You may recall that I was supposed to go to Guatemala a couple weeks ago, but canceled my trip after the surgeons decided to reschedule. However Kathy Price, the director of Mission of Love Foundation, insisted on going as planned.
eQuilter sent a large donation for the end of the year, to help finance this trip. Here is a partial report on what was accomplished by Kathy and Mission of Love on this trip:
Day 7 of our Mission of Love in Guatemala
It’s our last day here in Guatemala. We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. Our first stop was to go to an old age home where there was about 65 elders waiting for our arrival. We brought food bags to hand out to the women and warm blankets to hand out to the men. We were received with such love and appreciation that you could feel the presence of something much bigger than all of us. We physically touched the hands and embraced each one of them. There were introductions and some of the elders spoke on behalf of all of them to express their gratitude. They were having a fiesta with a band and dancing. It was a joy to see everyone laughing and smiling. We couldn’t stay too long because we had other people we need to see before leaving for Guatemala City.
After leaving the old age home we traveled to another community to see a boy named Edwin. He is a 5 year old boy with cerebral palsy that is in critical need of physiotherapy. After going to his community and handing out the rest of the bags of food we took Edwin and his mother to the city to discuss a plan to get this boy help. The parents don’t even have the money to pay for transportation to go to the clinic so it was arranged by Kathy to take care of that necessity. When we first saw Edwin his eyes were almost closed and he was moaning with every breath. I was absolutely amazed when he reached out for Kathy’s hand and when she held his hand he had the biggest smile on his face. His eyes lit up and he seemed to be full of life. The thing is this a five year old boy and Kathy hadn’t seen him for 2 years.
By the time we left the clinic Edwin was laughing and his eyes were big and bright and you could see he wanted to walk and participate in activities. What a transformation within just a couple of hours. We also planned for our upcoming rehabilitation Mission of Love with Doctor Dan Winkle in the spring for the children with cerebral palsy, etc.
We had purchased and handed out 120 bags of food and 120 blankets to those suffering and in need. We had a long drive back to the Hotel and when we got back we had a bite to eat and off to bed.
When you work with Kathy she finds a way to do three weeks of work in one week so the feeling of accomplishment is immense and quite often overwhelming with emotion.
When you participate in this type of mission work sometimes it’s very difficult knowing these people will continue to live with such hardship and we get to go home to our comfortable lives but in order to continue you must realize that your not here to save the world you are here to touch the hands and hearts that are within your reach. I truly understand this now!
*****
Thank you for supporting our eQuilter Charity Program – which gives 2% of sales to those in need. We have recently surpassed the $1.3 million mark…with your support.
