Why Guatemala?

A few real stories of real orphans.

Celeste has one eye that is damaged.  Her parents took her to a witch doctor who screwed up her eye.  Bad.

This is Paula.  Her Mom left to go to the hospital for some kind of eye surgery.  She has not bothered to return.  Paula is now an orphan.

Juanita suffers with blindness and MS.  However, her confinement to a wheel chair was courteousy of her Mother beating her.

Marvin was abandoned when he was less than 2 weeks old.  He knows no other home than the orphanage.

This is Melee (on the left).   Melee is short for “Miracle.”  She was found in the trash when she was a few days old.  Her parents threw her away.

Her parents threw her away.

Look, let me shoot straight with you.  These are not kids from some late-night cable advertisement.  There are a thousand stories, just like the ones above.  These are real kids.  I touched them.  We laughed together.  I looked in their eyes.  They looked in mine.

We are here because these kids need hope.  We are sad, tired, happy, enraged, hopeful, and angry.  It is an exhausting kaleidoscope of emotions which are not soon sorted out.  However, take this to the bank:  exchange is gearing up to make a huge impact in Guatemala.  I will be investing some of my life there and I invite you to do the same.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.            – James 1:27

I feel some world-changing religion coming on.  Get ready.

For more info on our recent trip to Guatemala check out Wigg’s World and Elsblogger.