Meeting Maria de los Angeles Again

Maria and her family with Dick after she received her first chair at Hermano Pedro in April 2012.

Many of our “contacts” are made as we are walking around Antigua (or another village) pushing kids in wheelchairs.  We met Maria de los Angeles in this way.  (Read  about our first encounter, by clicking here.)  At the time we met, Maria and her family were living in Guatemala City, and it was a Godincident which brought our paths to cross in April, 2012.

Nearly year later, as I was buying cookies in a local bakery, I saw a young girl in a wheelchair and stopped to greet her.  I immediately saw the chair was much too small for her, and turned to talk with her dad about adjusting it to fit better.  I hadn’t recognized Maria, but immediately knew her father, and was soon enveloped in a huge bear hug—right in the middle of the crowd of Saturday shoppers.  (I can only imagine what the onlookers were thinking as this stocky Guatemalan man was embracing a North American woman—a full head taller than he—and shouting "Hermana,” translated sister, “I found you!”)

As we chatted, I discovered they were now living three days a week in Antigua, and four days in Guatemala City.  Mom has continued working, and Dad devotes his life to getting Maria Los Angeles an education.  Classes are available to her in Guatemala City two days a week, and in Antigua three.  Hence, their dual homes.  Seldom have I met a family this committed to educating their child.

We arranged for Maria to have her chair readjusted at the Hope Haven factory, outside of Antigua.  I was so excited to be able to offer them a ride to the factory in our new van.  This was the first time we had used it for wheelchair ministry, and I was so happy it would be for old friends.

As it happened, another friend, Brad Ferguson from Louisiana, was bringing down a team to hold a distribution at the factory, and we were able to meet up with them.  I love when I can connect friends with friends.  Dick was at this distribution, and after taking one look at how much Maria had grown in one short year, decided she needed a new, larger chair.  In short order the guys from Louisiana were adjusting a chair for her. 

 

She had such fun with the guys, I got to visit with her
and her dad, she has a new chair, and will have a communication system when I return from the US in May.

 

Pastor Tom showing Maria how to work
                   an iPad

People often ask me how we “find” the children and adults we work with.  Most of the time, like with Maria and her family, they find us.  I love how God brings his people together when they need each other.