June 27th

June 27th

We decided to have the VBS@ 2:30 PM. We had kids come up to the school in the morning to play games. Some of them actually remembered us from the first time we came. For me, especially this little girl named Lillian – she has something special about her – I just know it. We had lunch at the layman’s hut, made by his wife and other family, that was kind of the overseer of the village church there. All of our meals came from there; they were all so gracious.
After lunch we went back to the school to set up and get dressed. Then some of the us went out into the community to invite kids. It was a blast, Leslie, Lindsey, and I were chased (literally chased) by geese and we almost touched the border of Belize - all in one day, what an adventure! It was an interesting afternoon…
Leslie became Cometa for the week, along with Wes and I as clowns, Catherine and Lindsey were puppeteers, Esther as the announcer and Mehir with Josue for sound. The first day- the only afternoon without rain – we had 105 kids come! We played games after and got to converse with many before dinner at 5:30. Then at 6:30 we showed the Jesus film. It was the first time for anything like that (not only in our trip, but in my life!) and it was powerful. We had over 400 people! Afterward I sat with Lillian and prayed and prayed for all the people there and that God would be working in their hearts. It was hard to communicate with people because of my lack of Spanish so I just prayed that the hearts of the people would be softened and that God would be alive in the place. It was hard that night that all the little kids that I was sitting next to were laughing when Jesus was being crucified, that was hard for me to sit there and endure that. I was so moved by the film, even though it was in Spanish, every time I was impacted.
We were all pretty exhausted after that and went to bed. Our beds consisted of concrete floors in the school. It was interesting having no running water, but I think it brought us closer as a group.
We had a night in Jovente where we were worshipping in the rain and singing songs to the Lord and the power went out and it was still raining and we were singing underneath a little lean-to at the school in the dark. It was so amazing to see God alive in the lightening and thunder and everywhere around us. It was beautiful. We were singing past everything else that existed, past worldly things, past the Devil and just to our God, it was wonderful.
One day while in Jovente the kids group didn’t have anything to do for the afternoon so Lindsey went with Claudia to, Wes with Juan, Mehir and Josue with church folk, and Catherine and Esther with Kendra all joined evangelism teams. Maddai organized and put everyone in groups, except for me, which was intentional because Scott said we would do something else – which was fine with me because I wasn’t ready in my amount of Spanish I knew for evangelism, or so I thought.
That afternoon Scott and I got the opportunity to do something different. Though before we started our afternoon task we got a wonderful opportunity to talk with man used to be really involved in the church in Jovente but then moved to another town and he fell away from Christ because of a lack of involvement in a church. So Scott, Wes, Juan, the DS, Augusto (the pastor), and myself got the chance to pray for this man who was recommitting to Christ in his life and was willing to go to extreme lengths for Christ. It was such an wonderful experience being able to pray for this man as he accepted Christ back into his life.
After that, Scott and I picked up trash in the area where we were going to show the Jesus film and the surrounding areas. It was nice to do something different and Scott and I got a good opportunity to talk. I think that Scott and I are getting to be better friends, which is really nice – specially to have an American perspective on the culture that he is now fully emersed in his daily life. I didn’t think I would get that opportunity. Scott and I picked up everything from empty chip bags to old diapers, it was a really funny afternoon. We also unintentionally got some of the community involved. Some of the ladies and children from the family that helped cook our meals first started laughing at us picking up their trash and then started volunteerily helping. I hope they can keep their streets clean – though that might just be wishful thinking. After a bit we started talking to one of the ladies that was helping and she started teaching us Catchee, which is one of the 32 indigenous Mayan languages in Guatemala. We learned the song, If You’re Happy and You Know it, it was a really fun and funny afternoon. It rained a lot and I saw Scott and Jerson both slip down the same hill and fall on their butts and then Catherine fall up a different hill, it was so funny.