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The Church in the World
by Victor Kubik
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Friday, August 17, 2001
At 11:30 am my wife Bev and I landed in Guatemala City to start
what would be one of our most interesting, sobering and
inspiring trips ever.In the next five days we visited in
Guatemala and El Salvador and were able to come to a better
understanding of what Central America is really like and what
some of the needs are.
We are able to donate $5000 for LifeNets Guatemala initiatives
and over $4000 for an El Salvador scholarship program. There
have been many people who have come to us asking "what can I do
to help?" We have answers and will post the specific needs. If
you want to contact me directly about what you can do, please
call me at (317) 216-0802 or email me at [ kubik@lifenets.org ]
(Website: [ http://www.lifenets.org/ ]).
I was sobered by the trauma that this part of the world which is
so close to the United States has suffered in the past few
decades: earthquakes, hurricanes, civil wars killing tens of
thousands, volcanic eruptions in times past, unstable and
corrupt governments etc. Each of these calamities has brought on
massive numbers of deaths. The people generally live in poverty
with incomes of no more than usually $150 per family. In
addition, El Salvador suffers a 40% unemployment rate.
Saul Langarica, United Church of God pastor, who serves seven
churches in Guatemala, picked us up at the airport and took us
back to his home where we became acquainted with his wife Carmen
and children Susy (10) and Saulito (7). The public is not
allowed into the airport arrival lobby so Saul waited outside
for us. We brought 165 toys for the Fall Festival from Linda
Schreiber and the SE Minnesota churches along with eye glasses
and white shirts. We were concerned about going through customs,
but sailed through without any problem.
Carmen prepared a delicious lasagna dish and we got ready to
drive four hours to Quatzeltenango, Gautemala's second largest
city with a population of 500,000, where we would attend a
combined church service with San Marcos. The Langaricas will be
leaving Guatemala October 15th for their new assignment in
Santiago, Chile.
Guatemala City is the largest city in Central America with a
population of 2.5 million. It's followed in size by San Salvador
and then San Jose, Costa Rica. One quickly notices the Indian
culture who are descendents of the Mayans. There are actually 23
distinct Indian languages spoken along with Spanish in
Guatemala.
Guatemala has concluded a 32 year old civil war four years ago
in which over 175,000 people died. It was a guerilla war in
which the leftist faction encouraged by Cuba fought to bring
more economic equity. The government conducted a "Terra Arssala"
(erasing the land) campaign in which entire villages and
settlements of people were destroyed on tips of harbored
guerillas. The military killed 90% of the people who died in
the civil war. They were often stuffed into wells to attempt to
hide evidence from the worldwide human rights awareness. The
current president was the government leader of the military. The
Guatemalan Catholic Archbishop was murdered at the main
cathedral in the center of Guatemala City three years ago for
writing about some of the atrocities during the more than a
generation-long civil war.
Green Guatemala is mountainous with few flat areas. There are
deep chasms and ravines. The slopes are covered with corn,
coffee, bananas and beans. Everything grows well here. All the
agricultural work is done by hand. There is not a tractor or any
mechanized implement in sight. The reason is that a tractor
could not be used on the steep slopes. Also, the people fear
mechanization taking jobs away. And people prefer hand made corn
tortillas to those made by machines. Farmers walk along the
highway carrying hoes and other farm tools.
In Solola, on the way to Quatzeltenango, we stopped at
spectacular Lake Atitlan which is a volcanic crater.
After we arrived in Quatzel-tenango we went to the home of Oscar
and Martha Queme for dinner. It was a memorable evening for all
of us. They killed the turkey in their yard earlier in the day
for the special meal, a Quatzeltenango specialty. The entire
family of the parents and two sons Oscar Jr. (Ever) and Neitez
ages 13 and 15 live in two small rooms. One is a sitting room by
day and bedroom by night and the other is a kitchen and bedroom
by night. While eating dinner a cat jumped on the thin tin roof
above and made a loud noise. All the sights and sounds were very
interesting.
We are trying to understand what the needs of the people are. As
we have been talking for some time, we have either completed or
funded the 15 concrete floors asked for by the Guatemalans. Now,
we were learning about the need for seven or eight roofs that
are leaking badly that need to be fixed or replaced. Also, there
is one family living in a home having only cardboard walls and
another family of nine that lives and sleeps in one room. This
is unacceptable and must be remedied.
LifeNets - For Guatemala
P.O. Box 88165
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208-0165
LifeNets, which was started by Victor Kubik, United
Church of God pastor, is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit or-
ganization that develops programs offering practical
assistance for needy people throughout the world.
TSS
January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel
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