El Salvador to Guatemala

Our last day in El Salvador was a transition and reflection day.  We traveled 2 hours west of San Salvador to a place that has zip lines like this:



and had a lot of fun as a team.

Since Rachel had previously done this zip line course on another trip to El Salvador (and she is not a big fan of long car rides, especially up mountain roads), she volunteered to hang out with AJ for the day so he could get a nap.  He has been fighting a bit of a cough and we are hoping he can fight it off without getting sick.

We ate lunch, grilled Pastor Phil with tough Biblical questions (ie 'explain the modern day relevance of Leviticus'....and, yes, he had a good answer), circled back to the hotel to pick up AJ and Rachel & headed to the market for some deal making and shopping.

AJ proved to me that he can pretty much make anything into a game as he took an empty water bottle and little finger puppets and made it into a baseball game with me as the pitcher.  Fun little guy.

We reviewed the week after dinner as a team and said our goodbyes.  I've documented the week through this blog and it was meaningful on all levels.  We love El Salvador and our partners in Enlace.

The photo above just looks like it needs a caption.  It is just funny to me from Vienna up on the steps to the looks on the girls faces and then the Salvadorans.  We are in the bus station in San Salvador at about 530am waiting on our bus for Guatemala.  It was a winding 7 hour ride which made my poor motion sickness wife throw up half the ride.  :(   But the girls had a great view from the double decker bus....

We are heading to Hope of Life International near Zacapa Guatemala.  It is an organization founded 25 years ago by Carlos and Cheryl Vargas.  Here is the story that began this incredible ministry:

Carlos Vargas was born in 1952 in Zacapa, Guatemala. Though his
family suffered from extreme poverty, his mother Doña Virgilia
Belarmina Olivade Vargas encouraged Carlos to excel in school
and his father Don José Facundo Vargas Morales taught him the importance of hard work. All the while, his mother fostered his naturally compassionate spirit.

At age 16, Carlos moved to America to find work and begin a new life. With each passing year, he became more successful, finding the life he had always dreamed of. But one day, Carlos became very ill and the doctors could do nothing to help him. Although he was not a person of faith, he cried out to the Lord and made Him a promise: "God if you heal me, I promise I will live for you; I will help the poor of my country." God blessed Carlos and healed him." In 1973, he married Cheryl Peterson and they dedicated their lives to Christ and committed their family to Him.

The Vargas family is blessed with five children—each of them raised with their parents' passion for the poor. Together, they spend the majority of their time in Guatemala serving the weak, the homeless, and the poor.

They started with a home for elderly who had been abandoned and have expanded to an orphanage, a village for the destitute, a home for special needs kids, a fish farm that produces 2 million pounds of fish each year and generates significant income for the ministry, a 5 story hospital focused on children & pregnant mothers, and a school educating 500 kids a year.  All of that is just the ministry on the property itself.

They have entered hundreds of villages in northern Guatemala (the 2nd most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere) and in each village they start by digging a well for water.  Then they build a school.  Finally, they build a church and support the start up with a church planting organization for 6 months.  They have built 300 churches in this way with membership from 100 people to 500 people and ALL of them still exist and serve their communities.  Whenever there is a lag in any of the churches, he will send mission teams back to the village to reinvigorate / bring more people in and up until now it has worked very well.

They also go to the dump where people live by picking through trash to feed themselves.   Hope of Life feeds those people.  Finally, they have 3 teams that trek through the mountains into remote villages looking for really sick little kids.  They have a specific clinic here on the campus devoted to nursing back to health these sick little babies / kids....and then they are returned to their parents once they are healthy.  The ones who come from an abusive situation are moved to the orphanage once they are healthy.

Of all the things we have planned on this big trip, the girls have consistently said this was the 10 days they were most looking forward to.

We arrived in Guatemala City and were supposed to be met by someone from Hope of Life International at the Biltmore Hotel (the drop off point for this bus route).  And imagine our surprise when no one was there!  They thought we were coming in the NEXT day....

Curbside outside the hotel in Guatemala City where we were stranded for a while.  Notice AJ playing with his cars in the planter.  

I have often said that mistakes happen but what matters most is how people / organizations respond when a mistake occurs.  Hope of Life International (HOLI) did a great job in responding.  A team of 30 from several churches in the Dayton, Ohio area were coming in that day, so HOLI had someone pick us up and drop us off at the market where that team was going to be shopping after leaving the airport.  They even bought us lunch.

Pretty much anywhere we go, AJ turns it into a playground.  Here he is at that market with his cars playing on the steps.  He was a real hit with the lady merchants in this area of the market....

The girls were really worried about no one being there, but Rachel and I both said something along the lines of "Girls, God has a plan here.  There is something that is going to happen due to this delay that will serve His purpose.  We will meet someone as a result of this or something will occur that otherwise wouldn't have, so just be patient and see what happens."

We rode up with this group from Ohio, and they have basically adopted our family.  Little AJ was hilarious on the 3 hour bus ride north and has this 'high five, low five, cut the pickle' game he plays (thanks Pastor Phil)....which just makes everyone laugh.  Half the Ohio team is now doing it, and it always leads to much laughter.

I didn't expect to know the reason for the delay so soon, but tonight the leader of the Ohio team, Michael, asked us if we would join them for their devotional each morning and their 'review of the day' after dinner each night.  We absolutely accepted and now have 30 new friends.

We went around the circle each introducing ourselves and talking about something that touched us from today (we toured the facility, met many of the people getting services, including little babies and kids at the orphanage).  There were many touching stories and tears shed.

The last person to go was Michael.  He preached the message this morning at church and said that he had agreed to do it before coming but had no sermon prepared until late last night.  He preached this morning on Joy and being sure that we showed the Joy in our hearts with the smiles on our faces and with our actions.  And he said what he was most thankful for over the past day was AJ!  He was sitting in front of AJ through the ride up yesterday and AJ's joy led to his decision to speak about Joy.  In addition the regular Spanish speaking pastor from the church (without knowing what Michael was going to speak on) read a verse out of the Bible that focused on joy and he mentioned specifically to show joy in how we carry ourselves.   This just confirmed to Michael that he had chosen the right message.

Michael got a little emotional as well because he travels a lot and has a son who is about AJ's age.  It was just really touching to be invited into this group and to know how our little guy impacted this man in such a short amount of time.

AJ and Micheal

We are pretty much letting the girls choose how we are going to serve at this place.  After seeing all the places we could serve today, the girls have focused on the little rescued baby place and the orphanage.  So, expect to see a lot of pictures in the days to come of little kids with our girls.  Kind of like this....

Other memories / fun photos....

My thanks to Richie for giving us the idea to use the camera as an ice breaker around kids (take their picture and show them)....

It makes me laugh at how much H did NOT want to be near this bird (yes, I made her hold it as well ;) ....

AJ makes friends everywhere.  This is in church this morning.

HOLI is so great....when we arrived last night a young man named Hugo (same name as our driver in El Salvador) pulled out this little pool table so AJ could play.

Carlos had a dream of running a zoo one day, so he saved these crocodiles and has them right outside the place where we eat meals (only one shown but there are two....a bit disconcerting when a 2 year old is running around the place!)  Appreciate prayers on this one....

Finally, here is the church we went to this morning.  Enjoyed the service even if sometime the music with the keyboard had a 'carnival' feel to it.  The passion was still there and I love hearing praise to God in different languages.  Makes me feel like I'm at a Pentacost service each week.

We are having a great time.  Thank you Jesus!