Text and pictures from the Tekax Service (2/28/10) - from Brenda Herrington

This was my first trip to Tekax.  I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I signed up because I was actually afraid of going.  I’m not a mission person and I’m not used to Hepatitis and typhoid vaccines. From the requirement to obtain those vaccines, I surmised that bad germs must be waiting for me everywhere.  My mother was sure I was going to be kidnapped and, as you can imagine, kept reminding me of that. Of course, we already knew that the water was bad.  Despite those things and a dozen more worries, for some reason, I still wanted to go.

There were 16 of us – the other three first timers were Cathy Paniagua, Adam Wegener, and Samantha Blaser.

I was on the education team – our job was to teach the teachers and then help them teach their students.

Our focus was pretty narrow because, in Tekax, clean water has only four uses - drinking, cooking, teeth brushing, and taking care of babies.

Alice Chiang, Ashley Pogue, and Cathy P did a great job of organizing the living waters material so that we all had our assignments in advance.

Every teaching day was jam packed. The education team spent three mornings training the teachers of the church on how to use the clean water. 

Then we spent those three afternoons in the classrooms with those same teachers while they taught the same material to the church members.

There were four classrooms in operation at one time.

Cathy P and Natalie Shell helped teach the children; 

Joye Wegener, Ashley, and Samantha helped with the teenagers, Robin Polastri, Joan Blackmon, and I worked with the women, and

John Hurd and Carl Stoffel worked with the men. About 75 church members went through the afternoon training which was a great success.

Eddie, the teacher of the women, explained to her class that she was aware of the importance of drinking clean water but did not know she was supposed to use it for the other three things. I was surprised.

Eddie is an early-60s grandmother whose husband is retired from the federal government working in a job stopping the spread of malaria.  I learned in that instant how important the education component really was to the success of this mission. Those teaching days were exhilarating and exhausting and I loved them. 

I have one overwhelming emotional takeaway from this trip.  How my heart melted with the warmth and lightness of the people. 

Think for a second of your warmest Valley Pres relationship, one you have developed by coming to this church. 

That is the kind of warmth that already exists with the relationships at our sister church in Tekax.

And there are two forms to their lightness – the first is an inner glow that everyone seems to possess. 

There is a song that references Luz de Dios – light of God. It implies that God’s light is different from the light of the sun or the moon.

It’s light from the inside. It was a beautiful, touching gift to be in close proximity to so much inner light. 

The other facet to their lightness has to do with something I can only explain as buoyancy outside of water.

They have all of the same life burdens that we do – cancer scares, deaths, life sorrows, financial concerns, reasons to grieve – and yet they don’t look as if they are burdened.

 Maybe they have given their burdens to God.

They freely and frequently laugh, sing, connect. 

They are light beings.

 Again, beautiful to see - and a great gift to receive while in their presence.

Their warmth and lightness melted me in literally hundreds of ways…here are three small examples.

On Thursday we had some free time so house visits were scheduled.

There were many church members who wanted us to visit their homes so we were divided into small groups and assigned a driver; I was with Joye, Carl, and Samantha. We went thorough town to see as many people as possible.

This little girl loved Joye; she laughed and Joye laughed, we all laughed.  We had five wonderful house visits that day where we experienced warmth, connection, and hospitality.

That day we also visited a small school where children were learning English. It was a big deal to the teacher, Marlena, that we visited her school. It definitely sets her apart as an English teacher when a dozen Californians drop by to say hi.

The kids got a laugh out of being quizzed on some English words by people who speak the language - they really did a good job answering our questions. The kids in that classroom are going to remember that they were important to us and that we laughed with them. That visit was about warmth, connection, and hospitality.

Every day one of the church members, Miguel, brought us fresh-squeezed orange juice from the trees on his farm.

He invited us to see his farm so we drove out in his version of the town taxi.  

I have not been in the back of a pick up truck for years.

The ride was a blast. At the farm we met his wife and daughter and watched his sheep eat the orange rinds from our juice.

And back to the church we went. It was a memorable visit about warmth, connection, and hospitality & fun.

 Sadly, the time flew by and it was time to load up and head home.  Ask one of the team members how we almost left Carl at the hotel in Tekax. ..

Lightness, warmth, connection, hospitality. I was honored to be part of this team.

If you ever think of going to Tekax, don’t be afraid.  Go.