Today, as we arrived to Monte Margarita we saw the finished road that we had help start last year! We were more amazed to learn that they had received assistance from the mayor of El Palma to add more cement to the roads - the same mayor we had spoken to last year! It was very exciting and felt we helped make a difference in a community.
After a great presentation from the kids of Monte Margarita, we took off for El Tineco. When we arrived, we saw the area for the new classroom that we soon would be helping with. Even here, we learned the mayor sent a backhoe to dig out the area for this classroom to be built. Then the biggest surprise of all.....while we were presenting the school supplies to the children, guess who showed up??!! THE MAYOR! He wanted to see the progress and meet us! Unfortunately, he did not have time to stay as he had a meeting several hours away and didn't want to interrupt us. Adolfo (a World Renew represent) made sure to tell him that we were so pleased to see all the improvements he was making in the communities. He told him we would love to meet with him and thank him in person so he is checking his schedule for Friday afternoon to see if we could stop in his office on our way back to Quetzaltenango. Adolfo is quite certain that God, and our visit last year, is what prompted these improvements to the communities. He says - "it may be only political, but who cares as long as things are getting done to help these people."
Please help us in praying that our words of thanks and gifts, that we plan on leaving with him on Friday, will help him to continue supporting these communities. We will be leaving him a cap and shirt with our church's logo (Thanks Sharon)
It was such an exciting day to see how God is working through us to bring changes to these communities - May God continue to bless our efforts!
-Julee Moorlag
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A fun story to tell -- While in El Tineco, the children wanted to celebrate "National Day of Mother Tongue" - which was actually February 21, but they waited for us to celebrate this National Day, today! They sang the Guatemala National Anthem, among other songs, and the 6th graders did a dance for us. We also got to sing our National Anthem; it was an AWESOME experience.
Much work was accomplished today. We handed out school supplies to two different schools. The first was Monte Margarita and the second being El Tineco. We spent most of our time in El Tineco as we also helped prep to build the new classroom. We hauled a huge pile of rock to the work site, leveled the work site, and got all the barb wire ready. We were very excited to get that accomplished as it would have taken a 3 man crew a solid week to do those three jobs.
Stay tuned for more information on the work to be done in El Tineco
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Overall, it's great to see progress in the communities, Pease Church, has plugged into. It's reassuring to see the hope in their faces and we feed off their energy. Thank God for making this possible. Let us thank God for using us and giving us the opportunity to say "YES" to this mission.
Pray for Monte Margarita and El Tineco. Also keep the mayor in your prayers - Our prayer is he sees God in all this and that God weighs heavy on his heart.
God Bless
Praise God for opening hearts and eyes to see the peoples' needs! God works through officials who might have other agendas! It is wonderful to see the improvements in our friends' lives and environment from just last year. We keep praying for you all! Kris PS enjoy the heat, it's 21 below here
ReplyDeleteExciting to see that your advocacy on behalf of your partners/friends is producing tangible results! Wish I was there with you, I still feel like a member of the Pease team. Say hello to Sadoc, Adolfo, Moises, Patty and David from Vid y Pampanos from me! Randy Hedman
ReplyDeleteWow, that is such an exciting thing to hear! I didn't think the Mayor would give our group a secon thought once we left his office. The road looks wonderful--much different from the photos from last year.
ReplyDeleteMom, I hope you got to see Sara and Alejandro today. Can't wait to see how big he has gotten!
PS-Nick, you must have a lot of patience because there is no way my Mom figured out how to post on her own :)
So....I was having my devotions this morning, and Mark called out, "Hey, Ter....come and read this!" (We have been reading your posts together every morning. I have loved reading each one...reading them and seeing the pictures just brings me right back there...I can hear and see and smell and feel everything, it seems!)
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, what a blessing to get this exciting update that demonstrates a softening and responsiveness on the part of the mayor! I do remember feeling very downhearted...(remember how angry Maya was?)...because we felt our efforts had been without effect. Today we're thanking God that the mayor must have listened and has made some efforts to help the dear people in these communities!
I agree with Randy...wish I were with you...and I still feel like part of the team! God's richest blessings to each of you as you continue to serve alongside our brothers and sisters in Guatemala!!