Weekend Update

This past weekend we traveled to the Lanquin/ Semuc Champey area to visit a new mission. We went with national missionary, Bro. Miguel Chub. Saturday night we were overnight at the El Recreo hotel. We have stayed there many times in the past, both with teams and by ourselves. It also serves as a great bathroom stop when we are just passing by. It is a rustic kind of place but we like it. This is the lobby/ restaurant area. Here is the porch area outside of our room. We enjoyed sitting out in these chairs reading and working crossword puzzles in the late afternoon. It was very relaxing!
The hotel has these planters all over the property. They are carved from a tree. David recently bought me a small one in the shape of a dog. I love it!

This was our room, nothing fancy. ha This place offers hot water (and most of the time it is), but no a/c, although most rooms have fans (ours did not!). We have learned to start taking our own, just in case. It came in handy on this trip. There is also no t.v. We like that because it is like a true "get-away" where you are just there with no outside distractions. It forces you to sit, be still, read, rest, etc. Things we don't normally do when we are at home.

This is inside the lobby/ restaurant. It has a cabin feel that we love. The food there is pretty good too.

Bro. Miguel, David, and I eating breakfast before we head out for a day of ministering.

We traveled to the village of Se' Pata. It is just outside of Lanquin. There have recently been new believers in that place and they wanted us to visit them. They are meeting in the home below.

They added this part onto their house and this is where they have been holding services. Their desire is to eventually build a church building for worshipping in.
They were a very happy group of people (which most K'ekchi' are) and we had a great time there with them.

David with some of the men & boys

Regina with some of the ladies and children

We left them some gospel tracts in K'ekchi'. Notice the smile on the man's face as he was reading through one of them!

This is the lady of the house, Maria. She wanted a photo with me. After we took it, she looked up at me and said, "I feel like a little girl standing next to you". Everyone died out laughing. Yes, I am just a little bit taller than all of the K'ekchi', ha.

We started the morning with a time of prayer for the family that lives here. No-one else had arrived yet so it was a great time to encourage them. The lady of the house, Maria, shared that since they have become believers, they have been made fun of by others. She cried as she shared this and it broke my heart! The sweet time of prayer that we had there with them alone would have made the trip worthwhile.

Once others arrived, Bro. Miguel taught the Sunday School lesson. David & I shared greetings, read scripture, and even led a few hymns. Our time Friday with Miss Fran paid off. They had David give greetings in K'ekchi' and English. They loved hearing us talk in English. After Bro. Miguel preached, we closed the service by leading them in "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus". We sang it in English & K'ekchi'. We all ate lunch together and then we traveled home. We feel like the people there were very encouraged by our visit. We owe a lot of that to your prayers!! Thanks for praying. Your prayers do make a difference.