Mercy House – Doors and Windows Installed

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Forrest & Carol Kendall

Brief History

Mayan Woman from Quiacquix practicing sewing

A few weeks before our August 2012 mission team arrived construction on Mercy House began.   Mercy House is a project started by Juan and Celestina Aguilar.   Their desire was for a place to do various ministries including:

  • A place to train widows to sew which will provide them with a means of earning an income;
  • Host Bible studies;
  • Do couples’ ministry and Bible Study
  • Do children’s ministry

Most of the first floor construction was completed in 2012.   The bathroom (shower stall, toilet stall, and pila (sink) area still need to be completed.    The second floor which we pray will be completed in 2013 will be a large training room and classroom.   And of course we still have no electricity – we have to run an extension chord from Juan’s father’s house.

However, even with a partially completed structure Juan and Celestina started using the space for sewing training, Bible studies, meetings, etc.

Now for the update …

Doors and Windows Installed

Meeting with Mothers of Kids in Bible Study

On Dec 27, 2012 Vidal Bautista (the guy who made the doors and windows) and Forrest went to Quiacquix to install the doors and widows in the first-floor rooms of Mercy House.   When we arrived Juan and Celestina had a group of women meeting in one of the rooms discussing the details of a children’s Bible study they start in a few weeks.   They will teach two groups of kids on Saturday mornings and afternoons.

Door Installation

Door Installation

Glass Installation in Windows

To our surprise Juan had already installed the windows (without glass), and the glass was already cut and ready to set into the windows.   While Juan and Vidal worked on installing the doors, Forrest installed the glass in the windows.

Door Install Complete

Electricity for Mercy House

The first part of December we were provided funding to have the power company install an electric meter for Mercy House and to construct the doors and windows.   We immediately started the work to do both of these.  (Thank to all of you who support S4H’s missionaries and projects!)

Main Power Cable to House

Meter?

Conduit and Cable to feed Meter

The internal wiring of Mercy House was installed and tested (with an extension cord) by Jonathan Payne (2012 intern), Scott Andersen (S4H missionary) and Forrest in early Nov.  However, the external wiring was not done, i.e. the cable from the meter location to the circuit breaker panel and the cable from the utility pole to the meter location.

When we have the meter Juan will have 220V service to his house which will give us the capability to use a heavy duty welder there.

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Aldea el Limon, Camotan Chiquimula dental trip

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Forrest & Carol Kendall

El viernes 15 de Junio visitamos la Aldea el Limon en Camotan,  iniciamos nuestro viaje a las 4:00 am hora en la cual salimos de la ciudad, nuestro equipo estaba conformado por Dr. Gilberto , Kevin y yo. luego de 3 hrs de manejar llegamos a Chiquimula donde nos Reunimos con Dr. Leonel  Bran para luego seguir por 40 minutos mas hasta camotan. En camotan nos reunimos con un grupo de Misioneros desde donde salimos para la Aldea el Limon la cual se encuentra a 1 ½ horas mas, sobre la sierra de las minas.

Camotan, es uno de los municipios mas pobres de Chiquimula y de toda Guatemala, el cual ha sido azotado por sequia y por hambruna en los ultimos 25 años, su poblacion en chorti en un alto porcentaje.

A las 10 y media de la mañana finalmente llegamos a la aldea y luego de instalar el equipo comenzamos a atender la larga fila de pacientes que como siempre acuden con la esperanza de que sus problemas  y dolores dentales sean aliviados.

Luego de 6 hrs de intenso trabajo, terminamos muestra labor, no sin antes haber atendido a todos los pacientes que acudieron a la jornada,(70 mas o menos) y de haber compartido del amor de Dios para con ellos.

A las 6 pm estabamos de vuelta en Chiquimula, para cenar y salimos para Guatemala como a las 7 pm, pero por el trafico llegamos de vuelta a Casa a las 00:00 del dia sabado.

Despues de ver la sonrisa en muchos de nuestros pacientes ,ver los rostros ya sin dolor,  y saber que sembramos la palabra de salvacion en ellos, puedo decirles que el esfuerzo del viaje valio la pena.

Dios les Bendiga.

Dr. Dennis Ruano Continue reading →

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Divine Appointment

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Forrest & Carol Kendall

On April 25 the S4H team went to Totonicapan to present sewing machines for the widows training project we have there (this is a story in itself).  On the way we stopped at a favorite restaurant for breakfast in Tecpan.  As we were eating a group of men, as they were leaving, stopped at our table and asked if we were Christians.  We asked these men where they were from; they were from Poxlajuj, a village in Totonicapan.

We went on to Quiacquix, Totonicapan and celebrated with the widows and gave them the sewing machines.  On our return trip to Antigua we stopped for dinner at a different restuarant, also in Tecpan.  The same group of men we saw at breakfast we eating dinner where we stopped.  Nothing but a God thing.

We exchange information with these men and gave them Juan and Celestina’s contact information (since they live in Toto).  Last week one of these men contacted Juan and invited him to come to Poxlajuj.  Here is Juan’s summary of their meeting. …

Forrest, we are praying to God for all the work of the ministry, and Wednesday God placed in our hearts to visit the brothers in Poxlajuj, and today we went to talk to them, we wanted to talk to the pastor of the church but did not find him, we could only talk to the brother Luis who talked to you in Tecpan, we were talking and sharing with his brother for more than 2 hours and finally invited Celestina and me to present the ministry in a conference held at the church on Sunday afternoon, and to make decisions on the timing of doing inductive Bible study training in this church.

I Did not know anyone from the church or place but God directed us to find them, when we arrived in the community in the first house where the brothers asked about Forrest spoke immediately the person who left the house was the one who spoke with Forrest and joy was that he also is the second pastor of the church and President of the rebuilding of the church.

On Sunday we will make decisions on the dates of training, so I inform you to take it into account and also welcome your prayers for our visit and presentation of the Ministry on Sunday next.

 

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Time Well Spent

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Forrest & Carol Kendall

This week the S4H Antigua Team set some time aside to go through our Level One Inductive Bible Study Training together. This is the same tool that we use with Church leaders here in Guatemala.

Some of our team had not yet been through the training and so this was an ideal opportunity to not only introduce them to what is becoming more and more central to our ministry, but also to solidify it’s importance in our own vision as well.

We studied Mark 2, Psalm 1 and Jude through the course of the week and saw God increase our love for His word and our confidence in handling it. Time well spent.

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