Panajachel

Panajachel

Wednesday,

Today the alarm clocks went off early (5 am) for our team as we tried to beat the traffic through the city to Panajachel.  After a 3 hour drive through the beautiful countryside and mountain we arrived, where we checked into our hotel.  We then loaded in boats to cross the bay for the village of Santiago where HRI has a connection with a small group of families.   These families were living in shelters provided by a local church for those who lost their homes, their clothes and all their meager belongings in the mud slides.

In the village we gathered up 11 of the children took them to a wonderful lunch of fried chicken, rice and guacamole.   Ashley shared with us that most of these children have never been to a restaurant before.  We needed to help them with eating with silverware.   The kiddos were so cute!!  Some of them watched us carefully to see how to eat.   The really cool thing was that these little children who were eating the meal of their lives actually didn’t eat much.   They ate and enjoyed some of their meal but saved a large portion of their meal to take home to share with their families.

After lunch we returned to the village where we split into three teams:  team 1 did home visits and handed out donations,  team 2 played soccer with the kids, and team 3 played other outdoor games with the kids.   While visiting the families we met newlyweds, young families with little babies as well as the very elderly.   We met a sweet 80 year old man who spoke a little bit of English and loved the Lord all his life.   We were privileged enough to also buy him lunch for a mere $1.25.

We had a wonderful day in the village.  The team was loading up into our trucks to head back to the boat.  We were saying our good-byes when we realized we had more candy in our donation bags.   As if in a parade we began tossing candy to the kids.  They were so excited!!   We watched one little boy who was maybe 3 share his little piece of candy with his friend who didn’t get one.   We watched in amazement that this little child who has nothing, is so willing to share what he has with his friend.  

Can’t we all learn something from these little ones!!  God is so good to show us these things in the everyday.