Resurrection Sunday

Jimmy did a post about Easter here. Basically it is similar to Spring Break in the States. Petén is like a foreign country to the rest of Guatemala, so we have lots of in-country tourists. There is more drinking going on than normal, so my goal Monday through Friday is to go as few places as possible which should increase my chances of NOT getting killed by a drunk driver here.

When we lived in Xela, there were lots of decorations and beautiful sawdust carpets to go see. Here everything looks the same as any other week, just more crowded. By Saturday and Sunday things are back to normal, the tourists have returned home ready to start another work week or head back to school. Resurrection Sunday is not celebrated here. It is omitted completely.

Since we no longer hold services in New Horizon on Sundays, we were planning on listening to a service from our home church Sunday morning. Saturday night our friend Stephen called and invited us to his church. He is a the pastor of the Mennonite church here in our town.

There is a small Mennonite population here in our town. They are always very kind to us. We know about 3 different families. We don't spend a lot of time with them but we borrow things from each other or help out when something is needed. Stephen and his wife Brenda always go out of their way to make us feel comfortable and accepted. It was interesting to see how other people worship. They had a choir group visiting from a college in the States, so we actually got to hear a couple songs in English! It was a nice way to celebrate Resurrection Sunday!

Yesterday we had a Resurrection party in Santa Rita with the kids! We made edible "empty" tombs!
I was so proud of my kids as we talked about the significance of this special day. They have learned so much during our time with them!

Jimmy's adult Bible study went great last night too! I cannot wait until the boys are old enough for me to start going with him again!

It's Hard To Understand Why

I mentioned a few posts ago about a couple that lost 2 of their sons this past January in a drunk driving accident. The husband and wife's names are Juaquin and Consuelo. The older boy did come to the kids' Bible study and had received a Bible.

It just so happened that one day while we were visiting with them in their home last year I snapped a photo of their two boys together. It really was a beautiful photo of them both. We printed it up in an 8x10 and framed it to take to them last week. We all cried. This is the only picture they have of them. I am so thankful that God gave us something little we could do for them.

We just love Juaquin and Consuelo, please continue to pray for them. They were so sweet to welcome us back and to congratulate us on the birth of our boys. Juaquin told Jimmy that it is hard to look at babies because he remembers when his were young and he misses them so much. I cannot even imagine the pain they are experiencing. They do have one more older son. He was in our Easter drama.

Still In Shock

There was a vehicle in New Horizon for us to rent this week to take to Santa Rita. It would have been nice of them to tell us it was broken before they handed us the keys, but we found out about 10 minutes down the road. Jimmy, Carlos, and Gerardo took turns pushing it back to New Horizon. It would crank every now and then. The last time it quit running the guys stopped to rest a minute and Jimmy turned the flashers on and let the truck cool off a little. I saw a car coming from behind us, it looked like it was flying and it wasn’t getting over to pass us. I yelled at Gerardo to get out of the road. It barely missed us and was within a foot of him. We all turned to watch this crazy driver who had just flown by us. The car didn’t try to slow down, but instead whipped back over into his lane. At that point he lost control of the car. He flew off the road. The car went up vertically on its front end and then slammed back down into a cow pasture 15’ below the road They had family members in a car traveling behind them. They had not been going as fast, so it took them a while to get there. When they saw the other car smoking off the road, they pulled over. They started screaming and running to check on their family members. While this was going on Jimmy was calling for an ambulance. Here a mob can form quickly, even in the middle of nowhere. In less then a couple minutes there were about 150 people gathered around. Mobs are known to lynch people who they decide is responsible. Jimmy and Carlos went over to check on the people in the car and Gerardo and I went to put branches in the road to slow people down. (Soon after the other car pulled of the road someone else flew by and almost hit them.) There had been 4 people in the car and 3 of them were walking around. Jimmy got some of the people in the crowd to pull out the 4th older man that was still in the vehicle, since it was on fire. The man was breathing, but he wasn’t talking and he could barely open his eyes. One of his ears had been split in two. Jimmy prayed with the man’s family. The driver was walking around with blood coming out of his ear. He reeked of alcohol and couldn’t remember what happened. He kept saying things like, “What happened to the car?” ”Who was driving?” We are not sure why 3 sober people would let a drunk man drive them, but that explains why he didn’t slow down and why he changed lanes so abruptly. Jimmy did as much as he could and then we left. We later passed the ambulance on its way there. It took them 45 minutes to get there.

We are so thankful that he didn’t hit Carlos or Gerardo. He could have come a little earlier and we would have been in the middle of the road trying to turn around. God definitely protected us. If something would have happened to Carlos or Gerardo we would not have been able to work in this area anymore.

Please pray for this family. Everyone was alive when we left. The driver must have been the hurt man’s son. The hurt man’s wife immediately went over and took off his watch and cleaned out his pockets so nothing would get stolen at the hospital.

We are still shook up. We keep thinking if we had not have rented the truck we would not have been broken down and this man would not have changed lanes. It is difficult to process everything, especially when you watched it happen. The crowd kept saying a tire must have blown. We are just thankful they were not upset with us. I wish people here could understand how destructive alcohol is and that way they wouldn’t let it into their life. We read in the paper here that Guatemalans have a greater chance of dying in a wreck caused by a drunk driver than dying of old age. We believe it since this is the second accident in 3 weeks just in our lives that has been caused by a drunk driver.

Ready For a Whopper?

We usually joke when we rent a vehicle from New Horizon that the one in charge of the vehicles probably just keeps the money and doesn’t pay the town. NH has a lot of community projects since they are socialistic. Unfortunately someone in charge always ends up stealing either all or the majority of the profits before they get to divide it all up. Hmmmm... why don’t they ever get called greedy socialists? The town council told us this week that he was stealing the money, so we needed to pay them directly. This is a common occurrence too. They know someone is stealing, but are too afraid to confront them. I guess the only thing guerrillas are afraid of are each other.

Well when we got to NH yesterday. We had at least a dozen people who wanted to go with us to Santa Rita. We were told that the camioncito (truck) we had reserved was still in Santa Elena being fixed. So we just took those who could fit in our truck with all the chairs and borrowed a couple tables from the school in Santa Rita. PRAYER REQUEST: that we get enough money to get my truck fixed in Guate so that we can use it too. This would avoid all this hassle.

While we were in Santa Rita the truck that was “being fixed in SE” pulled up with a bunch of soccer players from NH and SR in in. They had lied to us because they had given our reservation away. Then we found out that Kimberly’s step-dad had been driving drunk and flipped it. We didn’t get the entire story at that point because we were having our Bible study.

On the way home, Jimmy got a call from one of our friends in NH. She was concerned because a story was going around NH that Jimmy had flipped the camioncito and now Kimberly, Gerardo, and Mateo were in the hospital. Gerardo and Mateo’s mom was panicked. Jimmy told her we had never received the camioncito, but had heard that it had been in an accident.

At this point we were a little concerned to pull into NH. People are lynched here a lot, before they get to explain the entire story. Thankfully we found Gerardo and Mateo’s mom to show her they were still alive since they were with us. Then we told as many people as we could find the true story.

The part about Kimberly was true. She is in the hospital along with 2 other people. We do not think anyone is seriously hurt, but please pray for them. Another crazy part is that the drunk who wrecked the truck came back to NH and borrowed someone else’s car to drive family members to the hospital.

Not sure how the drunk who puts 3 people in the hospital gets off scott free and we, who had nothing to do with the incident, get accused of it. This place can make you go nuts!

We did have 2 great Bible studies. I am so proud of our people that came from NH. Aquilino greeted every person that came and talked to them a long time. He is so friendly. Quincho wrote down everyone’s name for me (some of which this was their 3rd time!) Gerardo gave everyone a cup of cinnamon tea (a very popular drink here which Jimmy made especially for his Bible study). With all of the craziness, these are the ones who make it worth it. Their lives have been changed. They are different people than they were a year ago and their fate obviously has changed. I cannot wait to see what God has for them!

Aquilino from NH, Jimmy, and Eulalio from SR (he was very proud of his bright shirt!)