High Places: Guatemala Day #4

VBS Bible study

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45 CSB

We've had another wonderful day of ministry.

Run down of the Day:

Our day began with a challenging devotion from Jay Dalton, based on Mark 10:31. After prayer we loaded up at 7:30am and headed out to Ricon Chiquito. One of our guys, David, was a little under the weather today so he stayed behind and took some medicine for his bad cold. Once again we hit a traffic delay and were a little late getting to our ministry stations. (Traffic has been bad every day so far). Once we arrived half of the team went to the school for VBS and the other half went to the construction site, which was just down the hill from where we worked yesterday. Once again, the family we were building for fed us lunch and we wrapped up VBS and completed the second house. We got back to the mission house and had a little time to clean up before supper. During supper we got to watch the Guatemala soccer (futbol) match with one of our hosts and had a great time. After supper we had one of the best times of sharing that we've since we've been here.

Reflections on the Day

1. Jay Dalton led the first devotion he had ever done before. He had a great message on Mark 10:31, "But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” He then shared different Scriptures where Jesus cared for the least important people of His day (children, a blind man, etc). Jay made a statement in his teaching that Jesus went to the least important and treated them like the most important people to Him. He concluded by reminding us that to be great in God's kingdom, you have to serve others. It was the perfect word from the Lord that we needed to hear.

2. Our team continues to shine the light of Jesus in the face of schedule disruptions. Traffic has been bad every day this week, usually the result of an accident. Our team takes it in stride, using the time on the bus to talk and continue to get to know one another. We are very thankful for our bus driver Samuel, and handles the traffic with patience and ease. It has also rained every day this week, but thankfully the rain has always held off while we were doing VBS and construction.

3. It was an emotional last day in VBS. We really didn't know what to expect before we came here, other than we would be working at a school and we should expect around 65 kids. The school is actually a Christian school in the village and is a ministry of a local church. The pastor's wife is one of the principals and she and some other teachers have been helping our team. The school is actually in session, but they shut down morning classes so we could do VBS. Today, Lydia shared the gospel with the older groups and offered to counsel with anyone who would like to become a follower of Jesus. No one responded today, but she encouraged them to talk with the pastor or his wife if they had any questions afterwards. She said that she could tell that many of the kids had church backgrounds and Christian teaching because they knew the answers to the questions about who Jesus is and what He has done. She also said some of the kids had Catholic backgrounds so we're praying that seeds of the gospel were planted and watered these last two days. At the end of VBS the pastor's wife thanked our group for coming and talked about how much the kids loved our group, and how much of a difference we had made in the children's lives. More than a few tears were shed by some on our team. Also, below is a brief video of a song the kids would greet the workers with each day.

4. Though our construction team got a bit of a late start, we moved pretty quickly getting the second house built (we had a little experience under our belt, lol). Our team has worked well with the construction leaders and everyone has done a great job. We learned today that the husband of the family we built the house for is also named Francisco, but he goes by Chico. He and his wife have 9 children, but only 7 live in the home. Though the house we built was only about 12'x12' it is still bigger than where they were living. We also provided a new stove for them. Chico was there and worked with us all day. They were very appreciative of their new place.

5. We also learned that Chico and his family are Christians and are members of the local church that runs the Christian school. However, Poncho and his wife that we built the house for yesterday are not members. The pastor and one of his sons has worked with us both days and are building a relationship with Poncho and his family in order to reach them with the gospel. We didn't realize it, but Servants Hearts Ministries works through local churches on projects like this to help the churches reach their communities.

6. Vicinio, who is the lead missionary this week has had a lot of responsibilities thrown on him because the founding missionaries, and Vicinio's wife are all in the states caring for family members who are in the last days of their lives. Vicinio has done a great job keeping things going, and he has been a joy to work with. Another man, Mono, works with Vicinio in construction, and he has been a joy to work with also. "Mono" means "monkey" in Spanish and he is a real cut-up. He and Vicinio have both been very patient and encouraging, challenging some of our team members to do things out of their comfort zone. It has been a great experience.

7. Our team has continued to bond and to grow together. We prayed and asked you to pray for unity among our group and the Lord has been answering those prayers. We have cried, encouraged and laughed a lot with other. It has really been a time of growth in our lives.

Tomorrow is going to be our last official day of ministry. We were scheduled to go to a food market and buy food for food boxes, but because Vicinio has other things he needs to take care of later this week, he went ahead and purchased the food for us. Tomorrow we will go to the school in the morning and pack the food boxes and then the families will come to the school to get the food. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel or words of encouragement with the families that come. Tomorrow after lunch we will go back to the homes we have built for a time of dedication with the families. We also have some quilts that were donated that we will be giving to them. I am sure it is going to be another emotional day for us as we say good buy to new friends.

Check out the video and a few pics from today: