Las Casas Pastor's Conference

On Monday morning we drove to the Las Casas Study Center to attend the monthly Pastor's Conference. The Las Casas region has recently voted to become their own association. This now gives our work three associations- The Coban Association, The Peten Association, and the Las Casas Association. The leaders in their association are:

President- Juan Choc

Vice President- Francisco Sacul

Secretary- Jose Xol

They also now have three national missionaries that are working their region- Macario Quib, Manuel Yaxcal, & Salvador Yuja Moran.

We sat in on their meetings and then Monday night attended their worship service. I didn't take photos but I did record a music video. We have taught several of our teams the K'ekchi' words to "Blessed Be the Name". We also taught it in a few churches we spoke at last fall in the States. We sang it Monday night so I recorded the chorus to share with all of you.

The K'ekchi' name for the song is- Chikanima Ru li Kacua' (may we make his face big, the Lord)

Chikanima ru, chikanima ru,

Chikanima ru, li Kacua'.

Chikanima ru, chikanima ru,

Chikanima ru, li Kacua'.

It was a good meeting for the pastor's. I counted a little over 50 in attendance. While there we made plans to return in May to go out with K'ekchi' missionary Bro. Macario to visit some new believers in the Raxruha area and to also attend the next Pastor's Conference there in Las Casas. We are looking forward to returning next month.

Because He Lives...

Today we attended services at Iglesia Bautista Belen here in Coban. It rained this morning so we were thankful that we didn't have far to go. It has since dried up and turned into a nice sunny day.

We sang many songs during the service, which is normal. One of those songs was the hymn "Because He Lives". We have sung that song all our lives in church but for some reason, today, it ministered to me like never before. Here are the words in English-

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because He lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know He holds the future.

And life is worth the living just because He lives.

Here is the chorus being sung in K'ekchi' during the service today-

Here are the words in K'ekchi'-

XBAN NAK YO'YO LI KACUA' JESUS

Xban nak yo'yo li Kacua Jesus

Inc'a' chic tinxucuak lain.

Xban nak ninnau chi yal yo'yo li Cristo,

Ut cuan cuiq'uin chi junelic,

Mas sa inch'ol.

It is great how God can use the simplest of things, like a song, to speak to our hearts! We love moments like that!

Santo, Santo, Santo

During the Peten Convention I videod a men's group singing the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. These are the same men who usually play the marimba. They are very talented. Here are the words in K'ekchi' to the fifth verse:

Santo, Santo, Santo

La cuanquilal quic'utun

Nak xayobtesi chak

Li ruchich'och a'in.

Santo, Santo, Santo

Nacatkalok'on, Kacua'.

Dios oxib chi ribil

Ut jun ajcui' chi Dios.

Convention Update

The convention has been really good this week (although we have not understood a great deal of it, ha). David has been going to the men's meetings and I have been with the WMU ladies during the day. We have had nightly worship services all week.

Everyone has welcomed us so well and made us feel a part of them. It has been a very encouraging time for us this week. Our calendar continues to fill up with church visits and outings with the missionary brothers. Our next few months are going to be spent in the road a good bit.

One of my favorite hymns is "Great is Thy Faithfulness". That is the same hymn that the women chose as their study song. During each session, we sang it, MANY TIMES. Since they are oral learners, we did it like their memory verses, we repeated it over, and over, and over....... Even I should be able to sing it from memory in K'ekchi' now. HA I videoed the women singing the chorus today. It is not a good picture video, I only did it for the sound. I didn't want the ladies to see me recording because they would get bashful. So ignore the image but enjoy the song. Here are the words in K'ekchi':

Mas nim la cuusilal,

Mas nim la cuusilal,

Cuulaj Cuulaj nakac'ul karabal.

Nacaq'ue chak laat li c'a'ru cuan ke.

La cuusilal mas nim, at inYucua'.

It's been a busy but good first half of the week. We will be driving into Guatemala City tomorrow (Thursday). Please pray for our travels on the road.

Pastor's Conf. in Sayaxche'

We left Friday morning heading three hours north to the town of Sayaxche' for a Pastor's Conf.
We arrived in time to check-in to our motel, eat a bite of lunch, and head to the afternoon session. We stayed at the Guayacan. Many of you are probably familiar with that motel. It overlooks the Passion River. I packed us a picnic lunch and we sat on the patio overlooking the river and ate. It was nice.

Other views of the river-

We then headed to the meeting. Each of our six K'ekchi' regions were holding conferences to collect the annual Christmas offering (their equivalent to our Lottie Moon). Each Baptist church has a service on Christmas Eve and during that service they take up their offering. Each family brings what they are going to give for the year. This offering is what helps support our 14 K'ekchi' missionaries with a monthly stipend. During the Pastor's Conf. each pastor turns in what his church gave for the offering. The Sayaxche'/ Peten region supports 4 national missionaries. Each of them had a time to share about their work over the past year. We particularly enjoyed this part of the meeting since our job is specifically to work alongside each of these national missionaries.

That night we had a worship/ celebration service. It was a great time of rejoicing for what the Lord has done and looking forward to what He is going to do in 2009.

The Peten Association has a large marimba and we always enjoy watching and hearing the men play it.

Here is a video of one of the songs we sang-

The meetings ended about 8:30 and we returned to the motel. We enjoyed sitting outside watching the ferry go back and forth with the vehicles. The road north ends in Sayaxche' and you have to cross on the ferry to keep going. It is so nice and peaceful sitting out there at night.