Seaside Stuff

 

 

Doug Hayes

 

Pastor Doug Hayes

College Place Presbyterian Church

325 NE Damson

College Place, WA 99324

 

Back in the city

Just to update everyone we made it back to Guatemala city today. And are all packed up to fly home tomorrow. It has been a long two weeks but a very amazing two weeks also. God is faithful.

I'll write more when it's not late and I'm not exhausted. See you all soon.

Doug

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Tzan Corral Guatemala

I finally am able to get online and update all of you on the adventures that we have been having in San Lucas and Tzan Corral. Its has been a busy couple of days, and we are all exhausted. Since the last post, much has happened: Friday: Friday was our travel day. Because of the roads being bad around the lake we had to take a new route to San Lucas that first took us out of the mountains into the coastal region and then back up into the mountains. Guatemala is an amazing place and we got to see a variety of different parts of the country. Once we got to San Lucas we had lunch and then traveled by Tuk-Tuks (small three person taxies) to the sight where our last team worked on the foundations of three homes. It was cool for us to see the benefit of the work that we had done before, and for all of us to see what the homes we would be working on look like. Saturday: We got up early and headed to Tzan Corral to get to work on the three homes that we are building this week. It is a cute little village about two miles off the main road. We are traveling by short bus, and it was an adventure getting down into the valley. But getting down was not the true adventure. After a hard days work building homes and half the team helping with an afternoon VBS we headed out of the valley early because it had started raining really hard on us. Unfortunately we did not get on the road soon enough, because both our bus and our suburban got stuck in the mud. Eventually we got the suburban out, but had to leave the bus and its drive to spend the night in the valley, while the rest of us (except those who were in the suburban) got to hike up the muddy road in the pooring down rain. And everyone had a great attitude. There was laughin and playing the whole way up the hill, and it really was a blessing for the group. After we got back we went to dinner and then a youth church service, which was fun to see our kids worshipping along side a few Guatemalan youth (the group was small because of the rain). Sunday: Again we went out to Tzan Corral for a day of building homes. Its a lot of work hauling cinder blocks, beams, etc, and laying brick is new for most of the team. In the afternoon, we played our first game for the soccer tourneyment. We did really well the first half with the score being 3-1 in their favor (yeah that is really good). The second half they ran the score up a little to 8-1, to which I am very pround of our team. They played hard and had fun doing it. The best part of the game was that about an eighth of the field was more like a swamp than a soccer field (remember it rained hard the day before), so we were playing in a lot of mud. Monday: Today was the dreaded day of sickness. I'm really not sure what caused it, but about half of us had some kind of stomach issue today (in varying degrees) and another fourth of the group was fighting a nasty cold. And a couple of us had both (myself included). Last trip we had the same thing happen, I think its just part of the deal. However, everyone tried hard to keep a positive attitude, and work through it. We did leave a couple back at the hotel with one of the missionaries to have a day to rest and recover. Please pray for everyone in the group to get or stay healthy and for us to be able to finish our projects tomorrow. Also, please pray for our trip to Pana which happens on Wed. We are having to make some minor adjustments to our schedule, because there is a demonstration planned for Wed. (to protest the need for the road to be fixed, which I can tell you they really need)that will shut down the road that our suburban was supposed to transport all of our gear on while the rest of us took boats accross the lake. Its still going to work out, but we would appreciate your prayers for that. Also please pray for safety as we play our last soccer game tomorrow afternoon. I do not know when I will have access again, but will update you as soon as I can. Blessings, Doug

A day as tourist

Today our group split into two. Five individuals (Cheryl, Rose, Uncle Greg, Jojo, and Lauren). Went with Mark to climb Pacaya, which is a volcano here near the city. Meanwhile the rest if the team adventures to Antigua for the day. All in all it was a good day. There are many stories that I could tell but I wouldn't do them justice typing on this tiny keypad.

We did have a couple of the kids come back not feeling great because they didn't drink enough water. It's an easy mistake since we were not working hard but it was also a good lesson for them so that they will not complain as much about the amount of water that we are forcing them to drink when we are working.

Tomorrow is our transition day as we leave the city and head to the highlands of Guatemala. Leaving behind the city is going to be hard. We have already seen so many things and meet so many amazing people. Yet it's also hard to leave because of all the hard things that we have seen. In many ways it's easy to feel hopeless; yet we have been listening to this song called "God of this City" by Chris tomlin. The words of that song are inspiring to use because it reminds us the God is the God of this city. There is hope in the midst of the chaos and that is the good news that has brought us to this city and it is the good news that enables us to leave.

Leaving also means that we get to go and serve and encourage others. I unfortunately doubt that I will be able to update this every night when we are at the lake, but I will do my best. Please don't be concerned that I dont get it updated much.

Pray for same travels tomorrow and for the transition between city and country will be smooth for all of us.

God is the god of this city!!!

In Christ
Doug

A full day at the women's shelter.

Today we went back to el Refugio (the women's shelter). It was a long day but in many ways a good day. It was fun to reconnect with the women and there children. Part of the afternoon was spent hearing some of the women's stories, which was a good experience but it was all really hard to hear. One of the women who shared her story told us about how she had been beaten most of her life but didn't have the strength to walk away from it until she found out that her husband was molesting her 15 year old daughter. While we have been here their family has been waiting to see if the courts would send him to jail or let him go free. Hopefully justice will prevail and he will spend the next 21 years behind bars but they are not 100% sure the judge will not change his mind.

As you can tell we are being exposed to a lot of hard realities. This world is full of pain and suffering, and most of the time we can close that reality out. However, when we are put into situations like this it is hard to keep the feelings and emotions ignored. I think that many in the group are searching for ways to process this whole experience. What I've observed both here and in our culture is that for many it's easier to push it aside and ignore it. For others unexplainable emotions pop up and often at first do not seem related to the real issue at hand, but in reality are directly connected. Still others seem to want to talk about it, write about it, or simply be upset about it. All these responses are valid, but not all of them are beneficial. Please be praying for all of us, and specifically that we would process all we she through the eyes of Christ.

We ended our night with worship and a short talk. As we looked out over Guatemala city we song the song "god of this city". If you don't know it you should check it out. God is God and no matter what he is and always will be the God of Guatemala city.

Blessings.
Doug

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An amazing day

This morning we got an early start (5:30). And after breakfast we headed to Linda vista which is a squatter village here in Guatemala city. They estimate that there are 250000 people living in the region and most of which live in tin shacks or small cement block houses. While we were there we meet pastor Gorge and his team who spend their lives ministering to the people of the community. The whole experience was the type of thing that will stick in the hearts and minds of everyone on the team. To see that level of poverty it's hard to remain unchanged.

While in Linda vista we split out time between 4 schools where we interacted with 700 ish students throughout the day. They were split into about twenty groups which we sang with and acted out the story of Joseph and the good Samaritan. It was absolutely amazing and eye opening to love on and interact with so many little ones.

We came back to the house of blessing around 4:30 and have spent the evening relaxin, eating dinner, worshipping together, and discussing how we can and should react to everything that we have seen today. There have been a lot of great discussions and it's exciting to see how God is working in each team members lives.

We would ask all of you to be praying for the ministry of pastor George, for all the kids we meet with today, an for a young man named Kevin that we meet this afternoon. He is a kid that's at the age where the gangs start targeting him, his mom was just arrested in the us for trying to smuggle in drugs, an he feels like god is calling him to be a pastor. He obviously could use some prayers. Also for our team we would live for you to pray for extra energy tomorrow and for it to not be rai

You would be amazed!

Today after everyone sleeping for 8 (me) to 13 (katelyn) hours. We woke up to a beautiful day here in Guatemala city. After. Real fast we went to tour the Christian academy of Guatemala where we did some cultural and safety training before heading to the women's shelter. At the shelter we had a lot of projects to do. We built and secured a swingset for the kids, we worked on a plumbing project in which uncle Greg won the award for getting extra time to shower by cleaning out the hole in the ground that's under the toilet, and we went old school farmer style by digging out terraces in this hillside to allow them to grow corn on while also trying to protect the hill from erosion. We will share pictures when we get back you will not believe the transformation to that hill it's impressive. In the midst of all the work we also got to play with the little kids and interact with the women. They ladies taught many on the team how to hand make tortillas and cook them over a wood fire. Nicholas also got his name changed to el caballo (horse) by all the little kids because they had him swinging them around and giving piggy back rides for hours on end (I think he might have burnt the most calaries of any of us.

Everyone seems to be in good spirits and I think all of the girls (except maybe one or two successfully took a three minute or less shower). If fact Alexa, Lauren, and Natalie were under 2 minutes. And they all did it with smiles on their faces.

Please be praying for our activities tomorrow. We are doing a presentation of the gospel through music and skits tomorrow to around 1000 kids 150 at a time in a public school in one of the poorest o the poor communities in the city (its a squatters village). Following our program we will also be seeing some of the community and meeting a pastor there that is doing a lot of really neat things. I am confident it is going to be a worldview shattering day for most of us as our idea of poverty is confronted by a whole new level of poor.

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