My Operation Obligation Journal

Well, well, well... what surprising news! We found out that Marcos' mother is expecting another child. This will be child number eight. I do know families in the area they are from have many children... there are a few reasons, one of which being lack of education on how to prevent pregnancies... but the main reason is because families here think it is very good to have large families... even if they are struggling to get by.

In more developments, I've found out that both of Marcos' younger siblings are now attending pre-school. This is very good news! I am thinking neither of them are most likely sponsored... if you are interested in sponsoring either or both children, please let me know - I will let you know what you need to do to make this happen. :)

Now that all of the children are in school, all will be able to eat while they are there!

José is 13 years old. His birthday is December 18th. He was supposed to be in 3rd grade in 2009 but unfortunately he did not register in time and he will have to wait until next year.

Jose lives in a small town called Xeabaj Segundo de Chichicastenango. He lives with his mother Maria, 30 years old.

His father abandoned the family 6 months ago. They don't know where he is.

José has 3 brothers and 1 sister. They are:

Tomas is 9 years old. His birthday is December 5th. He was in first grade in 2008. He was supposed to start second grade in 2009 but did not register in time and he will have to wait until next year.

Juan Carlos is 6 years old. He is not in school yet.

Sebastian is 4 years old.

Ana María is 2 years old.

Jose and his mother sell typical clothing in the streets of Chichicastenango and Panajachel. Some days they make $8-10 USD and some others nothing.

They own the house they live in.
They have 1 room and one kitchen.
It is make of mud brick, tin roof and dirt floor.
They do not have a water filter.
They do not have an Onil stove. The mother cooks on an open fire on the floor.
They have 2 beds made of wooden planks.
They do not have enough blankets.
They have one table and 3 wooden chairs.
They have a pila.
They have electricity connected and pay $6 USD per month.
They have water connected and pay $2 USD per month.

The money that they make is not enough to cover their expenses. Their main diet is beans, herbs, pasta and eggs. When they do not have enough money for that they only eat tortillas with salt.

My friend, Lorie and her husband will be sponsoring Joses little brother to attend school!!!!!

Thank you Eric and Lorie!! :)

Patti Mort, with Mayan Families has found this little boy for us! This is fantastic news. Our family will be sponsoring him, we sent in money for his sponsorship, as well as money for emergency food for his family... here's a copy of the email that Patti wrote to me...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While in Guatemala, one little boy touched my heart. I've often wondered what has happened to him.

While on facebook recently, Karen Pickett from Education & More had a photo that caught my eye on her online photo album.

To my surprise, it was the little boy that has been on my heart.

He was sitting on the side walk crying, because his family did not eat that day... or the day before.

He had to sell refridgerator magnets (that's what's in his basket)... he did not sell any that day, meaning they would go another day without eating.

We talked to him, and gave him money. He gave us a magnet, which has been hanging on our refrigerator ever since.

We are now looking for this little boy, so we can sponsor him to go to school.

Hopefully, he will be allowed to go to school. His family may not let him if he has to make a wage to help feed the family.

Please pray that our scouts will find this little boy.

I will keep you updated.

We still want to raise money to build a home for Oscar. Things have been very busy here, hopefully within the next couple of weeks I can buckle down to get those funds raised! :) I will keep you updated. :)

BTW, I think I've been in North Carolina too long.... I just re-read what I wrote above and think I added a little southern accent. LOL!

Tonight, I sent $50 for Marcos and his family for food... and also $50 for Oscar and his family for food.

Also - great news!

We have purchased a wooden table and chairs for Marcos and his family.

I will never forget, they had ONE plastic chair in their house.

Now, they will have a nice table and chairs to go on their new concrete floor!

So far, we have been able to provide the following for Marcos and his family:

• 2 beds and mattresses
• water filter
• onil stove
• cement floor
• wooden table and 4 wooden chairs
• food, holiday baskets, totes filled with goodies on several occassions
  

For Oscar and his family, we have been able to provide:

• 1 bed and mattress
• water filter
• onil stove
• food, holiday baskets, totes filled with goodies on several occassions
  

This past weekend, we were given terrible news about little Veronica... please read the following article. Please be aware, the article is very - very sad and graphic. Veronica is now in a much better place. Candace, one of my traveling partners in our 2008 trip to Guatemala fell in love with Veronica right away.... the following letter is from Sharon, of the organization we went down to visit.

In Loving Memory of a Murdered Child
2/16/2009

I have been really having a hard time since I heard this news. Ifeel like someone has kicked a hole in my heart. Veronica, was one of our sponsored students last year. Her mother came to us for help to get a replacement for her own false leg. Everyone told us that the mother was very physically abusive to this child. That she did not feed her, there were rumors that she was selling her. She would bring men back to the room where she was living and leave them alone with the child. There was no proof. We offered to help the mother so as to be able to help thechild.

We found a very loving person who wanted to sponsor Veronica. She met Veronica, she fell in love with her. Veronica was so excited to go to school. She had never been. She was 8yrs old.

She went to school for two days and her mother came to the school and withdrew her.
She told us that the teachers were mean to Veronica. The teachers told us that the mother had mental problems, that Veronica was a sweet girl who was really happy to be at school.

We found out that when Veronica was 2 or 3 yrs old that the mother had tied her up to the beams of the roof and beaten her badly. The court had photos of her badly bruised little body. She was taken to hospital. There was nowhere to send her so they kept at the hospital. The mother, who had been arrested, paid someone off, got out of jail and went to the hospital and took the child home.

There had been many complaints made against the mother, the court had a thick file on her.
When we heard that it was rumored again that she was being prostituted by the mother, we had a social worker file papers asking the court to remove Veronica from the mother and award custody to me. There was no one else that wanted her. Veronica's father had re-married and he was scared of the mother, she was capable of coming to the house and being very violent with his new wife and family. The judge called in the mother, she denied everything, they said that it would be better to remove the child, the police had a warrant to go to her home but she was always moving around, they couldn't find her. We were very frustrated that they gave her
the warning that they would take the child from her custody. She then moved out of the area and no one could find her.

Saturday night , little Veronica was raped , sodomized and murdered at a village around Lake Atitlan, The social worker who came to tell me , said that her little body had been torn up. She
was just 9yrs old, the size of little 7 yr old. She was so little. Her mother says that she was drunk, that she doesn't know what happened.

Even though, logically, I know this wasn't my fault, I still feel like I let her down.

This poor little girl had a terrible life, she was starved and beaten by the one person in the world who was supposed to love her.

I hope that the angels are holding her tight.

Sharon (from Mayan Families)

We did a terrific job on the book fair, raising aprox $1,300 worth of books for the kids in Guatemala!

I will send pictures as soon as we get them! :)

The children and I sent out two totes - one for Marcos and one for Oscar.

In each tote we packed as much as we could possibly fit. Washrags, work gloves, pitcher, kool-aide, black beans, book bags for each boy, water bottle, plastic cups, large spoon/ladle, gum, candy,each boy will receive an "American Football."

I am excited for the boys and cannot wait until they are able to open their totes! :)

Our family will be participating on a mission trip to Guatemala this summer.

We will need to raise a total of $8,000 for the trip.

It would seem impossible if we did not have God on our side...

We will be doing quite a bit of work on our 8 day stay. Our family will participate in a drama five times a day for three days throughout the country of Guatemala as well as many other wonderful things for our 8 days in Guatemala.

We will be going with the ACMA Christian Martial Arts Team... we are so excited to go, and know that God will bless all involved! If you go to the ACMA link, you can see pictures from their 2008 Guatemala mission trip!

If you would like to donate towards the mission trip, please click the donate button to the right of the page.