Hi Everybody!
We are excited about our upcoming PSE Experience next weekend and have a good group signed up! We still have room for a handful more of you to join us. Let us know!
Water Update
The last time that I wrote you a full update, I was down in Guatemala and mentioned some water project needs in the jungle. Since then several called to coordinate efforts to help. Thanks to the generosity of Orangecrest Community Church in Riverside, California, the next one is paid for and ready to go!
And by the way, last week when I called Cesar to touch base, he happened to be in the jungle in a place where he could get a signal on his phone. When he answered I could hear some of my Kekchi friends laughing in the background. They had just finished installing one water system and were driving to town to get more supplies for the second. By the time you read this, the two projects mentioned in the last update should be fully functioning. Jose, one of my Kekchi pastor buddies grabbed the phone from Cesar and told me to tell everyone "Thanks!" So from our friends in the jungle to you..."Muchas Gracias!"
More Untold Stories Coming
Since that update, so much has happened in other places. I haven't told you about the day we made a deal with a mayor in the jungle to bring him some cowboys, or the day we ran a 10K "marathon" and played soccer, or the day my wife Nola danced with about a dozen senior men, or the ladies who threw Nola a birthday party, or the mayor's wife who wants us to bring women to teach various skills, or the day we spoke to a school, or about the last day in Guatemala when we were relaxing on the beach and bumped into a Cattlemen's Association President who invited us to bring a rodeo team to one of the largest rodeos next January!
Excuse me for a minute while my head spins! Okay. I'm back. I get kind of dizzy thinking about all this! And don't worry, I won't try to tell you all of these stories right now! Over the next few weeks I hope to share them one by one.
Our Heroes from Second Baptist Church in Springfield
Today I have to tell you about our friends at Second Baptist in Springfield, Missouri. Bill Burrows and I attended their annual missions conference. Here's a link to an interview they did with us on Saturday night, February 25th. Go to the 11:30 mark, and you'll find us.
For the past 3 or 4 years, Second Baptist has invited us to be among other missionaries to talk with their people about the ongoing ministry opportunities in Central America and invite them to join us in the various projects. Mark Green and Dean Kucharski have been instrumental in leading the charge with a couple of teams that have done both cowboy-related trips and construction on a medical clinic last year. But this year we are planning to add a new twist: dental!
Construction on Medical Clinic Paves the Way for Dental Team
August 12-18, a Second Baptist team will be going down to finish the clinic at Cesar's place in Amberes. All that's left is laying a tile floor, electrical work, and installing a bathroom and sinks.
In September or October, a dental team from Second plans to go down to inaugurate the building and do a two-day clinic. That team will then go with us to the jungle to do two different one-day clinics in that region.
Dr. Jose Caceres, a member of Second Baptist and a native of Nicaragua, with his wife Rebecca, is leading the dental team and will be doing a scouting trip in July to lay the groundwork with Cesar. Collaborating with Jose will be friends from I-Tec, a company started in 1996 by Steve Saint.
"End of the Spear" Connection to Dental Team
Steve's dad, Nate Saint, was one of the missionaries murdered many years ago in Ecuador. The movie, "The End of the Spear," was made about Steve and his dad. We met Steve's son Jaime, who is VP of this company, during the conference.
Jaime shared how they have created medical tools that can be carried in backpacks to hike into remote areas where medical personnel can use them to provide medical care. He even demonstrated how a 34-pound dental pack turns into a dental chair! Way cool! Bottom line: the Second Baptist team has already used this equipment in other countries and plans to do the same with us.
Dental Team Needs
Incidentally, this team will be purchasing and preparing the equipment for this project. Currently we are looking to raise about $3,000 for dental instruments to be purchased in Guatemala when Dr. Jose Caceres goes down in July. After the team uses the equipment, it will be left for continued use. My understanding is that Second Baptist plans to purchase the dental backpacks that their teams can use in multiple projects in multiple countries. For now, they are exploring all the logistics in this kind of ongoing ministry.
If you have any interest in any of this, or know of someone who needs to be a part of it, let us know!
Talk to you soon!
Steve
PS...If the link above to the Second Baptist video didn't work, here it is for one more try! Again, just go to the 11:30 minute mark.