Our Trip to "Libertad"

Sunday's have always been long days for us.  It's just normal for us to drive 2-3 hours one way to visit a church/ mission.  While at the pastor's conference last week we were invited to attend a special service they were having at Caserio La Nueva this past Sunday to dedicate some new Sunday school rooms they recently built.  When the pastor asked us, he said the church was in Libertad.   Now, there is a large town outside of Sayaxche on the way to Santa Elena called Libertad so we were thinking that was where we were going.  It is about 30 minutes away.  We had plans to meet one of the national missionaries who was going with us here in Sayaxche at 7:00 a.m.  We headed out and when we turned to go the opposite direction from what we know as Libertad we thought surely something is not right.  Turns out that a whole area of the Peten is referred to as Libertad.  We are learning, haha.  A little less than two hours later we arrived at the village.  The village is fairly large.  They have around 250 families living there. 

Jerusalen Baptist Church at Caserio La Nueva

There are about 70 families that attend this church.  It is very large and modern compared to most.

After arriving at the church we picked up the pastor and drove to this house for breakfast.  A family from the church offered to cook for us.  They served us scrambled eggs (with mayonnaise squirted over them), tortillas, and coffee.  I was not a fan of the mayo eggs, but I did get them down.

Cruz hung out in the hammock with the man of the house while we ate. 

Here are a few photos of the new rooms they built for Sunday School.  There are five rooms in total.  They were nice.  It was good to hear them all studying and reciting their memory verse.

parking lot

The men of the church reciting their memory verse for the week.

At this church it was the first time we have seen the men and women line up before the church and say their verse.  Usually only the children and youth do it.  The men and women will stand up and recite it from their bench.  We loved the way they did it there. 

The women and Cruz, can you find him?

The male youth

The female youth

the boys

Here are two of the boys acting out their lesson.  Both children's classes did this.  It was fun to see.  They even dressed up and used props.

the girls

more drama

(these photos are a little blurry because I turned the flash off to keep from being a distraction)

After the service we had a time of prayer and dedication for the new building.  K'ekchi' missionary, Bro. Domingo Pa was with us and he did the service.  They called all of the leaders and teachers up front to have a special prayer for them.  David and the pastor prayed over them.

Afterwards we went to another members house for lunch.  They served us fried chicken, black beans, a cabbage salad, tortillas, and bottled Pepsi's.  This was a rare meal and a refreshing break from the usual weekly bowl of caldo.  We visited with the family and the pastor a while before returning home.

me with a few of the family members that served our meal

David with the pastor, Bro. Tomas, his wife and child.  On the ends are Bro. Domingo and one of the church leaders.

David with Bro. Domingo (a national missionary), his wife Candelaria, and their son Samuel.  They rode with us to the service.

This is a photo of the machine the family uses to grind their corn for tortillas.

We returned home almost eight hours later.  We wanted to take a nap but Cruz slept all the way home so that was out of the question.  I made brownies, we freshened up,  and then we headed out again to watch the Super Bowl with two other missionary families.  It was a fun night of fellowship with them.  By the time we returned home and got into bed it was late, and we were oh.so.tired!