An Arm for Marcelino

Marcelino is a Kekchi national missionary. We have known him for a while, but since he works on the other side of Petén and in the northern part of Alta Verapaz, we have never worked with him before.

{He is on the left talking with Pastor Mateo (from La Ceiba) and Domingo}

Jimmy knows him from the KBI modules and pastors' meetings. He has been a missionary for 11 years and before that he was a pastor for 17 years. He accepted Christ in '72 and was ordained in '86. He has 3 kids and 8 grandkids. In '97 he was traveling in a vehicle and had his right arm hanging out the window when the driver side-swiped another truck. This caused him to lose his right arm from his shoulder down. He was 50 years old when this happened.

{Marcelino is on the far right pictured with Pastor Grover for a KBI module back in '09}

A few months back Pastor Mateo (pictured above), the current legal representative of the pastors' association, asked Jimmy if he knew of a way they could get Marcelino an arm. Marcelino doesn't speak much Spanish and didn't have a way to find out about a prosthetic arm when it happened 14 years ago. He and his family were also very scared that it would involve another painful surgery and that he would lose more bone. There aren't any doctors who work in prosthetics around Petén, but through some other missionaries Jimmy was able to get in contact with a doctor in Guatemala City who would provide a prosthetic arm at cost. Still we had to get Marcelino to go to Guatemala City. Guatemala City is a scary sounding place to people who don't live there. It is spoken of around here like you are really taking your life in your hands by going to that violent place! I understand... I prefer Petén too!

Well it worked out that we were due to go back this past week for another appointment to check on our baby. Marcelino's kids did not want him traveling there by himself, so one of his brothers traveled with him. They both rode a bus and met us there.

Jimmy got an appointment for him on Wednesday. Anything Marcelino didn't understand from the doctor's Spanish he would tell Jimmy, "Just make the decision, I trust you." I thought that was really sweet. I cannot imagine all that was going through Marcelino's mind. His last experience with doctors had to have been very traumatic and painful, so he must have been experiencing a lot of anxiety walking into this office.

The doctor was very nice. He explained everything and even showed Marcelino a video of how his new arm would work. Marcelino was relieved that it would just strap on rather than involve another surgery.

The doctor measured Marcelino for an arm and took a mold of his shoulder. The arm will be made specifically for him.

This is what it will look like:

It will also have a glove that fits over the hand piece that will look like an actual hand. Among other things, he will be able to open and close the hand in order to pick things up using different movements from his other shoulder. It will take some time to get used to, but it will change his life.

Marcelino seemed very surprised after the whole experience. I think the prosthetic offers him much more than what he was expecting. Jimmy said he walked out of the office and thanked him with tears in his eyes.

The new arm at the doctor's cost is $3,000. Jimmy will be presenting this need at the Kekchi pastor's meeting this Wednesday to see if their churches can help raise part of the money. If any of you would like to give money towards Marcelino's new arm, we have set up this Paypal account specifically for this need. Just click on the link below. (Note: This donation is not tax deductible, but ALL of the money we receive will go directly to pay for Marcelino's arm.)

Update: As of Monday the 6th, 20% of the $3,000 has been raised.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: The other day Silas had done something super naughty and messy. He knew he was in trouble. I had left their room to start cleaning it up. He knew he was going to get in trouble when I got back. We are at a point now where he thinks he can charm his way out of anything. It doesn't work, but he always tries it... he's good at it too. This is how I found him when I came back in. He was sitting real still...

He knew he wasn't completely hidden, but he knew he was cute! He is a little bit rotten.

School Supplies for Santa Rita

Soon after school started (here the school year begins in January) we were contacted by the community development committee in Santa Rita to help with school supplies. Many of the children had only 1 or 2 notebooks of the 7+ notebooks they needed and didn't have any of the other basic supplies. Well, we were still playing catch up from the tube project and also from the supplies for the construction of our Bible study building, but we really wanted to help with this very important need. We thought about posting the need on here and in our monthly update, but realistically by the time the money got here they would be 2 months into the school year.

God worked everything out. One of the men who was on Andy's team heard about the need. He gave us cash before he left to purchase supplies for each grade... no more waiting for mail to be opened, checks to be deposited, and ATM's to be working, God provided the money directly into our hands for this project!

Jimmy put an order in at the bookstore, since each teacher had provided us a list of exactly what their grade needed. The owner of the bookstore gave us everything at his cost and separated each item that he bought in bulk for each grade according to their lists. This enabled us to give 50% more to the school than what the money normally would have bought. Last Tuesday morning we picked up 7 boxes of school supplies (one for each grade) and delivered them to their prospective classrooms... everyone loves us on those days!

Here are some of the students from each grade along with some of the boxes of supplies. I won't name them all, but there are so many kids in these photos that I love so much and am thankful for the interaction God gives me with them each week to teach them about Him!

{Kindergarten}

This teacher was so nice. She was gone the day the teachers were suppose to make the list of supplies needed, so I don't think she was expecting anything. The man at the bookstore helped Jimmy pick out all kinds of fun stuff that preschoolers usually need for school, like finger paints, paper, crayons, and scissors. She was thrilled!

{1st Grade}

Rosa is the 1st grade teacher. She has never attended our Bible studies, but is always nice to us and really, she was one of the voices who helped us get into the community. I am very thankful for her. She and her husband are good parents, so I have a lot of respect for them for that reason as well.

{2nd Grade}

{3rd Grade}

{4th Grade}

The teacher, who will remain nameless, ran as fast as he could when he saw us coming, so he's not in the photo. He's the one who told his students that no one in his class was allowed to come to our Bible studies. He hasn't liked us from the beginning. He has asked us for stuff (like soccer balls and money) before and we have said no. We aren't really into buying friends. We prefer to help the community out as a whole. Anyway, Jimmy decided to have some fun with this. He told Reyes that he was going to drop the school supplies off for all the grades, but he was going to keep 4th grade's supplies, because he doesn't want to force someone to take something from him who doesn't like him! Well that was going to make a whole bunch of parents really angry with the 4th grade teacher. This teacher knew that, so he came after our Bible studies and after a long drawn out conversation of him saying "I never said..." and Jimmy making it clear that he knew exactly what he had said... a remarkable thing happened... pigs started flying. That teacher apologized. So the next time that this teacher starts some other hateful rumor about us I am going to remember that moment... it was beautiful and we will probably never get another!

{5th Grade}

This is normally a closet, so I think they did some restructuring or something and moved the 6th grade back over to this building.

{6th Grade}

The 3 on the left, Elmer, Mercedes, and Sofia, actually come to both Bible studies each week! Reyes (that's his last name, but what we call him) is Rosa's husband. He is the town mayor and also in charge of the elementary and secondary schools in Santa Rita. We really appreciate him. He genuinely cares about the community and I think one of the best things this community has going for them. A co-op might work if everyone had his attitude, but everyone doesn't. We really like working with him.

We are so thankful for the man who gave the money to be able to meet this need. It goes a long way to show those who don't attend our Bible studies or understand really why we are there that we do care about them. Please pray that God will use this simple action to soften their hearts and that those who don't know Him will come find out more!