This week we assisted our friends from Living To Serve in the installation of preventative health apparatus in a rural village to reduce health risks for the extremely under privileged families. The mountainous village of Poqomchi descent Mayans is located in Alta Verapaz about an hour from Coban. Twenty-two families received three items designed to improve their hygiene and living conditions hence lowering the risk of lung disease, parasites and reducing malnutrition in the community. The strategically designed items are safe cooking stoves, a bucket water filter and a Tippy Tap hygiene station. The heavy rains, muddy trails and long distances made the outreach more challenging. Car problems on the way to the villages, made my participation very limited but in the homes that I had the privilege to serve in the people were genuinely appreciative of our efforts. In addition each family was prayed for and mandatory bimonthly training sessions will allow proper followup for this project to assure that the Guatemalans get the most benefit out of these donations.

Today, we were blessed to be in a remote village in Alta Verapaz to support an awesome preventive health program. We joined with our friends from a like minded organization called, Living to Serve. Today we went to the village to demonstrate the different aspects of the program to the villagers. As you can see in the pictures below, each item is practical and helps promote good hygiene and overall general health. The Tippy Tap pictured below is a simple, practical way for the people to safely wash their hands and brush their teeth. The people were also introduced to a bucket water purification system that will turn any water source into safe drinking water. But the big hit was the stove that once it’s installed will provide a smoke free cooking experience inside their huts.

The Tippy Tap Hygiene Station

Tippy Tap Demonstration

The Stove moments after installation

The Villagers Gather Around the Stove

The Water Purifcation System

The new Luisa Marisol

Back in January, when we met her for the very first time, Luisa Marisol needed a custom wheelchair due to her condition after having meningitis at the age of one; or so we thought. We started looking for options to see how we could help her and her family. We got word that there was a wheelchair team that was coming to give wheelchairs to children in Antigua in February.  So a team from a local church plant and me set off on an early morning journey to Antigua.  When it was her turn, the occupational therapist removed her bulky clothing to fit her for the chair and all of our jaws dropped because she was literally just skin and bones, weighing just seventeen pounds at twelve years of age. Her condition was so severe, that the therapist stopped what she was doing to take us to a nearby hospital that has a program for malnourished children. The hospital is called Hermano Pedro and has a program to help low income families receive high quality care for their children. The doctor told us that her only chance for survival and full recuperation was if she were to be admitted into the nourishment program for several months. This was a difficult decision for her parents to make because they thought that they were just going to Antigua to get her a wheelchair.  So, we left her there in February and we prayed, putting her in God’s hands.

Luisa Marisol January 2011

As the time passed, the local pastor and I would go and visit with the family to check on her status but they really couldn’t tell us much. They were calling the hospital regularly, but were unable to go visit her because of the expense of the long trip to Antigua. On Friday July 8th, we went back for a visit and to our great surprise, Luisa Marisol was there and looking like a completely different person. She now weighs 28 lbs and her arms and legs have filled out nicely. The change is so drastic that her mother didn’t even recognize her when she went to pick her up and had to ask a nurse to show her which child was hers! The mother told us that she went back to the place where the wheelchair distribution was and that she is scheduled to get a wheelchair in August.

Luisa Marisol with the occupational therapist

The best part of this process is that the parents are getting an education about the proper way to prepare food for her and now she is on different medications. The father was in tears as he told us about the lessons that God has taught them through all of this. We are so thankful to God for giving us the opportunity to meet her and for the miracle that HE has done in this family. They will be presenting her in the Coban church plant, De La Comunidad, after they get her wheelchair and now know that there is a group of local Christians that care about them.

Faith Drop teaches simple faith in Christ!

For those of you that have been following our blog, you know that we have helped organize extreme sports cell groups in Guatemala. The way that we design the cell groups is so that leaders get raised up and then sent out to start others. The new extreme sports cell group in Gustatoya, El Progreso is just that; a cell group being started by leaders of cell groups in Coban & Guatemala City. We hang out with the kids and give them a safe place to practice sports that are widely rejected in Central America. We give testimonies, share a short message & use physical illustrations such as the Faith Drop to help get them involved. The Faith Drop is where a blindfolded person falls backward and they have to trust that they will be safe and not get hurt. This teaches them that they can trust in Jesus in the same way! I walked around and talked to everyone throughout the Sunday afternoon session on May 8, 2011. There were kids there from several different cities and what they shared was all too familiar to my ears. They say that they are targets for prejudice and get insulted all the time, even threatened by some. They say that there are some BMX riders and skaters that do drugs or participate in gang activities so it makes all of them appear that way. We mentor them and give them ideas on how to combat prejudice; it starts with following Jesus daily and portraying a positive clean image to others while practicing extreme sports! Please pray for this new cell group as God begins to form leaders, that they be hand picked by HIM and not by man!

Feeding the Homeless

The De La Comunidad church plant in Coban has been meeting for two months, but it’s already making a difference in the community. The focus is to meet the needs of hurting people in the community and to serve people. Project LASARO is an outreach to Coban’s indigent community. The majority of the homeless here are elderly people who walk around town begging for money and food. Every day, leaders and members of the church serve food to those who so desperately need it. The vision is to organize a building where they can be fed, bathed and cared for. There are also other projects in the works to reach out to children who have a specific need. Lots of people in Coban are excited about these projects that are blessing the underprivileged and the church is growing as a result.

Miguel

On my recent visit to Coban, I joined the team and fed the homeless. We drove around town for an hour and a half with a pitcher of drink and fresh bread. Some of them are sitting on the same street corner every day, but others are harder to find as they wander all around town. Whenever we find them, we park the car, serve the drink in a disposable cup and we love on them. On one of those trips, a disabled man in a wheelchair named Miguel said, “I want to go to your church, you all are close to God because you serve people.” The funny thing is that noone had ever mentioned that we are from a church, he just knew. Don’t you think that makes an interesting lesson? With all the complex strategies that are out there for church building, this church plant is growing rapidly because they are serving people! Please continue to keep this church plant in your prayers and you can visit the De La Comunidad Facebook page in Spanish.

Gustavo is the leader of new extreme sports cell group in Guastatoya, El Progreso.

In the first few months of 2011, our extreme sports cell group in Coban has exploded. The leaders have really stepped up to the plate, while I continue to encourage them by phone, Internet and visits. The Friday night cell group meeting has grown to an average of approximately twenty people each week. In addition, five more sessions have been added to the weekly schedule including two skate sessions, three BMX bike sessions and an all girl skate session every Saturday afternoon. Once a week, the leaders visit the home of someone who has visited the warehouse recently. These visits have already produced results and two skaters have recently joined the leadership team. Recently, a visiting freestyle BMX athlete named Gustavo Morales visited the Friday night meeting and was so impressed that he asked us to help him organize an extreme sports cell group in his city called Guastatoya, El Progreso. Last week, three of us went to visit him and a decision was made to hold a monthly event there. The NorGuat cell group will travel from Coban and I will travel from Zacapa with our mobile ramps and grind boxes to hold the events. There will be testimonies, a Biblical message and lots of extreme sports fun at every activity.

Luisa Marisol being checked by an occupational therapist

As many of you know, we carried Luisa Marisol and her family from Coban to Antigua on Friday to get a new wheelchair. Little did we know, that she would end up being admitted in the hospital instead! I already knew she was malnourished from our visit in her home, when she was fully clothed. However, when the occupational therapist (OT)  examined her to prescribe the correct wheelchair and removed her shirt; I think we were all stunned! The OT is a missionary in the Antigua area and knew of a very successful malnutrition program at a local hospital. Luisa Marisol’s parents were very hesitant to leave her there because of the six hour distance, but they realized that it was the best thing for her well being. One huge advantage that they have is that the hospital is a “social work” style, hospital that allows poor families to pay only what they can afford for her treatment. The name of the hospital in Spanish is Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro (in English, Brother Peter’s Social Work)  and it is located just a couple of blocks from Antigua’s central park. Please pray for Luisa Marisol’s parents, Sebatian and Luisa; that they will let her stay in the program as much time as needed for her to gain enough weight. It is very difficult for Q’eqchi’ people to trust in people at a hospital that are strangers to them! The family was promised that Luisa Marisol will get her wheelchair after she gains enough weight to be able to size it correctly.

Luisa Marisol

We appreciate those of you who have been praying for little Luisa Marisol and her family’s need for a custom wheelchair! In the past, we have worked with a team of experts who came and measured a group of children to fit them for wheelchairs. This requires two trips and the wheelchair parts are packed in plastic bins and brought down as luggage. This time, however no such trip had been planned so when we met Luisa Marisol we took pictures and shared them with our friends and missionary colleagues. Hope Haven International happened to have a wheelchair giveaway scheduled for February in Antigua where therapists and doctors prescribe the exact chair a child needs and it is given to them free of charge! So we sent a request to them and Luisa Marisol is scheduled to get her wheelchair on February 11th. Our Humanitarian Outreach always ties the recipients together with local Christians to give them a support base. Pastor Willie and a member of the new church plant De La Comunidad will be driving Luisa Marisol and her family to Antigua for this event. Please keep the logistics of this outreach in your prayers!

De La Comunidad Chruch Plant

On January 16, 2011 The first meeting was held of a new church plant in our skate warehouse with some familiar faces. Willie Girón who was the pastor of the Central Nazarene Church in Coban, is the pastor. In December of 2010, he and his family returned from serving as missionaries for two years in San Jose, Costa Rica and he and began visiting lots of people who were calling to see him. The name of this new church is De La Comunidad in Spanish which means Of The Community and its mission is to serve the needs of the people. Please keep this growing church plant in your prayers for God’s guidance and direction.