Pueblo Viejo Church Dedication
So much has happened these last two months. Let’s start with the church dedication in Pueblo Viejo. In the pictures below you will see many of the people that arrived by bus from surrounding villages to help dedicate this beautiful new church. We estimate that there were about 200 in people in attendance. For these people to come out and support the dedication of a new church is a big deal. First, they have to rent a private bus to take them to the church. In some cases, it could easily be a two hour bus ride. It will cost them about $5.00 each to ride the bus. If a family of 5 does this, it costs them $25. The average wage that a Mayan man makes is $76 a week. This is a real sacrifice for these precious people.
It’s tradition here to have a ribbon cutting ceremony at the entrance of the church. All the people stand outside the church, which is beautifully decorated with braided greenery, palm leafs, crepe paper and colorful balloons 🎈. First, a minister says a prayer of blessing and then all the people sing the old song, “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The ribbon in front of the door is cut, and as many people as possible crowd into the new church. Depending on the size of the church, the majority of people will have to sit outside the building or crowd around the windows and doors. Outside the church, the women usually are selling snacks from a small thatch structure.
After the service a meal of rice and beans or maybe the soup called, Potch, is served. This time we were served Potch. What made this challenging was that it was served without a spoon 🥄 or fork 🍴. True to form, I promptly spilled some soup 🍲 on the white skirt I was wearing. In the pictures you can see the home in which the meal was served. Being guests, they provided a table, and some chairs and buckets for us to sit on. The building you see us eating in, is the home of one of the church members. You can see the older women sitting in front of a fire in the center of the home where the food is cooked.
The young women typically serve the visiting ministers, which in this case, is Missionary Dwayne Abernathy and his wife Linda, Monte Davis from Louisiana and ourselves. The Monte Davis family donated the funding that made it possible for this church to be built.
The one thing this new church was missing, to my dismay, was a outhouse. Now this was on their “to
do” list, but apparently it wasn’t terribly important to them to get it built before the dedication service with 200 people in attendance. Now I want to set the stage here for you. For once, because this was such a special event, I decided to wear some of my nicest clothing. This included a white lace skirt, and white cloth sandals. Since it was a 2 hour ride to the church, and a 2 hour service, I um, had to use the “facilities”. I approached the pastors wife and informed her of my need. She told me she was sorry, they had not built one yet. Seeing the desperate look on my face, she offered to have one of the young girls take me to her house which was about 1/4 walk down a muddy, sandal 👡 sucking road.
I use the word “road” loosely. It was thick red mud and rock path. Remember, I have on my new, very cute, sandals 👡. I was not about to ruin them, after all, I paid $11.00 for them at Target back in the states. So off they went, and down the mucky road I went, holding my white lace skirt as high as possibly decent. It seemed to take forever to get to the pastors house, but finally, there it was: the Outhouse. I was so glad to see it, and I was about to go in when the girl leading me shook her head no and signaled for me to keep following her. Well, my bladder had already seen that outhouse. Now I am desperate! Just behind the outhouse was the pastors home. The young girl lead me inside, muddy feet and all. Then at the back of the home she pointed to a door and told me this was the bathroom.
I entered the door, and I swear I could hear the Hallelujah Chorus. There, right in front of my eyes was a beautiful, clean bathroom with a real toilet. I was so happy. Then there was the muddy trek back to the church.
When I travel like this, I always have what Dwayne calls my, Mary Poppins bag. In it is all the things I think we may need on a trip like this. Such as, mosquitoe repellent, toilet paper, and ton of baby wipes.
Finally we returned to the church grounds, and as you can imagine, my feet were covered in red, sticky mud. Not to worry, I have tons of baby wipes. Out they come and I proceed to clean my feet.
Apparently this is the most interesting thing most of these Mayan people have seen a missionary do, because I certainly was the center of attention at that moment. One thing I learned during this foot washing was not to lean my hand on the nearby tree for support. I had several red ant bites to support this.
All clean and shiny, with a red swollen hand, I was able to re-enter the wonderful dedication service.
At the end of the service, Pastor Acal presented Missionary Dwayne Abernathy with a beautiful
handmade basket as a thank you gift.
It really was a wonderful day, bathroom excursion excluded. It’s so exciting to see another church being established because of the unselfish giving of God’s people in the North American Church. Thank you Brother Monte Davis and family. May our Lord Jesus richly bless you.
It’s tradition here to have a ribbon cutting ceremony at the entrance of the church. All the people stand outside the church, which is beautifully decorated with braided greenery, palm leafs, crepe paper and colorful balloons 🎈. First, a minister says a prayer of blessing and then all the people sing the old song, “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The ribbon in front of the door is cut, and as many people as possible crowd into the new church. Depending on the size of the church, the majority of people will have to sit outside the building or crowd around the windows and doors. Outside the church, the women usually are selling snacks from a small thatch structure.
After the service a meal of rice and beans or maybe the soup called, Potch, is served. This time we were served Potch. What made this challenging was that it was served without a spoon 🥄 or fork 🍴. True to form, I promptly spilled some soup 🍲 on the white skirt I was wearing. In the pictures you can see the home in which the meal was served. Being guests, they provided a table, and some chairs and buckets for us to sit on. The building you see us eating in, is the home of one of the church members. You can see the older women sitting in front of a fire in the center of the home where the food is cooked.
The young women typically serve the visiting ministers, which in this case, is Missionary Dwayne Abernathy and his wife Linda, Monte Davis from Louisiana and ourselves. The Monte Davis family donated the funding that made it possible for this church to be built.
The one thing this new church was missing, to my dismay, was a outhouse. Now this was on their “to
do” list, but apparently it wasn’t terribly important to them to get it built before the dedication service with 200 people in attendance. Now I want to set the stage here for you. For once, because this was such a special event, I decided to wear some of my nicest clothing. This included a white lace skirt, and white cloth sandals. Since it was a 2 hour ride to the church, and a 2 hour service, I um, had to use the “facilities”. I approached the pastors wife and informed her of my need. She told me she was sorry, they had not built one yet. Seeing the desperate look on my face, she offered to have one of the young girls take me to her house which was about 1/4 walk down a muddy, sandal 👡 sucking road.
I use the word “road” loosely. It was thick red mud and rock path. Remember, I have on my new, very cute, sandals 👡. I was not about to ruin them, after all, I paid $11.00 for them at Target back in the states. So off they went, and down the mucky road I went, holding my white lace skirt as high as possibly decent. It seemed to take forever to get to the pastors house, but finally, there it was: the Outhouse. I was so glad to see it, and I was about to go in when the girl leading me shook her head no and signaled for me to keep following her. Well, my bladder had already seen that outhouse. Now I am desperate! Just behind the outhouse was the pastors home. The young girl lead me inside, muddy feet and all. Then at the back of the home she pointed to a door and told me this was the bathroom.
I entered the door, and I swear I could hear the Hallelujah Chorus. There, right in front of my eyes was a beautiful, clean bathroom with a real toilet. I was so happy. Then there was the muddy trek back to the church.
When I travel like this, I always have what Dwayne calls my, Mary Poppins bag. In it is all the things I think we may need on a trip like this. Such as, mosquitoe repellent, toilet paper, and ton of baby wipes.
Finally we returned to the church grounds, and as you can imagine, my feet were covered in red, sticky mud. Not to worry, I have tons of baby wipes. Out they come and I proceed to clean my feet.
Apparently this is the most interesting thing most of these Mayan people have seen a missionary do, because I certainly was the center of attention at that moment. One thing I learned during this foot washing was not to lean my hand on the nearby tree for support. I had several red ant bites to support this.
All clean and shiny, with a red swollen hand, I was able to re-enter the wonderful dedication service.
At the end of the service, Pastor Acal presented Missionary Dwayne Abernathy with a beautiful
handmade basket as a thank you gift.
It really was a wonderful day, bathroom excursion excluded. It’s so exciting to see another church being established because of the unselfish giving of God’s people in the North American Church. Thank you Brother Monte Davis and family. May our Lord Jesus richly bless you.
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