Last week we made our second visit to the Ch'orti' area. This time we were on our own. We were relying on our memory from the first trip and the map that the Miller's drew and gave to us. It was a little scary, but I think we did a great job of getting around and remembering the area. The photo below shows how most of our days looked.
The trip to Chiquimula is seven hours from Sayaxche' one way. We have two ways to get there. We can travel through Coban or go through Poptun. It is seven hours either direction. It is nice to have those options.
While in the Ch'orti' area we spent our days traveling up and down the dirt mountain roads. We would go from village to village asking to speak to the village leaders about permission to return and do some oral Bible storying. We averaged about seven hours each day of travel from the time we left the motel to the time we returned.
We would try to talk to people as they were walking along the road. We spent some time in the central park of one of the larger towns talking with people. We picked up a young guy who was walking into town to go to school and gave him a ride. A young female teacher flagged us down and asked us for a ride into town. Her baby was sick and she needed to get home. We would stop at random houses and community stores. All of this was done to try to find out more information about the area and try to make contact with some of the locals.
As we were driving through one town in the area we encountered a guy having car trouble. David stopped to help him push his vehicle out of the way.
The area is beautiful with a lot of mountain views. The traveling might get boring but the scenery never does.
I took this photo of a man walking down the side of the mountain. You can see the foot trail the locals have. I am not sure how far he had walked from, but he still had a long ways to go to get into town.
We met this man as he was walking along the road. He was from the village of Churischan. We stopped him to ask for directions and began a long conversation with him. He told us he was 86 years old. His village has no evangelical work. Many of the men in this area wear hats similar to his. Notice also the machete he is carrying. You will hardly see a man walking down the road without one of these on his arm.
We stopped at this house/ store in the village to ask where the village leader lives.
In the photo below you can see several houses in the village of Churischan. Please pray for this unreached village. There are around 900 people who live there.
We visited the village of Lagunetas. David walked across this soccer field to speak with one of the leaders there. It was a female who was very warm and friendly to us. Cruz and I joined in the conversation after the initial contact. She really enjoyed getting to hold the baby and him smiling for her. We left our name and number for her to get back with us after she talked with some of the other leaders. As we were leaving she asked Cruz when he was going to come back to see her again, haha. We are so thankful for the open door he is for our ministry. If you look hard you can see David talking with the lady in the photo below.
The most exciting thing about the trip was that less than twenty four hours after our visit in Lagunetas we received a call back from a man there giving us permission to return! That really made us smile.
We visited a couple more areas as well and had one more immediate invitation to return. We plan to do a follow up trip later this month.
In case you were wondering what we did with a one year old while we were doing all of this traveling and visiting, here are a few photos of him in action. Entertaining him in the car for that long is not easy, but we manage. I always pack a bag full of toys and books (any other ideas/ suggestions would be helpful). We play, read, and sing a lot. He was such a trooper. He did have his moments of being tired of the car and his seat (we all did), but overall part he did great. We are thankful that he, for the mostpart, travels well and adjusts to wherever and whatever we are doing.
Moments like this were my favorite of the day (just kidding).
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