Journal, Auguast 25-29, 2010

I am starting to feel guilty about posting more of Pats journals than my own but taking a bit of a break from journaling every day has felt pretty good so I think that I will live with the guilt and once again post several of Pat's journals along with a few of mine.
You will find everything that Pat wrote written in Blue
Mine is the Gray.
If neither of us want to take credit for it, we will choose a different Color.
Yours in Christ: Dick

Today, Wednesday, I spent the morning playing secretary for Dick as he measured folks at Hermano Pedro for new chairs. We went into areas of the hospital that I didn't know existed. A team of therapists from the US is coming in a few weeks to help build chairs and seat kids in the children's homes, and we wanted to have the information ready for them when they get here.

Thursday, August 26, 2010


Today a small team from Kentucky was visiting the orphanage. These folks were great with the kids, and we were able to take 6 of them to lunch. This team was great. Not in a hurry, willing to take time playing with the kids, letting them go at their own pace. They seemed to enjoy the lunch together, and even hung out with the kids at the orphanage after we got back. They were a marvelous team to tag along with. Thanks for letting me come.

..........Henry ready to go. ![]() |
Elmer, looking cool |
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Jason, one of Dick's kids,....... getting into playing with Henry. |
I think I've written about the concern on the part of the orphanage staff about the kids getting sick. Well, keeping them cooped up in a non-ventilated room has not seemed to help much (go figure). Today, two of the kids very close to my heart are very ill. Both are very medically fragile, Jojo having hydrocephalus and dwarfism, and Leonel continuing to struggle with malnutrition. I ask prayers for both of these dear ones. Leonel, especially, looked very weak to me today, hardly responding when Chris visited him.
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...............Chris visiting Leonel |
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Dick holding Jojo.................. |
I recently came across this song and the video that goes with it. It really spoke to me. It is less then 4 minutes in length. Please take the time to watch it. Ir
Was what you saw disturbing?
With a click of your finger you can turn off this web page and act like you never saw this, but the fact remains that every minute 21 children die of malnutrition.
That over 25,000 children in Uganda have been kidnapped and forced to join an army and fight in a civil war.
In the past year alone I have personally held at least a dozen children in my arms who are no longer alive.
They are calling for us.... isn't it time we heard them and did something about it?
Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick
Friday, August 27, 2010
This morning I stayed in Chimaltenango and did a few things. I tried out a new Barber but this guy is really expensive. I had to pay $1.50 for a haircut granted he trimmed my beard as well but I never expected him to charge me $.50 extra for that. I perhaps would have taken it better but I had just gone in and payed my light bill and my water bill. Would you believe this month my water bill climbed to over $2 and my electric bill reached a staggering $30 for the month. At that rate you would think that they would be able to keep the water on all day or at least run it to the inside of my house for me. Then again if they did it wouldn't do me much good because I don't have a sink in my house. II understand that there are people in the States that do though. If I remember correctly some people even have their bathrooms in their homes. Disgusting!!
Since they had no school (??) Esben and Elder spent the entire morning with me but by noon I was ready for some adult company so I brought them home and headed to Antigua. I picked up Pat and we had lunch together. We had a nice lunch and visited for over an hour then decided that we had our fill of no kids and headed to the orphanage.
I will let Pat tell you about the rest of our day.
Yours in Christ: Dick
I've not spent much time here. I've almost been avoiding it, and am still not sure why. Part of the reason is I guess I've been concerned that I would lose my focus from my main work. Today, I not only lost my focus, but lost my heart once again. Gidy is a beautiful, smart, mobile, verbal five year old, who is back in the hospital because of malnutrition. She looks perfectly healthy to Dick and me, but one of the therapists explained that much of her size is just swelling. She is a darling.
She was enthralled when Dick took out his camera, so I went and got mine and she took some pictures to show you all what the porch area of malnutrition looks like. She really did a good job for never having used a camera before.

All too soon it was time to leave, and she didn't cry, just told me I couldn't go. Not in a demanding way, but with a firm "No!" each time I explained I needed to leave. I promised to come back, either tomorrow or Monday.
After extracting a promise from me that I'd come to see her tomorrow, she finally agreed to let me go, after filling my face with more kisses. I don't know much of her story, but expect I will be spending quite a bit of time being loved by this little one.

Question - How to you get 35 people into a small 3 room house?
Answer - Let 2 or 3 of the neighborhood kids know that 5 Americans are showing up at your house with Pizza.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick
Saturday, August 28, 2010

Alex, 1 of his sisters and 2 of his brothers came in from SanMartine for the Pizza feed last night. Actually I had invited Alex because he had a birthday last week but had no celebration because his family could not afford one. We also celebrated Fernando's birthday last night. Fernando and Alex were 2 of the 3 kids that I actually invited.



Well that's about it for my Saturday so I will say "Goodnight."
Yours in Christ: Dick
Sunday, August 28, 2010



WOW ! I just went over and took a look at Pat's web page. Since I have already finished today's journal I am going to post it but I can't help but wish that I had once again copied Pat's. If you want to read something really inspiring please CLICK HERE.
Well that's about it for now so I will once again say "Goodnight."
Yours in Christ: Dick
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