This is Dylan Thrasher.

Dylan's mother is Shanna Wilson, his grandmother is Nancy Andrus;  they have both volunteered at Clinica Ezell.  

They heard about the "Grins for Guatemala" Girl Scout Gold project by trip veteran, Alisha Hovater, so recently for his 10th birthday, instead of birthday presents, Dylan asked all of his friends to bring toothbrushes & toothpaste to give to the kids who come to the dental clinic at Clinica Ezell.  

This is Dylan with all of the "gifts" for his birthday.  

Great job Dylan, 

and happy birthday!

Thanks to your support we are able to take the powerful Word to more people each day. We have been able to get large groups of people together to hear the Word of God as you will see in the pictures.  Even people of different cultures."

This August, most of the cleft patients came from the Solola area, near Panajachel.  The primary language in this area is Kaqchikel so in the patient area, you could hear people practicing their Kaqchikel, K�che', Spanish and English. 

Many people will remember Jaime and Carlos Enrique. Both children have continued to grow and returned to have their palates repaired. Jose won the hearts of many, while Kenia was never seen without a smile.  Their parents are so appreciative of the work that is done and the care they receive.  

Kenia is anxious for surgery!

Jose's future is as bright as his eyes!

We prayed for each patient by name at night and were so thankful that all of the surgeries went well.  We give all glory to God and look forward to seeing these little ones continue to grow.

By the time you read this, we will have accomplished our first mobile cervical cancer screening event. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women in Guatemala and the cancer hospital here is overwhelmed with advanced cases--and those are just the patients that can afford cancer care.  Just in the last 3 months we have had two patients pass away from cervical cancer--younger than 55 years old. 

 Dr. Sara Castellanos and I along with our two female health promoters, Maury and Cesy, will head out to Mactzul II where we will be hosted by the church for the event, while Sheri covers our regularly-scheduled clinic.  We've invited all the women from the town to come for their VIAA (Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid)--the new screening technique that allows us to tell the patient immediately if there is cancer or pre-cancerous lesions or not. 

This is a perfect example of appropriate technology, as we eliminate the need for costly lab, prolonged wait for results, and it reduces the number of patients lost to followup.  We were also generously given a cryotherapy gun for treating pre-cancerous lesions. 

Constantly busy, these women take little time for their own health needs

So we are thankful to God and to our supporters for helping us offer these services that help protect moms and families and hopefully avoid this all too common cancer.