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!

Our trip to Jordan

Sunday morning we traveled to the village of Jordan to attend a church service.  It is a little over an hour away.  It was my fourth time to go to this village and David's fifth (he recently went there to do a radio recording without me).  You can click HERE to read about our last visit there back in March of 2009.  Sunday was an overcast day which made the weather a little cooler than it had been for most of last week.  It was refreshing!

We left early because they wanted us there to eat breakfast and visit before Sunday School began.  One of the things I like about traveling to a village early in the morning is you see the ladies out taking their corn to the mill to be ground and then walking back home with their masa to make tortillas.  Each house we would pass by would have smoke coming from the thatch roof.  You knew they were making their tortillas.  The K'ekchi' do not think they have eaten until they have had tortillas.  When we host volunteer teams we usually feed them a continental breakfast (cereal, pop tarts, fruit, granola bars, juice, etc.)  The K'ekchi' brothers eat that with us but when we get to where we are going they will usually say that they have not eaten- because they have not eaten tortillas.  That is funny to us.

It was a pretty drive once we turned off of the pavement.  We passed many palm trees.  We like to call them "praise palms" because their branches resemble arms spread wide praising the Lord.  We see them a lot around here.

We also saw a lot of corn growing.  Corn is life here.  If they have a bad crop one year it means they go hungry.

This was our first stop of the day, what we call "the weeds".  If you have visited us here you know that the places we go don't have gas stations and places to use the restroom.  We just stop along the way.  If we are with a group we usually say that the men walk one direction and the ladies another.  Some of our former volunteer members have handled this better than others, ha.  For us it has become a way of life. 

As I mentioned before they wanted us there for breakfast.  At first they brought us out a cup of oatmeal drink (shown above).  We like this drink.  It is sweet and just liquid enough to drink.  It is also very filling so we were hoping that would be all they served us.  Wrong!  A few minutes later they brought out scrambled eggs, black beans, and tortillas.  After our meal they served us coffee.  The K'ekchi' like their coffee very weak and very sweet. 

I took this photo of a pile of corn that the pastor had in his house.  This was corn he had to sell to his community.  It was dried out and ready for making tortillas.

After eating we walked out back to see the pastor's deer.  I wanted to show it to Cruz.  He is raising it to sell.

The little building above the deer's head is the church "outhouse".  If you were to ever use one of those you would be very happy to just "go to the weeds" LOL.

He liked it.  He seems to really like all animals these days and wants to pet them.

This was another animal he was raising.

We had a good worship service there.  The village of Jordan has around 250 families and around 118 of them attend the Baptist church.  They have a large work going there!  They have three mission churches they are helping, and one guy came to share about one of them.  He said three families have accepted Christ in his village and they are starting to meet in his home for services.  We will try to visit that village (and many others just like that) to encourage those believers.

After the service we had another meal- caldo with chicken, rice, and tortillas before heading back to Sayaxche'. 

David with Bro. Adilio (the pastor) and his wife Erlinda. 

On the way home we stopped by the Baptist church in the village of Chico Zapote to visit the pastor and his family there.  They didn't know we were coming so it surprised them but they were very happy to see us.  We spent a little while visiting, touring the church, and had a time of prayer over them before we left.  I think they were very encouraged that we stopped by.  We hope to make a return visit there soon for a service.

David with Bro. Pedro (the pastor) and his wife Mikaela

Cruz with the pastor's daughter

Please pray for both of these pastor's and the work they are doing for the Lord here.

A Return Visit to Chi' Pata

When we left the village of Se' Mil we traveled to our last stop of the day, the village of Chi Pata. We first visited this village back in early June when just a few people had become believers. We returned to have a service there with our last prayer team in July.

This past weekend was our third visit there. We have been impressed everytime we have returned with their progression in becoming a mission. They have twice expanded the meeting area in their home and they recently purchased the supplies below to begin building a buidling to meet in. They have done all of this in just a few short months! They have also grown tremendously in numbers! It only takes a spark to get a fire going!!
We had a Bible study and worship time with them and then we all enjoyed a meal together.
I was able to take several photos of everyone eating. We hope they will be finished building and have a dedication service before we return to the States so that we can participate.

When we left there we returned to the motel in Lanquin just before the storm came. Both nights we were there it stormed!! We lost power both nights as well. This is a cute photo of Mrs. Jane and Mr. Wendall walking to the restaurant in the rain.

Tomorrow I will post about our second day of travel.

A Weekend of Pray & Encouragment

This past weekend we went out visiting/encouraging with K'ekchi' missionary Bro. Miguel Chub in the Lanquin/ Cahabon area. In two days we visited and prayed in 9 villages and prayed for 6 more that we did not have time to travel to. It was a great trip and I took tons of photos. So, I will be posting about it in several smaller posts over the next few days.

We left Lanquin early on Sunday morning and first traveled to the village of El Carmen. There is one family of believers that lives in this village. They have 9 kids! This is a photo of their house where we prayed and had a Bible study. This is some of the family
The mother with five of her children

Jim gave a devotion on Zacchaeus. This photo is of Mrs. Jane teaching the kids the song about him

I love this next photo. Right before I took it, the mother came over and put the little girls arm around David. She was embarrased but it was cute!

When we left there we drove on to the village of Pinares

This is a photo of some of the believers there. They are continuing to meet in a home and have Bible study together

We had a service with them that we all took part in. Mrs. Jane read scripture, Mr. Wendall prayed, Carol led a hymn, David & I led a chorus, and Jim brought the message.

Our third stop was at Chi Poc. We had intended to be there in time for their morning service but it was noon before we got there. They waited on us and we started the service then. I am glad they are patient!! This is a photo of their mission church

After the service we all had a meal together

In this next photo I am holding little Regina. I first met her a few months ago. She is the daughter of a K'ekchi' pastor in this area and she is named after me! I think that is sweet! I was very excited to know she was there. Her mom is in the blue with her hand over her mouth and one of her sisters is sitting in the middle. Regina & Regina

We left there and drove to the village of Se' Mil. This village recently had 5 new believers. We prayed there with our last team. This is a photo of a few of them (& Bro. Miguel)

This is a photo of how we all felt at this point, ha. When David entered their house he just fell out on one of the beds. We laughed at him.

I'll post about our last stop of the day tomorrw.