I spent a wonderful weekend in Houston with Hannah and Matt. It was great to get to know Matt a little bit more and to help Hannah with wedding plans. They will have a very simple wedding celebration in Houston at the end of August. Matt works as the worship leader at a large Methodist church in the Woodlands (an afluent area close to Houston). The church is enormous and beautiful, and it is there where Hannah and Matt will be married.


I came home Monday afternoon and got ready for clinic the next day in Chiminisijuan. It has been raining quite a bit and there was a new mudslide covering the road to the clinic so we walked through the mud to get there. Each week as the men share the Word with those who are waiting, we sit and (while we listen) we try to assess those with the most need. Sometimes it is a child who is having difficulty breathing, sometimes it is a little one with the sunken eyes of dehydration. Tuesday it was a very thin mom leaning against a tree with her obviously malnourished baby. She waited quietly in the line with those receiving food and milk and when it was her turn she stated only that she had very little milk to give her baby. When I asked her what she and her 5 other children had eaten that day, she told me they had had only herbs that they had gathered. I know from the experience of questioning many women that if they did not eat tortillas, then there was no other food in the house. Many times people will say that they had only salt to put on their tortilla and I will know that they are in distress but this family did not even have a little bit of corn to make tortillas with. So we loaded her up with food and vitamins and talked to her about the Lord. She is a Christian but her husband is an alcoholic who remains drunk for weeks at a time. She was so quiet and defeated...my heart broke for her.


There were several others asking for food as well that day. It is always difficult to make the transition from US culture to the culture here. The contrast from life in the Woodlands to life in Chiminisijuan is...overwhelming. Most of the time I find that I prefer the simplicity of the lives here that are not complicated with things and the striving that comes from that lifestyle. However, when people are hungry...the injustice saddens me. I am not saying that in any sort of judgment. When I look at our home and the accumulation of stuff, I am ashamed and convicted. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." (Luke 18:22) Well...got to go - I have some things to sell.

I did not write last week. It was a challenging and frustrating week....one which we lovingly call "a Guatemala hug" week. We spent 3 days (plus the two from the week before) in the City, with both of the girls, waiting on paperwork for their passports. Grace and especially Abi are not very patient waiters and it was more than a little challenging to keep them occupied all those long hours. But it was worth it Friday evening at 5:15 (the office closed at 5) with two Guatemalan passports for both of the girls. Now...on to the next challenge...visas for two.

At the same time while we were waiting, David, Juan and Joseph traveled to the coast to buy our first load of corn in bulk. They transported pounds of corn plus pounds of sheet metal for a project in the Home in the tractor trailer that was recently brought down. It took them 20 hours to return home - with a short nap on top of the corn. Here is a picture of the boys putting the finishing touches on the grain bin just before the corn arrived.

And from out of somewhere...I really have no idea where...a profecy spoken over us probably 8 years ago found it's way to my desk today. I had forgotten all about it but it was given to us while we were still working in the orphanage by Angie, a long time friend who we have not seen for many years. She wrote, "Give to Me the rice and the grain in which I have placed in your path and watch the grain bins double. You are not caught by your imaginations but by your beliefs. That is what will strengthen you in the rough times...." The amazing thing is that that is exactly what we have...two grain bins stacked on top of one another. And we have felt, in the the last few months that we were caught in our imaginations...to think that we would be able to afford to continue this project. Our beliefs though, say that it is the right thing to feed the poor and the widows. And so we press on....

I leave in the morning for a three day trip to help Hannah with wedding preparations. With the wedding only a few weeks away, we have lots to do. And it will be so much fun!!