Our Journal: On the road again...Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala

back to Our Walk of Faith

Friday (7/27)
We thought we were leaving Guatemala City today, but God had other plans. Hector walked us to the road that we needed to take to head out of town and then continued on his way to work. Right as we were saying goodbye, this guy dropped a bunch of his tomatoes. I bent down to help him pick them up. He thanked us and we all continued walking. As it turns out

German was going down the same street as us, and he continued to drop vegetables. So Chris and I kept helping him pick them up. We kept chatting back and forth, and German told us that we should go with him. He was going to his church to help prepare for a big celebration. We agreed...and right as we walked up, the

pastor and his wife (Caleb and Ana) drove up. So we talked with them, and then went in to help clean up. The roof had just been replaced, so we helped

sweep, mop, scrape paint, move pews, clean pews, move furniture, etc. Just as we were finishing up,

Gonzalo and Dorcas walked in. They started the church "

Defenders of the Faith" 55 years ago. We really enjoyed hearing some of their stories!

German took us to lunch and we met his family Gabriela, Alejandra, and Israel before going back to the church. Chris and I have eaten a lot of tamales on this journey, but we had no idea how much work goes into making them. We helped

take the seeds out of the peppers and then

I helped wash leaves while

Chris and Raquel took the stems off...we worked for hours and didn't finish! They were preparing

500 tamales for Saturday!!

We ate a quick supper and then went to the

service. All of the pastors for this small denomination were getting into town on Friday and Saturday. So one of them preached the message...pretty cool! German and Gabriela invited us to stay the night with them after the service, so off we went.

Saturday (7/28)
Okay...today it's really time to leave the city...so we headed out again. German, Gabriela, Alejandra, and Israel went the first 20 minutes with us. It was a nice day to walk...tons of traffic though. We came into a town Santa Catalina Pinula about 7 miles later. It was starting to look like rain plus we were ready for lunch. A tan SUV drove by and told us "God bless you" but in English!! We just smiled and waved back. We kept walking...

Chris and I were struggling to make the infamous decision of where to eat when this guy in the McDonald's parking lot came up and started talking to us. He told us that he was a pastor and that he had seen us earlier in the morning, but couldn't stop because of the traffic. He invited us to eat lunch with his family. We agreed, so Darío took us in and introduced us to Susi, Cristian, and Elizabeth. Since it was Cristian's birthday, his friend Andy was also with us. (this picture doesn't have Andy, but it does have Lisa and Diego!!) We excitedly swapped God stories with them in ENGLISH during lunch.

After lunch, they invited us to come back to their house and spend some time with them. Cristian's birthday party was that afternoon, so they wanted us to meet their family and share testimony with them too! It turns out that Darío is also a Optomitrist. Pretty interesting combination!! He and Susi are praying about moving to Rio Dulce where they can spend more time working for the Lord. Another amazing time of connection...they are praying about taking that next step of faith!

Cristian's birthday party was really fun too...we got to meet

Darío's children, Lisa and Diego, Darío's parents, sister-in-law, and nephews. We also met Susi's brother

Ramon and his wife, Wanda. What a great family! We were amazed to learn that most all of them spoke Spanish, English, and German fluently! Susi's parents were from Austria and Germany. There's apparently a pretty significant German influence in Guatemala City. Chris was able to play soccer with the boys and the dads. I talked with Wanda a lot. Their testimony is amazing as well...they are at that take a step of faith point too! It was wonderful talking to her!!

Sunday (7/29) Happy Birthday, Michael! I love you, Little B!!
We went to church this morning at a new church called Intimidad con Dios--Intimacy with God. Well, I would definitely say we felt that! The message and song service spoke to all of us...pretty amazing since Darío and Susi are going through different things than we are...that's how you know that the Holy Spirit was speaking and not the pastor!! He talked about how so often we look for signs and wonders then follow them or we seek God's blessing or we seek riches. He showed the error in those thoughts...you see, signs and wonders follow those who have authentic faith in the Lord--Mark 16:17, blessings come to those who are obedient to God's will--Deuteronomy 28:1-14, and riches pour out on those who walk in God's glory (let God be glorified through their lives)--Isaiah 60:1-7. Then he applied these ideas to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego...you see these guys were sold out for the Lord...they were all about being obedient to God and showing their dedication to Him...even if it meant death. Check out Daniel 3:17-18 "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." You know the rest of the story...if you don't read Daniel 3! Our total focus just has to be on the Lord...not on anything else...we put Him first and He takes care of ALL of the rest!

We spent a lot of time talking to

Darío and Susi that afternoon. That evening several of their friends came over to visit, so we were able to share with

Byron, Lizeth, Emanuel, and David as well. After we had been fellowshipping together for an hour or so, Darío and Susi suggested that we get the kids from the neighborhood together to share our testimony. We were pretty excited!

We went upstairs to pray and to prepare. When we came back down, we were quite surprised at the number of chairs...

and were even more surprised when they all filled up and a lot of the kids had to sit in the floor. Apparently one of the families in the neighborhood has had a really hard time, so they are really seeking the Lord at every opportunity. It was an awesome time of sharing and

singing...I think everyone enjoyed it...kids and adults! Several of the kids made commitments to Christ...oh, how the Holy Spirit was moving! We were so excited!

Cristian and Elizabeth wanted to sleep in the tent, so we just left it up after the talk. When we were heading up to bed, we saw a couple of bags that were packed by the stairs. We were shocked to learn that they were Cristian's...he wanted to walk with us! Several people have said that they want to walk with us, but to our knowledge no one has ever packed their bags! Cristian has such a giving heart...he really wants to serve the Lord. Darío and Susi have done a good job with their kids because Elizabeth is really special too!

Monday (7/30)
We spent some time with Darío and Susi in the morning, then we went next door to hang out with Carlos, Ximena, Memo, and Coe. We made

some play-doe from scratch and

played a little soccer. Then it was time to go pick up Cristian and Elizabeth from school. We went a little early so that we could see the school and meet the principal. They go to a private,

Christian, bilingual school called El Shaddai. The principal was really nice...she even offered us jobs! ha, ha, ha! She also liked the idea of our speaking to the students at chapel on Wednesday. We were pretty excited to have the opportunity to be in a school again, so we agreed!

That evening we played with Cristian and Elizabeth...they wanted to sleep in the tent again, so we put it up for them. We all turned in a little earlier tonight...two nights of staying up late and talking were starting to take their toll!!

Tuesday (7/31)
Chris went with Darío today to look for a slaugter house for some cattle that they are looking to get rid of. He also got to visit

Darío's office and have a little tour of the city. Susi and I did some grocery shopping for dinner...they had invited the pastor and his wife over for dinner. I volunteered to make dessert...I had two recipes in mind, so I had to search to see which ingredients I could find. Finally I decided on Dirt Cake (thanks Robin Adams in Cottondale, Florida)...I couldn't find Cool-whip, so I was going to experiement with heavy cream and powdered sugar. Susi and I had a good time working on the dessert!!

Darío's daughter, Lisa, got home before Chris did, so I was upstairs by myself...it was a perfect time for us to talk! She's a sweetheart too! She shared testimony of how she'd seen the Lord work in her life. She went to Austrailia to share the Gospel a couple of years ago. She really saw God moving and using her there. She had a dream one night with people that she didn't know. The next day she met the man in her dream. He told her that he knew that she had something to tell him...she explained to him what God had revealed to her in the dream, and he was amazed at God's answer to an issue that he's been struggling a lot with!

At supper, we had a good time with P

astor Hector and his wife, Nancy. A mutual friend, David, was also at dinner. We enjoyed hearing how God started the church and how God brought all of them together. Praise God for the intricate plan that He has for our lives!!

Wednesday (8/1)

Susi and Lizeth lead a women's Bible study on Wednesday morning, so they offered us some time to share with the women. We were able to share about Sarah...making decisions of faith not based on fear.

From the Bible study, we went to El Shaddai School. We toured part of the school before chapel and the other half after chapel. It's a state-of-the-art facility with lots of technology and reasonable class sizes. Chapel was really good...we were impressed with how

attentive the students were...Praise God because it certainly wasn't us. One thing that was pretty funny is that we asked how many of them had a boyfriend/girlfriend, and none of them raised their hand....pretty odd for a group of more than 150 teenagers. We found out later that it was against school rules to have a boyfriend/girlfriend at school. Ha, ha, ha...they just didn't want to admit it and get in trouble!!

Several of the students even hung out after we finished...they skipped lunch to chat with us! Then

we went with the teachers to celebrate a birthday...Cheese Cake!! Wahoo!

After we left the school, Darío took Chris and I to his office (so that I could see it too...Darío also gave us contacts--I only had two pair left, he gave Chris some sunglasses, and

he fixed my sunglasses) and to El Shaddai Church--one of the 3 mega-churches in Guatemala City...each of the churches has between 20-30,000 members. Unbelieveable how God is moving in Guatemala!!

That evening, we went with Darío and Susi to the cell group that they lead in their neighborhood. Darío brought a message about faith...Peter walked on water because of his faith...he experienced a faith adventure. After the study, we all had supper together!!

Thursday (8/2)
Sadly enough, it was time to go...we woke up early to see everyone off...Darío had invited us to go to Puerto Barrios with him, but we knew it wasn't the right time. As it turns out, we wouldn't have fit anyway! God is soooo good!

We started walking towards El Salvador...wondering if God would somehow transport us today all the way to the border. Nope...we walked about 7 miles and the sky was almost black...the rain was imminent. Just as we were walking out of a construction zone, Lizeth, Emanuel, and David pulled over. We were so excited to see each other. Just as we put our packs in the trunk and got into the car, it started pouring down rain!! Praise God for His timing. It was getting late by the time it stopped raining, so Lizeth invited us to stay until morning.

We had a good time with them!! Byron made some contacts for us with his friends all across Central America,

David demonstrated several of his catas,

Emanuel helped us scout the road out ahead on Google Earth, and Lizeth showed us her art work!! We had devotion together before we went to bed...God is so good!!

Friday (8/3)
Off we went again...time to walk...today we only walked about 2 miles when a man pulled over and offered us a ride.

Ramiro was headed to Oratorio hauling tile from the City back to his shop.

We made a stop in Cuilapa to drop off some tile. Chris helped him unload it...he wouldn't let me help...I had no idea how much a square yard of tile weighed! Then we continued on our way...Ramiro had a strong hunger for God's Word, so he taught us a lot as we road and listened to him share. When we got to Oratorio, he invited us to lunch and then back to his house. He introduced us to

sugar cane...oh, so tasty! and limes. While we were eating lunch,

Sarah who works with the Peace Corp came in. She's only been in Oratorio for about 2 weeks...hopefully we can stay in touch with her.

It was close to 3 pm when we left his house, but we knew we needed to walk. After about 4 miles, we came to a police check point. We were talking to them a bit and a

pair of officers had to go down the road about 7 miles, so they offered us a ride. Immediately when we got out of their truck,

Luis (a guy who works for the Tourism Commision of Guatemala) was standing there. He took the picture for us, and then offered to give us a ride to the next town. So God gave us several opportunities today to share with people in their vehicles.

When we arrived in Japatagua, we decided to stay in a hotel...we were only about 12-15 miles from El Salvador. We knew that we needed to make some phone calls and get started early in the morning to cross the border at a decent time. Of course, this was part of God's plan, and He had work for us there. At the hotel we met the owner's mother, Maria Estela. She was in quite a bit of physical pain. We talked with her and prayed for her for about an hour. Then we made the phone calls that we needed to make too!!

Well, hopefully the next time I write, we'll be in El Salvador...We'll have to see what God does tomorrow! Hope that you are all doing well! We love you, and God bless you! Keep walking for Jesus!!

1) Some of the kids (and Emanuel) wanted to put up the tent. 2) Several of the kids from the neighborhood.