Well, I´m back safely from my solo journey to Belize. It was a great trip, lots of fun, and good to converse with some true English speakers in Belize, even if the majority speak a form of English a tad difficult to understand. The new album up on the other site gives a nice summary of my adventure, but here I´ll recap and fill in the cracks.
As I said in the last post, the plan was to leave Monday morning for Belize. As with most of my plans on this trip, that didn´t quite pan out. The morning bus was full, so I took a bus Monday night (8:00) which arrived at the border around 7:30 the next morning. Got into San Ignacio, a town near the border, which is a great base for exploring the surrounding natural beauty. Unfortunately, I only budgeted a little time here, but with the time I had I rented a canoe and explored the river a little bit. I got to see (and hear) a TON of birds... some plain, some absolutely beautiful. After some fun on the river, I headed off for Monkey Bay Wildlife Refuge, where I was gonna stay Tuesday night. I asked the bus conductor to drop me off there, but we ended up driving right by it so I headed on to Belize City then out to Caye Caulker via water taxi. After more than a bit of searching, I found a bed (the island was fairly crowded this week) and settled down. Went out for a dinner of conch with stew beans and rice... it was delicious. Almost all the meals there are accompanied with Marie Sharp´s hot sauce, a fantastic blend... if you can find it, I recommend it. After dinner, I headed back to go to sleep (it was early, but one doesn´t get a whole lot of sleep on a Guatemalan bus, so I was tired). To my suprise, I walked into my room to discover that my roommate was a 50-something year old woman... after short deliberation as to whether I was indeed in the right room, I decided to go to bed and forget about it. She was actually quite friendly, and I enjoyed talking to her a bit about her life and philosophies on religion.
So Wednesday I just kinda chilled, which is what you do on Caye Caulker. The only street signs say ¨go slow.¨ It´s not hard to fall into this way of life after a bit. That day, I talked to some of the other people in the hostel... I was the youngest and also the only American, which was an interesting experience, but there were a lot of cool people there and a lot of cool stories. It was good to sit and talk with them without having to translate everything in my head after hearing it or before saying it. I enjoyed my stay there, brief though it may have been. A cold front moved in that night which pushed rain in and pushed me out. I headed out to Monkey Bay, where I had no trouble finding a room and settling in for the night. Fortunately for me, the group there from England was heading to the zoo in the morning for a tour led by one of the Monkey Bay employees who used to work at the Zoo, so I got to tag along with that. The zoo only has local species, and all their animals were either injured, orphaned, former (illegal) pets, donated by other zoos, or born at the Belize zoo. Basically, the Zoo aims to be an educational facility for the Belizean people, an encouragement to appreciate the wildlife rather than fear or exploit it. Hopefully it works. It´s a good goal, anyway, and the animals were certainly well cared for and had space to roam.
After the visit to the zoo, I headed towards the border... succesfullycrossed back over into Guatemala Friday afternoon, only to find out that there were no buses running in Guatemala because of Good Friday. Fortunately, I had shared a cab with Omar, a guy a few years older than me from Mexico. He was really nice, and we hunted hotels, gathered bus information, and hung out for a little bit Friday night. Then came the long journey home... we boarded a bus in the border town at 5:00 on Saturday, then arrived at Flores (near the ruins of Tikal in Northern Guatemala) at 7:30. We boarded a Guate-bound bus at 7:45 and arrived a little before 7:00 Saturday night. It was quite a trek.
So that´s the basics of my journey to Belize. Now I´m back to work at the church. Thankfully, I´m a little busier this week than I have been in the past. It´s mainly data-entry style desk work in addition to my teaching, which isn´t great, but at least it´s something to do. Hopefully things continue to improve on the boredome and loneliness fronts, and hopefully God grants me a heart truly joyful to be here and takes away my discontent. That´s what I´m praying for, anyway. But at least for now I´m refreshed and more appreciative of this experience than I was a week and a half ago. Thanks be to God for safe and enjoyable travels in Belize, and for the new boost of energy he has provided.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Semana Santa
Well, I've now seen the Pacific. Check one more thing off my list. The leaders of the church had a retreat/conference at the church's (very primitive, yet homey) retreat center in Monte Rico. They did a lot of training stuff, basically getting everybody on the same page theologically. I didn't attend these "platicas" (talks, more or less) but I spent some time helping in the kitchen. Me and another gringo, Allen, a firefighter/privately contracted government security agent serving in Iraq (read: Blackwater employee) helped out in the kitchen, washing dishes, going to the store for supplies (and Cokes)... lazing about, really, helping when we were needed. Allen was pretty cool, good to hear another American voice. We also got to swim a bit, which was excellent. Pacific waves will rock your world. I body surfed on the biggest waves I've ever seen. I'm pretty sore today from getting slammed about, and also pretty burned because I forgot to put on sunscreen. Where were you, mom? I had a good time, got to enjoy the coast, and felt decently helpful. It was a good few days.
Well, it's Holy Week (you know, the one preceding Easter) and they're pretty serious about it here. All the schools are out, and pretty much everybody with a non-touristy job has the week off. This includes me. I was looking ahead to a week of doing, well, nothing really, when it occurred to me that maybe I should find something to do. So, like any good missionary, I decided to go on vacation. I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Belize. I'll come back Saturday or Sunday to the city. I'll take a bus to the border tomorrow, cross over then take another bus to San Ignacio, about 10 miles from the border. There's cool outdoorsy stuff to do there on Tuesday, then I'll head a couple hours towards the coast and stop at a nature reserve that has rooms for rent. Poke around there for about half a day, then head all the way to the coast. Hopefully I can make it out to Caye Caulker (an island off the coast) by Wednesday night, but if not I'll sleep in Belize City then head out in the morning. Thursday night and Friday night will be in either Caye Caulker or San Pedro, one island up. I'll get to enjoy the Caribbean and hopefully do a little SCUBA diving in the reputedly spectacular barrier reef there. And then I'll come back to Guate to come back to work, like the rest of the Guatemalans. Well, I'm gonna get to packing and then to sleeping... it's a long (and I'm sure tiring) journey to the border, and it'll be a busy few days. I think it'll all be worth it in the end... and hey, at least I'll get another stamp in my passport.
As always, hope things are going well. Hope everybody's Easter is fantastic, enlightening, and points you to the cross.
Well, it's Holy Week (you know, the one preceding Easter) and they're pretty serious about it here. All the schools are out, and pretty much everybody with a non-touristy job has the week off. This includes me. I was looking ahead to a week of doing, well, nothing really, when it occurred to me that maybe I should find something to do. So, like any good missionary, I decided to go on vacation. I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Belize. I'll come back Saturday or Sunday to the city. I'll take a bus to the border tomorrow, cross over then take another bus to San Ignacio, about 10 miles from the border. There's cool outdoorsy stuff to do there on Tuesday, then I'll head a couple hours towards the coast and stop at a nature reserve that has rooms for rent. Poke around there for about half a day, then head all the way to the coast. Hopefully I can make it out to Caye Caulker (an island off the coast) by Wednesday night, but if not I'll sleep in Belize City then head out in the morning. Thursday night and Friday night will be in either Caye Caulker or San Pedro, one island up. I'll get to enjoy the Caribbean and hopefully do a little SCUBA diving in the reputedly spectacular barrier reef there. And then I'll come back to Guate to come back to work, like the rest of the Guatemalans. Well, I'm gonna get to packing and then to sleeping... it's a long (and I'm sure tiring) journey to the border, and it'll be a busy few days. I think it'll all be worth it in the end... and hey, at least I'll get another stamp in my passport.
As always, hope things are going well. Hope everybody's Easter is fantastic, enlightening, and points you to the cross.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Be still and know
It´s only nine in the morning, but so far it´s been a moving and utterly profound day.
A hodgepodge of ideas and thoughts are floating around in my head right now, and there´s no way I can fit them all into this post, much less in a cohesive manner, but I´ll attempt nonetheless. Here goes.
Yesterday was not a good day for me. The past few days in general, actually, haven´t been great. After the tremendous high last week with the team from Tennessee, this week has been a downer. I´m here at the church from about 7 in the morning until about 5 or 6 at night, but this week I haven´t had much to do. I teach English for about a half hour a day, and the rest of my time is to myself. One starts to feel a little lonely. Yesterday morning my loneliness reached a new zenith, and I contemplated whether not I was an effective worker here, and what I saw the rest of my time here looking like (read: I thought about coming home early). I talked to good ol Mom about it, and she was encouraging, but it was a taxing conversation for me. It´s tough to feel like things aren´t happening at all the way you envisioned them, tougher to feel this and simutaneously feel useless as a worker... like you´re out of your comfort zone for nothing. Even tougher is to admit all this to yourself and then to someone else. Luckily, I was called away to help pre-cook breakfast for the next day. I say luckily because I was about to break into tears... something, for those of you who know me fairly well, never happens.
This morning, as I was sitting here in a bit of a better mood, God put on my heart what I think he´s trying to teach me through this. I can´t remember how it came to pass, but Psalms 46:10 came to mind. In my restlessness, my eagerness to feel useful and be ever working, I was reminded that I need to ¨Be still and know that (he) is God...¨ His plans and his vision for this trip are more perfect than mine ever were. I need to realize that. This frustration, this loneliness is all for a reason, ¨For we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.¨ What a fantastic realization for me... I read the rest of the Psalm and a couple verses really stuck out: ¨4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.¨ The Psalm sets up a cool dichotomy, exalting the power of God in everything he does on the Earth, the destruction he is able to engender, and mingled with these exclamations are affirmations of his care and protection for his people. Verses 4 and 5 remind me of how awesome it is to belong to this powerful God, and what´s more, to have him live in us and, more than protect us, make us glad. God is mighty - mighty to save - and he delights in us and works all things out for our good. Things like loneliness and a feeling of uselessness in a foreign country.
So, as I work through this - I genuinely do feel like I could be using my time more productively, and I don´t think this feeling will go away if the status quo remains - I have been encouraged to be patient, be still, and know that he is a God who dwells within me and that his rivers, his streams, are meant to make me glad.
So we´ll see what God has in store for me here, whether I continue to spend my days at the church and Davíd finds more for me to do here, or if I work on another of his projects, or if I move to another ministry entirely. Time will tell, but for now I´m trying to work out what it looks like to rest in what God has prepared for me, even to rejoice in it.
That was about half of what I had going on in my head, but the other half is only slightly related, so I´ll save it for another day. By the way, today makes one month of being here. It simultaneously seems like it´s been only a week and as much as a year.
All the best from Guatemala, and thanks for your continued prayers.
-Daniel
A hodgepodge of ideas and thoughts are floating around in my head right now, and there´s no way I can fit them all into this post, much less in a cohesive manner, but I´ll attempt nonetheless. Here goes.
Yesterday was not a good day for me. The past few days in general, actually, haven´t been great. After the tremendous high last week with the team from Tennessee, this week has been a downer. I´m here at the church from about 7 in the morning until about 5 or 6 at night, but this week I haven´t had much to do. I teach English for about a half hour a day, and the rest of my time is to myself. One starts to feel a little lonely. Yesterday morning my loneliness reached a new zenith, and I contemplated whether not I was an effective worker here, and what I saw the rest of my time here looking like (read: I thought about coming home early). I talked to good ol Mom about it, and she was encouraging, but it was a taxing conversation for me. It´s tough to feel like things aren´t happening at all the way you envisioned them, tougher to feel this and simutaneously feel useless as a worker... like you´re out of your comfort zone for nothing. Even tougher is to admit all this to yourself and then to someone else. Luckily, I was called away to help pre-cook breakfast for the next day. I say luckily because I was about to break into tears... something, for those of you who know me fairly well, never happens.
This morning, as I was sitting here in a bit of a better mood, God put on my heart what I think he´s trying to teach me through this. I can´t remember how it came to pass, but Psalms 46:10 came to mind. In my restlessness, my eagerness to feel useful and be ever working, I was reminded that I need to ¨Be still and know that (he) is God...¨ His plans and his vision for this trip are more perfect than mine ever were. I need to realize that. This frustration, this loneliness is all for a reason, ¨For we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.¨ What a fantastic realization for me... I read the rest of the Psalm and a couple verses really stuck out: ¨4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.¨ The Psalm sets up a cool dichotomy, exalting the power of God in everything he does on the Earth, the destruction he is able to engender, and mingled with these exclamations are affirmations of his care and protection for his people. Verses 4 and 5 remind me of how awesome it is to belong to this powerful God, and what´s more, to have him live in us and, more than protect us, make us glad. God is mighty - mighty to save - and he delights in us and works all things out for our good. Things like loneliness and a feeling of uselessness in a foreign country.
So, as I work through this - I genuinely do feel like I could be using my time more productively, and I don´t think this feeling will go away if the status quo remains - I have been encouraged to be patient, be still, and know that he is a God who dwells within me and that his rivers, his streams, are meant to make me glad.
So we´ll see what God has in store for me here, whether I continue to spend my days at the church and Davíd finds more for me to do here, or if I work on another of his projects, or if I move to another ministry entirely. Time will tell, but for now I´m trying to work out what it looks like to rest in what God has prepared for me, even to rejoice in it.
That was about half of what I had going on in my head, but the other half is only slightly related, so I´ll save it for another day. By the way, today makes one month of being here. It simultaneously seems like it´s been only a week and as much as a year.
All the best from Guatemala, and thanks for your continued prayers.
-Daniel
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Fotos Nuevos
I just put up 4 new albums on the pictures website. I hope you enjoy them!
Here´s the link again:
http://picasaweb.google.com/d2006shank
-Daniel
Here´s the link again:
http://picasaweb.google.com/d2006shank
-Daniel
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Una semana llena
It's been about a week since I posted, I think... and what a full week it's been.
On Saturday 5 gringos from Tennessee arrived, and we had a welcome dinner for them at David's. So I was introduced to them, we chatted for a little bit, then they got settled in and we went to bed. The next day, we left for what would be a full and fully blessed week.
I wish I had the opportunity to post every day last week... each day was certainly an adventure. But I think I'll just give a few words and let the pictures do a lot of the talking... I'll put those up within the next couple of days.
The team came to do a medical mission; we went to three different villages (Monday-Wednesday) to give medical clinics for about 35 people in each village. These usually took about 3 or 4 hours... the rest of our time was spent visiting different villages where David has programs and praying for the villages and the pastors there. We also got to do a few cool touristy things that were kind of off the beaten path. We went to a river that had carved out a canyon... it was absolutely beautiful (again, I'll let the pictures do the talking). We also went to one of Guatemala's many places called Agua Caliente (hot water)... this one had a stream coming off a volcano or some other sort of natural heating mechanism, and fell into another stream by way of waterfall. It was beautiful, and was also one of the few truly hot showers I've had here... a great place. We also got to take a boat out to the Caribbean, to a town called Livingston (the town wasn't my favorite, but it was cool to see a little part of the Caribbean). Thursday, on our way home, we stopped by some Mayan ruins that were pretty sweet. And then we spent Friday through Saturday morning in la Antigua, and I got to walk around and see a good bit of the city.
Of course, all the touristy stuff was great, but there was some stuff this week that was tough and some stuff that was encouraging. Most of the medical issues were aches and pains, maybe a little malnutrition (but nothing very severe), and the occasional case of worms. But there were two people that really stick out in my mind. One was a woman we saw on the second day... we had to make a house call because she was too weak to go to the school where the clinic was. The prognosis of the two people with us who had medical experience was that she had tuberculosis... serious stuff. This was a pretty remote village, too, and the medical help she needs is pretty far away. We talked to the woman and her husband, and it turns out they are the only Christians in this village, so we prayed for her, which was a very powerful experience in a bamboo hut with about 4 or 5 people praying out loud at the same time in different languages. The other person that will stick with me for a very long time is a girl of about 3 years who had a mess of problems that I won't go into now. But she is certainly not cared for well, and isn't in a good situation. Ingrid is her name, if you wanna pray for her... she needs it.
And of course, a grand blessing of this week was getting to know the 5 great gringos who came from Tennessee. They're a fantastic group of people, and their visit was a huge blessing for me. If you guys are reading this now, I want to tell you thanks again for including me as part of your group and praying for me on multiple occasions. I'm keeping you guys in my prayers, and look forward to seeing you again down here soon and hearing about your continuing work for Christ's kingdom.
In other news, I moved homes today. I'm now in David's brother Claudio's house. He's got a wife and one son, Josh, and they've been very welcoming (of course, I knew Claudio before coming from talking to him at church). His house is also really nice, and I think I'll have consistent hot showers here which will definitely be a nice change.
Well, I think I'm of to bed. I'll try to post pictures in the next few days, and if you have questions about my week or just wanna hear more, post a comment and I can expand a little bit in my next post, which should hopefully be in the next few days.
And for you Carolina people: have fun on Spring Break! Miss you guys (and the non-Carolina people, too).
-Daniel
On Saturday 5 gringos from Tennessee arrived, and we had a welcome dinner for them at David's. So I was introduced to them, we chatted for a little bit, then they got settled in and we went to bed. The next day, we left for what would be a full and fully blessed week.
I wish I had the opportunity to post every day last week... each day was certainly an adventure. But I think I'll just give a few words and let the pictures do a lot of the talking... I'll put those up within the next couple of days.
The team came to do a medical mission; we went to three different villages (Monday-Wednesday) to give medical clinics for about 35 people in each village. These usually took about 3 or 4 hours... the rest of our time was spent visiting different villages where David has programs and praying for the villages and the pastors there. We also got to do a few cool touristy things that were kind of off the beaten path. We went to a river that had carved out a canyon... it was absolutely beautiful (again, I'll let the pictures do the talking). We also went to one of Guatemala's many places called Agua Caliente (hot water)... this one had a stream coming off a volcano or some other sort of natural heating mechanism, and fell into another stream by way of waterfall. It was beautiful, and was also one of the few truly hot showers I've had here... a great place. We also got to take a boat out to the Caribbean, to a town called Livingston (the town wasn't my favorite, but it was cool to see a little part of the Caribbean). Thursday, on our way home, we stopped by some Mayan ruins that were pretty sweet. And then we spent Friday through Saturday morning in la Antigua, and I got to walk around and see a good bit of the city.
Of course, all the touristy stuff was great, but there was some stuff this week that was tough and some stuff that was encouraging. Most of the medical issues were aches and pains, maybe a little malnutrition (but nothing very severe), and the occasional case of worms. But there were two people that really stick out in my mind. One was a woman we saw on the second day... we had to make a house call because she was too weak to go to the school where the clinic was. The prognosis of the two people with us who had medical experience was that she had tuberculosis... serious stuff. This was a pretty remote village, too, and the medical help she needs is pretty far away. We talked to the woman and her husband, and it turns out they are the only Christians in this village, so we prayed for her, which was a very powerful experience in a bamboo hut with about 4 or 5 people praying out loud at the same time in different languages. The other person that will stick with me for a very long time is a girl of about 3 years who had a mess of problems that I won't go into now. But she is certainly not cared for well, and isn't in a good situation. Ingrid is her name, if you wanna pray for her... she needs it.
And of course, a grand blessing of this week was getting to know the 5 great gringos who came from Tennessee. They're a fantastic group of people, and their visit was a huge blessing for me. If you guys are reading this now, I want to tell you thanks again for including me as part of your group and praying for me on multiple occasions. I'm keeping you guys in my prayers, and look forward to seeing you again down here soon and hearing about your continuing work for Christ's kingdom.
In other news, I moved homes today. I'm now in David's brother Claudio's house. He's got a wife and one son, Josh, and they've been very welcoming (of course, I knew Claudio before coming from talking to him at church). His house is also really nice, and I think I'll have consistent hot showers here which will definitely be a nice change.
Well, I think I'm of to bed. I'll try to post pictures in the next few days, and if you have questions about my week or just wanna hear more, post a comment and I can expand a little bit in my next post, which should hopefully be in the next few days.
And for you Carolina people: have fun on Spring Break! Miss you guys (and the non-Carolina people, too).
-Daniel
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Well, things are rolling along down here in Guatemala. It´s been an extremely busy week. After my nice vacation/touristy time in Lake Atitlan, David threw me into what seems like what the rest of my stay here will look like.
My days were spent at the church, or the ¨Christian Culture Center of Guatemala.¨ Days start around 5:30, when I leave for the center (or, rather, when I´m ready to leave. When we actually leave varies from day to day... people here don´t have a developed sense of punctuality). I help serve breakfast to the kids, then help clean up and also eat breakfast for myself. For part of the day, I teach English to the kids who come (some days it´s in the morning, some in the afternoon). The rest of my time this week was spent constructing a huge database of all the kids in their program, with different information including logistics like address and parents´ names as well as a few of their favorite things. It´s tedious work, but it´s for a good cause: this is the list they use to organize all the kids and present them to potential sponsors. By the way, if anybody wants to sponsor a kid, they ask for 30 dollars a month. That provides breakfast every weekday and helps provide other stuff for the instruction/homework help time during the day. If anybody´s interested, there´s a lot of kids without sponsors: e-mail me or let me know, and I´m sure Davíd would be thrilled to set it up.
So that´s my days, and my evenings are short... I´m asleep by 10 every night, and often earlier. Data entry plus kids plus the whole speaking in Spanish thing is pretty effectively exhausts me.
So that was Monday through Thursday, and then yesterday I went with 5 members of the church to Rio Dulce (sweet river), a beautiful lowcountry river area. This is another one of those village feeding programs that (I think) I talked about in a previous post. (If you wanna sponsor a weekend, it´s about 500 bucks) Sorry for the shameless solicitation of funds... I know most of you are college kids, and thus barely know what it feels like to have 500 dollars, much less give it away. No pressure. This was another remote village with a lot of poverty going on. The poverty here was a little prettier, though. Instead of cinderblock homes with corrugated steel for a roof, they had bamboo and wood homes with a thatched roof. Very pretty, but it doesn´t mean they can afford more food or better health care. Again, though, they were genuinely joyous and a nice blessing for me after a week of a lot of tedious work.
I talked to David afterwards, and he asked me one of those probing questions that takes me a while to answer. Of course, there was the normal stuff like how did you like the area (it was fantastic), did you get to see the monkeys (no), how did you sleep (not well), did you get eaten up by mosquitos (no, thanks to a fantastic mosquito net and lots of bug spray). But then he asked what I thought about the work God was doing there. It took me a second to formulate my answer, but this was more or less my response: Of course, I never got to see the villages before they started the program, but from the joy in the children´s eyes and their eagerness to learn about the Bible, it´s easy to see that God is doing great things. It got me thinking again about what I believe is the best way to spread the Gospel. There´s an old cliche that goes something like, ¨share the gospel every day. If necessary, use words.¨ Now, I don´t agree completely... God gave us his holy word for a reason. However, I think the basic sentiment isn´t far off base... God calls us to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, etc. It´s something that´s been on my mind of late, the fact that it seems like in America it seems we´ve sort of lost our sense of this calling. Why do we have churches that seem like castles, and yet have hungry that go unfed? Obvously, hunger isn´t as apparent in America as it is here, but there are other tangible needs that go unmet by churches with unbelievable cash flow. As always, these are generalizations drawn from limited observation, but in my limited observation here I´ve seen a church whose members don´t have much to begin with giving their time and money to people who need it more than they do.
A few times I´ve been asked, ¨What is your job at your church?¨ I had no idea what they were asking, really, until David explained to me that an obligation for membership in the church here is that you have a job in it, that you are an active participant in the extension of God´s grace to this community through his body. It took me a while to think through and accept, but I´m on board. If we´re part of Christ´s body and we believe that he is working through that body, how can we be a member of a church without participating actively in the work it is doing? This takes many forms, of course; some are hands, some are feet, some are the appendix and we´re not really sure why they´re there... but the body is active in extending God´s grace to this world in tangible and intangible ways. Why aren´t we more active in this work?
This was disorganized and wordy and stream of consciousness-esque... for that I apologize. Please feel free to disagree, develop these thoughts into something more coherent, etc.
Tomorrow I head out on a sort of whirlwind tour of David´s programs with some gringos from a church in Tennessee that sponsors a lot of David´s programs, and I won´t be back till Thursday. All the best until then. Hope you´re all doing well.
My days were spent at the church, or the ¨Christian Culture Center of Guatemala.¨ Days start around 5:30, when I leave for the center (or, rather, when I´m ready to leave. When we actually leave varies from day to day... people here don´t have a developed sense of punctuality). I help serve breakfast to the kids, then help clean up and also eat breakfast for myself. For part of the day, I teach English to the kids who come (some days it´s in the morning, some in the afternoon). The rest of my time this week was spent constructing a huge database of all the kids in their program, with different information including logistics like address and parents´ names as well as a few of their favorite things. It´s tedious work, but it´s for a good cause: this is the list they use to organize all the kids and present them to potential sponsors. By the way, if anybody wants to sponsor a kid, they ask for 30 dollars a month. That provides breakfast every weekday and helps provide other stuff for the instruction/homework help time during the day. If anybody´s interested, there´s a lot of kids without sponsors: e-mail me or let me know, and I´m sure Davíd would be thrilled to set it up.
So that´s my days, and my evenings are short... I´m asleep by 10 every night, and often earlier. Data entry plus kids plus the whole speaking in Spanish thing is pretty effectively exhausts me.
So that was Monday through Thursday, and then yesterday I went with 5 members of the church to Rio Dulce (sweet river), a beautiful lowcountry river area. This is another one of those village feeding programs that (I think) I talked about in a previous post. (If you wanna sponsor a weekend, it´s about 500 bucks) Sorry for the shameless solicitation of funds... I know most of you are college kids, and thus barely know what it feels like to have 500 dollars, much less give it away. No pressure. This was another remote village with a lot of poverty going on. The poverty here was a little prettier, though. Instead of cinderblock homes with corrugated steel for a roof, they had bamboo and wood homes with a thatched roof. Very pretty, but it doesn´t mean they can afford more food or better health care. Again, though, they were genuinely joyous and a nice blessing for me after a week of a lot of tedious work.
I talked to David afterwards, and he asked me one of those probing questions that takes me a while to answer. Of course, there was the normal stuff like how did you like the area (it was fantastic), did you get to see the monkeys (no), how did you sleep (not well), did you get eaten up by mosquitos (no, thanks to a fantastic mosquito net and lots of bug spray). But then he asked what I thought about the work God was doing there. It took me a second to formulate my answer, but this was more or less my response: Of course, I never got to see the villages before they started the program, but from the joy in the children´s eyes and their eagerness to learn about the Bible, it´s easy to see that God is doing great things. It got me thinking again about what I believe is the best way to spread the Gospel. There´s an old cliche that goes something like, ¨share the gospel every day. If necessary, use words.¨ Now, I don´t agree completely... God gave us his holy word for a reason. However, I think the basic sentiment isn´t far off base... God calls us to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, etc. It´s something that´s been on my mind of late, the fact that it seems like in America it seems we´ve sort of lost our sense of this calling. Why do we have churches that seem like castles, and yet have hungry that go unfed? Obvously, hunger isn´t as apparent in America as it is here, but there are other tangible needs that go unmet by churches with unbelievable cash flow. As always, these are generalizations drawn from limited observation, but in my limited observation here I´ve seen a church whose members don´t have much to begin with giving their time and money to people who need it more than they do.
A few times I´ve been asked, ¨What is your job at your church?¨ I had no idea what they were asking, really, until David explained to me that an obligation for membership in the church here is that you have a job in it, that you are an active participant in the extension of God´s grace to this community through his body. It took me a while to think through and accept, but I´m on board. If we´re part of Christ´s body and we believe that he is working through that body, how can we be a member of a church without participating actively in the work it is doing? This takes many forms, of course; some are hands, some are feet, some are the appendix and we´re not really sure why they´re there... but the body is active in extending God´s grace to this world in tangible and intangible ways. Why aren´t we more active in this work?
This was disorganized and wordy and stream of consciousness-esque... for that I apologize. Please feel free to disagree, develop these thoughts into something more coherent, etc.
Tomorrow I head out on a sort of whirlwind tour of David´s programs with some gringos from a church in Tennessee that sponsors a lot of David´s programs, and I won´t be back till Thursday. All the best until then. Hope you´re all doing well.
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