Vacation Bible School (VBS) week at Fallowfield wrapped last Friday. We averaged 40 kids per night.
This year’s mission project was His Hands for Guatemala. His Hands partners with Pastor Merari Rodriguez of Iglesia Evangelica de Galilea in San Lucas, Sacatepéquez, to help bring hope to impoverished Guatemalan children. Pastor Merari and his wife, Lucky, are starting the Fuente de Esperanza school program in the mountains of Guatemala. Sponsorship of children at $35 per month allows these kids to go to school and transform their lives.
VBS kids love giving money to our annual mission, largely because it’s a girls-versus-boys competition. We have an old-fashioned wooden scale that holds two big coffee cans. If boys bring in two dollars’ worth of pennies, the boys’ can drops to the floor. But if girls donate $20 in one dollar bills, the girls win. They love the competition, and we love having the opportunity to help Pastor Merari open his mission school.
One of our church members, Gay Slozat, has traveled to Guatemala twice on mission trips. She gave presentations each night during Bible school about different aspects of Guatemalan culture. Gay had the kids in the palm of her hand, because she used lots of visual aids. She brought in plantains, mangos, baskets to carry on their heads, handmade Guatemalan dolls, handmade shawls, and much more.
She explained how Guatemalan women walk to the market. Guatemala is about the size of Tennessee, but has 33 volcanos, so there are hills everywhere. The women walk up and downhill, often with a baby strapped to their backs, and holding a child’s hand in each of hers, while carrying a basket on her head.
These ladies carry groceries back to their mountain homes with children in tow. VBS kids struggled to balance the baskets filled with food on their heads. It would take excellent balance and disciplined practice to learn such a skill.
Gay said the average Guatemalan earns three dollars per day, and that the prices of staple foods, such as black beans, rice, tortillas, mangos, bananas, and plantains are much cheaper as a result. But one pound of black beans, one pound of rice, and a bag of tortillas would cost about $1.50. That’s half a day’s wages.
There are many Mayan Indians in Guatemala. They are superstitious and don’t know about God. One superstition is when babies are born they might have the evil eye on them. So people at a baby’s birth pray to their gods that the evil eye won’t hurt their baby. “We need to teach those children about God,” she explained.
The kids learned Bible stories about Mary and Martha. They learned the importance of slowing down and listening for Jesus. They heard about Simon Peter, Andrew, John, and James’ response to Jesus’ call to leave everything and follow Him.
They also learned about Zacchaeus and the joy of repentance, and the Last Supper.
The final lesson was on Jesus’ Great Commission: spreading the Good News about Him to the whole world and His promise to be with all believers until the end of the age.
My family just returned from a blessed, relaxing vacation in Nags Head, North Carolina. My mom collected more than 100 shells and gave one to each child as a reminder that God made them beautiful and unique.
The kids learned “Jesus Loves Me” in Spanish, which is translated, “Cristo Me Ama.” They sang it for the program on Friday night. I was stunned by how quickly they learned it, how well they pronounced each word, and that one precious four-year-old remembered the first two lines of the song from the previous night’s practice. Children truly do learn faster than adults. I lead music class, and I was blown away by these kids. I’m so glad I can be a part of this evangelistic program every year.
As I write I’m thinking about the Amish auction that’s coming up this weekend. I can hardly wait to taste their homemade glazed doughnuts. I’ll give you a full report next week. Blessings!