rain, rain and more rain

It's been a rainy couple of weeks in Guatemala lately, and it has caused chaos -especially for the road network. There's been a lot more rain than usual this year, and the tropical storm at the end of May left most of the country saturated with water. So when we had another week of heavy rain, it caused a huge number of landslides. The worst affected was the Inter American highway which winds it's way up through the mountains towards Mexico. Many sections of the road are cut out of the mountains - and with the effect of the heavy rains (and deforestation) landslides made several sections completely unpassable. The emergency and rescue services were overrun, and weren't able to reach some sections of the road for a couple of days. In one incident a bus was virtually buried by a landslide. As rescue workers and locals tried to dig people out, many of them were also buried by a second mudslide. Another incident saw thousands of cars and buses trapped overnight on the highway between 2 landslides with emergency services unable to get to them.
The road is now passable again, but hundreds of people are still living in refuges across the country. The government is just beginning to organise collection points for emergency supplies and donations.
In a country so frequently affected by extreme weather and natural disasters, it's easy to see why it finds it difficult to move beyond emergency responses and asking for aid.

Toybox step team at Lake Atitlan

This weekend, I took the Toybox team to Lake Atitlan for their weekend off. It's a beautiful place - where they kept themselves entertained in the markets, in various cafes, and on the Zip wires over the forest, (but mainly in the markets!). We had lots of fun!

meeting needs

At this time of year, there always seems to be lots of goodbyes, as various Striders finish their placements and head home -- sometimes with desires to come back, other times with a clearer idea of what God is calling them to do back home, but always having learnt from the experience - the highs and the lows.
But it's always really encouraging for me to see the projects that they have worked with. This week I visited Kathrin in her placement, Fuerza de los Fragiles (Strength of the Weak), a group of young adults with special needs. I first went to visit the group before arranging the placement 9 months ago, and chatted with the young people. One girl has an amazing ability to remember people's birthdays -- and sure enough some months later several members of the group called me to wish me a happy birthday! I remember the excitement that they had thinking about Kathrin, a physiotherapist, working with them. In their proposal form, the coordinator wrote...

"I think that to receive Kathrin is an answer to the young people's prayers. They have prayed that God would send people who could work with the ministry. After 9 years, we only have 2 volunteers who can only give minimal time to help in the ministry. So to have Kathrin work with us is more than a great gift from God for a fragile community in Guatemala. The experience of this young woman is more than useful to the ministry, and I'm sure that she will open a new stage of the ministry. A stage of great and good harvest for the ministry with people with special needs in the church.
We are already grateful because we are sure that God heard the cry of the fragile young people of Guatemala and that Kathrin heard God's voice and was obedient to that call."

Now - coming to the end of Kathrin's placement, it was touching to see how she has been accepted and become a part of this small and marginalised community in Guatemala. Through this time, she has not only been able to work directly with the young people, but 2 new local volunteers have come on board and she has also been able to use her experience to set up procedures which will help the ministry to continue some of her work.
It's just great to see someone doing work that they love, in a place that really needs it!

Student stuff

I've just come back from Costa Rica, where I was visiting a couple of projects and organising stride placements for September.
But I also got the chance to go to Enfol for the day. Enfol is a conference of the Christian student groups in Central America, Mexico and Panama. It was great to see a large group of student leaders get together and seek God and his direction as they reach out to their fellow students in creative and innovative ways.




There was also some amazing views from the plane on the way there too!

Core Team in Curitiba (Brazil)

I've just come back from Curitiba, in Brazil. Actually the word 'just' gives the impression that the journey was quick -- it wasn't -- 4 flights and 27 hours after leaving Curitiba, I got back to Guatemala!
But it was a good time. I went for a week long meeting of the Latin Link Core Team (which was meeting alongside the Latin Link Brazil team annual conference). We talked and prayed alot - about the different teams, about needs and concerns, and about future plans. (We also ate chocolate from Peru, England, Guatemala and Argentina!). We also managed to escape for a bit and explore the city of Curitiba.

Curitiba is famous in Brazil for it's bus system, construction regulations and everything being environmentally friendly. It was such a weird (and good) feeling to be in a place that actually takes recycling seriously! (Does that make me a geek!?? probably!)





Then I meet the Brazilian football team at the airport!! (And no I have no idea who they all are - but I guessed they were famous!

Curitiba has an iron opera house!
(just so you know!)


























And a replica of crystal palace in England.

And some funny birds on a stick at the 'Eye Museum' (apparently it's named after the shape rather than being full of old eyes!)

Step farewell service

This weekend I went to see the Step team for the last time in their second project. We had a debrief- hearing about all that they have learnt through this experience.
On Saturday the church held a farewell service for the team and had put in so much effort in decorating the church with English and Guatemalan flags and colours.
The church gave each of the team a gift as a reminder of their time there.
Josh and the youth group had been practicing a song with pan pipes.
The step team performed a few songs and a drama and several of them explained what they had learnt from being there and from the friendships that they have made.
Each group within the church (Children's choir, adolescent group, youth group, women's group etc) had prepared a song and thanked the team for their involvement in the life of the church.


It's always really interesting how perceptions are different. During the debrief with the team, some of them had expressed frustration that they hadn't had enough work to do and had felt that they hadn't contributed very much. But it was very clear from the presentations during the service that they had contributed much more than they realised. On top of the work that they did on the building site, people were touched that Josh and the boys had played football with the young people every afternoon or that Lucy and Abi had entertained the kids who turned up at the church every day, or that Bekah and Dave had gone to the local school and taught the children to count to 10 in English. All of this and more; just the normal stuff of getting to know people, is special and really significant in mission.
And I know that the Step team come away from this experience having received and learnt much more than they ever expected too. They have learnt from the churches faith in stepping out in the work that God has called them to do, regardless of the lack of resources, they've been impressed with the churches response to the disasters and tragedies that happened so close. The way the church has welcomed the team into their community, how they have sacrificed in order to make them comfortable, and gone out of their way to look out for them. During Storm Agatha, when the power had gone out, many church members turned up at the church in the pitch black and pouring rain, to give the team candles, to help them move stuff away from leaking roofs -and just generally make sure they were safe and OK. It touched their hearts.
And that is Step.

Stepness at Zaculeu

The church that the step team are working with, took them for a day out to Zaculeu - the ruins of the centre of the Mam mayan group. Some great pyramids -- and plenty of opportunities for posing!
After the mayan ball game, you're supposed to sacrifice the winning captain to the gods.