Greetings
from Guatemala! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a happy
New Year! For me it has been a busy two months. (Yes, apologies for
my unannounced hiatus.) In December I did a lot of administrative
stuff such as getting a new visa stamp in my passport. This has to
be done every 6 months, and I've often handled it by flying for a
visit in the US. However, this time, for various reasons including
the price of plane tickets, I made the choice to take the bus to
Belize instead.
I
also
made
a
trip
out
to
Solola
to
see
if
the
delegated
work
had
been
completed.
Unfortunately,
the
letter
which
I
wrote
to
Manuel
(my
other
community
contact)
only
made
its
way
to
him
in
the
last
couple
of
weeks...now
that
schools
are
shut
down
for
vacations.
However,
he
said
that
most
of
the
information
wouldn't
be
hard
to
get
once
January
gets
here;
so
we'd
decided
on
getting
the
families
together
on
January
8th.
We
are
starting
with
22
families
in
7
different
villages.
Due
to
travel
distances,
we'll
be
splitting
the
group
in
two
based
on
where
they
live.
(I
actually
just
noticed
that
it
works
out
perfectly
even:
11
and
11.)
One
group
will
have
a
meeting
in
the
morning,
and
the
other
group
will
have
a
meeting
in
the
afternoon.
While
I was out in Solola, Manuel took advantage of the opportunity to take
me to go see David's family again (the little boy with the
basket-making sisters who I wrote about in August). I am pleased to
announce that Wendy, the older sister, will be going back to school
this year. Her father changed jobs to have a more steady income, and
the family hopes to build their own house this year so as to stop
renting. It was a pleasure to see the family again. Although I
didn't meet the father and David was with him, I did get to meet
their older brother who I hadn't met on my first visit. They gave me
a bag and a magnet as Christmas gifts. I find it so humbling when
people who have so little still find it in their hearts to give.
Also,
three of the families in the program have children with special
needs. Two of those families will be receiving help via anothergroup. Their daughters will be checked to see what their situation
is—I think it's Down's Syndrome—and their son will receive a
prosthetic hand (if he wants it) for his hand that never grew. Both
of these families are in Manuel's group of 11; so he made the
decision to wait until January for all of that.
There
is more exciting news for Solola. In January, the group of doctors
for whom I usually translate (Children of the Americas) will be
serving in Solola. The group has wanted to go to Solola for a long
time, but because of the general distrust of outsiders, they have
been unable to bridge the gap and gain clear communication with the
hospital administration and government. Now that they have finally
been able to get in, I expect that there will be a few more trips to
the area as the needs are great.
The Care and Keeping of
a Missionary
Thank
you all for your continued support; the prayers really do help! For
the month of January, I'd like to ask that you pray for these 22
families. Between these 22 women, they have
approximately 89 children. (There are 89 “children” in the
program, but some of them are caring for younger siblings who aren't
officially their children, but are in their care.) Some of these
children have never been to school; some of these children might not
want to go to school. I have a 15- and 16-year old pair of siblings
who never went to school; they don't know how to write their own
names. I have a 10- and 11-year old pair of siblings who I also wrote to you about in August; I'm really not sure if they ever
attended school, but I feel like this change will be difficult for
them and their mother. (What I'm really concerned about is that
she'll reject the program completely out of the unknown, but they are
probably the neediest family I have.) So, please be praying for all
of these families. They need your support.
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