Chanco!!!

Hola, Church!  We have been without internet so we didn’t get to update you yesterday-here’s what you missed yesterday and what we’ve been up to today!

Sunday:

Your mission team to Guatemala began our day with a devotion and a wonderful home cooked, group eaten highly appreciated breakfast prior to departing on a 3.5 hour car trip to our mission site. Leaving the metro area of Guatemala City, we were soon immersed in sights and sounds of verdant mountains, brightly blooming flowers and true Guatemalan culture. Folks with their budens on their heads, road side stands(no sweet grass baskets!) and traffic that would give our cops apoplexy with constant passing, horns blowing and construction projects to clear landslides.

God has created a truly beautiful world with truly beautiful people…gracious, patient Guatemalans who are willing to allow us to share what Jesus has done for us. Arriving in Jocotan at our hotel, we took a few minutes to unpack and then saddle back up for a twisting, precipitous route up rocky, unpaved mountain roads with grand vistas all around. And no one succumbed to motion sickness!! Steep drop offs with no guard rails, cattle on the road, pedestrians, motorcycles and horses. Our native driver did an awesome job.

We found that one of our native pastors in training was in the hospital with appendicitis. Surprised us…but not God. He still had plans for us to prayer walk the village in which we would be sharing. And we were able to meet several locals as we walked. How encouraging in spite of what the evil one tried to bring against us.

You know, the really neat thing is that these trials have knit us together as a tighter family. What the devil meant for evil, God used for His glory. What an awesome God we serve.

Tonight, heavy rain, electrical outage but God still shone through. We wrapped up our day with prayer, a devotion and some great songs led by Larry.

-Dennis

Monday:

Day 2 con Chorti

Today we started out early, 7 AM!!!! Translate that to our time back home we gained an extra 2 hours for slumber, it was amazing. Breakfast was fantastic, as was our morning devotional. The ride from where we are staying in Jocotan and up the mountain into Chanco was breathtaking. The mountains of Guatemala are truly God’s masterpiece, especially with the morning sunrise and clouds laying low in the valley. We were able to set-up, praise God, in the village school. The children are out for their summer break, and we had the place to ourselves. There were 7-8 nationals who came in for us to disciple them, since a few of us were not needed we decided to go knocking on doors. We were able to visit with a young husband and his wife and have conversation about their faith. They were both of a strong Catholic background but they were able to understand an could tell us about who Jesus was. The ones who stayed back at the school had a great experience this morning too. They taught the nationals about the doctrine of salvation. This teaching is an integral part of the work we are doing, since the ultimate goal is to have a church planted in this village. We had a nice siesta on the school grounds after our lunch, all while being serenaded by the sound of rain on the tin roof. The afternoon came, and we broke up into two teams to go into homes to disciple. Both teams had very intentional and promising experiences with the people. It became very obvious that these folks have been told the story of Jesus before, but they all didn’t have a strong relationship with Him. We were able to share with them our testimonies as well as some scriptures to help them know exactly why we believe the Bible and in Jesus. The seeds of hope have been planted, we know they will grow and flourish into a thriving Church in Chanco.

Please pray for our health and safety, and for more open doors tomorrow!

-Jason