Las Canitas

It was quite a funny site. Imagine me squished under a woman (stranger) twice my size in the front seat of a small pickup truck on the way up a mountain to Las Canitas. Her hand held onto my leg to stabilize the bumpy ride. All we spoke to each other was “Hola.” I don’t think I’ve ever been that physically close to a stranger. However, this “squeeze” into the front seat didn’t seem unusual at all to the woman or any of the locals that saw us tightly packed in.

 

After the tight ride we hiked 30 minutes up the mountain to “Las Canitas” (the little sugar canes). I felt like quite a “missionary” climbing up the steep mountain to a town of about 120 people that doesn’t have running water or electricity. Miguel and Kristen stumbled across the quiet town while hiking last year and they have been building relationships with the people there ever since. Las Canitas is quiet; the people sweet and a bit timid. The town doesn’t know much about Jesus and if they wanted to learn about Him or understand who He is they wouldn’t really have a place to go to find out.

 

Our time there was spent meeting families, helping them carry water to their home, and playing with the children. At our little VBS for the children Jonathan spoke (in Spanish!) about how God made the mountains and the sun and everything “big” yet he still knows each of their names. It was so neat to see God maximize Jonathan’s Spanish and to know that these sweet children were learning about God’s love for them. We thank God for letting us be a part of that!

 

One highlight for me that day was when I taught a little girl how to color for her first time. Another highlight was when I was sitting on the porch with three children that were dirty head to toe. I went to Las Canitas to serve and I got served. One of the kids looked at my leg that had dried mud on it and he began using the inside of his shirt to clean my leg. Soon, two other kids joined in. They rubbed and rubbed until there was no mud on my leg. They smiled and it blessed me to see their sweet hearts. I pray that the love they have in their hearts can transfer over to them understanding God’s love for them and that they would one day serve God and love Him well.

 

Ministry in Las Canitas will continue. The vision is to start home churches and to teach the people what it looks like to love Jesus and to be His disciple. Pray that the people of Las Canitas would continue to welcome us and that as a leadership team we would know what a “church” in Las Canitas would look like

                                                                                        -Carrie