Expectations

Today was a day of expectations met and not met, all in good ways.

What we expected was a morning at the school and an afternoon building our second bus shelter. Working on the skits went well, although several kids with speaking parts didn’t come to school today and we had to do some emergency recasting. We also took time to go over the facts of the Bible stories to make sure all the children came away with a good sense of what was behind each skit. This afternoon’s bus shelter came together more quickly than the first one, since the land was already cleared and leveled. Once again, Pastor Lorenzo and Chanito showed great expertise in pouring and finishing the cement pad. These shelters are a tremendous gift to the community, especially since everyone knows it is the church that builds them.

And some things that we didn’t expect but were certainly grateful for …

We had a particularly good Bible study before breakfast, as we reflected on true righteousness which is not about ticking boxes but rather about living a life that benefits others and pressing on to the goal of being like Christ.

Over lunch we got to hear some of the Jesus Viene church’s history. It was founded by Pastor Victor’s father-in-law, who passed along his vision to Victor and Lorenzo before he passed away. They have continued to build a church that is impacting San Raymundo.

After finishing today’s shelter, which was actually beside the chicken factory where the bouquets come from (see Monday’s post), we checked on shelter #1. The cement pad has cured nicely and we are pleased that our shelters are much, much better than Cochrane Alliance’s shelters (just kidding). Anyway, after that we got to visit the house of Lorenzo’s son Fredy and his family. The road to the house goes almost straight uphill and our bus didn’t quite make it, but at least that wasn’t due to snow. The house itself is a work in progress which is going to be amazing when it is done. For now, they are living in a lovely wooden house that was gifted to them by Houses for Christ. And by the way, the view from their property is absolutely stunning, looking out over the valley. It was really cool also, that Fredy asked us to pray a blessing over his house; which we of course proceeded to do.

Suddenly this evening we found ourselves invited to a 71st birthday party next door! We got to have traditional Guatemalan stew called Pepian and join in the Guatemalan birthday song, which consists of Happy Birthday in English and then a verse in Spanish about begging for some cake and then counting up to 71 (fortunately, by 5s). This was another wonderful example of the Christian community here, as Pastor Victor’s whole family and several other now familiar faces were also in attendance.

Finally, we were completely surprised by the acting abilities of our translator Nataly. This morning she went to check on a couple of classes that seemed to be running late for skit practice. When she returned, she absolutely convinced us all that they weren’t coming and had some very important project to work on. When we finally saw the children coming down the stairs, we realized we’d been totally had. We look forward to Nataly dedicating her first Oscar to Jeanne, “who always believed in me”.