All 9 of us left the house at 7am to go to Buena Vista (BV), 2 hours away. Apparently, one of our faithful ministry volunteers (Chochis) that lives in Amatitlan (another area where we do ministry weekly) asked our new ministry to check out BV where her sister lives. The drive was incredible as we passed a multitude of volcanic mountains. I must admit I'm glad chivalry isn't dead, and the guys insisted on riding in the back of the borrowed truck so that we ladies could sit in comfort inside the truck. Now, riding in the back of a truck may sound like an adventure and even kind of macho, but I promise you that the adventure and machoism would literally wear off after the first 15 min or so, especially on the bumpy dirt roads.
Where is BV? Go nowhere and turn left. In reality, I hope to learn the story behind this little village. Apparently at some point in the past a steam driven train ran thru this little village. The main road is literally where the train tracks used to be. And there's a huge old rusted water tank specially made to fill trains still standing along side what is now a road. It reminds me of an old TV series that I can just barely remember called Petitcoat Junction. At one point, the train crossed on a bridge over a fairly narrow river. This part of the train track is still clearly visable. As best I can tell, there is no running water to the homes and no electricity. I'm told that places like tiny corner stores run their electricity off batteries. There are almost no vehicles, however a number of people have bikes. They also seem to be pretty good at repairing them frequently. It's the kind of town where you bathe and wash your clothes in the river, and many children don't own shoes. The kind of town where there is no indoor plumbing, only outside holes for bathrooms. The kind of town where girls and women balance heavy items on their head as they walk down the dirt roads, and brooms are made of strips of sugar cane tied to a stick. The kind of town that demands intense physical labor to survive, thus causing the 30 yr old to look like a 50 yr old. The day we were there it was warm, probably in the 80s out in the sun until it became cloudy later in the afternoon. March and April tend to be windy, and then rainy season starts in May and runs for 6 months. The town is surrounded by volcanoes and unending fields of sugar cane. From the looks of it, I'd say it's about time for harvest, in more than one way.
Chochi's sister and her family allow us to set up at her home, which is a metal shack (see picture). We borrowed plastic chairs and additionally used logs and planks to set up
benches for adults under a huge mango tree. And we spread out a tarp under the shade of a palm and banana tree for the kids just a few yards away. Manuel leads the adults in few songs, tells them about our ministry, and then teaches to them from the Bible. Evangelism is Manuel's passion, and it's so evident in all he does. The other 4 Guatemalans that make up our new ministry team lead the children's ministry. I had no idea that the song, "Father Abraham" was known outside the USA. Hmm. On this day they taught about the obedience of and faithfulness of Isaac. We have almost no craft supplies, so they have to be creative and stretch what little we have. Ruth, one of our Guatemalan team members, drew out the various characters of this story, then photocopied it and cut out each character. Each character was colored with crayons and then pasted onto 1/2 of a popsicle stick and stuck into a 1/2 piece of construction paper that was folded to become a stage.
Oscar used these cut out characters to keep the children's attention and tell the story. Then the team gave the cut out paper characters to the children to be colored, pasted onto sticks, and put onto their own red paper stage. You should see how happy the kids were to do this! I always thought that the purpose behind craft time for kids was to keep the kids attention as they learned. Now I know there's an additional reason. These kids are so excited about what they've done that they run to show their mom and siblings their creation, and thus end up telling and retelling the story. This not only solidifies the story in their head, but passes on the story to those who have never 
heard it. Amazing!According to Chochis, this town has very little Christian influence, and some are likely to have never heard about our Savior Jesus Christ. What a cool opportunity! We had 25ish adults and 25ish kids last Wed and we've announced to them that we'll generally be there every Wednesday at 9am in the future. We finish around noon, and then we eat our bag lunch (typically peanut butter sandwiches). Our host family was kind and gave us tortillas, and another lady went home and made us some hot fresh tortillas too. They have almost nothing, yet they give to us w/o hesitation from their heart.
After lunch, we split into 2 groups to visit folks in their homes. We've learned that people in this culture HIGHLY value people visiting them in their home. We often see people standing or sitting near or in their home, and we stop to talk with them. Usually Manuel or Sandra or Ruth will lead the conversation, and always back up what they are saying with scripture. It's amazing how much they have memorized, and I feel ashamed of how little I have disciplined myself to memorize Bible passages. The people seem genuinely interested and sometimes ask questions. We always encourage them to attend our weekly programs.
There's a block school house in town with 2 semi-attached rooms made of bamboo and tree limbs. The teachers in the school have invited us to come into the classroom as much and as often as we'd like to interact and teach the kids (kind of like vacation Bible school). I'm sure this is one area that we'll soon explore.
I also anticipate that once I get medical supplies, I'll be routinely doing clinics (along with teams) in this village. The people in this town seem so very genuinely appreciative of anything you do for them. They are very poor, but very content.
I think the ministry in this village has the potential to quickly grow by leaps and bounds. We're looking at options of places where we can have our programs with larger amounts of people, especially in rainy season. We've been told about 1 piece of land for sale in the center of town that could be purchased, cleared, and have a concrete slab laid with a metal roof for about $1200. That would be awesome. I'm very excited to see what the Lord does in this village.
I've got lots of pictures of this village on my Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment