Good Gifts. October 22, 2017.
Before we came to Guatemala, we were gifted money (from many of ya'll) not just to have enough to live off of, but to be able to invest, bless, and build the capacity of people and places. These are called "Ministry Funds," a separate pot of money delegated for the purpose of investing in the work we do here.
We like to tell stories. Stories about people. So we don't talk that much about, "Hey, we got to give 20 bucks to this or 100 buck on this." But many of the gifts we've been able to give have stories behind them or are gateways to stories.
So right about now, we're gonna tell you some cool thing that God has been able to use donations for to help out people and organizations and what have you. It's like a financial report, but not. Way cooler, right? Sound good?
$17. Every week, it takes about that to feed 20-25 alcoholics of all types--dads, sons, devastated, lazy, hard-working, and grandmothers. Been goin' for almost a year and a half now. Alcoholism hurts and kills a lot of folks and a lot of families in Guatemala. So Selvin and I make a point to be present and be friends in hopes that God works his miracles in people like Noé, "Gato", Gustavo, Luis, and "King Kong".
$1575. 46 home water filters. For the second time this year, we were able to do a set of 6 community learning classes with themes like "Health in the Home," "Resolving Conflicts," and "Managing Money." As a way for needy families to "earn" by their involvement in the classes, an Ecofiltro. That means your family can filter the dirty tap water and not pay for purified jugs of water which saves them at least $400 a year and only costs $40. Also it has resulted in some cool relationships between the church where we did the classes in Sakerti and a community further down in Granizo...could be some church movement there guys.
$240. We pay Selvin this every 2 weeks, who has been working alongside me in Bethania the last 2 months and is caring so well for families and kids and working to move the gospel throughout Bethania. When we leave, he's going to be funded partially by our church, Iglesia Reforma, by Clubhouse (a child sponsorship organization that does tutoring in Bethania), and in part through the work funds we'll have left.
$300. Jorge is an 11 year-old boy who had Ocular Toxocariasis which resulted from a parasite crawling to his eye (creepy, right?). We helped pay for expensive eye drops to keep the pressure down, medications to kill the parasite, surgery that we were hoping would save his eye and for protective glasses after the surgery failed to save his eye, but it was his only hope, physically. But God DID work a miracle--Jorge accepted Christ and was baptized a few weeks ago!
$41. We got to buy 15 soccer balls (BARGAIN!) for Global Soccer Ministries. Danilo and Polo have worked a soccer academy in this community for almost 10 years now. Anything to help them train and mentor young people year around, I'm for it.
$630. We did a "matching grant" to help jump start a park improvement project in honor of my dear Uncle Al who died this past year. Working along with the neighborhood committee has been slow and always interesting to get things to actually move, but it's resulted in replacing a mangled fence with good-looking bars, putting a basketball rim where there was none, painting, and putting up 8 swings where all 8 had been destroyed before. Now we just need to work so that the community doesn't allow the swings to disappear.
$100. Marlin is 30 year old lady who suffers from seizures two to three times a day after a back surgery went wrong about ten years ago. In America, she would be rich from lawsuits against the doctors, but here, it's just "oops, sorry." She lives in constant fear that tomorrow she won't have enough medication (because she can't afford it). We were able to get her a 6 month supply of anti-seizure medications! There was also an unforgettable moment of prayer with the team and community members for Marlin right in the middle of the clinic.
$27. Karina comes to the weekly Bible study. She just had her 3rd kid and her husband is in his 3rd year of a 4 year prison sentence. She's leaning into the gospel, learning to how to possibly forgive and love her mom, who sleeps with her ex-boyfriend (ya....). We got to help out with diapers, milk, a blanket, and other necessities.
$500. Gloria is a 40 year old woman who lived for years with a breast tumor that eventually broke through her skin. She had believed that witches had cursed her and that what she was experiencing wasn't real. We paid for diagnostic testings including blood work, biopsies, surgery and doctors visits. She is currently in chemotherapy and radiation treatment, she feels better but is dealing with the side effects from the chemo; tired but very grateful to be getting treatment.
$13. A full barbequed chicken with sides and drinks to share with Celestino and Selvin. Every 2 weeks I go out to Celestino's apple stand and have lunch with him. We talk about life. We talk about the slowness of business. We open the Bible and talk about how it forms and transforms our lives.
$80. Every month we cook for the 40-50-60 people that come to Sigo Vivo on Saturdays. Kids with boogers running down their faces, moms coming down off their paint-thinner high, recovering addicts coming by after school, not recovering addicts walking over from zone 1. They're all looking for something. We form relationships. We hope they find love and believe that they are loved by God, and that they truly feel that love, personally and truly. And sometimes love comes through the not-so-Guatemalan food we prepare them...you know, Indian Chicken Tikka Masala, Barbeque Chicken with Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Sausages and Potato Salad. They don't know what to do sometimes. "Why aren't there tortillas??" "What is this food called?" "You eat vegetables like this?"
$321. 21 pairs of football pants. Order them online, they get to a friend's doorstep the day he leaves for Guatemala (phew!) and he takes them down in an extra suitcase. Let the Toros play football.
$68 Pack 20 kids from Bethania and 20 folks from Sigo Vivo (street kids and volunteers) into a bus and bring them out to Gatorade Arena to see an American Football game, many for the first time. Win for Bethania. Win for Sigo Vivo. Win for the Toros.
$13. Buy some ribs, cauliflower, bread, and barbeque sauce. Scoop up Joaquin and Gary and Kenneth and David and make us a little lunch together. Teach them boys how to cook it up right. Throw some paprika on that cauliflower. Talk about what it means to be a man for awhile.
$(exorbitant) (perhaps infinite). Pay for copies, print outs, coloring sheets, flyers, sign up sheets, class materials at the printer around the corner. Only $0.03 a copy (black and white), but man are me and Aarón (same name homies) at the print shop tight!
$8. No money in the house. 5 kids. Mom's not coming home tonight and dad, well he's never around. Let them all eat Chinese food.
We can't tell you how blessed with been to be able to be the "vehicle of blessing" in so many situations, hopefully it gives you joy to see (a glimpse) of what you've been able to provide in Guatemala. We have loved being able to help people be able to see new things, sit down to lunches and coffees, provide for basic needs that people deserve but can't afford. Thanks for coming behind us to back projects like this, be they small or big. Money won't solve the world's problems. In fact, it causes a lot of problems. So we can celebrate when God uses it to do good, yeah?
Thanks for being behind us. You have blessed us so much these 2 years (tomorrow's our 2 year anniversary living here in Guatemala!). Look forward to seeing many of you soon!
-AJ and Alaina
thewestys.weebly.com
guatemala.team.org
p.s. Things We're Into Lately
p.s Does Anyone Even Read This Part?
1. Activity: Guatemalan National Selection Team Football! I'm coaching the team, which mostly means trying to get people to show up to practices and herd them like cattle into assorted football-associated clumps. Meanwhile, Alaina is a CHAMP taking videos, taking role, being on-call nurse and cheering people on.
2. Worlds Colliding: The fact that this weekend Jo, the right guard and captain of the Toros (and the reason the Toros found me 2 years ago), got married in WAYLAND, MI to a doctor from up there, and a family from our church here, Iglesia Reforma, went there to go to the wedding, but stopped in Holland to see our town, were toured around by the great, bilingual Carla Price, and then went to the wedding where they met MY PARENTS who Jo so kindly invited to the wedding. Whaaaa????
3. TV Show (Alaina): House, M.D., but anxiously awaiting the return of Stranger Things.
4. Podcast: Invisibilia. It's been great so far this season. "Emotions."
5. Guatemalan Specialties: Noise. Trash. Traffic. (Repeat).
6. Food: About to go get some churros at the fair right now cause it's fair season. Hence the noise, traffic, and trash.
7. Verse: Ephesians 6:10, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Sometimes it just gets you through.
8. Worry: The future of the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers is out for a long time, guys. He'll be back. Brett Hundley will grow into his role, I think he's got a lot of potential, but it's tough with the O-line shuffle and below average run game we have...can we still make it to the playoffs??? What a test!
9. I'm so over... 1. Peoples' excuses for not doing things. 2. "Pena" which is like "shame" in the sense that "I was going to ask you to help but it gave me pena to do that so, well, you know, just nothing happened. 3. Not smelling pumpkin spice and partially decayed leaves.
10. Song: "Me and Mrs. Jones" by Davon Fleming (on the Voice). Such a scandalous little jazz tune.
11. Future Activity: Seeing ya'll. Really. It's about time.
-AJ and Alaina
thewestys.weebly.com
guatemala.team.org
We like to tell stories. Stories about people. So we don't talk that much about, "Hey, we got to give 20 bucks to this or 100 buck on this." But many of the gifts we've been able to give have stories behind them or are gateways to stories.
So right about now, we're gonna tell you some cool thing that God has been able to use donations for to help out people and organizations and what have you. It's like a financial report, but not. Way cooler, right? Sound good?
$17. Every week, it takes about that to feed 20-25 alcoholics of all types--dads, sons, devastated, lazy, hard-working, and grandmothers. Been goin' for almost a year and a half now. Alcoholism hurts and kills a lot of folks and a lot of families in Guatemala. So Selvin and I make a point to be present and be friends in hopes that God works his miracles in people like Noé, "Gato", Gustavo, Luis, and "King Kong".
$1575. 46 home water filters. For the second time this year, we were able to do a set of 6 community learning classes with themes like "Health in the Home," "Resolving Conflicts," and "Managing Money." As a way for needy families to "earn" by their involvement in the classes, an Ecofiltro. That means your family can filter the dirty tap water and not pay for purified jugs of water which saves them at least $400 a year and only costs $40. Also it has resulted in some cool relationships between the church where we did the classes in Sakerti and a community further down in Granizo...could be some church movement there guys.
$240. We pay Selvin this every 2 weeks, who has been working alongside me in Bethania the last 2 months and is caring so well for families and kids and working to move the gospel throughout Bethania. When we leave, he's going to be funded partially by our church, Iglesia Reforma, by Clubhouse (a child sponsorship organization that does tutoring in Bethania), and in part through the work funds we'll have left.
$300. Jorge is an 11 year-old boy who had Ocular Toxocariasis which resulted from a parasite crawling to his eye (creepy, right?). We helped pay for expensive eye drops to keep the pressure down, medications to kill the parasite, surgery that we were hoping would save his eye and for protective glasses after the surgery failed to save his eye, but it was his only hope, physically. But God DID work a miracle--Jorge accepted Christ and was baptized a few weeks ago!
$41. We got to buy 15 soccer balls (BARGAIN!) for Global Soccer Ministries. Danilo and Polo have worked a soccer academy in this community for almost 10 years now. Anything to help them train and mentor young people year around, I'm for it.
$630. We did a "matching grant" to help jump start a park improvement project in honor of my dear Uncle Al who died this past year. Working along with the neighborhood committee has been slow and always interesting to get things to actually move, but it's resulted in replacing a mangled fence with good-looking bars, putting a basketball rim where there was none, painting, and putting up 8 swings where all 8 had been destroyed before. Now we just need to work so that the community doesn't allow the swings to disappear.
$100. Marlin is 30 year old lady who suffers from seizures two to three times a day after a back surgery went wrong about ten years ago. In America, she would be rich from lawsuits against the doctors, but here, it's just "oops, sorry." She lives in constant fear that tomorrow she won't have enough medication (because she can't afford it). We were able to get her a 6 month supply of anti-seizure medications! There was also an unforgettable moment of prayer with the team and community members for Marlin right in the middle of the clinic.
$27. Karina comes to the weekly Bible study. She just had her 3rd kid and her husband is in his 3rd year of a 4 year prison sentence. She's leaning into the gospel, learning to how to possibly forgive and love her mom, who sleeps with her ex-boyfriend (ya....). We got to help out with diapers, milk, a blanket, and other necessities.
$500. Gloria is a 40 year old woman who lived for years with a breast tumor that eventually broke through her skin. She had believed that witches had cursed her and that what she was experiencing wasn't real. We paid for diagnostic testings including blood work, biopsies, surgery and doctors visits. She is currently in chemotherapy and radiation treatment, she feels better but is dealing with the side effects from the chemo; tired but very grateful to be getting treatment.
$13. A full barbequed chicken with sides and drinks to share with Celestino and Selvin. Every 2 weeks I go out to Celestino's apple stand and have lunch with him. We talk about life. We talk about the slowness of business. We open the Bible and talk about how it forms and transforms our lives.
$80. Every month we cook for the 40-50-60 people that come to Sigo Vivo on Saturdays. Kids with boogers running down their faces, moms coming down off their paint-thinner high, recovering addicts coming by after school, not recovering addicts walking over from zone 1. They're all looking for something. We form relationships. We hope they find love and believe that they are loved by God, and that they truly feel that love, personally and truly. And sometimes love comes through the not-so-Guatemalan food we prepare them...you know, Indian Chicken Tikka Masala, Barbeque Chicken with Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Sausages and Potato Salad. They don't know what to do sometimes. "Why aren't there tortillas??" "What is this food called?" "You eat vegetables like this?"
$321. 21 pairs of football pants. Order them online, they get to a friend's doorstep the day he leaves for Guatemala (phew!) and he takes them down in an extra suitcase. Let the Toros play football.
$68 Pack 20 kids from Bethania and 20 folks from Sigo Vivo (street kids and volunteers) into a bus and bring them out to Gatorade Arena to see an American Football game, many for the first time. Win for Bethania. Win for Sigo Vivo. Win for the Toros.
$13. Buy some ribs, cauliflower, bread, and barbeque sauce. Scoop up Joaquin and Gary and Kenneth and David and make us a little lunch together. Teach them boys how to cook it up right. Throw some paprika on that cauliflower. Talk about what it means to be a man for awhile.
$(exorbitant) (perhaps infinite). Pay for copies, print outs, coloring sheets, flyers, sign up sheets, class materials at the printer around the corner. Only $0.03 a copy (black and white), but man are me and Aarón (same name homies) at the print shop tight!
$8. No money in the house. 5 kids. Mom's not coming home tonight and dad, well he's never around. Let them all eat Chinese food.
We can't tell you how blessed with been to be able to be the "vehicle of blessing" in so many situations, hopefully it gives you joy to see (a glimpse) of what you've been able to provide in Guatemala. We have loved being able to help people be able to see new things, sit down to lunches and coffees, provide for basic needs that people deserve but can't afford. Thanks for coming behind us to back projects like this, be they small or big. Money won't solve the world's problems. In fact, it causes a lot of problems. So we can celebrate when God uses it to do good, yeah?
Thanks for being behind us. You have blessed us so much these 2 years (tomorrow's our 2 year anniversary living here in Guatemala!). Look forward to seeing many of you soon!
-AJ and Alaina
thewestys.weebly.com
guatemala.team.org
p.s. Things We're Into Lately
p.s Does Anyone Even Read This Part?
1. Activity: Guatemalan National Selection Team Football! I'm coaching the team, which mostly means trying to get people to show up to practices and herd them like cattle into assorted football-associated clumps. Meanwhile, Alaina is a CHAMP taking videos, taking role, being on-call nurse and cheering people on.
2. Worlds Colliding: The fact that this weekend Jo, the right guard and captain of the Toros (and the reason the Toros found me 2 years ago), got married in WAYLAND, MI to a doctor from up there, and a family from our church here, Iglesia Reforma, went there to go to the wedding, but stopped in Holland to see our town, were toured around by the great, bilingual Carla Price, and then went to the wedding where they met MY PARENTS who Jo so kindly invited to the wedding. Whaaaa????
3. TV Show (Alaina): House, M.D., but anxiously awaiting the return of Stranger Things.
4. Podcast: Invisibilia. It's been great so far this season. "Emotions."
5. Guatemalan Specialties: Noise. Trash. Traffic. (Repeat).
6. Food: About to go get some churros at the fair right now cause it's fair season. Hence the noise, traffic, and trash.
7. Verse: Ephesians 6:10, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Sometimes it just gets you through.
8. Worry: The future of the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers is out for a long time, guys. He'll be back. Brett Hundley will grow into his role, I think he's got a lot of potential, but it's tough with the O-line shuffle and below average run game we have...can we still make it to the playoffs??? What a test!
9. I'm so over... 1. Peoples' excuses for not doing things. 2. "Pena" which is like "shame" in the sense that "I was going to ask you to help but it gave me pena to do that so, well, you know, just nothing happened. 3. Not smelling pumpkin spice and partially decayed leaves.
10. Song: "Me and Mrs. Jones" by Davon Fleming (on the Voice). Such a scandalous little jazz tune.
11. Future Activity: Seeing ya'll. Really. It's about time.
-AJ and Alaina
thewestys.weebly.com
guatemala.team.org