Guatemala Team Reports

As we were settling into our evening devotions tonight, a steady stream of loud music rudely began playing from the next hillside over. Marco told us it would probably play all night, which of course would not only interrupt the devotions but also our sleep!

But once Marco explained that a family had lost their two-year-old child, and that the all-night music was part of the grieving process in this culture our mood quickly changed from annoyance to acceptance and empathy – we could deal with late-night music under these circumstances. In fact after devotions some of our team members, led by Marco, made the walk over to the family’s house to offer prayers and condolences.

We arrived at the village in the late afternoon, our stove installation training, a morning of church and an hour-and-a-half drive out to La Capilla (counting a construction delay) now behind us.

We had one of the more unusual greetings I’ve encountered in my eight trips to Guatemalan villages – a merry band of clowns and cross-dressers urged us to follow them up the hill to the large stage by the village courtyard, where we were soundly welcomed by village officials and the villagers and given a chance to make our own speeches and introduce ourselves before the large gathering of villagers.

Once offstage we were treated to a dance by a group of young girls followed by another performance from the clowns and cross dressers.

We also performed for them, singing the faithfull classic “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” in both English and Spanish.

All that was followed by a series of hugs from many of the villagers and lots of interplay with the children. Marco, Zach and Erich joined a couple dozen of the boys out on the soccer pitch using some of the new soccer balls we brought while the rest of us stayed in the courtyard, where the kids played basketball with the two roundballs Tom purchased for them.

It was a heartwarming day, all of it. We are glad to be here.

Brian