A Little About the Ch'orti'

There is much about the Ch'orti' culture we will need to learn.  We will try to share with you as we learn it ourselves.  I have not taken many photos on our previous visits mostly because I am too busy looking around and trying to see it all for myself.  The idea of learning a new people, a new area, and a new culture is very exciting and we pray you will follow along with us and support us in prayer.

So far we have seen a variety of different types of houses in the area.  Some live in concrete houses, some in thatched roof houses, and some live in adobe type houses as seen below-

I must say that I was a little disappointed to learn that unlike most all of the other  Mayan groups in Guatemala who wear bright, colorful, pretty dress, the Ch'orti' women wear outfits similar to the ladies pictured below.  They wear these puffy sleeved blouses and pleated knee length skirts.  It looks like something from the days of old, haha, and definitely not what you would expect Mayans to be dressed in.  I will try to get better photos of some of the ladies dress on an upcoming visit.  This photo was taken with the window rolled up.  I am still not comfortable to roll down my window and take photos of the people yet.

Some of you have already asked about the language.  The Ch'orti' do have their own language, but it is not being used much.  Most all of the people there speak Spanish only.  I think it is sad to see a culture lose their heart language.  Below is a picture I took of a sign we saw that had Ch'orti' writing on it to share with you all.

This is just another random picture I took of a map along the road showing the Ch'orti' area.

Ch'orti' Visit #2

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). 

A Possible New Vision

We spent most all of last week traveling the backroads of Eastern Guatemala.  We met our friends David and Glynis Miller in the town of Chiquimula and spent a couple days traveling out from there.  It was our first time to ever go to that part of Guatemala and we were impressed.  Chiquimula is a large place.  It seemed to us larger than Coban.  They have TWO Paiz's (chain grocery store).  There is a large shopping mall, food court, McDonald's, Pollo Campero, and much more.   We liked it right away, but living here, who wouldn't like to visit somewhere a little more modern.  haha 

This is a map of Guatemala.  The department of Chiquimula is shown in dark green.  It borders Honduras.  It was a seven hour drive, one way, to get there.  We currently are working in the large department in the northern part of the country.  You can see just how large the Peten is compared to the other departments.

The purpose of our trip was to get a vision for the Ch'orti' people group.  They are one of the few remaining unreached people groups in Guatemala.  They are less than 2% reached.  Our trip seemed similar to the prayer teams we lead among the K'ekchi'.  We spent our time traveling from village to village seeing firsthand the areas where there is no gospel witness.  It broke our hearts to realize so many people there have not yet had the opportunity to accept Christ.  There is definitely a need for work in that area. 

We will now begin to promote the Ch'orti' people group to the K'ekchi' people group and begin asking them to pray for them.  In doing so, our prayer is that God would call out one of the K'ekchi' to begin working among the Ch'orti' to help reach them.  Would you join us in that prayer?

Here are a few of the views we saw while there.  It is a mountainous area and reminded us a lot of the Lanquin/ Cahabon part of Alta Verapaz.  We saw some beautiful scenery!

You will notice the dirt roads on the photo above.  The Miller's have spent many, many days over the past two years riding up and down almost every road in this area.  They have hand drawn a map of the area listing all of the roads and villages that are there.  It is very impressive and we are amazed at the great job they have done!  They list every village, an estimate of how many people live there, and what churches, if any, are there.  It is sad to see just how many villages they have marked as unreached.  Not only did they make this map for themselves, but they made one for us as well.  We plan to hang ours in our office and use it to begin to pray specifically for some of the unreached villages.  Soon we will begin to ask you all to pray for those villages, by name, as well.

Here are David and Glynis at one of our rest stops.  David is holding the map they made and trying to see where we might drive to next.

Cruz enjoyed getting to see this piece of heavy equipment up close.  He likes trucks, motorcycles, loud cars, and especially likes playing with the tires on all of these things.  He is 100% boy.

One afternoon we drove over to the neighboring town of Esquipulas.  This is a photo taken at the lookout over the city.  We visited the Basilica (the large white building) there that is a famous landmark in Guatemala.  It houses the black Jesus that thousands flock to see each year. 

We had a great time of fellowship together while in the car, at the motel, and over many meals.  We are thankful for their taking the time to show us around and help us understand the people and area a little more.  We will now spend some time praying to see what the Lord might have, if anything, for us to be involved in with the Ch'orti'.  Will you pray for us as well?  We will keep you updated as we know more.

David, Cruz, Glynis, me, and David