This day was one that I will remember forever, one that on some level I am still processing. This day was a completely different missions experience. This day, I saw a deeper understanding of the love of a Father through the love of a father. This day I saw desperation and hope and a strength I can only hope I would have.
We left the compound at 5 AM, picked up a couple of people along the way as well as a lead car, and drove and drove and drove. We went down the mountains as the sun rose with beautiful hues and passed many beautiful views full of volcanoes, mountains, rivers, fields, and eventually palm trees and sugar cane as we got lower and lower in elevation.
Beautiful sunrise!
Volcan Pecaya spewing out some smoke
Palm trees!
First time I ever saw a river and bridge in Guatemala
Volcanoes in the distance
Finally, we arrived in Siquinala. The air outside of the vans was definitely more tropical than our usual location up in the mountains. We were, after all, only about 30 miles from the ocean. Out of the lead car came a couple Guatemalans and two father-daughter duos, one from San Diego and one from Florida, who were part of another organization. Since we were so far down in elevation and had not taken malaria precautions, we were each doused in Off! (disgusting, but necessary).
We then walked inside a little concrete and tin house where we found a family with two daughters (whose names I will not post here for their privacy) who were burned in the volcanic eruption on June 3. Their father told us all their story, of how he raced to los Lotes to rescue his daughters. Due to their bad burns, they were two of the several children who were flown to Texas for treatment. Their father went with them to learn how to care for their burns, and they have consistent check-ups. I wrote up the father's full story on my other blog if you'd like to read it; the post is entitled A Father's Love (click here).
We prayed with them and worshipped with them; it was an incredible experience. Their story is so full of miracles!
We then drove to another town where the community center is being used as a place for many refugee families to live. 9 different villages were represented among the 62 families living there. It was very hot inside, despite the numerous fans, and actually seeing so many families living like that was intense and very eye opening. I can't even imagine what they're really experiencing. There were rows of groupings: a bed, and any belongings that they had grabbed before fleeing piled beside them. World Vision had supplied many necessities, such as porta potties, somewhere to wash their clothes, etc; there was also medical care and a kitchen area. One of the men there is a carpenter, so they bring him wooden pallets and he makes tables that are needed. There were some ladies there working with them children (there are 50 of them from ages 0-18) to help them through the trauma through art, etc. The one lady, whose English is very good, was talking to us about it and said how the one little boy, who was sitting at the table at the time, still has all of his family but he lost 20 of his classmates. He looked to be about seven or eight years old.
One man was one of the last Christians left alive from his village - all of the others are gone, including two pastors. He was telling some of our team how he didn't know what to do, everyone else is gone. It is now his turn to be the pastor and to grow the Church there.
Overall, we spent some time just mingling with the refugees; the youth did their skit a couple of times, we did art with the kids, played with them, handed out supplies and toys for the kids, talked with them via translators, sang, etc.
On the way back we stopped somewhere for some food/snacks, and a smaller group of us just wanted ice cream so we sat outside at a separate area and enjoyed some really delicious ice cream and fun conversation. And drank lots of water. We also got a whole group photo before we left.
It was quite a day.
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