Leaving Belize...Entering Guatemala

In Guatemala, the majority of the people are Mayans, but in Belize, a land of mixed cultures, there are 4 other major nationalities besides the native Mayan. These 4 are the black Garifuna, the Eastern Indians, the Taiwanese Chinese, and the white Mennonites. The time we spent working in Belize was in the central and southern parts, but the border crossing for Guatemala is located in the northwest central part close to the community of Spanish Lookout.

Dad has a knack of meeting people in interesting ways! We were still having glitches with our rear end gear on Saturday, the day we left the Baumgartners’ place in southern Belize. Our plans were to stop in Spanish Lookout before crossing into Guatemala, because people had been telling us, “You have to stop in S. L. You can find anything there!” On our way north, we stopped in Armenia to tell Lazarus and Allicia’s family good-bye, then went on to S.L. When we got there, we found the store in town that is comparative to a mini-Walmart (you really can almost find anything there!), and while we did some shopping Dad asked two of the Mennonite guys standing around if they knew a local mechanic who could take a look at our bus. By the end of the day, we not only got our bus fixed but also met the man who was the dad of one and father-in-law of the other of the two guys from the store and were invited to park at his place and go with them to church the next day! We spent Sun. and Mon. with the Reimers who so graciously took us all over the community, fed us lots of food, and introduced to many, many people. I could write a whole post on everything we did in those two days; there was so much we saw and so many we met! One little highlight was getting the chance to play a real piano for the first time in months. One of the girls from church invited me to come over to her house to play on Mon. – we didn’t even know eachother for 24 hrs, but hey! there was music involved :)  

We’ve gotten SO many invitations to come back to Belize. These invitations have come from all over the country and from every one of the major nationalities, except the Chinese. (For some reason we never really met any of them :/) I felt so blessed when I remembered some of the comments following the invitations. From a Mayan women: “I promise you, you’ll be back.” From a Garifuna child: “I’ll see you when you come back next year.” (tho we always stressed that we don’t know when, or possibly even if, we’ll be back) From an Indian man: “It’s been more than just another team, it’s been like being with family.” From several Mennonites: “Next time, you can park at our place.” Who but God could bring us to a land we know nothing of, to people we’ve never met before, and work it out with such favor that when we leave 3 weeks later we feel, in a small sense, like we’re leaving family behind? 

The border crossing went very well, without any gliches!

On Tue., the first day in Guate. we made our way towards Tikal, home of the largest Mayan ruins in C.A. We spent all day Wed. climbing ruins and walking the large park.

We are now in Chiquimula, Guatemala where we will be working with Otto Bonilla, a local pastor, and his family for a week or more. We have internet connection here, so I’ll be updating when possible!