Day Four - Thursday, March 29

We're not sure if it was the roosters crowing, or the pig sounding like it was going to it's end, or the black birds that give out a loud whistle/shriek, or perhaps a combination of all three, but our team was awakened just after sunrise at. We needed to have showers, get dressed & have breakfast quickly as we were leaving to having devotions with the students at Beerseba Purulha, the third of the four schools run by Impact Ministries. Everbody feels the ache of new found muscles from yesterday's dig and so we are not moving as spryly as we might otherwise.

We loaded up our vans, along with the teachers from Beerseba Chicoy, the second of the four schools, for the 25 minute drive to Purulha. The teachers of Chicoy & Mocohan (fourth school & the school that last years Bearspaw team dug foundations for) are driven out every morning for classes and returned to Tactic at the end of each day. With all the travel of transporting teachers & missions teams, staff & emergent needs, Impact Ministries has a network of vehicles and drivers that are constantly on the go! It's a fine oiled machine, but machines, as do vehicles, can break down & then everyone is left standing around waiting.




Purulha is a small school of about 40 students. The community gave Impact Ministries permission to use an already built school that was sitting empty, which was very exciting. But, the school has had a difficult start due to opposition from a few in the community who are distrustful of Impact Ministries & the Christian message they bring. Distrustful to the point that a rumour was started in the community that the real reason Impact Ministries was there, was to kidnap the children & take them to Canada to make them into soap! As a result only 12 students showed up on opening day. But the teachers who had been hired for Purulha believed so much in what they were doing, all of them being graduates from Beerseba Chamche, that they went door to door talking with families & building up the enrollment. That's committment!




Devotions with the students in Purulha ends with another hugging line.

Then, it's back to Beerseba Chamche for childrens ministry with the grades 2,3 & 4 students. We have power, so all the dramas have music, the children are older and less prone to running about aimlessly, and many of them seriously attempt to help the team with their Spanish. Today's activities are marred only by the fact that the temperature is soaring to 28 degrees Celsius & the balloon animals can be heard popping all around the school campus.

A lunch of ... you guessed it, chicken & rice, and then we are off to the work site. When we arrive, a large crowd of children has already gathered for the show. However, today, many of the children pitch in and help with the digging. This leaves many of our team members free to play soccer, visit & play games with the rest of the watchers. Periodic rain showers help to cool us off, so the work is very refreshing for all.

After showers, we head off to the Peter's residence for meatloaf dinner. Not chicken! The evening ends with another sharing time & hearing from Zaak about the sponsorship program with Impact Ministries. For $36 a month, each sponsor child gets their school tuition paid for, get a school uniform & a hot meal each school day. As well, they will receive a gift on their birthday & at christmas, plus their family will have free medical care through the Impact Ministries medical clinic, such as what we are offering. On Saturday, we will visit a total of 18 sponsor children that this team & the families of Bearspaw are sponsoring. What an opportunity! God is good!

Day Three - Wednesday, March 28

It's to be our first full day in Tactic. Our first day of ministry that we have been preparing for months for. The team is excited, so most of us are up early.

Showering is a novel experience for most of the team. The shower head contains an “in-line” heater so that when water passes through, it turns on and heats the water. So, one is faced with a choice: a trickle of water that is quite hot or jets of very lukewarm water. Jets might be overly generous since only 7 of the possible 20 or so holes are clear of scale so that water runs through them. And, the ones that are open don't all point in the same direction. The shower head could use a good dousing in CLR!



Everyone heads out to Beerseba Chamche for 7:30 AM devotion with the students. Beerseba Chamche is the first of 4 schools run by Impact Ministries and all four schools start their day with a half hour devotion & worship time. In an effort to teach the children the value of being on time, the gate to the school is locked at 7:30. If a student is late, they won’t be able to attend to school that day. As the bell rings to call students to devotion, one boy runs through the gate with sweat beaded on his forehead. He has been running for quite a while to be on time. (Hmm, I wonder if this technique would work at Bearspaw?)

200 children pour into the main hall to join us for worship. Worship at Beerseba is loud! The children sing with full out devotion at the top of their lungs with hands held high and their eyes closed tight. Listening to them worship is a moving experience for many of the team. Our eyes brimming with tears, we reflect on how different our worship in Canada is. Many of these little children have home & family situations that are heartbreaking, and most are hearing for the first time in their lives, about the love & hope that Christ offers. This is heart of Impact Ministries and the reason we have travelled so far.



Devotions close with a "hugging" line as the children attemt to hug every team member before returning to their classrooms.

While Dr. Garth (we can't call him Dr. Mortis because it sounds like Dr. Death in Spanish, not a good name to build patient trust with), Mrs. Henders (our nurse), Stefanie & Tom (soon to be pharmacists) go to set up the Medical Clinic, the rest of the team has a quick walk back to our guest-house for breakfast. Fresh pineapple, mangos and "ChocoKrispies" are consumed with great enthusiasm. No toast, unfortunately, as the power has gone out to most of Tactic. Then it's back to Beerseba Chamche for children's ministry.

The team meets with 90 Kindergarten & Grade One students, who have been praying for our arrival for a number of weeks. We do our best to teach them new songs in Spanish (ironic for a group of english-speaking North Americans) & invite them to participate in actions to our English worship songs.
The two "box" dramas go over very well, despite not having their music soundtracks. The power is still out.



The children are split into boys & girls for various activities. The boys go outside to play soccer & get balloon animals, while the girls stay in the main hall to colour & get their faces painted. About half-way through, the groups switch so that all the children get to do all activities. At the end of 2 hours of play, the children seem to have built up a lot of energy, while our team seems to have exhausted their supply. It's a quiet walk to the Peter's residence for lunch; delicious chicken sandwiches.

In the afternoon, our team is driven through Tactic to a patch of land that was given to Impact Ministries to build a school on. The story goes that Impact Ministries had bought some land outside of Tactic to build a medical clinic & school on, but it would take some time to be able to begin to develop the land. The mayor met with Les Peters and asked why the school was being built outside of Tactic. Les's response was that that was where Impact Ministries could get land. It was too expensive to buy land inside of Tactic. As the story goes, the mayor looked at one of the members of council & asked them to tour Les through several parcels of land that were available inside of Tactic. When the tour was finished, Les was asked to choose the best parcel of land, and the mayor gave it to him for free, to build a medical clinic & school on! Wow.



When we arrived at the land, we saw that it sat between two very high ridges on both sides. Our task, was to take one of those steep ridges, bring it down about 4 feet, and level it into a 20 x 60 foot area for the top floor of the clinic/school complex. With little hesitation, and even less of a plan, the team took to the task with hoes, pick-axes & shovels. Imagine the flurry of activity & dirt! Before too long, most of the team was covered in soil, and I mean covered. This was partly due to a lack of ability with the tools we were using, but mostly due to the crowded conditions & poor aim of people throwing dirt/sod over the edge of the ridge.

After two and a half hours, the team returned to the guest-house for showers leaving the ridge a bit lower and the locals who gathered to watch, fairly bemused. Quite the crowd of Guatemalans, young & old, developed over the course of the afternoon to watch the "loco gringos" do battle with the earth. Perhaps they went home to tell their neighbours, for the next day would prove to bring an even bigger crowd of sight-seers.

After a dinner of Guatemalan chicken chow mein, Les led the team in a time of reflecting on the sights & sounds that the day held. Many of the team members reflected on how intensely the children at Beerseba Chamche worshiped, contrasting this with the often lack of enthusiasm they see at home. Others spoke of how happy the Guatemalan people seemed, despite the poverty & lack of material belongings. Still others spoke of how open & accepting the people are to strangers, the fact that they would freely hug us, or, sit and talk with us despite knowing very little of each others language. Some pretty big lessons in God's true plan for mankind.

After lights out at 11:00 pm, it very quickly becomes quiet in the guest house. Very tired bodies don't stay alert for long after becoming horizontal. What a day to remember!

Technical Difficulties

So sorry to all of you. I have been experiencing lots of difficulties in getting a computer to properly access the blogsite. Perhaps the challenges with using 1st world technology in a 3rd world country. Perhaps just challenges with using a Mac. (ooh, that hurt to say) Sorry Mr. Mel.

Now that computer access is solved, I will update you quickly over the next day or so.

I will add a date (since the blog site date you see is the day the blog is posted) so you can follow our activities chronologically. I will add pictures as I can.

Thanks for hanging in there. And thanks to those of you who are posting comments on the blogs. It's good to know you are following us.

Blessings.

Day Two (Dos) - Tuesday, March 27

Woke about between 5:30 & 6:00 this morning.

In Guatemala, birthdays are celebrated by firing off fire-crackers... early in the morning of your birthday. 3 people who must live right outside the seminary walls were having birthdays this morning! Hello to the new day.




Everything is so green here. The morning is warm.

The team heads out to Pollo Campero's for breakfast. They have this great spicy green sauce that goes good with just about anything (except pancakes). We had our first taste of Gautemalan coffee with breakfast. It is so smooth! Even those who don't normally drink coffee are enjoying it.

Today, we visit the main square in Guatemala City. This area used to be the center of all of Central America at one time. It has a huge square with a Catholic cathedral to the south, the Royal Palace on the east side & various business buildings on the west side. First we visit the cathedral.



Because it is the week before Holy Week, the church has huge purple banners on it's pillars & various displays of Jesus at points leading up to his crucifixion. Lots of candles are lit & a few faithful are praying. One man is sitting in the pew next to his praying wife, reading the newspaper.

In the main hall of the cathedral, we can see Christ on the cross. But, directly behind him is the Mayan sun god. Also, in one of the alcoves, a black Christ hangs on the cross.



We are told that throughout Latin America, when Catholicism moved in with the Spanish invasion, the indigenous people embraced the Catholic church. However, they did not give up their Mayan religion. As a result, the Catholic church in Central America has "syncrotized" Christianity with Mayan beliefs. In Mayan religion, there is a "black" god & this is syncrotized into the church with the black Christ on the cross. We watched as a lady lit candles at the base of the black Christ and then proceeded to wipe some substance in her hand up & down the black Christ's legs. In the cathedral is a plaque indicating it was built in 1534. Wow!! Another plaque speaks of John Paul II's visit to the cathedral in 2003. Past & present history on facing walls.



We leave to the cathedral to visit the Royal Palace. This is the seat of goverment in Guatemala & lots of tourists are visiting; much like we would visit the Alberta Legislature. We see traditional & modern Mayan works of art, as well as huge tapestries with images of the Mayan-Spanish clash and ultimately the joining of the two cultures into what is today Latin America.

As we walk through the main square, a man brings his 7/8 goats to wander around the fountains. He controls his small herd with a huge whip (Indiana Jones style) that cracks like gunshots. There is no grass for the goats & they can't get at the water in the fountain, so we weren't sure why they were there. Tourists, women in local dress selling Guatemalan blankets, goats & huge flocks of pigeons. All the while cars, buses, mopeds & trucks honk their way through narrow streets around the main square. The new world & the old world are side by side all around us!

After this taste of the old & the new, we begin our journey to Tactic. Where we will be staying for the majority of our time in Guatemala is only 184 km's from the main square in Guatemala City. But, due to the mountaineous terrain & volume of traffic on the two-lane highway, it takes us over 4 hours to make the trip. 31 of us are packed into three 12-passenger vans for the journey. We pass through desert, mountains, lush forests & plains on our way to Tactic. But, what amazes the team most is how Guatemalans drive. Most of the highway is two lane, with a solid line down the middle, and curves every few hundred metres. Everybody passes everybody at any moment! Sometimes there are three lanes of traffic on the two lane highway. We dodge oncoming traffic to go around slow moving trucks & buses, who are usually moved into the middle of the highway to avoid hitting people of all ages walking along the side of the highway. It's an amazing dance, all to the tune of honking horns & flashing lights to say "we're passing you", "thanks for letting us pass", "hi", "move over" & "here we come"! Every day activities for Guatemalans, momentarily terrifying for us Canadians (many moments). The rule of the road, is that there are no rules of the road; just don't hit each other.

We arrive safely in Tactic to our guest house which is brimming with luggage that was delivered earlier in the day. The new tenants move in & then it's off to Les & Rita Peters home for dinner, our hosts with Impact Ministries. We get to walk along the highway we just drove on, where it straightens for the first time in 184 km's. It's a great place for all traffic to pick up speed! We are so relieved to reach our destination 15 minutes later with all of our team members.

The evening is spent with introductions, eating our 3rd chicken meal in 24 hours & learning about the ministry opportunities in store for us. Welcome to Guatemala!

When it's time to sleep, we sleep!

Day One (Dias Uno) - Monday, March 26

We are here!! No one is missing.

We arrived in Guatemala 1 hour after posted time due to weather in Dallas. We left Dallas in horizontal rain showers & arrived in 18 degrees Celsius weather on a balmy evening.



Our day started early, most of the team was at the Calgary airport by 5:00 AM. There was a flurry of checking passports, handing out e-tickets & lining up for flight check-in. Everybody had a passport, good thing! Unfortunately, one of us had an expired passport... bad thing! But, with a lot of help from above & a world-record round trip from the airport to the Bearspaw area and back, everyone was through customs & ready to board by 7:10 AM.



After lots of card games, napping, laughter & free pop, we arrived in Dallas ahead of schedule for a 4 hour layover. When we finally boarded for our flight to Guatemala city, we sat on the runway for an hour waiting for 23 planes ahead of us to take off. It was pouring "cats & dogs" (there was a tornado watch southwest of us)!!

But, we arrived safely & with ALL of our luggage! 31 of us poured out of the aeropuerto in Guatemala City ready for an adventure of God-directed proportions. We were greeted by our Impact Ministry hosts; Zaak, Eric & Israel. They whisked us away to the Seteca Seminary where we had our first Guatemalan meal of chicken burgers or chicken salad from Pollo Campero's. What a day... and it's only just begun.

Here's just a few more pictures of the day.