This year at Christmas I, Kasey, had an opportunity to serve with a great bunch of Guatemalans in a mountain community not too far away from where we live. Our good friend Jon Pelen started this Christmas tradition many years ago, but since he moved to Canada in 2015 his sister has continued on with the Christmas tradition of blessing a very needy community at Christmas time. Esther and I had the unique privilege of going in 2015, the first year we lived in Guatemala, but we hadn't helped out with this specific ministry outreach event since. This year, I was able to go again, and I was blown away by how many people lived in the area we visited (we could see very few houses, but there were about 400 people who showed up).
We struggled to get up to the community due to the road conditions up the mountain. 3 of the 5 vehicles were unable to make it up sections of the mountain and had to unload all of their cargo (I ended up taking on a lot of the heavier cargo since we have a larger 4x4 SUV style vehicle) and some people from our group walked up parts of the mountain. Eventually we all made it, and we unloaded everything into an area of the small community where there was an elementary school and a health clinic.
We shared a time in the Bible, and I lead a Bible Trivia time with the kids. We also delivered many Christmas gifts to the kids that had been donated. We enjoyed a crazy piñata time (see video below), donated food baskets to each family, and I even got to show off my guitar skills a little (LOL!). Toward the end of our time there we shared a Christmas meal consisting of tamales topped in tomato sauce, chuchitos (similar to tamales but smaller), a hot Guatemalan punch made up of various boiled fruits, and sweet bread.
I really enjoyed the event and look forward to helping out again next year. God reminded me of how much we are truly blessed, and Acts 20:35b came to my mind, which states that "Jesus Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
Merry Christmas (a little late, haha!)