A Beautiful Thing

So yesterday our 3rd Discipleship class was scheduled. Friday night we started getting rain from Tropical storm Matthew, so because it was raining so hard and the roads are impassable to 2WD vehicles in Santa Rita, I called to see if everybody still wanted to have the class. My call was met with shock, as in, "What do you mean will we be there?" I forgot that it doesn't matter if you have to walk in a tropical storm wearing flip flops through calf deep mud without an umbrella only to arrive where there is no electricity and you have to scream to be heard over rain on a tin roof.

Mercedes and Blanca met me when I first got there, took the keys and headed off while I went to remind the others. I was in my truck yelling from the window at shut up houses, and everybody stuck their heads out saying that they were on their way. When I got to our building everything was set up (tables out, lights on, tablecloth on, and seats out.) All the ground outside our building was covered in water.

This lesson was about who we should be praying for and we talked about praying for our enemies. All five people were there (although they were shivering in our freezing 70 degree weather). Each one already knew when they would be reading and they all really showed an active interest.

Afterwards I asked about them being Christians in Santa Rita. Most said that their parents didn't mind too much. Then Claudia said, "Some people make fun of us for having accepted Christ, but that just means we need to pray for them so that they will accept Him too." Claudia volunteered to pray to close our meeting (Jesús did it last week, which was the first time anybody in Santa Rita besides us has prayed publicly before) and when talking about praying for our enemies she said, "because we know that You change all the bad for good." I loved hearing her pray that, because that was the theme when I taught the life of Joseph, 13 months ago.

They are all really enjoying the fellowship, and we all laugh a lot. It has already become a close group and I believe they are going to be our greatest tool to reach the rest of Santa Rita.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

Tires aren't really that important and even possibly optional here I guess. This truck was missing a few.

Discipleship 101

Both Bible studies are doing great with a strong group of faithfuls in both. Many are interested, but have still not made a decision for Christ. It is different from the States to me in that I wouldn't expect someone who clearly professes to be lost to show up each week to a Sunday service AND bring their own Bible along with homework they did during the week. God is working in them! Please pray that their eyes will be open to the message of the Gospel.

Here is Benedicto, Macarias oldest son that lives in Santa Rita. His family (who are now Christians) told us that they were going to get him to come and they did. He has been coming for a month, so he received his Bible last week!

Here is Vilma! She was the first one in her family to start coming. She is always one of the first to greet us when we drive into the village. She finally turned 9 last week which is old enough to receive a Bible. I also made her read me a passage out of it just to make sure, and she is an excellent reader. She was thrilled... me too!

With all the people that have accepted Christ over the last couple of weeks in Santa Rita we felt it was time to start a discipleship class. Today was the first one and it will be every Saturday afternoon.

Our material is divided up into 8 books, with 60 lessons in all. It will take over a year to go through it. We are very excited about this. There will be 9 going through this first book and then each time Jimmy starts a new one more can jump in.

Jimmy said that there were some great questions today and the comments showed that they already had a good foundation from what they had taken from our regular Bible studies each week. He noticed they were excited about being with others who had made the same decision they had made. It was a safe environment for them. Please keep these new believers in your prayers!

Ice Cream!

21 kids qualified this time to come to the reward party. 9-12 year olds who bring their Bibles, turn in their devotional sheets, and memorize verses earn points each week and then get to spend them on ice cream toppings and other things! We had two new things this time, pineapple topping and plain ol' apples... I sold out. These kids love fruit.

We played tons of games and had a great time! We all went home tired, happy, and full!

Before we went on furlough I was averaging 40+ kids each week in Santa Rita. Since we've been back I have only been running around 30. I wasn't sure what happened. I knew a couple kids had moved and the rest I hadn't seen in a while... and then I figured it out. Yesterday I overheard Jimmy poaching 3 of my favorites faithful ones, telling them that they are old enough to come to the teen/adult time. I see what's going on now. I'm going to have to get some new recruits!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

Tortrix are a very popular snack in Guatemala, they sell them at every tienda. It's a pretty big company I would assume...

Here's their van we regularly see parked in front of stores making deliveries!

Kids' Party

It was time for another reward party for all the points the 9-12 year olds have earned. This time we had it at our home. We all loaded up in the pickup... all 12 of us! It was funny when they got to our house. I think they expected a really fancy place. We do not have a wall, so we do not want our house to look too nice... we would get robbed for sure! They said, “For rich people, this house is not very rich!” That made me laugh. Our house is kind of ugly on the outside. Since we are gringos we are “rich”. I think we are rich, but they are talking about, “we could buy our town” rich. They always say, “your house looks pretty on the inside!”

They have been doing their devotional sheets, bringing their Bibles, bringing visitors, and memorizing verses to earn points. Yesterday they got to spend their points on all kinds of sugar!

I made cupcakes, popcorn balls, and carmel cream sandwiches. Jimmy made candied apples! They were delicious and a very hot item at our “store”! They’ve only had honey apples before. We had tons of interesting candy we found at the party store too. One was miniature propane tanks full of candy... I thought those were very culturally relevant!

I filled them full of pizza, coke, and sugar and then we went outside to play tons of games. Surprisingly we only had one child get sick!

We had 18 qualify, but only 10 got to come due to parents’ issues.