I know, great name for a blog. Hang with me and you will understand where that title originates.
The beginning of a new year is my least favorite time. While most people are embroiled in the illusion of keeping their New Year’s resolutions, I am up to my neck in reports, paperwork, and government forms that go along with being the Director of a 501c3 charity. And, for those of you who know me, you know how much I just love office work. (I case you can’t pick-up my very subtle use of sarcasm there, let me help you out…THAT WAS SARCASTIC!)
So, for the last 12 days most of my time has been spent in writing reports, filling out forms and pouring over financial reports so that I can actually get back to doing what I love. Yesterday gave me that opportunity as we loaded up the 4-runner and headed to El Progreso to visit with our families there.
We started at Marta’s house, and that is where the gagging part of the title comes into play. We first met Marta about three months ago. She has a nasty circulation sore on her leg that she has had for 20 years. When we first found her she had an infection, and we sent her to a doctor who put her on antibiotics. The infection cleared up quickly, and we stopped in to see her about three weeks later when Dick Rutgers, Gerardo Hernandez, Jeremiah and I were heading up to Peten. Dick has had experience in treating these kinds of sores and brought along special medicated wraps to use. When we visited her in late December her leg was looking much better and healthy tissue was growing, so I expected more of the same on this visit. I realized I was in for a surprise when I sat down next to her and she placed her leg up on a bench for me to unwrap and examine. The smell took my breath away, and I recognized before starting that she was infected again. By the time I had the first layer of wrapping off my eyes were tearing and I was swallowing down my gag reflexes. When I removed the final layer of wrapping it was literally dripping wet from the drainage. There was an angry infection in the midst of the healthy new tissue that had grown.
We arranged for her to go back to the wound specialist on Saturday (the first day he would be back in town) and I treated her with antibiotic ointment and gauze wrap. This was no small task since the wound was weeping so much that I had difficulty keeping it dry enough for the ointment to stick. She was making great progress until this infection. Please pray for Marta that God will quickly heal the infection and that the wound healing can continue.
From there we went to visit Don Jorge. This gentleman is 89 years old and lives with his daughter Romelia. He is desperately in need of a new wheelchair because his current one is falling apart. When we first met him, we were taken to his home by a man name Gregori, who was related to Olga who died back in November. He told us of several people in the area with special needs and asked us to come up and see them. Don Jorge was one of them. During that visit we arranged for Gregori to bring Olga’s wheelchair to Jorge. The following week we called to see if he had done so, but he did not answer and would not return our calls. In December, we stopped in to check to see if the chair had been delivered, but no one was home. When we arrived yesterday his daughter acted distant at first and we wondered why. She proceeded to tell us that she had called Gregori to ask about the chair, but he was hostile toward her. He told her that they had given the chair to someone else and that he didn’t work with “those people.” He also told her not to call him again. As it turns out, he thought we would pay him for finding people with special needs for us to help, and when we didn’t give him money, he got angry.
We took the time to explain to Romelia that we did not, indeed, work with Gregori and that we were very sorry for how she had been treated. We explained that I would return in a few weeks with a chair for him and that if she needed anything for her father that she should call us and not Gregori. She was greatly relieved and very thankful.
It is a good thing that we did not run into Gregori yesterday, because I was ready to lay hands on him in Jesus’ name. There are so many wonderful people here who work hard to help their people, but there is the occasional person who just wants to exploit need for a profit. This man was one of them.
We also checked in on Miguel who receive a wheelchair from us last month. We wanted to see how he was doing and how the chair was working for them. His daughter told us how his grandchildren had been taking him on walks and he was able to get out of the house for the first times since his stroke 8 months ago. It has also saved his two daughters’ backs since they no longer have to carry him from room to room.
We then delivered food to Amilcar and his family. He is an adult man with Down’s Syndrome who is cared for by his sister. They struggle to pay their bills and eat, so our month food delivery is greatly needed.
From there we went to put new wheels an Marian’s wheelchair. Her old tires had gone flat, and I was able to get new ones from Bethel Ministries. The only snag was that the new wheels were wider at the axel and the existing release pins would not work. So, we began the hot and sweaty task of removing the tires from her old wheels and putting the tires from the new wheels onto the old wheels. The best ways to describe this feat is to have you imagine putting 10 cats into a box that is 2 foot cubed and having one of the cats being a mountain lion. However, with three of us working together, we got it done. We then had the pleasure of telling her and her mom that we have a sponsor to provide new leg braces for her. Marian’s face lit up the room when she heard.
We also visited with Britani, a two-year-old little girl in need of surgery for cleft foot and arranged for her to come in to Hermano Pedro for evaluation and to get on the waiting list of the next orthopedic surgery team that is scheduled to come through in March. She has already had two surgeries at the national hospital, but they seem to have done more harm than good. We are hoping that they will be approved to have the surgery when Faith in Practice comes from the States in two months.
We rounded out our visits by delivering a box of Kids Against Hunger packets to Carmen and her two daughters Manuela and Marsela. These packets are literally keeping them alive now as they have no income. They are close to being evicted because they are so far behind on their rent payments, but they are being charged way too much for the shack in which they are living. They are about $440 in arrears, but I hesitate to provide that for them because the “house” is in such horrible shape. I would like to get them out of there into a more suitable home. Please pray that God will give me wisdom to know how to properly help.
We stopped for a quick bite to eat and then headed for home. This is where the geyser comes into the story. We had just made it back through Guatemala City when I started to hear a funny noise coming from the engine. I checked the gages, but they all read normal. After another mile or two I realized something was wrong because I was losing power. I had just decided to pull over when the engine died. I was able to coast to a decent spot to stop and saw smoke coming from under the hood. The engine had overheated badly without ever showing a problem on the gauges. It was then that I realized that my radiator was dry, even though I had checked it and all my fluid levels two days earlier in preparation for this trip.
Fortunately we had a nearly full cooler of drinking water which we were able to use to partially fill the radiator. However, as you can see from the photo, I was impatient and started filling it too soon resulting in our imitation of Old Faithful. The engine eventually cooled down and we were able to drive to another station where we added more water. We decided to drive and pray our way to Chimaltenango so that I could leave the truck with my mechanic, Ali. However, we once again overheated and had to pull over about a mile from his shop. Some very enthusiastically helpful men went and got water and spent the next 45 minutes dumping over and into my radiator to help it cool down. Eventually we were able to start it and drive it the rest of the way to the shop. There we discovered that Ali is out of the country for the next 10 days.
So, my 4-Runner is out of commission for a while. Praise God that Bob Ecklebarger has agreed to use his Nissan XTerra to help us get to a couple of towns early next week that are awaiting our visit.
So, there you go. From gagging to geysers in a single blog!
Blessing from San Antonio Aguas Calientes!
Daryl, Wanda and the Crew
