Sub title: "Whoa! Hold your horses!"

I sent this out to everyone to say "Hold your Horses!" If you read my last news letter you know we will begin building a bridge for the Village of Santa Elena next week with a team from Maine. I mentioned that we had almost half the money for the project and before I could order the materials, I had people telling me they were sending me money to finish the project. The problem I have is that too many people want to send me money! Please Do Not send me any more money! I now have enough to do the project and even feed the whole village and the team a meal of beans and rice and even chicken when we are finished!

So I have written to some of you thanking you for your offer but since we have enough I do not need more. If I have any left I am going to ask those who sent money if we can use it for Rodrigo. At first I started thinking hey maybe I could use this extra money for a Rolls Royce or maybe a Corvette. Ah, come on all the preachers on TV have nice things, but then I remembered the Biblical account of Annanias and Sephira. They lied to God about their selling their land and giving it all and they really didn't. They were struck dead immediately. So, I thought well let's forget the Rolls Royce idea and keep driving the pick-up.

The other reason is this. I know you all get bombarded with people asking for money all the time. Riechelle and I decided when we came to Guatemala that we would live by faith, that either God was calling us and would take care of us, or if it was not God's call on our lives, we would just return to the States and live like normal sane people. So we try and not ask for money from people for ourselves. We do appreciate the money people have given us over the years for emergencies and projects and even living expenses so we can work here, but for the most part we try and to not hound you all for money.

But I find myself in a dilemma that I think most missionaries would love to have. I have a lot of good hearted generous people who want to give but don't know where they can give to something without half of it going to administrative fees or staff cars and air conditioned offices etc. Well here is my suggestion. Consider helping Rodrigo.

Some of you may remember that my boat was stolen a couple of years ago and I found the boat the next day, without it's motor, floating near the beach of a village named Jocolo (pronounced Ho-Co–Lo). The village was known for being full of thieves. As I found the boat floating and half the village playing on it and tearing it up, my first thought was how can I shoot these people with out going to prison. (What a wonderful Christian Missionary I am huh?) But then as I had said in the news letter, all I could think was What Would Jesus Do? So we went back and began doing medical clinics in this village for the past two years.

At first the people were cold and even stole some of our toys we brought for the winners of kids games. But little by little they began to warm up and now they are one of our best villages to go do clinics in. The kids and parents love us and know we love them. But here is the hard part. About 3 months ago while doing a clinic we were asked if we would go to a home in the village and take care of a boy who was burned and had an infection. I said, "Can he come here to the clinic?" They said, "No the other kids tease him and call him a monster." He is too embarrassed to come out. So when I finally went to his home and saw Rodrigo for the first time, I thought, Oh, My God, what has happened to this little boy?

In May of 2006 Rodrigo’s parents were out of the home. Apparently there was a normal wood fired stove made of block and mud and it had a large pot of chicken stew boiling in it. Some how while he was near it the pot fell over and scalded Rodrigo with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. I cannot even imagine what this little boy went through. In all of my years as a Firefighter / Paramedic I know the worse pain I have ever had or seen has been burn patients. Since the medical care here is so poor he was taken to the local government hospital where they had little resources. So he was not given the appropriate care. Now a year and half later he still fights infections and is unable to use his arms.

His mother brought him in today for me to take care of another infection in his arm. We treated him today, but next week he will probably have another one. A few months ago a team of nurses from the Beth-Israel Hospital were here and they saw Rodrigo. One of the nurses named Nicole decided she would return to Boston and seek out help for Rodrigo at a burn center. "Coincidentally", I have a Doctor friend here in Guatemala who is a pediatrician and he went with me to Rodrigo's home to evaluate him and do a report for the hospital in Boston. So I've said all of this to say, we are praying that at some point they will accept Rodrigo's case and he will be able to fly to Boston with his father and will need to stay for about a year for plastic surgeries so he can move his arms and at least live a somewhat normal life.

Our home church in NC already committed to sending the money to take care of his family while he is with his father in Boston for surgery. But at some point Rodrigo and his father will need help financially for airline tickets and simple living expenses. When that happens I will know of a place you can send your gift to help Rodrigo get a new handle on life. We are not ready yet because it is taking a lot of ground work for papers, passports, visas, legal stuff, but when and if it happens I'll let you know OK?

In the mean time. I would ask you to pray for Rodrigo and his family. I also want to ask a selfish thing and ask you to pray for me. Every day I see patients who have no money but need medical care. Some of my cases you would find it hard to believe if I told you. Right now if someone needs surgery or lab test or x-rays they have to go to the government hospital 1 ½ hours away and they don't have the money. So somehow I have to take them. I believe that we are supposed to build a small hospital that will take care of the needs of the people who have nothing and have been forgotten about.

Please, Please, Please. I am not asking for money, but I need you to pray for me. I need to know if this is God's will or just my heart breaking because I am helpless when I see a woman die of childbirth that could have been saved if we could have done a C-section. Sorry to have hit you with two News Letters so close but this is my last day before the team gets here and starting tomorrow I won't have time to write much. We'll be building a bridge! I'll keep you posted on Rodrigo and his progress so you can see God's hand at work.

For those of you that have already sent the money for the bridge thank you and for those who wanted to and I asked you to wait, please just hold on and let's see if we can help a little boy get new arms in 2008.

God Bless,
In His Service,

Bryan & Riechelle and Kids

P.S. I want to say something on a personal note. Sometimes folks write back to me after a newsletter and say "Oh Bryan what you and Riechelle are doing is wonderful." One lady even said I was an Angel! Folks, let me set the record straight here. If I got what I deserved, I would be burning right now. I am no Angle and will only get into Heaven because I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. The work we do here is exactly what you would be doing if you were here, no different. So thanks for the words of encouragement but let's make sure we give the glory to the Father, it is because of Him we are here.

Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce, Izabal
Guatemala Central America

E-Mail: Bryan@JungleMedicMissions.org
Web Site: http://www.junglemedicmissions.org/
 

 This page was last updated 11/17/07

Copyright © 2004 Jungle Medic Missions. All rights reserved