The past week has been full of adventures, stories, and amazing opportunites...too many for one post, so I'll start with servant days. The freshmen class (21 students), along with five adults (ha, yes, I am an adult) headed out last Thursday morning for Pixabaj. Pixabaj is in the region of Solala, one of the poorest areas of Guatemala. In addition, it has the highest rate of illiteracy in the country. You may wonder, "how did you end up there?" Well, it's a phenomenal story.
Carlos Nevarez, a dad of a whole slew of students at our school, used to live/work at a children's home with his family. Through a string of events, he got connected with the pastor in Pixabaj. On his first visit to the village, the pastor presented Carlos with a petition from 12 f
amilies, pleading Carlos to help educate their children. It was signed with thumbprints because the parents could not write their own names. Carlos took the plea to heart, and raised money for the children to go to school. After two years of this, God laid it on his heart that he was not necessarily being a good steward of money. For the same amount of money it costs to send 12 students to school, Carlos could pay an entire staff at a separate school. So, he started raising money, asking for supporters, prayer, and after two years The Christian Academy of Pixabaj opened, completely funded by donation. On opening day, last January, the first generation of children in the area who will ever be able to read and write Spanish e
ntered school. Since it is a Christian school, this is the first generation of children who will ever be able to READ the Bible for themselves. THAT is a story of grace and peace!
The goal is for the school to host 400 students in its 11 rooms. There are two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Our task was to prepare three of the new upstairs classrooms. In addition to many little tasks, we completely sanded the rooms by hand, primed them all, and painted the ceilings. A team is coming this week to finish the painting. We also whitewashed some of the outside of the school. I felt a bit like Huck Finn when I had five little indigenous girls whitewashing for me ;)
Carlos Nevarez, a dad of a whole slew of students at our school, used to live/work at a children's home with his family. Through a string of events, he got connected with the pastor in Pixabaj. On his first visit to the village, the pastor presented Carlos with a petition from 12 f
amilies, pleading Carlos to help educate their children. It was signed with thumbprints because the parents could not write their own names. Carlos took the plea to heart, and raised money for the children to go to school. After two years of this, God laid it on his heart that he was not necessarily being a good steward of money. For the same amount of money it costs to send 12 students to school, Carlos could pay an entire staff at a separate school. So, he started raising money, asking for supporters, prayer, and after two years The Christian Academy of Pixabaj opened, completely funded by donation. On opening day, last January, the first generation of children in the area who will ever be able to read and write Spanish e
ntered school. Since it is a Christian school, this is the first generation of children who will ever be able to READ the Bible for themselves. THAT is a story of grace and peace!The goal is for the school to host 400 students in its 11 rooms. There are two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Our task was to prepare three of the new upstairs classrooms. In addition to many little tasks, we completely sanded the rooms by hand, primed them all, and painted the ceilings. A team is coming this week to finish the painting. We also whitewashed some of the outside of the school. I felt a bit like Huck Finn when I had five little indigenous girls whitewashing for me ;)
In typical YL fashion, I had the student blowing up latex gloves on their heads in some downtime...The unanticipated hitch in our trip: vehicles broke down TWICE, which made us hit a road block and a 3 hour trip turned into a six hour trip!
5 comments:
It sounds like the work you and the students did was very rewarding and very needed.
Your story once again reminds how God uses ordinary people to do great work. God used Carlos to touch the lives of so many children and gave them the chance to receive a Christian education. How neat.
I'm still waiting for pictures of the new niece.
Annette, sounds like you keep having one adventure after another. It was great that you and your students were able to help out another Christian school. I saw Kiersten the other day and she is sooooo tiny. Anyways, enjoy and we are looking foward to when you get back home.
Mark
Annette, Your life is just one new adventure after another ~ I'm always curious to read what might come next for you. I can relate to the people of Pixabaj as their poverty sounds like the areas we worked in while in Guatemala. How awesome it is to read that your students were able to reach out and help the other students in this area. I can also relate to the vehicle issue. There wasn't one trip out to the remote areas where we didn't encounter van issues. We spent almost 3 hours sitting along the road in a small town ~ you can imagine all the looks we got from the people as they saw 22 "Gringos" seated along side their street. That was just one of our "mechanical stories". I can also tell from your experiences that God is using you beyond the classroom. Keep on loving on those kids and allowing God to shine through you and your work there. On a side note, we still haven't met our new grandchild ~ he/she is being persistent in keeping us waiting. Funny how they had to stop labor twice and now our little one isn't in a hurry to meet the rest of the family. God Bless, Phyllis
Hi Annette,
Just dropping in to let you know that Paige Renae Wigger arrived this morning at 5:31 a.m. She weighs 7 lbs 15 0z & is 20" long.
Mom, Dad & Baby are doing well and so is Grandma! Praising God for our newest Miracle ~ Phyllis
letronAnnette,
Waiting patiently for the photos of Caye Caulker. By the way, we have a much larger place here in Placencia so we are hoping you and Kereena will be here this weekend.
Uncle Lennie
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