21 Days of Prayer~~Day 2: The Josiah Foundation

Today, please join me in giving thanks for the partnership our ministry has had with the Josiah Foundation.  For the past seven years, they have received funds on our behalf, and have completely supported our ministry in Guatemala through these donations.  Serving as Pat Duff's sending organization, the Board of the foundation has provided encouragement, feedback and wise counsel in the direction of our ministry.  The Josiah Foundation gave us our start in ministry in Guatemala and will always be close to our hearts.

My prayer of thanksgiving

Father God, in the name of Jesus I give you thanks for the partnership you provided for us with the Josiah Foundation to help me get started in ministry here in Guatemala.  When I was disheartened by the complexity of fund-raising and non-profit ministry, you brought them along side of me and allowed me to work through them, and for this I am grateful.  I thank you for Dave Penner and Mike Wenig who took a risk on an un-proven missionary, and have worked consistently over the years to get the needed funds here to Guatemala to enable us to grow into the ministry we are today. Bless them for their efforts, and bless the Josiah Foundation in its ministries and projects now and far into the future.

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21 Days of Prayer~~Day 1: The call

Please join me today in thanking God for calling me, Pat Duff, to Guatemala and entrusting me with this ministry to the least of these. Thank Him for all He has done to move me along and encourage me on this journey. Give Him thanks for the ways in which He has orchestrated my life to prepare me to join Him in this work. There is nowhere I'd rather be.

My prayer of thanksgiving:

Father God, in the name of Jesus, today I give you thanks for looking at me, with all my weaknesses, defects and brokenness, and still calling me to serve your people in Guatemala. I thank you for the ways in which you have prepared me for this stage in my life. I thank you for the training i have received professionally, the experiences I have had in education and mental health, and for all who have contributed to my knowledge and skills in the area of Special Education. Even more, I thank you for the life experiences--joyful and painful--that have molded me personally and spiritually to be used to further your plan and purpose for Guatemala. You knew from the beginning that I would be here. Thank you for making it clear to me to join you in what you are doing in Guatemala. Amen. Do you want to receive our daily prayer points in your inbox?  Sign up here.

Will you pray with us for the next 21 days?

Nothing significant happens apart from prayer.

~~Pastor Tony Lambert

We are about 21 days away from our annual dinner, A Taste of Guatemala, and our silent auction.  In planning for this event, God has sent us in a slightly different direction this year.

While the past years have focused on fund-raising (and we will be happy to accept donations at the event), this year we want to give THANKS.  Thanks for all God has accomplished in seven short years though our efforts, sometimes stumbling, to be obedient to His leading.  It is no coincidence to me that for the first time we will have our dinner in November, a time when we reflect on thanksgiving.

To do this well, we need to prepare not just the dinner but our hearts to GIVE THANKS. The best preparation I know of is through prayer.  So, I am asking you to consider joining me in prayer for the next 21 days--praying that this dinner will bring glory to God as never before by celebrating His seven years of faithfulness to the poor and disabled in Guatemala.

If you are willing to pray with us, I would like to email you each day a particular aspect of our ministry for which we are grateful and for which we would ask you to join us in praising God.  Will you partner with us in prayer for 21 days?

If so, please email me at patd@reasontohope.org and wait to receive your first prayer point tomorrow morning.

Going out with the gang

Going out as a family is quite a challenge. 

Recently we were all invited to the "quincinera" (15th birthday party) for Michelle, the daughter of our house manager, Brenda Salazar.  The trick is, they live about an hour away from San Pedro, so it took a lot of planning to move four guys, two workers, and four wheelchairs, along with myself, to the village of El Rodeo for the celebration.





First, you hire a pick-up truck to haul the wheel chairs.  Then, one by one, you load all our guys into my van.

Then you somehow manage to load all the chairs into it, including two very heavy power chairs.

When everyone is loaded up, you start the hour drive, "shortened" to an hour and a half when the sign for the turn into El Rodeo has been removed and you miss the cut-off!  Then, the loading process is reversed to get everyone out of the vehicle and back into their chairs. (Of course, you'll do this all over again to go home--minus the detour for the missed turn.)

It seems like a lot of hassle to go to a party, but the smile on Fidel's face makes it well worth it! Someday maybe we'll have a wheelchair van, but for now, we are grateful God gave us a minivan and friends with pick-up trucks.

After all, Michelle is part of the family!

Thanks, Hope Haven for sharing your innovations with us

One day not too long ago, I received a call to come to the house. . .a team was there from Hope Haven, International, and had brought the guys a surprise.

A few weeks earlier, I had been at a workshop at Hope Haven's workshop in Santo Domingo Xenaco, and Mark Richard had shown me a new design in wheelchairs, the Beeline, and a harness to a bicycle to enable an able-bodied rider to tow along a friend in a wheelchair.  Well, a team from Illinois and Mark decided that it was time for the guys at Casa de Esperanza to have one!

Since Fidel and Osmi have power chairs, and Moy has a chair with large front wheels that enable him to pass over the cobblestones (often he "catches a tow" by hooking his feet under Fidel's or Osmi's power chair and letting them pull him down the street), Roberto is the major beneficiary of the chair.

I had been problem solving for quite a while how we could get a chair, or perhaps and electric scooter, which would enable Roberto to have more access to the community, now that his health has improved.  Well, this is our answer.  The chair is stable enough that he can self-propel over the cobble-stone street, and, when going longer distances, one of the workers or one of his friends can tow him with the bike.

Jonathan, the youth pastor from Roberto's church often comes and takes him for a ride,
even going as far as into Antigua!

This has opened up a whole new part of the world to Roberto.

We are so grateful to Mark Richard, Hope Haven Guatemala, the Illinois team, and everyone who has worked to design this gift of mobility and freedom to our house.