Familiar Faces

This last week we had the blessing of working with a service team from our home church. Our church has had a 5 year partnership with the village of La Esperanza (the Hope) that will be coming to a close in July. All week we served side by side with old and new American friends. It was a blast to see some familiar faces and speak in English. It was also wonderful to work with just one village all week long in different ways beyond our project.
The first day the team visited every home in La Esperanza, getting to know the people, asking for prayer requests and praying for the families right there in their homes. Jeannette enjoyed translating the prayers from English to Spanish, and then when needed, a local Agros employee translated them from Spanish to Ixil. These prayers seemed to really touch the Guatemalan people as well as the Americans, and there were many tears, both of joy and sadness.
The majority of the week was spent helping the village plant snow peas. Snow peas are a cash crop that (with the help of Agros) the villages export to England. This earns the families money to help pay back the price of their land, buy cows and other animals, or start up small businesses--- unlike the corn and bean crops which usually only serve to feed each individual family. First we cleared the land and prepared it. Then we kneeled next to the Guatemalans and gently placed seed by seed in the soil. It was hard work, but the villagers were so thankful that we were there to help. We hope to check in on the progress of the peas, and help with the harvest in April.
The last day was one of cultural exchange between the Americans and the Guatemalans. The women taught us how to make tamales and then served us a wonderful meal of tamales with egg and white bean soup. The men played a game of fútbol (soccer) and, much to everyone’s surprise, the Americans won. One of the members of the service team is a farmer in Washington, so the team shared with La Esperanza how he and his family celebrate the harvest in October. We laughed at ourselves as we tried to dance the Virginia Reel, then served hot cider, held a puppet show and had a water balloon fight. It was a blast.
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Now the team is heading back to the US, and we are preparing to continue our work with the youth in all the villages. Tomorrow we have interviews in the village of Cajixay and on Tuesday in San Nicolás. Please pray for good communication during these interviews. Spanish is everyone’s second language –both ours and the local people, who speak Ixil and Quiché.