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...