We are in the USA

We are in the final week of preparation for oldest daughter Casey’s wedding.  Cindy and I are going to her house tomorrow (Monday night) for home cooked meal with she and her fiancée.   A couple of the days will be devoted to around the house issues, such as cleaning gutters etc, if the wind dies down.  Cindy and I worked on leaves and sump pump this past week, while contemplating upcoming speaking engagements.

One of those engagements occurred this past Saturday.  Friday I went to Knoxville and spent the day with ‘Bodega’ Bruce White our collection engineer and master container organizer, and our boss Woody Woodson.  Paul Gordon a biomedical engineering student came down from Cincinnati (how do you spell that).  He will be joining us for much of the summer.  He is a 20 yr/old interested in using his skills for missions… We are praying that at the end of six or eight weeks we will either cure him of this or have him so infected with desire to serve with these much needed skills that he will become a permanent life long missionary.  No pressure Paul (chuckle).  Joe Leier, Marty Hand and I are working on your schedule even as I write this.  Somebody throw a flag for piling on.

Saturday morning Woody and I spoke to the USA board and friends of Vine International.  Vine did 15 containers last year and tripled the value of the donations to Guatemala.  Working with MAP and getting containers filled with quality medicines was a huge part of that number.  We shared that we had over 250 visits to the bodega in Guatemala.  Frankly as a ministry we could have done more containers, but we are hurting financially.  Woody, the staff and board have given sacrificially.  We are exploring ways to increase funding stream via ‘social media’.  Stay tuned; as we fine tune those issues we will make announcements.    Personally our financial support has taken a couple of hits but we feel blessed that most have remained faithful.  Believe me, we recognize the commitment it takes in the economically uncertain times we live in to continue to give.  We thank you for your faithfulness.

Upcoming events.  We are speaking at Community Chapel in Greenville SC on Wednesday evening, if you are in the area come.  Wedding on Saturday and I covet your prayers for that event.  We return to Guatemala on the following Tuesday with Peggy and her new passport.  We will be cleaning the warehouse and getting more medicine out preparing for a team from MAP and a pharmaceutical company that donates to them.  They have a desire to increase their presence in Central American and (wink, wink) we desire that they do just that!!!   Work team in April to Hospital Santa Fe in Chocola from Community Chapel Greenville and working on a team from Calvary Chapel of Asheville to partner with Adonai International in the highlands of Quiche Department to start a hospital in that region.  With Paul Gordon coming our summer is already full.

One health note, my cataracts are worsening rapidly.  I could not read the road signs on US 40 in Knoxville in bright daylight last week.  Somewhere between teams I will have to find time to get them dealt with in Guatemala.  I do not have health insurance and cannot afford to do the work here in the states.  Plus the time away from Vine in Guatemala just won’t work out.  We have a bead on a couple of good eye doctors in Guatemala and I look forward to being able to read my Bible again without sounding “like a fourth grader” as Cindy pointed out last week. Also I have a niece heading to a mission post with To Every Tribe.  Her daid David Bennett will be on the road to Texas back to West Virginia by Friday and here in NC on Saturday.  Again for these things we appreciate your prayer support.

No photos with this post, but I suspect after the wedding there will be some photos next posting.   So come back if you want to see me in a penguin suit.

In Christ,

Dennis and Cindy McCutcheon