Taking care of the widows!

 
 















Our work here in Guatemala continues to go well. The other day Shea, Beau, and Gracie had a wonderful opportunity to go to a mountain village, and spend some time with a group of widows and their children. This particular village is about 9,000ft in elevation and surrounded by a picturesque pine forest. The drive is a bit strenuous with multiple hair pin loops, lots of rocks, pot holes, and we'll just say it takes all of the 4-wheeled drive to get up the mountain. This particular village has a large group of widowed women and their young children. Leslie Ficker and her team have made it a point to minister to these women on a regular basis for the last several years. Their visits usually consist of a time of prayer, worship, fellowship, and treatment of any immediate medical needs of the families.
          One of the most important aspects of this ministry is purchasing these women's hand made baskets. In its infancy this particular ministry started out by having a devotional time followed by handing out food. The Fickers soon realized that it would be better for these families in the long run if they could do more then just give them food.  After sometime, they were able to teach and encourage these women to make various goods from one thing that is in endless supply...pine needles. Many of these women now specialize in making a beautiful assortment of pine needle baskets of all shapes and sizes. They not only sell these to the Fickers, who purchase these to sell to there visiting North American guests, but also to local villages for practical use. Several of these women have now been able to pay for there children to attend school, which would have been unheard of before this small business began.

Gracie, shy as always, but starting to warm up!

          The trip was truly a blessing for Shea and the kids. It is always an honor to see the eyes of young children light up, in any culture. I think there is something particularly special about serving those less fortunate, particularly widows, and orphans. In fact, the bible makes it clear that taking care of the physical needs of the poor is of utmost importance. In James 1:27 James writes: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. The bible also talks about meeting physical needs in the book of Matthew. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus describes the importance of taking care of the physical needs of others with a variety of physical dilemmas. That section of scripture culminates in Matthew 25:40 where Jesus says: The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for he least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." 
          Those sections of scripture are incredibly important for all of us, as believers to remember. I think it is also important to remember that we will never rid the world of the poor, or the suffering. The bible says in Matthew 26, and Deuteronomy 15:11, that the poor will always be with us. Our job as Christians is not to buy into the lie that somehow we can make this world our heaven, or even begin to worship what it has to offer. This world is broken and will never be whole until Christ comes again. Thanks to the blood of Christ we have the opportunity to have a relationship with God here on this earth. We also look forward to eternity in heaven, where Revelation 21:4 says: He will wipe every tear from the their eyes. There will be no death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.
           Remember this week the importance of taking care of the physical needs of those around us. Just don't forget that the best is yet to come!




Michaela Gomez and her beautiful family of boys(below is one of her hand made baskets)