On Sunday, the girls of our team, along with Kathy, attempted to give the Pastor´s wife a day off. That didn´t work so well.
The problem isn´t that we couldn´t cook been and cheese burritos, or make doughnuts… the problem was that we weren´t sure how to do that the Guatemalan way. Cooking here is a very exhausting task. We made the flour tortillas from scratch, and you had to wait to the last minute to buy the cheese. The fridge is non-existent and the stove isn´t electric. There is no oven, and you have to get purified water to cook things in because, well…their regular water isn´t that pure on it´s own.
After a very long day of cooking, it paid off. The food was exactly what we wanted and it tasted good. Unfortunately we had to ask Kata all sorts of questions and then she didn´t get much rest. So the next day, we took the day off, and I think that ended up being her real day off. We got up, took showers, and then headed down the hill in San Pedro.
Sarah, Casey, and I had a good day of relaxing and finding the best American food in town. We played a lot of cards, and I finally won at hearts. It was a good day. In the middle of the day we tried to track down this homemade icecream parlor, but it was lost in the myriad of dirt paths and hostels. So we went to our regular icecream stop, Sarita. Sarah is a regular. She loves the different flavors. We are hoping to minister to Alena, the worker there.
We ran into Hugh and Kathy while we were out, and it was good to see them and chat for a while. Kathy ended up having dinner with us. We sat down, ate the best hamburgers we could find, and watched some women´s gymnastics on TV. The WVU team was actually in the competition and it felt a little like home cheering for somebody from you very own little state.
As we left the tourist part of town, and went up the hill, it became apparant that we were still in Guatemala. It was a great day off though. We felt relaxed and ready for the week ahead.
On Tuesday, we played basketball with a couple of boys in San Pablo. Sarah, our all-star, led us to our first victory. Gary was a great help pulling down rebounds, mainly because he´s three feet taller than anybody else. I was just my usual scrappy self. I did what I could and got a few lucky shots in for some points. It was a good day. We gave the three boys Gospel of Johns and invited them to church.
That night, Katherine spoke on the Body of Christ. Sarah taught us a fun skit, and we even did the whole thing in Spanish. The crowd really responded. A few of the people at church gave their testimonies at the end, and it was a blessing to hear from their perspective for a change. We prayed for them and thanked them for sharing their lives with us.
Yesterday, we sang “Come Thou Fount” on the Radio Program. I preached on being an Ambassador of Christ. I got really fired up trying to urge these people into the ministry of reconciliation. It was a very enjoyable sermon for me, I just hope everyone heard from the Lord.
Today is our last day of ministry in San Pablo. We are going into a school to minister to teenagers. Pray that it goes well and that they respond to the invitation. Thanks for all your support for the time we have been in Guatemala. These people have been wonderful and the Lord has surely shown Himself to be alive and real in this area.
