Catching Up

There is an old episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy and Ethel get a job in a chocolate factory. They are to wrap each of the chocolates as they come down a conveyor belt, which seems to be a simple task. It starts out well enough, but as both the speed of the belt and the volume of chocolate increase the two ladies are quickly overwhelmed. By the end, they are shoving the chocolates down their shirts, in their hats and in their mouths, trying to keep them from flying off the end of the belt.

Welcome to my life for the last few months. While that scene may seem funny when you see two comediennes on the receiving end, it can seem less than funny when the “chocolate” is barreling down on you and there is no where left to stuff it all.

God continues to bless our ministry and we continue to grow. In addition, the quality of care that we provide to both the children in our group home and those in rural villages continues to improve. But we continue to stumble upon more and more children in severe need of care. And while I have gotten better at saying “No” to lesser needs and those that do not match up with our calling, I still cannot say that word to a child that is in serious trouble. So, this ministry continues to grow at a rate that leaves me, at times, trying to find places to shove the “chocolate” that comes barreling my way.

However, with each passing day, we continue to better organize and plan for growth now and in the future. Here are just a few of the changes that are happening:

We recently hired Joel Caal to serve as the Director of our soon-to-be headquarters in the Department of Solola. This area includes the towns of San Pablo (our largest town based upon the number of families), Solola and Panajachel.

Joel is a young Guatemalan man of God who graduated from Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, TX. He is a Cowboys fan, but other than that, he has a good head on his shoulders. He is a good friend to our family and is involved in a serious relationship with my daughter, Brittney, that will likely be leading to marriage soon. Together they will lead our ministry in San Pablo and the department of Solola. This will free up my time considerably, which will enable me to begin new work in two new departments in the months ahead, Santa Rosa and Chiquimula.

Joel will begin working with us on Tuesday, August 18th. He will be living in our home for the next three to four weeks and training under Manuel, Gerardo and me. We plan for him to make his move to San Pablo in mid-September. Please pray for that transition for both Joel and our ministry.

Over the last four weeks we have had a constant stream of teams without a break. They have been wonderful groups that have blessed us in so many ways. Grace Chinese Christian Church was with us two weeks ago, and they had two nurses that were a part of the team. They were instrumental in helping us sort through donated medical supplies and get them organized in our new rural village ministry headquarters. We now know exactly what we have and how to find it.

There will still be more work ahead as we get our inventory of wheelchairs and parts organized. But by the time we are done, we will have a nicely ordered workplace and storage spot. This is a crucial step as we begin to take steps to establish departmental headquarters. This site will become the national headquarters for Ministerio de Esperanza, supplying all the other departments. I foresee us outgrowing this location in the next couple of years, but it will be a good bridge for what lies ahead.

Another change has been the addition of a van to our fleet. We currently have 24 of us living full-time in our home. When we take the entire group out for something, such as going to church, we have been using our 15 passenger van and my dual cab pick-up, which seats five. That means we are four seats short of being able to safely seat everyone. For Guatemala this is not a problem, as they have no problem with seating 25 or 30 people in a 15 passenger van, but we are concerned with the safety of the children.

Recently we learned that our friends at Amor Guate were selling their 15 passenger van, so we jumped at the chance to buy it. It is an older model Ford van with an eight cylinder diesel engine, and lots of space inside. We can remove the rear seats and install strap brackets which will enable us to transport most of the children in their wheelchairs. Between the two vans, we can now transport everyone safely. We are praising God for His provision, once again.

I want to end this post with updates on a couple of our children:

Rosalinda is now in the malnutrition ward at Hermano Pedro. In spite of our best efforts and consultations with specialists, we were simply not able to get her to gain and maintain weight. So she entered the hospital two weeks ago. This has been a rough transition for her, and she has cried much of the time that one of us are not there to hold her. However, she has begun to gain weight. We are hopeful that she will improve quickly and be able to return to our home in another two months.

Two weeks ago Angelita became very lethargic and stopped eating well.We assumed she was sick and called our doctor, but after numerous tests it was determined that she did not have an infection. This news was a great concern to us, because it could indicate that the pressure is increasing in her brain due to her hydrocephalus. She has a unique type of hydrocephalus that makes installing a shunt dangerous. So we are concerned that there is nothing we can do.

We immediately made an appointment with our neurologist, who ordered some more tests. One of these tests was a urine culture that came back positive for an infection. Although it is a mild infection, we are treating it aggressively, hoping that this will result in overall improvement. And we are seeing some improvement.

The neurologist also referred us to a different neurosurgeon, in hopes that he can do something to relieve the pressure on her brain. We are getting the required scans and tests and hope to get her in to see him next week.

Please keep praying for these two little ones. Both of them are struggling in their resistance to illness and are at risk.

Well, the chocolate keeps coming down the belt, so its back to work. Blessings from Guatemala!

Daryl, Wanda and the Crew