Campenario Progreso

No shortage of marvelous vistas

Another fantastic week has passed for me here in Guatemala.  This week I had a team from St. Matthews Church in Esko Minnesota come down and do an eye clinic, VBS, and work on putting a new wall up in the school.  Progreso is a small town in the "county" of La Union close to La Avanzada, where I have previously worked.  It is way up there in the mountains probably over a mile above sea level.  

We started out the week with an eye clinic which was hosted in the school room of "basicos" or what amounts to Jr. High in the U.S.  I think the eye clinic was one of the best things we could have done for the people there.  So many people came in knowing how to read but were not able because there vision was so bad.  The smiles on their faces after they received their new pair of glasses were just heart warming.  I talked to several patients who said that they were so happy they could see and that they can finally read their Bible, what an awesome gift we were able to give.  

Here we are taking the "mountain bus" aka
a toyota pickup back to the "hotel" after
the eye clinic

Linda was our nurse  and she checked for eye infections and any physical abnormalities and her translator was Louisa, a woman who grew up in El Salvador but now lives in Minnesota- it was truly amazing to watch her connect with the people there in Progreso as if they were family.  Joe and Kim worked on finding the right magnification for those who needed correction and Nilss (a Guatemalan who works for CALMS) was their translator.  Mark and Sue worked on finding the right pair of glasses and making sure they fit right- they worked pretty good without a translator, but I helped them when they needed it in that capacity.  Kathryn and I were at the front checking people in and Pastor Tom was helping wherever he was needed.  

The shower

Hotel San Mateo/coffee processing plant

We were going to stay in a building that was used for a health clinic and for some teaching but when we arrived the leaders of the town took us to their coffee processing plant or "beneficio".  So this is where we stayed.  It was a big open space with concrete walls and floor, tin roof, and coffee bean roasters and other machinery.  It was not in the plan but the team just rolled with it and did not complain.  There was one toilet that worked maybe half the time and electricity that worked most of the time.  The shower was a hose outside that filled up a bucket.  It doesn't sound like much but it was truly awesome to have a nice big space where we could spread out our air mattresses, chairs, table for food, and tables for cooking.  Pastor Tom reminded us that this was a "God-thing" and that is was nothing we could have planned or anticipated.  It all worked out pretty good.   

Inside Hoel San Mateo

This was the first time a group of North Americans had come into this town and the people of Progreso were terrifically hospitable.  We had fresh corn tortillas in the morning and we kept receiving plantains, oranges, and bananas from generous people.  

Can you spot me?

Wednesday we had a VBS for all the school age kids.  We had kindergarten through 9th grade come through or building that day.  I think the total was near 400 kids.  There was three groups in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  For the younger kids we sang songs, colored, handed out beanie babies and Pastor Tom had a brief message for them about Noah's ark.  For the older kids we sang songs and made a necklace depicting the story of Jesus and what he did for us.  

It was so much fun to see those kids' faces light up with smiles when we sang our song called "Yo tengo un amigo" or "I have a friend".  I am not sure if this is the official name for it but it went like this, IIIIIIIIII(suspended "I") have a friend who loves me, who loves me, who loves me.  I have a friend who loves me and his name is Jesus.  We sang it in Spanish of course and the kids just ate it up.  They were a little shy at first but soon warmed up to us and were singing along.  Thursday when some of our group was walking around the village they overheard a young girl singing and teaching the song to her little sister- they said it was AWESOME to hear it.  The rest of the week we would start singing the song in the streets and get several kids to join in with us.  The Spirit is at work!!!

US vs. Guatemala, World Cup

We got done with VBS early in the afternoon and were invited to play soccer against the boys of "basicos."  To which Pastor Tom said "Bring it on!  The selection of the U.S. versus Guatemala for the World Cup final!"  We didn't know what we were getting in to.  Those boys were good and we are old :).  Luckily we had Marcilino on our team- one of the leaders of the community- and man could he play! He is 34 years old but was running circles around these teenagers.  We lost 3-0 but if you asked are goalie (Pastor Tom) you would probably get a different score.  We all had lots of fun and right after we said we were done and too tired, the girls of "basicos" asked us to play with them- so we did.  We then had to walk probably a mile back up the mountain to "Hotel San Mateo"-aka the coffee processing plant.  We were all exhausted.

Linda stayed back at the hotel when we went to play soccer and she got a neat opportunity to visit with some of the people of the village.  They approached her and talked to her even though she couldn't speak hardly any Spanish.  Linda had a conversation with a man named Salvador and she tried to show him something in her Bilingual Bible to him but he told that he could not see the words.  Salvador had missed the eye clinic on Tuesday and his eyes were so bad he couldn't read anymore.  Linda let him borrow her reading glasses and his face lit up like the fourth of July when he looked back at the Bible with his new glasses.  All this was done without a translator- Linda witnessed without speaking Salvador's language.  I caught Salvador on his way away from our "hotel" and saw that he had some glasses on and his nose was in his new Bible.  He looked up at me and said, "Antes no miraba, pero ahora yo miro!"  which means, "before I was not seeing, but now I see!"  I took this opportunity to share with Salvador (his name means Savior in Spanish, by the way) the story of Jesus healing the man born blind.  He really appreciated this reading as did I with a new context to apply it to.  

Thursday the men stuck around the school to help with construction and the women went around to visit people in their homes and at school.  There was 7 or 8 men who volunteered to help with the construction of the school.  This was a shock to me.  These men are having a hard time feeding there families but they were willing to take time away from tending to their farms and come help build this school- how neat!  Work is scarce and it appeared to me that the men were happy to work- with or without pay.  

Friday morning we had a little going away service with some of the leaders of the town.   Pastor Tom and I shared some Bible passages, we prayed, and then talked about how everyone felt about the week.  The people from Progreso were sooooo happy that we came and really thankful for the work that we had done and the relationships that were started.  They expect this group from St. Matthews Church in Esko, Minnesota to return and all the members of the group concurred that repeated visits would be a must.  

Friday afternoon we stayed at Hotel Miravalle in Gualan and had a little time to relax in the pool.  The team was exhausted and were all ready to take some much needed rest.  The team then headed off for Guatemala City yesterday, Saturday and are scheduled to leave for the States tomorrow morning.  

Prayer Requests

• Safe travel for the team
• That the Holy Spirit dwells among the people of Campenario Progreso
• Salvador- a very sick man we visited and prayed for
• Continued strength for the CALMS team here in Guatemala, Ramiro, Nilss, Karla, and myself
• Donaldo, aka Nachito- boy from La Avanzada who broke his leg
• Rosa- woman from Oratorio with congestive heart failure
• Strength for the Lutheran Church in Zacapa- Divino Salvador