July 24, 2004

My Awesome Sending Church

I believe that my sending church is the best a missionary could ask for. Not only to the people give to missions and pray for missions, they also participate in missions. The following is a letter I recieved (complete with pictures) from one of our church members after a recent missions trip to Guatemala:

Dear Friends,

It took a while to get this email together with the right size photos and other surprises, but hopefully it is worth it. From June 19 through the 26th, my 18 year old son Andrew and I went to Guatemala on a missions trip with Wycliffe Associates. We flew into Guatemala City and then were driven to a town called Solola' in the mountains. Pretty much right off the bat we knew we were in a very different culture. On the way, we stopped at this place and we saw the various modes of transportation: trucks (mostly), cars, bus, and walking. Here, a guy with his cows walking next to the highway.

We arrived in the town of Solola, but we stayed at a hotel just outside of town, or more accurately, above the town. It was a beautiful place known as the "Eagle's Nest", and is run by a Christian couple. From the outside it looked like this:

We slept the nights in a room that we shared with two other men who were helping on the project. On Sunday morning, we had a stunning view from our rooms: Solola is next to Lake Atitlan, which is over 1000 feet deep, and which is surrounded by several volcanos. It has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Wow! After breakfast, we went to an evangelical church in Solola' and the service was in Spanish. The worship service was contemporary, and included some songs that members of the church wrote in praise to God (alabanzas por Dios). It was beautiful, but it was also difficult since we had to concentrate so hard to understand the message, and it was just our first full day there. I was asked to sing and play guitar for a song that I wrote (in English) as part of the church service. The people appreciated it even though very few understood the words. Here I am with the Pastor of the church - note that he is much shorter than me. Most of the people were 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. Well, we were warmly received and it is remarkable how fellowship in Jesus Christ can transcend culture and even language. It was like we were family (and so we are).

After church we went to a neighboring town down the hill called Panhachel, situated right at the shore of the lake. We had an excellent meal there and did some shopping. Here is a shot of the market place. Note that it was common to see women balancing packages on their heads.

The Guatemalans love color. You can see that in the clothing for sale above, and certainly the clothes that they wear. We rode a public bus to the town and back, and the lady that sat in front of me had this incredible embroidery on her dress. It was commonplace for the women, and the men also dressed very colorfully.

I was also greatly impressed by their hard work and cleanliness, in spite of the obvious poverty. The men were well groomed and there were numerous barber shops in town (my Dad, a barber, would have been proud of them). Most of the work is agricultural. They grew crops anywhere and everywhere - even on incredibly steep slopes. They use terracing to grow the crops, and the fields were immaculate. Very impressive. I saw many working from sunup to sundown, and the men went to work with a hoe in one hand, and a machete in the other. Here is a typical terraced slope:



One of the amazing things was their capacity to cram into very small spaces... and not seem to mind it. The busses were stuffed until nobody else could fit into them, and I mean even the center aisle was full. Check out these trucks just loaded with people. This scene is absolutely commonplace in Solola'.

Our project was to help with finish carpentry in the new portion of the facility operated by Vina (pronounced vin-yah, meaning 'vine'). Vina is an audio/video studio, and they are tripling the size of their facilities in response to the need for their services and, I believe, the Lord's blessing on the ministry. Some of their projects include dramatized audio cassettes and CD's of the New Testament in Indian languages of Mayan descent; recording of Christian music that reflects their unique culture and is in these Mayan languages, and other special projects with churches and other ministries. Here is a shot of the hallway in the new building, before Andrew and I installed the baseboards. Each of these rooms is an office, studio, storage room, or workshop area for this ministry.




We got a lot of work done with our team, and some of the rooms were ready to be moved into after our week down there. We mostly used a chop saw to cut the baseboards, and we had to use a concrete drill to predrill the holes before nailing the baseboard to the walls, most of which were concrete block. It was tough work for several reasons (wet, bent wood being the main one), but God was good and our co-workers encouraged us. The team was led by the Halversons who are seasoned construction managers for Wycliffe.

It was not all work. Since this was a studio, I was invited by Jose' Abel de la Cruz to a recording session in the studio!! It was extremely exciting and I am also happy to report that while on the trip, I wrote a worship chorus in Spanish. Here I am in the studio on Thursday night after dinner. The next shot is Jose and his cousin, Nolo, working on mastering the song (I am looking on in amazement - these guys were REALLY good musicians and technicians).

Thanks to my webmaster, Phillip Madrid, we have a link to the song on my webpage. Note in the song that Jose' added percussion, panflute, lead guitar (Nolo playing), and other instruments. I am singing the lead and a harmony part that I made up that night! Just click the link below to listen to the song. I had a great time on the trip with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, including my son Andrew. Before you listen, one last photo: here is a photo of our work team, taken just before we left the town. Thank you for your prayers during our trip.

LINK:
http://www.madridengineering.com/larrysong.htm

Posted by Andrew on July 24, 2004 2:20 PM.