Sunday Service at San Martin 1

Sunday we traveled to the village of San Martin 1 to be a part of the service there.  We had plans to meet a man from the church at 7:00 a.m. here in Sayaxche'.  He got up really early and caught the bus in so he could meet us and ride back with us to show us the way.  What a sacrifice that was.  We picked him up, crossed the ferry, and headed on our way.  We drove about ten minutes on pavement and then turned off onto a gravel road.  We saw a lot of pretty scenery along the way.

At one point we encountered this herd of cattle and it took us literally about twenty minutes to get around them.  That set us back a little from getting to the village on time.  It took us two hours to get there.  When we arrived we had a short visit in the pastor's house before heading to another house to eat breakfast.

We walked this trail to get to the house.

Several kids walked with us.  I love this shot of the girls all holding hands and walking together.  I thought that was sweet.

This is the house where we ate breakfast.  The family welcomed us in.  They had the table set and were waiting for us.  They served us caldo with chicken, tortillas, and coffee (for breakfast).  

a photo with some of the family after we ate

The grandmother was using this to grind her corn to make fresh tortillas. 

After eating we headed to the church building.  We had a few songs and a prayer and then the men went to another place and the women stayed there for Sunday School.  Some churches split it up like that, but most just meet together in the church. 

Each week they have a memory verse to learn.  This is David with the pastor, Bro. Jorge, and the man in the white is the man who rode with us there.  They are helping the men recite the memory verse.

The women had to say it and also the children.  Here is a short video of the young girls saying their verse.  They are speaking in K'ekchi'.

After the service and before lunch we took a few photos outside of the church building.  I took some with my camera and they took some with their camera phones.  :-)  This is Cesarea Baptist Church at San Martin 1.   There are 24 families in this village and 13 belong to this church.  The church is about ten years old. 

Inside of the building.  It is a wood building with a tin roof and dirt floors.  They use wooden benches for sitting.  Almost every K'ekchi' church has some type of lace fabric hanging from the ceiling.  They also love silk flowers, and LOTS of speakers!

David with Bro. Jorge (the pastor) and a very tired Cruz

We ate lunch with the pastor at his house.  They served us caldo with chicken, rice, tortillas, and a Pepsi.

A closer view of our lunch.  Despite how it looks, it was very delicious!

Here are a few photos of some of the kids that were hanging around while we ate.

(three of these belong to the pastor)

This girl held Cruz for us so we could eat. 

The pastor had some errands to do back in Sayaxche' so he rode back to town with us.  It was fun getting to spend some more time in fellowship with him.  As we traveled, he told us about several of the villages we passed along the way.  There were a few villages where there is no evangelical work at all.  We discussed with him about returning to those areas to help start something there.  On our next trip into Guatemala City in March we plan to purchase some video equipment to use to show films in villages such as these with the hope of starting new works. 

The total trip took around seven hours, but it was time well spent.  We were able to encourage a pastor and some believers as well as hear about areas where we might can help share the gospel.  It's days like these that make our job so much fun!