We would like to start introducing you guys to the families we serve. Now that our weekly VLOG is coming along smoothly, it might be helpful if you get to know some of these folks we are taking you to see!
The Lopez Garcia family is our most recent family we have begun to serve. We brought them on at the end of 2017 to start helping Juan go back to school. He and his mom had been living with his aunt and grandfather and his mom passed away, leaving him to fend for himself. She had been working hard to pay for his schooling. Even though Fidel, his grandfather, is retired and earns a retirement check plus health benefits, it is just enough to sustain them with food. Thankfully, Fidel owns the land they live on so they don’t have to worry about rent. Maribel, his aunt, lives there with her 3 year old daughter and makes tortillas to sell to the neighbors but this doesn’t bring in a whole lot of income.
The team that we recently had with us in May helped build a wall to close in the back portion of their property to help prevent the flooding they were experiencing as the rainy season is upon us. If you missed it, you can catch the work in Episode 6 and Episode 7.
Our current work with them is focused on helping Juan through school as well as his two cousins who just this year moved in with them as they had a falling out with their mom who went to go live with her new boyfriend. They are an active family that supports one another. We love seeing them do their best to move forward in life. They love God and we want to continue to build a relationship with them to see them flourish in their relationship with Him.
Here’s a quick video of the tortilla making process. They thought it was a little odd that I asked to record them making tortillas since it is a normal part of life for all families in Guatemala. I said, “my friends and family have never seen this before. We make tortillas by going to a store and buying a bag.” They laughed and let me record them, although the younger girls were a bit bashful of being in front of the camera. They sell 4 tortillas for about 15 cents and make roughly $25 a week in profit after paying for the corn, the wood to cook it over the fire and the gas burner they use to cook the tortillas.
(P.S. for the family’s privacy, please do not share this post on social media)
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Bet these taste better than those out of a bag from the store!