Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Quick update on Huacarpay

Hi everyone!
I´m sorry my Internet communication has been so sporadic the last few weeks. I currently am without Internet at my house and have had no time to go to an Internet cafe either. So I´m relegated to the spare minutes I have at school. :)
The last few weeks I haven´t been out in Huacarpay nearly as much as before. I´ve basically just been going on Sundays for church and sometimes the afternoon. The rest of the week I have been working on school stuff. We began our school year yesterday (March 1) and there was a ton of prep work this year. I decided to do some of those projects that you only have to do once and then they´re done for a long time, but they just need doing that once. That took up a lot of time, plus planning and such. But now that´s all done and it´s much more calm. The beginning of the school year has gone smoothly thus far, but our attendance has been a mess because of the flooding and kids not being able to get to school yet, etc.
Ah yes, the flooding. Please keep praying. For about a month after the initial flooding, everything was fairly calm. But within the last 2 weeks, Huacarpay has flooded at least 4 or 5 times again. Thankfully, almost everyone is living on the hill above Huacarpay and has been safe, but a number of the houses that didn´t fall the first time are falling down now. Pastor Celestino and his family are living in their house in the town and trying to keep the water out with a retention wall that now consists of dirt, rocks and sandbags. Unfortunately, their house did flood again the other day a little bit and the cleaning we´d done had to be redone. I´m not sure how safe it is for them to be living there, but it is not visibly cracked or falling down at this point.
So what does ministry look like in the midst of all this? Unfortunately, because I´ve been so busy with school, I haven´t been able to be out there a lot lately, but I´m still trying to support everyone as best I can. Ministry in that sense looks like having an open house so people can come and stay overnight, use my computer, take a shower, eat, etc. But I´m also discovering that ministry is not always doing. It´s probably more often just being. For instance, I went out this afternoon for about 2 hours. I ¨did¨ absolutely nothing, but I think just the fact that people are out there and supporting with their presence is encouraging.
People are discouraged and fighting depression because they get no breaks from the situation. They are in it all the time and the water just keeps flooding in. Living in close quarters causes short tempers and the whole situation stresses people out. But they are doing as well as they can. Different schools start within the next week or two and kids are going to school again. They are trying to keep going in the midst of a difficult situation. Please continue praying for relationships and for unity in the church. That is something that is on my heart a lot. Please also continue praying for support to come and for the government to do something to help keep the river from flooding. People need encouragement and strength to keep going. Please also pray that the church can be a good witness to those around them during this time and that people would see Jesus in us and come to know Him. Those are some of the things on my heart in this situation.
So there´s a bit of an update on where I´m at and what´s going on down here. Blessings to all of you and thanks for your prayers!