11.29.16

One of the best things about our donors is getting to share what we’ve been able to do with that support. I am so thankful for that and to express that I have to tell a short story.

Back in March, Whitney and I were back in the U.S. using up some free flight vouchers that we had. Just before coming back I had noticed that kitchen at the hospital, elderly home & Kelly’s House were in serious need of an improvement in the blender department. This is something that is easily ignored by the average person. But to me, a chef, I notice these things. When you have a crummy blender and need to puree foods, you have to add a lot of water, then to keep it from being too thin, you have to thicken it up again. The problem with this is that the kids end up with a lot less of the nutrients that they need because it’s so watered down. They also end up breaking fast. This is why in the restaurant industry you buy the nice commercial blenders like Vitamix or BlendTec. These blenders are made to puree soups, meats, beans, whatever. I’ve seen them even blend car keys!

All this to say, I knew we needed a Vitamix. I knew I couldn’t afford to buy one. So I posted about the need of Facebook and asked if anyone would be willing to purchase one or help purchase one. I don’t know who responded first or how fast it was but I want to thank everyone that helped purchase or purchased a Vitamix. Thank you (in no particular order): Jeremy & Paula Watts, Matt & Christine Simmons, Paul & Erica Sheets, & Paul & Katrina Dysart.

Thank you all so much for your radical generosity! Thanks to you all we were able to purchase 2 Vitamix blenders and a BlendTec blender. Children at Kelly’s House & the hospital that are unable to properly chew foods or feed themselves have pureed foods that aren’t watered down so that they’re able to get the nutrition that they greatly need. And those at the elderly home can still enjoy food even if it’s pureed because it still has its original taste because it hasn’t been watered down.

On behalf of myself and all of the cooks, thank you so much for your giving

before & after

One of the blenders at Kelly’s House on the left and the new Vitamix on the right!

A couple of the cooks from Kelly’s House with the new blender.

The nutritionist that works on planning foods for those at the elderly home and hospital is on the left and the other 4 ladies are cooks at the elderly home

The head of the elderly home got in for a picture too!

We are all so thankful for your generosity!

-Bryan

I’m writing this post a little late tonight (its 10:00 here) but in California, it’s only 8:00 which is good because my post is about thanking a friend of mine from California.

I met David Behoteguy back in January of this year. Whitney and I were still new to this whole being missionaries thing and hadn’t moved into our home yet and I hadn’t really settled into my position in the kitchen. Dave loves to build stuff. He’s an engineer, owns his own plastics design & manufacturing company, he’s really smart, and really creative. But Dave also loves coffee. So when he heard that we were building a cafe, he knew he was the man to help. Since I was free, I offered to help him build it. I’ll be honest, I’m not the greatest construction worker. I can lift some heavy(ish) stuff, paint, and drive a nail or two but I don’t trust myself to do a project alone. But David let me help anyways. We worked all week cutting whatever boards we could find at the carpenter shop, then put them up with whatever screws we could find, and just slowly but surely, often with less than typical tools or materials, we got it done.

This is Antonio (Tono) & myself working one evening at the Cafe. What you don’t see is to the right where our espresso machine is which David and I inaugurated back in January after we finished the job!

Fast forward to this past August. David came back with his wonderful wife Anne and he had a couple of free days later in the week. I had mentioned how I would love some input on making shelves for our kitchen at our home and that was enough. David and I came up to the house, took some measurements, planned it out and went looking for the materials. Just like with the cafe, we had to “Guatemala” a few things. To Guatemala something basically means making due with whatever you have available and finding a way to get things done. We went to the carpenter shop, found the boards, made the cuts, & got it done. I had actually thought I could have done it on my own before I actually helped in doing it. There is NO WAY I could have done this without Dave & if I had tried, there’s no way it would have turned out this well. The shelves look fantastic, we have our pots & pans hanging, & we stole an idea that he told us from his house in CA and hung our coffee cups. When you go from having a huge kitchen in VA with tons of cabinet and counter space to a small kitchen with 2 cabinets and 2 counters, you really got to get creative. Dave is that creative. I’m so blessed to have met him and his wife this year and become good friends with them. Thank you Dave Behoteguy, for taking time away from a million other things that you could have been doing around the ministry and back in CA to help a young missionary couple feel a lot more at home in a far different place than they had been used to. Thanks for helping us make a house a home!

Planning & measuring