Homeward Bound

Dear friends,

I had hoped that this next post would be an exciting post full of pictures from the drive down through Mexico.  Unfortunately instead I have some sad news.

After I came back from my trip I found out that there have been some changes down here at Hope Haven that mean I will no longer be able to work with them.  While I’m saddened by this, I know that God is in control through it all.  Sometimes things happen that none of us understand, but I know that through all things God can work amazing good out of them!

I’m flying back to the States tomorrow.  God has been incredible in His provision through all this, and I have been absolutely amazed at how my friends have come together and supported me!  I will be living with a very close friend from college up in Iowa.  It will be nice to be up there and start settling in to the area at least close to where I will be working for John Deere.  I’ve also talked with my HR contact at Deere and moved my start date up to June 3^rd of next year.

For now, please be praying that I will be able to find a good cheap car quickly, and find some sort of a job so I can support myself. 

Thank you all so much for being so willing to donate to support me!  You all have been incredibly supporting and encouraging!  I pray that God will richly reward you for your willing and selfless hearts!  For those of you donating monthly you can stop now thank you! :) I have records of the money that you all have donated to me, and once I get my feet under me I want to start paying you all back.  

Thank you all again so very much!  You have allowed me an incredible opportunity to see a gorgeous country, to learn about an incredible culture and society, and to learn a beautiful new language.

Dios te bendiga,

Chris

It's October Already!?

Dear friends!

First off, I want to apologize for not writing an update sooner.  Things have been quite busy lately!  (And I just hate writing, so I was putting it off! ;) )

Wow, so much has happened!  Unfortunately for you, this is going to be a very long post filled with lots of words and not many pictures, but hopefully it will bring you up to date on my escapades in Guatemala!

A lot of exciting things are happening at the Hope Haven shop!  The tool crib project I mentioned before has been pushed off (due to lack of space...  we got in two shipping containers last week and have three more coming in soon!).  So instead, I've been working on starting a massive 5S project for the shop!  (All my Deere buddies will be proud of me!)

For those who don't know, 5S is a workplace organizational process and is something I learned about during my internship with John Deere last summer.  The five S's are: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.  My goals for the the project are to completely revamp the Hope Haven shop by cleaning and organizing the equipment and supplies that we have and reorganizing things so the employees have easier access to the supplies they need.  I also want to work on redesigning the process flow of the actual wheelchair assembly.  It's really exciting, but also a massive project for just one person to attack.  I'm taking it day by day and praying that God will help me get it done as well as I can!  If anyone wants more information on this project please feel free to message me!  I've attached a few pictures of one of the areas that I'm working on cleaning up...  should give you an idea of the size of the project I'm facing!

As you can see... that project has been taking up most of my time...  but I'm also working on updating some of the CAD drawings that the LeTourneau team created last year.  The drawings are mostly correct, but they were done from a distance, so now that I am here I can directly measure the current parts to make sure the drawings are accurate.  It's a good filler project for when I get tired of cleaning.  Unfortunately, I'm the only one who has any CAD software down here right now, and mine is only a student license of Solidworks.  If anyone wanted to donate a full copy I know it would be very helpful! :)

Outside of work, things have been going really well!  My Spanish is coming along nicely!  I can understand the gist of the conversation usually, but I still have a lot to learn.  I've been putting off taking Spanish classes, but I think I do need to do that soon in order to take my Spanish to the next level.

I also joined the Antigua gym!  It's a nice gym right in the city, and it happens to be exactly a mile away from my house, so it's a perfect warm-up run to get there.  I'm really glad I decided to join the gym.  Definitely has been helping keep myself healthy!

Two more big bits of news and then I think y'all will be mostly caught up with my life!  First off, I did decide to accept the job at John Deere!  So, I will be returning to the States next August.  I don't know exactly where I will be working yet, or what my exact start date is.  I'm definitely excited!  I'm going to be here about a year and I know there's a lot I can get done while I'm here!  It gives me almost a deadline...  a point to work toward in order to keep myself on track.

And last but not least, I'm actually going to be returning to the States this Thursday for a month.  God's been really gracious and worked things out in really cool/bizarre ways for this trip!  I'm going to be going to two really good friend's weddings, and then spending some time in Longview in order to work with this year's Frontier Wheelchairs team!  So, first I'm flying to Virginia for Becah's wedding, then flying back to Dallas to meet up with a friend there, and the two of us are driving north to Colorado for Peter's wedding...  then driving back down to Longview.  The original plan was that I would then be flying back out of Dallas to Guatemala, but I found out that the director of Hope Haven, Mark Richard, is going to be driving two vans down from the States to Guatemala, so I'm going to stay a few extra days in Texas, meet up with him and help him drive them down!  I'm really excited about this trip!  I'm really grateful to God for allowing me to attend the weddings of such close friends, and I'm also excited about the opportunity to work one on one with the new Frontier wheelchairs team for a few days.  I pray that God uses me to get a lot of good work done during the trip!

Thank you all for your consistent and dedicated support!  Your prayers, words of encouragement, and financial support have been such a blessing!  Please keep me in prayer as I am traveling all over the place, and especially as Mark, his team, and I are driving down through Mexico!

Dios te bendiga!

Chris

Two weeks and a Day!

Wow!  So much has happened over the last two weeks!

Last Monday and Tuesday we had our first distribution days since I got here!  We got to give out close to thirty chairs!  Definitely a blessing to work with these kids, and definitely a blessing to be able to provide mobility to all these people!  I didn't get to take any pics because I was pretty busy, but here are some of the ones that Omar took!

Brad Ferguson and his Wife were the sponsors for this distribution.
Really great people dedicated to serving!

Such beautiful children!

 

 I got the opportunity to work with Maria.  What a sweet woman!









Freddy, the guy on the left, is a wheelchair user that works with Hope Haven to build the chairs and help with distributions.  Living in his chair allows him to give excellent advice to these people as he helps fit their chairs!

Such joy in Paul's face as he sits comfortably in his new wheelchair! :)

I think Jorge's a little unsure about all this at first, but I'm sure he's enjoy being able to go places!

At this age, the biggest blessing is often to the parents because they no longer have to either leave their child at home all the time, or carry him wherever they go.  They can wheel him along now!

This week has been pretty good.  I've been working on building a 'tool crib' for the shop...  aka, one place where we can securely store all of the tools for the shop at the end of the day.  It's basically building up a small room so it's been fun designing and framing it.  As soon as I get it built up I'll try and get some pictures for y'all!

About a week ago I went through some cultural shock/revolt...  I couldn't figure out if I was thinking in Spanish of English!  So I decided to go to the most American place I could think of!  McDonalds right!?  NO!  McDonalds here is like a Five Star Restaurant!  They had people who brought you your tray, and cleared it for you...  the McCafe has a little lounge area - almost like Starbucks!  And to top it all off, they had outdoor dining with a fountain and romantic lighting!  So I didn't get quite the experience I was expecting, but it was fun anyway!  I've got some pictures on my phone but it isn't connecting to my computer at the moment.  I'll upload those as soon as I get the chance!

One final thing.  Last Friday I got an offer for a full time position at John Deere.  It's a really good offer, and an excellent opportunity.  Please be in prayer as I try to figure out where God wants me next year, and what to decide.

Thank you guys so much for your prayer and financial support!  There's a lot of awesome stuff to do down here and y'all are helping make it possible!  God bless you all!

Vaya con Dios!
Chris

I'M HERE!!

Hola mis amigos!  Estoy en Guatemala!

I'm still having a hard time believing that I'm actually here!  And then I realize that I don't understand 90% of what everyone is saying...  and I remember! :)

Yesterday I was very blessed to be able to attend a church service that was translated into English!  The sermon was about how as Christ's disciples, we are commanded to surrender our possessions to Him and to go into the world and do His work.  It was a good reminder for me that despite my fears, I'm on the right track!

Today was the first day I got to work in the shop again.  It was really neat to see all the guys there again!  Such a great group of people!  I spent the day mostly doing odd jobs for the shop supervisor, Larry, and helping out where I could.  But then a little after lunch a girl came in who needed her wheelchair repaired.  The front castor wheel was broken so Gustavo and I worked on replacing or re-greasing the bearings.  By the time we were finished, the girl had a new seat on the chair and the castors worked wonderfully!  It was a neat way for me to see how my work can directly affect people!

After a long day at work, I'm tired so I'm going to head to bed.  Buenas noches amigos!

Chris

D-Day!!

Today's the day I move to Guatemala!!

The last few days have been super busy!  I've been working very hard to narrow everything down into two checked bags, a carry-on, and a personal item (backpack), which is a very challenging project!

Also, God is awesome and allowed me to sell my car within four hours of posting it on Craigslist for a very decent price.

Today at 1:35 I board the first of two flights that will carry me out of the US and on to Guatemala.  It's an exciting step!  I'm really looking forward to how God will use me down there!  But at the same time, I'm scared...  and I know I'm going to be missing all you friends a lot!  Please keep in touch through facebook, skype, and this blog! :)

Thank you all so much for your incredible support, your prayers, and your financial donations.  You all have been wonderful in helping me to prepare for this move!  God bless you all!

I'm going to go get a few hours of sleep before I have to get ready to fly!  Goodnight world!

Chris

God's Provision

Wow!  It has been incredible to watch God providing for my financial need for Guatemala!  He has been using you, my friends, to help me do His work!  Thank you all so very much for your prayers and your financial assistance!

I added up everything on my trusty excel spreadsheet, and it looks like I only need about forty more dollars per month in order to meet my goal!  Jump change to God!  Praise the Lord! :D

For those of you wishing to set up an automatic donation, please email me and I will send you the paperwork!

Only THREE MORE DAYS before I move to Guatemala!  I'm really praying that I am prepared but I know God will work things out! :)

Vaya con Dios!
Chris

T Minus 10!

Well friends, it's been an amazing summer to say the least!  And it's almost over!  By the time I post this message, I will only have ten more days left in the United States!  That also means I get to be back in Guatemala in just eleven days!

I've still got a lot of preparations to make before I go.  I have barely even started packing!

This Friday is my last day at John Deere!  It's been a long summer but it's been really good working with the people in my department.  I'm definitely going to miss them!

Next week I am driving to Boston to visit my sister.  While I'm there I am going to be selling my car before I leave.  It's a difficult decision.  I love my car!  But I know I need to be in Guatemala!

Already I have been amazed at how God has provided financially through very generous friends.  Thanks to the lower cost of living in Guatemala, all of my needs can be met for only 7000 dollars a year.  So far I have about $5000 pledged and so I only need to raise about $2000 more!  If only five more people pledge to donate $35 a month, that will complete my fundraising for the next year!

It's awesome to see what God is doing with Hope Haven!  And amazing to think that He will be using me to help with his work there in Guatemala!  I attached some pictures from the last wheelchair distribution!  I get to be involved in the next one! :)

Keep praying!

Vaya con Dios!
Chris

I am so blessed to know that God is allowing me to help provide wheelchairs and a better life to these children! :)