Alright, my last few blogs have been pretty depressing so
I’m going to attempt to lighten the mood a little:
Those of us who’ve been feeling sick seem to be on the
up-and-up. We’ve got a lot of medication
floating around the house right now and the illnesses are being fought
off. Personally, I’ve got a lot more
energy than I have had for a while, but I can tell I’m not at 100%. I’m still on antibiotics and hoping that once
I finish them up I’ll start getting completely back to normal. Part of the problem might also be that I tend
to try and play soccer, go on hikes, and do other physically demanding things
before I should…no surprise there.
Friday, I went with the rest of team NEON to visit, play
with, and do a VBS at the local orphanage. We taught a Bible story, sang some songs, colored, and played quite a
few games. You may have heard the story
from my teammate’s blogs, but the orphanage is run by a corrupt man who is
doing more harm than good. Most of the
money that is donated never makes it to where it is needed. Even equipment that is given to the orphanage
is sold off so he can keep the money and spend it elsewhere. Apparently he has friends in high places…in
politics…and probably won’t be brought to justice in this life. Anyway, our best ministry there is just
spending time loving on the kids. It was
my first time back since we had started the VBS and I was amazed by how
interested and interactive the kids where. I loved it when Kelly asked the kids, “Why are we here?” Their answer was, “Because Jesus loves
us!” That’s it…we weren’t there so we
could check some box to say we’d done our good deed for the day, or so we could
feel better about ourselves. No. We are in Guatemala, at an orphanage because
Jesus loves them…because Jesus cares about them…because Jesus died for them.
on a church that is being built in the area. It is going to be a pretty simple structure, but one of the main
obstacles has been carving out the side of a hill so the building can be
level. Ultimately, it will be a handful
of wooden columns that supports a palm branch roof. There are no walls, just a dirt floor with a
couple fluorescent lights that hang from a cord running overhead. It was pretty hot out and with little shade
around the work site, we got tired pretty easily.
to meet up with the rest of the squad. From there we are going to be making our way to Nicaragua. We’ve heard some about the situation
currently going on in Honduras so we may have to find a way to get to Nicaragua
via El Salvador. In total it will
probably be about three days on buses before we make it to our next location
for the month. This will probably be my
last post from Guatemala, so I’ll sign off for now and reconnect when we’re in
a new location.
