Curentra Dia

Hola Todos!

Today we woke up an hour earlier (5:30!!!) in order to eat breakfast and then head off to our third ministry location called Buena Vista; a small village in the country located in the middle of sugarcane fields on an old abandoned railroad. The people of Buena Vista are very poor and because of their remote location, tend to be self sufficient. After the two hour ride our team arrived and quickly got to work. The first visit was to the 1-6 grade"school" located in Buena Vista. By US school standards, this school is lacking in many areas and has a great deal of need. Resources are very limited which makes learning very difficult to happen. Yet God has seen fit to bless with community with this place, and His Children work hard to provide for the children and families here.After the visit to the school the group split up to go on house visits, while Michael and myself stayed behind to work with Ana and Julian in the Medical Clinic. The two groups visited various houses. One group visited a family who just had twins, and who's mother had needed a blood transfusion. She was able to do this with the help of Manuel, Ana, Julian, Kevin and Ginny, the leaders of Groundwork Guatemala. We were sad to hear that one of the twins is still in the hospital, and the other actually died a couple days ago. This is a common occurrence in Guatemala, due to the limited medical resources. I was told that our group offered comfort and shared God's Grace with this grieving family. The other house that was visited was the family of Exequias, the young boy that Deaconess Betsy sponsors. They were experiencing a very difficult time in their family, and our group was able to talk with the mother Angelina to offer her comfort and God's Love in his Word!

Now for the medical clinic. Ana and Julian weren't able to help yesterday due to the fact that they were helping the family that needed a blood transfusion, so Brian and I were on our own to help with some patients but only a few. However, today was much different with Ana and Julian back! There was alot of work to do, and our first patient was an abuela(grandma) who remembered us from lat year! She had some minor wounds that just needed dressing on her foot and we handled it accordingly. Also, we dressed a machete wound of a young nina(little girl) which had started to fester, but through our work and God's guidance we cleaned and dressed the wound perfectly. Many other young children had yeast infections of the skin, or strep throat and one infant had chicken poxs, all of which we treated with medicine and God's Love so that the children will recover soon. One 7 year old girl had split her head above her eyebrow and needed stitches, which we could not provide for as we had no anesthetic and could not stitch in fear of make a severe mistake. So, the young nina was sent to the nearest hospital (1 hour). All in all it was an eventful day at the clinic, with young boys screaming as I applied topical hydrocortisone cream (pediatrics scare me), the whole medical team taking 10 minutes to translate and understand Miguel a 76 year old man who had only a sprained ankle, to Diana foregoing her second house visit to help translate! We can't wait to see what God presents us with tomorrow and we know he will provide and bless us with all we need.

After lunch we continued with the rest of our day. The faith lesson also went extremely well! The children were very responsive, and even after the house visits, the hot and humid day, my translation and Michael working at the medical clinic, our team still had strength, thanks to God, to keep the kids entertained in order to respond to God's Word. The songs went along as usual, as did the skit, both of which had the kids cheering and yelling. The youth lessons also went well, for the children were again very  responsive and after awhile did actually respond to God's Word with earnest. Overall the day went extremely well, and with a closing deviotion highlight How Jesus is the Light of the World and He uses us as His Mirrors, it was a Day that God should be Praised for! To top it all of it was Cesar's 23rd Birthday! So Glory to God in the Highest! His Grace and Love are the only reasons why we are able to do such wonderful work. He loves all of you and may He bless you!

Brian and Michael


A.M.D.G.