After a lot of driving, we finally made it to Coban. We had no idea what we were in for, but we knew it was about to get uncomfortable. It turns out the church where we were would be staying in was literally on the side of a mountain, and since the car only went so far, we had to hike about 20 minutes straight uphill with all our stuff to get to where we needed to be. I have to say though, the hike was well worth it to see the beautiful landscape of where all these people lived.
We finally made it up the mountain and still had to walk a good distance to get to the church. This was the church that didn’t have any electricity, but soon would because of the generosity of Marco and the help from a couple of electricians that came with us. When we finally made it to the church, I was very surprised. The church was probably as big as some our garages back home. It had a dirt floor and tin roof, but it was so awesome because they were so proud of this church.
The pastor of the church was Pastor Luis, and he couldn’t be more excited to have us. He was also excited that there would soon be lights and electricity in his church. As soon as we had unloaded all of our stuff there, we headed to his house. If I thought the church was a surprise, this wasn’t anything compared to his house. A little smaller than the church, it only had two rooms: a main room and a kitchen. All the beds and everything else they owned was in the main room. And on top of all of that, Pastor Luis, his wife, and his eight kids lived there. Talk about humbling!
We got to go to a church service that evening as well and it has really a whole new experience. On top of Spanish that mostly everyone spoke, the people of this area all spoke a Mayan language. It’s really hard to explain what it sounds like, but it was amazing to hear the passion in there voices when they praised God in this language. They prayed over us in their Mayan language and it was so amazing! Our team was so blessed by that experience and the people were so thankful to have us…that seriously blew my mind!
After that, we headed to dinner. Now, most of our meals while we were in the mountains consisted of corn tortillas and black beans, which is really common to find almost anywhere in Guatemala, but something really special happened that night for dinner. The family took two of their own chickens and one of their only ducks and killed them for us to have for dinner. We knew this was a huge sacrifice for them, but they wanted to honor us…which is even a more humbling experience.
As uncomfortable as it was to sleep on a dirt floor or to hike up a mountain continuously or not to be able to take a shower for a few days…it was totally worth it. It was in this setting that God truly spoke to my heart and showed me what it means to follow Him in any context of our lives. It’s amazing to see someone following the call of Christ to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth to spread His word. Praise God for Pastor Luis and everything he does for his community of believers!
