This morning Jill led our 7 a.m. group devotion. She told the story of a volunteer project she worked on in Rochester, NY when she was younger. She met a boy named "Li'l Man" and gradually befriended him. He had a rough family life and always carried around a fake but very realistic looking toy gun. Long story short, he ended up leaving his gun behind and taking a handmade cross with him when he last parted ways with Jill. When she told him he forgot his gun, he just said, "I don't need it anymore."
It was a simple, beautiful story. She tied it all into a favorite verse of hers and mine in Philippians 2.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.
I've had that verse starred and underlined in my Bible for a long time but hadn't thought much about it lately. Don't we all want to shine? I know I do, but I usually try to do so in all the wrong ways, for all the wrong reasons. This trip is a reminder of what it means to shine in God's eyes...not the eyes of the world.
After devotion time we ate breakfast together as usual. We had french toast and fruit. Man, I love breakfast, but I think I'm gaining weight here. Who gains weight in a third world country??
Once we finished chowing down, we headed out for our third and final day of building. Today, we built stoves instead of houses. We split up into two teams so that each team could build five stoves. Dustin and I were on a team with Kevin, Jill, Mark, and Darren.
As usual, we piled into the bed of the ol' pickup truck with all the tools and supplies. These trips in the truck with the wind in my face have turned into one of my favorite parts of our time in Chichi.
Our first stove build took us up the mountain, down a dirt road, to the edge of a huge corn field. Addresses are unheard of once you get outside the city, so our local guides are essential. That turned out to be especially true today. We unloaded our supplies and headed straight into the corn field. Somebody in the group joked that the house was "down aisle 23, row 4" or something like that. I really don't know how we found the place. It was surrounded by eight-foot tall corn stalks.
At first it seemed like no one was around, but a minute later a woman and her little girl appeared from between the stalks and greeted us. The house was actually a brand new "widow home" built by a Pray America team. We spotted the tell-tale horizontal wooden boards, tin roof, and window.
We were there to complete the home by building a wood-burning stove. The build only took about 20 minutes. I sat with the little girl most of the time. She was only two years old and very shy at first, but she warmed up. She loved putting stickers on her new coloring book...and everything else in sight.
Before I knew it, it was time to move onto the next home. We got the stove going and left the mom and her little daughter to enjoy it. We could see the smoke drifting up from the new chimney as we made our way back through the corn field.
Our next two stove builds were actually on the same property. The first house was older, up on a steep dirt hill.
Her name was Marleny (Mar-LAY-nee) and she was a sweet, sweet, intelligent 12-year-old who seemed curious enough about our presence there to approach us and try to communicate a little bit. She was so smart and had so much potential, but she had already finished her schooling. It's not unusual for children here to stop going to school after the sixth grade level. It's really a shame.
Marleny was kind enough to work with Jill on writing a letter to the Sunday School students back at Port City Church in Wilmington. It took quite a few of us, but we managed to communicate what we were looking for in broken Spanish, and Marleny happily complied.
We quickly discovered that Marleny loved soccer. We pulled a new soccer ball out of our goody bag and started kicking it around. She was really good, but said she didn't own her own ball. She lit up when we told her she could keep the one we brought. I kicked it around with her for a little while, but there was someone else in our group who was much more qualified.
Darren actually coaches a girls' soccer team back in Wilmington. He took over for me and had a great time playing with Marleny. He later said he only wished she could get the chance to play on a team. Something American kids don't think twice about would have been an incredible privilege for Marleny.
Our second stove build on that property was actually inside Marleny's house. She lives in one of the homes built by Pray America with her mom and two older siblings. We could tell the home was appreciated and lived in. It was really cool to see calendars and posters of soccer stars decking out every wall. It may have been small, but it was bright and cozy.
Dustin did a lot of work on the stove at that house. The building process is pretty simple. You start with some cinder blocks on the ground. Then you add what looks like a big sink made of porcelain and concrete. Then you pour in a few gallons of lava rock and build a little house of red clay bricks on the inside, where the firewood goes. There's a black metal stovetop that gets placed on top of everything. Then the local guys climb up and cut a hold in the roof to make a chimney. Add some wood, light it up, and you've got a stove.
As cool as the stoves are, at first I wasn't sure why it was so important for us to build them. Then I saw how the Guatemalans were cooking before they received the stoves, and it instantly made sense. Picture your living room. Now imagine that's your whole house. You can't afford any more space, so you're now sleeping, cooking, and eating in that one room. Now picture it with a dirt floor. And start a bonfire. Inside. Right in the middle of the living room. Oh, and you don't have a chimney or any windows, so the smoke just hovers, and you breathe it in all day and all night. That's what we saw today. Fire pits with open flame in the middle of homes. In addition to the obvious lung issues, it's common for children to accidentally fall into the fire, since it's hard to avoid. The stoves have quite a few benefits. First of all, there's no more open flame, so the kids are safer. Secondly, there's a chimney, so the smoke finally has a path out of the house. And lastly, the design saves families 60% in firewood expenses.
Back to Marleny's stove. Once we finished it, I had a chance to pray for it and for her family. A verse popped into my head...I couldn't place it, but I knew it had to do with God having a plan for us and giving us a hope and a future. So, I prayed for Marleny to have hope and a future. Then we packed up and headed out, leaving her with her new soccer ball and likely some funny memories of those crazy Gringos who showed up at her house one day.
The drive to our third stop wasn't too bad, but the hike that ensued was pretty tiring. We parked the truck along the main road and had to walk the rest of the way, down a steep, slippery hill. We arrived at a little compound of huts, with an outdoor sink for laundry and dishes. Inside a tiny building that appeared to be the kitchen/dining room, we found a young girl who was very sick. She was shaking and coughing. We tried to brighten up her day a little, and she agreed to color for awhile, but we mostly left her alone because the poor thing looked absolutely miserable. I prayed for her to be healed. I have to trust that God knows what He's doing.
A second girl showed up, and she was a little older. She wrote a letter in Spanish with Jill and Mark and also played some Jenga with us.
There were several women around, including some town leaders. They offered each of us a meal. That put us in a bit of an awkward spot. The meal was tortillas and cheese, with some hot orange tea. (or hot Tang?) I had been warned so many times about eating food not cooked in the mission house that I was really nervous about even trying the food, but I still took a plate and a drink so I didn't appear rude. I had a tiny nibble of cheese and one bite of tortilla. I didn't venture to try the hot Tang. One drop of water in that area can make an American sick for days, so I quietly poured it out onto some plants. Kevin, who lives in Guatemala full time, happily ate the rest of my cheese and tortillas. Some of us ate the food and others silently got rid of it, but the point is the family was trying very hard (and probably spending a lot of money) to be hospitable to us. In this case, it really is the thought that counts.
The stove was built quickly, as usual. It was our fourth one of the day, so we were getting pretty speedy. It was soon time to pray with the family and head to the last stop. We had grown accustomed to asking each family if there was anything specific they wanted us to pray about. Until then, the answers had all been pretty basic and predictable...requests for good health, blessings on the home, a stove that worked well, etc.
At this home, a middle-aged woman gave a request we hadn't heard before, and the story behind it made me furious.
(to be continued)
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