Saturday, May 06, 2006

Onil Stoves

Today, May 1, 2006, I went on an all-day trip with Macro Estrada (a servant for the Lord in *El Tizate) and Raymundo (a pastor from Tecpan) to install 3 Onil Stoves (see Helps Intl) in San Pablo la Laguna, Tecpan, and San Antonio (near the volcano Acatenango).

*Note:
A donor provided Marco the seed money to purchase 27 stoves for El Tizate, the colonia where Marco lives. Families are commiting to paying for the stoves within 10 months. When the funds have been recovered for the initial stove purchase additional stoves will be purchased. Servants 4 Him has been working in El Tizate more than one year installing Bio-sand water filters there and running filter construction classes for pastors.

The first stove was d
elivered and installed in the home of Efrain and Betty Calvo. Efrain is the pastor of an Assemblies of God church in San Pablo la Laguna (on Lake Atitlan). Servants 4 Him (S4H) has been working with pastor Efraim since last year when San Pablo was significantly impacted by Hurricane Stan. San Pablo is a community we hope to see transformed. A mission team from Grace Bible Church in Leesburg, VA will be helping on a construction project and building bio-sand water filters this summer (July 2006).

Pictures of the stove installation in San Pablo



Construction site of Efrain and Betty's new home.


We departed San Pablo and dropped off Raymundo and his stove in Tecpan. Raymundo is in the process of helping transform his community by making and selling knitted products. He is also a pastor and looking for assistance to build a church in Tecpan.

Marco and I proceeded to San Antonio. We went to the home of a poor, but industrious, woman with 5 children, and taking care of 3 others. She is trying to support her family by making tortillas and weaving mats. We installed both an Onil Stove as well as stove for cooking corn used to make tortillas; which uses Onil design concepts.

Pictures of the cooking area before and after the stove installation are provided below.

---------------Before ------------------------------------After --------------























If you are interested in any of the projectd mentioned in this blog, or have a desire to help in any way please contact Forrest Kendall.

In all of these projects our desire is to Glorify Christ Jesus and hopefully open doors to introduce Him to families.

Forrest Kendall
May 1, 2006

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Vasquez, Totonicapan

Dan Z. and Forrest were in Vasquez, Totonicapan Dec 12-16 working with Juan Moises and Alfredo building water filters. We built 6 water filters, two of them were for widows (viudas) Juana and Tomasa. Four more filters will be completed early next week.

Note: A team from Leesburg, VA and Yucca Valley, CA built a home for Juana and her 5 children in June this year (2005); a team from Michigan built a house for Tomasa and her 6 children in Oct. We promised to put filters in these homes.

We left a newer mold with Juan and Alfredo.


Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Village near Chapeton, Guatemala Southwest Coast

We worked in a village near Chapeton on the south west coast of Guatemala. The water in this village is contaminated.

We took two water filter molds there, Nov 21 and 22, and built two (2) water filters, one for the school and one for the community.

The men we worked with asked us numerous times if we were going to leave a water filter mold with them. We did not, however, we hope to work with a local church there and get a mold into their hands within the next few weeks.

We have a local welder in Jocotenago building 5 new water filter molds.

We also help with the distribution of some food in this village.

See pictures: Chapeton

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

La Maquina

We worked in La Maquina with Marco Estrada. There we trained 16 pastors from different churches in the construction of emergency water filters. Each pastor there received a filter for their church.

Emergency (trash can) filter

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Panabaj and the simple things

Panabaj, a small village near Lake Atitlan, once a center for Mayan idol worship was hit by a devestating landslide during the night. At the break of dawn most of the village was under 4-20' of rocks and mud. More than 1,000 of the villagers perished, most of the bodies will never be recovered and a massive grave site was declared.

And yet, God in His mercy spared a small church plant on the outskirts of town. The "colonia" is named Alpha & Omega and named after a church that was started there a couple of years ago. A church building was under construction and ten small block homes were built. On that night the mud flowed on both sides but the church and homes were saved.

Thanks to relief efforts 40 more "homes" have been built. They are one room with a concrete floor, tarps for walls and a metal roof. Alpha & Omega is now home to more than 250! There are 65 adult women, fewer men, and the rest are children.

Many of these people came from isolated villages where there was no Christian influence and now they live in the courtyard of an evangelical church! What an amazing God were serve, His ways are far beyond our comprehension!

Forrest and crew have been building plastic water filters for the colonia.

I play with the children. I bring paper, markers, crayons, scissors, glue and tape. We make pictures for the walls of their homes and have started to learn some Bible verses. We use the ground or the floor of the church building as our classroom. The children want balls and dolls. They want to know if they will return to school and where. Their's is under rocks and mud.

Many of the women escaped with only the clothes on their backs and their children. Some children were lost. And yet life goes on, meals still need to be cooked, clothes washed, work to be done, children cared for and even a baby has been born! Life is difficult here! When asked the women told me they wanted shampoo, hairbrushes, cortes (Mayan skirts) and flowers for their gardens.

Simple things we take for granted shampoo, hairbrushes, clothing, balls, dolls and flowers are what they ask for. The number one request was for cortes, the traditional Mayan skirt. The women have resigned themselves to wearing western blouses but will not wear pants. Thanks to the generousity of a small church in Chicago I was able to purchase enough cortes for every adult woman! Praise God! Pictures cannot describe the joy in the women's faces when they received their gifts! Hugs, kisses and tears flowed in abundance!

As I walk through the colonia stopping to talk to each woman I carry special things in my bag. Earrings, combs, hairbrushes, bottles of shampoo to encourage them as they work. Language barriers are many, many do not speak Spanish, but they understand that I care. Love transcends and it becomes the language of the eyes, hands and heart. I cry when their babies are sick, smile when they show off their new clothes or earrings, hug their children, admire their latest projectand hold their hands when we talk.

These problems will not be resolved this month, this year or for a very long time. There is not enough money, enough time, enough workers, but there is hope. As I walked away I could hear the music from the church, a familiar tune even though I could not understand the words..."How Great Thou Art". It is true Jesus is the only hope!

Colonia pictures










Giving cortes to women