Journey to Chejaneb

Our last day

2011-07-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day spent in Paapa and was truly a moving experience for all of us. The entire community was there to dedicate the sports facility and then send us on our way. We have felt so much love from the people of Paapa all week, but this event was the highlight of our trip! We will have to share stories when we get home.
After leaving the community at noon, we boarded a bus for Antigua arriving around 6 pm. We then spent the evening with David Evans and his family at his home. David is a Georgia native who is working out of the Food for the Hungry, Guatamala City office. We had such an enjoyable time with him and his family. What a Day! We're now getting to bed to get up early tomorrow morning to get some photos of the local volcanoes prior to doing some local market shopping and catching the bus for the airport at 9 am. We'll see you all back in Lancaster soon....

Day 5-Update from Chejaneb

2011-06-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today was our third day in the community of Paapa for the wonderful C2C team. Each day seems to be more breathtaking and moving than the last. We started off the morning with another beautiful day in Coban and once we reached the region of Paapa, our group had the opportunity to hear another amazing presentation by our newfound FH friend, John Warden. He spoke about poverty, which really consists of so many parts that one word does not do it justice. After that brief session, we split up into our home visit and project groups.

Our team was able to visit the sponsored children of Ron and Jill Kope, Heather and Keith Samuelson, and Coleen and Joel Mullins. The visits were very emotionally charged, with many smiles and thankful words. I think both our team and the family were equally affected by that special time. We heard David Evans(the team coordinator from last year) speak about other short-term teams that come to Guatemala looking for what they can get out of the experience, what the community can give them. What we, and I think I can speak for our whole group, have realized is that they are giving us so much more! We have become so grateful for each interaction, each tortilla-making lesson, each conversation that we can have with the people here, because they have so much to teach us! God is doing amazing work here in

Guatemala

, and we are so blessed to take this time to witness it.

The project group went to the house of a single mother named Olivia. She has 3 children and works in Coban to support her family while her mother watches her children. The men in our group were able to move a lot of dirt, while the women made tortillas. I cannot express how important our project time is! While the actual digging seems insignificant, the relationships that we create during that time are what matters. Olivia really did need someone to dig for her, because she’s one woman and that 3 hour process would’ve taken her days; but in reality, it gave us a chance to KNOW her, to learn about her life, to care about her, and to see the awesome love she has for God despite the many hardships in her life. One specific thing I wanted to mention from the project time was a girl that I got to know. Her name is Soila Esperanza. She is living with a single father as the only child in the house. Her mother died a year ago from a sudden sickness, and her father does not allow her to go to school. Her father wants her to stay home and do all the work of a grown woman, so she is 12 years old with a second grade education, and she cannot be sponsored because she doesn’t attend school. I know this is a sad story and hard to hear (I know because I cried the whole way through it), but to me this girl is the reason why FH is in Guatemala. Soila Esperanza has poverty in so many ways, and yet she walks to church by herself each Sunday. Food for the Hungry is changing this community so profoundly that even a girl like Soila Esperanza has a chance to find God in her life. And if that wasn’t enough, the English translation for her name is “I am Hope”. Seriously! God is everywhere! He is touching lives in the most desolate places and working in mysterious ways. I’m speechless at his work.

I just want to mention one other person, and then I’ll be done! I hope everyone has seen the movie “Erin Brokovich”, because I’m referencing her. In the community of Paapa, there is this amazing woman named Flory, who works for FH. Without the sassy attitude and hoochy clothes, she is Erin Brokovich. She is the director of the nutrition program in Paapa, and for that reason she knows every single family in the entire town and is extremely passionate about her job and about Jesus. She walks to houses several times a day every day for various reasons, usually for something about health or school, and she knows every child’s name and age in a family—by heart!! She talked to me about several children that attended Bible school, and could tell me about their parents, their siblings, and any medical or emotional problems that they are having. We went to houses to dig holes for the pila sinks and she enters the house like an old friend, talking easily with the mother or father. Men in the community respect and listen to her, children look up to her, and the women learn about nutrition and cooking from her. On top of all that, she has two children of her own! She is an amazing woman to me, and yet she is humble and prays openly and sincerely for every person that she encounters. She exudes the spirit and love of God. She is a role model for me in my Christian walk.

Other than those fantastic people, and the many more that we meet each day, we had a terrific storm today. It rained extremely hard, and then turned to hail. Can you imagine the sound of hail on a tin roof? The sound is magnified by a hundred! Eventually the rain did slow down and we were able to complete one craft and one game today, and an incredible short drama of a parable that Jesus told about a bag of seeds. Our team were great actors and the children thoroughly enjoyed the story!

As you may imagine, we are all a little empty physically from our digging, hiking, and VBS; but we are spiritually being filled in many ways that I never thought possible. I thank God every day that I had this opportunity to come to

Guatemala

Please pray for our health, as we have had a couple of team members not feeling their best.

Dios te bendiga (God bless you)—Jill Tankesley

Day #3

2011-06-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Ten of us had the opportunity to visit a home in Paapa to help dig the
trench for their concrete sink. We did some serious hiking up and down
steep, muddy trails and through corn fields to get to their house.
When we arrived, the husband was already in a six foot deep hole,
digging out the dirt with a wooden stick and his bare hands. Ron and
Keith jumped in to help dig the trench from underneath the sink
towards the large hole, while Eric helped the husband from above and
Jeff supervised. Thankfully, we had Jill to help translate and
decipher directions.
The wife of the home offered to teach us how to make tortillas. She
ground the corn and showed us how to shape and flatten them.
After we enjoyed our freshly made tortillas, the family expressed
their appreciation for our visit. Then we prayed for and with the
family and headed back on our way.

I've attached two photos of one of our home visits that we were on. Sheldon, Libby, and Erin visited 2 kids while the others worked on the project that we're working on. Our home visit was an amazing experience! The family was so happy to have us in their home. They had his whole family there except the father, who was working in the fields. Henry has one younger brother and an older sister. They cooked a huge meal for us and we stayed and ate with them, which the staff here said was very unusual. We felt so loved and blessed to be there! The 3rd pic is of the field that was completed recently and is where we had our VBS.

Day #2

2011-06-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the morning worshipping at a church near our hotel and then had lunch at a great restaurant. We then climbed a hill with 110 steps up to a church overlooking the city. It was beatiful. We finished the night off with dinner and a meeting to get ready for our week ahead. Tomorrow, we travel to Paapa and spend time meeting members of the community in the morning and also go on 2 home visits. In the afternoon, we will be doing a VBS for approximately 150, 5-7 year olds. The pictures below are of our hotel courtyard where we've been eaten a number of meals, walking the streets of Coban, and our two leaders on the hike posing for the 28th anniversary photo!

We're here, safe and sound

2011-06-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

We started our travels at 4:30 this morning, took vans to Newark, traveled by air to Guatamala City, and a bus to Coban (this picture is in the bus).....all in all a 16 hour trip and we're pretty exhausted. We're settling down for the night and getting rest for a fairly busy day tomorrow of going to a local church in the morning and then sightseeing tomorrow along with going to purchase some more items for the VBS that we're doing for the kids during the week. I hope to post some more pics tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're off!

2011-06-24T05:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, June 24th, our C2C team of 13 individuals, board a plane @ 9:00 am for a direct flight to Guatemala City. We hope to share something each day from our trip, whether it be pictures or stories. Please follow along as we take this journey....