Can you imagine a school with 200+ students and only two faucets to serve the entire school?

That was the challenge facing the community of Chuti Estancia!  The school was working with a Peace Corps worker trying to teach the children the importance of washing hands and brushing teeth.  However, the school was also faced with the dilemma of having an adequate source of water for the community but only having two faucets for the school.  The Peace Corps worker approached Mission Guatemala to see if we might be willing to help the school with the construction of additional sinks and faucets.

With the help of Zionsville United Methodist Church, Mission Guatemala was able to begin the construction of two new large sinks that will provide 20 faucets for the children to use to wash their hands and brush their teeth.  Zionsville finished the construction of one sink and the Mission Guatemala construction foreman is finishing the second sink.  They will both be ready for the start of school in mid-January.

There are plans for a future Mission Guatemala team to construct two large concrete retention tanks to collect water during the rainy season to help supplement the community’s source of water.

Mission Guatemala is thrilled to be able to help the community with this important health and education project!

With the Mission Guatemala old red Toyota pick-up truck loaded full of colorfully wrapped food baskets, the staff of the mission began distributing Christmas food baskets to 120 families in the communities of Pacaman, Nueva Esperanza and Chutinamit.

This was an undertaking that had begun weeks earlier with the purchase of plastic baskets and the packaging of corn and beans by the team from Zionsville United Methodist Church.  Using the clinic’s baby scale, volunteers helped package 20 pound packages of corn and four pound packages of beans.  The baskets also contained other Christmas foods and household essentials.  The basket the food was packaged in is also an essential household tool.  It is used to wash clothes and vegetables.

Food baskets were distributed in each village by the Mission Guatemala staff.  As Alejandra, the Mission Guatemala social worker called out each family’s name, another staff member helped hand out the Christmas gifts.  We are grateful for all who made a donation to help in the distribution of the food.

You can also see pictures on our Facebook page here:  Christmas Baskets

The Mission Guatemala staff has been very busy getting ready for Christmas!

Thanks to the generosity of many southern Indiana United Methodist congregations, 100 poor indigenous Mayan families will be receiving food baskets to brighten up their Christmas celebrations.  Shortly before Christmas, the baskets will be given to families in the communities of Nueva Esperanza, Pacaman and Chutinamit.

Each basket will be filled with traditional foods including:

• 20 pounds of corn
• 4 pounds of beans
• 1 bottle oil
• 10 pounds of sugar
• 3 pounds of chocolate for hot chocolate (a traditional Christmas Eve drink)
• 1 box of Christmas cookies
• 1 packet of coffee
• 5 bags of noodles
• 5 pounds of salt
• 1 pound of margarine
• 1 pack of soap (for washing clothes)
• 1 bag of angelitos ( marshmallows)

The basket that the food comes in is also useful to families!

Thank you for all of your support over the past year!

There was a wonderful feeling of excitement in the room as it began to fill with children and parents!  The day had finally come!  It was time to celebrate the first graduating class from the Mayan Families/Mission Guatemala preschool.  The graduates were straightening their hats and the teachers were making sure the graduation robes were on correctly!  This was a big day!

Ten students recently graduated from the preschool and will start public school in January of 2012.

The preschool partnership began in January of 2011.  The purpose of the preschool is to target three to five-year-old children at risk of malnutrition with a healthy meal and a nutritious snack daily and multivitamin supplements, as well as lessons on basic hygiene.  The children, many of whom have not learned to speak Spanish at home, also get a head-start on learning Guatemala’s official language, Spanish,  before beginning school.  There is no charge to the families for their children to attend the school.

This year the preschool had 36 students enrolled.  Mayan Families and Mission Guatemala is planning on increasing student enrollment to 40 in 2012.

Click on any photo below to enlarge it!

Mission Guatemala is pleased to welcome Dr. Luis Edwin Chumil to our clinic staff as our main clinic doctor!

Dr. Chumil had been working one day a week filling in for our regular clinic doctor.  However, in October, the full time clinic doctor needed to leave his position with us and Dr. Chumil was willing and excited to take on the task of seeing patients on a daily basis.

A graduate from the Univeristy of San Carlos in Guatemala, Dr. Chumil is 43 years old and  lives in the Lake Atitlan area in a town known as San Lucas Toliman.  He is married and has three children.  Dr. Chumil has practiced medicine for 12 years and is trained as a general medicine doctor and surgeon.  He also works part time at the hospitalito in Santiago Atitlan.

Dr. Chumil’s gentle manner and caring heart has been much appreciated by the clinic patients.  We are happy to welcome him and we are very happy he is part of our team.

The story was written by Rusty Allanson, Lead Pastor, The Promise Church, Fishers, IN

The two women-the mother and the grandmother-were huddled in the little shack because of the rain. The single room, maybe 20 feet by 12 feet at most, had only two beds, an old curio cabinet, and a glorified campfire in the corner for cooking. No vent accounted for the heavy soot deposits on the walls and ceiling, and probably for the younger woman’s cough. Concrete floor and large gaps in the walls were just accepted as part of the hard life here.

We carried the heavy parts of the new stove through the narrow path through the tall corn stands, walking through the mud past the dog, only to be surprised by the small broken-down shack appearing in a small clearing.  Inside the shack there were sheets hung horizontally from the four corners over the two beds–obviously positioned to keep the rain from falling directly onto the beds, from the many holes in the worn metal roof.

This was our first workday, and so, completing our first stove took a little more time as we familiarized ourselves with the procedure.  The patient women stayed in the room, watching intently our every move—as if they were emotionally investing themselves in this assembly too.  When the assembly and installation were finally complete, the grandmother begins to cry and blessing us all-saying how she could not believe what we had done for them–changing their lives forever. The mother insists we stay and disappears only to appear a few minutes later with small glasses of orange drink and a plate of pieces of sweet bread. Through her tears, she “required” us to partake. I sat stunned because she offered us what would likely be all they had to eat for that day. Fighting back MY tears with the rest of my team, we had what we thought of as the finest Holy Communion ever.

Two women, with lives changed instantly and forever, crying in joy at how we blessed them and offered us all they had in the process, changed me. I left the room last because I wanted to cut across the language barrier to tell them something important.

I spied a picture of Christ hanging on the makeshift wall. As I left, I looked at their tear-swollen eyes, kissed two of my fingers, and then touched those fingers to the picture of Jesus. Looking back at them, I smiled and winked. No words needed. They understood in an instant why we had trudged through all the rain and mud and had sore backs, to do something just for them–an act of love because we love Him, and because He loves them! They smiled, hugged me like they didn’t want to let go. And cried again. I think they realized that God had not forgotten them.

As I walked back to the pickup truck alone, through the mud, through the corn, in the pouring rain, I heard in my heart, “Nice work son,” and the tears finally found their target.

Back at the truck, the others had already loaded our tools and themselves into the truck and were waiting on me.  We smiled to each other as I heaved myself into the back with rain in my eyes and mud everywhere else.  And so we travelled back to the mission in the open back of the pickup truck during the pouring rain not really saying much, knowing what a truly holy moment we had just experienced.  Ready to load up and head out again. Wet, muddy, a little cold, and heavily blessed, our work for the day had begun. And what an incredible day it would be.  Welcome to Mission Guatemala…

There will be many children in Guatemala with smiling faces this Christmas thanks to many churches in southwest Indiana.

During the month of July many churches helped Mission Guatemala by celebrating Christmas!  During this special Christmas in July celebration, the churches collected gently used and new toys for children in Guatemala.  The result was spectacular!  Hundreds of toys were collected!

During August, the toys were all delivered to Old North United Methodist Church in Evansville, Indiana for sorting and packing.  The Ferol Martin Circle of the United Methodist Women headed up the packing effort.  Dressed in Christmas Santa hats, the women packed 15 boxes of toys and are still waiting for more boxes to be delivered by the shipping company to finish up the packing effort.

“We had a fabulous time packing.  What fun this has been for all!” said packing coordinator Lynn Penland.

Churches also collected a special offering for food baskets for families in Guatemala.  Those monies are still being processed, but many families will be enjoying some extra food at the holiday time as the result of the generosity.

Many families around San Andrés Semetabaj are now enjoying the thrill of cooking on a stove for the first time in their lives!

Thanks to a generous donation from a Mission Guatemala supporter, Mission Guatemala has been able to purchase 100 efficient wood burning stoves.  These stoves have been installed by visiting teams and will greatly improve the quality of life of many families.  Some of these families have been using an open fire similar to a campfire to cook on each day.  Other families may have some other kind of makeshift stove they are using.

These highly energy efficient wood burning stoves use 40 percent less wood than conventional stoves and get extremely hot very quickly.  In addition, the stoves are vented sending smoke away from the house.

These stoves have many benefits:

• They use less wood
• Less wood means cost savings
• Less deforestation which is a growing problem in Guatemala
• Smoke is vented away from the house which helps with breathing problems
• Because there is no open fire, there are less children and adults burned from falling into an open fire

Families are pre-screened by the Mission Guatemala community worker to make sure there truly is a need for a stove.

The smiles on their faces tell the story of what a life-changing difference these stoves will make!

Enjoy the video below with more stove installation photos!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Members of Christ UMC meet our preschool family

With the help of many teams from the United States, Mission Guatemala has been constructing a new home for one of our very poor families with a child in our preschool.  The home is finally nearing completion!

The father of the family of five has a debilitating disease that causes him great pain.  The mother struggles each day to provide for her husband and three children.

The family was recently evicted from their rental home by their landlord because he sold the home to someone else.  Fortunately, the family was given some land by another family member and we were able to help the family with construction of a new home.

This is our first attempt at home construction, but so far all has gone well!

Mission Guatemala in San Andrés Semetabaj was the destination of 25 Indiana and Nebraska Volunteers in Mission from July 16-25. The team members provided medical care and vision screening by an Optometrist; held VBS for 100 children in Nueva Esperanza; and assisted in building a home for a Mayan family.

¿Why Guatemala?  Rev Tom Heaton, from the IN Conference is the missionary there. He will tell you about the great needs in this country. Fundamental issues in Guatemala exist on a scale not seen in the developed countries. Rural Guatemalans, especially the indigenous, face some very serious challenges. Infant mortality is among the worst in the hemisphere. It is one of the poorest countries and has one of the lowest literacy rates in Latin America. Guatemala is one of the world’s most violent countries.  There are 43 murders per 100,000 people last year, according to a government estimate. Charges are filed in only 2% of all murders.

An entry from our blog (http://umvimguatemala.blogspot.com/):

“With its combination of natural beauty and the wonderful mix of culture, Guatemala is very much alive. Its markets are busy, its people make and wear colorful clothes, and its narrow streets bustle with every kind of transportation ever invented. Volcanoes, lakes, forest and fields all bask in the sun and take strength from the rain in this “Land of Eternal Spring.”
As short term missionaries, our purpose was to serve in faith and love through cultural interaction with the poor, yet beautiful people of Guatemala. Our tasks were in accordance with our abilities and the needs of the people, but our mission was to share Christ’s love. Whether we were involved with construction, medical or childcare, God showed us his protective power as we showed our willingness to reach out beyond our “comfort zones.”

We are amazed that in the face of so much misfortune, the Guatemalans, and the Mayan people in particular, are not frustrated or discouraged. They have so little and yet are so happy. In the U.S.A. we have so much, yet…? As citizens of this world we each have something distinctive and unique to accomplish. If we don’t do it, it will never get done. Even the smallest act of kindness should not be underestimated, and a kind word, a smile, or a listening ear can turn a life around.

“Oh God, we never know where we will find you, or in whose face you will appear. Keep us mindful that you are present even in places that we think are forsaken. Help us to carry your steadfast love wherever we go, that we may see you there.” We want to thank Pastor Tom, the staff of Mission Guatemala, and everyone who made this trip possible. It was truly a joy and a blessing.

This article was contributed by Penny Krug… Team Leader