Greetings everyone! Happy Pentecost to you all! May the fire of the Holy Spirit fill you hearts with His joy and Love, and the fire to more fully bring His Kingdom of love to this world!

Wow, what a week it has been! As I mentioned in my last post, I spent this past week in the aldea (small rural village) of Zapote! It was a fantastic experience, and it challenged me to constantly use my Spanish, as no one in the town spoke English!

As a lot happened I will try to briefly summarize each day in as brief and efficient way as I can (which as most of you know, I sometimes have a tendency not to be so brief, so this could end up being quite a long post)

Tuesday, Day 1 in Zapote: John dropped me off in Zapote late in the morning. The first thing I got to do was go with Jose out to the milpa (corn field) and plant corn with them, by hand. This basically consisted of taking a stick with a flat metal piece on the end, and using that to make a hole in the ground where we dropped the kernels of corn and covered back up again. Since they do it like this, they can plant cornfields on really steep hillsides.
That night I went to a meeting of an Ecclesial base community, which is a meeting where people of a certain area of the village gather together to sing, pray, and to read and discuss Scripture. It was quite beautiful, as their faith is quite vibrant and beautiful.
I then returned to the house I was staying at. The whole week I lived with a couple named Julia and German (pronounced "Hair-mon" though I am not exactly sure how it is actually spelled, that is what we will go with for now), who have two little boys, Freilin who is 5 years old and Melchizedek who is a little less than two years old. They are a very loving and beautiful family.

Wednesday, Day 2 in Zapote: After breakfast, I went with a man named Marco Tulio and worked with him and a group of men to build a cinder block house for Marco Tulio's son. I learned lots of Spanish words from Marco Tulio. I then had lunch with his family, and after words I painted a cut out of a dove for them that they wanted painted white to use for the celebration of Pentecost. After that, two of Marco Tulio's sons started teaching me the Spanish words for a bunch of different animals, which then led to me drawing them pictures of lots of animals. After that we worked on the house a little bit more and then I returned to Julia and German's house for supper. After supper a bunch of people came over to pray the rosary in Spanish and then we all walked together to their Ecclesial Base community meeting.

Thursday. Day 3 in Zapote: Again, I went to help Marco Tulio work on constructing the house, and again stayed there for lunch. After lunch, Marco Tulio played some guitar and sang me some of their Spanish hymns that they use for Church and I, in turn, shared a couple in English. After some other good conversation, we returned to work on the house,
After that I met up with Jose again (who I went to the Milpa with on the first day) and he took me to go play futbol (soccer) with a large group of people. I have never really played much soccer in my life before, but this was quite fun, and I think I really love playing soccer (though I wouldn't call myself great at it yet). We played until dark, and then I returned to Julia's and German's for supper and then bed.

Friday, Day 4 in Zapote: This morning I went to a retreat that they held for the parents and god parents of the catechumens (those who are preparing to be baptized). The retreat consisted of three talks, one by Jose (same Jose as before), another by Marco Tulio (who I helped build a house with), and another by another man named German (though a different German than the one I stayed with). I found out all three of them are catechists which means they are trained lay ministers to help lead and teach the faith community, especially in the absence of a priest. It was neat to see them in action both in working with them in the fields and construction, as well as to see them in action on the faith side of things.
After the retreat was lunch and after that I went to a class of high school aged students who were studying English, and I ended up teaching them how to say the alphabet in English as well as the pronuciation of many different English words. After that I went with German (the German who I was staying with) to his Finca, which is a coffee field. After that we relaxed at their house, and shelled some red beans for supper (red beans which I helped Jose pick on Tuesday).
After supper we then walked with a group of people to a house to pray the rosary. We then returned and went to bed.

Saturday Day 5. After breakfast I left Zapote to head into Dulce Nombre with a group of young people. We piled probably around 20 people in the back of a pick up and traveled the gravel mountain roads to Dulce Nombre, to the central parish of all the little villages. There they had mass, and then followed by a day long festival which mostly consisted of a soccer tournament, where there was a team from each of the little villages (I got to play for Zapote's team...we won the first game, but lost the second game). There was also empenadas for sale, as well as juice, and cotton candy). After a long hot day of some intense soccer playing, we all went into the church to celebrate the Vigil of Pentecost (Which the first half was done by candlelight because the power went out as a storm came through just before mass started...but it came back on about halfway through). There were 24 or so children who were baptized, ranging from babies to 14 year olds. It was quite a beautiful but long (2 and half hours) liturgy. John and I then spend the night at Dulce Nombre parish, and we returned to Santa Rosa, to John's house in the morning.

I will probably be returning to Zapote on Tuesday of this week, and spend a few more days there, and I may be doing a few other various things as well. I will also spend the following week in Zapote as well.
Rumor has it, I will get to use a machete next time I am in Zapote to help them harvest sacarte (I don't know if that is spelled right) which is a type of grass they use to feed the cattle.

I have the rest of today and tomorrow off which I will probably use a good portion of that to do some reflecting, journaling, and praying, as well as doing my laundry (which takes a little longer when you do it by hand).

Peace, and God bless! Please keep the prayers up! It has been a very good but challenging couple of weeks, and the continued prayers are much appreciated and felt! Also feel free to email me and update me on all your lives. I do love hearing from all you people at home as it helps me feel a bit more connected to home. No guarantee when I will receive it or be able to respond, but I do love getting emails!

May you continue to have a Spirit-filled summer, and may God use this summer to help you grow in Him, and become more fully all that you were meant to be. Trust in His love, and be present to the beautiful people that are around you!
In His love,
Your friend and brother in Christ,

Kevin Earleywine