Day 2

Day 2

Still no luggage, but who cares, I certainly Don’t. Read on and you will see why one bag of luggage just doesn’t matter…..


The Difference a wall makes

Today we visited a family in Lake Amatitlan. A single mom with 7 kids, her husband died and left them to fend for themselves in there home, we the term home is a generous one. It actually reminded me more of a stable.

Until recently much of their home was open air, no barrier to define inside from outside, even in the rainy season. Only a floppy metal roof over some wooden boards, an one small section surrounded by boards to make a kind of bedroom. With 5 beds for the 7 of them in that space. No walls meant a lot of anguish for this family as there belongings, what little they had was open to any thief that came along.

Last year CH built them a brick wall to identify the front and side of the home, the other sides were up against other homes, so this closed in their space, complete with a metal front door.

Path to thier home, the wall



the bedroom







I could not help but think of being in their shoes. Lets say you were praying for a wall, maybe it’s not even a prayer, it the most basic of cries for help to anyone who will listen and maybe at the time you don’t know if there is a God or if he cares.

And that wall means the world to you, your families safety, their identity and it’s a glimmer of hope that things will get better. When God answers that prayer and wants to intervene in the situation do you think you would just wake up one day to find a wall where once there wasn’t? Sure He could, but in your experience do you think that is what happened, well, in this situation it didn’t.

Instead, through time, obedience, and love, God brought people that were willing to listen to Him into their lives, mixed with all kinds of partnerships and support, including some resources from someone like you and me to see the need and do something about it. That’s how God met that need / answered that prayer. God used people like Rudy and Sully here in Guatemala and people like you and me behind the scenes. (come to think of it, perhaps I should really open my eyes to how God does answer prayer, like for healing?. Don't get me wrong I know our God is more than capable and willing to to supernatural miracles, but it does seem his first choice in may circumstances is to empower and equip His Children to do His work here on earth)

Just so you know we didn’t go to visit this family to see a wall. Instead we went to her home as she has opened her tiny space up to Christian Horizons to run a short term bible club from her house. (live a VBS, it is there summer school break from Oct to Jan, not that allot of these kids go to school) there must have been over 30 kids in her home, hearing of Gods love, Christ’s sacrifice, singing and praying.






From there we drove a very short distance to the plat of land that Christian Horizons Guatemala has purchased for a training / educations center in this community. And that visit was well timed, I now understand just what a center like this can do for the many lives in this community. Among many things it can:

- provide a place for formal education
- a place to teach new skills, there not a lot of opportunity to learn in this community
- a place where kids in the community can build relationships and grow in their community rather than become sucked in the world around, gangs, crime and prostitution (very prevalent in this community due lack of other job and education opportunities)
The Lot


This visit has solidified my resolve on the District Dash, my 325 K walk, I can wait to see what we are going to accomplish together to make this dream a reality.

From there we came back to the CH house where soon after about 85 kids arrived for VBS. Bused in from all around. Needless to say it was an energetic afternoon. For us Canadian, we lead the kids in making a craft. It was a cross necklace that we told the Gospel story through. Our helpers and interpreters made the task much easier. The kids loved it and through this they wanted to hear about Canada and wanted to teach me a lot of new Spanish words. Tomorrow we do it again!