We’ve been staying in the highlands of Guatemala in a very small Mayan community called Los Robles for the past few days. We arrived on Thursday after a one-day delay because of severe mudslides in the area. We took a shuttle from Antigua towards Panajachel, got dropped off on the side of the highway, huddled under a shack in the pouring rain and hailed a pickup truck to take us 20 minutes to our ministry site. So 5 of us rode in the back of the truck in the rain with our giant packs over pot holes and beside boulders… it definitely felt like the World Race had begun!
We arrived safely at Casa de Sion (a community centre of sorts), met our ministry hosts and found our rooms. This organization focuses on nutrition and education for women and children. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they have classes for the mothers and playtime for their children and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they invite approximately 60 children down after school (which is right next door) for a nutritious meal and 3 extra hours of educational time. We’ve been playing with the precious kids and doing some maintenance work around the main building.
Many of the people in the community are malnourished because they live off a diet which consists mainly of corn which means their growth is very stunted. I asked these beautiful little girls what their names are and how old they are and although they appear to be about 5 or 6 they are actually 10 or 11. We’ve also made a very good friend named Erwin. He’s 8 and lives at the community centre with us, his father and older brother. They were rescued from living on the streets after the mother passed away during childbirth. He’s an incredibly smart little man who’s inquisitive and just needs a lot of love.
This weekend we paid about 0.80 cents to take a bus into Panajachel which is a beautiful tourist town on Lake Attitlan. We had the immense privilege to meet an incredible American couple named Robert and Bobbi while on our search for a hostel (we were so frustrated with the locals following us around that we decided it was time to just look for some white people). They’ve lived here for about 4 years and they invited us to their home for a delicious meal, wonderful conversations and use of their internet and telephone. We left inspired, loved and with new lifelong friends who blessed us so much.
To everyone who’s praying for us back home… thank you! Please continue to pray for divine appointments, intentional relationships and that God’s love will shine through us. We love and miss you all so much!
