Tractors, Planes, and Clinic Buildings

As the cold winds come in and the dust and brown so characteristic of the dry season start to settle into place, we have also found ourselves starting back in on outside work that can be done without the needed shelter during the rainy season.

Last week David and Juanito (our Guatemalan friend who helps out with construction, especially the welding work) were able to help out some of the guys in town when the canal became blocked due to rocks that had fallen in it during the heavy rains. The canal, which was put in place several years ago by a European company, is the main supply of water during the dry season as it travels from the mountins and down throughout the town of Canilla. They were able to work on it for a couple days with about 10 other men using lots of cables and pulleys and one chain hoist to lift out 3 huge rocks. Although they tried to remind us how much work it was, we knew that they had a fun time, and it was great to be able to use the equipment we have to be able to help out a project that would have taken these guys days to do by hand.

David and Juanito have also been working hard on the clinic in Chiminisijuan, working to get a fence built completely around it as we have had trouble with tools and other supplies being taken. It has been encouraging to all of us to see the construction coming along again on this building; we were able to spend a day up there a few weeks ago, and it reminded all of us of the various dreams that God laid on our hearts for this building outside of the weekly use it gets for clinics. Please continue to pray for the hearts of the people up there as they are very very slow to trust anyone, let alone us gringos.

Aaron has been working on the Aztec which is now almost complete and ready for the propellors. Duane hopes to fly up to Brownsville with Joseph in the next few weeks to get the props and bring them back. After that we will just be waiting on the paint, and then it should be up and running shortly. Aaron has also been able to help out a missionary friend of ours recently by doing an annual insepction on his airplane. This is his second annual (including our Cessna) he has gotten to perform since getting his Inspection Authorization, and he has not only enjoyed the work itself, but also being able to help out another missionary.

Duane and Joe have also gotten to get in a lot of airplane time these past couple weeks between medical flights and a few flights these past few days for speakers at a church conference in Guatemala City and a couple other towns in the country. Included in the medical flights was little Fredi from San Pedro who returned to his village on Thursday after a successful cleft palate surgery! We continue to thank God for His provision of safety as we travel by plane and on often less-than-ideal road conditions.

What We Do in Agriculture

As it is our desire for the people to be prosperous in this land, we have found agricultural work to be one way that we can help them provide for their families, and we continue to experiment with various types of crops to produce income and to provide a more balanced and nutritious diet. Almost every family has a small piece of ground that is their main source of supply for the corn that they will use to make their tortillas (the staple food in their diet); while everyone in this area use oxen and hoes to cultivate and plant, our equipment is able to till deeper into the soil, bringing up fresh nutrients each year, in half the time and cost to them.

We have also started raising Talapia as they are a good source of protein and multiply quickly. We unexpectedly found that the Guatemalans (especially the indigenous people) love fish, and we have been able to encourage them to use the fish as another source of variety and nutrients in their diet. We currently have a couple ponds and are still learning how to best manage them with the hopes of being able to encourage and help others in beginning their own ponds.

In the past couple years, we have also partnered with a few families beginning chicken projects. The families either raise them for meat or eggs, in the hopes of using this as a way to not only feed their families, but also to make some money.