37th Annual Assembly of the Kekchi Baptist in Coban

 

We recently made a trip to Coban, Guatemala to attend the 37th Annual Assembly of the Kekchi Baptists.  It was a six hour drive from our home in Antigua. Our first five years on the mission field were spent with this people group. This area and these people will always be near and dear to our hearts.  It was a blessing to return and spend some time with them.

 

 

We attended  two evening services. There were 472 in attendance the first night and even more on the second night.

 

With the exception of the sermons, the services were all in Kekchi. We loved getting to hear their language again and especially getting to worship with them.

 

 

Can you spot us in the crowd? 

 

The Kekchi still use a Baptist hymnal for their worship.  We loved hearing the hymns sung. It was comforting to our souls.  Cruz recorded some of the singing.

 

 

 

David with the Coban Kekchi President German Contreras.

 

The boys were a highlight.  After the services everyone lined up to take a photo with them.  It was fun to see the people be so excited about the boys. 

 

During the day David attended the morning and afternoon sessions.

 

David and Sergio

He was our helper and David's Kekchi tutor when we lived in Coban.  He is now the director of the Kekchi Bible Institute in Coban.  We are very proud of him!

 

David and Armando

For many years he ran the Kekchi Baptist office in Coban.  Now he writes and translates many of their study materials.

 

 

While David was in the day sessions, the boys and I did school back at the hotel.  We had a beautiful garden setting as our classroom.

 

 

 

 

  

 

There is a new mall that opened up in the center of town.  It was within walking distance from our hotel.  We ate a few meals there at the food court.  The boys especially loved this wall mural there of different cereal boxes.  I wish we could get all of these options here!  As you can see, their favorite is Reece's Puffs.

 

They also had a virtual reality game that the boys got to play.  

 

 

 

 

 

One afternoon while they did another round of virtual reality, I sat and enjoyed an iced coffee. I also wrote out my greeting for that evening service.  At any Kekchi service or event you attend they are going to call on you to give greetings.  We shared at both evening services.  I tried to incorporate as many Kekchi words and phrases as I could remember into mine.  They love for you to speak their language.

 

Another highlight was getting to have a meal with our friends the Rozycki family.  We first met them back in 2018 when we moved to Antigua.  Now they are living and serving in Coban.  Their friendship is a blessing to our family!

 

We left Coban early in the morning.  We were at McDonald's at 6:00 a.m. waiting on them to open so that we could pick up some coffee and breakfast to have on the road.   It made us think of Ms. Fran Eachus, our Kekchi language teacher.  Almost every day for years she was at McDonald's waiting on them to open.  We miss her and many others who served in the Kekchi area over the years. 

 

Getting to return brought back many fond memories of our time there and a heart of gratitude for those who mentored us and helped us during those years.  They would be very proud to see how the work is advancing and to know that all of their years of labor is still bearing fruit.

 

Pray for the Kekchi Baptist work.  Pray that God would continue to use them to evangelize, disciple, and plant churches.  Pray that God would give them a passion to serve cross-culturally and that He would call out Kekchi believers to help reach the nations.

On The Road Again

This past weekend we loaded up our vehicle and headed out on a little (much needed) road trip.  I cannot even put into words the excitement we were feeling!  Some friends had invited us to stay the weekend with them in Coban.  In addition to that, David had been needing to make a trip to Chiquimula to pick up receipts from our food distribution there. Instead of making two separate trips we decided to combine them into one longer trip.  We headed out Thursday when we finished school.

 ready to travel!!!

I took this picture as we crossed the bridge at San Cristobal.  It is just on the edge of Guatemala City.  We had not traveled past that point since March.  It felt a little strange to see Guatemala City again.

We stopped to eat at Carl's Jr. in Guatemala City.  We love eating there and have missed it so much.  They were allowing people inside.  We were the only ones there at the time.  It was our first time to eat inside a restaurant since March.  How exciting!  Before entering, they take your temperature, make you clean your shoes on a mat, and then give you hand gel.  They are also not allowed to run the A/C.  Most all of the tables are marked off and the ones left are very spaced out.  We will endure any and all safety measures if it means we can get out again. 

Yum!

We then got on the road headed to Chiquimula.  It felt amazing to see the views again.  Until we moved back to Antigua we had always traveled this highway to every location we have lived in Guatemala.  It felt like home to be riding those roads again. 

This truck gave us a good laugh.

We arrived late afternoon to the hotel in Chiquimula.  How fun to see it again!  This hotel is the one next door to where we used to live.  The boys spent many afternoons in that pool when we lived there.

Some missionary friends came to visit us there.  The kids enjoyed swimming together in the pool and then they all stayed to eat supper with us.  What a joy to see friends and have face to face fellowship with them. The kids sat together and the parents had our own grown up table.  I am not sure which table enjoyed it more.

The next morning David left about 5:30 a.m. headed up the mountain to visit our pastor and his family there.  When the boys and I woke up we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel.  They loved getting to eat tortillas.  Ben said, "This is the first tortilla I have had in years!!!".  It sure felt like it. 

We then did our schoolwork out by the pool.  They had two incentives to finish fast 1)  they could go swimming again  2) their friends were coming back to join them.

Fun in the sun!

A highlight of the trip was getting to see Miguel.  He stopped by the hotel to visit us.  He was our ministry partner when we lived there.  We miss him so much!

He is like a big brother to the boys.

Mid-morning Brandi and the kids came back for another visit.  While the kids swam we enjoyed adult conversations.  We all had lunch together and then got back on the road.

Just a few miles down the road he was out.  Traveling is hard work.

I almost squealed when we made this right turn.  We love Coban and I think we will always miss living there.  The drive from El Rancho to Coban is one of my favorites in all of Guatemala.  The scenery is so pretty.

We arrived that afternoon and were greeted by our sweet friends the Rozyckis.  They have a beautiful property!  They have a few guest cabins on it so we had our own place to stay.  Being there felt like we were on a retreat.  They cooked a delicious supper and then we spent the evening catching up.  We became friends with this family right after we moved to Antigua and we spent a lot of time with them.  Several months later they moved to Coban.  We have been sad ever since. 

Our view on Saturday morning.  It is so green and lush there.

The boys got to help collect the eggs.

They also enjoyed getting to play in the hot tub.  I took this photo before the other kids joined them.  There are hiking trails through the woods that the kids also enjoyed.  It was a great outdoor adventurous weekend for them.

While there we celebrated the birthday of two of their kids.  Here are my boys waiting their turn to hit the pinata.  That was another fun, normal experience.

In addition to seeing Brandi, another highlight of my trip was visiting with these two sweet ladies.  Leah (in the middle) was our host and Julie (in the gray) lives close-by.  During this quarantine time God laid on my heart a desire to start a virtual mom's group with missionary moms in Guatemala who live out in isolated areas.  It is a podcast club. We listen to a podcast on our own during the week and then meet online to discuss it.  All three of these join me weekly for a time of sharing, encouragement, and prayer.  It is one of my favorite times of the week.  I am thankful to get to share life with these moms even if it is virtually. 

A photo of the kids on Sunday morning before we drove back home to Antigua.  

We had received news on Saturday morning that a section of the highway to Coban had collapsed during the night.  We had been a little worried about how we were going to get back home on Sunday.  We ended up leaving extra early to give ourselves time in case we had to take a long detour. The collapse happened near Purulha after a hard rain.  It is crazy to think that we had just driven on that road a day earlier.

Thankfully the road crew had been working hard and had a bypass cut out by Sunday morning.  We were able to drive right around it without any issues. 

On the other side of that large dirt pile is where the road caved in.

We were home by lunchtime.  I spent the afternoon catching up on laundry and getting things ready for a new school week.   We were tired but so thankful for all that we had been able to experience.  It seems like forever since we have had that much human interaction outside of our home.  It was the most normal we have all felt in months.  We cannot wait to do it again!!!