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!
