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People, people, people

People are people anywhere. Guatemalans, Americans, Chinese, we are all living life, desiring to find fulfillment and purpose as we journey through. I have been reminded of this over and over as we have gone out to see different families or seen them through the clinics. A father in any culture seeks to be able to provide for his family, a mother in any culture works to put a smile on the face of her children, a child in any culture desires to have a full belly and the freedom to play and laugh worry free. Of course there are always exceptions and differences in every culture as well, but the basic needs that we all have as humans remain the same: spiritual, physical, and emotional.

As we work to keep this corn project going and serving the needs of the people, it seems paramount in everyone's mind that we do not forget the reason for all of this: the people themselves. Above are some pictures (yes, sorry, they are the same pictures on our Adonai Ministry blog if you read that) of some of the families that Juanito has seen as he has made visits to identify families in need, and here are their stories.

At the very top, you can see a picture of an older lady and her grandchild standing in her kitchen. As her fire that she will use to cook food and water burns behind her, she shield her eyes from the smoke and the sun that is sure to come through the cracks in her house made of small sticks put together to create walls. Most have at least an adobe house, although I have been surprised at the number that live in houses truly made of just sticks held together by some rope or wire. You may also notice her dress, called traje, the typical Mayan dress. The top is called a huipil and the skirt is called a corte. All hand made, the shirt will range from basic thread to a more fancy and even lacy design, and the skirts consist of 6 yards of material doubled over and then folded around them to keep warm and "grow" along with them as pregnancy, age, and food availability cause changes in shape, while allowing for the same skirt to be used.

Below this lady is a family from a nearby village called Tucunil. The mother recently died, leaving behind 5 children ranging in age from 12 years old to a little over a year, and husband with a drinking problem and signs of cirrhosis already. Most of the care of the family has fallen to the 12 year old daughter, as she has had to learn to cook, feed, and care for her younger siblings.

The third picture is of a lady who has been a wheelchair for years. As you can see, though, she does not let that stop her as she works on the board on her lap to get her tortillas and food ready to be coooked on the woodburning "stove" that she has created from some blocks and then a pan laid over an open flame. Most have at least what is called a comal, which pretty much is the same basic set up, made of blocks with a large metal sheet over top of an open area in which the fire burns. On this large metal sheet, they are able to cook their tortillas, food, or water.

The last picture shows a lady and her four children outside of their house. Here you can see the typical adobe house and how it is built in look and design. They are leaning on one of the wooden frames that holds up the porch roof, often made of tin. Behind them is a wooden door leading to one of the rooms; if this picture was panned out, you would most likely see another door on the other side of the porch, as they will line up their rooms in a row, all with doors leading to the outside, but with no connections between them from the inside. Dependent on your financial situation, the design will often stay the same, with more rooms added either to the sides or above, and then materials ranging from sticks to block for walls, dirt to tile for floors, tin to clay tile for roofs, and wooden to metal doors for each room. Again, if you have enough money, you may have a little room off to the side of the house which holds all the things necessary for a kitchen set up - starting with the most basic necessity of a fire. If you don't have the funds for a separate room, then the fire will just go in whatever inside space is available.

And of course, as every person finds frustrating when trying to tell stories from another culture, even with the aid of pictures, these pictures do not do justice to the stories behind what meets the eye: the strength to keep going when all around you looks hopeless; the perseverance to continue to provide for your family, even from a wheelchair; the fight to learn to care for a family at the young age of 12; the desperation that will cause you to turn to an alcoholic escape from life after the loss of your wife; the wisdom and stories that are told in the eyes of the elderly here as they have lived a life few of us Americans can even imagine, birthing and losing children, working with their hands to cook and clean, plant and grow, build and rebuild.... all of us people, all of us with a story to tell, all of us with an opportunity to glorify our Father.

And I am reminded of a Psalm I read last night...

"The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters... Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in... the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.... the Lord Almighty, the King of Glory." Psalm 24

There is a hope for all people, even when times look desperate and hope seems lost.... May the glory of the Lord shine through in all of His creation.

Pluggin Along

We are sorry for the lack of communication for the past month on this blog. We have had much going on in our ministry with many of our own people coming and going, as you know if you have been reading the other blogs.

However, despite all the coming and going, the corn project has continued to go on. As the program continues to expand and be perfected, there are a few different areas of need/jobs that it can be broken down into. Hopefully, this explanation will make it a little more clear for those who are wondering what exactly we are doing.

Food Packing: Two of our regular workers have worked many long hours to get all the food packs and nutrition packs packed before each clinic so that they are ready to be handed out.

Food Delivery: Food and nutrition packs are then distributed through the different programs we have in place in each of our clinics.

Corn Delivery: We delivered each of the first packs of food to the families that were identified as in need. These were given out as gifts along with a ticket to purchase their next 100 pound bag of corn for 25 quetzales. (For further explanation on how the purchasing system works, please see one of the first entries titled "corn, corn, corn.") From now on, each family that has already recieved corn will come to either Canilla's or San Andres's distribution center to receive the corn.

Data Collection: We now have a data collection and recording system in place that makes it easier for more than one person to help keep track of all the families being helped and help us ensure that we are using the resources we have been given with integrity. While this is not the glamorous or exciting part of the work that needs to be done and is one of the most time-consuming, we have been reminded of how important this is each step of the way. The new people need to be entered and recorded, and any food that is given out also needs to be recorded each time we return from clinic.

Continuous Assessment: Each family is entered into the system as either "pending," "not in need," "in need (further broken down into whether their need is food, corn, or corn and food)," or "re-assess in ___ month." As we know that the problems that this drought has brought on are only going to continue to grow, this continuous assessment is one of the most important things that we have in place. Here is how it works: When a family comes into the clinic or is reported to us as a family in need, they are entered into the computer as "pending" until someone can go out to visit them personally and assess the situation. Once this happens, they are then changed to one of the other categories. If they are assessed as being in need, they are given a bag of corn along with a ticket and/or a food pack as decided by the type of need they are determined to have. If they are assessed as "re-assess," someone will go back out and visit them in whatever month it is marked that they need to be re-assessed in.

House Visits: Going along with the continuous assessment process, someone is constantly going out to the villages, often needing a 12 hour work day to see 3-4 families, in search of those "pending" or those we have identified as needing further assessment. However, we have found these times (along with the times where we personally hand out food and/or corn during clinic or the distribution centers) to be the heart of our ministry as it is often during these times that we are able to pray with and share with the people the love and hope of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your continuous support, prayers and encouragement! We could not do this without you!!

Out of the villages and into the clinics

For the past week, Juanito has gone out to a different village each day, sometimes a couple in a day. He has come home exhausted, but with stories of how God has moved and worked throughout each visit. Reminding me of how Jesus sent the disciples out in two's, he has coupled with a pastor from different areas in each of the villages he has gone to, working side by side to assess the need in the home through a list of criteria and also to be able to talk with the people in each home, evangelizing if led to. The first village that he went to was a village called Terrero, a part of Canilla. We had gotten a list of people in need from a pastor there, but as he and Tomas were entering the village, they ran into a friend of Juanito's who is the pastor of church in Terrero. He left the tasks that he had planned for the day and joined them on their mission, soon relaying to them that most of the people on their list were not actually in need, but that he could show them many people that truly were in need. After visiting a few houses in Terrero , he took them into a neighboring village, Chimul. Juanito was amazed to find that there was an actual line dividing the areas that had gotten rain and the areas that had not; the areas that had not covered a little bit of Terrero and all of Chimul. The families they visited in Chimul were also all Catholic families which gave them an amazing opportunity to talk with them about and show them the love of Jesus, and also showed us the heart of the pastor that worked with them as he led them around to people who truly are in need instead of just his own parishoners. Each of the villages that Juanito has gone out to have yielded more families in need, and we now have a list of over 150 families that have been personally visited. We started giving out corn on Saturday here in Canilla, and are planning to start with the tickets in San Andres in two weeks, although we have been giving out corn in all of our clinics for a few weeks now to those that present with need.

We have also been able to identify better the areas that truly were hard-hit by the drought this year, and through this assessment, we have decided that while there are many families in need at this time, the corn will be given out to the needy families that live in the areas that have been affected by the drought, while other families in need have been entered into our already existing (yet growing weekly) nutrition program we have in place in our clinics. We gave out food to 9 families in San Andres alone yesterday, buying food for the last one because we had not brought enough with us for the need that we encountered.

And yet we all know that more important that any of the numbers or systems that we put into place is the people themselves. The stories that we are hearing and being confronted with are often hard to believe, even after hearing similar ones for years. We know that true freedom will only come as God breaks into the hearts and lives of the people here in bondage, but we also know that Jesus came to bring physical as well as spiritual healing, and each of the food packs is given out with prayers that these people will see the love of Jesus through each one.

Thank you for joining in the work that God is doing here in Guatemala. Your prayers and support are not going unanswered!

To the villages we go...

Well, as slow moving and overwhelming as it can seem at times, little by little we are getting a system into place and watching God move and confirm.

Duane and Leslie were able to meet with both the mayor of Canilla and the mayor of San Andres within the past week and a half, both who were very grateful for the help and willing to help in anyway they can. They printed out letters saying that we have their permission to go out into the villages and check on the people whose names have been given to us as people in need. The mayor here in Canilla, Daniel, reminded us that there was a census and surveys taken within the past two months to help asess the need in the area. Our friend Cali, a peace corps worker in the municipal building in Canilla, has been a huge part of making this census happen, another reminder of how God places people in exact places at exact moments for reasons. They are still in the process of prioritizing all the needy families into one list, and when they are finished, we have been promised a copy of the list as well.

The San Andres mayor, Samuel, cleared out his busy schedule to meet with us, even volunteering to drive to Canilla to meet with us if we needed him to. While we were surprised by his offering, we started to see a little more clearly his possible desire to get out of San Andres for a little bit as Duane and Leslie waded through the people waiting outside of his office to tell him of all their needs. As Duane and Leslie shared with him our vision, he shared with them that a local San Andres pastor had told him of a vision that God had given him about corn coming to help out with the food problem that we would find ourselves in the midst of. As this was a couple months ago, before we had said anything to anyone outside of our family, we joined with this Christian man in thanking God for another confirmation. He also was willing to help us in anyway that he could, giving us a permission paper to be taken to the villages, and also the promise of a list of more than 4000 women and children that have been listed as "in need" at the moment. While this is overwhelming to even think about, we continue to pray that step by step God will point out to us the people that are really in need during this time.

Craig was able to do follow-up visits with all of the pastors that came to the meeting at the house, and they have also been faithful to present us with lists of their church members that are in need. We currently have almost 125 people recorded as "in need" whether by our own filters through the clinic or through the pastors or other community members. As we know that everyone has different standards of "in need," we created a set of questions where the answers can be placed into a set of criteria to help us better see and prioritize where the needs really are; each of the people on this "in need" list will receive a house visit from trusted pastors and workers within our own ministry where they can see the living conditions, talk with the families, ask them the needed questions, assess physical and spiritual needs, and then pray with them before leaving. Today our friends and workers Tomas and Juan have gone out to the village of El Terrero with a list of a little over 20 people to be visited. We know this is a one-time necessary first step, and are hoping to be able to send people out daily until the lists are completed, and then on as as needed basis as other families' names come to us. From these visits, those that truly appear to be in need will be asked to come to the clinic where we can further assess them, give out food if necessary, and hand them a ticket with which they can deposit the necessary money in the bank and receive their discounted corn.

We believe that God wants to move in the hearts of the people of this area during this time. A few of the villages that have been the hardest hit during this time have held a place of stronghold against God for many years now; while some of the pastors in this area say that this is God's judgment against these villages, we know that, whether that is true or not, this is also a time where God wants to reach out to these people with his love and grace. The prayer of our hearts is that this message of God's grace and love will ring out loud and clear through all that food that is given, house visits that are made, and prayers that are spoken.

First Day!

This Saturday we bought our first 2,000 lbs of corn in town. It wasn't the best price, but we got them to knock about a dollar off of each 100 lbs just so that we could get rolling. Two small silos are holding that corn for now until we create a better method of storage. In our 2 weekend clinics there were 6 new families that we started helping with food, and several others than we put on our "at risk" list to check on in the future.

Where we are

We are overwhelmed with gratitude by the response that we have had and take this as an open door from
the Lord to begin to step out, trusting that He will continue to supply for the need here.

We just wanted to give an update on where we are with the corn project. Our goal is to be able to distribute
corn (not for free, but at a greatly discounted price - we are thinking at this moment of giving a kintal of
corn which is usually priced at Q150 for about Q20) to families which we have identified as "at risk". We are
seeing several new families each week within our own clinic system, we have asked for the help of local
pastors in locating these families within their areas of influence, and we will meet with the 2 local mayors
today to enlist their help as well. We have a pretty good idea of where the most need is as the rains were
spotty so some areas were not effected at all while in other areas the crops were completely ruined.
Significantly, the areas that were most affected were the areas of the greatest spiritual darkness. These are
areas which have historically been very resistant to the Gospel and while the local pastors see this as a
judgment from the Lord, we see it as an open door to get the Gospel in. We have to be careful however, to have
the support of the local government as they are suspicious of any involvement from the "evangelicals".

Our first inclination was to buy a large amount of corn (60,000 - 70,000 pounds) but with further investigation,
we have realized that storage of that quantity may be a problem. Here in this country insects are quite a
problem for two reasons; 1) it never freezes, so the insect population never dies off naturally, and 2) because
this will be used for immediate human consumption, we cannot use chemical insecticides. So until we can
get silos in from the US (David and Joseph are in the US right now working on that) we will buy smaller
quantities from the local market and begin distributing to those families which we currently have identified.
We know that this will not just be a one time distribution but will continue until these families can harvest
their next year's crop (about a year from now). So we are thinking that we will make it available on a monthly
basis or possibly bi-monthly as the need arises. We know that once we begin, the word will spread like wildfire
and we are working to implement a screening system to be able to identify real need.

We are currently giving food packs -every two weeks - to 24 families. These are families who we will be buying
corn for as well starting tomorrow (when we can buy our first bulk corn - 40 kintales(4000 pounds).  Again, we
know how quickly information can be spread here, so we are anticipating an "opening of the flood gates" of need.

Please feel free to post a comment or e-mail if you would like more infomation!