The Church in Cahabon, Guatemala

Yesterday I received an email from my brother asking how the Church was progressing in Cahabon.

 

To better understand my response, it is important to remember that when we arrived in Cahabon, a year and a half ago, there was no official recognition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As members of that Church, we were desirous to be able to have Sacrament meetings, and other Church activities, available to the people of Cahabon.

 

Covid was an international pandemic, at that time, so gatherings for any kind of Church meetings were limited.  While Cahabon was relatively free of the disease, national mandates periodically stopped Church gatherings.

 

Last Sunday, in Cahabon, there were 42 people in attendance at Church.  While there are two missionaries serving in Cahabon, the meeting was under the direction of a local Group Leader, Juan Carlos.  Both of the men who blessed the sacrament are new members of the Church, and the sacrament was passed by deacons who live in Cahabon.

 

The meeting was held in a lovely house with a large gathering area, and several rooms for Sunday School classes, etc.  The house is rented by the Church.  The missionaries also live there.

 

Representatives of the Church real estate department have visited Cahabon, and a recommendation has been proposed for the building of a Church meeting house in Cahabon.   We do not know the status of that proposal, but the very fact that it is being "evaluated" is major progress.

 

Another baptism is scheduled for Sept. 24th, with at least three people planning to be baptized, and several other possibilities. 

 

Prior to our arrival in January of last year (2021) it had been 40 years since the Church had an official presence in Cahabon.   The Coban Mission has submitted a request to make Cahabon an official Branch of the Church.   We are hopeful that decision will be announced soon.  

Beautiful Guatemala - Sept 15, 2022

It is one week since we arrived in Guatemala - for this three month journey.  There are so many things to share, each day is full to overflowing.  But yesterday was unique.  We were in Senahu, working with the characters for for the Book of Mormon pageant.  We had planned to travel on to Coban, but received information that a landslide had closed the road (due to the heavy rains the night before).  We did not want to travel back on the road to Cahabon (3 hours on very difficult roads), but we didn't have a choice.  Our driver, Luis Fernando, was very careful.  We feel very blessed that he could go with us.  (We thanked God for that miracle.)  It was a beautiful day.  The following picture shows the beauty of Guatemala - a picture taken from the road we were traveling on.

Last Saturday we visited three villages that have corn Demonstration Plots.  Bob was anxious to see how they are doing, as some of the plots will be harvested next week.  Interestingly, the farmers seed (compared to Pioneer and other varieties) did well, when it is properly cared for, and fertilized, but it takes about two weeks longer to mature.  Bob is trying to help the farmers get three crops a year, and that is not possible with the farmers seed.  They planted the second crop yesterday, among the corn plants that will be harvested next Saturday.  It's also a way to preserve the nutrients, and provide ground cover to keep the soil from washing away.

One of the villages we visited was Cerro Lindo.  Through donations to Welcome Hand (see www.welcomehand.org), we were able to build a school for the children of this village.  Some of the children have been going to schools in other areas, but most of the children have not had school for over 4 years.  The following picture is some of the children in the village.  The father of the two girls to the left has been taking the girls on a motorcycle 45 minutes away, every day.  (About 20 children travel to another school.) The new school will open on January 1st, and all 75 children will be able to attend.  It is a big blessing to the children who need an education to progress.  The three boys in the picture will now be able to attend school.  We are now working on another school, and would appreciate donations.

Today is Independence Day!  The video below shows some of the activity (if you can get it to work).

If you want to see more of the activities of Welcome Hand, go to www.welcomehand.org.  We would appreciate your support.

@welcomehand, @roylanceguatemala, @guatemalaeducation, @bookofmormon, @qeqchiguatemala, @guatemalascenery

 A Different Answer to a Prayer

September 8, 2022

Yesterday we arrived in Guatemala City about 3:30, and Gady picked us up about 4:00 pm.  We wanted to visit a lighting company, LuxLite, to see if they had spotlights, and they closed at 5:00, so we decided to hurry over there first.  While we were there it started raining a little.  We had all our luggage in the back of the pickup, and three of the bags were cloth duffle bags, which could get wet.  They contained items we will need for the Book of Mormon pageant, so we were very anxious that they did not get wet.   We used to have a big plastic cover in the back of the pickup, but it wasn't there, so we rushed out of the lighting store to go buy something that could cover things, to protect them from the rain.  We didn't know where to go, near the industrial area where we were, so we prayed that God would help us find a place that would sell plastic to cover our bags.  As we drove along we kept looking for a place that might sell the big plastic sheets, or something like that, and then we noticed that the rain had stopped.  Interesting, we didn't need the plastic bags if we didn't have rain.  That was a real "aha" moment for me -- God knew what we needed, more than we did.  All we needed was to stop the rain. 

The bags did get a little wet, but we were able to dry them out at the hotel, so that everything was ready to travel on to Coban the next day -- and everything made it nice and dry. 

It was a big lesson in being willing to let God decide how to answer our prayers.  Sometimes we don't see the bigger picture, but just focus on the little details of the moment.

We are anxious to get to Senahu, to begin working on pageant details, but the roads are essentially closed because of so many mud slides during the heavy rains this last week.  One 14-yr old boy was buried in a mud slide, but he was rescued.  He had lots of internal problems, but we are all praying for him.  He was a member of one of the seminary classes in Senahu, and will probably be in the pageant, if he gets well.  You might remember him in your prayers -- Bitner Oswaldo Tiul.  Please pray for him.  I put his name on the Prayer Roll for Jordan River Temple.

We will meet with the Mission President, Elder Alvarado, today, and President Coy, the Coban Stake President.  We will focus on pageant details in Coban for the next two days, and then travel to Cahabon on Saturday.  We are really looking forward to meeting with our friends in Cahabon, and especially to go to Church with them.  

Catching the Rain Project

 Good News!  We're almost there!

The total cost of the Catching the Rain Project is $2730.  This is a reduction from $3,000 because we were able to get some of the items at a discounted price.

 

$2,225 was donated through Welcome Hand.  The women of the La Libertad Community raised 50 quetzales each from 58 families, (Q.2,900) which equals $375.  That leaves only $130 needed to cover all the costs.

 

Here is picture of the women of the Board, with the money they raised, and the list of the 58 families that paid the 50 quetzales to participate.  The women in the white shirts, are from the Women's Office of the Municipality of Cahabon.  They helped facilitate this project.

We need $130 to complete this project.  If you would like to donate, go to welcomehand.org.  

 

Thanks to all of you that have donated to help this project become so successful!

 

We will send more pictures after the barrels and other items are delivered to the families on November 6th.   Doug and Kim Roylance will be here, and they will be climbing the mountain with the families as they take their barrels home - to Catch the Rain in the future. 

Cookies and Banana Bread

October 22, 2021

Today, 3 members of the Women's Office at the Municipality came over to our home to have me show them how to make Banana Bread.  I took some banana bread over to the Mayor's office to watch the big soccer game (the Mayor's office overlooks the soccer field), and they wanted to learn how to make it.  Gady translated the recipe into Spanish, and they each brought some of the ingredients.  They had a hard time getting "butter" and nuts, so I told them margarine was OK, and I furnished the walnuts I brought from Utah.  Gady said there is a place to buy walnuts in Coban, but I haven't seen it yet.  Up to now I have only been able to buy peanuts here.  

We had some fun discussions, waiting for the oven to heat up (I thought I had turned it on, but I forgot to get the gas started), waiting for the small bread loaves to cook, and then cool.  Gady was interpreting for me.  (We made four small loaves of banana bread, one for each of them and Gady.)

 

I asked them what they needed me to help them with (I thought about some big humanitarian needs), and they said, "how to make cookies!"  Then, when we were waiting for the loaves to cool I realized that I had a full pizza that I made for yesterday that had not been eaten (ham and pineapple).  So I brought it out, and warmed it up.  Now they want me to teach them how to make pizza.  They said, "We should have a bakery and name it Susan."  Several people have suggested that I should have a pizza store (every time I make pizza), but I told them that is not what I am here for.   But, as I think about it, maybe it would be a good way to build "relationships of trust."  ???

 

"Catching the Rain"

A Family-to-Family project

Families living on a mountain, on the South side of Cahabon, 

need a way to capture the rain and store it in a barrel.  They do 

not have access to running water, they are so high on the mountain.

This project will provide a 55 gal storage barrel and the "canal" 

along their roof to capture the rain water, for about 60 families.  

In order to receive the water storage barrel and canal, 

each family will need to pay 50 quetzales (about $7.50). 

For some of them, this will be difficult.  

They will be turning in their money on Monday, October 26th, 

to qualify to receive the rain storage unit.  

The rain catchment system will cost about $48 for each family.

We would like this to be another "family to family" project -

with a family in a developed county to donate $50 to provide

 a simple rain catchment system for a family in the 

La Libertad Community in the Cahabon District of Guatemala.

 

If you are interested in donating to this project, 

please go to  welcomehand.org

The following pictures are homes in the La Libertad area.  

If you look carefully you will see that they are on a steep terrain 

(see the trees on a lower level than the house).

If you are interested in donating to this project, 
please go to welcomehand.org.

I Climbed the Mountain!

October 15, 2021

Yesterday I followed a very steep and treacherous trail up a mountain to see the homes that had been severely damaged by the wind/rain storm on September 15th.  Luis Fernando went with me, from the Municipality of Cahabon, (and Martha from the Women's Office).  I COULD NOT have done it without Fernando.  But, I have walked some treacherous trails climbing up to Seibal and Aguateca, so I thought I could do it.

Here is a picture of the home at the top of the mountain.  Luis Fernando is standing beside me.  He helped me walk up the hill.  See cloth protecting the kitchen area of the home, because the wall was destroyed.

Here is a picture of the kitchen area of the home, without walls.

Here is a picture of the roof of that home, so you can see how they have cobbled it back together.  We have ordered 5x5 lumber 22 feet long to help 4 of the homes stabilize their roofs.  

This community is called La Libertad.  The Board of the community gave me a letter, asking for help to get a water storage tank, because they don't have a source of water up there -- other than rain.  I did notice one other home that was collecting the water from the roof in barrels.  I want to research this system, to see if that is a way we could help.  I know that some houses we have visited in the past have a pipe along their roof that collects the water and puts it into a barrel at the end.  

Another house we saw was the home of an elderly lady, who lives by herself.   You can see how the side of the house had the lumber blown off, and she is using plastic sheets on the side.

This is a picture of her toilet area:

In this picture you can see where the roof of another house has been repaired with a new corrugated steel sheet.

When you climb UP a hill (or mountain), you have to come back down.  Here is a picture of Fernando helping me come down - over some rocks.

These people are the most needy of the needy.  I am so grateful we have had the opportunity to help them, and so grateful for the many friends and family that have contributed to this project.  If you would like to donate to help in this work, please go to:

welcomehand.org