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MY TRIP TO GUATEMALA – AMONG THE MAYANS

t has really been a blessing to represent God in many countries of the world, when the opportunity to speak at Guatemala came, I jumped at it and anticipated it with great pleasure and considered it an honor.

Speaking at Kekchi Bible Institute

I was to travel with 5 other people on a Mission’s trip for construction, children’s program and I was to speak at two Bible Institutes. The first, an Assembly of God bible institute in Chisec (among the Kekchi Mayans) and the second was an Evangelical Bible Institute among the Latinos in Quetzaltenango (simply called Xela).

On the morning of the trip, our airline cancelled our flight based on an excuse I’ve heard repeatedly lately (the flight came in late and the crew needed a certain rest time required by FAA – the airlines on the other hand have cancelled about half the flights on their schedule to declare profit this quarter), anyway we got around it and got on another airline losing about half a day on the trip.

The Guatemala City airport is under construction and things were out of place but it was easy for us to find our host. We slept in the city that night because we got in around 8.00pm. As we drove to this nice and old hotel we could not see the city very well. We were woken up by the rooster before dawn and we headed north to Coban and Chisec before daylight.

On our way I saw one of the most wonderful hilly terrain I have ever seen, the road was a two lane state highway and there where many trucks on the way making the journey very slow. The total mileage was about 200 miles but the journey lasted about 6 hours, I used the time to learn some Spanish (the most important ones are Café con Leche – Coffee with cream, mi espousa – my wife, Deos le bendiga – God bless you, Ermano/Ermana – brother/sister etc) and take in the breathtaking view along the way.

We got to Chisec at about noon just in time for a local favorite meal called “Kakik” (an equivalent of Iyan and Efo for an Ijesha man like me from Nigeria). Kakik is a soup with turkey meat, rice and what we called moin-moin in western Nigeria, but theirs is made from corn instead of bean in Nigeria. After food we settled down and went to work doing various maintenance work on the Bible school buildings.

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The Bible school has 43 students, it is one of very few Bible schools (2 or 3) for the Kekchi-Mayans (about 1 million people), for this session 35 of the students were Kekchi and 8 were Latinos. The first night I spoke on Conflict and Conflict Resolutions in Marriage and it was translated into Spanish and then into Kekchi (that was kind of interesting). The next day, the team did puppet shows for the kids in the village and we had about 50 kids after which gifts were handed out to them. That night I spoke to the students again, this time on Differences between men and women and Sex, as usual (I got a similar response in Haiti and Nigeria) the topic generated interest as many of them have never heard such topic taught much less in a church setting.

The next day we set out very early to Xela, the home of Quiche-Mayans (and Mam-Mayans in the suburbs). The roads would be really close to the paths Apostle Paul’s journey took him in his days. The roads were hilly terrain, many parts were under construction with foreign aids (Guatemala was in civil war for many years and has only had peace since 1996), since the peace accord foreign money has been going into developing infrastructure linking the country together especially the indigenous people that were greatly affected by the war. The view was fantastic but many parts of the roads reminded me of Ikirun-Igbajo road (now Osun State) in the 1970s.

On our way to Xela our missionary host shared a missionary joke with us I hope you enjoyed it as I did. He said the last missionary team that came was invited to a Kekchi-Mayan wedding, and at the reception, the Americans started to hit their glass cups with their spoons and saying “kiss” a common thing in American, this drew long faces among the guests, Unknown to the Americans, “Kiss” in Kekchi means to “Fart”, everyone at the party had a good laugh after they figured what the Americans were saying.

The terrain in Xela was plain compared to Chisec and we had lots of rain. As soon as we arrived and ate we set out working (the journey lasted 10 hours). The Bible institute in Xela is run by a missionary couple from Eastern Iowa, who has lived in Guatemala for over 23 years, the school has about 400 students. The students were divided into 4 groups and I spoke with all four groups at different times for 4 hours each. I spoke with the first group on Friday night between 6.00pm – 9.00pm, the second group on Saturday morning from 9.00am – 1.00pm, the third group is a campus of the Institute among the Mam-Mayan in a village “Totonicapan” one hour away from Xela, I spoke from 2.00pm – 6.00pm. The last group was on Monday morning in Xela, I spoke from 9.00am – 1.00pm.

Mam-Mayans women after Church

Countryside

On Sunday we visited a Mam-Mayan church pastored by a Latino woman. It was interesting that a woman was the pastor (still not common – the Kekchi Bible Institute did have 3 female students, while the Evangelical Bible Institute have numerous female students). My sermon was titled “It is Finished” and it was translated to Spanish (I think many of them understood Spanish, they did not look lost to me?). During the praise and worship, they sang that great hymn “at the cross” in Spanish and I sang along in Yoruba (Ni bi agbelebu).

I do consider myself a teacher not a preacher, but after “preaching” the pastor sensed we needed to pray for the sick. Everyone in the church came forward and we spent another 30 minutes praying. The church service time among the Mam-Mayan is 2.00pm as they all go to the market in the morning and close by noon. The church was parked with about 200 people and they were all fed after the service with bread we brought along and tea made locally. Like in other places of the world there were more women than men, only this time the women outnumbered the men 7 – 1 (many native men died during the war).

By Monday morning I was tired and was already missing my family (not being able to call home made it difficult), after my last teaching at 1.00pm, the team ate and left Xela for Guatemala City. We arrived in the city by 7.00pm and went to eat at a favorite restaurant of the missionary we visited.

The very next morning we left for the United States.

If you have not gone on a missionary trip, I do hope that my short account gets you going. I have always found that when we take the attention off ourselves and whatever problem we have, then we can focus on the needy around us. Jesus said I was in prison you visited me, and when I need clothes you clothed me. Ministering or being the hand of God in people’s lives without compensation (or even the expectation) is a tremendous blessing.

P.S - I need someone from Guatemala (or anyone who understands the culture and religion) to explain something to me, how come there are dogs (most malnourished) all over the place from the villages to cities? someone told me they are custodian of the roads – is that true?

Remain Blessed