Headquarters
3319 West 45th Ave.
Highland, IN  46322
Phone: (219) 924-2446
Fax: (219) 922-1694

Email:  HeartsInMotion1@aol.com
Thrift Store: (219) 924-3668

2006

Carnival from Miami to San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten

Oct 20-29

Ortho General medical clinics, construction

Feb 2-11

OB/Gyn, firemen training, general medical clinics, construction

Mar 2-11

Bellarmine University Group

Mar 16-25

Plastics, Dentistry, construction, general medical clinics

More Trips may be announced
 

WE WILL REPAIR BROKEN COMPUTERS!

H.I.M. Flies with WINGS

Hearts In Motion was spotlighted in the 2006 Marshall & Ilsley Corporation’s WINGS awards. Wings stands for Worthy Individuals Noted for Generous Service. M & I is the largest bank based in Wisconsin, with offices in 8 states.

Each year, they recognize 10 employees for their commitment and dedication as volunteers in the community,and they recognize the non-profit organizations they work with.

Individuals from throughout the company are nominated for this honor. Ten individuals and the organizations they volunteer for are selected by a panel of judges. This year, Kathy Croft and H.I.M. were honored among the 10 winners. M & I recognized this achievement with a $500 donation to H.I.M. In addition, Kathy was selected as the M & I Volunteer of the Year, and H.I.M. was awarded another $500. Karen came to Milwaukee to accept this award with Kathy. Thanks to Marshall & Ilsley for their generous support and to Kathy for meriting this award!

Estanzuela Computer Lab

Wow! doesn’t even begin to describe our first completed computer lab. Recently HIM donated forty computers to this optimistic technical school, hoping to create such a lab.We could hardly believe our eyes as we visited the site on our most recent trip. Forty up-and-running computers with a huge smile sitting behind each one. It was great!

WANTED -DEAD OR ALIVE… COMPUTERS!!

HIM has formed a beautiful alliance with the Sergio Paiz Foundation in Guatemala, an organization that is dedicated to improving education in Guatemala’s 17,000 poverty stricken schools. HIM has been invited to help in their grand endeavor to equip these schools with computer technology. We will need:

Desk tops or lap-top computers.
Pentium II processors (or newer)
Printers, monitors, cables, power cords
Fax machines, Scanners

How you can help? Talk to your church, school, hospital, business, etc., and ask for their old, outdated or broken computers. Then contact our office to coordinate pickup/dropoff. HIM is dedicated to this important project and we greatly appreciate your help

Welcome to HIM, Bonnie! Meet our new office manager, Bonnie Meyer, who comes to us from a twenty

year career in professional photography. This is a skill that we can certainly enjoy, as well as computer and people-skills! She has lots of energy and multi-tasks so well that we are in awe at times. She’s always ready to help with anything that needs to be done. Her words were: “I have always loved to travel and had a heart for missions. These
two worlds have come together for me through Hearts In Motion.”

Happy Birthday, Max! We’re proud of you.

It’s hard for any child when they miss a birthday party. Imagine how hard it must be for nine-year-old Max Lawson to be at a party, his own, and walk away each year empty-handed. Each year for the past 7 years Max has dedicated his

birthday party and all the gifts he receives to the children of Guatemala. Every party has a theme and all those who attend the events support every project Max and Melissa (his mom) decide on. This year Max opted to help us establish another boys club in Gualan, supplying them with t-shirts and sports equipment. His generous classmates brought so much stuff that we shared with some of the local grade schools too! Hats off to Max and Melissa for coming up with such a spectacular way to teach compassion and sharing to children here in the states, and especially to Max for being big enough to share himself. Love you Max Lawson.

Karen enjoys distributing the gifts from Max’s party to excited children in Estanzuela.

Container Arrives in Zacapa!

“Many hands make light work” is an old adage that sounds good, but it didn’t seem to make much difference when we were unloading the many hospital beds that arrived on the last container. It felt like they weighed a million pounds! We were really happy that our June Kentucky group was down with us to unload our latest container. It is SO much work! But it was also great to be down there to watch all those who benefit from it. It was fabulous to watch the firemen walk away with all their new equipment. The hospital staff was beaming as all the hospital goodies came off the truck. Clothes for the families of the villages, school supplies, and a mountain of other things came off the truck too… it was like Christmas in July.

Nutrition Center in Estranzuela Opens

What a joy it was to cut the ribbon for the new nutrition center in Estanzuela to open!The teachers were there, all the kids were there, the mayor showed up and so did representatives of the First Lady’s Office. It was quite the “shin-dig,” an opening ceremony to be remembered. When the dancing was finished and the final thank-you said, we walked through the newest HIM daycare to see all the decorations the kids had made. Thirty happy students were so excited that the Gringos had come to visit and see their school. It was great fun. Especially the part when all of us tried to figure out “what” our celebration lunch was even as we were eating it. Life is an adventure!

JOIN US IN PLANS FOR

a little romance on the high seas on the HIM Cruise December 2-9th. Run away with us to San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Call the office for details....it's not too late!

Not Your Everyday Banquet!

I have to admit that it hurt slightly to watch my pastor, Chad, Aaron (from the KY office), and especially Don (from the main office) hula across the dance floor at our Hawaiian Banquet last May. Over-all the night was a great success. We rounded up HIM volunteers for an evening of celebration, enjoyed each others’ company, the island food and the Hawaiian music which was provided by Cindy Combs, well-known slack key guitarist, from the Hawaiian island of Kauai`. It was a wonderful night and we loved sharing the stories of our successes of the past year and the visions of hope for all we plan to do in the coming year. If you missed the banquet, we missed YOU! Would love to get an email from you if you have an idea that would entice you next year to join us!

Check Out Our Website!

We want to make sure that our website is as effective as possible, keeping everyone current on events and activities at Hearts In Motion. Our website has gone through quite a bit of change since our friend, Rick Steele, first developed it and hosted the site for several years. Through his efforts, we had our foundation ready when Cynthia Cappello from Spokane offered to update the site, adding more functions, features and graphics. On our list for improvements now is the implementation of a consistent email system for all of our staff and locations (using heartsinmotion.org) and the development of trip forms that can be filled out and submitted online to simplify communication. We really WANT your suggestions and comments on the current site and ideas for additional features. Please email your thoughts to dwg1camp@aol.com or mail them Attn: Don Gilliard at the office.
Many thanks to Peter Nielsen and James Gilliard for assisting us on the technical side. In addition, James has worked with our friend, Rich Gilliam, on updating the computers at the HIM office in Highland. Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

Director's Notes

You had to have been there to appreciate the joy in the faces of mother and daughter reunited after more than ten years apart. Ruthie’s story began as a young girl brought to the states in the 80’s for a surgery her family couldn’t afford for her in Guatemala. She was fostered by Glen & Judy Sharp from Indiana, who welcomed her into their hearts and home for several surgical visits over the next few years. Ruthie’s family in Guatemala struggled to sustain themselves and when it became obvious they could not care for Ruthie’s medical condition, they turned to the Sharps and HIM for help.
The Sharp family eventually adopted Ruthie, who has grown into a beautiful young woman. Last year, Ruthie’s Guatemalan mom contacted the Sharps again for help. She had been suffering from diabetes and lost a leg to the disease. Judy Sharp (Ruthie’s American mom) immediately contacted our office to see how we could work together to bring her the help she needed. During a recent medical trip, Ruthie’s mom not only received the medicine she needed, but our ROMP boys were able to fit her with a new leg! After all that transpired, the Sharps decided the best Christmas present they could give Ruthie was the opportunity to visit her family in Guatemala! So, July 7th, when Julie and I were heading for the next trip in Guatemala, Ruthie joined us. She spent the next ten days relearning her Spanish and visiting her family she had not seen for so many years.
It was a beautiful experience for all of us involved and made me so very proud of this work that has spanned almost 25 years.

New Beginnings

We told you last time about Rahel Girmay Gebremical from Ethiopia who came in April through Adoption Advocates in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kevin O’Halloran examined her and diagnosed her problem as a rare form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. An adoptive family in America has been found for her in Salt Lake City and she is happily adjusting to the move and receiving treatment there. She will have 5 sisters there to liven her days and keep her company. We wish her well!

Summer of '06 Trips

Three trips down and one to go! The summer trips thus far have been fabulous. Lots of work, plenty of sweat and, of course, the lives of many grateful Guatemalans were touched by all those who have traveled with us. The teams accomplished so much: Bible Schools, rehabbing the boys’ club house, building cabinets for our HIM store, moving our ROMP boys into bigger digs, painting in the Zacapa Hospital, building swing sets, remodeling a daycare …and that’s only part of the list. It has been great, and so have more than one hundred twenty volunteers who made their way to Guatemala already in this summer alone. One thing is for sure. If I never sing “Father Abraham” again, it will still be too soon!

Kiss the Cook


by Matt in Guatemala

In my opinion, one of the most dedicated Guatemalans working with HIM in Guatemala is also the least recognized. Her name is Yolanda Castaneda, otherwise known as Doña Yoli. Since Karen set up shop in Zacapa over a decade ago, Doña Yoli has unselfishly dedicated herself to HIM and our mission here in Guatemala.

Many gringos traveling with HIM expect to shed a few unwanted pounds during their week of service work in a third world country where death rates due to malnutrition remain disturbingly high, but Doña Yoli won’t allow anyone to go hungry on her watch. Every day she’s up well before dawn attending to homemade ravioli, enchiladas, salsa, and of course, the endless mounds of guacamole she prepares with loving hands.

One morning, over a cup of coffee, Doña Yoli and I were reminiscing about her work with HIM. We discussed her battle with cervical cancer and how HIM not only gave her weeks off with pay but also helped cover some of the medical bills. That’s Karen for you, part Mother Teresa, part Bette Midler. However, I wasn’t prepared for what she next told me.

When she first worked with HIM and there was no in-country director, there was a Guatemalan woman who paid local employees through HIM. For the first few years Doña Yoli was only given $6 a WEEK for the colossal amount of work she was doing. In fact, she had to lie to her husband about how little she earned because he would have made her quit. I was red in the face with anger, but unfortunately, not surprised. I asked her why she continued to work for so little. Her response was beautiful. She said “I believe in the service HIM is providing for my people and it’s an honor to be part of it no matter how little recognition or compensation I receive.”

Yes, Doña Yoli really IS that humble!

If you are reading this newsletter, there’s a good chance you’ll be visiting Guatemala on a service/mission trip in the near future. Do me a favor: after consuming your delicious lunch, hoist your body from the chair and stagger to the kitchen. Find the sweet little lady with a red HIM apron on and the wooden spoon in hand. Put your arm around her, look her in the eye, and say “Gracias.” She will be beside herself!

Dios Los Bendiga, Mateo

UNITED METHODIST

Fifteen young people from the Griffith church spent all day March 22nd sorting and organizing at our Thrift Store. On Saturday, July 29th over 20 young people and adults from the Crown Point and Lake of Four Seasons Churches worked with Bonnie from our office at the sweltering U-Locks in Schererville, sorting and boxing clothing to ship to Guatemala. Kudos to the Meth. Youth of NW Indiana!
 

Farewell Jernetta!!

After working her way through college at the HIM office in Indiana, Jernetta has graduated and, yes, moved on. She did a lot of work with our trips, so many of you will remember talking with her on the phone or by correspondence. We wish her the best as she moves a little farther south and takes a position doing what she loves best…. “playing” with her computer. She has signed on with a Fortune 500 company as an I T Analyst.
Good Luck, Jernetta!

The Children of Abraham and HIM

Recently we were contacted by our friends from the organization, The Children of Abraham, because they had a need for hospital beds for Afghanistan. HIM was able to send TEN hospital beds their way. Even before this opportunity to share, The Children of Abraham have donated all kinds of goodies to HIM for use in surgery.
How great it is that we can help each other! Our combined efforts can make an even greater difference in the lives of people in need.