Tuesday, July 26, 2011

More Believers in Esfuerzo!

This missions team is compiled of people from all over. Jay, our future team mate, got here last week. Amy and Colonel got here Saturday, they are friends from Jimmy's home church in KS. Amy is a writer who comes down quite often. We are so thankful that she is willing to give up vacation time to come down here and work. She has written so many things for us over the years and wrote the 2 skits the team is using this week. Colonel was a youth worker back when Jimmy was in high school and they went on lots of missions trips together... Amy too. He clearly has the gift of evangelism. This is his first time in Guatemala. We have a need here that fits Colonel perfectly, so he and Jimmy have already been talking about him coming back down again.
{Amy & Colonel}

Monday morning, 4 more guys joined our team. They rode a bus all night long to get to Petén. We met Juan and Andrés (back row center) in language school in Xela. They attended the same church as us. They were just starting in the Boggs' seminary that year. They have since finished. Juan is still helping in that church and Andrés has began working with another missionary in the town of Esperanza, close by. He is training to take over that Baptist church as the pastor I think.
Nehemias (bottom) came to know the Lord through Nery and the church that the Boggs are starting in Solola on their property. He has since taken over for Nery as the pastor. We had never met him before, but Jay met him last summer when he worked with the Boggs for a month and wanted Nehemias to be a part of this team. (If the Boggs read this we have said nothing to Nehemias about coming to work with us in Petén, but I cannot speak for Jay;) Levi (back row, left) is a Mennonite from Texas who came down to help out a friend. He has been here long enough to learn Spanish. He is friends with Andrés and attends his church.

So that is everyone on this team.

Monday was a planning day. Everybody met together and went over who was going to be doing what and got to know each other a little bit. Tuesday they hit the road...


The first stop was Se' Tul. This is where Domingo lives and also where the Kekchi radio station is. Domingo is the national missionary that located these villages after they called into the radio station. Here is everyone at the town well.
While they were there a girl came to draw water, so the guys were nice and got it for her.
The team had been invited to see the radio station and share a greeting on the air... yikes! That always makes me nervous.
They did a good job saying hello!
{Colonel}
{Juan}
{Amy}
{Jay}
{Nehemias}
{Jimmy}

Then they began their hour long trek to the village of Esfuerzo. Jimmy went there 3 weeks ago for the first outreach in this village. Today will be the second.
The town sent 6 horses to meet the team to help them on their journey.
The saddles were a little different than what I think any of them were used to. They are not very deep from front to back.
The team took turns riding the horses.
Someone please ask poor Jay about his leg cramp! I'm sure he will enjoy telling you about it.
It is a long, hot trek up a mountain. They had supplies to carry too.
Nehemias is a ham. He always has a good time!
Finally they could see the village of Esfuerzo.
This village has only been around for a couple years. The villagers are squatting on some farmers land.
When the team got there, lunch had already been prepared for them.
Tamales!
This was very kind of the village.
Here are some of the people who came to see the presentation.
The team started off with a wordless skit.
Andrés is stuck in sin (the chair) and the rest of the guys keep trying to think of ways to get him free.
Then they began the puppet skit, which included a beautiful presentation of the Gospel. It was very clear. Amy wrote a story that was very relatable for them.
See our stalk of corn?
The people standing in the front are the new believers. These are the first Christians in the entire village. Some accepted Christ after last week. The 4 on the end on the right put their faith in Christ today!
Please keep praying for the village of Esfuerzo. Pray for the new believers and for the new mission that has been started there. Soon we hope to see more come to know the Lord and a church where they can all grow and worship together.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: On the way there, there was one casualty... Jimmy's pants! I'm sure it had something to do with a horse, but he ripped his pants from his knee almost to his belt! Jimmy owns one pair of bicycle shorts and thankfully he chose today to wear them under his pants! The pants were Eddie Bauer rip stop... haha! Domingo asked how old they were and Jimmy said, 4 years. Domingo replied, "Well of corse they are going to rip!" He told Jimmy to get some wool pants, they are reliable. Domingo got a good laugh, so did the rest of the team.

UPDATE: Jimmy's pants were ripped while he was gracefully jumping across a river onto a log. He would like to state that unfortunately his pants were not as flexible as his legs were at that moment...

2 comments:

  1. Totally Amazing!!! God put together the perfect team!

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  2. I would like to add that it really was a very graceful leap across the river. Kind of like poetry in motion. Of course, Jimmy still fell on his face but I do believe it was one of the most graceful falls I've witnessed. . . . =) Is that what you call falling with style?

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