Ladies Day

There are about 74 homes in Santa Rita and we had over 90 ladies come (13 and up), so we were very excited and thankful for this turnout. It was wonderful getting to know the ladies. Our team did a great job of pampering the ladies today.

1. Washing, exfoliating, & filing.

2. Massage, moisturize, & paint

Decorating new shoes for their new feet!

All the ladies were so friendly. This lady is Berta. She is in charge of the women’s committee in Santa Rita. She came to tell all of us thank you!

In the evening the team got to eat dinner at the new Pollo Campero in Santa Elena. It’s a famous fried chicken restaurant in Guatemala.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: About 2 minutes away from Santa Rita a fuse blew on our bus and we broke down. The electric company was working on some power lines nearby and was nice enough to tow our bus with a rope the rest of the way. Abel our driver had it fixed soon after we arrived.

Kids' Day

The team spent Thanksgiving Day in Santa Rita hosting Kids Day. We are so thankful for the turnout we have been having. We had over 80 kids come on Thursday. Santa Rita is a little smaller than New Horizon, so that is almost all of the kids here. Many of the parents stayed and heard the entire plan of Salvation. Ladies Day was a success too. We had at least 90 ladies 13 and up come. Our team is doing a great job sharing God’s love with this community. We got to invite many people to our Bible study next week. Please pray that God keeps the door open!!! We are all exhausted. I will post ladies day photos soon.

Registration:

Game Time:

Face Painting:

Puppet/Song Time:

The parents seemed to like this station the best!

Craft Time:

Group Time:

Samantha giving her testimony

Becca teaching the lesson

The need is so great in Santa Rita because there is no Gospel there. After Becca explained sin she asked the kids how to get to Heaven they said, “Don’t sin”. All the parents were sitting in the back nodding their heads to the things Becca was saying. Please pray that they will let their kids come to the Bible study and learn all about Salvation and the Lord.

Afterwards each team got their own piñata!

For Thanksgiving dinner we went to Cristina’s house in Remate. She is the owner of Las Puertas.

She cooked a wonderful meal with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, cherry sauce, and a special pumpkin desert. This was the first time Cristina has ever cooked a turkey! She EVEN took pictures. It was delicious!

Thursday was a tough day. Thanksgiving will from now on be extra special to us because it was the day our sweet baby was due. We know God’s plans are perfect and He wants the very best for us. That we can trust Him with that is what we are thankful for.

Thank you to everyone who let us borrow a member of your family over Thanksgiving. They have been a huge blessing to us and the people here! God is going to do great things with all the seeds that they have been planting. This is just the beginning of a beautiful story!

Medical Clinic Day 1

Yesterday we went to the Kekchi village of Esquipulas. It was about 2 hours down a dirt road. It is another village without the Gospel that Domingo and José found.

This is what our drive looked like!

This is what the houses looked like along the way.

There was another scary bridge. This one actually bowed just from us walking across it, but we made it over in both pickups.

This is a new ex-guerilla community that is still being built halfway down the dirt road. It is called Nueva Santa Rosa. Maybe someday we can go there!

Andy is very fast and organized. He was able to see the entire village in a matter of 4 hours!

A crowd is watching the doctor the whole time.

Did you recognize Gregory! We took him to be our translator from Spanish to Kekchi. Andy said he did a great job!

When Jimmy first spoke to Gregory about going with us, he was a little concerned. Gregory is Kekchi and he knew that you cannot just show up in a village uninvited. Domingo and José have taken several trips to Esquipulas already. The first time they just buy a Coke at the store and talk to some people. Each time they stay a little longer and get to talk to more people. Finally they ask if we can either hold a medical clinic or show a video. Sometimes they say yes and sometimes they say no. We would never be able to get into these villages without Domingo and José. Gregory was relieved to hear all this! Gregory is originally from Alta Verapaz which is the department below Petén. He said that he had no idea that there were so many Kekchi villages who had never heard the Gospel. He kept saying, “So they don’t know anything about God?” He said there were tons of churches in Alta Verapaz. Right now Gegory is in “jr college” studying to be an accountant... that would be a great job to have and pastor at the same time!!!! We do not know what God has planned for him. It will be interesting to see what God lays on his heart. Please pray for him.

Gabriel and Sheila ran the pharmacy. They are newlyweds from Guate. They just moved to San Benito (the town right next to Santa Elena) two weeks ago. Petén is like a different country compared to Guate, so they are experiencing a little culture shock too. Sheila got Dengue fever her first week here. Petén likes to welcome it’s missionaries! They will probably be starting a Spanish work in the tri-city area (San Benito, Santa Elena, Flores). They are about 45 minutes from us.

Jimmy and I took our Kekchi books and were able to practice our few words and phrases. The kids usually spoke a little Spanish. They could read the Spanish in our books but not the Kekchi. I think they are the first generation to learn to read, but there are no materials available to them in Kekchi, so they learn to read Spanish.

Please pray for the village of Esquipulas. We will probably be going back soon to show the Jesus film. Real life changing decisions take time. Please pray that God will open their eyes to the message of the Gospel. Thanks!