A Plea for Better Health

My Friends,

I have never been to Guatemala, nor do I know all that much about this small nation of  about 14 million that lies just south of the Mexican border. I can't speak much Spanish, the official language of Guatemala, let alone any of the other 54 languages spoken there. I'm not particularly mechanical, nor much of a do-it-yourselfer. But I do love the outdoors and the lure of a good adventure. And I like to help people when given the opportunity.

For over a year now I have been thinking about such an opportunity, a chance to join a short-term mission, one that many members of the church Dee and I attend have gone on over the past 16 years. For the past six years the church has sent a team to remote villages in Guatemala to install wood stoves in homes. This year I'm tagging along too. Why is this important?

Generations of Guatemalan families have built fires inside their homes for cooking. These open fires are rarely ventilated, making smoke a constant indoor hazard. Breathing the smoke leads to respiratory illness (cancer, heart disease, asthma and other life-threatening health concerns). I have seen pictures of the tarry soot that ends up sticking in the rafters of these homes and can only imagine what the inside of a kid's lungs must look like who have been continually exposed to these conditions by the time they reach adulthood. Can you imagine handing your tots two or three packs of cigarettes a day to smoke? More about the stoves we'll install is here, and this little video from another organization says it all. That is essentially the health impact on kids and adults in many parts of rural Guatemala.

Being around these open cook fires also leads to burn injuries, especially among children, and a shortened lifespan. Pit fires are also wasteful. Replacing them with a stove means about 65 percent less wood is burned, decreasing the need to make daily forages to distant woods to harvest a new supply. Not having to gather as much wood frees up more time for more important things, like getting an education or making a living.

So that, in a nutshell, is what our mission is about.  There are eight of us from the church going this year to install stoves that ventilate outside of these homes rather than inside. We catch a red-eye the night of April 12 and fly out of Houston early the next morning for Guatemala City. We don't stay long in Guatemala City because, a.) it's a very dangerous place (25 murders a week reported there in 2009 alone) and b.) our work is far to the north of there. Not that we'll be entirely safe elsewhere - Guatemala is considered to be one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America and our work will take us to the heart of the drug trafficking corridors of the country's northern region. But previous teams have reported no problems and we go with good hearts and strong faith.

We'll catch a bus in Guatemala City, likely overnight in a city called Huehuetenango then finish the journey to Barillas.  It's about a 14-hour trip on a crowded bus over winding, bumpy roads.  Once in Barillas, we'll join the team from Hands for Peacemaking, the organization coordinating our mission, and learn how to build and install stoves during a brief training at the mission house there. You can learn more about the Everett-based Hands for Peacemaking organization and its founders, the late Dr. Leeon Aller and his wife Virginia, on the organization's web site.  I am told every year these stoves get better - the stove is in its seventh iteration. My good friend Matt, an expert in Lean manufacturing processes at Boeing, would be very impressed!

So we will learn to build these stoves then they'll haul us away to a little village called Xoxlac (pronounced something like SHO-SHLACK) located way up in the mountains just south of the Mexican border. I'm told we won't have to actually carry these stoves ourselves - they'll plunk the pre-assembled parts into place for us and our team will take it from there. They want us to install approximately 100 of these life-saving appliances, far more than last year's team of 12 installed. Each stove is supposed to take about an hour to install, but given my mechanical ineptitude I suspect mine will take far longer. We are scheduled to return late night on April 22.

Now I'm getting to the part that involves you, my pitch.  This trip costs money, and I'm asking for your support.  While Marine View Presbyterian Church is picking up a little under half of the team's travel expenses through its mission fund, we still need to raise additional funds to purchase the stoves and the Bibles and fun packs we'll hand out to the kids while there.

Yeah, we could just all dig deep and pay Hands for Peacemaking to let Guatemalans to install their own stoves and skip the cost of sending a team down from our corner of the world. But, as J. Mack & Leeann Stiles point out in their Guide to Short Term missions that veteran team mate Bill Baird lent me, there are more than a few good reasons why we go in person:

1. Demonstrate servanthood, and the Love of Jesus. By being there we are spreading seeds, like the mustard seeds described in Matthew 13:31-32: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³²

2. Connect with others in another, distant land with the hope that we will make personal relationships that will last for a lifetime.

3. So we can share with others, just as I am sharing with you, the need to help others in distant lands and, at the same time, immerse ourselves in their culture and bring back their stories.

To this end, I plan to post as much as I can, both to this space and to the web site I've put together specifically for this mission. I doubt if my Spanish names will be at all accurate, nor will I have the ability to check. I'm also banking that there won't be much access to the Internet while we are in the village so many of my posts may have to be made after we're through.  But I'll take lots of photos and my little smart phone and try to do as much as I can while there.

Can I count on your support? Each stove costs $200 (down from $250 last year, Matt, due to efficiencies with the new model) and I am asking that you consider buying one. If that's too much, any amount toward the trip will do. I am also soliciting donations to help with my portion of the trip (I'm still about $375 shy of the $1275 for my portion). My personal goal is to "sell" 20 stoves this month! Whether supporting the stoves or my personal expenses, your contribution is fully tax-deductible.

You can participate in one of the following ways:

1. Send a check, payable to Marine View Presbyterian Church, directly to the church at this address. Be sure to accompany it with a note that says that it is for the Guatemalan Stove Mission, and tell 'em Brian sent you! Being the good people that they are, I'm sure they will send back a receipt of some kind for your records.

2. Send your contribution payable to Marine View Presbyterian directly to me at: 35432 26th Place S., Federal Way, WA 98003.  (Stipulate if toward stove or otherwise). That way I will know you helped so can send you my personal thanks and will send your donation and information to the church for receipt as well.

3. Donate online on the Hands for Peacemaking web site. If you do this, it is very important that you use the "Donate to a specific team" feature and drop down to Marine View Presbyterian - otherwise it will go into the organization's general fund.

If you are not able to donate, I'd just appreciate your moral support! I'd be happy to include you on email updates from my blog reports. All you need to do is add your email address to the box on the right or send me an email and I'll add you.

I can't thank you enough for reading this and considering a contribution to this very important cause!

Peace to you and your family,

Brian Dirks