What a TRIP!
Courtney, Tanner and I had a fabulous trip to Guatemala.  The weather was just beautiful and we are very grateful for that since we did not have air-conditioning anywhere.  So what made the trip so fabulous?  For me it was listening. I had the privilege of listening as my guatemalan friends shared their lives. They shared their heart aches and their joys. They were encouraged that we would care enough to listen to their concerns as parents and wives. One friend of mine, Veronica, has a daughter who is very, very ill.  Anuyli who is 9 years old, receives peritoneal dialysis 4 times per day. Yes, you heard that right, 4 times PER DAY. They have a room curtained off with plastic to make it as sanitary as possible.  (see the above picture)  We rubbed the fluid out of Anyuli's legs and feet during dialysis.  You can see how her face is puffy. That is because she only has one kidney that operates at 65%. They other kidney does not function at all.  She is seeing a nephrologist who has said that he will not consider a kidney transplant until she has been his patient for 6 months so that he can get to know her.  Her sister Danielle is going to be the kidney donor.  Honestly, Anyuli is very sick.  She does not have much energy and I don't know how long she will be able to receive these treatments and still function. The first evening that I went to their home to watch the dialysis, Anyuli started to cry as the fluid was entering her abdomen through a large tube.  Veronica and I started crying too. It is horrific to watch a child so young and vulnerable need such invasive medical measures to live!  PLEASE pray for Veronica and Anyuli!  Veronica has 6 children and her only son, Evan, died four years ago when he was shot during a robbery. He was 19. Veronica is devastated at the thought of losing another child. I don't understand this suffering which seems completely unacceptable.    I do know that God is good and sovereign.  Please join me in lifting up this family to the heavenly Father's arms.

As the time nears for us to board our flight for Guatemala, I want to let you know about a sweet Guatemalan girl, Angelica, who is going in for a delicate and long (8 hours) surgery on Friday morning, June 29th at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  Angelica is a 13 year old who was born with a benign tumor on her right cheek which has been growing. The surgery will be to reduce the size of the tumor because it will interfere with her eating, breathing and even her eyesight eventually.  Please pray for Chris and Paula Adams who are the host family for Angelica and her Grandmother, Micaela.  Recovery is at least 4 weeks.  You can visit the link to the Shalom Foundation to find out more about Angelica.
"let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful"
Caroline

THANKS A MILLION

Dear Friends, Many heartfelt thanks for your interest and support for our trip! As the date for our departure draws closer, we are finalizing plans for our work there.  One awesome thing we will be doing is delivering food baskets to poor families in the community.  We will buy beans and rice in bulk and then divide them into smaller quantities to put in the baskets for these families.  We will also be delivering first aid supplies to a medical clinic in the neighborhood.  If you want to get your kids interested in serving other kids, we welcome your participation by purchasing items that we need.  I have listed things we need to the right of this blog.  I will take pictures and post them, so that your family can see how their gifts have impacted needy children.  Last year Carli's soccer team gave soccer jerseys and the kids loved them!  We give out silly bands, hairbows, and snacks to the children, so anything that you want to contribute, we appreciate.

We have raised $5475.00 out of $7500.00 already!!!!  thank you so much!
wishing you a wildly blessed summer,
Caroline

Carmen and Lucretia

Carmen and Lucretia are two women in the Las Conchas community who have a vision to help the single moms and sibling groups who are homeless.  Lucretia has donated land and Carmen is already subletting out a piece of her land to a homeless family. One of the goals of the trip in July will be to determine what infrastructure is needed to assist these women in meeting very real needs in their community.  We also hope to provide emotional support and create a support group among the women who are believers there.  Will you please pray for these women and for what God has in store for their ministry?
Gratefully,
Caroline

Looking forward to our trip

As the end of the school year approaches, our thoughts turn to our summer and the plans that it holds.  Courtney, Tanner and I plan to travel to Guatemala July 6-14.  Mitch will stay home and "man the fort" with Jack and Carli.  We are excited!  This year we hope to paint houses that have already been built.  We also plan to visit another outlying community to offer help with the school, medical clinic and water system in Las Canoas.  The community of Las Conchas has so appreciated our help in their community that they told the Shalom Foundation about this other community, Las Canoas, that is in need of assistance as well. I am particularly excited because I am planning to work with the women of Las Conchas.  There are many homes with single mothers and several women in Las Conchas have decided to offer assistance to these families. One amazing woman, Lucretia, has donated a piece of land for a home to be built. Another woman, Carmen, has agreed to offer support and a place to stay for those who are homeless.  They are very interested in caring for the people in the community that are less fortunate than they are.  Amazing, since by our standards they are very poor themselves!  I look forward to seeing my old friends and making new ones as we walk together and ask God to help us care for those who desperately need it.
Caroline

Summer 2012 Mission Trip!!!!

Courtney and Tanner with friends

As Summer 2012 approaches, we are all planning...planning for what the summer will hold, for ourselves, for our kids, for our vacations.  The Cone family is planning on returning to Guatemala to continue the relationships that we have made there. Guatemala has been a challenging place for our family. We have struggled with our ideas of God and how he operates in the world after witnessing so many things. We have seen such poverty! We have seen the sparkle of hope in the eyes of fellow believers who quite literally pray for daily bread, or in this case tortillas.  We have seen children abused and abandoned.  We have seen joy, unmistakable joy, in the faces of those who are so grateful for the blessings of a 300 sq. ft home.  We have struggled with having so much, yet wanting more and then feeling guilty for having so much. To be honest, our struggle continues to this day.  It is an awesome thing to stand in the presence of God and ask, "Lord, what do you want for my life?  Where would you have me go and what would you have me do?"  Our friends in Guatemala are asking those same questions from different circumstances.  

This summer as Carli comes with us for the first time, (Jack will be staying in Michigan with Caroline's parents) she will join us as we struggle with these questions. We will be:   *making repairs to Hope for Tomorrow and taking the children from the orphanage on a field trip  *offering support and encouragement to the staff who care for the children at the orphanage.  *working at Las Conchas School to build a garden which the school can use in feeding the children  *painting and repairing houses that previous Shalom mission trips have built  *working with the women of the Las Conchas neighborhood.   

      We invite you to join us!  Come and be part of our trip. Work beside us. Pray with us for our hearts, our bodies and those we will serve.  Give your time and money to support those who will go and the work we will do http://TheShalomFoundation.donorpages.com/cpa2012/CarolineCone 

     THANK YOU so much for all of your support and encouragement to us, it really means a lot to us that you are so interested in what God is doing in this small part of Guatemala!       

     Caroline 

Little Daniel is reunited with his family

Over a month ago Mitch and I ate lunch with Kenneth Sese, the director of the Hope for Tomorrow Children's Home in Guatemala City.  He was in the States for a week and we got to catch up. Kenneth told us about Daniel.  Daniel was taken away from his family and placed in the orphanage earlier this year for reasons that I am not sure of.  His mother would come and visit him and leave crying because she missed him so much.  Well, the courts ruled that he could return to his family.  Please say a prayer for little Daniel and his family.  We will miss seeing him when we return to Guatemala and yet we are so happy that he could be reunited with his family!  Lord Jesus please bless Daniel's family!

Caroline