I came to Guatemala with a Graduate Preaching Fellowship in 2004 to learn to be neighbor. I was ordained at the St. Paul Area Synod Assembly in June 2007 as a pastor of the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala and commissioned for service by two Synods of the ELCA and the Global Mission Unit of the ELCA. I serve in Guatemala with the ILAG as a missionary and a pastor.
Today, we finally went to the dentist—I have been worried for over half a year… my tooth was just fine—the dentist thought that maybe just the type of filling was what was bothering me—so he put in a different type. The little pains daily for six months which ended up affecting me daily as well had a simple answer—Guatemalan Bling Bling.
On a visit to Santa Elena 20 de Octubre with a delegation from Memorial Lutheran Church, Afton, MN last week, we were able to have a scrubbie project with the women there in order to help them make a scrubbie to wash their dishes with. They enjoyed it greatly.
I had brought two colors of the netting that Ardy from St. Peter’s in Northfield, MN, gave me out to the village with me. However to make the project simpler I was only distributing one color to the women. When they saw that there was another color they asked if we could use both colors because it would be prettier. Of course I said yes!
I taught them how to bunch up the netting and we helped them tie them up and then fluff the scrubbies out. The women had their children come in and participate as well... both the boys and the girls. It ended up being a community event and the women ended up with several scrubbies each-- as their children gave the ones they made to their mothers.
I explained that they were to wash dishes in a more hygienic manner and that the scrubbies also needed to be cleaned. I also explained that if they used them to bathe that they should use a separate scrubbie to bathe than they were using to wash dishes. Some were already trying to see how they would look as decorations in their hair! So I think they will be put to use in many ways.
The day after our project one women came up and asked it she could still make one since she had not been able to come the day before. I quickly cut the netting for one more and as I was about to teach her how to put it together another woman asked if she could teach her friend. It was rewarding to see the women teaching each other and taking pride in a new skill that they had learned.
Thank you once again, Ardy, for teaching me so that I could teach some of the women here in Guatemala. 