Into The Back Country

We woke to the exciting possiblilites of today. What would God do with us ? Would we please him or maybe we would not even measure up ? Well He answered in no uncertain terms.

The day started with breakfast and a trip to Les' where they have set up a concrete block making site. Using a shaker mold they make two blocks at a time, which are then left to dry in the sun. We loaded over 500 of them onto a flatbed truck then took them to Chicacorral, the new elementary/high school where we unloaded and stacked them for the masons.

After lunch we headed up and over the neighbouring ridge and entered a new world. It amazed us that as the crow flys - only 5 or 6 miles away - there are people that do not speak the same language and have not heard of the gospel. We sang songs and put on a skit for them inside their new church. The students spoke of sin and how it separates us from God, they spoke of trust and relying on Jesus.

I did not know you could put that many kids into such a small space. We estimate that there were about 130 children in a 12x30 room along with our team, 4 adults, a solar powered sound system and keyboard. For the crafts and games we moved outside. We had been a little aprehensive about how the community would receive us but, after some initial shyness of the children, our fears were soon gone as the kids and team started to interact. It seemed as if we were just getting started when it was time to leave so we could get off the mountain roads before it got dark.

A quick supper and then we were off to join the youth of the Vida Church in a service in which we sang, shared testimonies and played a game in which we found that Alyssa had a hidden talent for beat box rapping. The evening ended with a pickup basketball game under the lights at the original school site Chamche.

Tomorrow will start with a tour of the new property and the recently opened medical center as well as a tour of Chixim which is the catholic church in Tactic where Mayan ritual, withcraft and catholicism are intertwined

Pray for us as we head to Chicholom for our second day of children's ministry.

All are healthy but a bit tired. I expect that there will be a few sore muscles this morning from all of our block moving!!!