A Visit with Romualdo

Romualdo Perfecto Santiago Ramirez has dedicated his life to God in Christian education.  He looks at the children under his care and he sees himself in them and wants to help them.  The school is a successful program, but as he tells me a bit of his story, what he seems to remember most are the kids that choose the wrong path.  He worries about his students.  Some turn to alcohol.  Some of the girls become pregnant.  He tells them to be careful, he wants so badly for them to learn the way of God.  His words sometimes go in one ear and out the other.  He talks of the situations some of the children are in.  Some of their parents are divorced.  Some of them have a parent that go to the United States to work illegaly.  Some do not have money to buy the supplies they need and choose not to continue because of money.  As he spills out all his concerns for the youth of this town, I can not help but admire his devotion.

   

Romualdo is the Director of Colegio Methodista Filadelfia.  He has 225 children under his care in the town of Chajul.  There are many girls that come to his school to avoid the sexual advances that are sometimes made by male teachers in the public schools.  Many Catholics pay for their children to come to this Evangelical school because the quality of education far exceeds that of the public schools.  The Bible is taught here and Christian counseling is given.  They spend much time with the students in developing career goals.  He dreams about the future of his students as they infiltrate into society.  Some will become policeman, maybe a few will be mayors, and some will be teachers.  He focuses on what God can shape them to be and what his town can become through these students.  His vision is inspiring and it left me feeling goosebumps.

In our American way of thinking, we try to change things as quickly as possible.  We throw a lot of money at something and expect returns.  But this is not the way of God.  The Bible talks much of sowing the land, and reaping its fruits.  Sowing the land takes time.  It is laborious.  If you dump a bunch of seed on the ground and then leave, do not expect to reap a lot of good fruit later.  We must take extra care of all our little plants that are beginning to sprout.  We need to treat them gently and carefully over a long period of time.  The real heroes in society are the ones not in the limelight.  We tend to see the fruit but not the ones doing the watering.  They work behind the scenes, investing hours upon hours into the life of another.  Teachers are the true heroes of a society.

Heavenly Father, use us to do your work.  Lord, sometimes we are impatient.  Forgive us and lead us to simply be still and invest deeply into the lives of others.  Lord, on your timeframe.  Always.     

Lesson 7 - Wisdom

 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.  But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.  This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.  For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." (James 3:13-16)

This post is a short, humble investigation into the topic of wisdom as the Bible describes it.  I desire to be filled with wisdom in my own life but I often fall way short.  When I make decisions, I want to make sure I desire to seek His will and His plan for my life.  My problem is that despite that, I often develop my own plans for my life that are the result of a self seeking heart.  As I seek something for myself, I then rationalize it to be the will of God.  But as James so eloquently puts it in this verse, this is not true wisdom.  Just because a desire is in my heart, it does not mean it is from God.  I think often we get confused by the famous verse in Psalm 37:4 that says:

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."

We focus on the second part of that verse without focusing on the first.  Delight yourself in the Lord.  If you are coveting something for yourself, are you really delighting yourself in the Lord, or are you delighting in yourself?

This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

James gives a great litmus test for heavenly wisdom in the verse that follows.  This wisdom is:

Pure.  Does not seek its own, but full of love
Peaceable.  It does not create conflict and is not argumentative.  It results in peace.
Gentle.  Not abrasive or in your face
Willing to yield.  Is sacrificial, willing to lose or let others have their way
Full of mercy.  Full of forgiveness without grudges.
Full of good fruits.  It results only in good things
Without partiality.  It is fair, without bias
Without hypocrisy. It is 100% authentic.  

These are all not only characteristics of heavenly wisdom, but characteristics of the Holy Spirit as well.  The two seem to be synonymous.  Solomon writes a lot about wisdom in the book of Proverbs (especially the first 9 chapters) and it becomes obvious while reading that he is not just talking about wisdom through our worldly lenses, but of the Holy Spirit that comes from God.  True wisdom is something that can come only from God.

Solomon writes:    


“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." (Proverbs 9:10)

"For the Lord gives wisdom..." (Proverbs 2:6)

Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians: 
 
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:17-18).

In other words, to have wisdom is to be filled with the Spirit of God. 

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon investigates wisdom and the meaning of life.  He witnesses all the vanity of worldly pursuits.  He seeks different things out of life: pleasure, labor, wisdom, popularity, and money.  He sees that all die in the end and leave all their worldly pursuits to others.  He sums up his masterpiece with these words:


Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.

The Students at Prince of Peace Extension Program in Cotzal

Another month of classes at the Prince of Peace Extension program are now finished.  I was able to get some interviews from the men going through the Bacheloretto level.  This is a high school level of Bible education.  Here is some of what the men had to say:

Jose Cabo Bernal is from a tiny village called Batzumal 2.  To learn at Cotzal, he has to travel 1 hour by foot and 3 hours by car.  He is thankful for the help that WIND provides and desires to have a better understanding of the Bible so he can teach it to others.

Santiago Lux Rivera is from Ixla.  He walks for 2 hours to the town of Chajul and then takes a bus to Cotzal.  He is a member of the Bethany Church.  He is motivated to learn the bible so he can teach his church because his pastor does not study the Bible.

Juan Matom Brito is a pastor from Caserioxesupio Palop.  He travels 30 minutes by foot before taking a long bus ride to study at this program.  He has much appreciation for the help that WIND provides.  Their only expenses to study at the church are books and food.  The teachers are paid completely by supporters in the United States.  He wants to teach his sons, brothers, neighbors, and village the Bible.  He has a son who is also studying at the program (at 9th grade level) who leads the youth in his church and walks to little villages all around teaching the Bible.

Diego Perez Lopez is the pastor of the San Felipe Prince of Peace Church near Cotzal.  He studies for the love of God.

Juan Calel Cuyuch is the second Pastor in the Prince of Peace Church in Xolcuay.  He wants to be able to teach the Word of God more clearly.  He is so thankful for having the blessing to learn here.

Lucas Sanchez Rodriguez is from Cotzal and is there to learn.  He wants to teach the Bible to others.

Alfonso Ajanel Sica has found the program so helpful that he helped start another one in his home church in the town of Xolcuay.

Pedro Santay Mejia and Magdalena Lux Ixcoy were not in attendance when I took the interviews.

I also took a brief interview of the men in the Tercero Basico level (9th grade):

Diego Brito is a youth leader in the Bethany church in Nebaj.

Nicholas Perez helps his pastor teach in the village of Xepatul 2.

Domingo Cabanal Rodriguez is the 2nd pastor in the village of Pinal.

Jacinto Abraam Sajic Perez teaches his church the Bible in the Prince of Peace in Santa Avelina.

Josue David Matom Sedillo is a youth leader in his church in Palop who also walks around to surrounding villages all over the region to teach the Bible.

Victoriano Sanic Castro teaches the Bible in the Prince of Peace church in Xolcuay.

Diego Tzoy Itxep is the pastor of a Pentecostal church in the village of Asich.

Pedro Cobo Perez is a bible teacher in his church in La Pista.

What the Prince of Peace Extension program offers these men is a chance to study the Bible and in turn, teach it to others.  These are men who have not had the privledge of going far in their educations.  They are responsible for teaching the Bible to thousands without formally studying the Bible themselves.  Bible teaching in this region barely scratches the surface, but what this program is doing, is allowing the leaders to study deeper so they can in turn teach it to others.

Thank you God for the work you are doing in this region.

Lesson 6 - Light

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5)

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians 5: 8-11)  

 The analogies of light and darkness in the Bible have to do with the love of Christ versus the lusts of the world.  The light (which is love, truth, righteousness) exposes the darkness of worldy lust and selfishness.  For this lesson though, I am going to focus primarily on the open, revealing nature of light versus the hiding, secretive nature of darkness. 

 Jesus calls us the light of the world.  Paul tells us to walk in the light.  In my own walk, there have been many times I have put my light under a basket.  I am not a very open individual and my natural inclination is to hide.  In so doing, people do not always see the light within me from the Lord.  In Guatemala, people are more open about their faith in God.  A part of it may be because it is more socially acceptable and there is no doubt some people who "fake" their faith.  In the United States, you do not see many people praising God in a public setting.  Believers tend to live in two worlds, their Christian world and the secular world.  They do not praise God in the secular world or proclaim His truth.  At church, however, they do not hesitate.  They talk to other church members saying "Praise God for this!"  Then, talking to their coworkers of the same event, they make no mention of their Creator at all.  I mention this only because I am guilty of the same thing.  I live in fear of man, of what they will think of me in giving God the glory, and forget that God desires us to fear Him alone.

What does this have to do with light?  Light is visible.  You can see it.  Our natural inclination is to hide.  That is what Adam and Eve did after sin entered the world.  In darkness, you try to cover up your sin or your imperfections.  You put on a facade.  In light, you lay out your whole life before men without fear in truth.  That does not mean you are perfect, but you are honest about your imperfections, because you do not seek glory for yourself, but for God.  We want people to believe we are better or more holy than we are or in some contexts maybe we want people to believe we are worse than we are, either way it is a facade.  Walking in true light means walking in complete truth.  Your walk with God may not be perfect but it should be honest.


In a book I recently read by Phillip Yancey, he describes a situation of a bible study group.  They would never get too personal or go too deep in talking about their relationship with God.  Then one day, one woman just laid out her heart.  She described her disapointment with God, her areas of struggle, and just became completely vulnerable before them.  Her testimony stirred their hearts and others began to share as well.  The group had been operating in darkness but their facades had been exposed by the light of that woman's testimony. 


Lord, as we walk with you, help us to be bold and vulnerable.  Let our walks be honest with no self seeking motive. Your name be glorified.  A men.

Teaching at Horeb: Weeks 3 and 4

Two more weeks of teaching have passed.  Teaching is getting a little easier.  This week, I even randomly made up a couple songs for the kids to remember some vocabulary and they loved it.  I always leave my backpack up above on the soccer court while I go down to teach.  I have never had any problems with the kids getting into my stuff and they all seem to have a tremendous respect for other people's things.  They can be difficult at times to teach but they are wonderful kids.  There are a lot of big hearts in this group of students.  I just wish the school had more resources to work with.  I will write more about this later, but the school really is running on prayer.  All the teachers make a tremendous sacrifice working here, as they only make $1000 per year (you read that right) while they would make $3000 per year teaching at a Government run school.  The teachers do not come anywhere close to making a living teaching at that salary and they all have other jobs to supplement.

I went to a birthday party with the 6th graders and the teachers last week, which was a lot of fun.

My most favorite part of each week has been the devotion time we have on Thursdays.  Last week the 5th graders led devotion.  They performed a drama of the parable of the prodigal son.  They drapped white sheets over themselves to look more like Israelites and they even had music from Israel blaring over the boom box, which Horeb was able to borrow from an alumni.  The 5th grade teacher, Hilda, read the story of the prodigal son while the children acted it out.  I think their favorite part was the party when the prodigal son returns home.

This week, the 4th graders led devotion.  The girls did an interpretive dance to a Christian song and then all the fourth graders performed as a mock band.  One of the little boys came up to the front and read a part of the Bible aloud from Matthew 6.  Of course there was also prayer and singing.

Today, we had a field trip.  We walked about a half hour to what they call "el campo."  It is a huge park above the river.  Cotzal is in the mountains and there is no such thing as flat land here, but there was an area here flat enough for two games of soccer simultaneously.  It was a very beautiful location.  The children exchanged gifts for El Dia Del Cariño (Valentines Day) and we played all day. 

Walking to Cajixay

It was a rainy Saturday morning as I took the microbus to Cotzal.  The plan was to arrive in town, buy some food, and walk to Cajixay along a dirt road that climbs up into the mountains.  I went to Cajixay two weeks before, but did not have much time in the village.  It is about a 10 kilometer walk from Cotzal to Cajixay.  Along the way I met many people who were walking the other direction.  I do not think the locals were to used to seeing Gringos walking the road.  It was a very neat to walk because locals have to do it frequently.  There is not much transportation along this road, only an occasional truck, and a bus that goes to and from the market on Saturdays.  That is why I chose to go on this particular day, I was going to take the bus back that comes from the market.

men playfully line up to take bags from truck

I walked through two little villages on the way.  I met one guy from Nama walking who was the director of a small school in that village.  He said a team from the United States was coming down next week to help with construction.  I may go back to Nama to visit this school and perhaps meet this short term team.  As I was almost to Cajixay, I ran into a very large group of people from Cajixay at their agricultural land called Tu Chok.  A truck came with hundreds of 100 pound bags of dirt and the men were beginning to unload when I came across them.

Cajixay

Tu Chok: planting lots of peas

Benjamin's family was with that group.  That is the family I visited for a very short time when I went to Cajixay two weeks before.  After getting the bags from the truck, they were separated out by family.  I helped a bit with this.  The land up there is all together but different families own different parts of the land.  Then they carried their bags to their land.  I thought I would help and so I carried a 100 pound bag of dirt a couple hundred yards the way I saw the men carrying them.  Either I carried it wrong, or they have very strong necks or upper back muscles, because after carrying one bag, I thought I had done permanent damage to my neck.  It probably didnt help that I slipped in the mud and fell on my butt with a 100 pound bag balanced on my neck.  I did not help anymore after that.  I walked into Cajixay while the people stayed there and spread out their dirt.  I snapped a few photos and walked back.  All the people were at their corresponding land working.  They are planting peas and this place is a site to behold with the amount of peas that are being planted!  I walked around and talked with a few of them and then caught the bus as it headed back to Cotzal.

Sebastian works his land on slope of mountain

Adventure Monday

Santa Avelina

This Monday, I began by taking a microbus to Xolcuay, to watch the beginning of the classes this month.  I walked from Xolcuay to the main fork and caught a microbus to Cotzal.  I then took another microbus to Santa Avelina, my first time in this wonderul town.  I was there to visit a Christian school called HELPS.  I came away highly impressed with the school and it gave me a vision for what the Horeb school could be with more support.  Afterward, I explored.  I walked up the hill to get a better view of town and to my astonishment I saw a beautiful waterfall way out in the distance.  Of course, I walked to it.  On that hot, sunny day the mist of the waterfall felt just right.  Here are a few photos from Santa Avelina!