Human Machines

Oh, for a backhoe, bobcat or excavator!! I have never shovelled so much mud and dirt in all my days of construction. However, this is the way it is done in Guatamala. It may take longer but it is a whole lot cheaper and it provides some much needed employment for these Christian men. We are doing some more groundwork in preparation for drainage and a retaining wall. When this portion of the project is complete we will have a great playing field for one of our schools and we will be ready to start adding more classrooms.

This has been a great time for me to interact with these Pokumchi brothers. It has not really helped my Spanish much because they what to teach me Pokum words instead of Spanish. We share many laughs together as we exchange words and try to communicate. Their native langauge is their first and Spanish is their second. It doesn't help to bring a translation dictionary because only one of them has enough education to read a little Spanish.

When we start work at 7:30 in the morning, it is a pretty amazing atmosphere. The kids are all upstairs in the chapel for their morning devotional and as Angel David leads them in praise and worship, the men on the site often sing along. I am thankful to the Lord for this opportunity to be apart of His work here in Tactic.

Rocky

Our Foundation

It is the KCS Grad weekend and I am feeling a little sad that I cannot share this amazing event with them. This will be the first KCS grad that I haven't attended in 16 years! Wow, that makes me feel old.

Anyway, I started thinking about foundations and Christian education. I know, first hand, that Christian education isn't perfect. There are all sorts of challenges that small Christian schools face that the public system doesn't have to deal with. Low numbers, few high school electives, not a huge variety of friends, teachers teaching outside of their specialities, limited funding, etc. I am sure you are very well aware of the challenges in a small Christian school.

The benefits, although, far, far, far outweigh the challenges. This is the part that so many Christian families miss. As a parent, obviously I want every opportunity for my children to succeed. I want them to receive the best education possible. The challenge for parents is to decide if the best education is that of gaining an abundance of knowledge in an environment void, and at times hostile towards, God; or, is it better to gain knowledge and wisdom in light of our Creator and in keeping with His Word? I believe the better choice is that of wisdom and the Lord. Knowledge is just that, knowledge. Wisdom is so much more - it prepares one for life - real life.

Justs down the road from us is a bridge. Due to the storms and abundance of rain over the past month, the banks of the river and the foundation of the bridge has been tested. The people living on either side of the bridge lost a chunk of their property, as the retaining walls crumbled and fell into the rushing water. Now that the water has subsided, the municipality is checking out the damage done to the foundation of the bridge. I am happy to say, that although it did shift slightly, it is still structurally sound.

This bridge is like a metaphor for our lives. If, when we are young, we construct a solid foundation and world view, rooted deeply in God's truth, when the storms come and the water rises, we may get bumped and even bruised, but we will not crumble. This is what Christian education can do for a child, who later becomes an adult and has to live out their beliefs when life is not always "a bed of roses."

Every morning at 7:30 I am reminded of the value of Christian education and building a solid foundation in a little life. As I am busy working around the house, I can hear hundreds of voices raised in song and praise to the Lord, as the morning devotional from our Chamche school echos off the mountains. The children in our schools here, in Guatemala, are learning to look to the Lord first: first thing in the morning; first, before the challenges come; first to Him and not to themselves. If they can learn that, the rest of their education is a bonus, because they will be fit to live out their life for the one who created them. How can knowledge be more important than that?

Blessings,

Karren

Desperate Situations

I am sure many of you have been following the challenges that have plagued Guatemala recently. I know Les sent out an email describing the devastation in the country following the erruption of Pacaya and the tropical storm Agatha. The team that was with us in the capital when Pacaya errupted was a group of young adults from Western Canada. They were due to fly out the morning following the erruption, but the airport was closed. Because it was a natural disaster, the airline was not responsible to cover any costs incurred by travellers. Thankfully, a few on the team had a delux insurance package which would cover hotel and food costs.
As we tried to find a hotel, we discovered that all of those who would have been travelling that morning were now stranded in Guatemala City and all the hotels were booked. All they could find was a hostel. They re-booked their flights for 2 days later, and called the hostel's shuttle to come pick them up. Rocky and I said goodbye, somewhat reluctantly, and drove back to Tactic. This was a first for us - leaving a team in the capital and returning to Tactic. We had marvelled the entire time the team was here at how easy going this group was, and they continued to amaze us. They weren't angry that their flights were cancelled and they seemed to take everything in stride. Amazing! We arrived back in Tactic and gave Les the contact information for the group and left things in his hands.
As we watched the news headlines on-line, we learned of tropical storm Agatha, and how the heavy rains were complicating the clean-up of the volcanic ash at the airport, and that it would now be closed for a week. A week! I cannot imagine spending 1 week in the Capital with no vehicle, no money, no clean clothes, and nothing to do! This group, again, took it all in stride. Somehow they made contact with an Alliance Church and were resettled in there and were very pleased with that arrangement. They finally were re-booked to leave the country, but were rescheduled in two groups - one to leave Friday, June 4th (a full week after their original flights) and the other Saturday, June 5th.
Les went to the capital on Wednesday night and took the group to Antigua for the day on Thursday. When he got home, he shared with us how well they were all handling this unexpected delay. He saw the first group off at the airport and then picked up the mother of one of the girls who is here for a year and left for Tactic. While driving, he received a call that the second group from the team who was scheduled to leave the next day was out walking and got robbed, losing everything they had on them, including 1 passport.
We were thankful that they were physically okay, but an event like that is bound to shake a person up. Again, they seemed to take it all in stride and immediately contacted the Canadian Embassy, got a temporary passport so they could still travel and flew out of Guatemala the following morning.
We don't know why this group experienced what they did, but we are trusting that the Lord is going to use all they experienced, the good and the not so good, for their benefit. I have to admit, I don't understand this, but I know what the Word says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. " Romans 8:28. And I believe the Word to be true! Bless you, Lighthouse! We love you guys!
Blessings,
Karren and Rocky

Rocky Turns 50!

Yesterday (June 1st) was Rocky's 50th birthday. We decided to celebrate North American style and went to the Park Hotel. We rented a room and went out for a nice, romantic supper for two. The place we stayed is like a mini Minters Gardens with plants and flowers of all kinds. They also had a small zoo with lots of walking paths. We had a really relaxing, enjoyable time. We realized that in the 4 months we've been here, we hadn't had a "date" night, so it was time. What an amazing treat!

Blessings,

Karren

God's Many Blessings!

We have been enjoying our time with a team from Calgary - the Calgary Vietnamese Mennonite Church young adults group. They have been wonderful to work with. We have had the privilege of doing children's ministry in a remote mountain village - Bem Peq (sp?). It is just over the hill 30 minutes from one of our schools and they speak a completely different language there.

The first day we went up, there were about 50 children and a few adults. The team did crafts, played games, sang songs and I told a story. The pastor of the church we were working in said, before we began working with the kids, that it was his desire that these children had some fun. He said life was not fun for them and he really wanted them to enjoy themselves. Well, after the first 30 minutes, there wasn't a person there who didn't have a grin on their face. The team did a great job loving the kids and playing with them. Just as we were packing up that first day, the sky opened up and we had a torrential downpour. We had taken the 2 vans and the Toyota Land Cruiser (4x4) with a winch, as the road was a little sketchy. We made it down, but it was pretty crazy.

The rain continued through the evening and didn't let up until well into the night. The river beside where we live almost overflowed the bridge and our yard and house flooded once again! We knew the road up to Bem Peq would be a mess, so we hired a 4x4 truck and used the Toyota Land Cruiser. It was quite a journey! In places there were crevaces at least 2 feet deep where the rain had washed away the gravel and dirt. Other places were a foot deep of soft mud.

When we arrived at the church on day 2, there were about 80 kids and some parents there. Our numbers were growing. We again enjoyed our time with the people of this small village. On our last day, there were well over 120 children plus probably 40 adults! The team had taken up a love offering for the pastor and his family and presented it to him. He was touched by the team's generosity. The amazing thing is, this team really didn't do anything super extraordinary - they just shared the love of Christ! It is so simple! And by doing this, not only were the people of Bem Peq blessed, but the team was blessed as well.

The church prepared a huge meal for us to say thank you. We ate with mixed emotions knowing how big a sacrifice this was for them, as they probably don't eat meat very often and to buy enough food to feed us all cost them a great deal.

I am so blessed to be able to participate in these kinds of activities. I don't know why the Lord chose our family for this work, but I am so thankful. I cannot think of anything I'd rather be doing.

Thank you, Lord!

Karren

All dug up and no where to go!

Our yard is all dug up! Ever since we had that big storm back in April, we have had trouble with our drainage system - the sewer drainage! It kept wanting to back up into the drain in our carport and finally things were just not going down any more. Rocky and some of the guys here did some investigating and discovered that the problem was not with our house, but with the municipality. Sick...everyone knows it takes forever for the municipality to do what you need them to do! Our guys began digging in the lot behind our house. Our sewer drains underground across that lot and dumps into the stream. They had been bringing in a lot of fill into the lot over the past three weeks to level it out for development and I guess in the process they crushed our drainage line. The municipality was simply going to dig up the old line and put a new one in, even though they are continuing to bring in fill with big dump trucks; our line would just crush again. That is when Flore stepped in. She is such an amazing person. She knows everyone and everyone likes her. She called the "big boss of the entire municipality" and he started to get things moving. They agreed it was better to run a new line out the front of the house and tap into the city system, than replace the line in the back lot. We thought this was going to be a really lengthy process - weeks - but thanks to Flore's influence, the city guys started working within the hour and came this morning as well (Saturday!) to cut the concrete in the street to open up to where we can tap in. Rocky had 8 guys digging in the backyard to make the trench for the pipes and we are halfway there! Tomorrow is Sunday, so we won't make any progress, but by the end of Monday, we should be good to go! Thank you, Flore, and thank you, God!

3 months!

Well, we have been here three months. It feels like we just arrived and like we've been here forever, all at the same time. I don't know how that is possible, but it is. This weekend we renewed our visas, and decided to take 2 days and go to the beach at Puerto San Jose on the Pacific coast. We used the Toyota Land Cruiser that Lee Gardner and company brough down. It is always fun to get stopped by the police in this jeep because of the right hand drive. They laugh so hard when they see it, they forget why they pulled you over in the first place - sometimes a good thing! Although the weather was stormy, we enjoyed our adventure. The beaches were black volcanic sand. It was really different. It was also a good opportunity for me to practice my Spanish in San Jose, as no one spoke any English. Whenever we are in a place where I am forced to communicate, I find my abilities increase. I think I need to be forced more often if I am ever going to get a real handle on Spanish. I keep praying that the Lord will enlighten me in my sleep and I'll wake up fluent! I think, however, I probably just need to work harder at learning and practicing!

While in San Jose, we found a juice box with our name on it. In Spanish, Chupa is a conjugated form of the verb chupar which means to suck or lick. We get a lot of funny looks when we say our last name, so for the most part, we don't! We are known around here as Hermano Rocky y Hermana Karren. That is the safe way to be introduced. We have officially started the rainy season here and it rains almost every day. It is still warm during the day, but most nights end with a rainfall. It is actually a really beautiful time of year because everything is lush and green and grows like crazy. It does make laundry very tricky, although. You have to get it done first thing in the morning and then get it out on the line right away. Then, in mid afternoon, you have to remember to take it all in, or it gets soaked in the rain and you are back to square one. Tonight, I missed it and all 5 of my lines are full of clothes out in the rain! Oh well, tomorrow is another day.