The first week in Guatemala was so great! Our first day in ministry we went to a local prison in Santa Cruz Del Quiche where there are 150 prisoners. Ricardo (Ricky) is the man who works at the prison and has a relationship with the guards and inmates at the prison. According to Ricky, somewhere around 80 percent of the prisoners are innocent and are only in jail because they wouldn't or couldn't succumb to police officers corruption. We felt very welcome when we got to the prison. We were at the prison on Monday and Tuesday.
We were informed that we would be painting a new dorm room that was build for the female guards. There are no female prisoners at this prison but since they have female visitors at times, they need female guards in order to do the pat-downs. We painted the inside and outside walls of the new dorm. The team created a mural on the outside wall with Bible verses and other paintings. It really turned out great!
Ricky asked us not to bring our cameras to the prison and not to take any pictures in respect to the prisoners and to allow us to focus on ministry. After painting on Monday, we were able to bring snacks to the prisoners and got to meet all of them. We also were able to see one of their cells. They have three cells at the prison so there are about 50 people per cell. The cells are designed to have about 30 people in them so there are approximately 20 people sleeping in the bathroom. The living conditions were not ideal, even for 30 people, but the people are hopeful.
The rest of the week we spent at Pastor David's two churches. On Wednesday, the whole team went to his new church plant. The women were asked to "rest" while Christopher and I screwed floor boards to the balcony area where they will teach children English and how to use computers.
The following day, Christopher and I returned to the new church and built a handrail and finished up some things up in the balcony. The ladies went to Pastor David's current church and began painting his office. On Friday, we all went to the current church and finished up the painting. Christopher and I got to meet the whole family and eat lunch with them. The children are all great and Rene (the oldest) speaks English pretty fluently. Some pictures of the family members are below. Sorry I don't have a picture of the entire family yet!
This is the oldest son, Rene with Erin
This is the youngest, Julio with Michelle K and Christopher
