Hola todos mis familias, amigos y supporters,
We’ve been in Palenque for just under a week now. Our entire squad (32 people, including our leader, former World Racer Stephanie Fisk) has been staying at Shekinah School of Ministry just outside of town. Shekinah is a “campamento” where pastors from the area can come for two full months of training and instruction. Eleazar is our host, and he is the director of the ministry–he is a hardworking servant of the Lord and he has a huge heart for his country! It has been an honor meeting Eleazar and we look forward to working more with him.
Most of this week was World Race training led by Adventures in Missions staff. We learned practical things (like how to handwash our clothes, and a drama we can perform to illustrate the Gospel without words), and we had some wonderful time together as a squad pressing into God and asking Him to get us ready for what He wants us to do.
Today, Sunday, we had a squad church service together in the morning. Then half of our squad went on to some different church services. Some are sharing and doing a drama. This evening, the other half of our squad (including my team) is headed out to some different church services. I am extremely excited to begin to see how the Lord is present in His churches in Palenque!
Eleazar shared some really interesting facts with us. There are 212 villages surrounding Palenque, where many indigenous Mayan people live. Most of them don’t speak Spanish–there are five dialects in the state of Chiapas alone. Many of the villages are so isolated from each other than they never cross-communicate or trade. The challenge in spreading the Gospel is obvious: the harvest is ripe but the workers are few! There are needs for Bible training of the pastors in the villages (like what Eleazar is doing with Shekinah) and Bibles translated into the local dialects.
Tomorrow, half of our squad is heading out into some of those villages. Watch the blogs of team BOLD, team Pi, and team g:racers in the next few weeks for accounts of their work. They go on faith that the Lord will use them despite language barriers. It will be an amazing thing to watch, and I know God has people He is going to use these teams to reach with the Gospel!
