A Mother’s Day Card

Dear Mom,  Ok so its not quite Mother’s Day but don’t tell that to the people of Guatemala.  It seems they are having a three day celebration for all the moms so we thought we’d be Guatemalan and send this card along a little early.

We’ve thought about you a lot during this week since most of us learned our tender touch from you.  We’ve used that touch many times this week as we’ve treated hundreds of people during our medical mission trip.

Our first stop was in the town of Chacaguex.  There we were met by a group of workers from a local church who helped us treat more than 130 sick and suffering people.

The next day we carried our supplies up a dirt road to a two-room schoolhouse in the town of Chupacay.  Our team was kept very busy treating another 85 patients.

Even though we called ourselves a medical team we also had time to share our faith with hundreds of children and build roofs and stoves for a couple of very poor families.

Oh yeah as you’ve probably “herd” we also built a chicken coop for a family living in the country.  It was just our way of “bringing home the bacon”.

We finished off the week treating another 135 patients at ASELSI’s Father’s Heart Clinic.

It was a wonderful week for all 25 of us.  Not an easy week to be sure but a week in which we felt the presence of God as he worked through us.    Thanks Mom for teaching us to see the beauty in His creation and in the lives of the people He created.

All our Love,

The World Outreach Team

Henry Here

 

 

Hi, the name’s Henry, you don’t know me but I know you.  You’re the reason my dad and mom dragged me out of a nice warm bed for a trip to ASELSI.  

It was there we had the “official” dedication of the brand new Father’s Heart Clinic.  Ok, so its not brand new. They’ve been taking care of friends of mine here since last August.  Lots of friends, in fact, more than fifteen thousand of them.  Lots of them were here today as we listened to a bunch of grownups talk about how God used so many of you so that we could have this beautiful clinic.  By the way, I may look bored in this picture but actually the speeches were quite interesting.  I especially liked the ones about the Milk Program and the physical therapy program.  Anyway, after the smoke had cleared the doors were opened to the seven thousand square foot building.  A building that treats so many sick people each and every day.  A building you built with your dollars and your prayers.  Let me add one final word, a word my mom and dad asked me to you for helping me have my healthy body and my fat little cheeks.  OK  here it comes, read my lips,“thank you”.  (Ok so that’s two words, I’m only seven months old I can’t count yet).

 

“Flowers Grow Out of Dark Moments”

      Imagine for a moment you are the mother of a special needs child living in the mountains of Guatemala.  Imagine you are being told by family and friends that there is no hope for your child and that its better to keep your child hidden away in the darkness of your adobe home.  Now imagine somewhere tells you about a place where your child can be helped AND you can find relief.

     It was a dream of Sharon Harvey to start a workshop for the mothers of special needs children attending ASELSI’s “Jesus’ Little Lambs Center”.  That dream came true two years ago with the formation of a group called “Chichi Blossoms”.  A catchy title coming from the location of the center and the fact that the mothers were making flowers out of material from used clothes to sell at the local market.

     A lot has happened during the past two years for this program completely independent from ASELSI.  You might say the Chichi Blossoms have blossomed.  There are more mothers getting their children to school on-time and then walking into the room next door and working at a “fair trade” rate.  Four local “gardeners” have been added to make sure the ladies have what they need to keep the flowers growing.  Ok that’s another change, the flowers have been replaced by better selling bracelets and Christmas ornaments made from traditional clothing.  Yes the flowers are gone but the Blossoms continue to thrive.

     An author once wrote, “where flowers bloom, so does hope”.  The hope the Chichi Blossoms are finding does not come from a weekly paycheck, it does not come from selling their wares to the mission teams visiting ASELSI, hope comes from God.  It comes from the daily prayer they have together at the beginning of each work day.  It comes from the realization that despite the “dark moments”, God is still with them and their children.  It comes from “blossoming spiritually”.  Please pray for these mothers and if you know of a market where the Blossoms can sell their crafts you can contact them at:  chichiblossoms@gmail.com

 

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone but also in the flowers”   Martin Luther

     

“Once You Learn, You Never Forget How”

“It’s a lot like learning to ride a bicycle”, that’s how one team member described setting up a medical clinic, “once you learn you never forget how”.  The medical team from the University of Missouri certainly has perfected the art during the past several years while working with ASELSI.

This past week that wealth of experience was put to the test.  The twenty-two members of the team set up and tore down three different clinics in three different locations.

On Monday the team was greeted with “open arms” in the town of Momostenango.  During a very busy nine-hour day, the team was able to treat more than one hundred twenty patients not to mention putting up a new roof for two local families.  Somehow during that hectic day Andreas found time to ride some kid’s bicycle.  I guess that makes Andreas the “spokes”person for the team?

After a short night’s rest, the team set up the next clinic in the town of Pologua.  What started off as a slow day quickly turned into an extremely busy one, almost two hundred people were treated by the men and women from Missouri.  Of course during that wild day another couple of families were treated to new roofs courtesy of the team.

Chuicha was the next destination for the “meds from Mizzou”.  Wednesday was only a half-day clinic but they still found time to treat another sixty patients.

During a crazy three-day period almost four hundred Guatemalan men, women, and children were treated; but the numbers don’t really tell the story.  The past three days was a story about a group of young men and women from Missouri who sacrificed their time, their money, and their spring break to make a difference.  It was a story about a bunch of current and future doctors who not only shared their medical talents but also their hearts, their love for God, and many of their tears with the people of Guatemala.

Spring Break? Are You Kidding?

     Like a bunch of caged animals the mission team from Oral Roberts University unleashed their fury on the boys and girls of the Belen School near Chichi.  Ok that might be overstating things a bit.  Anyway for a couple of hours, nine American college students shared their talents and their love for Jesus with 150 school kids from Chulumal, Guatemala.

Testimonies, songs, games, were all part of the program and as you can see, the kids certainly got a kick out of it.

The team from ORU is spending a week at ASELSI ministering to people and from the moment their “boots hit the ground” in Guatemala they’ve “been on a roll” (pun intended).

Thank you ORU for sending these incredibly passionate and talented men and women to us.  They have certainly touched many lives.

Spring break, are you kidding?  I thought the idea of spring break was to get out of the classroom.  Not for this group.  They decided to head back in.

There are 150 Guatemalan children who are very happy they did.

“Kounting for the Kingdom”

   For a few members of the Gateway Church mission team the day started off by counting gummy bears.  Actually they were children’s vitamins but they looked like gummy bears.  Hey whatever it takes.

Whatever it takes was pretty much the theme of the day here at ASELSI.  Besides counting gummy bears, the forty-eight members of the mission team presented programs for the children, dug ditches, treated patients in the Father’s Heart Clinic, and of course shared the love of Jesus with everyone who walked onto the ASELSI grounds.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Wendy even cut hair.

It was a busy day for the team and tomorrow promises to be just as busy.  All told we estimate more than two hundred Guatemalans were touched by these wonderful servants of God this morning.  But then again, who’s counting?  Actually the guys with the gummy bears.  Ok I can’t “bear” to write any more puns.  Thank you everyone for making ASELSI possible.  God bless you.

 

A Clear Vison of “The Vision”

     The vision of ASELSI has always been one of “equipping the saints”.   Simply put, to train Guatemalans to help Guatemalans with their spiritual and physical needs.

Here we have the perfect example.

     Twelve years ago Dr. Jim Gamble of Columbia, Missouri was asked by a friend to visit AELSI for a week and help the Father’s Heart Clinic with eye examinations.  “Dr. Jim” wasn’t too sure he was the man for the job.  Jim said he wasn’t the kind of guy who could help as many as he could for a week and then “drive off with so many more needing help”.

     He decided to come on one condition, that he be allowed to set up a program to help people in need and to train Guatemalans to run that program.   Here we have the continuation of that program.  Using new equipment he just had sent from the States, Dr. Jim is spending this week training the clinic staff as to how they can use that equipment. 

     Equipping the saints.  It has been and will always be the vision of ASELSI.  Dr. Jim Gamble “gets it”.   You might say he has a clear vision of the vision but then again what’d you expect from an optometrist.   A big thank you to Dr. Jim, his wife Anita, and their friends David and Jean Neely for all the work they’re doing this week in Chichi.  And of course another thank you to all of you who keep alive the vision of ASELSI with your prayers and support.

Feet

 

     An old Irish proverb says, “your feet will take you to where your heart is”.   In other words, getting to the “heart” of things begins with the feet.  That certainly was the case at ASELSI’s Father’s Heart Clinic.

 

     A couple of times a year the children attending the milk program are given an extra treat and walk away, or should I say carried away, with a brand new pair of shoes.  Of course first things first, washing those feet.   The mission team from Old Town happily supplied the hands to do the washing.  The moms were more than happy to supply the feet.  But what about the shoes?  The shoes of course came from you.  A pair at a time, dozens at a time, sent throughout the year from people who care about the children of Guatemala.

 

    We would like to thank each of you individually but space doesn’t allow.  Lets just put it this way, “if the shoe fits, wear it” and just know your generosity has made a difference.  

 

     Finding the appropriate words to end this blog was quite a “feat” but here goes….

 

 

 

The pitter patter of little feet

 

Leave behind something dear and sweet,

 

A precious treasure for us to keep

 

The memories of your little feet.

 

 

 

God bless you.

 

 

 

     

 

Santos

Matthew 11:28  “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Santos would be one of those people who truly understands the phrase “heavy laden”.  This 36-year-old married man with three children spends most of his days carrying quite a load.  Santos is a “cargador”.  He makes what living he can carrying fruits and vegetables to the market in Chichicastenango.

Today, a typical day, Santos was hauling potatoes but as Santos soon found out this was not a typical day.  On this day a smiling member of the Old Town mission team approached him with a ticket.  That ticket allowed him to sit down for an hour and have both his soul filled with the gospel and his stomach filled with a typical Guatemalan meal.

  This was the first ever “Cargadores Appreciation Dinner” in Chichicastenango. For sixty minutes some of the hardest working, most underpaid and underappreciated people in the country of Guatemala were made to feel like kings. For an hour on a Tuesday afternoon, Santos and his fellow cargadores were served by the Old Town team and a group of young people from a local church.

As he left dinner and headed back to the market Santos kept repeating “muy amable” , very kind.  We echo those words to those of you who are faithfully supporting the work of ASELSI.  Those of you who make things like this dinner possible.  Those of you who ease the burden of people like Santos and give them rest.  Thank you so very much.

Gettin’ Dirty

 

     Thomas Edison once said, “We often miss opportunity because its dressed in overalls and looks like work”.   For the past seven days, no opportunities were missed by the 12 member mission team from The Crossing of Columbia, Missouri.

Their nickname, “The Dirty Dozen” was well earned.

     They earned it putting a new roof on the home of Manuel and Micaela.   They earned it building a stove for Juana and her children, Beverly and Edwin.  They earned it planting flowers in front of the Jesus’ Little Lambs Center.

      Because of their efforts and sacrifice, Manuel and Micaela will sleep in a dry bed.  Juana, Beverly, and their mom will be eating hot meals.  The special needs children who attend the center will have the beauty of God’s creation greet them every morning.

     Make no mistake, it was an exhausting week for “The Dirty Dozen” but at the same time the opportunity of a lifetime.  As one member put it, “it was as if a light bulb went on inside my head,  I can make a difference in this world”.  Light bulb, huh,  Thomas Edison would be so proud.  The entire ASELSI staff is very proud of our friends from The Crossing.  Thank you so very much.