Panzos visit

During the church leadership workshop, about half a dozen mission team members rode in the van past the nickel mine some 45 minutes to a townships on the northwest corner of Lake Izabal called Panzos (pronounced pahn ZOSE). There the group visited the Hurricane Mitch community, which was made up of a collection of families living on a hillside, off the road on the edge of Panzos. Pastor Gerardo translated, mission team members sat in a side porch where the community now worships, and Hurricane Mitch folks stood in the nearby sun and shade. Community leaders described how Hurricane Mitch had devastated the community, how they had moved to a plantation, and funds from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Guatemalan national church had bought some land for them to move back to Panzos, forming a new community that they dubbed Hurricane Mitch. The leaders said they had moved back three years ago partly so their kids could go to school, something some older elementary school-aged children accomplished by walking one and a half miles to school each way. The families were waiting there to receive title to the land, which leaders said they would then divided by lottery.

Hurricane Mitch folks sang for the mission team members, and team members – and then Luiz – sang for them. Many then hiked up the hill for some interaction with turkeys and a beautiful vista of Panzos. Up there Gerardo explained the partnership to the Hurricane Mitch folks there. After the Crescent Hill young people climbed back down the hill and demonstrated how to use a Frisbee to the kids and women, they left a Frisbee, and Gerardo left Q’eqchi’ Bibles for the four women who could read. One woman there who feared the Bibles were Catholic Bibles raised some tough questions, to which Gerardo responded.

As the trip progressed, this visit stayed with many of the team members who were there as one of the visit’s most memorable encounters.

 - Perry