September Newsletter

Well, we made it through Independence Day here in Guatemala and are finishing up the last few weeks of the school year. Thank you for being a part of this 2013 school year with us. It has been a fantastic year. Please follow this link to read what has been going lately at Nueva Vida and with my ministry as a speech therapist:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/169903286/September-2013?secret_password=1vg5qwlgm9wkg6fc2ozj

 FACING NEW REALITIES

I have recently returned from a visit to the States, which was a wonderful time of rest and catching up with family and friends. However, this vacation was bookended by two tragic events in Santa Maria. I have blogged a little about these events on my Facebook page. The day before I left for the States, I received a call that one of my afternoon therapy students, Griselda, had passed away due to kidney failure. The week I returned, I called the father of a 9 month old baby with cerebral palsy I had recently evaluated. He said the baby was gravely ill. The next day, I heard that he had passed away. Working in the States, I had never dealt with the death of any student. Now, within a month’s time, I was dealing with 2 children’s deaths. This was a new reality I didn’t want to face. In a country where good healthcare is not available for the poor and superstitious beliefs about health run rampant, the

reality of children dying would become a new reality for me. So, what is my reaction as a Christian to this new reality? First and foremost, I seek to comfort and encourage the families who are grieving. I use it as an opportunity to share God’s love and tell them that God cares and grieves with them. I visited with both of these families, brought them pictures of their children that I had, and prayed with them. Second, I think we can encourage the parents when possible to seek medical help instead of going to a village healer or just ignoring the child’s illness. Finally, I have learned to leave it in the hands of the great Healer and pray that he watch over these children and bring healing whether in life or death. It is not a fun or easy reality to face but one that calls me to seek God’s will and His answers instead of my own. Please pray for these two families especially as they deal with the loss of their children.Below are pictures of the 2 children we recently lost, Pablo and Griselda.

April Flowers bring May Showers

This quote is definitely true in Guatemala. Our summer, or dry season, is almost over, and we will begin our winter, or rainy season, at the beginning of May. Please catch up on the events as of late here in Guatemala by following this link to my April Newsletter!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/138266282/April-2013-Newsletter

A Great Start to a New Year

Please follow this link to my March newsletter.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/130745303/March-2013-Newsletter?secret_password=2mn8m2q6d3smos428dm6
It has been a busy month of exciting things going on here in Guatemala! Please read the newsletter attached to find out all the details. It is the season of Cuaresma, or Lent, here in Antigua, and Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is quickly approaching. This is a very busy season for the city of Antigua. There are processions throughout the streets each Sunday leading up to Holy Week, and then there will be processions throughout Holy week. More than a million people will visit Antigua this week. Needless to say, this week we will not have classes as it is a huge holiday here in Guatemala! Here is a picture of the processions in Antigua. The carpets you see are handmade entirely of painted wood shavings, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Pretty amazing!

A New Year

After a wonderful month of rest and relaxation with family and friends in the States, I have started off a brand new year at Nueva Vida. It has been a very busy but exciting start to the new year. For those of you who receive my newsletter, you know that I have been emailing it out through a PDF file. Since it is hard to keep up with the blog and the newsletter, I am trying out something new. I will be posting a link to my monthly newsletter though ScribD. I pray that this will work, but if not, I will work something else out. Thank you again for your prayers and following along with me in this journey. Here is the link below:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/123499229/Jan-Feb-Newsletter-2013?secret_password=c8ucns15iu8af8ilfm9