Best Video Game Ever!

Working with the Kekchi people here Petén let's us have lots of fun experiences, and not just the ones where we are trying to adapt and end up making mistakes. Sometimes we get to show new things that they have never seen before, but that which we have always taken for granted. Petén is slowly advancing, and with new changes we have the advantage. I'm starting a new category and group of posts where we get to watch Guatemalans come to an understanding of what's going on in their own country...lightbulb.

A radio ministry (LifeWord) in the States started partnering with the Kekchi radio station here last year. It is the only radio station in Petén that is 100% Kekchi, and it is fully supported by the Kekchi Baptist Churches here. LifeWord came down with some recording equipment and held a workshop with some of our contacts about creating newer, more effective programming. As part of their collaboration (which is mainly comprised of processing, editing and finishing the programs) they wanted to help financially. They send money to buy Bibles, tracts, gas to get to new villages, etc.

A few weeks after they left I got a debit card in the mail from LifeWord in Jose Xol Pop's name. I had volunteered to show him how to use it. I wasn't even quite sure if he maybe already knew, because ATMs are everywhere here and most people that have bank accounts also have a debit card.

He came to the house and I talked to him about the budget, but that we wanted him to take out the entire amount each month. Then we went on a field trip. I have a card that does not charge me an ATM fee from the States, so we practiced using my card. José had never seen this before. He was paying very close attention to which buttons I pressed while ignoring the words of explanation coming out of my mouth. Then the machine started making it's special sounds letting you know you'll get money and out came Q100. He smiled from ear to ear. After two more times, each time José getting more excited, I let him try. He pressed the buttons exactly as I had, ignoring the words on the screen, and almost jumped for joy when that bill came out. He thought that he had just found the best machine ever.

After 4 months, LifeWord contacted me. He had a huge surplus and each week had only taken out a few hundred quetzales at a time (he was charged a transaction fee each time). It's too long of an explanation as to why he did this, but suffice it to say that I now have the ATM card and each month we have a standing appointment for him to come over to the house to pick up the offering.