My daughter will be attending school in Florida this year so I will be driving with her, and her dog, from PA to Ft. Lauderdale, FL on July 31st. In the mean time I am meeting with people and preparing for my full-time move to Guatemala. I will be returning to Guatemala on Aug. 9th.
I now have a wonderful, mission oriented, church who is sponsoring me, Praise the Lord! So private donations will now be sent directly to Hands-of-Hope. The address is on the left side of my page. I am at 70% financing of my need for the next year.
Here is an update from Anita, the founder of our clinic on the disasters affecting Guatemala at this time.
"Well I spent the day going to Palin where out friends Pedro and Estella Pitman live. They are working in a shelter for people whose homes were destroyed or are under mud from the Agatha storm that hit us over the weekend. My electric still goes off and on. Karen Leier (another great Canadian) and her girls and Rachel and I bought soap, bleach (to purify the water and disinfect stuff) toilet paper, diapers, towels, and with donated clothes headed down there today.
Nothing could prepare me for the devastation...half of the highway to Palin was under several feet of mud, rocks, trees, homes...all washed down the mountain.
In Palin the mud was half way up the walls and some homes were up to the roofs in mud and there is no water...the tubes all broke and there is not even water to wash. People were working during the day to dig out their homes and come back to sleep in the shelters. They sleep on anything they can find...cardboard, bits of clothes, etc. The place really smells like a sewer and the heat and dampness is overwhelming. The sadness on the mom's faces was hard. It sure made me feel like I do not have any problems.
The trip from Palin to San Lucas (where I live) normally takes an hour but it took me about 4 1/2 hours because so much of the highway was closed and we had to keep crossing over into the other side of the divided highway. It was very hot and the mud was everywhere. I looked like I was playing in the mud just helping in the shelter.
Rachel and her friends decided to stay there for the night to help Pedro with a kids activity in the shelter. The best news was meeting this Texan online who had a machine that purifies 650 gallons of water in about 3 hours. He is donating it to Pedro and Estella as he was looking to help some ministry that he could trust. God brought us together and it turns out the Texan lives around the corner from me!! The need for safe drinking water is the number one concern.
We are sad for the 160 people that have been confirmed dead so far but excited to see the Guatemalans working together and trying to move on. They are a lot tougher than me.
I just got home and took a shower but am so exhausted. How much worse if I had no shower or home." -Anita
Once Guatemala is up and running again we plan to start building our community center. This building will hold Christian functions, AWANA, VBS, private bible studies and informal church services. We are also hoping to provide baby-sitting services so that the children are not abandoned while their parents are working in the fields. This provides the perfect opportunity to teach the little children about Jesus as well.
Some very sad new is our wonderful worker Paco has died. Paco was a wonderful man of God. If he didn't have a tool in his hand, he had his Bible. Paco lead the AWANA classes for the children. Paco also gave wonderful talks to the men of the villages about drugs, alcohol, being good husbands, all in the Christian context. Many came to know the Lord through Paco. He will be missed terribly. We are positive God will provide someone else to fill in this much needed position.
All God's blessings,
Terri
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