Santa Marta....

Like I wrote earlier we got a chance to go and serve up in the mountains of Baja.

 

I absolutely love it when God drops an opportunity in our laps....

 

this opportunity felt more like a great big Christmas present.

 

On Saturday Doug heard about a little church that was meeting on a nearby beach,

 

So, Sunday morning we decided to throw the kids in the car and go check it out.

 

It was a tiny little thing,

 

about 15 people, mainly in their 60-70s meeting in a closed disco bar.

 

One bar lightbulb hung from the ceiling to light the room.

 

Talk about simple,

 

no fanfare,

 

kinda disorderly,

 

a little 'new' music (Amy Grant from the 80s) piped out of a laptop,
a really simple message.

 

Not something most would write home about.

 

But let me tell you,

 

I can hardly find the words to write enough about it.

 

There they met,

 

and we showed up...kids and all.

 

They welcomed us and pretty soon the meeting began...

and it was like opening up gift after gift.

They sort of sprung up on you....

 

 During prayer request time a woman shared,

"remember the girl who was going blind? The one where we payed for her surgery? I got to go to her Quincinera...and there she was without even needing glasses!"


or during announcements,

"Hey, would wound up with my cooler from the 5 day service trip?"

" Who can go grab weenies to bring on our service trip this weekend?  Who wants to go and serve the kids up in Santa Marta? It means you have to camp overnight..." Almost every hand went up.

These are not a young crew.

This is a trip 40 kilometers up a very rough 4WD road....

and they all just talked about it like it was no big deal.

It began to dawn on me,

these people love Jesus and are doing what the Bible says to do.

No fanfare, no pats on the back,

It is just the way they live.

Then....

they invited us to come along.

We jumped at the chance,

and fell in love with this remote place.

Literally hours away from the main road up a bumpy 4WD road lies

Santa Marta.

It is a beautiful valley.

In it there is nothing.

Only a school and a tiny clinic.

The children come to school by burro because their homes are further out amdist the cactus...way further out.

They stay all week and then their parents come and pick them up.

We got to go and throw them a hotdog roast,

to do Santa with them,

play with them,

and be a part of their 'Posada'

which is their Christmas play and celebration.

I don't think my words can do justice to the experience,

and I know my heart still cannot wrap around all I feel about it,

so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Santa Marta Valley....many of the people who live there have literally never been anywhere but this valley. They are born there, live and die there.

The school

The church where a pastor comes once a month

Ravenna prepping oranges for the dinner

the dining hall

More school

Everyone had jobs!

The clinic where we pitched our tent

The 'dining hall' where we served the meal

Georgia served the 'galletas' (cookies)

Parker handed out glow sticks!

Ravenna served juice

Georgia worked so hard!

The pastor of the church

I have a ton more pictures but they won't load for some reason!
Feliz Navidad!