Hope for Guatemala

Hope for GuatemalaJune 2015

Caleb and Melody left in June to go to Guatemala for one week to serve the people that live in Zone 18 of Guatemala City, Guatemala. We partnered with Stonecreek Church in Milton, Ga to work at the Hope for Guatemala Ministry.

The plane ride to Guatemala was about 3 hours and was very exciting. This was Calebs first time on an airplane! And it was his first time out of the southeastern United States.

It was a journey that we will never forget.

Guatemala is a very mountainous country. The City of Guatemala is nestled in a valley that is about 10 miles in radius with a population of 4 million people. Thats the about the same population that is in all of Atlanta and the metro counties combined. Zone 18 alone inhabits about 1 million people.

The city has beautiful architecture. Some of it left over from the Conquistadors. Zone 18 is very dense. Houses are stacked on top of each other in a claustrophobic way.

Zone 18

Hope for Guatemala MinistryOur room. The view from our window showing their garden the students take care of.One of the classrooms.

This house has been converted into classrooms and lodging for the missionaries that come.

Guatemala is very green and beautiful. They call Guatemala the land of eternal spring. The weather is always sunny, no humidity, with a temperature around 70-85 degrees. It rains at night and during the rainy season, the rain lasts around 2 months.When we arrived at the Ministry we were given a tour of the 16 acres. The Ministry farms many vegetables, coffee, and corn to sustain the ministry and pay for the land. The vegetation is not too different from ours in Georgia. They have enormous pine trees with long, prickly pinecones. Coffee rows

We all loaded up into the trailer and rode through the acreage.Corn rows behind us on the hillThe ministry also has many animals, chickens, rabbits, goats, horses, and a tilapia pond and hatchery. Some students of the ministry have jobs to care for the animals. The goats supply milk, the chicken eggs, and during the rainy season, the tilapia are plentiful.Umberto with a goat that jumped up to visit us.The goats get to play on the playground too.

The Zone is also very populated with gangs. If there is a power outage, city water problem, or other utilities issue, many service workers will not come out to Zone 18 to fix any problems. This creek runs directly through the ministrys property. It use to give clean water for the ministry to use. Zone 18 is extremely poor and many cannot afford garbage service. People climb over or through the ministrys fence to dump their garbage into the creek. This happens in many places throughout Guatemala, not just Zone 18.

Our first full day in Guatemala was a Sunday. After going to a church service, we headed to Antigua, one of the oldest cities in this part of the world. The cathedral of St. JamesRuins of a monastery dating 1700sGovernment buildings and original cobbled streets

Carmen church. It survived the Santa Marta earthquake of 1773 but was destroyed by an earthquake in 1976. Renovations are taking place to restore the building to make a museum.

We visited the church and monastery Santo Domingo which is now converted into a museum, hotel, restaurant, and venue for weddings. The museum was built over archaeological digs which revealed parts of a road as well as catacombs. This place was absolutely beautiful and took our breath away. The church was built in 1538 by the Dominicans with their arrival. The church, along with much of Antigua, was destroyed by the 1773 Santa Marta earthquake.

Because it was Sunday, the locals flood to the square for fellowship, music, and dancing.We also visited the market. I have never seen so many colors in one place.A Guatemalan woman with her loom

There are three volcanoes visible in Antigua. One is dormant and fills up with water in the rainy season, threatening to flood the town below, which happened in 2013. We got to see El Fuego puff smoke. It looked like there was snow on top of the volcano, but it was ash.

Monday, the children came. The school bus from the ministry picks up the first wave of younger students to arrive at 7:30 for breakfast. The second wave of older students comes after lunch.

When the bus arrived, we were waiting for them, and although none of them had ever seen Caleb and me before, every one of them hugged us with a Buenos Das.

The younger students go to school in the afternoon the older students, if they stay in school, go to school in the morning. They come to the ministry to get two meals a day and support in their schooling.

The ministry serves about 150 children each week day and the waiting list is a mile long. The ministry is free for the families and everyone wants to go because it guarantees at least one to two meals per day.

Daily Itinerary:7:30- 1st group arrives. Serve breakfast. Wash dishes10:30- serve lunch, wash dishes, then 1st group leaves1:30- 2nd group arrives. Serve lunch to older kids, wash dishes, they leave at 4:30

To wash dishes there are 3 plastic laundry tubs. All three are filled with cold water (there is no hot water in Guatemala)The first bucket is for soaping dishes, the second bucket is the first rinse, the third bucket is the final rinse.

The students were on their spring break this week, so we got to play. The students that had ministry duties worked hard cleaning or taking care of the animals.The playground had a zip line, trampolines, and tire swing.

Soccer is huge in Guatemala and everyone knows how to play.Caleb is giving out salvation bracelets, explaining what the colors mean.

Frankie Jonathans brotherJonathan he never smiledEsmerelda, Jenifer, and DulceLimes grow plentiful in Guatemala and is in everything. This lunch has shredded carrots and cucumbers soaked in lime juice, rice, cantaloupe, a corn tortilla (served with every meal), and a potato taste/pear texture-like vegetable found only in Guatemala called Perulero.

Caleb was on fire to help any way he could. We were to volunteer for early kitchen duty once and take care of the animals once and Caleb volunteered twice for kitchen duty and several times to take care of the goats. He was such a help to the Guatemalan women in the kitchen and to Don Ricardo, the grounds keeper.

Caleb also got to spend some quality time with Umberto, the father of Jos the ministry director. Umberto was very educated, could speak three languages, and had a story for everything. He taught Caleb how to milk a goat.

The soil of Guatemala is volcanic and is very rich in minerals. The vegetables grow super size as you can see from this carrot. It is longer and bigger than Calebs arm.

Every Tuesday is Market day. Jos has made contacts with farmers from the countryside that have committed to give their first fruits to the ministry. All the food is donated and the ministry pays nothing for it. In turn, the ministry uses some for the breakfasts and lunches at the ministry but gives most of it to the families that get to be in the ministry.Growing vegetables and having private farms have not been a problem in Guatemala until the last 50 years and more so recently. The government allowed Monsanto and other GMO seeds makers to sell their seeds to the larger farmers. Once a seed is contaminated with the GMO seed it cannot be reproduced. GMO seeds themselves cannot reproduce to make another crop, so the farmers must buy the seed from the corporation each planting crop. Many times the farmers cannot afford the GMO seed and end up leasing or selling their land to the corporations or other farmers. Slowly the farms have to be sold and the profit is taken out of the country. The Guatemalans do not have control of their local farms, food, production, and the government is so corrupt in all areas that they are part of the problem. Not all farmers have succumbed to this cycle, but it is increasing year by year.

Many God-blessings happened at the market that Tuesday. The farmer that usually provided carrots to Jos had none to give that day, none of the other farmers would donate them, and carrots are a staple at the ministry. They needed to have carrots. As they were leaving, climbing into the truck, saddened that they would not have carrots that week, a man came running to them. He said that he had extra carrots from his crop that week and would give 10 bags to the ministry. 10 bags was twice the amount they usually got.

We also got a blessing from Mara that day. Mara is a very old, blind woman that grows herbs. She is the smallest vendor at the market, but so happy to meet Joss American friends that she wanted to give extra. She parted with 1/3 of her entire stock. Jos refused so much, but she said that to give sacrificially is what God wants us to do, and that God will in turn bless her. She then asked if she could pray with the Americans.

Jos is speaking with the children about how God blesses us and what that means. Joss mission and that of the Ministry is not to give these kids money and get them out of Zone 18. His goal is to give them Jesus, integrity, hope, education, and enable them to make a change in their own streets. He encourages them to make the right choices, sacrificially give to help their siblings and neighbors, and rely on Jesus.

Dancing is a huge part of the culture, so we had a dance party every afternoon.

Kitchen duty. We had to be in the kitchen by 5am to chop, shred, cut, and prepare the meals for the rest of the day.

Marcelita braided my hair

Some of the boys doing their chores for the day.

This is blurry, but the 17 year old boy on the left is Alex, the baker. He has four siblings. His mother died in childbirth with a girl that is now 2 years old and was taken at the hospital. They do not know where the child is. His oldest sister ran away, and he has four younger siblings aged 15, 12, 8, and 4. His father works all day, every day. If it werent for the ministry, Alex and his family would not eat every day, and Alex would not be able to pay for his secondary education. On market day, Alex goes with the others and is mentored by a baker at the market. He wants to one day open his own bakery. One of the missionaries on our team, bought Alex his own mixer so that he can make more bread in half the time. It was a surprise for him. It was amazing to see his face and to experience this blessing.

We were able to visit Alexs home later that week. We were not allowed to carry cameras or any other valuables with us because his street is riddled with gangs, so I have no pictures of his house. It was a one roomed cinder block with a tin roof and tin door. The floor was dirt. Outside the front of the house, in the kitchen was a spigot that carried city water. This was the only access to water. The kitchen also had a steel drum with a grate over it that served as a grill. There was no bathroom. Inside the room were three beds that they all shared, a small 15 TV, and a mini fridge. They had one light bulb over the room and extension cords from the one outlet to extend to the mini-fridge and TV. Because Alexs house is the last on the street, he has a backyard that drops off into a ravine where they, and everyone in the area, throw their trash. In the yard, Alex has planted corn. Last seasons crop yielded enough ground corn for them to store for a few months for themselves but also enough to give some to their neighbors. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. Alex is the perfect example of how this Ministry helps and aids these children. His goal to start a bakery will allow them to build a roof and walls around the rest of their home.

Because the students were on Spring Break, we got to take them on field trips. Your donations helped provide for these. This place was called Divercity (Fun city). It was an indoor, hands on, town that taught life skills. The kids had to earn and spend money. The vet had real animals, the fire station used real water.

Erika earned mucho.

The next day after Divercity, we took the kids to the Zoo. The Guatemala Zoo was very nice and had a large range of animals.

Caleb and I were in charge of a group of boys. Brandon, Yuvini, Carlos, Jonathan, Bamder, Mario, Sergio, and Jos

It was a very warm day and Jose ordered pizza for the entire 150 students. The pizza was to arrive at the zoo by 1:00pm with lunch and drinks, but a truck over turned on the highway and it was delayed for 3 hours. These children never complained of hunger or thirst the entire day. They never asked, When is lunch? or Can I have some water? We learned so much from these kids that day. Make the best of your situation and be patient.

Landslides are common, especially in during the rainy season. Squatters are also very common in the city. Anywhere there is space, is a place to put down.

Many roads are very steep and narrow.

This is a neighborhood in Zone 5, you can see the difference in cleanliness, structure, and space than that of Zone 18

Zone 18

I cannot remember the name of this meal, but it was delicious. Chicken in a soupy sauce, with julienne green beans and rice.

Caleb and Lesly became fast friends. She is a young girl that is very much in need of laughter. Her home life is rocky and the Ministry gives her a place to be a kid. God sent Caleb on this ministry to Lesly specifically. He made her laugh and smile and forget the drama that was going on in her home if only for a little while. When Lesly would arrive to the ministry each day, she sought out Caleb. Caleb doesnt know Spanish and Lesly doesnt know English, but that did not stop them from playing together and being silly kids, which is exactly what Lesly needed. Even when we cant communicate verbally, God can use us.

Calebs dream is to go back to Guatemala, very soon so that he can continue this God-given relationship.

The hardest thing about leaving Guatemala was leaving the children. After the zoo we got to drop them off in their neighborhoods and say good bye. The ones that we connected with the most were the hardest to leave. They would cling onto us, hugging, and crying and telling us Te Quiero (I love you) and please come back next year.

The lessons I learned from this trip were to make the best of my situations and be in them. Do what I have to do and then go beyond that, and look for ways to be resourceful and content with what I have. I learned that from watching the women of Guatemala. Give sacrificially. I learned this from the children. They have nothing, wear the same clothes everyday, most only get the food they receive at the Ministry, some have never had a shower, yet they are so giving with what they do have. They made bracelets, wrote letters, gave their own possessions (games, food) to us. Caleb said in one of our devotionals with our team God is showing me to love people back in America the way that I love these people here. He wondered how it was that he had only just met and known these people for a few short days, yet his heart was overwhelmed for them and by them. It was hard for Caleb to leave.

It was also hard to leave Choco and Saltarra

Thank you so much for your partnership in this journey with us. Your giving sacrificially to doing Gods work pleases Him. God says in Matthew 25:40 Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. If it was not for your donations then we could not reach people for Christ or show Gods love to them.

Caleb and I love to do the feet work and go where work is needed. Thank you for being willing to supply our missions. Hope for Guatemala will continue to flourish because of your contribution to Gods work.