Zguy28 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Good to see ASF. Keep sharing the Gospel until the whole world hears. I have a friend who is Guatemalan. She helps us down in Mexico with our missions in Tlaxcala. From your pictures, it looks exactly like the city of Apizaco where I go; volcano and all. Have you run into any resistance from local Roman Catholic priests? Our local pastor in Mexico, Pastor Jorge, got roughed up by 8 guys who told him that Protestants were a cult. There is a sharp divide between the two down there. Hope you stay safe! Praying for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Have you run into any resistance from local Roman Catholic priests? Our local pastor in Mexico, Pastor Jorge, got roughed up by 8 guys who told him that Protestants were a cult. There is a sharp divide between the two down there. Hope you stay safe! Praying for you. You're saying Roman Catholic Priests are roughing people up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corcaigh Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 You're saying Roman Catholic Priests are roughing people up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zguy28 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 You're saying Roman Catholic Priests are roughing people up?No, what I'm saying is that the local Roman Catholic priest where my church does a mission in Mexico regularly preaches to his congregation that Protestants are a cult, that our teachings will send them to Hell if they join us, and to expel us from the community. He's even threatened to deny communion to men and fire men who work at the catholic church if their family members attend any events sponsored by us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 No, what I'm saying is that the local Roman Catholic priest where my church does a mission in Mexico regularly preaches to his congregation that Protestants are a cult, that our teachings will send them to Hell if they join us, and to expel us from the community. He's even threatened to deny communion to men and fire men who work at the catholic church if their family members attend any events sponsored by us. sorry I misunderstood. Sounds like the Catholics do in Mexico what the Baptists do here. It's a shame that all the churches cannot work together, isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zguy28 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 sorry I misunderstood. Sounds like the Catholics do in Mexico what the Baptists do here. It's a shame that all the churches cannot work together, isn't it? It is. Just like Baptists, RCC churches have much diversity in them on many things that don't necessarily agree with what the mainstream beliefs are. Anywho, apologies to ASF for distracting his thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 17, 2010 Author Share Posted February 17, 2010 Well the last two days have been extremely busy here in Guatemala. We've been digging out the place for the footers and prepping the area to have the concrete poured, the ground is hard as rock which makes the digging go very slow. I got my first experience working re-bar creating the column supports etc, my hands are blistered and scratched to pieces but it was good work and tomorrow we start pouring the concrete which will enable the next team (March) to begin laying the block for the walls. The Vacation Bible schools are awesome, the children and the parents have wonderful attitudes of gratitude, things that would bore youth in the US thrill these kids. Yesterday I took the picture of each of the children from each Bible school site which totaled over 160 photos which we had developed to hand out to the kids tomorrow. The children are so beautiful that they steal your heart. Today I went to the Campanero VBS site and I got hugs from over a dozen bonita princesas. Tomorrow morning I will be working with our veterinarian immunizing cattle and serving the people through helping with their animals in Magdalena. Please continue to pray for us as there is lots of work to be done. The construction site. The church in Campanero Hearing a story in Campanero Working some crafts Working a puzzle Some games, and these kids are GOOD! Esto es mi princesa bonita Auri. The school at Magdalena The bonita children att Magdalena. Another princesa Some veterinarian work Some bonita renas This is a nicer block house...if you can believe that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special K Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 Great pics ASF! VBS looks like a lot of fun, I'm sure the kids are loving it. And I agree with you that the children definitely do steal your heart. They are the primary reason I pursued the field I'm currently in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Ouch....my body hasn't hurt like this since basic training. Today we started pouring the footers for the new building...only one problem...no mixer, not cement truck so we mixed the concrete on the drive way. We did that for most of the morning, and my body thinks I'm trying to kill it. This afternoon was biblia esquela (Bible School) again, plus deliver about a week's worth of food to certain families in the neighborhood of the Campanero church. In the shadow of an active volcano. Ramerio and Polo, to of the hardest working men you'd ever meet. Wendy (left), Auri (right, pronounced Ouwra) my princesses. Myself and our team leader bringing food to a needy family, the husband (middle) was hurt when a car crashed into his motorcycle. A typical tin shack in Campanero. Another family, the mother here is 8 months pregnant with her fourth child, they live in a one room tin shack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Wow. Great pics. Families,especially kids,look darn happy you all are there doing what you do. And there is nothing like working with mud to make you feel older than you are. Hard work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 Great work and great pictures Asbury! I know what the answer is for the Catholic mission- but do you guys ever talk about methods of birth control with the people? It seems like in a lot of 3rd world countries that it could really help with so few resources divided among so many people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 Ugh...I'm beat but I wanted to have these pics available to you all. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156220&id=540021845&l=ebbc939e74 We fly out tomorrow, but my corazone es en Campanero. Please continue to pray for these people and for our safe traveling mercies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 21, 2010 Author Share Posted February 21, 2010 Ok, well I'm back home, but this is really tough for me because I'd rather be in Guatemala. As the plane started down the runway in Guatemala City it felt like my heart was being pulled out. I'm supposed to be happy that I'm home right? Ninos at Campanero as they finished a large puzzle. Mi princesa linda Wendy. Mi princesa linda Auri. Ladies waiting for the the women's clinic, several of them never had exams in their lives, there were also some very tragic stories told. We immunized this herd of cattle which belongs to Walter as well as a couple other herds of similar size, as well as goats and pigs. Since missionaries started coming to the area of Magdalena their cattle has become much better, they used to buy a calf for $100 and sell it for $200, now they buy them at $400 and sell them for $600 all because people came with veterinary help and better animal husbandry practices. One of Domingo's 6 Brahmas. Some fresh tortillas being made in one of the houses where we worked with some cattle, the tortillas were delicious and caliente! We got to walk some of the hills in Campanero as we delivered some food baskets to a few of the many families., the people here have to walk up this hill and down the other side just to get to a place where they can catch a bus or get to the school. These pics are all from one side of the hill. One of the boys in El Gerrione who didn't want his picture taken. A young mother's smile as she stands outside her home near the local school. The smallest church I've ever attended and preached in. Our team and some of the local ladies in the church. How's that for a view? This was taken from horseback as we rode up the volcano Pecaya, the two main peaks are the dormant volcanoes "Agua" and "Fuego" (Water and Fire). Me with some of the girls from the girl's home that we are working on. We were so close to the lava that it really started to get very hot on your bare skin. (left to right) Paola, Hermonia, some guy who needs a diet, Eveylia, Eimey, Lesley (green), Lupita behind, Julissa and Rome (Romie) Eimey's mother and Edgar's wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 21, 2010 Author Share Posted February 21, 2010 It doesn't surprise me at all that Zacapa is very poor as it is really remote and when you get out of one of the cities you see just how fast the economic situation deteriorates. I thought that Zacaba was further than it was from where we were but its not, we were also in Magdalena and a look at the map shows that its not very far from Zacaba, my guess is that Zacaba is an hour or so from Guatemala City. *edit* Scrap that...google maps is wrong, they have the town of Magdalena listed as La Trinitaria which is a little ways outside of Antigua. I normally trust google maps but I've got photo of a wall map of Magdalena. Use the soccer field as a reference point for both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special K Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 Great work and great pictures Asbury!I know what the answer is for the Catholic mission- but do you guys ever talk about methods of birth control with the people? It seems like in a lot of 3rd world countries that it could really help with so few resources divided among so many people That's a legit question. Not sure what Asbury has to say about it, but I know it's come up in some of my discussions about public health initiatives in the developing world. It's a tough issue to address in the developing world (at least in the places I've been) because having a lot of children is seen as a necessity to many families. They need to have 10 children because half of them will die from some infectious disease like malaria or dengue or cholera, etc. so then they are only left with half. They need those children to help with the immense amount of manual labor required just to survive (carrying water for miles from the village well, carrying firewood, harvesting crops, building homes, etc., etc., etc.). In a way, I can definitely see where they come from in this line of thinking. Then you have in some cultures, the fact that it is highly taboo to even TALK about birth control. That's part of the problem with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in some of the countries in Africa. A woman is shamed, possibly even threatened with bodily injury if she even mentions the word condom. It's definitely a tricky thing to deal with when you are facing this type of culturally-embedded thinking. One of my professors is an OB-GYN from Malawi. He goes back 3-4 times a year because he has different projects he has going in the country. Anyway, we were talking about birth control and how taboo it is in many African nations. Apparently, in Malawi, a woman can't even get a hysterectomy or any type of sterilization without permission from her husband. Almost all of the time, the husband denies her permission....not only does this lead to increasing the population, but this puts the woman's life in danger, particularly as she ages and bears more children. As a result, my professor has been known to sterilize many women on he DL..... Where I'm at now, we are focusing on essentially helping these people get out of the essential stone age they currently live in. They are literally hundreds of years behind the developed world. Once this occurs, then maybe we can start talking about birth control. But this is just where I'm at now, I've been to other developing nations that are much more developed than this and it actually would be conducive to talk about things like birth control, and I think more and more NGO's are focusing on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 21, 2010 Author Share Posted February 21, 2010 That's a legit question. Not sure what Asbury has to say about it, but I know it's come up in some of my discussions about public health initiatives in the developing world. It certainly is a legit question and the reason I didn't answer it right away is because I simply didn't know the answer before, but having asked around it seems that our focus was not on birth control and contraceptives, but instead more feminine health. This is for a couple reasons, culturally large families are better, and economically large families are more effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 21, 2010 Author Share Posted February 21, 2010 Here is the map of Campanero. The lines with arrows follow the trail up the hill to the various shanty towns that we went to surrounded in red boxes. The church in the picture is where we had the Bible School, you can see how far some of these kids came for Bible School. The "Girl's School" is where the girls from the girl's home attend. Here's the terrain of this area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 23, 2010 Author Share Posted February 23, 2010 If someone handed me a plane ticket to Guatemala City today I'd be on a plane this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted February 27, 2010 Author Share Posted February 27, 2010 I just got these pics today emailed from the full time missionaries we served with. These are the two families that we're supporting in Guatemala. Auri and her mother. Wendy and her brother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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