For well over a year now, we have been planning to expand our rural village work into new departments. About 19 months ago, I felt a strong urging from the Lord to begin working in the Department of Chiquimula. It is one of the poorest areas of Guatemala with the highest malnutrition rate. The needs are great there, and the instances of special needs are extremely high. So, we began to make plans to go there. On no less than three occasions we planned to go, only to have events beyond our control cancel the trip.
Meanwhile, there are five other departments that have requested that we come and begin ministering. Most of these requests have come from social workers who have learned what we do. And most of them have informed us that children with special needs are dying for a lack of resources and help.
My plan, as of January 1st, was to expand into Chiquimula in early February, with the hope of expanding into the department of Santa Rosa by late Summer or early Fall. The date was set to travel to Camotan in Chiquimula, and I gathered the supplies and equipment to take. And then, Angelita died just three days prior to our departure. So, once again, the trip was cancelled.
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| Quichè is the red pin to the far north. The other pins are areas in which we are currently working. |
Just a few days later, we received a call from the mother of Christian, who had lived in our home for 18 months and then been returned to his family. His father had succumbed to alcoholism and had become abusive of his mom. He eventually abandoned his wife and two children and ran off with another woman, leaving his wife to try to provide for her son and daughter. She was contacting us to ask for help. Christian had no medicine and needed a wheelchair badly.
The problem was that they live in Quichè, a department that was not yet on my radar. I had plans of expanding there in 2018 (maybe), but had not considered doing so soon. It is a 5 to 6 hour drive there, and it is WAY outside our current area of ministry. I knew that if we went that far, we could not just do so to minister to one family, so that meant we would need to begin working in that region. And I wasn’t sure that we were ready to do that.
But, because the need was so great and God had continually blocked our plans to go to Chiquimula, I began to pray and ask God what He wanted us to do. And, about two days later, I received a message from my friend, Dennis McCutcheon, the Director of the Guatemalan branch of Vine International. He was connecting me with Greg and Helaine Walton, who were beginning a ministry for those with special needs in Canilla, Quichè. And that made me wonder what God was up to.
Greg and I connected, and he and his family visited us at home several days later. As they shared their vision and story, I knew God was bringing us together for His Kingdom. So, we scheduled a trip up to visit their new ministry center 10 days later. And what a trip it was.
Their are two routes that will take you to their town. One is longer, but uses main roads, while the other one is shorter but much rougher, composed almost entirely of rugged backroads. Since we were planning to meet with Christian and his mom, we chose the first option, which would take us closer to the meeting spot.
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| Even the main route had its share of bumps and hills. |
We went first to Nancy’s house and heard her heartbreaking story. Nancy was a healthy young girl until the age of nine. She was the apple of her daddy’s eye, and they spent every spare moment together. But then her dad was killed in an accident. Her mother took her up to the casket to see her father one last time. But when the reality of his death hit her, she lay down on the floor next to the casket and stopped moving and responding. She has been that way for 21 years now. She has not spoken a word or made a voluntary movement in all that time.
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| Nancy |
Due to her lack of movement, her muscles, ligaments and tendons have gradually contracted. Since she struggles to swallow, her mom has crushed fruits and vegetable to feed her, but she has been unable to get sufficient calories into her. As a result, she is horribly malnourished. Yet, her mom has continued to care for her faithfully. In spite of her condition, Nancy does not have a single pressure sore, and that is a testimony to her mom’s excellent care.
We are now arranging formula for her, as well as providing a specialized wheelchair for her. Her body does not bend, so we will be making a flat bed that will attach to a wheelchair frame. We are also working with her mom to teach her basic therapy that she can do with her. Please pray for both Nancy and her mom.
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| Nancy's malnutrition is severe. |
From there we visited Samuel. This young man suffers from severe cerebral palsy that has twisted his body. He has not had a wheelchair, so his mom had placed him in an old child’s wagon with blankets in the bottom. Over time, this has resulted in increasing deformity in his back and hips. His left hip is now completely dislocated and would require surgery to fix it.
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| Greg and his new ride |
Greg had sent me the measurements and photos that were gathered by some visiting therapists, so I was able to take the proper wheelchair for him. After over an hour of adjustments, we were able to get him sitting upright. And with additional padding, we were able to get his dislocated hip into a secure and comfortable position.
His family is very poor, so we left them with a food basket. We will be seeking a sponsor for Nancy, Samuel and all the people you will read about here.
From there we headed back to the ministry center that the Waltons have opened. The ministry is called Las Maripositas (The Little Butterflies). It is a beautiful facility that they rented and are fixing up. From there they will offer special education, therapy, a nutrition program and more. But they are new at working with people who have special needs, so they are asking us to train them and their staff. So, in the coming months we will be providing classes in assessment, the most common special needs, therapy, first aid, CPR and more.
Meanwhile, they are blessing us by connecting us with resources that we need, including a missionary pilot with two planes that can do medical evacuations for us from all over Guatemala and a Christian hospital in Quiche that will open soon and provide high quality medical care. We are praising God for this new partnership.
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| Darlyn and his mom |
When we arrived at the center, Darlyn and his mother was waiting for us. He is a young man with cerebral palsy and is in desperate need of a wheelchair, so they were meeting us there so we could measure him to bring a chair on our next trip. But as we talked with the mother and interacted with Darlyn, it became clear that he also is on the autism spectrum. His mother explained the issues with which he struggles, including insomnia. He sleeps only two hours a night, and cries much of the time. This makes life hard on his family as well. We have now connected him with some medicine that will hopefully help.
At this point, we took time to go over the menu for their feeding program. They have done a fantastic job of creating a menu to provide high calorie and high nutrition meals, but we were working with them to tweek the program to be adapted to children with special needs. Many do not realize this, but those who are immobile or limited in their mobility struggle with constipation because movement aids digestion. So we worked with them to add juices and fiber to assist with colon health.
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| Maynor is blind and will be receiving cane training and a cane from our team. |
By this time, we were wiped after a day of travel and work, so we headed back to the Waltons’ home for a nice meal and a good night’s rest. We were ready to hit the ground running the next morning, which was good. There were more families waiting.
A stroke victim, a teenager with severe autism that includes self abuse, a teenager who is blind and will be receiving the benefit of our team’s recent training by Global Cane Outreach, and more. We finished up and headed back home around 1:00 pm.
More dusty roads followed, and we somehow ended up even more dust covered going back. Everything we had with us produced a dust cloud by the end.
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| Christian and his new wheels |
We stopped in Santa Cruz del Quichè, where we met Christian and his mom. It was so good to see them both, and we quickly had Christian sitting well in his new wheelchair. We also gave him the medicine he so desperately needed, so we are hopeful that he will be doing better soon.
Please pray for us in the days ahead. We have much work happening here in Guatemala with our expansion into Quichè, but it does not end there. The ministry is growing in every area in which we work. Just yesterday Gerardo and Manuel ventured to Comalapa and Tecpan to visit families and deliver medicine and food. But when they returned they had four more applications of children with special needs who desperately need intervention. This is stretching both our faith and our schedule.
Add to that the expansion into Liberia and a still young work in Uganda, and my plate is very full. Please pray for focus and clarity for me and all our team.
Speaking of Liberia, Don and Melanie Riley and their children will be making their move back to Africa next week. Please keep them in your prayers during that transition.
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| Cesar is making great headway! |
Finally, I want to introduce you to the newest member of Hogar de la Esperanza. Cesar is nine years old and suffers from a seizure disorder and physical and cognitive delays. I normally keep information regarding the background for the children private, but this case is special and He truly needs your prayers. For the first eight years of his life, he grew up in a very remote village to the north. Because of his seizure disorder, his family and village believed him to be demon possessed, so they treated him accordingly. They kept him in a homemade cage where he lived like an animal.
The emotional damage to this young man has been severe. When he first arrived in our home, he was out of control. He hit, kicked, bit, threw toys at the heads of others and more. He was unresponsive to verbal correction, and we will not use physical discipline on a child that has been abused. So we resorted to the only thing we could do, physical restraint. We would hold him firmly from behind while seated on the floor and securing his arms and his legs. We would speak words of love and correction, explaining that hurting others was not allowed, and they were not allowed to hurt him. We told him that we are now his family, this is his home and that he is loved and safe.
In the last three weeks we have seen tremendous strides. He seldom is aggressive, and has become quite affectionate. He loves being hugged and hugging others. We had removed all hard toys from the play area out of fear of him using them as a weapon, but we are now gradually reintroducing them. In the early days, it took 5 of us to administer his medicine due to his fighting and spitting. Now he opens his mouth and receives them without a battle. God is slowly bringing healing into his heart and a sweet little boy is emerging, but there is still much healing that remains. Please pray for Cesar.
I guess I have probably overwhelmed you with info, so I will bring it to an end. Thanks for every one of you who pray, give and encourage! You help make this ministry possible.
Blessings from Guatemala!
Daryl, Wanda and the Crew
