For the past 17 years, John and Connie Otten have been serving with AMG International and Word & Deed at the Centro Medico Cristiano in Cubulco, Guatemala. The medical centre serves the area’s poor with a hospital, pharmacy, elective surgery, nutrition centre, radio program, and agriculture programs. In all of these areas the Word of God joins hands with humanitarian acts of love.

Hospital
The work at the hospital has been going so well that most days we have to turn some patients away. This excess is partly due to the turmoil in government hospitals. Some have closed due to lack of supplies and dissatisfied staff. Our regional national hospital closed a few days except for emergencies. We do not sense much positive change in the near future.

However, due to good contracts with the government pharmacy program, we can obtain medicines at very reasonable prices, which we pass on to our patients. One day a man returned to our pharmacy saying that we must have made a mistake. He paid eight quetzals at our pharmacy for medication that he had purchased elsewhere for eighty. He was certain we forgot a zero on his bill. We assured him that there was no mistake and he left in awe.

On the other hand, there are many challenges in consultations. Some local beliefs make it difficult to treat patients. For example, the father of a dehydrated child believed that needles would kill his child. After convincing him that this child needed IV solutions or she would certainly die, he consented. When the child, sadly, died a few hours later, we were accused of killing her.

While we cannot treat all illnesses, sometimes we forget that we can still offer everyone something if we take the time to listen. An elderly lady with extensive facial cancer consulted with one of our visiting teams. The American doctor sadly told her that there was nothing they could do. Knowing that she was a Christian, he encouraged her by saying that someday she would see her Lord. She then asked whether her face would be disfigured in heaven. Though we could not cure her cancer, we gave her hope and prayed with her.

Another patient, a 12-year-old boy, came in the same day. He probably had had meningitis in the past and was left unable to walk. The team told the family about the salvation that is in Jesus. God could heal the boy, the doctors said, maybe in this life, and certainly in the next.

We have been blessed with some newly donated equipment. Even though donors are often unaware of our needs, God knows. We have received wall-mounted otoscopes and hand-held otoscopes, which are used for examining the external ear.

Last March, a visiting medical team spent much time teaching our staff. One team member, an x-ray technician, worked to improve our staff’s x-ray techniques. He also brought some parts for the ultrasound. It now is in good condition and our doctors are learning to use it.

In May, our five-year hospital license expired, so we are in the process of renewing it. Some requirements are impossible to meet, and we have informed the Ministry of Health about it. It’s helpful that government hospitals are also unable to comply with many of the regulations. For example, we’ve been told that we must have specialists in pediatrics, surgery, and internal medicine. We are trying to explain that specialists do not go to remote areas such as Cubulco, and that even the government hospital in a major town nearby cannot get all the specialists the government requires.

Vocational School
The trade schools have been put on hold. We did a survey at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006, and there was a very positive response to having a vocational training center in Cubulco. Presently, the only options available for study are teaching and basic accounting.

Nutrition Center
The nutrition center is going well, with more than 100 children in the program. We insist that the children attend, and those who do not come are replaced with others.

Agriculture
This year, our teaching farm is focusing on how to make natural pesticides, derived from plants into something like a tea and then applied to the fields with sprayers.

Each year, land renters must plant a third of their parcel with a crop other than corn. Some have planted crops such as amaranth, chipilín (similar to spinach), and Jamaica rose tea. We formerly required that farmers rotate all the land in the third year, but then many would abandon the program. So we changed it to a third each year. Part of the reason they would quit the program is probably that they are afraid to risk their entire harvest on an unfamiliar crop.

We have stopped working with several of the villages where we did animal vaccination programs. Other organizations have arrived and started similar projects in those areas. They often offer the farmers free food for joining, so many leave our program and join theirs. There is a constant struggle when organizations come for one or two years and then leave. Though they initially offer food and education, after a few months they tend to give only food.

We need to be continually reminded that all good things come from God. It is by His grace that we are able to do the work we do together with our team. Please continue to pray for us.