SO SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY! We attempted to blog Tuesday night, but the internet was down at Lauren's house so we couldn't. Well, Monday night we went to dinner at Gerber's family's house. We got to meet Gerber's parents, and another sister. His sister Mirna, from the Proximos Pasos school was there as well. Noah got to play with Gerber's nephew Elvis and they had a great time together. Unfortunately, our camera batteries were charging, so we didn't get any photos, although Gerber did take some and will be emailing them to us at some point. Gerber's parents are such warm, loving and funny people (we laughed all night long)! They work really hard to advance the Kingdom of God in a village called Ixcan(?) I have no idea how to spell it, so I might be spelling it wrong. In this village they build wells, and houses for people who often literally stick a bunch of sugar cane together and call it a house. They have also been building a house and library for pastors to stay in to come share with the village, and they are putting together materials for local indigenous pastors to use in teaching the villagers about Christ. They do a VBS in December for 4 different villages in the area and have a minimum of 250 kids per VBS (that's right 1000 kids!) many of which have never heard the name of Christ before and now have a deep and lasting love for Him! The villages in Ixcan are incredibly poor, more so than any of the poverty that we saw, so it is really a large task for them to undertake. We provided them with a suitcase full of school supplies from Kids Avenue for their work in Ixcan, and they told us they would be using them for both their VBS outreach and their pastor support (many of the local pastors don't have any supplies: no commentaries, Bibles, paper, pens, anything...) Please pray for this wonderful family and the incredible work they do with these very needy people. Gerber's dad told us that our kids in GCCC were doing a wonderful service to Christ in helping people they have never and will probably never meet in the name of Christ. It was very emotional to hear him speak about the eternal difference some little kids in NJ can make simply by donating some school supplies.
After dinner, Jaci was dressed in authentic Guatemalan tipica. There were photos don't worry, but they will have to be posted when we get them sent to us by Gerber!
The last day in Guatemala was spent at the school in Santa Lucia (check out the pic above of Noah and I with Optimus Prime holding a Bible!), where Noah once again played soccer and some kick ball with the boys. He was nicknamed "Noah the Knight" by some of the boys and they really seemed to flock to him. He even said "I wonder what I did that made me so popular?" We worked with 4 more classes on Tuesday, and taught them both You Are Good and Mighty To Save. The "Mighty To Save" worship time was amazing. The kids really worshipped the Lord and all of us felt the presence of the Lord there in the classroom. It was quite an amazing experience. We also presented the school with the supplies donated by GCCC's Kids Avenue.
After we were done, we had a luncheon with Wally (the principal of the school) and the teaching staff. They each shared a little bit about what they do and Wally shared the vision of the school to really provide these kids with the education they need, but also to share Christ with them and their families. He talked of the many people in the community that had come to Christ as a result of the school since its inception in 1999. Tuesday night we went out to dinner at an Italian place to celebrate both my birthday and Lauren's birthday. It was a great dinner and we returned to Lauren's house to pack and go to sleep! Our Guatemalan experience was phenomenal. It really opened our eyes to the work that is to be done our there and the wonderful people serving God in very difficult circumstances. Please pray about a return visit next summer and the possibility of joining us on this very exciting spiritual battlefield for the Lord!
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