Day 5: Thursday, Jul 21
- Breakfast
- After a delicious breakfast, we journeyed to the Chicoy Sinkhole, which is a cave, deep in the ground, to which many of the Native people travel to perform polytheistic, anamistic and occultic rituals.
- The sinkhole was a dynamic event where the team experienced darkness and the light. Descending into the sinkhole represented the sin that easily entangles us and pulls us down further away from God. Once we were at the bottom with stagmites all around us, we felt the desperation of many souls that have come to seek hope through false idols. In order to overcome this heavy feeling, we burst into song and prayer and felt joy as we looked upwards with the sunlight shining through the small opening at the top of the sinkhole. Ascending back up the sinkhole represented us coming out of the darkness and into God’s light.
- We returned to the guesthouse and had lunch
- After lunch we went to an English class at the Chijacorral junior high school
- The students were paired up with a Guatemalan student and asked to try to communicate with them, so the Guatemalans could practice their English. Everyone had a lot of fun
- We then went to a home visit; the family was one who attends the church in Tactic. We gave them some groceries, gifts and prayed for them
- We returned to the school for another English class; during this class we played an organized game with the students that was similar to connect four, but in order to get an X or an O, one had to create an English sentence using English verbs pair with other phrases. Many of the Guatemalan students were quite good.
- We had dinner at the Guesthouse
- After dinner, we joined a Thursday night Cell group from the Church (a small group or Bible Study)
- We heard several Guatemalans share what they had learned during the week while studying some passages in Luke.
- Several students were also able to share with the group, so Vicky, Sam C. and Nadine all took the opportunity to share some of their testimony with the Guatemalans.
Day 6: Fri. Jul 22
- Breakfast
- After breakfast, we went to visit the Catholic Church at Chixim
- Les gave us a history lesson about how the Catholic Church came to Latin America, and often built their Churches on or near sites that the natives already considered sacred – high places where they would perform pagan rituals
- They did this to entice the people to come to church; they were already there anyhow
- This created a very corrupted Catholic Church, where some truths of the gospel get mixed with paganism, and the result is a twisted religion, full of half truthes
- While there, we heard a woman desperately crying and wailing to the idol at the front of the church, pleading for help to a statue and believing that it could help her
- This really affected some of the students when they heard her desperation and hopelessness; it made them think of the old testament and how people put their faith in idols. Many of them did not realized that it still happened in the world today
- Les Peters took us into a side room, where we prayed. The students had to finish the sentence “Jesus, you are _______.” (Jesus, you are our salvation; Jesus, you are our hope in times of trouble, Jesus, you are all powerful, etc).
- We prayed this way for about 10 minutes and students shared that they could feel the presence of God, even in that dark, hopeless place
- Upon our return, students changed clothes and we continued doing the work project, preparing the foundation of the Orphanage Guesthouse by removing wheel barrows full of dirt from the location.
- There were a lot of shoveling and pushing of wheel barrows, but even the Guatemalan workers commented on how hard-working and energetic the students were
- Les then gave us a tour of the whole property, showing us the greenhouse, all of the agricultural projects and the site of the future orphanage and family group homes.
- Around 12:30, we returned to the guesthouse for lunch
- In the afternoon, we went to the Hospital in Coban – the only hospital in the province, that is severely underfunded, especially after the previous government stole millions of healthcare money
- It was very sad for the students, as many people go there when they have no other alternative – they go there to die.
- The streets around the hospital had many coffin making shops and pharmacies
- While there, we visited the maternity ward, saw some abandoned babies and some very young months. Were are able to pray for each one, and give them some newborn packages we had prepared in Canada, containing diapers, baby blankets, baby toys, soap, etc.
- Dinner
- Debrief
Student Response:
Thanks to yesterday’s work project we were all sore this morning, but the staff fed us pancakes for breakfast so that helped. Afterwards, we headed to the Chicoy sinkhole with no idea what to expect. From the road, we had a ways to hike to get to the entrance to the sinkhole itself; when we got there we found ourselves at the lip of a cave that seemed at first to extend downwards indefinitely, with rays of sunlight filtering through the smoke from witches’ fires. Not everyone was able to join us at the bottom due to the smoke and the steep incline into the sinkhole, but once those of us that could had made it to the bottom we sang a few songs, prayed in pairs, shared a bit about what we’d learned in Guatemala so far and then we explored for a bit. It was incredible to feel God’s presence in such a dark place, where fires from recent rituals still burned and remnants of witchcraft supplies were scattered on the muddy ground. While exploring, I came across a cluster of candles that had been lit in front of a deformed cross, and watched as a pale moth, drawn to the light, mistakenly landed on a slick of candle wax on the ground, struggled briefly, and then went still. It felt like a metaphor for the way so many people are drawn to the lustre of what Satan has to offer — the riches, the glory– and then get caught up in circumstances they can’t possibly foresee and suffer immeasurably because of it. That scene was hard to turn away from, and I think I’ll take it with me for a long time.
In the afternoon we visited two English classes to help the students there practice English, and then we conducted a home visit to a church family. Later, we joined a cell group for their devotional and even after a few days of being in awe of the uninhibited passion Guatemalans have for God, listening to the sound of multiple prayers sung out at the same time was indescribable. It was just another reminder of how much North Americans can learn from them, and how much richer, spiritually speaking, they are. It’ll be difficult to return home to the orderly, self-conscious manner in which we worship God.
Anyways. Hi to Dad in Brazil and mom at home. I miss you and Averyn and I love you, I’ll be home soon and God has our team in his hands so I’ll be okay. They keep telling us that each of us is here for a purpose; that there are no coincidences when God is in charge. I wasn’t so sure that was true for myself at the beginning, but I’ve changed my mind a few times since then. Something incredible is happening here in Guatemala and I’m hugely grateful to be a part of it, so thanks again for your love and support. IT means the world. – Jadine Ngan