Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Devil Tried to Keep God Out But...

There is a large Kekchi community inside Santa Rita, the ex-guerrilla community we were kicked out of in March of last year. For some reason there is some type of bond there between us and them. Many of them stuck up for us and we appreciated it. We were not ready to stop working with them when we had to leave.

Jimmy wanted to give them the opportunity to attend the new Kekchi church plant in San Pancho. It is about 15 minutes away by car. He planned on hiring a micro bus each week to go by and pick them up. We were really looking forward to going back into this community and inviting everyone ourselves.

Marcos came by our house one day and told Jimmy that he didn't think it would be safe for us to go in. Beyond that they didn't want those responsible for getting us kicked out to know that the Kekchi were attending church... especially "Jimmy's church". So we didn't get to go invite them ourselves, but Marcos did. He told everyone! They asked us to send 2 micros in order to fit everyone, but we didn't believe that many would come. We sent 2 anyway.

We were so surprised Easter Sunday morning! 28 Kekchi adults from Santa Rita came, plus a slew of kids, plus 12 adults from another guerrilla community close by that also wanted to come.
I was in the kids part, so I didn't get hardly any pictures. There were so many familiar faces!!
{Our cupcake tombs for Easter}
{This is what Jonah and Silas do during the lesson. They are old enough now to participate during the craft time. There are plenty of adult volunteers to hold Eden... haha!}

I cannot express the thankfulness we feel to be with these people again. So many of them have not accepted Christ yet and others are very new believers. We got a second chance!! They came back last week too!
We were supposed to be out of their lives forever, but God worked it out. We bought land in San Pancho for our forever house and were planning on starting this Kekchi church long before we ever had a hint of anything going wrong in Santa Rita. I guess it was all part of His plan to make a way.
Our old friend Mateo from New Horizon, our first ex-guerrilla community, lives in San Pancho now, so he started coming!

Please keep praying for this new mission as it grows! And please praise the Lord with us for this opportunity!

4 comments:

  1. I love love love this!! Mateo looks so grown up! God was never done working!!!

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  2. Hello, Shelley. This is probably going to sound a little odd, but I found your blog researching a novel I'm writing. No kidding! I'm a Christian fiction author and Moody Publishers has asked me to write a suspense novel which I've set in the Peten. Right now I'm in massive research mode! I wondered if you would be willing to answer a few questions I've got. I promise not to pester too much! I'm in contact with a former Guatemalan missionary from our church but it would be so wonderful to have some insights from you. If you're game, you could contact me via my website www.danamentink.com and I'd send you my personal email. Thanks for sharing your wonderful work via this blog. Dana

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