Journal April 21-25 , 2010

The teem from my home church in Lynden Washington was with us until Friday and they accomplished a lot of things while they were here. Houses were built, churches were painted, wheelchairs were given out, but more important than any of that lives were impacted. Not just the lives of those that they came to serve but also the lives of those who came to serve. I was not with the teem the entire time but got the opportunity to spend some time with them in the orphanage and also in a few villages where we visited with some of the families that we are working with and personally saw God touch the harts of not only the Guatemalan people that live here but also the harts of the Americans that came here to serve. I said this a few weeks ago but feel that it bears repeating.




"Many people go on a mission trip with thoughts of blessing and changing the world, but return home finding that they were blessed because the world changed them."







To view Mike's journal about Faith Community's mission trip click HERE.

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing."

If my mentioning a need for money bothers you,
please skip the next Paragraph.

While the group from the States were here 3 of us made a visit to Jason and his family. Jason is a 10 year old boy that use to stay at Hermano Pedro orphanage in Antigua. A few years ago Jason's mom took Jason back home where she and her daughter lived. The decision to take Jason back home was not an easy one for Jason's mom because her husband had walked out on her and she knew that raising her son that has CP along with her daughter would be a full time job. One thing that helped give mom a little time to do other things (mainly work) was that after a little coaxing the school that Jason's sister attended agreed to allow Jason to attend school as well. Things went well for a while but new teachers were hired and although Jason is very bright none of the teachers wanted to teach a disabled child. Jason has now been out of school for over a year. I told mom that I could make no promises but asked her what her thoughts were on us trying to find a teacher that was willing to come to their home a few hours a week and teach Jason. Both mom and Jason are all for it. I had to tell them though that since we are already schooling more children than we have sponsors for we could not take on any new unsponsored children. This is where you come in. In nearly 3 years of journaling I do not think that I have mentioned a financial need more than a few times because I have made it a rule not to make my journals a plea for money. Today however am breaking my own rule because I know how important it is for this 10 year old boy to receive an education. $35 per month can change Jason's life. My e-mail address is dick@dickrutgers.com .



Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Today we brought food in to some of the families that we have built homes for in the past. Most of these families consist of widows and their children who are struggling to earn enough money to feed themselves.


Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Thursday, April 22, 2010

Today the group from Lynden was divided into 3 groups. 4 people joined me in going to the orphanage and loving on the kids. Those of you that know me know how much of a sacrifice it was for me to do this rather than stay behind and paint a church but that is the way things go. NOT! I will give up anything including painting and even souvenir shopping any time I can get to the orphanage. At noon we took 5 of the kids out to Camperos. Everyone had the time of their lives, even the kids.



















Different kids more food.


When I got home this evening I felt like I was right back in the orphanage. Usually there are an average of 10 to 12 kids in my house at supper time. Word had gotten out though that Dick was making Spaghetti tonight so the number of kids exceeded that.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick



Friday, April 23, 2010

I have been promising Ronny and his family that I would visit them and take those that had good report cards some where for quite some time now. Since 3 of my kids had no school today (Why ??) we decided that this would be the perfect day. You may wonder if a 4 hour round trip drive to some ones house and then a 2 hour round trip drive to and from the nearest McDonald's is worth if but if you could have seen the faces of the 6 kids whose good grades we celebrated you would have gladly joined us.

The only grumbling that we heard was from Ronny's youngest brother who complained that he had nothing to wear.




I did not have to twist the arms of my 3 boys ether. They love Ronny and his family and knowing that there were some dirt roads along the way that they could practice their driving on was an added incentive.








Ronny continues to get weaker but has not been running any fevers lately.












Since I had just eaten ice cream at Camperos yesterday I was going go with out dessert today. Ronny's little sister had other plans for me though and insisted that she share her ice cream cone with me.

We did not get back home until 6:00 PM but after getting cleaned up I brought some of my older kids to a teen meeting at our church in Antigua.



It was 9:30 when we got home and for some strange reason I am to tired to do any more writing so I am going to say "Goodnight".

Yours in Christ: Dick


Saturday, April 24-Sunday April 25, 2010

I'm taking a few days off
to hang out with the kids.

I'll try to write more on Monday.

Yours in Christ: Dick