HOLA! Today, we woke in Quetzaltenango. A fun fact - Quetzaltenango is also called, or known by, Xelajuj, which is Mayan. Xelajuj is pronounced "Shayla-hoohk" but because the country's primary language is Spanish, the city is called Quetzaltenango. The locals mostly refer to it as Shayla = Xela. The Mayan "X" sounds like "Sh"
We drove to Hotel La Colonia in Retalhuleu to drop off our luggage then drove to the Helvetia community to drop off school supplies and chairs for the local church. This is the place, or farm, you may have heard the returning missionaries speak how bad the people were treated by the farm owner. Since the first mission to Helvetia, there has been a new owner of the land and he has built a brand new school. We think the people are being treated much better but we don't know the heart of the owner. These are the people, the returning missionaries said, who seemed hopeless. It was a relief the atmosphere has changed for the better but there was still a sense of hopelessness in their eyes. The kids were VERY excited to see us. They were very happy to receive the school supplies and bracelets too!!! Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long, but it was very refreshing to experience the excitement in their voices and their smiling faces. We then made a pit stop, by the church, to drop off the chairs. They invited us in. I'm glad we didn't just stop to hand out chairs and only see the church, but actually spent much time listening to their concerns and spent time in prayer with them. You could feel God's spirit in that place and in their hearts. It was sad to go, but before we did, they surprised us with watermelon.
We then took off for the school in Esperanza. The children waited about 300 to 400 yards down the hill from their school to wait for our arrival. They patiently waited with a sign and with firecrackers. It was their way of showing their appreciation for our visit. Because the teachers had already left for the day, we decided to wait until tomorrow to present the school supplies. However, a small news team was there to film and capture the relationship between Pease and these communities. A representative of the community wanted to take advantage of the news team as a way to show the public and government that it's communities are receiving no help from their government. We pray for this situation and that the government decides to start helping. So, because of this, we presented the some of the supplies to the 6th graders. The rest will be presented tomorrow for the teachers to see. We then tied the bracelets on each child and some adults wrist. Patty, our interpreter, explained what each color meant to the kids. It was very cool how she didn't only explain what the colors meant, but made sure they understood by interacting and having them repeat. She is a great and enthusiastic teacher! She later shared with us a very cool testimony. The trip to these two communities, we had to have two police escorts. While we were in Esperanza Miralta, one of the officers over heard Patty explaining what the bracelets meant with the children and asked her to explain it to him. It was not long and the other officer was interested and listened. When we got back to the hotel, Pastor Michael offered to give them the paper that explained what the colors stood for - "Si" they loved it. They replied, "we talked and rehearsed what Patty shared with them the whole drive back to the hotel. They wanted to make sure they remembered. How Great!!!!
Before we left, however, we had a job to start. The project in Esperanza consists of building a kitchen for the school. The foundation and footings had been started before we got there. A pile of cement blocks was being held on private property across the street from the school. The reason, so the owner of the house could watch over the cement. Our job today was to move most of the pile to the work site in preparation for tomorrow. Tuesday, the kitchen will go up.
Please pray for Carlos and David as they will stay at the school tonight and watch over the cement blocks so they aren't stolen. Please Pray for the two police officers and please pray for Adolfo, a World Renew representative, as he is feeling sick. Please pray that we continue to have the opportunity to spread God's word like Patty did with the officers. Thank You
Each bead represents:
-Black bead: Sin separates us from God (Romans 3:23)
-Red bead: Jesus shed his blood on the cross to pay for our sins. (Romans 5:8)
-White bead: The blood of Christ washes us pure and white as snow when we accept Him as Lord. (1 John 1:7)
-Blue bead: Water baptism is an outward sign of our faith (Romans 10:9-11)
-Green bead: Our faith grows [like a plant from a seed] as we pray and read the Bible (2 Peter 3:18)
-Gold bead: We will spend eternity in heaven with the Lord (Revelation 21:1-3)
A big Birthday Wish to Alex TenHaken from mom and dad....He turned 5 today
I did not quite understand, but I do now!
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