My Sweet Refuge

Yesterday we delivered the truck load of medical supplies we brought from Guatemala City to the Peten. My Sweet Refuge is the first and only Nursing Home in the Peten or Guatemala for that matter. Sonia and Roberto Rivera started the project 4 years ago in there home and had to move to a bigger place when they had over 30 homeless men living in a 2 bedroom home. No man was turned away and every man died receiving Christ. Sonia and her husband gave each person who passed a respectful funeral with a box instead of a plastic bag.

Now it has grown to over 60 people and she has a full time staff and a new building. God has done so much from 2 years ago when I sat in the kitchen of her house talking about the vision God gave her and not having enough money to feed the guys, as a rat crawled across the electric cord in the rafters. The Guatemalan government has notice the success and gave a grant to build 13 more homes all over Guatemala by 2010 using My Sweet Refuge as a model.

After we delivered all our medical supplies I heard two of the residents here playing the guitar and worshiping God. I grabbed my camera and asked them to start again and they graciously started from the beginning. (I will download soon) The old guitar had a old rusty nail tied with a rope for a capo and they sang their hearts out as another old man sat on the bed and wept, while then other guy shaved his face, without looking I may add, and shouted Hallelujah.

My Sweet Refuge is a modest place and makes our worst Nursing homes in the states look like a five star Hotel. Just the laundry washed and hung on the lines is a huge day to day task. But even though it is modest it is full of love and grace and it really is their Sweet Refuge.

Before and After

Victor Luis

Now that I caught you up with a recent story, I will go back to the times I missed. I think last Sunday we went with the Calvary team and had church out in the village of Neuvo Se Satul. This is a village that Calvary has been working with for 5 years. They have done many projects there, water catchment systems, latrine projects and stove projects. It is a very special village to me as when I was here in 2006 for 3 months we worked in this village once a week and got to know the kids and families very well. Since that time I have been back on several visits.

The young boy in the picture above was born 10 days prior to my first visit in the village, he was very sick as well as his mother. We prayed for them and here he is today almost 3 years old in August. His name is Victor Luis. Last year he was not to fond of Gringo's and this year his mom asked him to say Cindy and he did! It has been a blessing to watch him and the other children grow over the past 2 and a half years.

It took a few minutes for the word to get out that I was there and plus they did not recognize me with short brown hair, but as soon as they did they were very warm and happy to see that I had returned. Which in itself makes me happy!

I have to admit that sometimes being out here is just plain ol' discouraging. You prepare and pray and believe something spectacular is going to happen...I don't know like blind people seeing and deaf ears opening, arms and legs growing back. Thousands of people falling to their knees asking Jesus to help them. I don't know, you know something big! Like you see on TV or your see on the movies. What you read about in the Bible. Stuff Jesus did! It says we can and I still believe we can and it will happen but when?

I can drive myself crazy thinking about that and really get discouraged but now as I write I think of Victor Luis, now that is a huge miracle! A boy born in a village 2 hours from the nearest hospital, mom loosing so much blood she may not survive and a boy who can't survive without his mother. A boy who did not receive a name until he was 3 months old for fear he might not survive. And then...A team of missionaries and people from the local church show up, lay hands and pray for them and 2 and a half years later that same boy is sitting in a church service on his mom's lap being encouraged to say an American girls name. Now that is the stuff missions is made of!

Why can't I get past sitting here and just saying that? Why do I feel I have to say something spectacular when it is all spectacular? Sometimes it is just the same ol' hum drum stuff in a day, making concrete filters that crack before you get them out of the mold. Taking your vehicle to get a quick oil change that takes 3 hours and you get a car wash you did not ask for. Going to 3 stores to get all the items you need to cook for a week. The everyday mundane things you do to get to the spectacular things. Really the accomplishment of the mundane things are just as spectacular out of the country as Victor Luis.

Here's the cows!

Anything can Happen in Guatemala!

We loaded the our little Toyota truck with the teaching about clean water and two buckets of clean sand to teach and fix the filter that was not filtering very well. We stopped and picked up Pastor Oscar and off we went on the rocky dirt road to Colorado. There was great anticipation for what would happen this day.

The ride was long and uneventful as we drove through village after village of tiny huts with wood walls and grass roofs. Children playing in the streets, chickens, dogs, pigs and horses grazing along the way. My mind drifts from the cramped cab of the pick up as I stare out window amazed at the hard life the Guatemalans live. I have been here several times and still it perplexes me. Everything here is a challenge, it seems so primitive but simple. It works for them, but is it because they lack knowledge or because they like it, or don't know any different. I pray silently, "Lord, what is the way you want to reach them?" Knowing that our American ways are not always the best way. Is running water best? Is electricity best? Are those things the blessing? I ask again, "what do you want for them? I know it is not what I think they need but what you Lord want for them. Show me, teach me help me learn from them."

Along the way we stop and pick up a woman and her son, an older man with a cowboy hat, a young man with a market bag. They pile in the back of the truck and then knock on the roof when they want to get out and come to the driver asking, "how much for the ride?" We shake their hand and tell them God bless and they smile with gratitude and off we go to the next stop. It really is amazing.

When we arrive we are greeted with smiles and then find out the town was expecting us at 8 a.m. and it was already 11:30. The town had scattered for lunch. (We are lost in translation often.) We then make arrangements for the rest of the afternoon with the Mayor and are invited for lunch with the local Pastor. We ate beans, tortillas and coke.

We headed to the church to set up the movie on clean water and we handed out pictures for the kids to color. Good thing I brought a fat color book because they kept coming. I bet over 100 kids came and then the adults came, in 30 minutes there was over 250 people in a 20x40 church. It was amazing! I think they came from 2 other surrounding villages. People were standing in the doorways. Nancy showed the movie and then preached about the importance of clean water and good health, that Jesus wants us to have good health and wholeness. She did awesome and her Spanish was so good people shouted, "Amen and "Glory to God!" It was the first time she preached in Spanish, and that is saying something since she never preached in English. Pastor Oscar and Nancy felt it was not the right time for her to have a altar call as she is a woman and we are new to the village, and we honored and agreed.

We are scheduled to come back on the 13th for more teaching and 2 more water filters. It was an unbelievable day and the miracle is that 250 people came. Unbelievable! They are excited for us to come back and they will be followed up in March with a medical clinic and prayer team.

On the way back we found out there is a strong Islamic force in a village 2o minutes away. Then our car stopped because the cable that was shoved into the battery came out, we fixed it by shoving it back in. (Maybe that is why our headlights kept turning off and on.)

Finally, when we hit the paved road it was just past dusk and we saw a heard of shadows headed straight for us on a the highway. First motorcycles barely lit and then a huge heard of something...We stopped and began to back up quickly and then as the shadows got closer and we heard whistling and yelling through the quickly closed windows...What in the world? A riot?! Oh gosh, we were in big trouble...We just sat in the truck in shock and not knowing what to do as the shadows began to come closer...closer...closer...Your heart beating and (now you begin to really pray) then through squinted eyes trying to get just a little glimpse of what was coming straight for us in the pitch darkness....First a motorcycle then a horse, oh no, now the 100 or more shadows are getting closer...

Ahhh...a sigh of relief...Oh that is what it is...Just a heard of cattle coming down a main highway being herded by motorcycles and horses. After all this is Guatemala! (That photo tomorrow)

Road trip! Why am I doing Missions?

There are so many things to say so many things we have done and I am so behind it will be difficult to catch up and share all the awesome things God is doing here in the Peten...

Last week we traveled 3 hours to a village called El Ceibo. We carried 2 water filters and visited Pastor Israel and his wife Betti. The roads were paved so it was an easier trip road wise, which in itself is a blessing. The town is near the Mexico border and very transitional. There are many people passing through. The town has no electricity or running water...Which is really not that unusual...However, it does have a Hotel!? We were invited to visit Pastor's church, so we stayed the night.

We had a late check in at 5 p.m. and the generator only runs from 6-10 p.m. Since church started at 6 we had to go for it. As I took a candlelit cold shower in a room I could barely see in, I wondered why exactly I was doing missions!? I mean the doorknob on the outside door was falling off, so locking was not an option, however, we had a key! Not giving all this much thought we left and off to have dinner and then church with Pastor.

The church was pitch black when we entered until the generator was fired up and oh, what a difference! We showed a movie about creation and Jesus and the Pastor preached all with the generator as back ground sound. Oh, and the sound on the movie would not work...All the members stayed and really enjoyed the movie and the preaching! Would you?!

Back at the Hotel we pretended to use our key to open the door to make us feel safer and used our own blankets and sheets. Nancy had a roach speed across her bed and I was to afraid to look so I just threw my bedding down. I asked for protection and off I was sound asleep. We woke early, still dark, not that it mattered, to take Pastor's daughter to school in the next town. We knew there would be no lights but we were surprised that there was no water! So much for looking good! Really we had a very good laugh about all this and off we went to take Ginny to school with Pastor. I asked many times in my thoughts..."Why am I doing missions?! "

As we drove through the mountains to take Ginny to school, as the sun was rising, and my teeth felt like they had not been brushed in 2 days, due to no water, I pondered all the reasons I am doing missions. Some of the thoughts were spiritual and others not so spiritual...Suddenly, 40 minutes later we were there at the school where the teacher from England runs the school.

The Pastor with maybe 30 members at his church was sending his daughter 40 minutes away where there are 15 students in a class not 50 and struggling to give her this opportunity. With no car and limited funds to pay tuition. When we picked Ginny up from school, it all made sense. As I received a receipt from the school office for paying one month tuition for Ginny. We are changing lives by educating and sharing the love of Christ. It is so much bigger than us and we wait for the miracles when they are already here! We say God let us see this big thing, let us see that big thing, open the heavens pour out your blessings but are they not here already?!

Can you see it? Do you have water? Do you have electricity? Do you have? Do you have? Maybe we can consider what is already there and stop asking why? what? when? and see what is already there...Today, this is why I am doing missions! To help a girl from El Ceibo to go to school and bless their family for serving God.

Welcome to Colorado Guatemala

Just one week and over 1200 km's we have traveled. We started in Guatemala City and traveled to the Peten. We packed up 2 water filters and traveled 3 hours to a village called Colorado. 2 hours and 45 minutes of that time was spent on the worst rock, mud dirt road you have ever traveled! We traveled in a small Toyata pick up with 10 people, a Pastor, 3 Americans, 2 young woman, a baby and 3 boys.

When we arrived we were welcomed by all in the village. We shared our bean sandwiches and nacho chips and then proceded to install 2 filters. One in the Mayors house and the other in the Pastors house. The village water source is not healthy as most in the village have worms and other health issues related to drinking contaminated water. We will go back on friday of this week to teach the reasons why they should drink healthy water and tie it in with a salvation message. We are looking forward to what God will do during this time....

Building relationships is the key to helping change lives! God created us to have relationship with him and we need to do the same with the people of the world. Please pray for us as we return friday. The road is tough but the journey is worth it!