The Lord your God has blessed the work of your hands. . .

This quote from Deut. 2:7a kind of sums up some of our recent trips to visit families with whom we work in some of the villages.

While we continue to deal with hardships and very difficult situations here, the past few visits to villages have been very encouraging.  Families with whom we have worked for a long time are becoming healthier.  Kids are making progress in school.  We are blessed by the friendships we have with these people.


Once of our families that is thriving is the family of Jessica, who we met in 2010 when Dick brought her into the malnutrition project at Hermano Pedro after meeting her at a wheelchair distribution.  After spending almost a year in the ward, she returned home and continues to do well.  She is growing and her family, who is receiving a monthly donation for food from Bethel Ministries, is taking wonderful care of her.

Jessica has become quite the little flirt!

She was pretty intrigued when Carlin taught her to use my iPad

Her nephews, who were visiting from Guatemala City loved it, too

This family has not been receiving any help with school expenses, and we would like to help Blanca, Jessica's 17 year old sister, to remain in school.  The whole family is working hard to help her finish her education, which is unusual, given her age and the fact that she is a girl.  She has two more years of school to complete what would be equivalent to someone finishing high school in the US.  She would then like to continue studying either in Antigua or Guatemala City.

It will cost about $35 a month to keep this young lady in school.  If you would like to help her accomplish her dream, email Pat for more information on becoming her sponsor.

Another of my favorite places to visit is a group of single women who are raising their children in an aldea outside of Tecpan.  Many of the children in this aldea are going to school with the help of Bethel Ministries, and Bethel has recently hired a teacher to tutor the children in the afternoon.  This has made a great impact on their grades, and this teacher has proven to be quite creative in her approach.

Yep, those are small stones she's using for counters!

I think, though, that our most encouraging visit was to Marvin's family, in Cerro Colorado.   We had been here just a few weeks ago, and were very concerned about not only Marvin's health, but that of his whole family.  Dr. Jose had visited them with us, and made recommendations for treatment for parasites.  Click here to see the blog on that visit.)

When we got to the house, it appeared that no one was home, but were delighted to see Mom walk around the side of the house carrying Marvin.  There was a spring in her step that I'd not seen before.  They were both obviously, while still painfully thin, much more "sturdy" than when we had seen them a few weeks earlier.

 His brothers are doing much better in school, too.

 Jose will wear the "bandera" (sash) in the Independence

Day parade, Sept. 15, indicating he is the top student 

in his class.                    

When we talked to them about how they were doing, we were overjoyed to hear that all the suggestions we had given were being followed and were working.  They had completed the parasite medication treatment, and were now only drinking purified water.  The kids were taking vitamins, and even had their nails trimmed as Dr. Jose had ordered.  Dad's persistence in looking for work daily had even paid off--he had a job even though it is not cane season. But what really has made a difference, I believe, is the nutritional support they are receiving thanks to our ministry partners at Hope for Home ministries.  We could hardly believe the change we saw in this family.

Dick and I had both thought that Marvin was pretty cognitively impaired.  We discovered, though, that we had been seeing the effects of his severe malnutrition.  Today, Marvin was alert, attentive and responsive.  When I asked mom what hand he used to eat, he put his right hand to his mouth before she had a chance to answer.  He loves to scribble and color when he's in his wheelchair, and we promised to bring him crayons and a coloring book.  He almost jumped off Mom's lap when he heard this!  We promised, too, to work on a simple communication book.

                      

 Grandma, who we thought was close to death at our last visit, was looking pretty spry.  She had been to town to buy vegetables, and you could see how special she is to Marvin when she walked into the yard.  

For a few years now she has been telling us she needs glasses and evidently went to a clinic held by a visiting team and also needs eye drops.  For about $200 we can help this dear lady enjoy the rest of her days with adequate sight.  If you'd like to sponsor her, please email me.