My adventure begins in Antigua, Guatemala where 53 of us stayed for a little
less than a week. A beautiful city with cobble stone streets. We walked everywhere
including the market where some of the best fruit I have ever had can be bought!
The pineapples are amazing!
So if you didn't know Guatemala is riddled with active volcanoes.
I caught this one morning in the hostel in Antigua! Apparently not that abnormal.
Two days later we decided to actually hike an active
volcanoe. This is a viewpoint on the hike.
This is Volcan Pacaya. You can actually see some of my fellow missionaries along the trail.
So Guatemala isn't all fruit and volcanoes. The real treasure here is the children.
We are staying at an orphanage called Los Gozosos. They create a family
environment for handicapped children. These kids are amazing and have
found a place deep in my heart. Their stories are not for the faint of heart. These kids have
been through more pain and struggles in their lives than most of us will witness in a lifetime.
Nancy’s family; her mother, brother, and two sisters live in a shack made of corrugated
roofing steel with a dirt floor on the steep slope of a mountain in a very dangerous
area of the capital city. Raw sewage from the houses on the cliff above runs through their
house in an open ditch between the bedroom and the kitchen. Since Nancy loves to play in
water and she constantly put her hands in her mouth, she came to the orphanage
with terrible parasites, worms, and infections. Through all of this, she has an amazing
smile and is filled with joy. Click on her name to learn more.
Lyla was wrongly diagnosed with profound retardation and severe microcephaly.
Her MRI scan shows her brain is complete and perfectly formed. She does have
severe aphasia (a speech disorder) caused by being hit on the head in her infancy.
Her development since coming to our home has been so rapid and dramatic that
our experts believe her speech & behavior problems were caused by abuse and
neglect at the agency house and by her birth mother. This girl has an amazing
laugh and is so smart. Click on her name to learn more.
We aren`t sure when Daniel’s birthday is or how old he really is but the courts
guessed him to be about 11 years old when he came to us. His mother is a prostitute
from El Salvador. She left him in the care of a woman and her family in 2005 and never
came back again. He was very badly treated there. In March 2006 he was turned over to
the courts of Jutiapa. They moved him from place to place each month because they
could not find a home for normal children willing to take him. Finally they placed him
temporarily in a Catholic nutrition center where he was treated for severe malnutrition.
The nuns found his mother, when the courts failed. She was working all those years
in a bar very close by but never tried to contact her son. When court officials tried to
locate her there she had disappeared. This guy is amazing and has really touched my heart!
He has a fire for and passion for Jesus that is inspiring. Click on his name to learn more
This orphanage is rocking my world. I have been forever changed by the love that flows
through this place. Not just from the kids, but the women that work here as well.
They are amazing and selfless and it blows me away. They don't stop and remain happy
through exhastion. Please pray for Maureen, the nanny's, the children, and for Papa
to bring the orphanage out of debt.
