Otter Creek Missions

This from Scott Brown, Lea Brown's father:

The entire crew made it safely with no casualties! We were met at the airport, and struggled our way out of Guatemala City. Carlos and Alex mastered the traffic, while the rest of us renewed our committment to prayer with fervor.
I don't believe there were quite as many screams as last year, induced by the insanity that Is Guatemala traffic. We old experienced hands tried to impress the first timers with our calm. No idea whether we succeeded, or not.

On arrival, everyone was given a little indoctrination speech as to some of the do's and don'ts. Looks like another terrific bunch. Plans were in place for us to work on the clinic, as well as travel to San Basilio and paint a mural on a wall of their church grounds there. We did the introductory exercises including games to get to know each other's names. After lunch, we planned the activities for the following day, and made trips to get the items necessary for Saturday's activities.

Saturday, we divided into two groups, one to travel to San Basilio, and one to paint the dining hall at Ezell Clinic. The group assigned to San Basilio was delayed for awhile, and doubled up with the paint crew on the dining hall. Brushes, Rollers, and paint splatters were flying! Despite my best efforts to sabotage the effort, we completed the job at 12:30 A.M. In the meantime, the group went to San Basilio, where Mary Pullias took charge and managed a mural of the animals from the Ark. amazingly, they completed it within a few hours. We have a pretty amazing group of workers down here. I continue to be in awe of the hearts that come together to accomplish these efforts.

Sunday, and we just returned from the services. The Church goers here have such a fervor! My smattering of Spanish only lets me grab parts of the sermon, but just being a part of it is uplifting. Carlos is a very integral part,and has a terrific voice for leading singing. We all left, grateful for having been there.
I have to leave now, or forfeit lunch. I can hardly wait for the next serving of black beans.

Steve and Magda continue to be heroes of mine. They are everywhere, and are masters at pulling things together when obstacles present themselves.
We solicit your prayers.
I, personally, am eternally grateful for the opportunity to work with such a group. I applaud Otter Creek for supporting such a wonderful program.

God's work is a marvelous thing to observe!

Scott

We’ve been in Picayune for two days now and I’m overwhelmed by the relief efforts being carried out by the church here. The lobby and entrance of the church is a stock room for the many things people from these hard-hit areas need to survive right now…food, water, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene. The need is so great for basic items…some still don’t even have electricity. Others are living in tents or campers in their yards because they don’t have any place else to go or to be close enough to work from sun up to sun down. We have stuffed backpacks with school supplies and other goodies that were delivered to schools yesterday because they commence on Monday. We have distributed care boxes. We’ve listened to the stories of those who remained here and those who came back.
We’ve cleaned up yards that are filled with trees snapped in two or pushed over at the roots. Others wait at the church to serve the constant stream of people driving in to receive enough to sustain them for awhile longer.

It feels our efforts are just a dent in what needs to be done. And, the locals remind us that the area is clean compared to two and a half weeks ago. They have such a great perspective! They look at it one day at a time. Several teams have come before us and more will come, but the main work team is comprised of the local church members. They are remarkable! Though they must be tired and wondering if the end is in sight, they serve with energy and smiles that are from above. I am sure they are behaving like Jesus would to these people…helping people one at a time. Please continue to pray for their strength and endurance and for many to come and aid them as they serve.

in Him,
Linda Benthall

I had the opportunity to come to Kenya two weeks ahead of the rest of the Otter Creek team. It has been a blessing to have extra time with the students and team members here. God has really given all of the team members wonderful gifts that they use and use and use. What a neat thing to be able to witness some of "normal life" here at Kamulu and to see how Made In the Streets really works.

This third week for me has flown by since the rest of our team has arrived. We had a day camp for the street kids at Eastleigh. Six of us would go into do the camp and the rest of us stayed here to work, teach and tutor.  When we went to  Eastleigh we would sing songs in Swahili (with the help of the Made In the Streets team). Each day we gave a talk about someone in the Bible who was maybe looked down upon but God used them do do great things. It all went well and each day we had more kids. It was rough at times. On Friday as we were about to pull into the center Jackton stopped the van very quickly and jumped out. I didn't know what was wrong, but then we realized that he was stopping a fight between some of the boys. One named Ken had hit Job on the head with a rock, and his head was bleeding. When they were letting the boys in Jackton would take their bottles of glue that they had been sniffing. It continues to humble me every time I go into Eastleigh to see these boys. All they own are the clothes on their back and all they think about is how to survive. We bought them bread and milk for lunch and on Friday we  bought balloons for a water balloon toss. We also played the game where you tie a balloon around the ankle and you try to pop other people's balloons while protecting your own. It was very fun to watch them spend a few minutes just being kids and enjoying those games.

Today is Saturday and we have had the students at Kamulu all day while Steve Sherman met with the Made in the Streets team.  Now we have a little time to relax, do laundry, etc. I think that our whole team is in need of rest. Tomorrow we have the singles seminar that has been advertised at churches around Nairobi from about 2-5:00. We are expecting about 75 or more single young Africans. I think it will be interesting! I know we are looking forward to sharing the joy and community that we have discovered as "singles" at Otter Creek. Then we will go to the Java House for dinner (just Otter Creek) not the whole seminar of singles. =) It will be good for a moral booster to get us ready for another busy week. This week we have some fun things planned amidst the busy schedule. . . Shopping. . . Safari. . . =)

Then it is back to the US on Saturday night and arriving in Nashville Sunday evening. Please continue to pray for us. This trip has not been without bumps in the road and we still want to finish strong and on a positive note.

Thank you,
Emily Gates

Our entire group apologizes for not blogging or reporting on what has been going on in Nairobi at MITS. I hope our lack of communication corresponds to a level of abundant productivity. We've been going to Eastleigh all week to work with the street kids there. You can't help but hurt for them. I'm amazed at how happy some of them are even though they don't have homes and some of them without adequate clothing. I had a personal hurt on Wednesday when I saw two of the same kids that were out at the farm last year, but they ran away to go back to the streets. They didn't even look like the same boys I met last year. They were obviously not acting the same due to the glue.
On a better note, Victor and I have made significant progress in the computer shop. We have a fully functioning computer network down there now (a Cisco 10/100 switch with a Linksys router running the DHCP with CAT5, for all of you IT junkies; Much thanks to all of the fellas that donated IT supplies!). We successfully setup a printer to be shared on the network so they don't have to constantly switch the printer cable from multiple computers. We hope to setup a primary file share in the next couple of days on the most solid computer they have in the shop so they can share files reliably. We don't want them to have to transfer files on the "sneaker-net" (transferring a floppy disk from one computer to another). We have plans to make them wireless in the near future so Charles can also do file and resource sharing from his house compound.
Today Charles, Steve Sherman, and I went into Nairobi to meet with a telecom provider to discuss the possibility of high-speed Internet access at the farm. Our meeting was very informative. Right now, their best option is VSAT, or satellite Internet. It doesn't seem to be cost effective yet, but we hope that another option or some other new technology (wi-max maybe) will be available to them in the next few years at a much cheaper price. Having a high-speed connection will do wonders for the new learning center they are building here. I hope to send a picture of the site. We've been told they may have the walls of the building completely up by the time we leave next week.
Jon Lee is leaving Nashville today and we can't wait for him to make it here. The whole OC team is hoping to go to the airport to welcome him here. He doesn't sleep well on planes so we're all praying for him to be relaxed.
I haven't touched on nearly enough things that have been going on in the last week, but so much is going on. Please pray for our team to be effective in our last week here.
Blessings,
Luke Tenery

Day one in the Kamulu region of Kenya. We arrived here last night nearly without a hitch. One of sixteen bags went MIA, but that's not bad for Nairobi's Airport. Well, one other thing: Keith Brown's guitar and its hard case were smashed into 144,000 pieces, but we think they'll reimburse him (with depreciation…) in the end.
We're all kind of in-between sleeping and awake, today, but that's to be expected. We slept from 4pm to midnight Nashvile time and have been awake from midnight to 1pm Nashville time. This takes a few days to get used to. Mike Rivlas from a supporting church in California is here as well. In past years he coached soccer at Hume Fogg and worked with Lipscomb University's Basketball team when Don Meyer was head coach there. He's an inspirational speaker of sorts, and the kids really seem to like him.
The new guys (Dan, Carrie, Katie, Mary Pullias, and Keith) went into Eastleigh today to get their first impression of the second-poorest slum in Nairobi. The streets are paved with trash and street kids live and play here. All of the kids at Made in the Streets are from this area. It's difficult to imagine that the amazing kids at Made in the Streets were once the disturbing children that approach us in Eastleigh with one hand extended for money and the other hand grasping a glue bottle. (Glue is the drug of choice for street kids. It costs less than a meal, and it curbs hunger for a while.)
In an successful effort to summon a rare Kenyan rainstorm, we ate outside tonight. It worked like a charm. As soon as we had sat down with our food, the evening rain began, chasing us into the shelter of the Made in the Streets Sewing Shop(pe). My bed is calling me. Day two awaits. Pray for us, please.

Doc L. here tonight. It's 11:10 PM and time to post today's activities. Our dental and medical clinics today were located here at the Clinica Ezell. There was no bus ride. I really missed it. What a true adventure. Many of us are learning new driving techniques and strategies to get around pesky traffic jams by watching our driver practice his craft. Did you know that you can drive on the left shoulder of the road and merge across oncoming and right lane traffic after making a left turn when you shouldn't have. Think about it. That was when I decided to sit in the back of the bus so I couldn't witness the details.
Today, one of our first pediatric patients was here after seeing several medical providers over the first 18 months of her life. When her mother pulled up her shirt to reveal a myelomeningocele, my heart sank. This lesion in the United States is next to hopeless; here it is tragic. We were all grieved as our new friend Carlos gently explained the implications to her madre. It was all new to her. When she wept aloud, everyone in the room wept with her. We formed a plan to help with all of the complications that accompany this paralizing problem, and we discussed how we could find a way to get a wheelchair or other device in order to allow her madre to be able to take her along on her daily multiple mile walks along the dusty, rocky roads. Leila was able to help her madre with some upper body strengthening and physical therapy. These precious members of this community are now even more complicated. I will never forget them.
Dentist and the people that help them have become my new heros. They worked late on Saturday night in Samayac. They work tirelessly. They work without complaining. Their compensation is an outsrtetched hand and "gracias", then a smile that could brighten any day. The only problem is that there is no way to give back the change after the overpayment.
We see the hope in the children's eyes. They know what "fun" is. It hurts to see that hope is not prominent in the adults. We hate to think about the possibility that these presious children could loose hope also.
Tomorrow, we leave Clinica Ezell and travel for three hours on our bus to Panajuochel on Lago de Atitlan. Wednesday is a rest day. Sight seeing and food. Then on Thursday we travel by boat to San Juan La Lugana to participate in a family camp. Supposed to be more primitive than HyLake, believe it or not. All that to say that this will be the last blog of the trip as we will not have access to the internet after tonight. To our families and friends, gratitude for your prayers for safety and effectiveness. We continue to ask for them.
God is with us here and will remain as we leave because Carlos, Sylvia, Alex, and Dr. Walter and all their staff will be here. We will never forget them, either.

Well, we intended to blog last night; however, it was not in the clouds. Everyone was wanting to check their email, and the connection was particularly slow. Yesterday was a productive day thought it was not as busy as the first medical clinic.

After breakfast, we hopped onto the bus and went into a Mayan village called La Fortuna which was in Quiche (pronounced kee-chay). The trip was quite bumpy, and our Guatemalan bus driver made it over a creek where the makeshift bridge was just barely wider than the bus (ask Brian L. for pictures). When we arrived at the village, there were already people waiting to be seen. We quickly set up shop in the three room clinic. We as Americans should feel really fortunate that we have the medical technology that we have. Some of the children had conditions that could have been easily treated in the states, but with the lack of medical attention these diseases became severe. There were several incidents of scabies with the children and little babies. Another little boy was cross-eyed from birth, which is a treatable condition in the states, but here that just don't have the medical advancement to treat it, so he'll more than likely have the problem for the rest of his life. Dr. L. did show the mother that she could patch his strong eye to cause him to strengthen his weaker eye and taught a few exercises to help him. The children in La Fortuna were very hospitable to us showing us how to pick and eat coffee beans, use the certain plant seeds as make-up and braid and fix our hair with flowers. They loved to run around tickling us and climb trees. We really were sad when we had to pack up and head back to the clinic. When we came back to the clinic, some of us showered, and others went walking into the next village. We took some time to rest before we ate supper. For supper, the wonderful cooks here made us fried chicken, fries, salad, and a tasty dessert that was a strawberry version of a banana pudding! After supper, we had a devo led by Dr. L., and we sang a lot of songs. Then, several people dashed to the computer to get in line to check their email. Then all the medical geeks sat in a room reading books about surgical procedures and conditions. I think that that was enough for one day. Someone will be back later to post about our activities today.

Adios. Jesus Saves.

This morning we woke up to breakfast and then got ready to head over to the Iglesia de Christo for church. Although that most of us could not understand the service, we were still moved by the spirit (especially Brian L).*aside - we were especially impressed by the Guatemalan communion bread, which was really yummy, but it was a little difficult for Tina and Julie and to break off. Ask Ashley, who almost lost an eye to a crumb.* Also, Dr. Mark B. was called upon to deliver an improv message, which he did so eloquently speaking about unity in Christ despite language and cultural barriers, within just a moments notice. After church, several of us went wading in the beautiful stream. After wading, we returned to the Clinica Ezell to prepare for another adventure. After lunch, (which was scrumptious we might add) we prepared to go into a village to administer preventative worm medicine and to distribute vitamins. When we got to the village, about 100 people were there waiting on us. We presented a puppet show and sang songs with the kids before the medicine was given out. Afterwards, we ran around with the kids and sang songs with them. The kids loved to have their pictures taken by us gringos, and Brent surprised us by busting out some tunes on his harmonica. They got so much enjoyment out of the single coloring page and crayon we were able to give them. Although the children in the village had very little, they had so much appreciation for little things that we take for granted everyday. One of the main things that we realized from going to the village today is how futile our efforts would be if it were not for the ongoing work of the Health Talents International staff, who work here year round actually living among the Guatemalan people. It's a difficult job for them which requires much faith, perserverance, and dependance on God. We have seen how God has been faithful to this ministry, allowing them to expand their reach into even the furthest villages. May all glory and honor be given to God because none of this would be possible without Him.