our love to them in return for the incredible gift He has given all of us through His Son.We then went outside to take pictures and give them gifts from the employees at Fairway Drug in Lynden where we have been getting the medication at a huge discount. With smiles and giggles they accepted the lollipops and toys that Debbie had also brought along for them. We left them with hugs and good byes and went down the trail a different way to Christopher’s house (Dick found Erica by mistake when he had come to visit Christopher but missed his place and ended up at Erica’s) which was a Godincidence as Dick would say.

Christopher was home from school and happy to see us. His grandfather saw us going up the trail to Erica’s home so by the time we arrived his whole extended family was there along with neighborhood children (they heard about the gifts and suckers!) While we were visiting, there was an older woman shucking dried corn, which caught Arnie’s attention right away! He asked if he could help, she nodded. Soon Arnie and Steve were busy helping her and Christopher’s grandmother offered them a small bag of corn to take home for their garden. That put a big smile on Arnie’s face! We handed out more gifts and lollipops, took some pictures, accepted their gift of bananas and then said our good byes. We headed back down the trail and were happy to see the rock still in front of the tire and not through the window!!

We left San Francisco for the lake where the other group was enjoying a leisurely afternoon of sight seeing and shopping, (we wouldn’t have traded places for anything)! On the way we stopped at a service station for a wonderful lunch of ice cream bars, munchies and sodas! As we ate our lunch outside the service station we shared with a little boy who was begging.

We drove through many villages with beautiful farming areas all terraced on the hillsides with fruit and vegetable stands along the road. We were thankful to survive the aggressive Guatemalan driving and arrived at the lake after 5pm.

What an awesome day! One we will never forget! We felt God’s Presence and saw Him work in the lives of these people and in the hearts of all of us. To witness their love and gratitude for God was an experience that is hard to explain. A very emotional one at that!

To God be the Glory!
John & Arlis


We have truly seen God at work in everything that has been taking place here this week.

Yours in Christ: Dick

Journal February 17-23

Monday, February 18, 2008, 8:37 PM

Some days are not as easy as others and today started out that way. I woke up at around 5 AM and could not get back to sleep. I kept thinking about my friend Bonny lying there in the national hospital. I could not help but think how alone she must feel. I felt bad that I had not visited her before yesterday but had not realized that she had been hospitalized until then. At 8:05 I called over to our wheelchair shop to see if we had a few items that I knew Bonny needed. I knew that she didn’t have much money but that she was a proud lady and trying to give her anything would be hard but I had to try. Less than an hour after later I received a phone call from Jessica. She told me that Bonny had died early this morning. She also told me that since Bonny had none of Bonny’s relatives had any intentions of coming in from the States the funeral was going to be this afternoon. I thought about staying at home until it was time for the funeral but decided to do something that Bonny would have wanted me to do. So I went and spent some time with the kids at Hermano Pedro. Calin and Fernando came along with me since they had no school today. Why no school? Good question.

I enjoy going there on Monday mornings because that is the day that some of the kids get to go into the pool for therapy. Today however we got there only a short time before they were finished so I didn’t even get a chance to get into the water. Actually they were suppose to have kids in and out of the pool all morning long but for some reason they decided not to. A few days ago I took Byron’s manual wheelchair to our shop for some repairs that could be completed in an hour or so but told the mechanics to stall on it for as long as they could, hoping that since his power wheelchair was the only one left at the orphanage the nurses would put him in it. That one backfired though because when I arrived at around 10 the nurses had him in bed.

I have come to realize that I have been using the word nurses all to loosely. A nurse is a highly trained professional that is taught to make her patients as comfortable as possible. I am trying to think of a better term to use for a few of these ladies but nothing comes to mind. Caregiver would not work for several of them because it has the word care in it. Even the word worker would not be correct in the case of some of these ladies. Don’t get me wrong there are some good ones that I take my hat off to but there are also some that are more concerned about convince than they are about the children.

Tony and Marcia Banks were at the orphanage so I figured that between them, the 2 boys that came along with me, and myself we could each take a kid to lunch and at least make the day a bit brighter for 6 of them. Now I have always prided myself in being able to do algebra in my head but today my head was spinning. It was not until I had the kids nearly signed out that I realized that there were only 5 of us taking 6 kids that were in wheelchairs out to lunch. There were some other adults around so I asked Tony and Marcia if they would find someone who would like to come along with us to lunch while I finished up on the paper work. When I got back they told me that everyone else had other plans or simply did not feel comfortable taking any of the kids to lunch. I looked over at the ladies that are suppose to care for the kids who were sitting at a table having coffee and jokingly asked if one of them wanted to come along with us. To my surprise one of the younger ones said that she would come along if she could get permission from the head lady of her department. Do you know what? I think that we are on the start of something here. Not only did she enjoy herself but she seemed to enjoy the kids. I must admit that see seemed a bit taken back when I ordered Chicken for a few of the kids that she had never seen eat anything other than the mashed up food that they are given at the orphanage but she soon realized that they were loving it and not choking to death on it so she joined right in on feeding it to the kids. After lunch she even smiled a bit when she saw that the kids who were generally in bed all afternoon had a better time and were more well behaved when they were on the playground equipment having the time of their lives. I am hoping that she conveys some of what she saw to the other caregivers. (Notice that I am gradually working my way back to calling them nurses. It may take a few days though because I am still upset with them.) I do think that taking different ones of them along from time to time will be a positive thing. At least they will see that I don’t hate them It is just that I dislike some of their work ethics. I think that taking a few of the therapists along to lunch would not hurt anything either. Once they see Ervin, who usually refuses to take as much as one step for them, climbing the ladder to the slide on his own, they may come to see that therapy could be a lot easier if a bit of fun were included.

Shortly after we got back to the orphanage Jessica, one of the nurses, and myself got in my car and drove across town to a small funeral chapel to attend Bonne’s funeral service. Counting the priest who conducted the 5 minute service there were 10 of us. I am sure if the patients of Hermano Pedro had been allowed to attend the building would have been filled. I don’t think that it mattered much though. Bonny, Nancy, an I did a lot of talking yesterday. Bonny knew that she had lots of family here in Guatemala and a Heavenly Father that cared.

The kids are fed and to my knowledge all of them have gone home for the night. I am tired. It has not been one of my easier days. Do I ever get discouraged? Occasionally but not often. Am I ever sorry that I came here to Guatemala to live? Never! I know that this is where God wants me and that makes it the perfect place to be.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Click on pictures to enlarge
This morning 5 adults and myself went up to the school at Santa Maria Dejesus. Judy and Amy showed us around and then we had 12 large pizzas delivered to the school from Antigua. I am not sure how the motor bike that delivered them made it up the hill to this town that is located at the foot of Aqua volcano but the driver arrived on time and was tipped well. All 7 students and their teachers were grateful because pizza is a rare treat for most of them. The group of people that visited the school with me were verry impressed with the school and the dedication of the Christian teachers, several of whom have to ride a number of busses up to 2 hours each way just to get to the school.

After our visit we went back to Hermano Pedro and visited with the kids there. After discovering that nearly every kid was in bed and although Byron was in his power wheelchair they had him sitting in a room with the switch turned off, I had another talk with one of the people that is in charge of the care givers. She went in and had a talk with them but I don’t know if they will listen to her. Unfortunately they have the attitude that even the people that are in authority over them can not tell them what to do. Some times I think that they are right.

I headed back to Chemaltenango a bit early because Carlos had called me from the shop telling me that someone had brought a power wheelchair in that needed to be reprogrammed. If anyone knows of some one who would like to move down to Guatemala and work on power wheelchairs please let us know. I don’t mind doing it but as our ministry expands I simply do not have the time. As we give more and more of them away the need becomes greater. We need not just someone who can repair them in the shop but some one that is willing to go to the homes of the people that own them to work on them there.

When I got home Fernando came running to my car. He told me that Etiline had just fallen of from a ladder and landed on the cement. Her aunt was not at home when it happened but had arrived back there just a few minutes before I had returned home. I quickly walked over and discovered that Etiline had a large lump on her forehead and had hurt her arm. At first it appeared to be a sprain but after examining it I thought that it was very likely broken. I made her a make shift splint and loaded her and her aunt into my car and headed off to the hospital. Hospital visits here in Guatemala are usually a long drawn out ordeal and even some one who needs emergency care can often wait for hours before being tended to. Tonight we were fortunate though because the emergency room was nearly empty. In less then 2 hours Etiline was on her way home with a plaster cast on her broken arm. The x-rays had confirmed my suspicions but showed that even though the bone was broken it was in place and did not have to be set. Etilein was in some pain but not a great deal so I gave her aunt some aspirin and told her to call me if the pain got worse. Most of the hospitals here don’t think about things like that.

Even though it was nearly 8 PM by the time we got back home I still had a house full of hungry kids with in 15 minutes. I told the kids that I would make spaghetti but that everyone had to pitch in and help. 9 out of 11 of the kids got right in there and helped. Abner and Chino were busy on the computer and acted like they did not hear me. 9 of the kids had a good meal but Abner and Chino were told that they were not eating at my place tonight. I have an idea that they will be offering to do the breakfast dishes in the morning.

All but one of the kids have now headed for home and that one is fast asleep on the floor. No one will miss him at his home so I will let him stay until morning.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Today Tony and Marcia Banks, Nancy Darby, Mario, and myself, after loading up on groceries, did some visiting in the back country. Our first stop was once again at the home of Fidel, Isabel-Maria, and their grandmother. Even though we had visited them a few days ago we wanted to stop by again because we had some medicine for the 3 of them. We also brought it a foam mattress for Fidel’s bed. Every time I go to their home I wonder if Fidel is still alive. Today he was actually looking a bit better than he did a few days ago when he was moaning with pain. We are hoping that the pills that I brought him will help ease some of his pain and am quite certain that lying on a mattress instead of a wood plank bed will be more comfortable for him. I am also planning on going back in with some bandages and medication for his bed sores and will show his grandmother how to treat them. His grandmother told us that he turned 28 a few days ago. She said that they usually try to celebrate by butchering a chicken for dinner but this year they could not afford one. She said that they managed to buy one piece of chicken from some one and give it to Fidel. One lone balloon also hung over his bed. They are getting good use out of the bathroom that we built for them and the storage tank that is on the roof provides them with water for showers and laundry 24 hours a day. This is a pleasant relief from having water for only a few hours a day once or twice a week.

We were hoping that the cement for their new home had been poured but the man that was going to do the work was not quite sure of the exact measurements so we drove down to see him after visiting a bit longer with Fidel and his family. We could not get the car all the way in to where this man was working on another house but thanks to the good old cell phone which seems to work in even the most remote areas of Guatemala, we were able to give him a call and he came out to meet us. I was glad that Mario had come along with us, not just for his Spanish but we had built Mario and his daughter a house that was identical to the one that we were going to put up for Maria Isabel. With in a few minutes Mario had explained to this man exactly what we wanted. Originally we had thought that some of Maria’s relatives would be able to help this man with the cement work but we were told that during this time of year after school they have to pick corn. This meant that we would have to pay for a helper as well as the cement worker so we settled for 100 Q per day for the 2 of them. That is roughly $12.50 per day for both men. The man that we were dealing with apologized for the high price but explained that since Maria’s family would be unable to provide him and his helper with lunch he had added 10 Q ($1.25) each to the amount that they were being paid. I know that $6.25 per day is not much to pay one man but As Americans we have to be careful not to pay more than the average Guatemalan pays or it can create problems, but you should have seen his eyes light up when I told him that if he were able to complete the job by this coming Saturday we would give him and his helper and added 20 Q ($2.50).

About an hour on down the road (Not what my passengers called it) we got to the home of another Maria. This is the one who’s husband was killed by a hit and run driver a few months ago. She and her 4 children are now fully moved into the house that we put up for them. The 2 older ones are also happy that they are now able to go to school. While we were there we also gave some groceries to 2 other families that live nearby. One family is a mother and her 3 children who live in a dirt floor house right ext to where Maria and her children live. I had always thought that this lady had a husband that was perhaps out working when ever we were there but was told today that he deserted her and her 3 children a year ago leaving them with nothing but the shack that they lived in. This lady as 2 daughters, one that is 14 years old and another that is 11. She also has a son who is 6 years old. The older daughter is totally blind and has to be led around by the mother or the other children. The mother told us that her 11 year old daughter use to go to school but has not gone for the past year because they could not afford school supplies or the fee that is charged to enroll her into the public school. Her little boy should have started school this year as well but she had no money to send him either. We are praying for a sponsor and told his mother to check with the school to see if the children can still be enrolled even though the school year started about 5 weeks ago.

It was hard to say goodbye to these warm and friendly people but it was getting late and we had promised the kids in my neighborhood that we were going to have pizza tonight. Even though she protested I set down the little girl that I was holding and said good bye. I thought back to a few short months ago when this child and several of the others would run away crying when ever any of us would arrive. Now they were all laughing and begging to be held. As we drove away we looked back up the hill at all of our friends who were standing there waiving goodbye.

Our time of solitude with out having kids hanging on to us was short lived though because about an hour and a half later we were pulling into my alley with 8 large pizzas in the back of my car. To my surprise there were only 2 kids standing out side so I thought that perhaps I was going to be eating left over Pizza for the next week or 2. With in about a half hour I was proved wrong as we opened up the box containing the last pizza. Some one told me that they got a head count of around 40 people but the kids never stood still long enough for us to get an accurate count. I guess the word had gotten out because some of the parents even showed up. It was a fun time though and the kids had a great time with some jump ropes that Marcia banks had brought for them.

For some strange reason I am once again tired tonight so I am going to head off to bed. I will do my best not to step on any of the 3 kids that are fast asleep on the floor.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Wednesday, February 22, 2008

A good part of my morning was spent doing what has lately been a once a week ritual of taking my car in to my mechanic. This week’s episode was new wheel bearings. Actually only one of them wet out yesterday but I figured that I would play it safe and have both sides replaced. This brought my bill up to nearly $50 for parts and labor but I was thrilled that the mechanic was able to find new bearings right hear in Chemaltenango. This evening I had dinner with Marcia and Tony Banks. They took me to one of the fancier restaurants in Antigua where some of the meals ran up as high as $12. We had a wonderful visit and a wonderful week together. They will be heading back to the states tomorrow. I will miss them. After dinner I drove in to Guatemala City where I met up with Chris, Saul, and Benjamin at the airport. It took the 2 vans and one pickup truck that we brought with us to bring the 19 people that came in from Washington State and all of their luggage back to Chemaltenango. Today’s journal is actually being written tomorrow because that is when we arrived back home. That is why I am saying Good morning,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Friday, February 22, 2008, 10:07 PM
After the picking up our 19 visitors from their motel and then having breakfast we all headed to near the coast where Ronny lives. We plan on spending the next 5 days working on the new house that we are building for his family. When we got there today I discovered that Ronny has been running a fever for the past several days but it did not keep him from going along with me to get one of the tires of his wheelchair fixed. After getting his wheelchair fixed I decided that I better help with the house building but didn’t even pick up my first brick when Luke, one of the teens that had come from the States with his father, had cut his hand on a piece of rebar. I cleaned the wound and tried to butterfly it shut but the hot humid air made his hand so damp that there was no way that I could get the tape to stick to it. I finally gave up and simply put a bandage over it and then drove him to the clinic that had told me about Julio a few weeks ago. The doctor at the clinic told us that he did not have what was needed to stitch the wound but that there was a national hospital in town that could do it. I was a bit apprehensive about taking him to a national hospital but when we got there I discovered that even though their emergency room looked like something out of the 1950s it was clean and the staff there seemed quite professional. We were also happy when we found out that they used a new needle to stitch up his hand. Other than some Antibiotics that we had to get at a nearby drug store the entire procedure cost absolutely nothing. The cut stitched up nicely and Luke is doing fine. We arrived back at the work site just in time to help pack up and head home. The entire crew had a good time but they are tired and a few are not feeling the best because of the heat but I think that they are all planning on going out again tomorrow. If any of them do not feel up to it they can always stay behind here at the motel. It is a nice place and even has a swimming pool. Barring any sick kids, broken wheelchairs, or cut hands, perhaps tomorrow I will actually help do some work on the house.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Saturday, February 23, 2008, 9:12 PM

Today the crew spent the entire day working on Ronny’s new house. A good part of my morning was spent trying to get the air-conditioner of the Kea van going so that the group would have a more comfortable ride home but it looks like the pump is freezing up so I guess that we will have to put up with the dust that comes in through the open windows while driving some of the dirt roads. It was extremely hot this morning which made it difficult for the crew that is working on the house, but in answer to prayer some clouds and a light breeze moved in this after noon so it made the working conditions a bit more pleasant.

Ronny was feeling a bit better today but his mother, who is pregnant with her 7th child, got quite sick before lunch and it looked for a while like I have to make a repeat trip to the national hospital. Fortunately one of her kids went and got a lady, who appeared to be in her 80s, who is a mid wife. She seemed to have a lot of respect from everyone and was even chauffeured to Ronny’s house by her granddaughter, not by car however but by bicycle. Before leaving the old lady assured me that Ronny’s mom would be all right and that no doctor would be necessary, then her and her granddaughter disappeared down the trail on the bicycle. She seemed to know what she was talking about because by this evening Ronny’s mom was feeling a lot better.

After a picnic stile lunch most of us walked down past the tin shack where Ronny lives to another tin shack that his uncle and aunt live in along with their 6 children. They are every bit as much in need of a new home as Ronny and his family are but right now we can make them no promises. I am praying that will change though because the home that they presently live in has rusted holes in it that you could nearly crawl through. We then walked a bit further to where Ronny’s grandmother lives and visited with her for a while. We had been hoping that we could put a cement floor into the prefabricated house that we put up for her a few months ago but there is still a lot to do before we are done with Ronny’s house so that will have to be put on hold for a while.

Seeing the conditions that these families live in was not easy for the group, in fact some of them told me that they had already had a tough time sleeping last night after seeing the poverty that Ronny and his family live in. I think that it was good for the group to see this though because so often we take the blessings that God has given us for granted.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Not only did I see building going on as far as houses were concerned today but the building of new and better friendships was also very evident.



I watched as some of the ladies in our group took some time out to comb and braid the hair of several of the girls. I also saw one of our men who did not know a word of English take the time to show one of the older boys what he was doing and get him involved in some of the work that was being done. There were also men and women who were working along side of each other who in less than a day had become friends despite the fact that they could not understand one another. I am not sure weather or not the house will be completed by the time we leave on Tuesday afternoon, nore am I concerned about it. Friendships are being built and even though there is a language barrier these people are witnessing the love of Jesus in action. I said it before but I think that it bears repeating. No one cares how much you know until the know how much you care.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Journal February 10-17

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Monday, February 11, 2008, 10:42 PM

After a quick stop off at the wheelchair shop to pick up some parts I headed to Hermano Pedro. I was met at the door by 2 people from the California Rotary club that we did the 3 day wheelchair distribution with last week. I had originally met them at a distribution that we did in Honduras last year. Both of them fell in love with the kids at the orphanage and I think that they regretted that they had to fly back to the States later this afternoon. It is some times hard to get people to visit the orphanage but it seems that once they do they quickly get over any fears that they may have had before meeting the kids. I did not get to spend as much time with them as I had anticipated because I received a phone call from Ludwig’s parents. I had gone to his home in Saloma and given him a new wheelchair a few weeks ago. While I was there we made a phone call to Marvin, a friend of mine that makes leg braces at Hermano Pedro. I had forgotten that this was the day that Marvin was scheduled to see Ludwig. I think that Marvin had forgotten as well because he had a pretty full schedule. He managed to take the time to see Ludwig and his parents though. After he examined Ludwig, who has muscular dystrophy he asked Ludwig’s parents if he could talk to them alone. I spent the next hour out side of his office with Ludwig. I pretty much knew what was being said and was praying that Ludwig’s parents would be all right. It is hard to tell a family that there is not much that can be done to keep their son from becoming more and more deformed and that he would only get weaker with time but Marvin is a good man and I knew that he was the right person to speek with them. When Ludwig’s parents finally came out of Marvin’s office I could tell that they had been crying. Ludwig had been asking me if I was going to take him to Camperos for lunch so I asked his parents if I could treat them to lunch. They told me that they thought that was a great idea. I had already promised Ervin that I would take him to lunch and knew that if I backed down on that promise that you would be able to hear him scream all the way to the USA. As it turned out Ervin was on his best behavior today. Ervin knows good and well that I will not put up with any guff from him and that I have more than once taken him straight back to the orphanage when he acted up. Fortunately he also knows that I love him and do it for his own good. Amy Deyoung and another therapist joined us for lunch. While we were eating Ludwig’s parent shared with us some of the things that Marvin had told them. They said that they already knew quite a bit about there sons sickness but hearing some one say it directly to them still was not easy. They shared with us how happy they were that Ludwig was now in school. This had been his life long dream and he absolutely loved going to school. They shared one concern though. Ludwig’s arms are beginning to get weaker and they are afraid that it will not be much time before he can no longer get around in his wheelchair. I told them not to tell Ludwig this because I don’t think that it is quite necessary yet but I am planning on giving him a power wheelchair in the not to distant future. Both parents thanked me and gave me a bit hug. They had left their home early this morning by buss and were al tired so I told them that I was sure that they could stay at Casa Defay but they said that they really wanted to get back home so after lunch we all said good bye. After bringing Ervin back to his section of the orphanage Amy, the other therapist that was with her and myself went up to the malnutrition ward. I had asked them if they would look at Byron and Perla with me. Both of these children still spend most of their time in bed with their heads and bodies twisted back. We came up with a few ideas and I may build them something that will put them in more of a seated position even when they are in their beds.

The rest of my afternoon was spent in getting Carlitos and Byron’s power wheelchairs working properly. Once again I had plenty of little helpers so things did not get done all that fast but my helpers were happy and so was I.

While grocery shopping tonight I decided to get lazy so I bought a roasted chicken and took it home. There were only 3 kids there when I got home so as soon as we got the other groceries put away we quickly ate. Before we could polish off the entire Chicken a few more kids showed up. There was still enough chicken left that those 3 got filled up on Chicken sandwiches. The next shift of kids did not do as well and let me know that chicken flavored top robin just wasn’t the same as a roasted chicken.

While at the market I also picked up a basket ball to replace the one that had more then once made contact with the broken glass that lines the top of the wall north of my house and the razor wire that lines the top of the south wall. As soon as the dishes were washed and put away most of went outside and tried the new basket ball out. After the game the kids just hung around and visited. Most of them had brought their school books along so they showed me what they had been doing in school. Even though they have school tomorrow I let them stay until about 10:30 then sent them home. Well most of them that is. Calin is fast asleep on the floor right next to where I am working. He is the only one that ever stays over with out letting anyone know. His mother says that when he is not at home she just figures that he is here, and his step dad could care less.

Well it is nearly midnight so I will say Goodnight.

Yours in Christ: Dick

Tuesday, February 12, 2008, 9:04 PM

A good part of my day was spent getting most of the exhaust system of my car replaced and then having my oil changed. With the dusty conditions and the type of roads that I often travel I try to have my oil changed every 3000 miles. Unfortunately those same roads usually claim my exhaust system more often than that. Today it cost me a whopping $17 for all of the parts and labor.
This afternoon I showed a group of about 10 men that are from my pastor’s home church in Florida around the orphanage. Judging by their reactions they were deeply touched. Every now and then I can take the group through the entire orphanage with out having at least some one break into tears. After I wiped away my tears I went on to tell the group a bit more about Sam Sam.

Hot dogs, refried beans, pop corn, and Coke were on tonight gourmet menu. By the way that the kids wolfed the food down I think that it was a winning combination.

This journal will be a bit shorter than usual because our after dinner basketball game went into overtime. The game was a bit tamer than usual tonight. We ended up with no crying kids, no uprooted flowers, and only one slightly cracked window.

Goodnight:

Yours in Christ: Dick

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Today was mostly spent taking people from Youth With a Mission through the orphanage. Since there were 30 of them I took half of them through in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. One family stuck around for lunch and along with the help of Carlos, and Jim and his wife Jill we were able to take 8 of the kids from Hermano Pedro out to lunch. The family that joined us had some kids that were about the same age as the kids that we took out from the orphanage and several of them became quick friends. I think that giving kids the opportunity to meet kids that are a bit different than their normal companions is verry healthy. It seemed to be good for the kids from the USA as well.

As soon as we returned to the orphanage from lunch the second group arrived so I conducted a repeat tour. No lunch this time but this group had every bit as good of a time with the kids as the first group did. I must admit that I was worn out by the end of the day but it was well worth it seeing the kids having people there who were willing to give unconditional love to them.

Just when some of the practices at the orphanage seem to be improving others seem to get worse. Lately the amount of time that most of the kids are in bed has gotten even worse. Even some of the more able bodied ones like Ervin and Elmer who like nothing better than to be out in the courtyard roaming around in their wheelchairs are locked in their cribs from about noon until 7 or 8 the following morning. I talked to a few people who are in charge of the nurses about it today and they promised that thye would look into it. It seems that even when they tell the nurses that thy have to get them out more no one listens though.

Tonight’s supper was a do it yourself free for all. I must admit though that everyone cleaned up fairly well after themselves. Calin, Abner, and Fernando insisted that a room came along with the meal and was to tired to argue with them so theyare spending the night.

Speaking of night, Goodnight

Yours in Christ: Dick
Thursday, February 14, 2008, 8:58 PM

This morning I stuck around home and got a few things done. At around 11 AM I headed out to the airport to pick up Tony and Marcia Banks. They are friends from Washington State who plan on spending the next 8 days here in Guatemala. They have been here before and hope to see more of our ministry while they are here. After getting settled in to a motel in Antigua they joined Fernando and me at the orphanage. Fernando accompanied me to the airport since he got out of school early today. I think that he got out early because today was nothing more than a valentines day party at his school. I have little doubt that he will have no school tomorrow either. Usually his teacher decides that they need a clean up day the day after they have a party. Thy must be cracking down on the teachers though because she did not give the kids a day off yesterday to prepare for valentines day. Come to think of it since school started up a few weeks ago she has not yet announced which days she is planning to be sick.

When we arrived at the orphanage at 2 PM I once again found only a few kids out of their cribs. Fernando offered to stay and play with Ervin while I spent some time up in malnutrition so I took him out of his crib. I also took Byron who was not in bed but sitting in a corner in a manual chair that he has no way to move around in and put him into his power wheelchair. I also put Elmer into his walker after I located it. Some one had stuck it away in a storage room. I guess that if these kids were mobile it would cut down on the nurses one half day coffee breaks. I perhaps would not be so bold but after this many years I am learning that most of the people that are over the nurses are just as upset about the way that some of the sections of the orphanage are keeping the kids immobile as I am.

Byron (the one in malnutrition not the one with the head controlled power wheelchair) seems to be doing a bit worse lately. The nurses up in malnutrition are some of the better ones at Hermano Pedro but are often at a loss on how to keep the kids comfortable. They do put him in his wheelchair in the mornings but he is so skinny and his muscles are so tight that he can not tolerate it for more than one or 2 ours at a time. Unfortunately the rest of the time he is in bed staring at the ceiling. They try to lye him flat on his back with pillows on each side of him so that he does not curve back words but with in a short time his muscles contract and he is lying on his side bent back in a half circle. This after noon I found an infants car seat that I padded and then mounted into his crib. Even though this 14 year old will have to grow into it, it seems to be doing the trick. Not only does it keep him in a far better position but it can be adjusted any where from a fully reclined position to an upright seated position. Hanging a few toys up over his head also gave him something other than a blank ceiling to look at.

The little girl that Amy Deyong brought in to malnutrition a few days ago is doing fairly well. Her mother is a bit upset because Hermano Pedro has temporarily set up visiting hours due to all of the kids who are in the malnutrition ward awaiting surgery so I hope that she will not take her home until she is a bit healthier. I asked Amy if the little girl’s mother would be able to take good care of her if she took her home. Amy told me that she truly loves her child but there are 4 other children at home and her husband makes only 25 Q ( $3.35 ) per day. It’s pretty hard to feed a family on that even here in Guatemala.

Tony, Marcia, Fernando, and I stayed around to feed the kids and then headed for home. Tony and Marcia were going to join us for supper but with all of the traveling that they had done decided to simply head to their motel. Fernando and I stopped off for a pizza before heading for home. When we got home we were greeted at my gate by several of the kids. As much as I hated to do it I had to tell them that this was one of those rare occasions that I had to have the house to my self in order to get caught up on my journal and some other things. I think that they got the word out to most of the other kids because the amount of traffic at my gate has been only about 2 or 3 kids per hour ever since I got home a few hours ago. I let Leslie in for about an hour but hardly knew that she was here because she quietly did some school work on a the computer that is in the other room.

Tomorrow we plan on visiting some of the people that are going to receive or have received one of the prefabricated homes that Golf Coast Supply has provided us with. We plan on bringing groceries in to some of these families as well.

Well the door bell has not rung once in the past half hour so I think that I will be able to get some sleep if I head off to bed.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick
Friday, February 15, 2008, 10:14 PM

This morning I went to Antigua and joined Tony and Marcia for breakfast. We then headed back to Chemaltenango and after picking up Mario we got some groceries that we wanted to give to some needy families. We then headed out to do some visiting. I had not been out to where Maria, Fidel and their grandmother live in quite some time so we decided to go and see how they were doing. When we arrived where they live I could hear moaning coming from the small adobe house where Fidel has been bed ridden for quite some time. For over a year now I have always wondered weather or not he would still be alive the next time that I visited but today he looked worse than I have ever seen him and I have little doubt that he will be alive much longer. I promised the family that I would try to bring some pain medication in to him within a few days because they told me that he cries out in pain day and night.

Last time that I was there part of the old house was still standing and I was told that they were going to keep it for storage but now the old house has been torn down, the ground has been cleared, and Monday the village brick layer is scheduled to come in and pour the cement for the floor of the prefabricated house that we plan on building for Maria in the near future.

We had planned on visiting one other family today but stayed and visited the first family for much longer than we had originally expected to so we postponed that visit for another day.

After stopping off for lunch we dropped Mario off at his home and then headed for Antigua where I met up with Chris and around 20 people that he had brought down who wanted to see the orphanage. Since there were so many people I took them all in and introduced them to the younger kids and than divided the group in half and showed 10 of them around the rest of the orphanage while Chris and some of my friends who have been their before stayed with them and the younger kids. After giving group one the royal tour they stayed and played with the kids while group 2 was shown around. I must say that although the groups seemed a bit apprehensive at first it did not take long for them to warm up to the kids. They even stayed a bit longer than they had originally planned and most of them helped give the kids their supper. After they left Chris and I Fitted Jover, Who has just returned to the orphanage after being home for Christmas break, into a new wheelchair .

After leaving the orphanage several of us got together in Antigua for supper. Even though I had eaten supper before I got home I was not let off the hook. I must admit that supper was a simple one, even by my standards, but the kids were satisfied. That reminds me I have to pick up more bread, baloney, and cheese from the store tomorrow.

Well all of the kids that are going home have gone so I better turn of the light so that Calin and Danile get to sleep.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Saturday, February 16, 2008, 8:22 PM

Calin, Abner, and I picked up Tony and Marcia at around 8:30 this morning and then headed for the coast. Daniel was also invited but did not want to come along. Daniel is quite shy and usually shies away from groups of people.

Our firs stop was at Julio’s home. Julio is the 9 year old boy who I brought in to the malnutrition ward a few weeks ago. I wanted to tell Julio’s parents that he was doing well and that he already appeared to be gaining strength. To my surprise Julio’s father told me that he had come to Antigua and visited his son just yesterday. This is a big undertaking as it meant that he had to hitch a ride to the nearest town and then take several busses to get to Antigua so I was happy that he was that concerned about his son. He told me that he was happy with the care that his son was getting and was glad that he and his wife had decided to let me take Julio there. As we visited the family became more relaxed and we talked about many things. Julio’s father works in the sugar cane fields and even though he puts in 12 hours a day he scarcely makes enough money to feed his family. I asked him if the family had enough to eat and he told me that they were OK for now but he didn’t know how he was going to feed his family once the 5 month sugar cane harvest was over. We also talked about their living conditions. The land that they live on belongs to his mother who lives in a tin shack next to theirs. Both tin shacks look as though they could fall down ant any moment and we were told that they do little to keep any water out during the rainy season. Julio’s father also told us that he knew that the water that came from the well that was located only a short distance from the out house was making his family sick but that they had no alternative other than to drink it.

I could tell that this father truly wanted a better life for his family but could see no way to attain it. His 13 year old son who had dropped out of school to go to work with his father so that there could be more food on the table didn’t seem to have a much brighter future ahead of him either. I know that it is easy to judge people but I also knew that his was a family that was hurting and that they needed help. First I told them that we were going to see what could be done about getting them a water filter and then some medicine to kill the parasites that they likely had. Julio’s father looked at us and said that this was the first time that any one had ever come in and offered him and his family anything in their entire lives. I am not sure where this family stands as far as their relationship with Jesus Christ but this gave us the opportunity to share whith them that we were not doing this on our own but were doing it in the name of Jesus and that it was because of the love that He had given us by dying for our sins that we were here today. We told them that what ever gratitude or thankfulness they had was to be given to God and not to us. They both nodded in agreement and I think that they understood what we were saying. I guess we could have talked more with them about Jesus but some times showing them seems to be so much more effective. Besides I have always been affirm believer that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. If you think that telling the family that we would try to get them a water filter got a reaction you should have seen their faces when I told them that we were going to do our best to give them a new house as well. I have been talking to Chris about this family and we both feel that they are perfect candidates for one of the prefabricated houses that Golf Coast Supply has been supplying. I am still a firm believer that it is better to teach a person how to fish than to given him a fish but I also know that it is hard to fish on an empty stomach. I pray that some where along the way we can be instrumental in helping this father figure out a way to put more food on his table on his own but you have to start some where.

Next we drove to Angelica’s home. She is doing fairly well after her surgery but the incision on her leg has opened up a bit and there may still be some infection there. When Gordon took her back into the hospital last week they gave her a prescription for some antibiotics but her husband told us that he has been unable to locate any. The nearest drug store is in a town that is located about an hour away by car. I am going to try to get some to her the first part of the week.

Next we went to Ronny’s house. He and his family are getting excited about the team that is coming in from Washington State next week to help build their new house. Both their family, uncles family and Grandmother were completely out of food but fortunately I had some in my car that we were going to give to other families next week. We can always go shopping again before we visit them. Ronny’s father asked me if I would go and visit his mother. She had received one of the first prefabricated houses that we ever put up. Her health has been failing and her family has been trying to get her to see a doctor for several weeks now. On top of that she just got bit by a tarantula a few days ago. She was in a friendly mood but told me that she was not sure that she wanted to see a doctor. I think that she has a fear of doctors and after seeing what some of them do. I can’t say that I blame her. I told her about the doctors at Hermano Pedro and think that she may be willing to go there for a check up. She told me that she would let me know when we come in to build Ronny’s house next week.

Tomorrow I am planning on going to church and then taking it easy the rest of the day. I have made plans like that on several weekends however to my recollection they have seldom materialized.

Well I am going to go and say good night to my 2 house guests, (Abner and Fernando) and then head off to bed.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Sunday, February 17, 2008, 5:58 PM

As expected today did not go as expected. Six kids came along to church. There would have been 7 but Abner said that if I took Etiline he would not come along. After saying goodbye to Abner the six kids and I headed off to church. After church I had a short discussion with Jason’s Sunday school teacher and then a long discussion with Jason. The kids and I then headed outside where I stopped off to talk with some friends. While talking with them I discovered that Bonny Grim a dear lady that started coming along with us to church a few months ago was in the national hospital and not doing very well. They will know more by tomorrow but it looks like she may have cancer. I met Bonny several years ago when she was here volunteering her time as a physical therapist at Hermano Pedro. Bonny who is in her 70s loved Guatemala but due to some hart problems had to return to the States. A few months ago she returned to Guatemala against her families wishes. She told me that they were trying to put her out to pasture but she was not ready for that. She felt that she would rather be here in Guatemala even though she was well aware that medical treatment was not as readily available if she needed it.

I had promised the kids that we would go to Hermano Pedro and spend time with the kids there and then go out for lunch so they were a bit disappointed that I had to change my plans but they fully understood that it was important for me to go and visit Bonny. Since Visiting hours at the hospital are only from 1:30 -3:00 I did have time to stop off at Martha’s and buy the kids some lunch before taking them home though.

As I visited with Bonny today as she laid there in the national hospital. Bonny told me that she is sad that even though her daughter knows that she is possibly dyeing Her daughter wants nothing to do with her. Bonny still feels that she made the right decision in returning to Guatemala but feels quite alone. I am not judging who is at fault but I am praying and I am asking you to pray for Bonny and her family. Pray not only for physical healing but that things can be ironed out between Bonny, her daughter, and any other relatives that are involved.

Before heading for home I headed to Hermano Pedro to drop off Nancy Darby, a fringed who had come along with me to visit Bonny. I also wanted to stick my head in just to see how some of the kids like Julio and Byron were doing. While I was there Tony and Marcia also dropped by. Funny thing how spending just a minute or 2 seeing a few of the kids suddenly ends up being 2 or 3 hours but that is exactly what happened. Between Tony, Marcia, Nancy, and myself we made quite a dent in the amount of kids that mysteriously made it from their beds to their wheelchairs. I wouldn’t doubt that it took the nurses a good hour to get them all back into their cribs once we left. We also spent some time up in malnutrition but remembered to return those kids back to their cribs after holding them. I think that the highlight of my day was watching Julio as Tony held him. Even though it has only been 2 weeks since I brought him into the orphanage he is looking much healthier and doing far better. Today he was looking all around and even cracked a few smiles. Judging by the way that he eats I would not doubt that he is now at least 20 pounds. Not much for a 9 year old but better than the 17 ½ pounds that he weighed when he first arrived.

When I got home I let the kids in for about an hour but then sent them home so that I could get this journal finished. I may have to hurry though because I promised that I would do my best to let them back into the house before 9 PM.

Before I send off this week’s journal I would like to share one more prayer request. Luis Andrais is a boy that Chris and I brought into the orphanage nearly 2 years ago. At that time he was 6 years old and weighed 15 pounds. It was a miracle that he got into the orphanage in the first place and then a second miracle that he was readmitted after his mother broke the rules by not returning him after he went home for what was suppose to be a one week visit. All of the kids that went home for Christmas were suppose to be returned to the orphanage over a week ago. Hermano Pedro has not heard a thing from Luis’s mother. I am praying that she is no longer drinking and is now able to take care of her son but have fears that she once again simply did not bother to return him to the orphanage. Tomorrow Chris is going to give a phone call to a friend of ours who lives in the same town as Andrais. Please pray that what ever the outcome is that it is in the best interest of this little boy.

Yours in Christ: Dick

Journal February 2-10

Saturday, February 2, 2008

This weekend I am trying to do exactly that. Make it seem like a weekend. Today and possibly tomorrows journals will likely be shorter than normal unless I start rambling. Anyone who has read any of my journals knows that I am not guilty of that. Well lets rephrase that and juts say. ……….. Oops! There I go rambling on again.

This morning I finished up on this weeks journal and got it posted to my blogg. This after noon I took a bunch of the neighborhood kids swimming at a near by hot springs. This evening I fed kids. Now who says I can’t be short and to the point when I have to. I’m sure glad that I don’t have to very often though.

Yours in Christ; D.R.


Sunday, February 3, 2008, 8:46 PM

This morning it looked like Fernando was going to be the only one coming along to church with me but between my house and the end of my alley we gained 4 more kids. The pastors message was exactly what was needed this morning. It was about persevering even when things happen that you would not like to see happen. As it turned out he was perhaps the one who needed the message the most. Before he got to church this morning an electric transformer that is located directly in front of our church blew out. This not only meant no sound system for an unusually over crowded church but it also meant that there was no over head projector for the songs that we sang and none of the electrical instruments worked. Not only that but one of the reasons that pastor Mike arrives at church a few hours before the service is so that he can type out a set of notes for his interpreter of follow. No he does not use a typewriter he uses a computer that runs on electricity. Oddly enough the electric ceiling fans that help keep the temperature of our church down to tolerable also run on electricity. So does the projector that runs the short movie that was going to be used as an introduction to this mornings message. It was suggested that he and his interpreter act out the movie but that got voted down. Pastor Mike has a fairly good voice but it was no where as loud as the equipment that was working on the blown transformer just out side of the church. Evidently the equipment did not run on electricity. It sounded more like a diesel engine that is used in a freight train. I managed to catch a few words every now and then but I think that pastor Mike taught more by example than by word this morning. He kept his cool. One nice thing is he shouldn’t have to study for a new sermon next week I doubt that anyone who was sitting more than 2 rows from the front of church will know the diffrance if he uses the same one next Sunday. After Church I took the kids out to Martha’s to eat. $16 gave the 6 of us more than we could eat.

The kids all offered to help wash my car after church so I said OK. One slip of the garden hose and with in 30 seconds we had a full fledged water fight going. I didn’t think that it was entirely fair when several of the kids took a time out to take off their clothing so that they would not get it wet but I guess that being Guatemalan has its advantages. Rudy who is older and has a bit of modesty and myself were only allowed a short time out to get our wallets out of our pockets. By the time the water fight was over everything was wet. Everything but the car that is. Have you ever tried to get sun baked soap off from a car? It can be a real pain. My car never did get as clean as I had anticipated but the kids had a great time. So did the adults.

Believe it or not I am once again in the Bamboo Motel in Mazatenango. This place is beginning to feel more like home than home does. Tonight we are here with 6 of us. Tomorrow we will be met by around 14 people from the USA who will be doing 3 wheelchair distributions with us. Tomorrow’s distribution will be in Ratolao which is about an hour from here and then we plan on having a 2 day distribution in Xela on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Well that’s about enough rambling for one night so I will say goodnight.

Yours in Christ: Dick


Monday, February 4, 2008, 8:41 PM

This morning we met up with the team of Americans that are here. We did a wheelchair distribution in Ratilao. For most of them this distribution was the first that they had ever been on but they all chipped in and everyone enjoyed themselves. Everyone except the first 2 kids that 3 of the Americans and myself seated that is. I occasionally seat some one who is afraid and cries little when they are first put into a chair. It might be that they are frightened seeing so many Americans, Also for most of them being put into a wheelchair is a brand new experience. Then again it could be my face, but I prefer to think that isn’t it. Nevertheless I can usually have them smiling with in a few minutes. Usually but not today. The first 2 little girls that we gave wheelchairs to today cried the entire time that we were seating them. We think that the first one cried the loudest but then again it could be that we had all lost some of our hearing by the time we got to the second one. The rest of the day the kids did great. Towards the end of the day one little boy who we gave a wheelchair to cried at first but we soon had him laughing and playing. It was a good distribution though and by around 2 PM 55 wheelchairs had been given out.

We are now in Xela and plan on being here for the next few days. We plan on giving out around 100 wheelchairs here in Xela over the next few days.

Just one of the many happy kids.

During today’s distribution I got a call from Angelica, the lady who had a new plate put into her leg. She said that she was in a lot of pain andwas running a fever. We quickly phoned Chris’s dad in-law, Gordon and he went out to the coast to pick her up and bring her in to the hospital. We are praying that if she has an infection it can be treated with antibiotics and that see will not need more surgery.

A short time later I received a phone call from Amy Deyong. She told me that she had found a 2 year old girl up in Santa Maria Dejesus who is starving to death and wondered if I could help get her admitted into the malnutrition ward at Hermano Pedro. I told her that I would be out of town for the next few days but explained the procedure for getting the little girl admitted into the hospital, to Amy. I wish that I could be there to help her out tomorrow but simply have not yet figured out how to be 2 places at once. Please pray that this little girl can be admitted into the malnutrition ward as swiftly and as easily as Julio was.

I received more phone calls throughout the day, one was from a lady that I know who runs a small orphanage in Chemaltenango. She told me that because of lack of financial support she is going to have to down size. What does this mean? Six of the kids that are in her orphanage are going to have to go. She asked if I could go with her tomorrow to talk to father Jose at Hermano Pedro to see if they could possibly take in these children. Hermano Pedro is already overcrowded but I asked her if she could hang in there until Friday and said that I would try to go in with her then.

Another phone call this evening was from my friend Carlos. He informed me that both Byron and Carletos’s power chairs are no longer working. They will have to wait.

If you think that I get a lot of phone calls you ought to spend the day with Chris and Donna some time. There phones are continually ringing off the hook. People who are hungry, homeless, in need of wheelchairs or medical attention, or families who can not afford to send their kids to school or in some cases even feed them. The list goes on and on. Praise God we can help some of them but money and man power prevent us from helping a lot of them and that really hurts. I try to make it a point to only present needs and not directly ask for help, but I want to let you know that there are people dying here, and simply patting them on the head and saying I know that God will take care of you just doesn’t do it. How I wish that everyone who reeds these journals could come down here even if it were only for a week or 2. I am sure that if you could only meat some of these beautiful people you would understand why our harts are being broken with the things that break God’s hart.


James 2; 14-17 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”–but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

I often close my day’s journal by saying goodnight. Perhaps it is time to wish some of you a restless one. Am I doing the old guilt trip thing? Perhaps, but I am getting tired of seeing children going hungry or dieing needlessly. God has given us so much but often times we are willing to give so little.

Yours in Christ; Dick


Tuesday, February 5, 2008, 4:17 PM

Today we were able to give out another 50 wheelchairs. There were far more kids today and they usually take much longer to fit than the adults do but the volunteers from the States also had had 1 distribution under their belts so they were able to do a lot more seating on their own. They were all very eager to learn and to help and so were many of the therapists who work at the Fundabium. They did run into 1 5 minute project that took them nearly 2 hours to complete but I can remember back to the days when that often happened to me. Fact is it still happens from time to time but no one says much to me about it. they simply chalk it up to my age.

The last person that my team worked with today was a real challenge. He was a boy of 15 who up until today had never been in a wheelchair. Spending his entire life lying on his side had taken its toll. His body was severely twisted and getting him into a comfortable seated position was a real challenge. We used up a lot of foam and I nearly wore out the blade of my electric carving knife but a little over 3 hours after picking out a wheelchair for him he was sitting comfortably with a smile on his face.

Tomorrow should prove to be another busy day because we have another 50 people scheduled for a distribution at the same Fundabium that we were at today.

I received 2 encouraging phone calls today. The first was from Angelica’s daughter. Evidently the infection or what ever it was that was giving Angelica a lot of pain and a high fever was not all that serious because the hospital was allowing her to go back to her home. My second call was from Amy Deyong. The 2 year old girl that she had called me about had made it through the night and although it had been an all day ordeal the little girl had has been admitted into the malnutrition ward of Hermano Pedro.

Well I think I will go and see if I left my coat in the car. The temperature here in Xela dropped down to near freezing last night. It sort of makes me wish that the rooms of this hotel had heat in them.


Wednesday, February 7, 2008



Today was the last day of 3 consecutive days of wheelchair distributions. In the past 3 days we have given out and seated 147 wheelchairs. It has been a busy 3 days but we really enjoyed ourselves and the people that came down from the USA to help with the distribution pitched right in and were a real blessing.

We finished up near 1 PM so Chris, George, Saul, and Hanna all headed back for home. I am staying here in Xela for a few more days. Several of the people that are here from the USA have asked me to take them to see some of the people that we work with here in Guatemala.

Even though I had seen Erica and her family about a week ago we revisited them again today, partly because the 2 people that accompanied me today wanted to meet her and her family and also because I wanted to talk with them about possibley trying a different medicine. The ammonium lactate cream that she is using has done wonders for most of her body but her legs are often covered with the black scales that give them the appearance of burnt leather. I am considering having her try Urea which is a stronger medicine on just one of her legs and then comparing them in a few weeks. One of the men that accompanied me today took his I pod along with him, firs to Erica's house and a bit later to Christopher's house. What ever shyness any of these kids had when I first visited them several years ago is now completely gone. With in minutes Don had all of the kids clapping and dancing right along with him. They all had a great time.



Christopher is going to school 3 days a week. The other 2 days are market day in the small town that he has to cross in order to get to school and his mother told us that the narrow streets are so crowded that they are just to difficult and unsafe for him to drive on with his power wheelchair. Christopher seems to be content with going only 3 days and perhaps since he tires quickly it is for the best. His mother still has to carry him about a quarter mile from there home to a friends home where the wheelchair is kept because the trail that leads to there home is to narrow. I am thinking of looking into what it would take to smooth out an widen the trail though because Christopher who is now 13 years old is getting to heavy to carry. Anyway that is what my back is telling me tonight. After visiting at his home today I offered to carry him out to where his wheelchair is. I don't know how his mother can do it day after day.



After returning to Xela I stayed and had dinner with my friends who are staying at a different motel than I am and then headed back to mine. It looks like about 5 people will be joining me tomorrow. We plan on visiting Enma and Jose who live about 2 hours from here. If time permits we may go back to Christopher’s house. I want to buy him some heavier duty batteries for his power wheelchair because his ride to and from school is a long hilly one.

Goodnight

Yours in Christ: Dick

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Well it looks like my Macintosh Power book is giving up the ghost. A few months ago the touch pad and lit keyboard went out on it and tonight the screen started flickering and then turned black. At first I feared that I had lost this weeks pictures and journal but after leaving it turned off for a while and doing a lot of praying I managed to get it running just long enough to get some of those things transferred onto a memory stick. Another fortunate thing is that at the last minute I decided to take the computer that I use for mapping along with me from home. It certainly isn't the computer that my good old Mac was before developing hart trouble but I am grateful to have it.

Enma and her son Jose were glad to see us. even though they have next to nothing they are continually thanking God for what they do have. Enma had hugs for everyone and quickly made us feel right at home. Even though the 4 people who had come along with me today had never met her or Jose before the all hit it off right away. I did some repair on Jose's wheelchair while Enma showed my friends around. Jose kept looking at my car which was parked along side of their house but today I didn’t let him steer it. I know that he loves nothing better but he is getting really big and the last few times that I let him steer my car down the trail that leads in to his house he got so excited that his flailing arms and legs nearly wiped out everything that was in my car, and even though I did my best to hold down his legs and the hand that was not on the steering wheel I managed to get a fat lip and a few bruses. Jose is not trying to deliberately hit me but when he gets excited his hands and feet go wild.



Enma is once again having some medical problems so I asked her if she wanted me to try and set up a time when she can come in to Hermano Pedro and see a doctor. She told me that she would ask here married daughter I she would care fo Jose because she know hat she had to get something done. Before leaving we had a time of prayer together.

It was 5 pm by the time we got back so I decided to wait until tomorrow to bring the new batteries that we bought this morning to Christopher.

Goodnight:
Yours in Christ: Dick

Friday, February 8, 2008, 7:26 PM

I am finally back at home, (well sort of). After 5 days I really miss the kids, (actually I missed them the day I left home). However after not checking or responding to any e-mails since Saturday night I made myself stop off at the shop and do that and my journal so that once I got home I could give the kids my full attention. That was 2 and a half hours and countless e-mails ago. Anyway I have finally finished up with reading and responding to my e-mails and have decided that I better finish up on today’s journal as well.

Before heading for home this morning I drove up to San Francisco to give Christopher his new wheelchair batteries. Little did I know that it was market day until I approached the town. I now fully understand why he can not take his wheelchair to school on market day. It took me a long time to get anywhere near his home with my car and once I got there I found out that he and his mother were in town. There was no way that I could get my car any where near to where Christopher and his mother were but his brother offered to walk me there. We had to walk for nearly a mile and the streets were crowded with hundreds of people who were selling anything from pigs and chickens to clothing that they had weaved. We finally got to where Christopher and his mother were. She had a table set up and was trying to sell some used clothing and Christopher was sitting in his wheelchair in a narrow hallway that ran between 2 stores. I told him that we had not carried the new batteries or my tools in with us because I had figured that he could drive his power wheelchair to my car but was now beginning to wander if that was possible. The merchants had tables, boxes, and baskets of merchandise stacked so tightly together that there was scarcely room to walk yet alone take a wheelchair down the narrow streets. We decided to give it a try though so Christopher carefully backed his wheelchair out of the narrow hall way that he was in, His brother and I had to lift it out of the door way and around a few tables just to get it on to the street but then for the most part Christopher was able to drive it the rest of the way to my car. I must say though that the going was not easy, especially for the first few blocks. I think that a lot of people in Christopher’s town still have a long way to go before they are courteous to some one who is in a wheelchair. Many times people would push and crowd in front of him and no one would even attempt to get out of his way. Christopher kept his cool though and slowly maneuvered his power wheelchair around any one or any thing that was in his way. When we got to my car I took out the 2 new batteries only to find out that they did not have the right type of connectors on them . I told Christopher and his brother that there was no problem though because we could get what we needed at any auto parts store. Kenneth, Christopher’s brother, looked at me and said that we still had a problem. He told me that San Francisco had no auto parts store. He said that he and Christopher would gladly come along with me in my car if I wanted to drive back to Xela to get the parts that we needed though. I am not sure if I was being conned or what because I think that both boys wanted a ride in my car but soon we Christopher, Kenneth and I were in my car and heading towards Xela. There is another town that you drive through between San Francesco and Xela but both Christopher and Kenneth insisted that we would find nothing there either. Unfortunately for them but fortunately for me I spotted one though and they had the connectors that we needed. Both boys were a bit disappointed but I explained to them that I still wanted to make it back to Chemaltenango today. When we got back to San Francisco we quickly put the new batteries into Christopher’s wheelchair and I was on my way.

Even though it is normally an hour longer I took the Pan American Highway home because I had been told that there were a lot of construction delays on the other road.

Speaking of delays Calin called me about a half hour ago and was wondering why I was not at home yet.

Yours in Christ: Dick
Saturday, February 9, 2008, 7:45 PM


I am having some computer problems but after hooking up an old monitor to my lap top I am at least able to see what I am doing. The lap top that I use for mapping is not doing much better. The screen lights up but the computer suddenly refuses to connect to the internet. The younger kids are not happy about having no internet for games and the older ones who have not yet come over to do home work will not be to tickled about having no internet on the lap top and no monitor for the desk top. I am not quite sure how they will do there school work but we will figure something out. Would you believe though that other than that and a few dozen other things my day went great today. If I think back even a few years a day like today would have gotten me upset but I am slowly learning to put more and more into God’s hands, or to lay it at His feet.

As I suspected, today was kids day. I left for Hermano Pedro early enough that not nearly all of the kids in my neighborhood discovered that I was back at home but Calin, Abner, Fernando, and Lady were all here for breakfast so they accompanied me to the orphanage. All but a few of the kids that went home during Christmas have now returned to the orphanage and it was great to see them. I had promised the 4 kids that came along with me that we would take five of the orphanage kids out to eat but deciding which 5 we would ask was difficult. We had planned on taking 7 kids but Jim and Jill ended up having to work at Higher Grounds Coffee House today. I figured that the kids could trade off on pushing one of the kids to Camperos because Byron had his power wheelchair. However the nurses had failed to charge his batteries so his chair died before we even got out of the door of the orphanage. I guess that I could look at that as a blessing because had it died some where in town it would have been a chore to get him and his chair back home. After exchanging his power wheelchair for a manual one we were all under way. The kids got tired pushing the wheelchairs but all of them stuck with it. Abner lost it a bit when Calin Accidentally ran into the back of his legs with Gasper’s wheelchair but came out of his crying spell in record time. It also helped that when I told the kids that I would phone the group of adults that we were going to show through the orphanage right after lunch and ask of they could meet us at Camperos and then help us push the 5 kids that were in wheelchairs back to the orphanage. Have you ever noticed how even when one of the smallest children spills a soft drink none of it gets on them but it automatically gravitates towards the largest person that is sitting at the table. Oh well, once again I was able to look at the bright side of it knowing that no matter how many of the orphanage kids sat on my lap to day I would not have to worry about getting any wetter than I already was. After I mopped up what little orange soda there was left that had not soaked into my pants I decided to call in reinforcements. I figured that the adults that were going to join us at the orphanage could perhaps not only show up at Camperos in time to help us get the kids back to the orphanage but could possibley join us in time to help feed some of the kids and then help out when we put the kids on the playground equipment. Unfortunately my phone call turned out a little different than planned. I was told that other things had come up and the group was not going to be able to make it in today. I think that kids must have a sixth sense about them though because when they realized that reinforcements were not arriving they all pitched in double time and the rest of the day went rather smoothly. Or at least it went a lot smoother then you would expect it to go with 9 kids 5 of whom were in wheelchairs and one adult who was wondering if they may have to put him in one before the end of the day. After lunch I let the kids play on the slides and other playground equipment for quite a while. As we were playing I saw 2 ladies that were talking to each other as they looked at the kids and then at me. Calin later told me what they were saying. I actually like what I thought they were saying a lot better than what Calin told me that they said though. I guess the words Saint and stupid must sound nearly the same in Spanish. Nevertheless we all had a good time and I plan on taking more kids out on Monday.

The rest of our day was spent in playing with some of the kids that didn’t get to go out today. I also spent some time up in the malnutrition ward. Jennifer, has gone home with her parents. She is so fragile that I don’t see how she will make it out of a hospital environment but I know that her parents love and miss her. Julio seems to be doing well and is adapting nicely to his new surroundings. It is still hard to believe that he is 9 years old. At 17 ½ pounds he is a bit less than 2 pounds per year. The 2 year old girl that Amy Deyong brought in a few days ago seems to be doing alright as well. Her mother was there today and she seems like a verry caring person. Perla, and Byron don’t seem to be showing much change. Both of them just lye there with their heads bent so far back that it is a wonder that they can even breath. I try to hold Byron when ever I am there because he has so many tubes and things in him that I think most people are afraid to.

At around 4 PM we headed for home. Most of the kids played while Calin and I did some work on my car. The last 5 days on the road once again laid claim to part of my exhaust system and a fog light. I still have not hit any pot holes that helped improve my out of round front wheel so I may have to break down and have that fixed.

Well that is about it for another day, so I will say goodnight.

Yours in Christ: Dick


Sunday, February 10, 2008, 7:37 PM

Nine of us made it to church this morning. There would have been 11 but Esben and his brother Elder, who were here for breakfast evidently did not have permission to be here. One of their cousins came over and told me that they Had snuck out of their house before anyone else woke up hoping that I would let them come along to church. They kept insisting that they had been given permission but when I told them that I was going to go over to their house and make sure that they did they quickly left with tears in their eyes.

We ended up with 11 people in my car on the way home though. I had promised Moises and Byron that I would pick them up at the orphanage and take them along to Abner’s birthday party today. The party was at Abner’s aunt and uncles house, I think that his mother sent some money from the States so that he could have a party because today I was told that I did not have to bring food a cake or anything. We all had a fun time especially the 2 boys that came along from the orphanage. I was suppose to get them back to Hermano Pedro by 4 PM but ended up getting them there about an hour late. It really did not matter though because they had plenty to eat at the party and did not mind missing supper at the orphanage.

We stuck around Hermano Pedro for a little while after bringing Moises and Byron back there. Some of my neighborhood kids have not had a chance to see some of the kids that recently returned to Hermano Pedro after spending nearly 2 months at their homes so they wanted to stay and visit for a while. The bond of friendship that these kids have established is beyond words. I wish that more people could be as uninhibited about showing love to the kids at Hermano Pedro as the kids from my neighborhood are.

The neighborhood kids also ate well at the party so I figured that this would be a good night to lock the gate and get some work done. That was about an hour ago and so far it has not worked. It is hard to say no to someone who has to do home work or to Esben who is still feeling bad about not being allowed to come along to church this morning.

Tomorrow I am suppose to show 2 different groups of people around the orphanage. It is my prayer that some of them will fall in love with the kids and decide to return and spend more time with them. As I was about to leave Hermano Pedro this evening I could not help but walk back to a crib that is located near the back wall of one of the rooms. Hillier Estardo seem to be having a rough time. He is a boy who came into Hermano Pedro under court order about a year ago. No one is quite sure weather his mother continually beat him because he was not quite normal or if he is not quite normal because of the beating that he received. Never the less there have been times that he seems to come out of the protective little world that he locks his mind into and at least shows some emotion. Tonight it was tears. I personaly feel that the tears are better than the blank expressionless stares that are on his face most of the time but would much rather see him smile. I have seen that happen a few times but all too few. Tonight was one of those rare times and all it took was a few minutes of my time showing this precious child that someone cared. After returning Estardo to his crib I heard a far to familiar sound of another child that was starving for attention. This was not the sound of crying but it bothered me just as much. You would think that after all of these years I could just tune it out but I guess that I will never get use to the bang, bang, bang of Sam Sam’s head against the steel bars of his crib. I knew that if I stopped and held him I would only return him to his crib and then be drawn to another. I plan on returning to Hermano Pedro tomorrow, perhaps I can find some time to spend with him then.

Yours in Christ; Dick

Journal January 28 - February 1

Click on any photo to enlarge

Monday, January 28, 2008, 10:34 PM

Some times I have to be reminded why I first came to Guatemala. This morning was one of those times. It seemed like a weeks work piled up on me when I went to Saloma for 2 days. When I got home last night it took me 4 hours just to catch up on Answering e-mails and returning phone calls that I had missed in the past 2 days. I then stayed up until 2:30 am getting caught up on my journal. When I finally drug myself out of bed at a rather late hour this morning I had some new e-mails that presented a few other issues that I had to deal with so I barely made it out of the door before noon. I was watching the clock closely because I knew that if I stayed home much longer the kids would be out of school and at least a half dozen of them would be begging me to take them along. I really didn’t want to deal with that because I wanted to meat with a few people from Hermano Pedro with out any interruptions. Besides that I have kids with me almost 24 7 and it is nice to have a break every now and then. On my way into Antigua I was still trying to schedule a bunch of things in my mind and drive at the same time. Anyone who has ever driven or even ridden in a car here in Guatemala knows that when you are driving a car you have to put 110% of your concentration into your driving. Perhaps that is why when I drove by a lady that was dragging herself with her hands down the sidewalk at the outskirts of Antigua I scarcely paid any attention to her. However about a block further down the road it dawned on me that one of the primary reasons that I came to Guatemala was to share the love of Jesus by helping to provide wheelchairs to those that truly needed them. There was no doubt in my mind that this lady could use a wheelchair. As I kept driving a lot of reasons not to turn around and go back ran through my mind. One of them was that I was on a one way street. There was no way I could turn the car around and go the wrong way down a one way street. I must admit this excuse didn’t hold much water. So many people in Guatemala drive the wrong way down one way streets that it is impossible to know which way the cars are suppose to be going if you look at the traffic. I also reminded myself that there are thousands of people in Guatemala that need wheelchairs and we can’t possibly give wheelchairs to all of them. I also had a lot of things going on today and I didn’t need anything else added to my schedule. Besides that after thinking through all of these reason not to go back I was a good 6 blocks down the road. Besides that there are a lot of tourists in Guatemala, surly one of them would offer to help her out. Although judging by her appearance so far no one had. But even if I turned around chances were this lady had already gone inside one of the many buildings that lined the street and if I happened to find her there was this thing that I have about not knowing the language. Suppose I did fined her would I have to do another pantomime to try to get her to understand what I was talking about? Although I must admit after this many years of surviving without knowing much of the language my pantomime skills have greatly improved. Ever have those times when even though you come up with dozens of great excuses why you should or should not do something you still can’t convince your self? Don’t you just hate it when that happens? When I finally turned the car around I was a good ten blocks away from where I had seen the lady dragging her self down the side walk. I actually had to drive a lot further than that because no self respecting Guatemalan would ever drive more than just a few blocks in the wrong direction down a one way street, so I actually tried to go a block over and then back. However the street workers had put up some barricades so that they could repair the road and I ended up zigzagging all over Antigua. I had doubts that I would find this lady back but knew that my conscience would not rest if I didn’t at least give it a try. Finally I found myself back on the street where I had originally seen the lady. There she was not even a hundred feet further down the side walk then where I had first seen her. I had driven over 20 blocks while she had gone less than a hundred feet, and even though I had done it in the comfort of my car I had likely done a lot more grumbling and complaining than this dear lady had done in years. Was it a GODINCIDENCE that just when I got out of my car and walked up to her an American who knew both English and Spanish walked by. Considering about half the people in Antigua are foreigners who are studding Spanish you could possibly say that it wasn’t but I believe that God often works through very normal circumstances that come along and if we are available they are still as much of a God Thing as some of the things that I have seen that seem to be down right miracles. After a wonderful visit I discovered that this dear lady has a wheelchair but from what I could understand it either needs a lot of work or has to be replaced. Either way she promised to get in contact with Bethel’s wheelchair shop and get the help that she needed. Funny thing is something that I almost considered a bother made me forget what ever it was that was on my mind that was trying to ruin my day. The fact is this inconvenience ended up making my day and so did the kids at the orphanage and the 12 to 15 that were in my house tonight. Isn’t it funny how the things that we try to avoid are often the things that are best for us?

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I had to get my car fixed again today. Nothing serous, I only had to get a few exhaust brackets replaced that were torn off wile I was in Saloma the other day. They actually have paved streets there but it seems that some of the steel grates that cover the drains in their streets are missing. The drains are about 3 feet square and bottomless. I guess one of the 2 times that I missed seeing one of them it must have broken the brackets when the wheel of my car dropped in. It cost me a whopping $12 but at least now my exhaust is fixed. I considered asking the mechanic if he could do anything about my bent wheel but I figure that I have a 50 50 chance that the next time I hit another pot hole it will straiten the wheel back out.

After leaving the mechanic I headed to Hermano Pedro. I had promised Carlos that I would fix a problem that he had with his power wheelchair. I may have been able to get it done in less than an hour but I had lots of little helpers because many of the kids are starting to come back after spending the Christmas holidays at home.

Ervin is now back and unfortunately has not gotten any better at not screaming his head off when ever things do not go his way. He is a really neat kid but if he keeps this up he will soon once again be avoided by most volunteers. I wish that he would realize that by doing this he gets even less of the attention that he wants and needs.
Most of the other kids that are back have not changed much. Some have lost a bit of weight but not to much. One of the girls came back quite sick and was found to have hepatitis.

Moises just got back today and was having a bit of a hard time after his father dropped him off without hardly saying goodbye. At around 3 PM I finished up on Carlos’s wheelchair so I decided to take Moises out for a hamburger.

Even though I had something to eat a few hours earlier I could see that there was no way that I was going to get out of feeding the kids in my neighborhood tonight. I only lost one when I announced that tonight each one was going to help with the cooking or with cleaning up and their payment was going to be tonight’s meal. Needless to say after the last dish was washed and put away Abner, who was the one that didn’t want to help, announced that he was hungry. Needless to say I announced to him that he was going to stay that way until morning and that it would be his turn to do dishes then. He did remarkably well with it though and didn’t go into a 3 hour crying spell. Abner is slowly becoming a pleasant young man, most of the time. It’s just those other times that he can still drive you crazy. I love him though and thankfully I don’t have to remind myself of that nearly as often as I used to.

Well it is time to ask my 15 dinner guests to leave and head off to bed.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick



Wednesday, January 30, 2008

This morning Benjamin joined me for a 2 day road trip. Christopher, who lives in San Francisco a small town near Xela, has been without his power wheelchair for several days. It has been at our shop for repairs. Without it Christopher can not go to school unless his mother caries him down the trail that leads from there house to a road and then pushes him to school in a manual wheelchair. We also needed to get more medicine in to Erica, the girl that has the skin disease, and some bed sore medicine to a young man who is having a problem with bed sores.

The drive from Chemaltenango to Xela can sometimes be done in around 3 hours. Sometimes but not today. For the past few years now there has been a lot of road construction taking place on the Pan American highway that leads to Xela. It will be a big improvement when and if it ever gets completed but right now it is a big mess. Signs telling you where detours are or which lanes of the rode suddenly narrow down or worse yet still have no bridges over rivers and ravines, are virtually non existent so you have to continually be on guard for what ever lies around the next corner. There are some places where they have flag men trying to stop traffic but those places are not much better. Much like the situation that I ran into last week end, these flag men stop traffic for up to 2 hours at a time. The only diffrance is that the road that I was on the other day only sees a few cars a day on it, but the Pan American highway is filled with Busses, trucks, and cars, and not all of the drivers have a great deal of patience. There is always someone who decides that they will squeeze there way to the front of a mile long line that is waiting for the road to open up by passing all of the stopped traffic in the oncoming lain. It is usually the busses that do this but once they do they are often followed by a number of cars and trucks. With out fail they are met on some narrow corner by one of the gravel trucks that is working on the road or by another buss, that is being followed by a dozen or more trucks and cars, who had also decided not to wait until the flag man reopened the road. Seeing who gives in and which procession is willing to back up for a mile or so can be a real comedy. I must admit that sitting on the fender of your car and watching this helps relieve the boredom of a 2 hour delay.

We finally made it to San Francisco (Guatemala not California) at just past noon. We then hiked in to Erica’s house with the medicine that she needed. She is doing quite well and her face, arms, and upper body, although still not totally smooth, are free of the thick black crusts that once covered them. Her feet and legs however once again looked like they were covered with rotting leather. Her mother told us though that the medicine was a God send and that Erica seemed like a new person. She said that the thick crust on her legs occasionally come back but over all Erica is doing well. Erica’s older sister is still home schooling her and Erica loves it. Before leaving Erica’s mother brought us out a big lunch. Neither Benjamin nor I were very hungry because we had stopped off for something to eat about a hour earlier. We ate all that we could though because we knew what a sacrifice it was for this family to offer their food to us.

On our way out from Erica’s house we hiked up to the edge of the cliff where Christopher lives. Christopher and most of his relatives have all moved back into the houses that did not disappear over the cliff during the heavy rains of Hurricane Stan 2 years ago. Some of the homes that they moved back into are literally at the edge of the cliff but the people have no where else to live so in spite of the danger they have return to homes that were not destroyed or to those that only had one or 2 rooms disappear over the cliff. Christopher was not at home when we arrived but we were told by some relatives that he and his mother would be returning soon. Since we knew that they would be coming up the trail that led to our car we decided to head out and meat them. Sure enough about half way back to my car we met Christopher, his mother, and brother and sister coming up the trail. Christopher’s mother who is a small lady was carrying 13 year old Christopher on her back and his younger brother was carrying his wheelchair up the narrow trail. We stood there and visited for a while and then we all headed back out to my car to get Christopher’s power chair. Christopher was verry excited to get his chair back because now he would be able to go most of the way from his house to school under his own power. I think that his mother and Brother who had been carrying Christopher and his wheelchair were equally as happy. After unloading Christopher’s wheelchair from the car we noticed one broken part that had been over looked at the shop but fortunately I had my tools with me and even though I did not have the needed part I was able to improvise and the wheelchair should now be fine until our next visit.

Christopher’s mom told us that the doctor thinks that the mass that is located just above Christopher’s brain has been there since birth and is not growing so they have decided not to operate. Christopher has not had any seizures for quite some time now so I am praying that they are right. I know that if he was someone who was living in the USA his family would likely have a lot more tests done but here in Guatemala it is not all that simple and not many families have the resources to take there children to doctors or anything other than a government hospital that many of the people consider nothing more than the place that you go to to die.

I was glad though that the seizures have stopped and that Christopher’s over all health looked much better than it did the last time that I saw him and I pray that he continues to stay healthy. Far to many children that I know have died within just this past year.

Our next stop was at the home of a young man who we gave a wheelchair to at our last distribution. I had promised that the next time I was in the area I would drop off some bed sore medicine. Unlike our visits with Erica and Christopher this family was not overly friendly to us. They thanked us for bringing the medicine though and then we were quickly on our way.

Tonight we are in Mazatenango at the Bamboo Motel. Other than the cement beds this is still one of my favorite motels. The rooms are nice, the food is good, the prices are right, and they even have a swimming pool. After putting on our swim suits and getting to the pool we discovered that the filtration system has been broken for a few days so it was more like swimming in one of the local ponds but it still felt good and a quick shower afterwards got rid of most of the crud that had built up on our skin while swimming.

Well I am getting tired enough that I think I can fall asleep even if it is on a cement bed that has a 2 inch piece of foam rubber on it, so I am once again going to say goodnight.

Yours in Christ: Dick

Thursday, January 31, 2008

After breakfast Benjamin and I headed east towards Ronny’s house. Once again this normal 2 hour drive proved to take much longer. Much like where we were yesterday there is a lot of construction taking place on this highway as well. If they ever get all of the construction completed the highway system should be a lot better and taking into account that many cars and buses are having accidents and being destroyed during the construction there should be far less traffic on them as well. Travel on the roads that have no construction on them is not much faster because of the sugar cane trucks that are on them. Not only do they move very slowly when loaded but the loads that they carry often hang way out over the top and sides of the truck and you have to be extremely careful when passing or meeting one of them.

Ronny’s parents told us that since Ronny knew that we were coming he had wanted to stay home from school but they convinced him to go. Actually I don’t think that he had much choice because his power wheelchair was once again having problems so his mother had pushed him to school in his manual wheelchair. Both he and his brothers and sisters are doing well in school though and they really seem to enjoy it. Ronny’s mother told me that 6 year old Arlindo is so thrilled that he can now go to school that he is always out of bed and cleaned up for school by 5:30 AM.

At around noon Benjamin and I walked to the school along with Ronny’s mom. School was not quite over yet but knowing how eager Ronny was to see us his teacher let him out of class a bit early. When we got back to Ronny’s house all of the kids showed us the school work that they had been doing. Seeing how much they love school makes it hard to see so many kids not going simply because they don’t have enough money for school supplies.

Ronny was delighted that we were once again able to get his power wheelchair going because I had originally told him that I possibly would have to take it back to the shop with me for a few days. I am praying that it continues to work for a while but bumpy trails and the dust and mud seem to take a high toll on power wheelchairs.

We stayed quite a long time just visiting after we had repaired the wheelchair. Ronny’s entire family is extremely eager to get into there new house. Some local brick layers that we have hired have gotten a good start on it but we are leaving the rest for when the group from the USA arrives in a few weeks.

After leaving Ronny’s house we briefly stopped of at Angelica’s house to see how she was doing. She was happy to see us and quickly showed us that she is now starting to walk a bit and the operation on her femur seems to be a success.

While we were at Ronny’s school I talked with Ronny’s teacher about the clinic that she had taken us to that was in her town about a year ago. She told us that even though they had verry little money to keep it going it was still operating and that they were seeing about 50 people a day there. The teacher met up with us at Angelica’s home and we then drove to her town to once again visit the clinic. The administrator and doctor at the clinic immediately recognized me and asked where I had been for the past year. They showed me the pictures of several people that were in need of wheelchairs and asked if we could help. I told them that I would bring them some wheelchair forums soon and we would try and get these people in to a wheelchair distribution. I asked them about one little boy Who’s picture they had shown me the last time that I was there. He had stuck in my mind because he looked so skinny and it appeared that he was dying. They told me that since he was nearly an hour from the clinic that they simply had not had the opportunity to follow up on him but feared that he had died. After just hearing about the 2 kids that died when I was in Rabinal last week I just could not wonder though. What if he were still alive and what if something could still be done for him? I am quite certain that Antonio would still be alive if only we could have gotten him the help that he needed in time. I asked the doctor and the administrator of the clinic if we could go and see if this boy were still alive. They told me yes and that all I had to do was pick the day. I quickly picked it. 15 minutes later the doctor, the clinic administrator, Ronny’s teacher, Benjamin, and myself were heading off to where Julio lived. Julio’s home was nothing more than some rusty tin nailed to some boards. It didn’t look like the family would be much wormer or dryer in it than they would be if they lived right outside. Mother, father and 4 other children were there but I did not see Julio. After the doctor introduced Benjamin and myself to the family he asked weather or not Julio was still alive. The mother nodded yes and took us over to the side of the house where a hammock hung between 2 trees. There in it was one of the skinniest children that I have ever seen. Julio’s mother told us that he has had diarrhea all of his life and any food that she ever gave him would go right through him. It was hard to believe that this child who had to weigh less than 20 pounds was 9 years old. To my surprise though he was quite alert and fairly limber considering he has spent his entire life lying in a hammock. It was obvious that his parents cared about him but with no money and 4 other children to feed they were unable to do much for him. Nor did they think that anything could be done for him. The only doctor that had ever seen him was the one that was with me. He had given him medicine for parasites but one look at the families water supply made it evident that even if the medicine had worked new parasites were in this child’s body with in days. I am sure that the other children in the family had parasites as well but since Julio also had cerebral palsy it had taken a far worse toll on him. I told his parents that we gave out wheelchairs but that right now this was not a priority. We had to figure out a way to keep this child alive. The family had never met me before and to my knowledge had likely only heard stories about Americans. Unfortunately many of these stories are of Americans who want to kidnap their children or offering to take them to hospitals where the children either die at or simply never get returned to there homes. Never the less all I could do was try. I was grateful that the Cuban doctor, and 2 Guatemalan adults were along, perhaps this would ease the minds of 2 nervous parents. I will not go into detail about the conversation and exactly what went on but I consider the decisions that Julio’s parents made to be a real God thing. Tonight Julio, his mother, and baby sister are all staying at Casa Defay in Antigua. Tomorrow morning at 6 AM I will pick them up and take them to Hermano Pedro where we will see if we can get him admitted into the malnutrition ward for a few months. This is not always an easy process but I am convinced that if God made it possible for a Guatemalan family who had never seen a white man, to allow their child and the child’s mother to get in a car with 2 white people and go to a hospital that they had never heard of, that God will make it possible for Julio to get admitted into malnutrition.

To God be the glory.
Yours in Christ: Dick

Friday, February 1, 2008

I was awake before my alarm went off at 5:20. No I hadn’t gotten as much sleep as I had wanted but I was excited to see what doors God was going to open for us to day. Julio’s mother was waiting for me when I got to Casa Defay. I could tell that she was nervous but there was no turning back now. Nor do I think that she would have changed her mind even if she were given the opportunity. She knew that with out help her son would soon be dead and knowing this she was ready to do anything even if it was perhaps one of the scariest experiences that she had ever encountered. Even though it was only 6:30 when we arrived and the offices of Hermano Pedro did not open until 7:00 there was already a long line up of people waiting to see the doctors. I went over to the children’s ward and got some blankets because the morning air was cold. Then we patiently stood in line and waited. Mother was holding her daughter and I was holding Julio. I feared that perhaps we should have showed up earlier because there are times when the doctors can not see every one that comes there. A few minutes before 7 a lady showed up and started handing out numbers to the people that were standing in line. There were a lot of numbers handed out before she finally got up to where we were standing. The lady looked down at the child that I had in my arms and motioned for me to follow her. She went up to the front of the line took out a key and opened the door to the office that had not yet been opened. As she opened the door she told us that she wanted Julio to be the first one to see the Doctor. I glanced at the people who had been in line in front of us knowing that they would perhaps not appreciate the fact that we were being allowed to go first but to my surprise they all looked down at Julio and then looked at me and nodded in approval. The paper work process still took about an hour but by the time we had finished we were at the door of the doctors office before it had opened and were the first ones to see the doctor when he arrived. After the doctor examined 9 year old Julio he laid him on a baby scale. 17 ½ pounds, and that was with a blanket that had to weigh at least ½ pound. The doctor then asked Julio’s mother if she would like him to be admitted into the malnutrition ward. The mothers reply was an immediate yes. A short time later mother was saying goodbye to a cleaned up little boy who was lying on freshly laundered sheets in a warm crib. There were tears as she left but there was also a sigh of relief. The nurses promised mom that they would take good care of her son and encouraged her to come and visit when ever possible. We are praying that he will do well and possibly be able to return to his home with in as little as 4 months. I am also planning on giving his family a water filter and I am going to check and see if there is a possibility of giving the family one of the prefabricated homes that should be arriving in a month or 2, but for now we are just going to concentrate on keeping this one child alive.

I would love to end this weeks journal on a positive note but unfortunately there are far to many children who much like Julio need someone that is willing to reach out to them. On our way to bring Julio’s mother and sister back home this afternoon Jim, and Jill (2 friends from Antigua) and myself stopped off at the clinic in the town where Ronny’s teacher lives. I had some medicine and bandages that I wanted to give them. The doctor who had come along with us to Julio’s home yesterday had told me of another family that needed help. The father who’s wife had died had 2 boys of 4 and 7 years old. The 7 year old boy had suffered some brain damage when he had a severe fever at an early age. It was impossible for the father to care for his older son any longer because he had to work in order to feed his children and himself. He desperately wanted to put his older son into an orphanage, not because he did not love him but because he thought that it would be best for him. After meeting the boy I had to tell the father that I knew for a fact that Hermano Pedro would not take him. Why? Because he could walk. We promised that we would look into other places but had to be honest with him and let him know that the waiting lists were long and that it was next to impossible to find a place that would take a child with a disability. Basically we had to walk away saying goodbye to a father who was standing there with outstretched arms saying, “What am I to do?’ I hope to go back there when I can take someone along who is more fluent at Spanish. Perhaps if we can find some one who is willing to go in and care for the 2 boys while the father works we can help hold this family together. The only problem is we know of so many people who are in similar or far worse situations that it is difficult to know which one to help with wheelchairs, houses, or even our time. Please pray that God gives us real guidance and wisdom.

Yours in Christ: Dick