Right after the New Year began, I received an email from Alexi Treu, a young man from Omaha who had grown up in Westside Church. On Sunday evenings, Alexi would help me in childcare and the kids loved him.Now, he was getting ready to join the Army, and wanted one last “adventure” before becoming a soldier. (That sounded like enough of an adventure to me, but evidently, not to Alexi).
So, after a number of emails, and a few difficult phone calls (due to poor internet access at our end), everything was arranged and Alexi, and his friend Kathleen McGlynn arrive here on Valentine’s Day.
I almost did not recognize Alexi as he walked out of the airport in Guatemala City. I’d not seen him in a number of years, and the teenager I knew had morphed into a quite handsome young man! I was so excited to see him.
I have said before, I don’t usually host larger teams, but love having a few people down to work with us at a time. When they are young people I have known for years, their visits are extra special to me.
I had not met Kathleen before, but fell in love with her right away. She has such a sweet spirit, and a brilliant mind, as well as a generous heart. She and her family have founded a non-profit, Network Against Malaria, and have been working for a number of years with an Ugandan priest to help eliminate this very preventable disease.
They visited our classroom at Santa Maria de Jesús, as well as spent time with our residents at Hermano Pedro.
During a food distribution with Love Guatemala, the ministry operated by our friends Phil and Judy Bergen, they got into a quite active game of “futbol” with the kids in this very poor community located on the Filadelfia Coffee Plantation. (This plantation is a popular sight with tourists, who zip line only feet above where these plantation workers live in deep poverty. . .but I’ll get on my soap-box another time.)
While they were here, we had a wheelchair distribution at the Hope Haven Factory outside Antigua, and they both got a lot of hands-on experience in fitting and “mechanic-ing” wheelchairs.
Working with Gustavo to adjust a chair.
Ilse Caballeros, the resident physical therapist at Hope Haven, teaching them about positioning and seating.
After all their hard work, I thought we’d spend a couple of days up at Lake Atitlan. I doubted that Alexi would get much time for R&R after he leaves for bootcamp two days after returning from this trip.
We stayed at Panajachel, where I was able to visit a few of the families with whom we work, as well as visit one of the special schools in the area. While I was doing this, they “kids” got plenty of time for shopping and sight-seeing.
Saturday we took a boat ride over to Santiago Atitlan, and we visited the church there, where Father Stan Roher, a missionary priest from Oklahoma, was murdered during the war. Father Stan has become somewhat of a hero to many of us working here in Guatemala, and his story is well chronicled by Henri Nouwen in the book Love in a Fearful Land.
Kathleen having coffee with our boatman
On the steps of the church in
Santiago, Atitlan where Father Stan was martyred
Father Stan’s headstone
Thank you, Alexi and Kathleen for a wonderful ten days. Please pray for Alexi as he begins his career in the military, and Kathleen as she returns to work, her studies, and to serving with her non-profit.
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