Friday in El Maguey
This has been the most difficult blog to write, because Friday was such an emotional day. The team awoke and dressed in our team polo shirts for the house blessing ceremonies to be held. Three blessings, three emotional families, three opportunities to praise God for what He has provided. Pastor Gerardo led us in singing, praying, and dedicating the houses as homes for not only the recipients, but also as places for God's love to live and grow. The American team presented each house recipient family with a beautiful handmade cross (thanks, Dave Reed!) a framed certificate giving all glory to God, and three wonderful quilts sewn with love by the women of Carmel Lutheran Church. The services were heartfelt and emotional, and the house recipients had an opportunity to share their feelings at the wonderful gifts that God has given them.. Doña Hermalinda read from Psalms, number 100, to express her joy. Sister Reyna also shared a Bible passage in giving thanks. And Sister Mercy, overwhelmed with emotion, was able to share Psalm 127. Her daughter, Monica, blessed us all by singing in English, "Jesus Loves Me." I guarantee that there was not a dry eye in the house, and some of us (no names, here) were reduced to sobs.
Romiro shared that these houses were Miracles of God numbers 40, 41, and 42 in El Maguey.
The house recipients were gracious and grateful for the hard work of the American team this week, and gave us mementos to bring home with us. Sister Hermalinda saved for weeks to purchase perfumes and colognes for each of us, which we accepted in the love that it was given (and did not comment upon the fact that we must have smelled especially bad to her!). Reyna and Robin presented us with beautiful bracelets (mine looks like it is made of Spree candies!), and Mercy made hand-made fabric bags for each of the women.
There are no words to describe the goodbyes -- we hugged as many children (and adults) as we could, and through our tears wished them God's blessings, and vowed in our hearts that we would see them all again soon.
Bill C. led devotion in the bus on the way to Guatemala City, reading from the Wall Street Journal Christmas Eve edition, an editorial called "In Hoc Anno Domini" which has appeared in the issue of the WSJ preceding Christmas Day since 1949. What a wonderful reminder to us that we are fighting a battle daily to keep God in our hearts and to share His love with others, and as much as the world has changed in the past 60 years, that has not changed at all. In the darkness of our days, there is a light, and that light is Jesus Christ who gave everything to save us all. Bill's devotion reminded us that sharing the truth of The Light should always be our focus and our goal.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday in El Maguey
1/27/11
Thursday, the final day of work on the houses, was a little lighter day for us. We started the day with devotion led by Paula, who talked about keeping God as our focus throughout our days, not only when things are difficult, but also when things are going well. She read from the book of Psalms, chapter 127, which reads,
"Unless the Lord builds a house,
its builders labor over it in vain;
unless the Lord watches over a city,
the watchman stays alert in vain."
Electrical work and other finishing touches took place in the houses, and Nicole spent the morning cutting hair for several of the local ladies, kids, and Romiro. We took a trip to Maxi Bodega and picked up snack food in preparation for community movie night at the church, and spent quite a bit of time picking up trash around the church courtyard in anticipation of our event. Bible school was the story of the boy with the loaves and the fishes. We wanted to reinforce to the children that every one of us can help Jesus, if we give what we have with love in our hearts. To remind the children of the power that they have, we made necklaces with two fish beads and five other beads (representing the five loaves). They also made a service coupon offering to help a family member or friend. We ended with parachutes and balls, of course, and we were sad that it was our last day of class. Kids are hard to count, as they are always in motion, but we are pretty sure there were more than seventy kids!
After dinner at the hotel, we packed up and headed back to El Maguey for movie night! We showed our Guatemala 2010 video - a big hit! - and then the feature film, Toy Story. It was fun for us gringos to see the familiar film in Spanish, and the community turned out for the film. More than 100 people packed the church, and based on the applause at the end, I think they all enjoyed the movie. By the way, 100 people out of a town of 900 was pretty great, don't you think?
Thursday, the final day of work on the houses, was a little lighter day for us. We started the day with devotion led by Paula, who talked about keeping God as our focus throughout our days, not only when things are difficult, but also when things are going well. She read from the book of Psalms, chapter 127, which reads,
"Unless the Lord builds a house,
its builders labor over it in vain;
unless the Lord watches over a city,
the watchman stays alert in vain."
Electrical work and other finishing touches took place in the houses, and Nicole spent the morning cutting hair for several of the local ladies, kids, and Romiro. We took a trip to Maxi Bodega and picked up snack food in preparation for community movie night at the church, and spent quite a bit of time picking up trash around the church courtyard in anticipation of our event. Bible school was the story of the boy with the loaves and the fishes. We wanted to reinforce to the children that every one of us can help Jesus, if we give what we have with love in our hearts. To remind the children of the power that they have, we made necklaces with two fish beads and five other beads (representing the five loaves). They also made a service coupon offering to help a family member or friend. We ended with parachutes and balls, of course, and we were sad that it was our last day of class. Kids are hard to count, as they are always in motion, but we are pretty sure there were more than seventy kids!
After dinner at the hotel, we packed up and headed back to El Maguey for movie night! We showed our Guatemala 2010 video - a big hit! - and then the feature film, Toy Story. It was fun for us gringos to see the familiar film in Spanish, and the community turned out for the film. More than 100 people packed the church, and based on the applause at the end, I think they all enjoyed the movie. By the way, 100 people out of a town of 900 was pretty great, don't you think?
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday in El Maguey
1/26/11
Wednesday we started off the morning with devotion led by Larry, who talked about the difficulties he encounters in his industry sharing his faith with non-believers. He shared that the verses that he falls back on to support his faith are those that remind us of God's love. He read from 1 Corinthians, listing what love is and what it is not. We got to work after that, mixing more cement (most of us) and doing more work on the houses. After lunch the women of the group were led by the children to see one of their houses, where the famous Mickey Mouse lives (Mickey is a pet rat). We followed along to the basketball court/ soccer field and played for awhile, and the girls collected bouquets of flowers for us during our walk back to the church. Bible school was the story of the Prodigal Son, and we reinforced the lessons of the previous days (not sure the littlest ones will remember - when I asked if anyone could name one of the fruits of the spirit, one little girl called out "strawberry!"). After talking about how God always forgives, and welcomes us home with open arms, we brought out the kids favorite game - parachutes and beach balls! Wednesday was our night away from official activities, so we all went to our favorite Zacapa restaurant, El Establo, for pizza and cervezas. More photos soon!
Wednesday we started off the morning with devotion led by Larry, who talked about the difficulties he encounters in his industry sharing his faith with non-believers. He shared that the verses that he falls back on to support his faith are those that remind us of God's love. He read from 1 Corinthians, listing what love is and what it is not. We got to work after that, mixing more cement (most of us) and doing more work on the houses. After lunch the women of the group were led by the children to see one of their houses, where the famous Mickey Mouse lives (Mickey is a pet rat). We followed along to the basketball court/ soccer field and played for awhile, and the girls collected bouquets of flowers for us during our walk back to the church. Bible school was the story of the Prodigal Son, and we reinforced the lessons of the previous days (not sure the littlest ones will remember - when I asked if anyone could name one of the fruits of the spirit, one little girl called out "strawberry!"). After talking about how God always forgives, and welcomes us home with open arms, we brought out the kids favorite game - parachutes and beach balls! Wednesday was our night away from official activities, so we all went to our favorite Zacapa restaurant, El Establo, for pizza and cervezas. More photos soon!
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