Archive: June 2017

Friday, June 9, 2017.

Amazing Journey

2017 Mission Program was an amazing journey of relationship building and serving together! We wrapped up our second week with a sweet time of worship and devotions this morning. Many volunteers shared the highlights from their week.  Our teams installed 2 water systems in 2 village schools, treated ~160 children in dentistry and performed ~ 30 cleft surgeries! We were blessed to see many of our patients from past years return for reevaluation and many more who just came to say hello and pray for us! Please pray for all our patients as they travel back to their villages! They travel so far from home and leave their family for many days to come for surgery. The people of Guatemala hold a very special place in our hearts!

Thank you to all our U.S. and Guatemalan volunteers who made this year’s trips a success! May God bless each of you!
With great appreciation,
The Directors of STJI

Thursday, January 1, 1970.

Black Water River Village School

Yesterday, we wrapped up our final week with a great trip to Black Water River Village School. It was an hour drive from San Cristobal to the dam and then a 25 minute ride by boat and a rigorous 20 minute climb to reach our destination. The planned inauguration for the water system was interrupted by a severe thunderstorm that blew in over the mountains. The weather may have altered our plans somewhat, but it certainly didn’t stop our volunteers from pressing on to get as much as possible done in what little time we had left! We started to paint the school. However, I believe there was more paint on the local stray dog than on the school!  We helped to install a chain link fence to protect the boundaries of the school property. Our water team instructed everyone on the function and maintenance of the water system we installed. Rudy shared the Gospel message of hope with this precious community of people who were nearly wiped out during the warfare that took place in the 1980’s. Entire families were murdered during the massacres. This tiny village of people has suffered great loss. They continue to try to rebuild their lives on the steep mountainside that slopes down to the river below. We were blessed to pray for them and sing worship songs with the children. As the thunder subsided, we loaded our boats and headed for the transport buses. The driving rain could not obscure the absolute beauty of God’s majestic mountains rising up out of the lake all around us as we huddled together on the boats to stay dry.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Surgery and Dental Week

The surgery and dental week is underway and we are anticipating treating at least 30 children and young adults in surgery and about 200 more in dental. Our second week team was welcomed to the hotel in Guatemala with pouring rain and an intense thunderstorm.

On Sunday morning, the operating room and dental clinic were up and running early. Our first group to arrive for dental care came from the Casa Gloria Children’s Home and then the next came from the Pampur School, the school we installed a water system in last spring.

One patient, 17-year-old Gloria, came in for her final surgical procedure after coming to the clinic for each of the past four years. Gloria had a successful operation to help her speak and eat better. Her aunt Ana, who’s been coming with Gloria and delivered her baby with help from STJI team members, got emotional when she thought about not seeing the team again now that Gloria’s operations are done. Jackie told Ana that she and Gloria are our family and we look forward to them coming to visit us anyway.

Our water team went back to the Paniste School and walked through the procedures of filling and purifying the new tanks with the teachers and administrators there. We also brought over some bars of soap for the new sinks at the school and reinforced our hygiene lessons of using water and soap when washing hands.

A few of our team members have been feeling a little bit under the weather, but at least they’re surrounded by a lot of medical professionals who have been able to help them get back to feeling normal. We welcome your prayers for the team’s health for the rest of the trip.

Friday, June 2, 2017.

Great Day!

What a great day we had!! We had the WaterStep, water system inauguration at Paneste School today! The children have clean water for the first time to wash their hands and brush their teeth!  Then we headed to Casa Gloria Orphanage to visit with Jenna and all the children. They are doing an amazing job caring for these precious little ones that have come from traumatic living situations. We were able to visit Paster Raffa, the blind Pastor who walks 2 miles to a village church where he preaches faithfully! We were able to bless him with food and other things and give him a Davor audio Bible in Spanish to replace the one we gave him before that was stolen. We are always blessed beyond words by his love for Christ and his humble, servant’s heart!