Weekend Update

We had a full weekend of traveling and visiting. It was long but productive. We left Coban on Saturday afternoon and traveled 2 hours to Lanquin. We stayed overnight there.

Having dinner in Lanquin with K'ekchi' missionary, Bro. Miguel Chub

We started our day on Sunday at 5:00 A.M. Much too early for us, ha. We ate a quick breakfast, loaded the car, and headed out to our first stop. We traveled 2 1/2 hours to the village of Se' Chaj, Pinares. This is a village of about 100 families. There has recently been four of those families to become believers. We went to have a service with the new believers and to encourage them.

This is the house where we had our service.

They fed us breakfast (eggs with tomatos & onions, tortillas & coffee). After eating, we gave greetings and words of encouragement, sang a few songs, and Bro. Miguel preached. We left them a Sunday School book. Bro. Miguel explained to them how to use it each week. It's great that the Sunday School study this year is on the individual books of the Bible. Perfect for new believers to study and learn about God's Word. Here are a few photos of the believers there. Please pray for them to stay strong in their faith and to be bold witnesses to those around them.

We then left this village and traveled another 45 minutes to the village of Monte Sinai Chi Poj 2. It was the second time for us to go there. They had already began their morning service and were waiting on us to arrive. We finished the service with them and then ate lunch there.

Like most Sunday's, we had to hike up the mountain to get there.Their church building

Some of the ladies

The musicians

Getting ready to eat lunch

Bro. Miguel (K'ekchi' missionary), Bro. Sebastian (the Pastor) & David

We left there around 1:30 headed back to Coban. Bro. Miguel suggested that instead of going back through Semuc Champey we should go the other direction through Cahabon. We had never been that direction so we decided to try it. It took about the same amount of time and the road was in much better condition. You have to cross the Cahabon River. The bridge is out so we had to take the ferry. That was fun for us. The river water was beautiful. Very green!

Here's a photo from on top of the mountain of the river below that we crossed. You can barely see the water & the broken bridge.

Driving down to the ferry

This was our ferry "motor". This guy had to manually get us across the river. They only charge 10 quetzales. That's about $1.30! I can't imagine how tired he is at the end of the day!

Notice his "man purse" hanging on the pole. We love that!

We didn't know the road made a complete circle. We came out back in Lanquin where we started. Now we can say that we have been all the way around it, but are not going to be too eager to do it again. It's a long, hard drive. :) We arrived back in Coban at 5:45 p.m. after spening 9 1/2 hours on the road since leaving (7 1/2 of those off-road). We were VERY tired but had a great trip.