A digital scrapbook by Smilebox

KIDS IN JEOPARDY VS THE GUATEMALAN GOV'T

Sunday, 10 Enero, the Lord put it on Pastor Victor's heart to dedicate all the kids who live at Rehoboth. Fabu idea since all these kids come from horrific backgrounds and wouldn't have been afforded this opportunity for their church family to ask for God's blessing and guidance, both for them and the family. Can you see Betzy in the front of the group, just off center to her left and in front of the man in the dark coat?She's also the darling in the next foto. Little did we know just how important this celebration would be; this same week, her parents came to Rehoboth to take her back home. The same parents who let her wander in the streets when she was 3, and didn't even know that she wasn't home for 9 days!!! The Guatemalan gov't this year has begun an outrageously aggressive program to reunite families, no matter how harmful it could and probably will be for the kids they formerly abused!!! This same gov't who thought it was best for the kids to remove them from the home are now allowing them to return!! Betzy was devastated and there was nothing Victor or Chici could do. The same thing happened to Carlos, in the next foto, who was at Rosa's de Amor, another home for abused and abandoned kids; he was returned to the home that caused his horrific physical abuse, and those were just the wounds that could be seen by the human eye. This human heart could see just how deeply this abuse went into his soul, and he had made such amazing progress in learning to trust adults. PLEASE PRAY NOT ONLY FOR BETZY AND CARLOS, BUT FOR ALL THE KIDS IN ALL THE LOVING HOMES WHO FACE THIS SAME POSSIBILITY AND THAT THE GOVERNMENT WILL STOP THIS DELIBERATE AND DANGEROUS PRACTICE OF RETURNING KIDS, THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY, TO PERILOUS ENVIRONMENTS!

Refugio de Esperanza Update

Now I just want to remind youse that our goal w/this blog thingy is to keep you updated on what it is we do here in Guatemala. So each of the ministries we write about are places near and dear to us where we spend our time serving. THUS SPANISH SCHOOL WILL NOT BE WRITTEN ABOUT AS WE DON'T SERVE THERE, BUT KNOW THIS: IT DOES TAKE OUR TIME, EFFORT, BRAIN CELLS, IT TESTS MY NERVES POR SEGURO, AND....WE LOVE AND NEED IT! WHEW...glad to get that said!

OK, where was I? Oh yea, Refugio de Esperanza...Hope Haven(HH)...such a fabu lugar! Mark Richard is the director, and it was he who introduced us to Rosa's de Amor, which will be next in the update queue. Mark continues to make his shop/warehouse available to us so we can work on stuff for Rosa's. We also help in his operation, me in the office, mas o menos, and Guillermo in the shop/warehouse. We got to help facilitate a most wondermus event recently when we saw a request on a missions Internet chat group asking if anyone knew where one could find a wheelchair for a 26 yr old lady named Bartola, who is a little person. For all of her 26 years, she has been carried everywhere, mostly my mama, as she cannot walk and has never owned a wheelchair. The ministry making the request would be able to bring her, some of her family, and a translator, needed because even though Bartola also doesn't speak, her parents only speak one of the 22 Mayan languages, not Spanish, to HH, so we set up an appointment, and geez, was it a great event to see! Here's Bartola in her new silla de ruida, and this is her mama so you can see what a gift this chair will be to both of these women! It gets better....on this same day, seven other young Guatemalans received a new set of wheels from HH!

Guillermo's latest project for Rosa was to construct drawers to go under the five bunk beds he and his all-Wisconsin-girl team built late last year. Heretofore Rosa's kids had nowhere to keep their clothes and the few belongings they have; they'd put them on their beds in the daytime, then on the floor when they used the beds for their true purpose. Mark let G use the equipment once again, and then we got to use his van to deliver the 10 boxes-on-wheels-w-a-handle. see the next post for further...

Rosa's de Amor!

Here comes one of the 10 new drawers(see the wee wheels??too cute!) for Rosa's! Part of the "fun" in delivering anything to Rosa is getting whatever it is down the challenging stairs. This foto shows only half of 'em.
One of the caring staff members, Zoila, checking out the newly-formed storage. Those boxes on top of the bed are about to lose their job!

WE NEED TO STOP HERE AND THANK OUR SUPPORTERS WHOSE GENEROUS GIFTS MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO PROVIDE THIS ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF DAILY LIVING. MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS!! WE MAKE A PRETTY GOOD TEAM!!

Just a reminder to continue to pray for all the children who've been placed in homes like Rosa's and Rehoboth. Each and every one was removed from terribly nasty, dangerous, harmful, and evil living conditions. Abuse and neglect; this is their come-from. Pray that the gov't stops allowing these kids to be returned to the people who caused these very conditions. Take for example, one of the newest residents at Rosa's, Juanita.

Juanita is 12 years old, still a child. She is a special needs child, speaks very little, wanders about, and...
...she is a mama. This is her son. Think someone took advantage of her or what???!!! She cannot care for her baby on her own, so it is with loving care that everyone at Rosa's will help her. AND SHE IS ONE OF FOUR TEEN MOMS, 1 THIRTEEN YEAR OLD AND 2 FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS, AT ROSA'S. Most of these girls became moms at the "pleasure" of a family member!!! Please pray that they DO NOT have to return to their come-from!

Casa de Maria Update

Most of the folks who live at Casa de Maria, the hogar de ancianos or convalescent home, really enjoy it when the kids of Rehoboth come to visit. The laugh and clap, join in singing and sometimes even dancing, and love the attention the kids give them when they distribute cookies and juice. But there's been this one lady, in the striped or yellow sweater, who, from the very first visit, purposely turned her back on the presentations and refused to even take our snacks, let alone converse with us. This went right to Tatiana's heart, and she has tried each visit to get her to talk with her or even accept some refreshments, but each time, the lady refuses. Until the Enero visit, that is. Tatianna's patience and willingness to keep at it finally paid off, and she was so happy....I think the lady was too.

Can't wait til the next visit....maybe we can even learn her name! And what a good faith builder for Tatiana, whose own life until she came to live at the kid's home was built on being ignored, of neglect and abuse.

...and speaking of Rehoboth...

Now that there were 3 less kids at Rehonoth, this DID allow for a few more to join the family. Meet Wilfer and Elfido:
Wilfer, left, is six years old, very bright, and fitting in well with the two other 6 year old boys, mas o menos. Elfido is 10 and is going to school for the 1st time. I love how bad circumstances often have fabuluminous silver linings, like, going to school, and even more silver (?), living in a safe, loving, fun, Christ-centered home w/three square meals everyday, which includes, but isn't limited to, home-grown avocados!

Other updates show darling Camila dressed in her school apron for her new class in Antigua, being walked home by Tio Alejandro. You may remember that she and her sister Marisol were adopted from Rehoboth by an outstanding Guatemalan couple, Ernesto y Anabella, who also plan to enroll the girls in english class! Looks like school makes Camila a wee bit tired, eh? Hard to keep here eyes open. Both girls are thriving in their new family! Thank you Jesus!

Here are Edger andChepe, two of the oldest jovens at Rehoboth. Both are nearing, or are at, the end of their regular school careers and need to
learn a skill or trade for when they leave Rehoboth. So Hope Haven, where they manufacture kids' wheelchairs, has offered an opportunity for them to learn various skills and warehouse jobs. What happens when ministries serving the same Dios work together!

Yes! I gotta reason to add a volcano foto! This, as y'all probably know, is Fuego, an active volcano near Antigua. Fuego is also the name of the ministry run by our Canadian friends, Bob & Shirley Adams. After 8 years as a satellite site for Canadian college programs, they shifted last year to hosting teams. And this year, we get to come alongside them to help in this endeavour. There are 18 teams signed up so far. I will work 5 days/wk when teams are here, helping mostly in the food department. So here's some fotos of Fuego, the ministry, too. I sense that our good Lord wants to teach me how to be more disciplined and intentional, and how to better manage time...all good stuff, but pretty sober for me! And...I get to take the chicken bus up to San Pedro, always an adventure. So here's some items for your prayer list for us...gracias in advance.

Uh oh! Looks like Guillermo has painted himself into a corner! What to do? No tenga pena...here comes Wesler to the rescue! Now G can finish his work at Rehoboth, sprucing up the place with a fresh coat of paint.

OK, HERE We GO!

Feliz ano nuevo, todos!!! So we're gonna try this blogging thingy and see if we can keep you up-to-date better. Of course, we know this means we'll have even less time for fb, but no tenga pena.....someday when we're old and gray...hey, wait a minute, I think we're there already! WOW! It's way too much fun...another secret kids these days don't get...todavia!
OK, on to the news at hands...and remember, we LOVE to hear from youse guys, so share with us, por favor!
Dios te bendiga!

p.s. foto by our friend Frank, in our old 'hood in Long Beach...hola Francis!

WHAT BEING IN THE MIDDLE OF GOD'S WILL CAN ACCOMPLISH!

You know, sometimes what seems to be something less than it could or should be turns out to be exactly right. Like when you don't get to a task when you want to, or when other commitments keep you from doing other worthwhile stuff. So here is a true story that will forever keep me glad to serve a living God! How wee details and big problems can be part of such an amazing happening. We got to go to los Estados Unidos for a visit, had an outrageously wondermus time, and returned to Guatemala exhausted AND with lots of stuff our friends and family in the states gave us to give to some of our young friends. Stuff like underwear, socks, and blankets. Well, because we were so wiped out when we returned AND because we got back just in time to prepare for Christmas, we didn't get to Rosa's de Amor, a loving home run for kids who have been removed from dangerous living situations, until Dec. 31st. Here's a foto of some of the kids with some of their new gifts. A GREAT BIG, HEARTFELT THANK YOU TO EACH OF YOU WHO DONATED ALL THE AMAZING ITEMS, BY THE WAY!! But wait; there's more. It gets even better...which is saying a LOT after we gave them such practical and necessary stuff. Hope you can see the little girl in the front row, 2nd from the left, with the white shirt. The one NOT smiling....this is Azucena..pronounced Ah-su-cena; beautiful, isn't it?). The police brought Azucena to Rosa at 3am this same day, the 31st, having found her in the streets nearby, all alone. She would or could only give her first name, that's all; not her age, where she lived, her parents' names, nada. I tried talking with her, she was so sad; it was not possible to keep her engaged, and even the other kids couldn't get her to talk with them.

TAKE TWO....

So that was last Thursday. We didn't get to church Sunday, but we were told that they prayed for a missing child from Santa Maria de Jesus. This girl has special needs which leave her unable to communicate well, among other things. She went missing on Thursday, Dec. 31st. Sta. Maria de Jesus is about 7 miles south of Antigua, way, way up on the side of Volcan Agua. Rosas de Amor is on the road to Guatemala City, at least 10 miles in the other direction from Antigua. We live in San Felipe de Jesus, oh, 2 miles or so in yet another direction from Antigua. I had english class this afternoon at my house, but only 2 of the 4 girls came. When it was time to walk the girls home, we discovered that there was a funeral was walking down our street....did I tell you we live on Callejon del cementario? And yes, they were walking..that's how they do funerals here in Guatemala, even if it means walking down one of the main highways! Anyway, as we were walking down the main street of our little town, here comes my friend Amy, and she has on rubber gloves, and she looks very intense in her work. And since she lives nowhere near us, and because of the gloves, really, this is really why I asked, I asked what she was doing in our part o' town. She and a friend were hanging posters for the missing little girl from Sta Maria de Jesus. So I ask to see one, and this is what I saw:

YEP, IT'S HER!!!

Azucena, the sad little girl at Rosa's. So I get to tell Amy I know where she is AND that she is OK!

Look at some of the IFs in this: if we didn't have any gifts to give to Rosa, we probably wouldn't have been at her house on the 31st...gives giving a whole new meaning!!! If we had gone to Rosa's any earlier than the 31st to give the gifts, which was what I wanted to do but didn't have the energy for, then we wouldn't have met Azucena. If the funeral procession didn't go past our casa, or if the other girls had come to class, which would have meant we would have walked them home another way, we would have missed meeting Amy on the street. If I wasn't so nosy, remember the gloves?, then I wouldn't have seen the missing poster. If Amy and I weren't out just doing what we heard God ask us to do, simple stuff, walking girls home and hanging posters, then we wouldn't have been given the privilege of connecting lost and found!GIVES BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME A NEW LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE!
All this adds up to what our friend Dick Rutgers calls a God-incidence vs. coincidence, and we agree with him!
Now I know you remember as you read this that we are indeed in a 3rd world country, where the police and legal machines just don't function as they do in the US. There are no Amber alerts here. And thankfully, the police DID bring Azucena to Rosas. These police operate out of Chimaltenango, which is even farther away from Antigua than all the other places aforementioned...oh how I wish I could draw a map of all this for you :) And when her parents tried to file a missing report, being New Year's Eve, I guess, the police dated it 12/2010. Mom and dad even tried to file a report in Antigua, but the offices were moving, so they were told to come back on Monday. Azucena is 10 years old! Any guesses on how long it would have taken the wheels of justice to figure this one out?
So back to Amy and the gloves, which she got to take off as she wouldn't need to glue any more posters to poles, etc. She called the parents immediately, OK, as soon as she stopped crying, and arranged to meet them in Antigua. Then she drove them to Rosas for a reunion. She will also help them work thru the legal stuff(remember the police brought her to Rosas) so Azucena can go home hopefully tomorrow. It may never be known exactly how she got oh so far away from home, but they were able to determine that she wasn't abused in any way on her dangerous journey. And out of this, the special needs school is going to be working on getting ID bracelets for many of their students.

I like this job! Buenas noches y feliz dia manana!