Monday, August 23, 2010

Since the Day We Met


I remember meeting Macaria on ladies day during our first outreach in Santa Rita back in November of 2008. She was easy to talk to and always smiling. I felt a connection with her right away. It was the same with Claudia. I didn't know what the future held for either of them, but I knew God had put us in that village to share the Gospel with them and I was thankful for that.
Here is a photo from ladies day. Macaria is in the purple. Her daughter Maria is to her right and Claudia is the girl on the end... and that's Jimmy's mom giving her a pedicure!

We would see Macaria off and on over the next 2 years. Just recently ever since the ladies outreach we had while the interns were here, Macaria has started coming to Jimmy's Bible study regularly with her daughter. Macaria is in the green in this photo below from our ladies outreach this past month.
Her son Jaime has just recently started to get reconnected since we've been back too.
This is him receiving a Bible over a year ago,
and this is him (in the blue) during our church activity to Tikal last month.

Her daughter Maria (girl in white) got involved right away!
Here she is in the pink on the bottom row at our purity talk girls outreach at our house.
For the past four weeks Jimmy has taught on Galatians. This week in chapter four everybody was discussing the difference between slaves and sons. Each week there has been a clear gospel message and he was afraid some people might even be getting bored with it. At the end of each Bible study he asks if anybody has any questions. This night was like most where nobody raises their hand. He said he was glad now that nobody there has an excuse. Everybody knows how to become God's child and how sad would it be if they all know how to go to heaven but don't ever ask for that free gift. We don't have invitations, but he always says that if somebody would like us to pray with them, then to just let us know.

Claudia came up while everybody was leaving and pointed towards the back. "That lady wants to accept Christ," she said. Jimmy asked if she wanted to do it there or at her house. She came back with the response, "In her house."

When Jimmy got there he was greeted by Macaria. They sat down in the living room and Jimmy asked, "Would Maria like to accept Christ too?" She left and a minute later Jaime and Maria both walked in with their mom. They all sat around listening to Jimmy explaining again and each one individually expressed their desire to accept Christ. They all prayed together at the same time in Kekchi (each with different words but it's not like we would be able to understand them anyway). After Jimmy asked them again what they had done. Macaria had tears in her eyes and wanted to know if we would always be here doing the Bible Studies on Sundays. She then lectured her kids in Kekchi (which they translated for Jimmy) that now God isn't just watching them from heaven, but is with them everywhere they go.

We have always had the philosophy that ministry is about relationships. This is one of those times we can look back over 21 months and see God working through each outreach. We are excited to look at the many faces in the pictures we have taken and know that not only is God still writing their stories, but we get to be a part of them.

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