STJI Blog

Volcano Disaster Relief

Many of you have undoubtably heard about the volcano eruption on June 3 in Guatemala. There are hundreds of people injured and first responders are unable to get to many villages due to the lava flow and ash. We have checked in with everyone we know in the vicinity and they are safe, praise God! We just received an update that there are hundreds of communities in Guatemala where the locals are gathering resources and delivering them to the affected areas.

We are collaborating with another ministry on the ground in Guatemala to compile emergency supplies for disaster response.

Would you consider helping us purchase supplies for this relief effort?

If you would like to make a monetary donation to aid in this disaster relief, please either mail a check to:

Sharing The Journey International

PO Box 1653

Doylestown, PA 18901–9998

Or click here to donate via PayPal

Jackie and Dave Cunning

Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

The Body of Christ Working Together

Day 2 of Surgical Week:

Sammy scrubbed up!

“Little things in the hand of God grow up to be big things,” Sammy wisely said to me this morning. I find Sammy to be so good at connecting the dots for me. “Sometimes, little things look like just little things,” he continued, “but we forget that God has a purpose in the little things.”

In other words, even if we’re not a medical professional, our presence, our talents are highly purposeful, no matter how great or small they may appear. In the hands of a very purposeful God, all things are multiplied, all people are fed, and God is glorified.

For me that looked like coloring pictures on the waiting room floor with way too many kids at once then giving that picture to a child who is afraid of getting his teeth cleaned only to find that this same child also lost his father tragically just a few months prior.

A little comfort and a little love can go a long way.

Sammy is a vital part of a superhero-boots-on-the-ground team of local Guatemalan men and women who regularly serve the under-served in many different village communities. They share the transformative power of our Savior with all they come in contact with, provide formula to malnourished babies, help the sick, and they advocate for “the least of these,” who in this cultural context are the children born with clef lip and pallet deformities. Some families travel far and wide to the STJI clinic for surgery out of love for the child. Other times, families who have children with these deformities are the ones who need to be sought after. This fantastic group of seekers is called AVIS.

The AVIS team also takes the STJI team’s English, turns it into Spanish, and when needed, turns that into various Mayan languages so that patients, families, and doctors can all be on the same page.

Andy praying with a family before an operation.

Our hard working nurses.

Nadji caring for a child who just came out of surgery.

With the second full day of surgery complete, everyone is pouring out every ounce of skill and energy they have. Our days and nights are long, the team from AVIS stays with STJI around the clock helping gather supplies, comforting emotionally drained parents, coordinating meals, rides, the list goes on. Everyone’s willingness to step in and joyfully serve in any way possible particularly touched R.N. Nadji and Central Bucks college student Ashlynn. It’s amazing to watch Nadji and R.N. Julia wake the children up after surgery, get their stats up, lungs strong, heart steady, and place them in the arms of their parents. New hope and new life literally await each child, a perfect picture of a transformed life in Christ.

Some of our wonderful nurses

Julia loved watching an inconsolable infant be relaxed and soothed by none other than dad himself. Seeing a father “step up” showed her that the child will truly be well cared for. Traveling nurses Elissa and Mallory help oversee the post-operative room. Sometimes the conditions the nurses in this hospital work in and the equipment they work with test the skill. Mallory and Elissa noted that getting to use their skills by successfully starting IVs made them feel like part of the team, and being able to relationally engage with the school-aged children was important to them.

Marylyn and her son Andre helped bridge relational gaps from language barriers. “The people feel safe with us,” Marylyn noted because all of the doctors take time to explain their health, treatment, purpose of medicines, etc., which is unfortunately an atypical experience for a lot of Guatemalan people.

Other team members checked on water filters installed in schools from previous years. All of the children from an incredible local children’s home for neglected and abused children came to have their teeth cleaned as well. The faith of the family who started this home touched the hearts of Lucy and Andy and many on our team.

Please pray for continued unity in all of the ongoing relationships that STJI has with AVIS, Casa Gloria, the hospital, etc. Pray for complete healing of all the tissues from surgery. Pray for those we will be visiting deep in the villages on Thursday. And please pray that many would be saved! Thank you for Sharing in this Journey with us!

Surgeons with a happy mom!

Running the Race

Clinic:

Wednesday marked our last clinic day. Praise God, next week’s OR schedule is full and we will be performing at least 35-40 surgeries. It was a blessing to see the familiar faces of patients from past years that returned for follow up and/or to schedule their next surgery. We also were able to meet babies, and their families in our feeding program who will be candidates for cleft lip repairs next year. It was a great opportunity to encourage, fellowship and pray with these families. It’s been a busy and fruitful clinic week.

Jackie meeting with a little boy who was scheduled to have surgery.

Water Project:

On Thursday we celebrated the new water system at Santa Inez School with a ribbon cutting ceremony. All of our hard work has paid off and now this school provides 400 plus families with safe and clean water!

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the Water System

Setting up for Surgery:

Later on Thursday, the team flexed their muscles and moved over 80 bins full of supplies and other vital equipment that will be used for next week’s surgeries and outreach. The amount of behind the scenes work that goes into creating a hospital within a hospital cannot be put into words.

The many bins that were moved. This is our inventory room.

Farewell:

On Friday it was time to say farewell to the clinic team. What an awesome team God has put together. We have all been forever changed and forever blessed by our paths crossing and serving alongside one another. Many prayers were answered as the clinic team arrived home safely and the surgical team arrived without a hitch!

The clinical team!

Start of Surgical Week:

Today was the start of the surgical week as the teams divided up and used their gifts and talents to be a blessing to many families. 38 patients were seen by the dental team and 10 surgeries were completed by the surgical team. Countless children and families were entertained while waiting patiently to receive care that they normally would not have access to.   Please continue to pray that the Lord would continue to calm the multiple anxieties within the hearts of the parents and that the children would stay free of infection when they come out of surgery.

Families waiting patiently for there appointments.

Let’s play some Futbol in the sun!

Let’s clean some teeth.

The next 3 days will be very busy as the dental team will see hundreds of patients, the surgical team will tirelessly perform another 10 surgeries a day and the outreach team will continue to entertain the families who are waiting, check on previous installed water systems and pray and share the gospel as the LORD allows through translators.

Happy patients with shiny smiles!

The surgeons in action.

Prepping for surgery.

Thank you for Sharing in this Journey with us!

Getting Into the Groove

Safely we all arrived in beautiful Guatemala.  God was so good in his provision for the travel of the team and getting all of our supplies into the country without any trouble.  Every year we carefully plan and open our hands to watch as the Lord takes what little we have and multiply it.  Sometimes it resembles the vision in our heads but most often God takes the thought and desires of our human hearts and shakes them around and it’s always beautiful to see the outcome of His desired plans shining through every  volunteer and every aspect of the trip.

Joyfully we have spent the last few days set up in the clinic seeing multiple patients.  Some are new faces eager for hopeful outcomes for which they have traveled (some as far as 3 days).  Others are beautiful repeats from previous years ready for the next step.  It is quite an awesome thing to experience each and every person that walks in.  In the eyes of the first timers is a mixture of hope laced with a little bit of fear as they cautiously listen to every word looking for a glimmer of anything that may help them to trust the people who are evaluating their children.  It is such an honor to have the opportunity to earn the trust of this community and to pour out love on them as Jesus would.  For the patients who have returned for the second time there is so much amazement as we see the results of the giftedness that’s been used in so many ways through numerous volunteers to remove the shame that the patients and family often feel.  The relationships that have been built through a love for this community and the tireless efforts of our mission partners at Avis, it is so evident that God is doing a great work here.

As the patients were finished being evaluated they were given final instructions as to what comes next and most importantly a team of volunteers surrounded and covered them in prayer.  Standing together prayers were offered up to our mighty God in multiple languages displaying the absolute beauty of Gods people unified through Christ.  Represented by different languages and all from different places there was no doubt the Lord heard one voice, each time, the voice of His people created in His image asking him to step into the layers of requests that only he can bring resolution to.

There were pages upon pages of pictures colored with patiently waiting children, lots of hugs and even wonderful acts of kindness as one of our volunteers massaged the hands with soothing lotion of the radiant mommas waiting for children to be seen.

Meanwhile over at a local school another part of our team was prepared to walk the students through the Gospel and teaching hygiene. They got off to a late start and were quickly reminded that we are not the ones in control. Although the starts often feel chaotic and you’re left with amnesia over what your plans were once you actually begin, God is no doubt magnified through any of our weaknesses.  We were humbled to remember that it isn’t us, but He who does the equipping we are simply to be faithful to go.  Simple things, most of us take for granted, save lives in areas such as these.  Looking at over a hundred smiling faces and hearing the voices of the children praying to the one true God was overwhelming.  To know that as a team we were able to plant a seed that will be watered and that God will continue to grow is such a blessing.  Along with the teaching came many games, eager faces and some really tough basketball games.  What a surprise to see how tough these kids are on the court!  It really doesn’t matter what you did with them as long as they have your attention.  They were thrilled to learn english, copy sentences and play soccer.  Our hearts were full and so thankful as we left ready to return the next day to continue to build on the new friendships we had made.

At the same school two of our volunteers were busily putting together a water system to provide clean water for the students and teachers at the school.  Assisted by the school maintenance man, Carlos, new friendships were forged through laughter over broken spanish.  It’s nothing short of amazing how the Lord allows people to communicate even with language barriers.  It truly shows that love does conquer all.

As a team, we are looking forward with anticipation as to what the Lord will do in the next days and week ahead. In the words of one of our volunteers “we are thankful for every smile, every tear and every screaming child we experienced today.” His presence is so evident, his love is so great and his grace so abundant and man are we thankful that we get to be a part of the work he is doing here in Guatemala.

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

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.

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.

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!

Day 1 and 2

Our water team has been hard at work for the past 2 days teaching morning and afternoon sessions at the school! The parents and teachers had as much fun as the children learning all the songs, health and hygiene instruction and participating in all the activities. Tomorrow they are headed to our second water system site to begin installation and start the teaching program with the children. Please pray for them as they need to hike to a specific location to then take a 40 minute boat ride to reach the school.

We made it!

Clinic Team made it safely! We started our day with a sweet time of worship and devotions. Today the water team went to set up for their first day of installation for the water system at the Paneste Village School. The Clinic group loaded everything we will need for our first day of medical clinic tomorrow and set up at the hospital. We are so grateful the the wonderful team of volunteers we have serving with us! Please keep everyone in your prayers! Many of our patients are traveling from very far away and many on foot! The school we are installing the water system has ~400 children attending. We will be teaching them about “clean water” and heath and hygiene education. We will be teaching the children through interactive songs and skits.