Life and Death

(Blogged December 31st, but posted on January 1st due to internet problems.)

Today was spent at Amor del Nino, a wonderful orphanage run by Steve and Shyrel Osborn. As you enter their home, you find lots of little one, lots of laughter, and lots of love. But in the midst of the happiness, there was some grief. Steve and Shyrel’s granddaughter, Abby, passed away suddenly this morning at the age of 2 1/2. She has had severe special needs since birth, but this was unexpected. Please pray for their family during this time.

In spite of grieving with the family, we were still able to enjoy the children. Nails were painted, hair was styled, swings were pushed, and everyone had a blast. We also held a New Year’s Eve party with cake, candy, and decorations.

This evening we returned to Antigua which is in full party mood for New Years Eve. Street performers, fireworks, concerts and more combine to create an environment that is somewhat overwhelming yet wonderful. So, Happy New Year from Guatemala!

Here are a few photos of our day:

More Juggling

The last two days have been a blur. Hosting such a large team has been challenging as we needed to split the group in half and send them to two different locations on Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday half the group went to Casa Jackson (the malnutrition clinic) and held children, organized, cleaned, and repaired. The other half went to Hermano Pedro and took some of the children and adults to Pollo Campero and to the park. They had a great time removing socks and shoes and putting the children’s feet in the fountains.

Today the groups swapped locations. The Casa Jackson team loved on the children and a couple of our guys repaired sinks, toilets, and did white-washing. I feel horrible, but the Hermano Pedro team was short-changed today due to my inability to juggle my ministry team responsibilities with my moving responsibilities. I met with Chris Mooney of Bethel Ministries in Chimaltenango this morning and he helped me establish our bank account. One of Pat Duff’s friends graciously agreed to drive me to the appointment. My meeting was completed quickly, but I forgot that I was on Guatemalan time which runs much slower than American time. By the time my gracious driver returned me to Hermano Pedro, it was too late to check the children out for lunch or for a trip to the park. I tried to make it up to them by treating them to a nicer meal at Mono Loco. I don’t know if I appeased them all, but they all enjoyed the food.

I do want to praise God for Chris Mooney. He introduced me to a key person at his bank, helped me set up our account, and promised to vouch for us financially. As a result, we have been granted immediate access to funds deposited to our Guatemalan account from the US (normally at 30 wait to clear). Chris and Donna Mooney do wonderful work through Bethel Ministries, and I encourage you to check out their ministry by clicking here.

Tomorrow we will head to Amor del Nino where we will love on more children and throw a New Year’s Eve party. Tonight…sleep! You know you are tired if you nod off in a Tuk Tuk!

Good night from Antigua, Guatemala!

Here are a few pics of the last few days:

Worthwhile Work

Today our team spent the day at Los Gozosos, a special needs group home in Chimaltenango. As always, we experienced a sharp contrast from our time at Hermano Pedro. In Los Gozosos the children are loved deeply by those who care for them. Each child is known and pushed to achieve their full potential. Joy is evident in both the kids and the nannies, and Christ is the center of it all.

We helped with some of the many jobs that needed to be done around the home. Our group worked together to mow, edge, lay gravel, groom flower beds, install lights and outlets, fix doors, wash window, and more. While the work was exhausting, it was so worthwhile. The work done in this home is important to the kingdom, yet they are underfunded and overwhelmed. Any assistance provided is greatly appreciated.

We also had the opportunity to spend time just loving the children. Laughter was abundant along with hugs and kisses.

I would encourage you to find out more about Los Gozosos by visiting their Web site at www.losgozosos.org.

Here are a few photos from our day:

Catching up

It’s been quite a while since I last posted here. To be honest, life has been full over the last 6 weeks since we returned from Guatemala. Packing…selling…Thanksgiving…packing…selling…preparation for our December team…packing…selling…Christmas… You get the idea.

But now I am airborne with our largest ministry team to date and heading back to Guatemala. So when I found out Delta was offering free in-flight internet for the holidays I realized my next three hours of captivity could be partially filled by addressing my severely neglected blog.

So, let me begin by saying that I am, indeed, alive. As I write this, our family is 30 days away from our move to Guatemala. Preparations are in full swing and we are excited to finally have our new ministry in our sights. When I return on January 2nd, we will have 11 days of packing and selling left before leaving to visit family in NC and PA. There is still so much that remains to be done that our to-do list seems rather daunting. But our excitement and adrenaline is keeping us going through the fatigue.

In the midst of all the work, our family was able to enjoy one of our best Christmases ever. We were able to spend Christmas Day serving the Lord and others in a ministry that was very near and dear to our family. In addition, on Saturday, December 18 our family went down to Kids Against Hunger to help pack food for malnourished children. I can’t recommend this organization enough. For a quarter a day you can provide a meal a day for a child. Combined that with a trip down to Cincinnati to work with them for two hours, you can provide and pack enough food to feed a child for a year. And families are welcome to work together, with children as young as age three helping.

Kids Against Hunger is providing the food for our Wheels of Hope program (our rural village ministry). I would encourage your family and church to get involved by supporting them with both your money and time. You can find out more at www.kidsagainsthunger.org.

This whole Christmas season was made more significant in that we spent last Christmas and New Year in the hospital with Joshua. As a result, we have treasured every minute of our freedom and health this year. Plus, we really enjoyed God’s gift of a white Christmas!

As we move into a new year, I greatly appreciate your prayers on behalf of our team as we serve for the next eight days. This week promises to be challenging as my daughter, Brittney, and I will be sharing leadership of our team of 20. In the midst of the week, I will also be meeting with lawyers, real estate agents, banking officials, and ministry representatives. Please pray that these meetings go smoothly and quickly and that I am able to complete the tasks that are crucial for our move. Also pray that God moves in mighty ways in and through our team.

Please pray for our family as well as we complete the final preparations for our move. We need God’s guidance and strength in the coming month.

I promise it will not be another 6 weeks until another update. In fact, I will likely post several this week.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Pushing and Pulling

Tonight I feel the pull of Guatemala’s children in a more profound way than ever before. I should be in bed now, but sleep seems far away because my mind keeps visiting the kids that I love so much.

We watched some video this evening that was taken several years ago at Hermano Pedro, and I was struck by how much the kids have grown and changed. And I was brought to tears realizing that they have stared at the same ceilings and walls for all the days, weeks, months, and years since.

I desperately want to be there, investing my life in them and others who are far worse off. And we are close. We have rented our home, purchased our plane tickets (for January 25th), and have begun the final stage of downsizing. Yet, for some reason, our move seems far away tonight.

We are pushing hard these days. I am in the process of preparing the US side of our ministry to be handed off to our new office manager. We are selling items on Craig’s List and giving away still more. The few items of sentimental value that are to be placed in storage are being packed, and final checklists are being made. Yet there is still so much to be done before we go. So, Guatemala seems far away right now.

As we have prepared for this move, most of our friends and family have been supportive and encouraging. But some have not. Some are even becoming hostile toward us as the move gets closer. They don’t understand what would drive us to uproot our kids and move to a foreign country. They see it as personal betrayal or abandonment as we leave them behind. They don’t understand the pull. And until they look into the eyes of these children that we love and see them as more than statistics, they never will.

But regardless of the understanding of others, we feel the pull and hear the call of God and we are going. To not do so would be to forsake who we were created to be and the One who created us. We can no more resist this call than we can stop breathing. So, we keep pushing through to-do lists while Guatemala pulls.

And as the pushing and pulling continues and Guatemala seems so far away, I am praying for our kids. And tonight I pray that my Jesus, who is close to us all, will hold them tightly in His arms.

Introducing Our New Home!

I am looking back on the last eight days as I travel home from Guatemala, and I can honestly say that I have been blown away by the faithfulness of God! We have worked hard to prepare for our move, and the Lord has done far more than we even thought to ask of Him.

We had the privilege of traveling with our pastor and his wife, Ron and Melanie Ecklebarger. They were a terrific source of encouragement and wisdom to us as we sought God’s direction in so many areas of our transition. In addition, they were two extra sets of arms to love on the kids!

We are pleased to announce that we now have a home in Guatemala! We traveled down with plans to look at 10 to 12 homes, but several of them had already been rented while others were determined to be in locations that were not suitable for our ministry and family. Of the handful of homes we did see, only one met our needs, but it has met those needs wonderfully!

Our new home in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Guatemala (Yes, that really is the name of the town!) is both huge and beautiful. With between 6,000 and 7,000 square feet, eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, two living room, and a large and beautiful courtyard, it greatly exceeds our highest expectations. We will be able to house our entire family plus 10 children with special needs on the first floor alone while hosting ministry teams of up to 20 people on the second floor. And, with the revenue created from hosted teams, our monthly rent will only be $550.00 US per month. (That figure is based upon hosting only four teams a year with an average size of 10 people.) After carefully praying and seeking God’s direction, we felt very strongly that we were to sign a two year lease on this facility. So, Hogar de la Esperanza has a home!

The community in which we will be located is one of the safer communities in Guatemala. There are very few Americans located in the town, and tourists seldom go there. As a result, we will be immersed in Guatemalan culture and language (Spanish and Kaqchikel), which was our goal all along. There are lots of young families in the area with relatives in some Mayan rural villages, and we pray that our relationship with them will open up ministry opportunities in those places.

In addition to locating our new home, we also made many wonderful contacts that will assist us with our ministry. We met with the head of a wonderful orphanage for children with special needs who is considering partnering with us. This partnership would enable us to work under their orphanage license instead of applying for our own. This will save years of work and thousands of dollars of expenses and enable us to begin taking in children relatively soon after getting settled. We cannot release the name of our potential partners until it is official, but we believe that the match is God-ordained.

We have also found two wonderful doctors who can treat our children, one in Chimaltenango and one in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Both of these men are Christians and both provide quality care. This is a major blessing as finding quality medical care was a huge concern.

We were able to spend extended time with Pastor Mike from Iglesia del Camino (our church in Guatemala), and he was able to refer us to a wonderful Spanish instructor who will be assisting us with our language studies. Due to her method of teaching and pricing, we will be able to save over $1000.00 of our expected expenses. In addition, Pastor Mike put us in contact with two excellent schools for children with special needs. We expect these schools to be a blessing to us as we seek to be a blessing to them.

On Tuesday evening, I was contacted by a lady who has arranged, through a friend who is well-placed within the Guatemalan government, to get a letter of introduction for me that will allow me to enter the state run orphanages. This is an incredible blessing as access to these facilities is greatly limited. In fact, the locations of many of these institutions are not publicized in order to keep people away, so this excellent contact will also be providing me with a directory of these orphanages. We praise God for this open door!

Last night we were able to spend some extended time with our incredible friend, Dick Rutgers. If you have followed this blog for very long you already know about his wonderful work with the people of Guatemala who have special needs. We will be working closely with Dick after our move, and he was able to give us valuable insight and assistance for our transition and early days of ministry.

Finally, we were able to spend time with our kids at Hermano Pedro. We took two groups out to eat at Pollo Campero and took every spare moment to love on the rest. As always, it is difficult to say goodbye to them, but it was made easier this time since we know that we will be back for good very soon! (Two-and-a-half months and counting down!)

Thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry! I can assure you that they are yielding results and God is bringing everything together! He is truly good!

Overwhelmed

If I had to come up with one word to describe my life right now it would be a difficult task. There are a lot of descriptive words that could be employed. Excited, inspired, blessed, and busy are just a few that would work. But none of them would assume the top position.

The one word that would probably describe my life right now is “overwhelmed.” I feel absolutely overwhelmed with the vision of our expanding ministry.

Needing a change of location this afternoon, I grabbed my laptop and left my basement office to experience life above-ground at a local Tim Hortons. For the last two hours I have been sitting here working on a brochure to describe our new ministries in Guatemala. And as I have typed, the magnitude of the task ahead has hit me hard. A group home for children with special needs, a ministry to rural villages, and a pastor training program…any one of these alone seems like an overwhelming task, even with healthy funding. But in three months our family will be leaving the United States, moving to Guatemala, and tackling all three with a shortage of funds. So, I am feeling overwhelmed, ill-equipped, and way under-qualified.

As I think about it, though, those feelings have been present with me through most of my life with Jesus. I remember feeling that way through every major step I have taken in my adult life. I recall accepting my first ministry position in North Carolina right after graduation from college. My young bride and I packed up our PA apartment and headed south. And I felt overwhelmed.

In 1990, we packed-up again, this time with a 3 month old daughter, and headed for a strange and distant land…Ohio. There we started a youth group as I was, once again, overwhelmed and under-qualified.

In 1995 we moved to Greenville, OH to start anew with another youth group. This time we had three daughters in-tow and were taking a $5000 a year pay-cut. Our first youth group meeting had five teens and I, once again, felt overwhelmed.

In 1999 we moved to Troy to start a church. Wanda and I sat in a circle with three other couples and dreamed about the future. And I wondered how on earth we would ever see that dream become reality. Overwhelmed again.

In 2006 we left that church to begin a communications ministry with The Shepherd’s Crook, and I felt overwhelmed. In 2008 I was laid off from that position and called by God to start Hope for Home Ministries. Can you guess how I was feeling? I think you get the idea.

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I once again feel overwhelmed as we take our biggest step of faith ever. In fact, I would be surprise and a little worried if I didn’t. If I were a little more aware I would probably feel that way more often and much more strongly.

I think God calls His people to do God-sized tasks. Any idiot can do a human-sized task because we are all human-sized. But God asks us to do the impossible and to trust in Him to provide the necessary miracles. He did that repeatedly in scripture. He did it with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Noah, Gideon, Mary, and Peter. And I believe every single one of them wrestled with being overwhelmed. That is probably why God had to repeatedly remind them of his promises and faithfulness.

So, I will go back to work on my brochure that describes a God-sized ministry. And, as I do, I will remind myself that it doesn’t depend on human-sized Daryl.

Downhere – Here I Am