The true definition of a Blessed Day!
We began our Sunday at Leo's (our translator) home church here in Guatemala City. The church was vibrant, full of life, and exactly what we needed to begin our Sunday! We were welcomed with open arms by the congregation and although the message was in Spanish, we could feel the passion in the body of believers. From what we could gather, from the quiet translation of Leo, was the following that as the body of Christ and the extension of Jesus as a servant to others.
For we are God's handywork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
We truly felt this was the word we needed to move forward with our day!
After chuch we were privileged to go meet Gerson, a young triathelete and his family in Chimaltenango. A year and 2 months ago, Gerson, an accomplished triathelete was involved in a bicycle wreck with another competitor and suffered a severe head injury. Through Anita, our friend and local Guatemalan contact, we were able to visit Gerson and spend several hours speaking with him and his family to help better his quality of life, advance his progress, and give encouragement to his family, who is already doing AMAZING things. Before our arrival, his dad had already fabricated a resting hand splint and a stander! We were able to show different positioning techniques in bed to improve postural alignment, cervical exercises for increased head control, and braces for better foot position.
Gerson is a bright, intellegent boy who was already able to communicate with his family with eye blinks to indicate yes and no. Paige was able to program a donated Dynavox speaking system to allow him to communicate his wants and needs using a touch screen, while Kelly and Abby problem solved how to make his arm and fine motor control more refined using a chewy "T" and iPad stylus. We will be heading back to test our whole system on Wedneday, so stay tuned...
Although we did many things within our professional scope today, the most evident lesson was that of steadfast love and hope in Christ. Gerson's family was the epitome of a family anchored in faith that their son would live and thrive!
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28New International Version (NIV)
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 New International Version (NIV)
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain..."
Hebrews 6:19 (NIV)
Hola from Guatemala! After some delays, we made it to Guatemala on Friday, September 30th and headed to our friend Diana's home for lunch and a visit from one of her sweet kiddos from the Learning Spot! Dylan had the best smile and was definitely a ladies man! He really enjoyed all the individual attention from Paige, Abby, and Kelly. We were all able to demonstrate ideas for his mother and Diana to work on at home and during therapy at Learning Spot. He came with the same AFOs he was given in 2014 and Abby was able fit him with new ones after some assistance with a blow out (via hair dryer) from Kelly. Paige was able to give oral motor exercises Diana was so excited to carry over while he is in his stander. We are always so excited to work with kiddos who have so much potential for carry over once we are gone!
Today, we headed out to a neighboring village to a community clinic. We were able to see some familiar faces and several new ones! Our first arrival was a sweet little girl with hydrocephalus and spina bifida. She was quite spicy and developmentally on target for fine motor and speech language skills but needed help with some positioning techniques. Abby and Kelly were even able to turn a knee brace into some hip helpers! Our next visitor was a sweet boy we met last fall and his mother. We brought a chair with the intention of being able to position him better, but it needed a few more tweaks then we initially anticipated. With a group effort and an enormous amount of duct tape, pool noodles, and puzzles, he was in! Once positioned correctly, Paige was able to demonstrate safer feeding techniques. We were also happy to see that he seemed happier and more relaxed than our previous visit.
We would be remiss to not highlight how big of a ROCKSTAR Abby was today! Although we intended to put on a pediatric focused community clinic, residents of the outside villages rarely get to see medical specialist and were very excited to see us. This included MANY orthopedic issues for the adults in this village. Over years of hard work in cute, yet unsupportive footwear, many of the adults had hip, knee, ankle, and foot pain. Abby was able to help so many of them with stretches, exercise, and many pairs of supportive shoes.
Overall, we were able to see 25 individuals in this community and are so grateful for the amazing hospitality of the residents who lent us their home for our "office". Additionally, we were given a large donation of art packets from Art from the Heart of Joy, which we were able to give to many of the community children. They were so excited to get their "school supplies". We look forward to returning in the future!