Thanks 'Bread of Life'

Bejilio

In the past we have pretty much given out clothes when we would arrive in the mountains. The founder of ‘The Bread of Life’, Mark Anthony, had inspired me to try a different approach with the clothes. I discussed with Pastor Manolo, with the help of Nathan, the possibility of a village meeting where the Pastor would explain the clothes hand out after he preached. Afterwards Nathan and I would brew of pots of fresh coffee. Dylan, Cassidy, and Austin would add the sugar and serve the brew. The plan was to meet at 7am the following morning. After a day’s work on the road everyone would return to the mission. Everyman that worked would receive 3 tickets and boys would receive 2. Each type of clothing had a ticket value. The jackets, sweaters, and shoes were each worth one ticket while two pair of pants or shirts could be gotten for a single ticket. The day produced over 30 hard working volunteers.

The next morning was spent separating clothes and matching shoes. Before the handout was to start I had a visit from my 102 year old neighbor, Bejilio. He and his wife are too old to work and have been left with several grandchildren to care for. These kids had been abandoned by there parents who left them to pursue relationships with other people. It was cold out and he was wearing no jacket. He and his elderly wife would be the first to receive clothing.

By afternoon the men had come in and were lining up outside the clinic with tickets in hand. The distribution went pretty well except for of course that one disgruntled individual who tries to leave with three times as many clothes as he is suppose to choose.

The next day we invited the women and children to each come in and pick three articles of clothing apiece. This was followed by a second distribution to the men who had worked on the road, followed again by women and children until we were picked clean.

Hopefully a seed was planted, a seed was watered, and a harvest was had. Many of these people do not attend church and almost all are illiterate. They are held in bondage by their ignorance of God and the demonic practices of their ancestors. The only way to force feed them the word of God was using the method similarly utilized by ‘Bread of Life’------offering them something they need for eternal life (The Word) for something they need for temporal life (clothes). Though some were not happy with having to listen to a sermon, I believe this will be the standard for all future clothing distributions.

Let's kill Mom

Sophia

In our society it is hard for us to imagine killing our Mother when she becomes old and can no longer contribute to the family. The situation is not the same with many of the families of these dysfunctional people. When a girl gets married the husband often refuses to take on any of her previous responsibilities. This includes any children from a previous man and her parents. Children from previous relationships are often given to the Grandparents to support. At this stage of their life the Grandparents are too old to work and may barely have enough food to support themselves. This sad story is told over and over again in these mountains. The names may change but the sad results are the same. This story has a name it is ‘Sophia’. I’ve written below about our interaction with her for the last two years.

We’ve added another daily responsibility. Her name is Sophia. When we arrived here we were told she had died. For the last two years Sophia was a daily presence at our doorstep. Her 4 daughters had refused to feed her saying she was now old and useless to them. Everyday we would prepare a meal and a care package for her. Now we had a young woman at our door asking us to come with her. Her mom was very sick and weak. Upon arriving at the hut we realized it was Sophia. She was not dead but she was a skeleton of what we had left in June. She was reduced to skin over her bones. The remnants of malnutrition had left her stomach bloated the size of a basketball and her feet swollen. Daily we have become a version of ‘meals on wheels’ we call ourselves ‘meals on foot’. Each day we bring her a warm vitamin drink called encaparina. Along with the drink she receives a couple bananas or oranges and oatmeal, tuna or PBJ sandwich. The trail is narrow and steep leading to the hut. Every trip puts me in awe at how this old lady for the last two years was able to walk to our apartments for her food.

It has been several weeks since we’ve started caring for Sophia, though her strength is better, a noticeable swelling is moving up her legs. Michael has been on the Rio Dulce preparing for teams coming in to help build a mission house there. He has finally made it back to Pinalito and is going with me to check on Sophia. A decision has been made that Nathan, Alli, and I will drive her to the hospital the following morning. When morning comes I grab a hammock to make a stretcher to carry Sophia to the road, but she is too proud and walks with the support of Nathan and myself. Trying to leave the mission is surrounded with drama as the eldest daughter comes running to the truck blatantly mad that her mother is being carried off to the hospital. Evidently having to start over trying to kill her was not in her plans.

Upon arriving at the hospital we all share a light chuckle as Sophia is asked her age by the doctor. We know what her response will be. Even though she is one of the oldest villagers, probably in her 90’s, here she still claims her age is 40. Again this was her stance, leaving a look of amazement on the doctor’s face. The doctor believes the swelling of both her stomach and legs will be cured with proper nutrition but will keep her for observation for several days.

God’s timing and planning is so cool to see in action. Though complaining for being stranded off the mountain top for weeks and for the numerous repairs required by our trucks God used this time to put certain key people in our path. We met Danny after a day spent working on the road before once again having to retreat down the mountain. That morning we had a tire repaired on the truck and remounted. We had just got to the section of the road where we could disengage the 4 wheel drive. We left a van appearing to be a taxi goes ahead of us with an unusual looking driver. He was obviously American. I thought how queer it was to have an American driving a shuttle bus in Guatemala. It wasn’t long before we passed him on the windy mountain road and I got another glance to confirm my theory. He was definitely American. By the time we arrived at the bottom of the mountain our truck was making a strange rattling noise so we pulled over to look for the problem. The tire had not been securely fastened and the nuts were working themselves loose. A few minutes later the van parks behind us and we meet Danny. He is a 27 year old from Michigan who is part of an outreach program that currently host 8 doctor teams a year. Their mission is a couple hours from ours and is complete with an orphanage. They also have two buildings in the Zacapa hospital complex with one of them a nutrition center. This is exactly where I will need to place Sophia after her three days in the hospital. God’s planning is Amazing Perfect!!!! It serves again as a reminder that all things work for the best and He is in control.

Her name is Joestina

Her name is Joestina

Her name is Joestina. Her mother died in childbirth before we left in June this year Nikoli, the father, has come by to talk. He will be away working in Esquipulas and will not be returning for 1½ months. He has 5 children with the oldest around 8 years old. . This 8 year old daughter will be left behind to take care of her 4 siblings who include this malnourished 5 month old baby weighing only 6 ½ lbs. We have stressed to Nikoli that his daughter cannot properly take care of the baby and she would most likely die if we didn’t help. He has agreed to allow us to care for her.

We are totally unprepared for caring for an infant. There are no diapers so we cut up bed sheets instead. Within 6 hours both Cassidy and Joestina have changed their clothes 3 times. This thin fabric is no match for the frontal attack this infant constantly engaged in. We’ve found plenty of diapers for grown-ups but none for kids. (This was a misunderstanding a well intentioned group had brought to us when we requested diapers). With a small scirrors the design team of Cassidy and me undertake the task of modification. One of these diapers is almost twice the size of Joestina. After several failed attempts we’ve come up with an ingenious design that yields three diapers for one. We only have one medium safety pin, so the means of holding the ends together relies on surgical tape that is probably 5 years old. The adhesiveness is questionable at best. A diaper may fall apart and its contents strewn with any mishandling of the baby. The utmost delicacy is the order of protocol since near tragic consequences have been around every corner.

It is now 2 weeks later and Joestina is weighing 7lbs 10 ounces. She is getting strong and can now hold her head up. She is smiling and constantly eating and pooping.