My Outreach Testimony - Dave

My testimony from outreach comes out of the village of San Miguel Escobar, 10 minutes from Antigua.  Our team was called by God to go to Guatemala on outreach, and week four is when we arrived in the beautiful area of the Panchoy Valley.  It was to be another day of evangelism in the San Miguel Escobar/Ciudad Vieja area.  Mike (our leader), Stian, and I headed up a guys team and started out.  We started up towards the volcano and met a couple of different people that we had the opportunity to talk to and pray with.  After that we ran into some kids playing and talked to them for a couple of minutes.  We then headed back to where the main Catholic church for San Miguel Escobar was and watched as some men played some futbol.  We decided that it was time to keep walking and so we started off again.  As we were walking, a boy passed us, turned around, passed us again, and did this three times before Stian started witnessing to him.  After a while, Stian ran out of things to say and I got a chance to talk to him.  His name was Eddy and had ten brothers and sisters.  He was eighteen, but had been out of school for a few years already and had a painting job.  I asked him if he enjoyed it or if he had dreams beyond that.  By this point I had lost Stian and Mike to a couple of clowns that had walked by and started doing an act, in the middle of the road.  Eddy had said his dream was to be a cook.  Well I love to cook, so I got to share my life as a cook to where I am now and even though being a cook is difficult that it was a dream worth pursuing.  I walked with him for about half an hour, to his friend's house and then I went my own way. 

As I was walking back down the hill to the road I came in on, I noticed a lady carrying a table, while her husband had his daughter on his back and pushing his son in a wheelchair.  Seeing as it was a heavy table I asked the woman if they lived close and if she needed help carrying the table.  She gladly accepted the help and we started home.  Turns out they lived all the way back past the YWAM base; so I trekked about 30-40 minutes with this fifty pound table on my head.  I got to talk with the woman about her life.  She had two sons with her previous partner and now had these two children with her current partner.  Their family didn't go to church anymore because of previous negative experiences and often her husband would work and she'd have to take care of her two children.  I found it admirable that this man was still with this family, though one child was in a wheelchair.  Not too often do you find men stick around when the children have disabilities here in Guatemala.  To put names to faces, the woman is Ana, the man is Luis, their son is Miguel, and their daughter is Damiris.  Miguel is four and Damiris is two.  We returned to their house and I put the table in place.  It turns out they live with Luis' mother Seville, in a typical Guatemalan cement house with tin roofing.  As I put the table down I got to share with them about God's love, Christ's birth (as it was three days before Christmas), Christ's death and ressurection, and just a few testimonies from my life of God's faithfulness and unconditional love.  I got to pray for their family and I could just feel the Holy Spirit's presence come over their house.  I said I'd return with some people from our group to pray for Miguel, who had been wheelchair bound since birth.  Something with his neck and brain paralyzes him from actually having the strength to walk.

So I did return as I said with about ten of the people from the team.  We prayed for Miguel and his complete healing.  I know that Miguel is strong, bright, intelligent, and has such joy; God has an incredible future in store for this boy.  From this point our team took it upon ourselves to fast and pray each lunch for Miguel; so the following few days there'd be two or three of us fasting lunch and interceding for Miguel during this time.  The Lord didn't only increase my love for this family, but also Lillian and Stian:s love for them as well.  When we returned a few days later, the three of us got to pray for Miguel again.  We also got to read him stories from the children's Bible; he loves the pictures and bright colours and Ana was intrigued by the content in the stories and Lillian got to have an incredible time pouring into Ana's life.  There may not be a complete physical healing of Miguel, but I could start to see the transformation in the family and I believe there was a lot of emotional healing going on.  Some things I admire about this family is their love for each other; Luis hasn't left Miguel, but continues to support his family, no matter the cost; Ana brings Miguel to Guatemala City (an hour away) on the chicken bus to do physiotherapy, twice a week.  We knew of Hermano Pedro which is a hospital for wheelchaired children and ask why she didn't go there; her response was that there you had to just drop your kids off and you don't stay with them, and she was not going to abandon her child to an asylum.  I witnessed the loving heart of a mother and father.  We left them with more prayer, some rice, and some beans.   A few days later we returned again.  This was Shawn and Z's chance to be introduced to the family that has been so close to my heart.  Z had always been napping before, so Shawn had to stay back; they didn't actually believe I was married.  The next time we showed up, we knew it was Miguel's fourth birthday.  Some of the team gathered gifts of things they no longer used: clothes, toy cars, etc..  Lillian, Stian, Z, Shawn, and I returned with these gifts, a pinata, a cake and threw him a birthday party.  The whole family was ecstatic and even the grandma got in a turn hitting the pinata. Ana had said how blessed they were to have us come for Miguel's birthday, as he has never received gifts like that before.  We were then on our way to the lake and when we got back from the lake we were going to the beach soon thereafter, so we had only a couple days left in Antigua.  Shawn and I knew we were continuing on in Guatemala, but Stian and Lillian would soon return to Norway, so we went to visit them for the Lauvas' last visit.

 What a last visit it was; we graciously got welcomed into their home again and just began to talk with Ana and Seville again.  We asked if Luis would be home from work soon, so Stian and Lillian could say goodbye.  Ana said that Luis wasn't able to go to work today because of a fever.  She then went into greater detail about how Luis has actually been sick for the past four years, but they don't talk about it much because of his condition.  It turned out Luis has a tumor on an undisclosed part of his body.  Eventually it could turn into cancer, if not taken care of.  The tumor causes him days of pain, to the point of not walking, and he gets fevers as well.  He is the money-maker of the family so if he doesn't go to work his family doesn't make any money.  The Guatemalan public hospitals don't have time for the operation for another six months at least and even then who knows?  They say the private hospitals take care of you better and right away, but it costs 10000Q ($1250) and then there would be the recovery time where nobody is working.  They are already very tight for money, living day to day, so this amount of money is nowhere near possible for them.  As I heard this, I felt hopeless for them; so much healing needed for this family: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I felt like we've prayed so much for this family, and then another problem arises.  As Lillian and Stian said their emotional goodbyes, I knew it wasn't our last time visiting this family.  As we walked away, we discussed the only option beyond God's miraculous touch, the money.  We felt that $2000, though it seems like a lot to Guatemalans, isn't too much for the North American/European.  We felt burdened that this was our money to raise, to pay for this operation.  After all it was the least we could do for this family who drew so dear to our hearts; I weep as I write and think about them; they were so hospitable, loving, caring, grateful, patient (especially with our Spanish), and so kind.  God's love through us has been imparted to them and having built this relationship with this family has given us a different perspective on Guatemalans and just grown our heart for these people.

So you'd think this is a blog post about needing to fundraise $2000 for this family in Guatemala, but no, this is only half the testimony (long, I know, sorry).  So we travelled back to Chico, California for our debriefing time.  We had base intercession on the Friday morning that we were there, just to give a few testimonies about our time in the countries that we had outreach to.  Wouldn't you know it, the guy who hates public speaking, yes me, has to give one of our testimonies.  I went last, with the picture up on the screen of the family and shared the testimony that I just shared here about our cherished friendship and about the way God divinely orchestrated the relationship between Miguel's family and ours.  I mentioned something about how we were going to look into ways to get these finances to Luis to pay for his operation and recovery.  Little did I know, the Holy Spirit was already at work.  Afterwards I was approached and a generous and loving couple told me they'd give $1000 and they'd find a way to raise the rest.  Less then 24 hours later they found me again and said they had $2100 and that it is on its way to Guatemala.  I was at a loss for words; this family who means so much to us and within minutes every last dollar is paid for.  They said that the minute I started sharing my testimony they knew God was speaking to them.  It is rare to see such a father in this Latin American culture stick around when you have a child with special needs and they could see this man's integrity through the words I spoke of him.  My gratitude for these generous givers is undescribable.  God is so good; He is always faithful; His love for all nations is unconditional.  So the money is due to arrive tomorrow; I will get to deliver the good news to Luis that his operation and recovery is covered, and walk alongside him as we pay the costs through the generosity of others.  Please continue to pray for this family.  Pray that they would all come to intimately and personally know their Heavenly Father and complete transformation of this household; pray for the surgery on Luis (more information coming as I get more information); pray for Miguel's miraculous healing; pray for this family.

All I have to say is thank YOU.  Thank you all for your support, in prayer, in finances, in love and encouragement, as our family pursues our dreams.

A blogpost by Dave

Expecting

We are officially expecting.  But, no, I'm not pregnant.  We are expecting though... multiples.  Maybe even 10!  We have been accepted as (soon-to-be) house parents at Village of Hope.  

 (You may recognize that name from my past post about Aldea de Esperanza... yeah, it's totally the same place.  My little reference about Z wanting to live there "forever" was totally a hint to the reading public that we were thinking about living there.  haha... )

    Village of Hope has the funds raised to build the next two homes (duplex), so we will be the parents in one of those homes.  House 3, they'll call us.  We will probably be able to move in by July, and at that point we will begin to receive referrals for children, and could at any time have another child placed in our home.  We will be legally in the role of foster parents, but because Guatemala does not have an international adoption program, it is unlikely that the children will be taken away from us.  Also, VOH deals primarily with special needs children, and it is especially unlikely for these children to be adopted into Guatemalan homes.  Our home will be wheel-chair accessible, and we could have a child or two in wheelchairs who become part of our family.  Only the Lord knows who He will bring to our home, but we have requested that we would have only younger children placed with us, because we are still quite young ourselves. 

    We graduate from our DTS in exactly one week, and will be spending this last week at the beach debriefing and spending some final days together as a team.  Dave is planning to return to the States with the team and pick up our stuff/diplomas, while I stay in Guatemala and start house-hunting.  I am so excited to have our own place again!  It is sad to say goodbye to our team, but I am being left behind in a country that I love.  When Dave gets back to Guatemala we will hopefully be ready to move into our house, and we can get started on Spanish school to become more fluent, as well as begin volunteering in the afternoon at VOH. 

    This whole journey has been amazing to me.  God took us from Quadra Island, Canada, where we were drowning in the pain of infertility, and He healed our hearts enough to take that leap of faith and leave it all for California.  We grew so much in California, and some amazing restoration happened in our marriage and my family.  The Lord continued to whisper in my heart that He had my children, that He was ready and waiting to give them to me.  I received visions of my children, and my heart longed to be with them.  God intercepted us, and sent us to Guatemala, where I have now found VOH!
   
     My small group in California did a little project during our last meeting where we were supposed to write down what we expected of God during our Outreach.  I wrote:  "I want to find my children."  The Lord has been faithful to me, and has answered my prayer.  I am about to become the mother of children who are very broken.  They might have huge issues that I need a lot of help to care for them properly.  I might regret this decision some days.  But I am also going to have the chance to hold them when they cry, to cook them pancakes on Saturday mornings, to throw their birthday parties, and to help them grow into the men and women that God intended them to be.  I want to show them the love of Father God, who doesn't give up on anyone, no matter how broken.  I want to be their mother. 
 
     I came on this outreach expecting great things from God.  And now I am expecting to welcome (some of) my children into my home within the next year.  My dream has come true... I have found my children.  Praise the Lord.

(God has prompted me to read through Isaiah over the past months, and I have read Isaiah 49 almost every day.  It's almost ironic how perfect it is for my life.)

   "They will bring your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders.  Kings will be your foster fathers, and queens your nursing mothers... then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed."  -Isaiah 49: 22-23