Got Goat? AKA ¿Tienes Cabra?

after purchasing the hay, we made them into sheaves for drying

Once upon a time there were lots of kids being born in the villages of el salvador. this was not a new occurrence as we all know - these things can happen. in fact, kerrie-lynn & i found out benjamin was already 5 months along in the womb - and annah was only 10 months old! anyway, the big difference in the villages of el salvador is that so many of these kids had no dad's or even if they did, they didn't have quite enough to eat day to day. so much so that many had anemia and other health problems... back home in the land of plenty, we would have formula and milk and all sorts of things to prevent such problems, but here they have corn and beans and that's about all. so... we thought about buying some powdered milk for these kids in need, but that would cost an arm and a leg. so we thought, "hey, what if we buy a goat for that family and then they could have milk everyday for a lot less cash out of pocket and it would keep producing for a long time!" we bought 9 goats for 9 families, but too often the lack of training was not getting the potential out of these animals. we needed education, not just handouts! this brought us to our friend from san salvador, pastor ricardo. he has a friend, armando, in his church who has done tons of training with goat operations and he had a vision to help the poor of el salvador... we sat down one afternoon for a few hours and he explained...

the apriso (barn) under construction

no nail pouch required when you have a mouth ;-)

expert welder at work

armando told us about the lack of quality goats in el salvador and that a well run operation could be a wonderful business opportunity. he shared with us the many times world vision and other organizations had worked with him to provide goats to families. without exception, these goats were handed out to families with very little training - then they would hope for the best... he told us most of those goats produced milk at first, but without training, they stopped producing and were eaten for the christmas dinner. a great meal, but an unrealized potential. he shared his vision of a co-operative made up of 6 - 12 families who run a small barn with 25 milk goats. the members of the co-op would be trained in handling, caring for, milking, feed, etc... he also shared his dream of these families learning incredibly valuable skills in running a small business. you see, in the land of el salvador there just aren't jobs falling off the trees for people to pick up and support their families with. more often then not they need to create a job. thus, training in small business is essential. in a world where the poor have been told what to do for so long and never taught how or why or to think ahead, these skills are like gold! armando showed us pictures of the barn idea. he gave us a budget to do one barn. he shared a dream of four of these barns going up in 4 villages and all 4 providing the female offspring to a central "planta" or large barn where they would work genetics magic to improve the milk output as well as the meat quality. he opened our eyes to the potential for these co-op families - selling milk in their village, drinking it themselves, gifting milk to newborn babies, making cheese, raising and eating/selling the male offspring, receiving better quality animals from the planta down the road a couple years, running a thriving business, and on and on... after the meeting we just knew a partnership with armando and pastor ricardo was the way to go. we didn't come here to give a hand out, but a hand UP. to give families opportunity for a brighter tomorrow. to bring the things of heaven to earth in this corner of the land. we knew if this was blessed by the Lord, it could reproduce itself in and even fund other co-op's to get off the ground. folks from the village, helping folks in another village, or even down the road!

armando thought best to do a trial with some baby goats we borrowed from a nearby farm...

we started with a need, attempted to help with $75 goats, moved up to $150 goats, and now have felt led to this co-op where the barn, equipment and startup costs works out to about $180 per goat. a small price to pay extra for a real chance to change lives long term. this is likely where some of the confusion has come on costs, and after the first one is completed, we will likely adjust again... and just maybe one day we will be supplying future projects and farms with the best goats in the country!

armando (got goat expert)

co-op meeting with armando in san antonio

today, we have one barn built, minus a couple small details like the water system to complete. last week the co-operative bought and cut hay for feed and hauled it back to the barn. we hope to have everything set in place to receive the goats in the next week. so all that is left is finding and securing the purchase of the goats - best case 2 weeks out! we will have lots of pictures and updates then for sure. we have plans to start the next barns soon depending on funds, etc. we are excited about the potential here, and feel like once this one takes off - we will have a list of others wanting to create more and more co-operatives of the same style...

but... we know we need a gift from God for unity, ability to work together, honesty, integrity, co-operation, and a rich blessing of harvest from these animals and this project. we will be giving back to God the first and best of this project and are thankful to all those who have raised the cash to make this come to reality! school kids giving presentations in their classrooms, others giving out of their piggy banks (maybe i should say 'goatybanks'), others have collected bottles and bought goats with the proceeds recycle money, and a mountain of got goat? shirts sold so far. i think the simple/tangible way to help the obvious need of young children needing proper nutrition has hit a chord with so many. back home we just go to the grocery store and by milk. for millions here in el salvador this just isn't an option as a litre of milk costs half a days wages or more for these families! imagine how much milk you'd buy in canada if it cost $100 per litre. so we say thank you, thank you, thank you and hope you will share in the joy of these families as this first barn gets up and running.

aprisco with the sheaves leaning up around the corals - photo from today

...the End.


trent

Turning a picture on a table into a reality

A late Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to all our friends and family! Our internet went out for a week, and I was intending to post this on Christmas, but such is life. We hope that this New Years' Eve finds you cozy and spending time with those nearest and dearest to you. I thought I would write an uplifting story that will hopefully give you the warm fuzzies!!


Almost 4 years ago, a friend of mine, who volunteers as a Compassion advocate, asked me if I would like to sponsor a Compassion child. Not knowing very much about the program, I asked her to explain more to me. She explained that it was much like the other sponsorship programs out there, but the children get close to every penny you put in to it and there is a real relationship between the child and the sponsor. I told her that we would give it a go, that we would like a boy in El Salvador around Kade's age. A couple days later, she brought me 3 pictures to choose from. We chose David Adonay Lopez Cuellar, he lives in Guazapa, El Salvador and his birthday is in March of 2001, making him about 2 years older than Kade.


The next week, we started writing him letters and sending stickers and photos of our family. To my amazement, we got a letter back from him almost every month. He often asked how our family was doing and asked us to pray for his family. He let us know how he was doing in school. We got a letter in the mail from Compassion asking if we would like to give extra money for Christmas and Birthday Presents. We decided that we would like to do that. We agreed to give $40 for his birthday. Adonai's first letter after his birthday mentioned a big thank you, and with the $39.91, he went with a compassion site worker and bought "rice, paper, corn, shampoo, a doll for my sister, oil, a skipping rope, " etc. Which showed to me that the money I was sending every month was actually going to where the organization said it was going. 

Fast forward to January 2011.... We knew we were moving to El Salvador and thought it might be a nice idea to meet Adonai in person and make what we read on paper a face to face relationship. We contacted Compassion at home to set up the experience. Together we decided on June 15 that we would meet an interpreter from Compassion, Ruth Cruz and head down to Guazapa to meet Adonai. 

Upon arriving there, we were met by a mountain of clapping and waving children, we were adorned with welcome sashes and treated in the highest regard. Here we were to visit our child and yet, to the compassion centre, we were representatives of every sponsor around the world. They were all so happy to have us here. The whole centre put on a show for us and welcomed us whole heartedly. We felt blessed to be the ones representing the rest of the countries that sponsor children.

After all the presentations and meeting Adonai we were showed around the centre. We were explained that the centre was not the school that the kids attended, but a place they went to after school to learn about health, computers, baking, raising chickens and getting tutoring to ensure that they stay and do well in school.

The second time we were there they happened to be doing medical checkups!

We were so impressed with all the centre does including routine medical and dental check ups. 


After we were served the best pupusas in all of El Salvador, we were taken to see Adonay`s house. We were welcomed with warm, open arms by Adonay`s mom Jessica and his little sister, Jasmine. We were shocked to find out that Adonai`s family lived in a tiny house made out of plastic sheeting and bamboo. The space inside the house was only big enough to fit one bed and a dresser and nothing else. The small space outside held a 2 burner stove. We were told the story about how when Hurricane Ida hit in 2009 Jessica`s house was destroyed. With reserve funds, Compassion was able to buy them this bed, dresser and a small stove.  Looking back, I remembered that on every single letter Adonay sent us, he always drew a picture of a house on the back.

This is what his house actually looked like....

My heart sank! Here we were building houses all year in San Antonio and San Felipe and yet my Compassion Child who we have been supporting and writing to every month is living in a house that is not even as good as the houses that we tear down to rebuild here.

The kids all got along so amazingly well and it was hard for us to leave that day. Even on the ride home, I was wondering when we would see them again. Then I got an idea. What ws the possibility that we could build a house for Adonay and his family? I asked Ruth and she thought it was a great idea, but because compassion had never had a request like this before, they weren't sure how to handle it.

The next day I put the request into both the Canadian and El Salvadorian compassion offices. It took almost 6 months before the request was finalized, as we kept misunderstanding each other because they thought I wanted them to pay for the house. They couldn't understand that we wanted to buy the materials and build the house as well. In October we went to deliver the news and measure the house. 

They were so over come by joy and couldn't wait to start building, but more importantly to be able to spend the day together again.

December 6, we pull up with 2 trucks loaded with house building materials, our two families and Chris and Krista Barkey (friends of the Berstad's and now our friends too!) and their children's Pastor Janice.

We worked our butts off and finished the house in only the morning.

Adonay, Jessica and Jasmine never stopped smiling! We then joined them for lunch that the Compassion centre in Guazapa cooked for us. It was delicious! Only we found out after that the chicken was from their chicken raising program!! :) 

Upon our return, we did a key ceremony like we do with all the houses we build. While we were getting ready to do the ceremony. I felt like God was telling me, that the building process needed to be in His timing. Just before we started, Ruth, the Translator, told us that the government had just given Jessica this land and the title a week before we built! If we had built it earlier, there would have still been a chance for the government to take it away. So this really was perfect timing. and once again a reminder that I can not control everything!!

Anyway, as we did the ceremony and gave the keys, I spoke a little about our feeling for the family and what it meant to me to be building this house with my bare hands. I read the verse in the bible Psalm 127:1

 ¹ Unless the LORD builds the house, 

   the builders labor in vain. 

Unless the LORD watches over the city, 

   the guards stand watch in vain. 

Which became quite obvious looking back from the pictures drawn on the back of the letters to the timing of the house building. 

I know one thing for certain. Adonay's house sure looks a lot more like the picture he draws now! And we have certainly been blessed to be able to have this kind of relationship with him. It make writing all those letters come to life. 

I Walk the Line

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

I keep my eyes wide open all the time

I keep the ends out for the tie that binds

Because your mine, I walk the line

       The words of this Johnny Cash song have taken on a whole new meaning over the last few weeks.  As Carie mentioned in her last post, we are well into the season of groups from Canada.  In fact, by the end of March we will have had somewhere around 200-250 visitors from Canada.  And it is an exciting time, as we get to see groups come in and change neighbourhoods in a matter of days.  We get to see about 100 people from the community working together with between 10 and 20 Canadians.  They build together, they play together, they eat together, and for a few moments we get a good glimpse of heaven, or the Kingdom of God.  We are thankful for the joyful noise we hear made up of laughing, playing, joking, and working together.  And so, what is my role in all of this?  Well most days I feel like I am simply walking the line.

       Let me give you a little background.  We are focusing our construction efforts this year in San Antonio Caminos and San Felipe, both of which are medium-sized communities within 20 minutes of our home in San Vicente.  Our plan is to split the 120 or so houses that will be built by the groups, between these two communities.  As well, food delivery, medical clinics, and our goat project, have, and will continue to play an important role in our work in these villages.  There is no question that we are dealing with some of the poorest of the poor in this country, and for that reason many (if not most) of these families do not own the land on which they live.  Most people have squatted on government land sometime over the last 30 years, and continue to live under some sort of “squatter’s rights” agreement with the government, allowing them to stay.  In San Antonio Caminos, one such area is an abandoned train line.  A lot of the tracks still exist, but the train stopped running 15 to 20 years ago.  The land allowance on either side of the tracks provided free land, and as such seemed like an ideal place to build a shack.  For this reason 100’s of families live along these old, rusted train tracks.  Recently, much of Trent’s and my time has been spent walking up and down this old train line.

       We walk to make sure that homes are being built properly, we walk to ensure that materials are getting to where they need to be, and we walk to take tools from one site to another.  But we also walk for other reasons.  We walk to hear and see stories of need and pain, we walk to celebrate with families when they are picked for a new home, we walk to sit with friends and acquaintances and share in their lives, and we walk to find a nice quite spot to dine like princes with some of the humblest, most beautiful people in this world.  We walk the line, and the old road, and the goat trails, and the corn fields.  We walk.

     


 The other day I was walking with three people from San Antonio.  I don’t remember exactly what we were doing, but we were together checking on something or other.  And then I stopped and reflected for a moment.  My company was made up of an unwed mother of 8 children, an overtly homosexual man (which is a lot less acceptable in this society where machismo rules), and another lady who, although I can’t confirm it, is probably a prostitute, or at the very least has been abused by men in this society.  My reflection left me with two thoughts.  First of all, what label are these people assigning to me?  Am I the wealthy North-American?  Am I the guy that has more than he needs, or can use?  Am I the guy from that culture that has helped start and perpetuate many of the problems here?

       My second thought was that this way of walking feels more and more right to me each day here.  I want to walk with people to whom the walking matters.  I want to walk with those that teach me about myself and my preconceptions.  I want to walk as my Lord walked.  So, I continue to walk the line.

Stuart