Saying Good-bye

I can’t believe how quickly a week can go. The team has arrived safely back in Minnesota after only a few minor delays. I’m still processing a lot of what I saw and what God has taught me throughout the week but want to finish sharing some of the experiences we had before I forget them. 

On Wednesday, we worked with the kids in the morning, continuing with our evaluations and recommendations for each child. In the afternoon, we met with the parents. When I started at Gillette, there was a story that was shared during new employee orientation that I shared with the parents. It is a beautiful story about taking a trip to Italy but ending up in Holland. We switched up the locations a little bit so it would translate better but the message stayed the same. Having a child with special needs is difficult in any culture. Through the story we were able to give parents permission to grieve the normal life and child they expected and celebrate the beauty of the child they have been given. Many parents felt they were cursed or had done something wrong to receive a child that was different, but we were able to share that their child is a gift from God, not a curse from him. He loves each child, each family and has a purpose for their lives. There was laughter, a few tears, and many asking when they can book their ticket to Italy. After the story we shared a few general tips for use at home after completing most of our evals such as correcting W-sitting and allowing kids to try new things, fail, and be available to assist not complete the task for them. The teacher and social worker from Guatemala shared about violence against kids with special needs and the laws in place that protect the kids. She shared about alternative forms of discipline and how harmful violence and abuse can be in a family. This was probably the most impactful part of the presentation in coordination with the Gospel presentation given about the Good Father who loves his children. One of the fathers came up to her afterward and thanked her for sharing. He was ready start over, stop hitting his kids and wife, and gather more information that could offer him support to change.

Wednesday night, I got to work with another one of my favorite kids of the week. Eddie’s parents were told when he was born that he would never walk or talk. His grandmother didn’t accept this and whenever she heard there was a therapist nearby she would take him by bus or on foot to wherever that therapist was. Eddie is now 15, enrolled in mainstream school and able to walk without an assertive device. He lives at the mission where we stayed with his family. His grandmother and advocate passed away a couple months ago and I was asked if I could evaluate him to give ideas for exercises. He is an incredible kid, extremely hard worker, and talented artist who dreams of becoming a graphic designer. We had a lot of fun working out together. Once we were done, he stayed to help us with drawings for flashcards we were making for the school. He also taught me that donkey’s were brown, not grey, who knew?

Thursday was our last day with the kids. We worked with the teachers to develop a morning routine that involved physical activity, social interaction, counting or letter practice, and the calendar. There are a couple kids in the class who are unable to speak or have difficulty speaking. Stephanie, our speech therapist, is fluent in American Sign Language so she taught a few signs and put together a book that can be used for further study in communication through signs. During our morning greeting, each person took a turn greeting the person next to them by name. There was a boy named Fransisco who is deaf standing next to a boy named Juan who has down syndrome. Fransisco greeted Juan in sign language and Juan returned the greeting in sign language. Juan then turned to Maylissa, who likely has undiagnosed cerebral palsy, and greeted her with his voice. It was neat to see he could differentiate how to communicate with each of his classmates.

The parents and teachers surprised us on Thursday with gifts and tasty treats as a thank you for working with their kids throughout the week. There were more than a few tears as we said good-bye and left that day. The kids had worked their way into our hearts and it was difficult to let go. Rachel reminded us during devotions the next day that God loves these kids more than we do. We have to trust him that there was purpose in our coming to meet them just as much as there is purpose in our leaving. He will take care of them and grow the seeds of love that were planted throughout the week. 

We left San Lucas on Friday and made our way to the coast and black sand beach. We spent the afternoon in the sun chasing waves and being chased by the waves that crashed into the surf. We swam, collected sand in our swim suits, and enjoyed one another’s company before heading to Antigua for a debrief and day of sight seeing. It was a great end to a fun and busy week.

More news from San Lucas

On Monday, we were introduced to the kids we would be working with for the week at the school for kids with special needs. There are 20-25 kids enrolled and about 10-15 will show up on any given day. Many of these kids don’t have an official diagnosis but from our evaluations there are kids with cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome, and a variety of learning disabilities such as dyslexia. The model for teaching in Guatemala is a lot of copying and rote memorization. The teachers working at this school aren’t given special education training and the current school model doesn’t work well for this group of kids. The teachers must also grade the children the same way they would grade a typically developing child. It appears that the parents of the children and the government have high expectations for these teachers wanting the kids to read, write, and learn math when just counting and copying numbers is difficult. The teachers are eager to learn new techniques for how to teach these kids in a way that is meaningful. 

We completed arena evaluations for each child, taking one child, one Guatemalan teacher, the U.S. therapists, the U.S. teachers, and an interpreter. The teacher explained the struggles each child is experiencing and as a team we asked questions, had the child demonstrate different skills, and gave recommendations based on what we observed. The rest of the team worked in the classroom, giving examples of different activities and new ways of learning using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic techniques. Our team consists of a speech therapist who is also fluent in American Sign Language, two occupational therapists, myself as a PT, a teacher specializing in literacy and ESL, a paraprofessional with experience working in special education, a business administrator, a Guatemalan teacher working toward a degree in social work, an interpreter, and a grandma who also knows Spanish. It has been amazing to see what each person contributes and how God has hand picked this team to work with this particular school.

If it were allowed to have a favorite student, mine would be Dylan. He is a 10 year old boy with cerebral palsy. He is very active and loves to play soccer. At school, he has a hard time paying attention and writing. What I noticed was when he is sitting in his desk, he is working so hard to keep himself stable, he has a hard time controlling his arms and hands to write. He is constantly moving to the floor to do his writing activities so the floor can assist with stabilizing his body. I added a piece of foam to the bottom of his feet when he was sitting at his desk to give him stability at his feet. He really liked it and was able to write easier. He was so excited he drew straight lines in his picture, he wanted to show everyone his drawing. 

Tuesday, we were able to join the kids for gym class. It just happened to be soccer. It was so much fun to play with the kids and a few of them have some skills! My wonderful teammates took some videos that I could watch later to look more closely at how the kids move and offer suggestions for exercises. I am still amazed at how soccer is the same in any language. We continued our evaluations at the school as our sunny day turned to torrential down pour, turning the street into a river. We hoped the rain would slow enough for us to walk from the school to where we eat lunch, but it didn’t so we hitched a ride on the back of a truck driven by one of the student’s father. We ended the night playing the game of Things which lead to much laughter and team bonding.

Even though that is only the beginning of the week, I’ll have to post more later. There is so much more to share! 

Bienvinedos a Guatemala!

Our travel morning began yesterday with a 2:30am wake-up and rendezvous at the airport at 3:30. No one over slept and no one had bags over 50 pounds (although mine was close.) The flights went without a hitch and we had enough time in Atlanta to walk to concourse B for Dunkin Donuts coffee and breakfast. We arrived in Guatemala just behind the Guatemalan Olympic gymnasts and the media frenzy that was their entourage. After lunch, we hit the winding, curvy, bumpy road up the mountain and made our way to San Lucas and home away from home for the next week. Some of us stole hour naps along the way, but once it started raining, the ride got a little more exciting and sleep was elusive. 

The retreat center where we are staying is gorgeous. The top level has a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains while the rooms are tucked into the natural flora of the region. It feels a little bit like camp with boats on the lake and bunk beds in each of the rooms. Although, none of the summer camps I went to had roosters crowing at 4am to alert everyone the day was about to begin. 

The team that arrived with me yesterday, turned in last night around 9:00 after visiting the village for ice cream. Personally, I was fluctuating between staring off into space and that delirious laughter that accompanies late nights during dinner around 6pm so while the rooster may have crowed at 4am, I didn’t get out of bed until 6:30am. I am feeling well rested and excited for what the day will bring.

More to come later! Happy Monday!

Blessings in the Storm

I awoke on Thursday to the rumble of thunder and that cozy morning darkness that accompanies rain storms. It was my day off and I wanted to roll back over, close my eyes, and go back to sleep. The rain was threatening to ruin my morning plans anyway so why should I get up? But after a few minutes of an internal pep talk I did. I got up, got dressed, and made my way to the Caribou Einsteins across the street for my morning coffee, bagel, and quiet time with God. As I read through the She Reads Truth study of Ruth, I knew it was not going to be an ordinary day.

A few months ago, I joined a team of about 100 people from Wooddale church to launch a new campus in Loring Park located in downtown Minneapolis. We leased a gorgeous piece of real estate called the Music Box Theater situated a few blocks from the park, a few blocks from eat street, and right in the middle of 3 large subsidized housing projects. Because of my love and experience with kids, I joined the children’s ministry team, so if there were kids from the neighborhood that wanted to come to church, they would have something just for them. As summer approached, God laid a vision on our hearts to provide a weekly kids program on Thursdays and the Music Box Kidz was born. We kicked off with a movie night, showing Zootopia, and inviting the kids to learn about what we had planned for the summer. We had about 15 kids show interest in attending our camp, so our first day we planned for 15 kids, although we had no idea how many of them would come.  We ended up having about 8 kids. The second week we also had 8 kids, but not the same 8 kids. That night we hosted a worship night at the Music Box for the community. Families of the kids who attended in the morning came and told us how much their kids loved coming and couldn’t stop talking about what they were learning. We expected to have steady growth as the summer progressed, but Week 3 only 2 kids came. Week 4 again only 2 kids. Week 5 there were 6 kids. Each morning the kids talked about how they loved coming and didn’t want to leave when it ended, but our numbers stayed low and only a few kids came more than 1 time. Our plan for week 5 was a sports day at the park, but when I awoke to a torrential downpour I knew that was not going to happen. Would we have any kids come? Was it really worth getting out of my nice warm bed after a really long week at work to trek downtown in the pouring rain only to be disappointed when no one showed up?

Thankfully, God knew where my heart was as we met for coffee that morning. The Scripture He highlighted from Ruth is found in Ruth 2:12: “May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” As I read the commentary written by Amanda Bible Williams of the She Reads Truth team, this bolded statement wiped away any lingering doubt: Your small and steady acts of faithfulness are being used in big and beautiful ways in the kingdom of God. It didn’t matter how many kids came each week or how many kids would come that morning. He would use the work we put into this summer for His eternal glory whether we saw the fruits of that or not. So with a fresh perspective, I made my way to church.

Our theme for the summer was fruits of the Spirit, each day we picked 1 or 2 fruits to highlight and would read a story out of The Jesus Storybook Bible that related to that fruit. Thursday was kindness and I planned to read the story of Zacheaus and how Jesus was kind to him. We were able to adapt our sports day to indoor sports games that could be played in the church lobby including walking soccer and relay races with an agility ladder. At 10:05, 2 smiling faces bounded in to greet us, excited to be at the theater. We walked around the building across the street to see if any of the other kids wanted to come, but none were home. 

Still excited about God’s encouragement from the morning, I knew God was going to do something special for these two kids. The morning began to unfold in it’s typical fashion, but once I was finished reading the story, the kids started to ask questions about Jesus. Was he real? Is that a true story? Why was he so nice to that man? As we gave answers the questions started to go deeper. Who killed him? Why did they kill him? Why didn’t he stop them? Was he really God’s Son? I turned to the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection in the Jesus Storybook Bible and started to read. These 2 bouncing kids sat listening, anxiously waiting for me to turn to the next page, asking more and more questions. The story of hope and redemption unfolded before them, a story they had never heard before. The story of a father who loved them, even though they have done bad things. A father who made a way for them to live forever with him because he loved them so much. The story of Jesus, who can help them when they are afraid or angry or sad. Eventually the wiggles won out, the story ended, and their attention went elsewhere, but God allowed the seeds to be planted. I have a feeling those seeds are going to grow into beautiful fruit in each of their lives and that God is going to use them for a very specific purpose. Will you join me in praying for Kevin, Shania, and their mother Dorian? 

We all face storms that make us not want to get out of bed. Life has a way of generating uncertainty, leading us to question our purpose, our worth, and if the things we do actually make a difference. Let me encourage you friends, you have purpose, you have worth, and you are making a difference. Every time you take a chance and step out in faith, God will reward your effort. We have the chance to live extraordinary lives by taking one ordinary step at a time. What is God calling you to step into? What small and steady step of faith is He going to use in big, beautiful ways for His kingdom? 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. ~Ephesians 3:20