I’m traveling this week with 5 of my friends from eXchange: Nate, Rachael, Scot, Stephanie, & Mariah.  We’ve had amazing and deep conversations about so many things that are important to each of us, and we’ve also been ridiculous together.  I’m thankful for the community that we share and are building into this week.  This morning we met up with another team of 7 from our church, and we joined them for the tour of the Luz y Vida (Light & Life) school in Salquil, which was over an hour bus ride up the mountains on roads filled with holes.  The trip wasn’t long in miles, but because of the road conditions, we crept up to the village at a snail’s pace, but I finally got to ride a “chicken bus”.

Standing in front of the legendary “chicken bus.”  Me & Tim Miller.  He’s 6′7″.  I’m not.

We toured the school where our mission partners are educating the Ixil children about salvation through God, as well as teaching them Spanish, English, and other courses.  The Ixil people speak Ixil until they learn Spanish in school, and the reason we are in Salquil and Nebaj is to celebrate the completion of a New Testament translation in the Ixil language.  It was exciting to be a part of the day, with programs and music by the children, explanation about the school, local cuisine, and the presentation by some of us of those New Testaments to the children.  It’s really exciting to think about how long in the making this translation has been, and how much God is pleased by the Ixil people having His word in their hands in their own language.  Yet this town is small, and there are so many other indigenous people groups with no access to God’s word in their “heart language.”  It’s a humbling reminder about the magnitude of God’s vision for this world, made up of so many more people than those who just look like me.  For another perspective, check out Scot’s blog.  This is a picture of Stacy handing a New Testament to one of the students, and another picture of our team with some of the students.

And because you may know that I love to try new food and spend time in the kitchen myself, I have to share about our lunch.  I consider myself an adventurous eater, and today I was stretched.  Sharon, our missionary host, explained that the food we were served was very special and it was an honor to be bestowed with the efforts of the cooks.  With that in mind, you can’t say “no thanks”.  There was a drink that looked a lot like gravy, but was made with corn meal.  It was reminiscent of soupy grits, and it was served in a cup to be drank.   With that came corn tamales with beans, wrapped in banana leaves.  That was delicious.  Later we were given a dish that was like the long leaves and stems of a zucchini plant left to grow huge and wild.  The leaves were stuffed with a corn meal mixture and boiled.  The leaves were removed from the broth and served with either a tomato sauce or a pumpkin seed sauce.  It is called “boxboles”, and it was really very good, though I think Iron Chef would give it a zero for “plating”.  Here are pictures of the boxboles and Tim and Nate with their cups of the corn meal drink and tamales.

Tomorrow I’ll have more time in Nebaj with the official dedication ceremony in the afternoon.  I’m also hoping for a good night’s sleep…last night there were roosters crowing, dance music, cars backfiring, fireworks, and parties in the street all night long.