The power of prayer - El Tineco & La Palmera

Jesus, Thank You for coming to earth and making Yourself known in a way that humans could understand. Thank You for this opportunity now to spend time with communities of people that are different from us. Help us to be sensitive to the different ways that other people view the world and to the ways that You are already at work here. Amen

Today we visited El Tineco, and again, swarmed by children. It's really fun to experience. They're so excited and they always celebrate our time together with firecrackers. El Tineco is the community we helped fund for a new classroom. We also helped move rock and sand during the building of the foundation. The classroom looked great! We shared welcomes, prayers and thank yous. The 4th graders sang the Guatemalan National Anthem and the 1st graders performed a traditional Guatemalan dance for us. 

We toured the village and David's farm. Nick & Shelby stayed back to hang out & play soccer with the children. 

While they were gone, we taught them some English and we learned some Spanish. 

It was tough! My tongue doesn't move the way it should!! 

We then ate lunch in the new classroom and headed to La Palmera 

(A story from Nick) Today was great because some question marks in my head were answered and I couldn't be happier. If you remember my short testimony from last year in El Tineco, a young boy, named Esdras, made a big impact on me. There were several reasons he made an impact on me during last year's trip: First, his excitment of our team's visit; second, we were drawn to each other and hung out both days we worked on the classroom; third, he had a great sense of humor, smiled a lot and was playful. He was also a jokester like me; forth, I was impressed with his brain and his effort in learning English. When we arrived and throughout the presentation I didn't see him. It was hard because I couldn't wait to see him and I had a lot of questions to ask him. I asked the teacher were he was and she said he graduated from 6th grade and is now enrolled at a 7-9th grade school down the road. He walks 30 minutes to his new school. I was happy to know he continued his education because that was something I had thought about all year, was funding his education. Typically, once a student finishes 6th grade, they either start working or continue education only if they can afford it. Not only afford the school supplies but the meals and transportation. That is why so many children in small villages don't go further in their education. Again, I was happy to hear this and happy I met his sister, Orquidea (Or-key-tee-a, which means orchid) so she could give him the photos I took of him from the previous year. I was just sad because I thought I would not see him, since this was our only visit of the week. But, during a soccer game, as I was tending the goal, I heard a voice call my name. It was Esdras!! I was overjoyed to say the least! We caught up, played soccer, I met some of his siblings and we talked. I'm very proud of him and so happy we got to spend time together. He was eager to learn more English and learned "Nick lives in Minnesota". I told him some day he can be a translator and work for World Renew. 

(Esdras in black, his sister Orquidea and their cousin)

We've been seeing a lot of farming technics and different crops the past few days so we asked Jeff to let us know his thoughts. He is very interested, if you can imagine, and is enjoying learning how they farm in this part of the world. His thoughts are below. 

(Notes from Jeff) Monday, we were invited by Carlos to his farm where he owns about an acre. Even though it's a small plot of land, he grows 16 different varieties of plants. His house sits on top of his land so all his gray water runs through two tire filters then down to all the various plants below. He raises some plants to eat and medicine for his family and others as well. Some plants he sells are coffee beans, coco, and loofa (ask a female). Have bees of my own, I was impressed when he pointed out 3 bee hives that hung from his house. 

In El Tineco, we visited David's farm. He owns 1 1/4 acres where he uses his own fertilizer where it's produced in two different ways. One was the traditional dry leaf material pile, which takes 40 days. The other, was with worms (read "In Motion" 2/27/14 ). He is currently in conversation with a company to plant and grow passion fruit. They are working on a contract where the company would supply them the seedlings and David and other farmers would grow it and sell it back to the company. 

Please pray this makes a big impact with the farmers and community. 

We arrived in La Palmera and started painting the school right away. 

Soon after the kids arrived and we started games, songs, bible story time and soccer. 

Please continue to keep Party in your prayers. She went to another doctor and found out she had a parasite. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon. Pray for the children and their education and for the farmers that they have healthy crops. 

Check in tomorrow as we travel to Monte Margarita and also meet with pastors. 

God Bless