This pic is of Genesis from November 27th! Let me just tell you about this sweet little girl! This teddy bear was a gift from a friend to Genesis to have and hold during this hard time waiting for her surgery....and wouldn't you know that Genesis gave this teddy bear to Danisa because she was scared!! How sweet of Genesis! When I (Andrea) got back from Guatemala on December 1st...I sent Genesis another teddy bear! Since the last update with her she has come down with another infection and her January surgery was cancelled so far. On Jan 2nd they started to kill her immune system so her body wouldn't reject her new kidney and during this she got sick and her infection came back. She is now getting blood dialysis a few times a week and is isolated from all the other children. Please pray for her to heal up so she can have her surgery soon! Thank you!
Genesis is a little girl from
Casa Aleluya!! She is one who is near and dear to all of our hearts!! She's a sweet 10 year old who has been
thru a lot in her short life!! Right now Genesis is preparing to have a kidney transplant. Her sister
Danisa will selflessly be giving her kidney to Genesis so that she will be able to continue to live!! The surgery was supposed to be December 10
th, then she got an infection and they had to cancel it. They then scheduled the surgery for December 18
th, but she has come down with another infection. She ended up in the hospital...in the ICU...but she is now back home at
Casa with an IV in her arm to get her
meds. If all goes well they will be able to do the surgery on December 28
th! Please keep Genesis and
Danisa in your prayers! And we will keep you updated on how they are doing!!! Thank you!! God Bless!!
2007 NEWSLETTER
I want to welcome everyone, friend’s family and folks we haven’t met yet. If you are on this site we hope you will become family to us. I would like to introduce you to the core group first. That would be beginning in 2003 Rhonda Gallagher (me) from Ohio and Rich Cantwell from New Jersey met in Guatemala and after a 6 hour plane delay due to weather became great friends and prayer partners. They shook hands on a promise to try to go to Guatemala every year. I don’t remember who was first to sign up the following year but I can tell you one of the two of them was the first name on the Compassion list and the other was second. Following the next year 2004, Rhonda and Rich arrived in Guatemala to meet the third musketeer Garry Sagel from Colorado. Garry had actually beaten the both of us to Guatemala having visited Guatemala his first trip in 2002 but skipping 2003 and returning in 2004. Garry quickly became an important member of our core group. Jofat was also introduced to us this year - an amazing young fella was about 13 at the time spoke four different languages. We taught him how to play American hooky so he could attend the zoo with us and he taught us how to order the new favorite drink of all Horchata!!! Rich, Garry and I were determined to make Guatemala a must for every year, an Horchata for every trip and a Jofat just for fun had to play hooky one time each trip...ok so his mom did get permission and let the school know he was translating for his American friends for the day. Need-less to say with Christ our Lord as our leader we decided we would be in Guatemala each and every year the good Lord would allow...and thus the beginning of the Three Gringos. We made many friends and had much family in Guatemala so we decided in 2005 to make it a journey, instead of just the Compassion tour we went down early for a Spanish emersion into a language school in Antigua. If you have some time ask Rich about the night the Alamo took charge and woke him out of a sound sleep with bombing and machine guns outside his window the night before Garry and I arrived.....Funny story but it was actually a pick up truck creeping down the cobblestone street in the wee hours and firecrackers and grand celebration let off just before dawn in celebration of a Guatemalan birthday....During the Compassion tour we met our fourth musketeer Mary Michelman from California and we vowed Lord willing and the creek don’t rise we'd be back the next year and every year after. Mary, Garry, Rich and I snuck away with Ian’s permission when we were in San Pedro across Lake Atitlan. I had sponsored Maria through Compassion and was now sponsoring her and her sister Raquel through Children of the Lake. We rode in the back of a pick up truck with about 30 Guatemalan strangers up and down the mountainside to San Juan and spent the day with the girls and their family. Life in San Juan was not the same as anything we ever imagined. We fell in love and Mary signed up to sponsor the girls’ brother Jose while riding in the back of the "chicken bus"...... Also, this year I had snuck off with Irene while Compassion went shopping and fell in love with Casa Para Nina Aleluya an orphanage 30 kilometers from Guatemala City - what an awesome heartbreaking, love filled, God inspired day. I was so overflowing with the orphanage Garry went to see it with Irene the day Rich and I left to go home. Many tears flowed upon leaving as we all wanted to stay. Our hearts were broken throughout the year as we prayed when the mudslides from hurricane Stan destroyed San Pedro, San Juan and Panajachel - we knew many children living on the streets were washed away and counted among the 30 thousand killed. We prayed as word came slowly that each of our kids and their families were safe although homes and churches, schools and land were in ruins. We decided we would add San Juan to our 2006 trip. So during 2006 we founded a group call Sirvientos De Cristo and headed to Guatemala. The first week was with Compassion, the second we lived and worked at Casa Para Nina Aleluya and the third week we spent several days with the Children of the Lake in San Juan La Laguna. Along the Compassion tour we gained John Gorton (New Jersey) and Andrea Anderson (Florida) as co-leaders of our Sirventos de Cristo and began forming Mission Guatemala, LLC. And wow have the plans changed. God is so good he has lead us to follow where he leads and we have seen and experienced the most awesome people, places and sites you couldnt even imagine. ~This is a view of the mudslides~ We are deep in planning for 2007 we have a team 30 strong, we have our original core team, Rhonda, Rich, Garry and Mary along side John, Andrea and Miguel (a new comer a co-leader from New Jersey) we will be heading to Guatemala for mission work in the month of July. We are following the lead of the Lord, we ask for your continued prayers of love, safety and protection. We encourage you to check out the site, come back often and join up with us for the most God inspired awesome move of love you could ever imagine.....as I said Welcome. The only requirements is a love of the Lord, a love for the children, an open heart and mind to the elderly, poor and oppressed and the rest God will continue to provide. I can say no one has said they have been sorry for joining us but everyone seems to keep coming back. It is amazing what can happen when you open your heart and say "Here I am, Lord send me" and mean it with every ounce of your being. I am continually graced beyond belief when I realize where God has chosen to send me.....His Grace and Love forever fills, inspires and enfolds us....I am but the vessel.May God continue to hold you in the almightily palm of his hand.Blessings and Peace, Rhonda
