I went to Panajachel today to help relocate another team, and saw first hand the carnage of the mudslides caused by hurricane Stan on October 4th, 2005. It washed away everything in it’s path, houses, bridges & trees leaving behind a devastated landscape. Because of the mudslides from the surrounding mountains all the debris, trees, boulders, rocks, dirt,, pieces of houses, bridges, etc. has to be physically removed. Because of the economic state of Guatemala virtually all of this is being done by hand.
I can’t paint this picture for you, hundreds of people, men women & children are working to clear the area. While the team was settling in to their new abode I felt led to go out and help the men clearing debris. I could not communicate with them verbally so I grabbed a shovel, within 5 minutes one of the local men in broken English said “I love you man”. We don’t always have to speak to be able to minister to someone, actions speak louder than words more often than not. I said in Spanglish, Jesus, Santos, Dios, Missionary & gestured with praying hands as so they could know that I was an ambassador of Christ. The whole time I was there we laughed back & forth, these are the moments that make the growing pains tolerable.
