Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Medical Clinic Day 1

Yesterday we went to the Kekchi village of Esquipulas. It was about 2 hours down a dirt road. It is another village without the Gospel that Domingo and José found.

This is what our drive looked like!
This is what the houses looked like along the way.
There was another scary bridge. This one actually bowed just from us walking across it, but we made it over in both pickups.
This is a new ex-guerilla community that is still being built halfway down the dirt road. It is called Nueva Santa Rosa. Maybe someday we can go there!
Andy is very fast and organized. He was able to see the entire village in a matter of 4 hours!
A crowd is watching the doctor the whole time.
Did you recognize Gregory! We took him to be our translator from Spanish to Kekchi. Andy said he did a great job!
When Jimmy first spoke to Gregory about going with us, he was a little concerned. Gregory is Kekchi and he knew that you cannot just show up in a village uninvited. Domingo and José have taken several trips to Esquipulas already. The first time they just buy a Coke at the store and talk to some people. Each time they stay a little longer and get to talk to more people. Finally they ask if we can either hold a medical clinic or show a video. Sometimes they say yes and sometimes they say no. We would never be able to get into these villages without Domingo and José. Gregory was relieved to hear all this! Gregory is originally from Alta Verapaz which is the department below Petén. He said that he had no idea that there were so many Kekchi villages who had never heard the Gospel. He kept saying, “So they don’t know anything about God?” He said there were tons of churches in Alta Verapaz. Right now Gegory is in “jr college” studying to be an accountant... that would be a great job to have and pastor at the same time!!!! We do not know what God has planned for him. It will be interesting to see what God lays on his heart. Please pray for him.
Gabriel and Sheila ran the pharmacy. They are newlyweds from Guate. They just moved to San Benito (the town right next to Santa Elena) two weeks ago. Petén is like a different country compared to Guate, so they are experiencing a little culture shock too. Sheila got Dengue fever her first week here. Petén likes to welcome it’s missionaries! They will probably be starting a Spanish work in the tri-city area (San Benito, Santa Elena, Flores). They are about 45 minutes from us.
Jimmy and I took our Kekchi books and were able to practice our few words and phrases. The kids usually spoke a little Spanish. They could read the Spanish in our books but not the Kekchi. I think they are the first generation to learn to read, but there are no materials available to them in Kekchi, so they learn to read Spanish.
Please pray for the village of Esquipulas. We will probably be going back soon to show the Jesus film. Real life changing decisions take time. Please pray that God will open their eyes to the message of the Gospel. Thanks!
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