El Carrizo, Saturday and Sunday

On Saturday night, we visited El Carrizo. This past weekend they had a three night "evangelistic campaign." It was so wonderful to see our old friends. Oie has a great video of a special performance the kids did. An excerpted picture is with this entry. As you may notice, the service was held outside, with about 200 people in attendance, representing 3 different churches.

I saw Erika, a 14 year old who lives a couple of houses away from the church. Marcos (Clary) and I went to her house before the service and met one of her older sisters and her father, Juan Mesa. Erika's family lives in a mud hut, and they raise pigs. Erika has a piglet of her own. Her older sister was wearing a Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt (a big shout out to Hee-Haw and Pastor Juan).

It was wonderful to see Erika again. She is the fifth child of eight children. Her mother died last summer. She was a deeply sad child when I saw her in August but happier Saturday. She had been unable to go to school for a couple of years, but she did complete her sixth grade education. She showed me a picture (during the very long service of about 2.5 hours) that she keeps in her Bible of when she graduated from primary school. Fortunately by the grace of God she started colegio today (Monday)! Colegio is a combination of our middle school and high school. Today, Chuck Nichols and Pastor Antonio Mejia of Iglesia Bautista were there to see 12 kids from El Carrizo start colegio. This is the beginning of their school year.

At the evangelistic campaign on Saturday night, Erika's older sister Karen, who is 18, accepted Jesus Christ (Jesu Cristo) as her Lord and Savior.

Erika has a lot of responsibility for a girl her age (in addition to caring for her piglet). When I am in El Carrizo, very often either her or her sister Rita, who is 16, take care of "Ana", who is about a year old. (Rita could not write her name last February - Erika wrote it for her.) I believe Ana is their niece, but I haven't confirmed, given my limited Spanish. :-) The desire to know more Spanish burns in us when we are here.

Yesterday (Sunday), six of us visited El Carrizo again while five went to the beach near Cedeno (big shout out to Jeremias and a prayer for his Maria). Erika was busy cooking tortillas on a wood fire when I got there, and after she walked around the village with us, she was busy cooking tortillas when we left.

Eduardo, Yuneth proudly showed me a necklace you sent with a big butterfly in the middle. It took a while because of the language barrier for me to understand what the necklace meant to her - she kept saying "Eduardo con Carlito" - which I finally understood to mean Eduardo sent this by Carlito. She said it with a faraway look in her eye, as if she were imagining you in El Carrizo. She loved it Eduardo, and I am sure she loved everything you sent.

My prayer is that Erika will be able to stay in school in spite of her adult responsibilities. I saw Oie, Benjamin, Chuck N., Carlitos, Jose, Carter, and JB surrounded by kids in El Carrizo Sunday, and they know and love many, many children like Erika, as do many of you. It is our Hope and prayer that the children will get an education and improve life for themselves and their families, and they will one day be able to give others Hope in El Carrizo and beyond! As Oie said tonight at our devotional time (attended by Pastor Mejia and his wife Claudia), it is this Hope that gives us the energy to Love, and our Faith is that God's Love through our loving actions makes a difference. La Fe, La Esperanza, El Amor. Faith, Hope, Love.

Gregorio