Visiting Santa Rita

The first week we got back we visited Santa Rita. We technically are not supposed to be in there, so instead of walking up and down the streets, we just stopped by a couple of friends' houses.

Bernabe was the first person we visited. We had photos and videos of her daughter and 3 grandchildren she has never met. She didn't know that we had located Berta in KY, so this was a complete surprise to her. Her eyes filled with happy tears while she watched her daughter's message to her.

I was wondering how Jonah and Silas would do back in this environment. They were a little cautious at first, but then started seeing familiar faces. Before we went to the States they only understood a little of what was said to them in English or Spanish. Once they were around only English for 3 months, it seems as though they understand every word now and even say a couple. Here it looks as though they lost all of their Spanish, so it will take some time.

They had fun chasing the duck around in Bernabe's house and playing with the other kids.

Bernabe was roasting coffee beans! I hadn't seen that before here, I thought it was interesting.

Of course we stopped by to visit with Fabio. He wasn't the first to tell us about 2 of the town leaders who had written up the act to get us kicked out being thrown into jail for being accused of stealing from the community. As our Kekchi friends say, God is the Big Judge.

As soon as the community finishes legally splitting up the land, the portion that Fabio gave us will be in our name and we can do whatever we want on it... like start a church! We told him about the work starting back up again in New Horizon. He said, "They are so lucky to be able to learn about God, we have nothing here." He is very eager to get the Bible study up and going again. He is thinking about hiring a lawyer to speed the process up so that we can start meeting again before the land gets divided. We are thankful for his hunger for God. All of our friends who saw us asked if we were coming this week to hold services. We want to, we just don't feel that it is safe. Please pray for all of these people and that the door will be reopened very soon.

Silas and Jonah were happy to be reunited with their Blanca and Mercedes! While we were playing in the micro (it was crazy muddy outside) a whole group of people came up and surrounded Jimmy asking to see the video and photos from Berta, Bernabe's daughter. Eulelio, her dad, had heard and came to watch. He cried too when he saw his daughter's face. Everyone there was so excited to hear from her. Evidently they all new her. They kept asking, "Jimmy... you know Berta?!" We were just doing something for a friend, but I think it went a long way with others in the community.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: We have been hearing about more rumors being spread about us in New Horizon. We have been gone from that place for 2 years now and they are still talking about us. That sort of makes me happy. I hope they never forget what we tried to do in there and what we shared with them. So the newest rumor is that the plane that went down in their village 4 years ago was Jimmy's plane and that he was trying to burn down their pine tree project. Haha! They know that plane was a drug plane, so I'm not sure how many believe it or if they are just desperate to find something bad to say about us whether it's believed by anyone at all.