Guatemala 2014 part 2

The whole neighborhood was interested in how to get clean water.

I have been home for almost four weeks now, and I still miss Monjas. Not just the kids from Shadow of His Wings, but the people in general. One thing I love about this mission trip is the opportunity to get out in the community, to visit people in their homes, to talk to them and hear about their lives.

One of the school rooms in a 2 room school house, notice
the banner on the bottom is teaching about good hygiene
and how to stay healthy.

By placing clean water filters in homes and schools, we got a good look at the culture.  It was only a few years ago that I learned that most of the world's population cannot turn on a faucet and drink the water safely. This is something I have always taken for granted. I had always heard "don't drink the water in Mexico", but that was the extent of my knowledge. I guess I sort of knew that children in Africa sometimes died because they did not have clean water - but in my imagination, those were only starving children desperate enough to be drinking from mud puddles. I would not have thought that people in very modern cities like Lima, Peru would have to treat the tap water, or that children in school in Guatemala would need to worry about getting sick from the water. Thankfully, we were able to place 16 clean water filters in the town of Monjas over the past two years. The children in four schools can drink clean water, reducing their chances of being sick and missing out on education.

All the teachers gather for a faculty meeting so they
could learn how the system worked.

This was not only done by the group of people who actually went on the trip, but also by the supporters of this mission. Those that wrote checks for donations, bought cookies from bake sales, bid on silent auction items, and come to have dinner with us. 
If you have any interest at all in finding out more about this mission, please do not hesitate to call me.

Healing Water - Easter Portrait Special

It is a rare occasion that I do Easter pictures. But this year is different. We are setting up a cute outdoor tented scene in the flowers to create some beautiful images. Session fee is $30 or $20 and a box of single serve powdered drink mix.
But wait, what is different? This year, Easter portraits session fees and portrait sales will go toward buying supplies for Natalia and I to hand out when we make our journey to Tanzania, Africa in exactly two months.
Last week, I spoke with my dear friend, Dena Moore (http://denamoore.wordpress.com/), who is a missionary there. She had sent out a prayer request for her team and her staff. Many of them had been very sick from easily preventable diseases. Dena starting investigating what could be done about it.  What she found out is that although some of them were using water gaurd tablets for drinking water - they could not afford to use it for the water they used to clean their vegetables. So that is a problem we can help with! The transfoming power of clean water is life sustaining.


photo courtesy of Dena Moore



When we arrive in Africa, we will use the Easter Portrait proceeds to go buy basins to wash food in, cups for each person in a family, soap for food washing, water bottles, purification tablets, and water filters.  Each child photographed here will be asked to color a greeting card for a child we are going to meet, and will recieve a photograph from our trip.

So why the drink mixes? Simple - it makes the water taste better. We know kids are kids are kids, and when something tastes better, or "special" they like it more. Dehydration for any child is a dangerous, life threatning problem. And the best part is YOU can help provide these healing waters, and get beautiful portraits of your own healthy and precious child.