King of the casa!

It´s been an amazing 2 days here in Guatemala. We loaded up the truck this morning with more than 60 wheelchairs and a prefab house prior to making our rounds to 3 different families. We met several families today while doing food and clothing distribution on the way to Huehuetenango.

What a blessing it has been to meet these families and get a chance to see how they live. Although we have several projects to complete while we are here, it has been the relationships and time spent with the Bethel Ministries team and the families they have relationships with that have stood out the most.

Among many memorable events today, here is one. On our first food delivery stop we were greeted at the door by 5 year old Victor. Victor´s mother, Carmen, had taken Victor´s sister to the hospital to be treated for a serious foot infection and Victor was home alone. As we entered Victor picked up several small plastic figures and a play mat and put them into a plastic tub and immediately began offering us stools to sit on. Throughout the visit, we were awed by Victor´s hospitality as he proudly showed us the chicken in his kitchen (mothering a brood of both chicks and baby ducks), and his family´s pig, turkeys, and hens in the yard outside. We later learned that the reason Victor was home alone was that if someone was not physically on his property at all times, bandits would clear out the entire home within hours. Imagine your 5 year old son or daughter defending your home and property from thieves, by him/herself, and entertaining a group of 12 people, only 2 of whom he or she knew. Our first reaction was shock that a small boy would be left alone like this. What we later learned is that, although this small boy was at risk, his entire family´s life would be at risk if all their belongings were stolen. Chris jokingly pointed out that Victor was ¨King of the casa¨, which is exactly what this 5 year old boy was.