Guatemala Trip - Day 5

Day 5: Another amazing day! As the team put it – “the best day yet!” “Why?”, You ask. Well I am glad you did.

The morning began with our usual devotions talking through the Matthew 5 text where Jesus tells His disciples that he did not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it. And then He encourages them to have a righteousness that surpassed the righteousness of the Pharisees in order to enter the Kingdom of God. To the people of the day, they must have wondered if anyone would be able to make it. How could they be more “righteous” than the Pharisees? We talked about the fact that when Christ gives you His righteousness, it is perfection! There is none other who can claim that level of excellence, nor can anyone add to what He has done. We were motivated to live our life in a way that the perfection of Christ was ever before us, and that in our weaknesses, He is made strong.

After devotions, we headed to Las Vistas (Spanish for “ the views”) and believe me, what a view it was. The pictures that I will put on facebook will not be able to capture the view that we had from the top of that mountian (nearly 7,000 feet above sea level). The view was amazing, but even more amazing was the opportunity to meet about 200 children and to encourage them, to talk with them, to give them candy, to hug and kiss them, to share the love of Jesus with them. Especially one little boy named, Ludsvin. Ludsvin is the child my family sponsors, so it was a joy to visit with him (he is 4 years old) and to talk with him, show him pictures of the family on the computer, and to give him the gifts that the kids picked out. We looked at his toys. I let him play on my computer. We just spent the time talking about things. He was anxious, I believe, because he thought I was there to take him away, but eventually he settled down. We had a great visit, and then it was time for him to go.

There were a couple of other kids that we met today that I want to remember. In a 3-4 year old class, we met a young girl who's mother died last year of cancer, and just last week her father died in an accident. She lives with her grandmother and her 2 siblings. She needs my prayers. Another boy we met introduced himself to Pedro by saying, “I have a tumor in my head so I forget a lot.” Finally, we met a miracle boy. Born with his heart outside his chest, the doctors did not give him much chance to live. He had a corrective surgery where they placed the heart under the skin (above the breastplate). They lifted his shirt to show the scar, and you could actually see his heart beating just a few centimeters below the skin. He is 8 years old. He should have been dead years ago, but God has allowed him to continue to grow. He needs my prayers as well, as corrective surgery is not a possibility, so he needs to be very careful.

Around 11:30 we left Las Vistas, and headed to “Pollo Campero.” (Chicken Country – a KFC type joint). We ate lunch with Brian, 4 of the translators, and 11 of the maintenance guys we have been working with all week. I had the chance to give the guys a brief back massage as they were waiting for the meals, and they really had a good time laughing at the responses of each other as they writhed in pain from the rub. We enjoyed the fellowship and food together. I was able to spend some time talking with Walter – I really enjoy hanging out with him. He is a monster of a man, but a soft servant as well. It is fun to watch him with the kids, but it is even cooler listening to his heart as he talks.

Following lunch, we went to Verbena to meet with the other sponsored children from Fellowship Bible Church. We had a wonderful time talking and presenting gifts. Asking questions, sharing information, showing pictures (I was able to show the girls from Filadelfia the pictures from the BOL trip last December). Then we went to the basketball court to play hoops. Some of the team were playing against the kids, while I was on the side playing the guitar and showing pictures on the computer. The kids loved it. Eventually – as you can imagine – I had to get out there and play some ball. Four of our team (myself included) played against 10 of the kids, and it was a lot of fun. Eventuallly the maintenance men came by and we hung out with them on the basketball court.

When they had to go, we found out that Brian had a late meeting, so we ended up sitting down and doing our end of day recap outside. What a wonderful time of rehashing the day and rehearsing all of the wonderful conversations and events with these sponsored kids. We talked for about an hour or so, then we ended up coming back to Thelma's. Dinner was a beef and potato mixture over rice with mixed vegetables. As always it was delicious. We finished dinner, played Rage, then the team went to their rooms to journal and pray. It was by far the best day yet. I love what I do, and am blessed to be able to serve God in this capacity.

To date, we have over 1700 pictures taking up over 2 Gig of memory on my computer. I can't wait to get home to show everyone!! Tomorrow we are back to work painting, and hopefully doing house visits throughout the day. It is because people are praying that we have been able to see God do such amazing things.