Arriving in Guatemala yesterday was like coming home. Pastor Luis and Tony picked us up from the airport and hugs were very quickly exchanged. After starting the night in Guatemala City we pack the bus and make our way across the country to Lake Atitlan.
Along the way we stopped at Poacorral, a very poor village at the top of a mountain. At 12,000 ft elevation, 75% of each day is spent surrounded in fog which makes it a surprisingly chilly village to live in. It seems like most of the people living here have vitamin B deficiency due to the lack of sun. There are not a lot of smiles and very little laughter around the village. Poacorral is full of refugees who were pulled from the coast during various natural disasters. Due to the elevation making a living farming is difficult and travel to another village for work is cumbersome and very time consuming.
While we were here we did a short VBS and craft for the children and afterwards set up to do a Happy Feet (shoe distribution) Ministry. Despite the depressing atmosphere of Poacorral, our VBS and Happy Feet ministry created many smiles and laughter! Some of the people we befriended made it a point to thank us in English, which is rare for us to hear. Although communication was sketchy (most people in Poacorral do not speak Spanish, rather they speak an older Mayan dialect), we felt like the love of our Lord was revealed to over 400 people this afternoon!
