New Kekchi Bibles Have Arrived!

We have been waiting all week to hear when an order of Kekchi Bibles were going to be delivered.  We knew that they had arrived in port but were waiting for them to be released and brought up on the truck.  They called late Wednesday afternoon around 5:30 to say that they would be arriving in Coban at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.  Thanks for the advanced notice!  haha  The problem with that is 1)  we live almost four hours from Coban and 2) we do not travel at night.  So, that meant a very early morning for us on Thursday.  I joked on our facebook page that we saw the sunrise and we do not see that often.  It is because we are almost never up and going at that time of the morning.  Not many other people were either. 

We stopped to eat breakfast in Chisec and arrived in plenty of time to meet the truck.  They were not so prompt and arrived at 10:30 a.m. Ugh.  Miss Fran had about five people lined up to help and we were very thankful and happy to see that almost twenty of our Baptist pastors and leaders showed up to go help us as well.  Miss Fran was very worried about not having enough help and in the end she was a little overwhelmed with the turnout.  It was a blessing to have so many eager workers.  There were  20,000 Bibles packed in boxes of 24 each.  That equals around 834 boxes.  It only took them about 1.5 hours to unload the whole truck.  PTL!  It rained off and on during that time but that did not delay them. 

It was just a happiness in the air that we all felt knowing that so many copies of God's Word would soon be in the hands of the Kekchi people.  After unloading we all gathered around for a group photo and then had a prayer over the Bibles.  It was a special morning!  I am attaching a few photos from the day and will be adding an album of all the photos to our facebook page.  Thanks to those of you who prayed! 

the truck full of Bibles

getting ready to unload

Our group minus about three men who had already left to take a load over to our Kekchi Baptist office.  We are thankful for their servant hearts.

Spreading God's Word- Oral and Written

On Tuesday David traveled to La Ceiba to do another radio recording for the Institute of the Air.  They met and did the recording in the Baptist church there.  They have been doing a series through the book of Acts and got twelve more stories recorded in the series.  David edited them and burned them to CD's on Wednesday and we hope to get them out to the radio stations within the week.  Please pray that God would use these stories to encourage believers, and open doors to new works among the Kekchi people.

Manuel, Abilino, and Mateo

Bro. Adilio (not present) has been heading up the Institue of the Air for many years.  He recently ended his time as pastor at his church here in the Peten.  He has returned to his hometown in Carcha (outside of Coban).    We are not sure what further involvement he will have in the recordings but ask you to pray that those involved will be able to continue with this great ministry.

On another note, the Kekchi Bibles are arriving in Coban today- 20,000 of them!  Pray for Miss Fran as she gets a little overwhelmed with receiving and storing them.  Pray that we will find a storage home for each box and that plenty of workers will show up to help unload them.

Day of the Bible

This past weekend the K'ekchi' Baptists were celebrating "Day of the Bible".  It is a time every year they set aside to honor God's Word.  Many held services on Saturday and Sunday.  We chose to attend the celebration on Sunday morning at Damasco Baptist Church in Las Pozas. 

On Saturday evening the church had a parade in their town in honor of the Bible and carried it around on this homemade platform.  A few of the smaller area churches came to town to join them.

During the Sunday morning service they talked a lot about the Bible, read many scriptures, and sang songs about it.  They took up an offering for the Bible as well.  Right now we are currently out of K'ekchi' Bibles.  Our last reprint was done back in 2009.  You can read HERE about the exciting day when they arrived.  Ms. Fran has placed another order and we hope they will be printed and delivered by the end of the year/ first of next year.

Bro. Matias, K'ekchi' national missionary, preached the sermon.  At the end of the service they had the Lord's Supper.  It was a great way to end a weekend of celebration. 

This is Bro. Miguel (pastor of the church) and Bro. Matias

For the Lord's Supper they used broken saltine crackers and grapette soda.

It is a little different how they do the Lord's Supper part.  First of all let me say that the church was full.  The pastor stood in the pulpit and one by one called by name all of the believers down to the altar.  They formed a very long line, men on one side and women on the other.  Not everyone there was called forward which meant that they were most likely not believers.  There is no shame among the K'ekchi' to admit that you are not a believer.  Many times we have asked people and they simply say no or not yet.  I like their honesty.  

Once the service ended we had a quick time of prayer for a young girl who was sick and then headed to the pastor's house for lunch.  They fixed us a large bowl of caldo with chicken, guisquil, and cabbage.  We also had tortillas and 7up.  Cruz enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with some steamed pears I made and packed for him.

Here are a few more photos I took before we left- 

David with Bro. Miguel (the pastor) and his wife Rosa.  Rosa is president of the associational ladies WMU.

The president of the church (forgot his name), Rosa, Bro. Miguel, Bro. Matias, and David

They were all very happy that we could be there to celebrate with them.  While giving our greetings we both shared with the church about the Ch'orti' work and told them about our service there next Saturday.  We asked them to be praying for it and the Ch'orti' people and they assured us that they would.  The K'ekchi' are people of prayer and having them pray for our new work is going to be a wonderful extension to our prayer support we receive from back home.  For that we say "God is Good"!