These past two weeks have been very busy for Hope Haven. We had two awesome visitors, Val and Duane from the Hope Haven office in the states, who came down to visit the factory and see how everything is run. They were only here for 3 days but all enjoyed their company!

We have also had 3 distributions at the factory. The first two were with physical and occupational therapy students from here in Guatemala, and the other was for the adult chairs for the elderly. We had 21 families come all in one morning!

Raul, the man who has been working with us for Mynor, was able to come with his wife to receive a chair that she desperately needs. She has a degenerative disorder, and has been very uncomfortable for the past few years. We were finally able to get one sponsored and have them come in, and it was truly a wonderful morning! They were both so grateful and pleased; she said she is more comfortable than she has been. I spoke with Raul the next day and he told me she could get outside to read in the garden in her new chair; what a blessing.

Raul and his wife receiving her chair

Bryan and his family

Gustavo who is one of the men who works at the factory, Javier, and Marcos, a physical therapy student

A child being measured and prepared to be fitted for a wheelchair

Two families from Lanquin, a town 6 hours from the factory

Water Filters

Matt setting up the water filter.

One of the families who received a water filter. Elie, the boy in the wheelchair, received his chair from Hope Haven.

The filter itself, two bags of sand, two bags of stones.

Water from the well.

The filter once it has been set up.

We had a couple boxes full of water filters at the factory and were given permission to give set them up with some of the families we’ve been working with in Xenacoj and surrounding areas. It is a container where water is poured in with BioSand and stones. The sand is used to reduce bacteria, viruses, and parasites from the water.

We are hoping that these filters will limit the amount of parasites and worms in the drinking water of these families. At home, we are currently also testing another type of water filtration system, one that is manufactured here in Guatemala by a Guatemalan company called Onil. This might be cheaper better to set up, and they would not have to be shipped down from the in the US.



Travel, travel, travel!

Hola a todos!

It has been an extremely busy past two weeks, a ton of traveling, but I am incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to have these experiences! I went with two people from Hope Haven to Peten, a 10 hour drive. It is a beautiful part of the country, and somewhat different from the area I live in. We first delivered a chair to a woman who was diagnosed with a degenerative disease ten years ago and has slowly lost her ability to speak and move. She and her husband are the parents of a man that was a presidential candidate last year named Baldizon. We also met with the leader of a Rotary Club here in Guatemala to share information about wheelchair distribution so that he can present the idea to the rest of the members. If someone has a disability or a need for a chair, they don’t have any ways of receiving one in Peten. It breaks my heart to think of all of the children and adults who cannot leave the house often due to this problem. We are hoping and praying that they choose to sponsor this distribution. We also had another meeting with another Rotary Club in an area called Puerto Barrios, another 6 hours away, with the same intentions. Only God can move the hearts of people and work within this ministry to provide people with the things that they need in the way of chairs!

Two days after I got back, I went with two other friends of mine to a place called Semuc Champey for a “mini-vacation.” A friend of mine, Lisa, who I met in Ecuador and was my contact here, left a couple days after the trip, so we had wanted to do something fun before she returned home. It is also a beautiful place, famous for its park for hiking, waterfalls, and springs. We had a chance to relax, have fellowship together, and make plans for the fall. (We are returning to continue the work here!) The day after that, I packed up again and headed to Tela, Honduras with 4 other people from Hope Haven for a wheelchair distribution of 25 chairs! We met up with the director, named Elisa, of a rehabilitation and therapy center for children and adults in need of physical and speech therapy. There are about 75 patients, many of them children and teenagers who needed wheelchairs. She began this program after having two children pass away due to disabilities. During the funeral of her second son, she explained she had a vision from God that day to open up this center. From there, she is well known around the community and has such a heart for these families. It was an absolute pleasure to work with her, and hear her stories. It is obvious that the Holy Spirit is using the center to support and encourage these families and children with special needs, and she explained that she realizes now that if she hadn’t had two children that passed away, she would not have opened up the center. Unfortunately, a huge problem in many of these countries is that when a child is born with a special need, they are kept in the house and hardly leave. Sometimes because of how difficult it is to carry the child, and sometimes it is because they are ashamed of the child.

One of the most significant things we speak with the families about is that their child is special and part of the family; there is no reason to hide them. Once they have a wheelchair, it makes it easier for the child to be outside of the home with the rest of the family. This also at times presents another issue: the fact that most places are not accessible. First, if the family is coming from a very rural area, nothing is paved and everywhere is full of hills and dirt (or mud during the rainy season). Also, in the less rural areas, there are many stairs and broken sidewalks. Thankfully we come into contact with some unbelievable parents and siblings, who are willing to do anything for their children to get them out and to be part of society. They spend most of the time at home, since there aren’t Special Education schools in many places, and transportation to any other school is always a challenge.

Three of the workers that went with us are in wheelchairs as well. Manuel, who was born without legs and some other problems, Freddy, who was in a motorcycle accident 11 years ago, and Mauricio who was shot 16 years ago, (he had been part of a gang during his teens), had the chance to go with us. Something like going to the beach and feeling the ocean around us is something I took for granted. We had two free days after the distribution to see parts of Honduras, and were fortunate enough to be working next to the beach! Freddy and Mauricio went swimming in the ocean, first with help and then without! By the last day, they felt much more comfortable in the water Ilse (the physical therapist with Hope Haven) and I was very proud of them. They were proud of themselves too, and felt they had accomplished a lot,since that was the first time they had gone to the beach and in the ocean since the accidents. It was most definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

It is easy to become overwhelmed by all of these concerns, and to feel like we don’t know where to begin, but you have to start somewhere, and continue to pray that God meets the needs of these amazing people!

Manuel and Mauricio at the beach in Honduras

Distribution in Honduras

More distribution in Honduras