If I could describe this week in one word it would be light
Monday was a day of complete and much needed rest. As team increase headed off to the amusement park my team stayed back and took advantage of having a day at the house all to ourselves. It was a wonderful opportunity to really spend quality time and fellowship with the members of my team. We made meals together, prayed together and spent time talking laughing and singing plenty of Disney Princess songs. I loved how the girls and I had a great time just laughing and talking. It really feels like as each day goes by we are building a true sisterhood.
Work this week has been pretty light. We have started building the walls of the church with cinder blocks and cement. It doesn’t start there though. Tuesday morning we had to walk over to one of the men of the church’s house to load hundreds of cinder blocks into the back of a produce truck. And you know that when you load the truck of course you have to unload it! It took us all morning to load and unload the truck, but by the afternoon we were all ready to build the walls. A few other racers and I got the chance to actually build the wall. Its very skilled, back breaking work and is much harder than it looks. The cinder blocks have to line up exactly right with the line (a piece of fishing line) that is strung from one end of the church to another. When laying the cement down you have to make sure that you put the right amount down so that it lines up perfectly and if it doesn’t you have to beat it with a hammer and shove rocks under the block until it does or just take it off and start over again. It was definitely an experience and I totally enjoyed it all except the way my back felt the next day.
Tuesday night we attended a Mayan Christian revival! Around 7:30 we walked down to brother Thomas’s house. His entire “yard” was covered in green plastic chairs and packed with members of the church. The revival was a longer version of the Monday services we attend. (I don’t know if I have blogged about those but they consist of a loud sound system that is blasted throughout the community. The members of the church (mostly women) each take turns coming up to the mic to pray and sing as loud and as passionate as they can. There is always a reading of scripture from Pastor Manuel and a message and then more singing) Pastor Manuel was on fire this night! He was completely in his element and full of passion for his ministry. He even sang a couple songs! I have never heard or seen him sing before and it was awesome! He talked a lot about finding your ministry and he also used us as examples (at least that’s what I picked up the whole thing was in Spanish and Quiche). The rain poured down on us and they treated us like honored guests and would move our seats out of the way every time it started to leak through the tarp that covered us. After Pastor Mauel was finished he announced over the mic that his American brothers and sisters could come in the house for the rest of the night because it was so cold out. Chelsea, Janna, Matthew and I snuck back in the kitchen were we got to warm our hands over the stove and enjoy some Guatemalan hot chocolate! We left the revival around 12:30am all dead tired and ready for bed!
The rest of the week we continued preparing things at the church as the walls continued to go up. We sifted sand, mixed cement, shaped pieces of iron to be used in the walls sawed apart cinder blocks and had lots of downtime to share stories and testimonies. Pastor says that the walls will take about 20 days to complete since they can only put one layer up at a time. We won’t be able to see the final result of the finished wall, but the progression we have seen so far has been amazing. Its awesome to think that since October 10th we have watched this church go from a pile of dirt to a structure with actual walls!
This week we have lots of fun planned for the family and church community. We will spend Monday morning working and Monday afternoon at our last church service with the community. Tuesday morning will be a day of work and play with the kids around the church and Tuesday evening we are having a church service for the family. We are so excited for this service because we are renting a sound system and instruments and planning a whole night of worship. We will be speaking, sharing words, prayers and thanks to an amazing God who has blessed us with an incredible family. Wednesday we are headed out to Pastor Carlos’s house to spend a few days with him, relaxing, before we take off for Guatemala City.
We leave Guatemala on Saturday (Nov 7th – MY BIRTHDAY!) and from there we travel to El Salvador, Honduras and finally Nicaragua! We will be staying a night in both El Salvador and Nicaragua before my team reaches our final destination of Ometepe, Nicaragua, which we hear is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua! Wow how cool is that!
Please continue to pray for my team and I as we finish out our last week in Guatemala. May we continue to live for God in the present moments in our last days here in Lacama. Hopefully I will get to post again before we leave Guatemala. If not thank you so much for your continued support, prayers and above all love! Miss you all and love you all!
