Dinner for Couples - 2

Playing the "heart" game using Scriptures with their mate.

Dinner for Couples

God is so, so faithful to always glorify His name through his Word!  We experienced such joy this past Saturday night as we saw how focusing on what He says in his Word about marriage brought tears to the eyes of the couples who attended the dinner especially made for them!
Let me explain...  Twenty couples attended our second "Cena para Parejas".  The purpose of this dinner was to emphasize how important our marriages are to our Lord because he has ordained them to be a picture of Christ and the body of Christ, or believers.  Not much is said here about this subject and most marriages here present the opposite picture.   A young couple who are also ministering in our church produced some professional booklets to give to each couple who attended, with 7 challenges from the "Fireproof" book, in Spanish and written appropriately for this culture.  We took photos of each couple, then gave them a word game to work on as the other couples arrived using verses of Scripture that were written on hearts and placed all around the room.  Our precious Marta, from Las Buenas Nuevas, because of how this particular dinner positively affected her marriage last year, prepared "pepian", a tipical chicken and rice dish which was delicious!  We had a special message, and played Newlywed type of games.  All in all, God made this dinner a wonderful success and we are praying that He will continue to use the concepts from the booklets to speak to the hearts of every couple who attended. 

discipleship groups

Last night was the kick-off for the new year with our respective men's and senorita's groups.
 We invited all of them together to share some hotdogs and fixins, then separated for the evening.  Niel started with games from "Minute to win it", which the guys loved, then talked about the steps of a Christian life.  10 guys committed once again to meet once a week with a partner for prayer, Bible study, and accountability! Encouraging men here to be vulnerable with each other is a very long process, but we are praying that the Holy Spirit will use these guys to spread that enthusiasm to the rest.

The girls from the youth group meet at our house about once every 5-6 weeks for a Bible study and usually some kind of craft.  Last night our study title was how the Christian life is like a race.  One of the girls volunteered to model all kinds of extra clothing representing sin in our life that we need to throw off if we want to run the "race" well (I wish I had a picture of that).  After the study, two of our women taught the girls how to make earrings.  They really enjoyed that!

All in all, we trust that God was glorified in the evening and our "hermanos in Cristo" were encouraged in their walk with Christ!

Vacation Bible School

VBS!  We invited some students from the Biblical SEminary in Chimaltenango and Guatemala City to come and help us since we have no pastor at this time.  They were awesome and great examples to the teenage helpers from our own church.

The theme of the week was "Cambio de Rumbo" which means Change of Course, which spoke to unbelievers and believers alike. On Thurs. the story was of Phillip and the Ethiopian where Phillip tells him the story of Jesus and he responds by trusting Christ as Savior.  So, that day, we emphasized the need for salvation and gave the kids an opportunity to trust Christ. These are the kids who responded to our invitation.  We are praying that some of these 60 kids were sincere in their desire and will continue to grow.  We got all their addresses and hope to visit all of their families in the next 3 months.   We gave each of them a wordless book bracelet to help them remember

 

 their decision.  We spent some time with this group explaining what salvation means.

Can't forget snack time!

 Our 9-11 yr. olds made pinatas.  They were very excited and many showed some great creativity!  The large group was divided into 5 groups.  Each group had the task to paint their pinatas with the theme of one of the Bible stories.

 

 Usually each VBS has a small "store" where the kids can buy small snacks, but each day one of the groups from the church also gives a substantial snack.  So this year we decided to give the kids an alternative to put their money.  We made a styrofoam church bank and encouraged them to give their small change to a missionary.  Made about $15 to send to a Guatemalan family who are serving in Spain.  Not a lot, but it's a start of getting them to think about missions.  We also had a mission story every day.

What a great week!  Started with 150 and had 200 by the end of the week.   

 

Making pinatas!  Very messy, but extremely gratifying.

 These were our 3-5 yr. olds.  In the space of 10 X 20 feet, there were 45 little ones.  We had one teacher and 3 helpers for this group, which we really needed!  But as you can see, they had a wonderful time!

 

All in all, it was a wonderful week and we praise our Father in heaven for the opportunity to  minister to so many children in the community and plant seeds of the gospel in their hearts. Thanks to everyone who donated crafts and finances to help with this year's VBS!

Finding room for so many kids in our small sanctuary was a challenge.

health returns!

Just a few lines to thank everyone for praying for our health.  Diana is well again from this last very strong virus, without the continuing problems that she had last year after a similar virus, so we are very thankful!  Also, Niel is struggling with his second kidney infection in a month, so he plans to see a specialist in the city before we leave for the states in a couple of weeks.
This week is Vacation Bible School at our church here in Panajachel.  Had 200 kids today!  Ran out of supplies and chairs, but everyone enjoyed themselves!  We're all tired, but happy that God's Word and His precious Gospel is going out to so many in our community.  Will write again when it is over and post photos.

Sister Visit

Diana's sister, Linda, visited Guatemala for two weeks in October.  While she was here, we visited the Mayan ruins in Tecpan, the biggest mercado in Guatemala at Chichicastenango, and the west coast where there are black sand beaches and a very dangerous undertow.
We had a great time and it went by really fast!  She even brought down a great many items that we need for Vacation Bible school this year, for which we are very thankful to her S.S. class and fellow workers at her Quaker workplace.

 
The roads around Guatemala are still quite dangerous.
They are planning to shut down the road for 2 or 3 months on the mountain road
that was hit so badly by mudslides during our rainy

season .  That leaves the mountain road on the other side of Panajachel, which is barely passable, with a new walking suspension bridge over the chasm.  In one place as we were coming back on that route, we saw 3 large rocks in the road that we supposed were caused by a slide and had we continued past them,and we could have, we would have fallen off the edge of the road into the river.  By the grace of God, there was a truck in front of us that knew the way, so they went down this dirt path and through the river to the other side, so we followed them.  A little scary, but these days in Guatemala, we are getting used to that, and that just causes us to trust in our sovereign Lord more.

"Feria" in Panajachel

Once a year every little town in Guatemala celebrates it's patron saint with a "fair day".  It is celebrated by a huge market, lots of vendors selling everything, parades, dancing, fireworks, and old U.S. fair rides.  It is so sad to see the Catholic church as it thanks "San Francisco", also celebrate with Mayan ceremonies, dances and freaky costumes.