Santa's Got a Brand New Ride

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Today we spent most of our day helping hand out Christmas Hope Sacks in 3 separate villages in Guatemala. First we spent time at the warehouse loading around 500 bags into the back of the bus, then we were off to Paso Del Creedo, which was in Chiquimula. As we got closer, I thought it looked familiar, and as we arrived, it was a village we visited with FWC on our first trip to HOL. I remembered it because of the steep hill the school sat on, and the way they got their water from a hole dug right beside the river thinking that made it safe to drink. There are pigs that wander all over the village, and you have to watch your step! As we waited for the leader to arrive, we were able to tour some of the village. The village has been sponsored since I was last there, and it now has a well, although it was hand dug and doesn't appear to be very deep. They are still waiting for a pump. It looked like some imrovements had been made to the school. It's still an extremely poor village, one of the dirtiest I've seen. As we began to hand out bags, they went by a list of names and you only got a bag if your name was on the list. It's heart breaking at times, but they have so little and will do anything to get a little more, and people will also come from villages all over. Things can quickly get out of control if limits are not set. It definitely took us longer at this village, but when we finished up the leader spoke to us telling us how poor they were, and how this was the first time they had ever received Chistmas presents. EVER. Can you even imagine? How many presents are under your tree right now, just 3 days from Christmas? Oh how badly they wanted one of those little draw string sacks, for whatever treasures might be hiding inside. Some would open them right there, some would wait until they got home. Sometimes you would see them go running down the road towards home, and others kept their sacks clutched tightly to them. But the smiles were always there.

After a quick lunch at McDonalds, we were on to El Blancha, where we gave out more bags, once again using the name system. As we drove up, we heard one little boy yell "Feliz Navidad, Hallelujah! Feliz Navidad, Hallelujah!" To say they were excited we were there would be an understatement!

When we finished up there, we were finally headed to El Canal, the village I most wanted to go to. El Canal is the village WCA is in the process of sponsoring, and I was able to go into El Canal last summer. We were also part of a baby rescue that included some babies from El Canal last summer. This is the village I most wanted to be in when Christmas Hope Sacks were delivered. When we pulled up, instead of being at the school where I expected, we gave out the bags at the exact same spot where we picked up the babies during the baby rescue, except for Maria, the tiny 2 month old 5lb baby we had to hike up the mountain to go find (in a rainstorm). The first people I saw were Yaneth and Cristian, one of the moms and babies from our baby rescue! I'm sure people thought I was crazy hurrying off that bus and down to give her a big hug. Cristian wouldn't come to me at first, but he did later. I love how God has brought everything back around full circle! El Canal was the most organized of the 3 villages we went to today. Marteen seems to be such a good leader. He had given the people tickets before we arrived, so we did not have to go through the name process and have people showing up trying to get on the list. It was pretty cut and dry with the tickets, and went very smoothly and quickly. I love an organized leader! And then there's the fact that Marteen always has his Bible with him every time I see him. Today it was tucked into the back waistband of his pants. On that stormy rainy day of our baby rescue last summer he carried it with him in a Ziploc bag. I love that "our" village appears to be under the leadership of such an organized Godly man. What an answer to prayer that God is allowing us to be part of a village, and has orchestrated circumstances to show that this is the village that he has just for us!

After we arrived back at HOL I had time for a quick visit with Cristina and got to meet her new family. They seem super sweet. I look forward to getting to know them more. After that Chrissy, mama, daddy and I went down to the hospital to visit the babies on the way to dinner. We got to love on them for a little bit and help feed them their dinner. That's always a lot of fun. Tomorrow we are giving our Christmas sacks here on the HOL campus, and then the big Christmas party is tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure it's going to be lots of fun!

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