Never A Dull Moment

The village of Nearar where we are teaching Bible studies on Sunday is an outreach project of a Baptist church in the town of Chimaltenango.  That is about five hours from here.  There is also a Baptist church in Chattanooga, Tennessee that is partnering with them to help reach this village.  They are led by fellow IMB missionaries David and Glynis Miller.  They are committed to being in the village a couple times a year.  We are helping do follow-up and discipleship with the evangelism they do while here.

There is a guy from the church in Chimaltenango that volunteered to come to the village for two weeks.  He is staying in the house where we meet on Sunday's.  He felt the Lord call him to come over and do some door to door visits and help be a witness in the village.  All of last week he and Reyes made visits in several homes.  On Friday they were visiting in a particular home and a man supposedly accepted Christ. 

Sunday morning David decided it would be best if the kids and I stayed home during the first study and then join him in the afternoon for the second study. 

Well, while he was teaching, Reyes (the man of the house) got a phone call.  He interrupted the study to tell David that he had to go up to the top of the mountain because someone had just been killed.  Turns out it was the man who they had witnessed to on Friday and who prayed to receive Christ.  We do not know any motive or details about the murder at this time.  

David stayed and finished the lesson.  The man who was killed had several small kids. Some of them were at the Bible study with David. The murder took place right behind where our car was parked so you can imagine the crowds that had gathered.  I was very thankful the kids and I were not there that morning!

We are very saddened by this latest death in that village.  It is not a very friendly area and the people can be hard and cold.  There is definitely a spirit of evil that rests heavy there and the people have little value for life.  When they have a dispute their main way of dealing with it is by killing one another.  It is really sad, but reality.  Please pray for them.  Pray for salvation to come to that area and that many would come to know the Prince of Peace that could put a spirit of peace in their hearts. 

We are going to try to visit with the wife and kids sometime in the coming days.  Pray that God would give us just the right words to encourage them.

We were certain that by the afternoon things would be calmed down and we could return for our second study.  It was.  We arrived mid-afternoon, parked our car, and began the hike to the house.

Most of this hike is flat.  There is just one area where it is steep and you have to climb down to get to the house.  Overall, it is a lot easier to get to than the house we go to in the mornings.

I might not always enjoy climbing the mountains, but I always enjoy looking at them.

This is the steep area.  You hike down through a corn patch.

As we were arriving we were greeted by many smiling faces that were happy to see us.

This is a side view of the house we meet in.  It is right on the side of the mountain.  Right beyond where those kids are standing it just drops off.  There is very little room for the kids to play and run around.

The men were all gone to find work so it was just the ladies and children this week.  One of the ladies (not pictured) was holding Ben during the Bible study time.  He got a little fussy.  I turned to check on him and just as I did the lady was just seconds from nursing him.  Yes, that's right, feeding my baby!!!  In their culture they think nothing about feeding each others kids.  But, this mama almost came unglued, haha.  I screamed, "NO, NO, NO".  I am certain I scared everyone there.  I ran over and grabbed him up.  The lady just did not seem to understand my reaction, nor did anyone else there.  Before we left we apologized and explained to them that in our culture only the mama nurses her children.  I pray we did not offend them and that they understood the cultural differences.  He will definitely not be getting out of my sight from now on, haha.

Everyone there wants to hold him, especially the kids.  He is just not very friendly with them and almost always cries for me to get him.  I think they overwhelm him, and it makes him nervous.

Cruz loves getting to play with all of the kids.  I think he overwhelms them and makes them nervous, haha.

                      

Cruz hiking back to the car. 

He loves going to the villages or "to work with Daddy" as he calls it.

It was a crazy day and the stress of it all just wore us out.  We left the village and decided to drive into Chiquimula and eat supper at Pollo Campero.  Cruz enjoyed getting to play on the playland and we enjoyed getting to sit, talk, and debrief the day.  Please continue to keep this village in your prayers.  There are many there who need to know Christ.