Hola! Our last greeting from the wonderful city of Guatemala for another year! We will write at least one more blog to summarize our time and feelings, and to let all know we arrived home safe and sound when we get back stateside on Monday. But because we know you are waiting with baited breath to see what we did each and every day, we wanted to provide a brief report on our adventures today.
Our day began once again piling in the van for another road trip. (What are we going to do when we get back home and have to ride in a vehicle with only one or two people? It’s going to be awkward for a while, to say the least!) Anyway, our adventure today took us to the quaint little town of Antigua. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Los Palmas and then walked around the town.
We walked to the silver shop which is a special place in the hearts of many previous team members. I’m not sure if it was because of the poverty we saw all this week or what it might have been, but funny thing was, our hearts just weren’t into spending a lot of money on jewelry. Hmmmm. Interesting.
After a brief time at the silver shop we happened upon a wedding at one of the cathedrals and just had to take a little peek inside. Interestingly enough, the bride leads the procession, and then the attendants and parents follow. Funny thing was the bride processed in to “Here comes the bride”. Hmmmm. Interesting.
After the wedding, we went to the market to shop. We had just a couple of hours to view a large number of stalls, but we still managed to find plenty of bargains and wonderful souvenirs to help us remember our time in Guatemala.
And speaking of remembering, what a memory God created for us tonight! As we were finishing devotions (and as God would have it, our devotion happened to be on memories, and what a wonderful gift from God they are), we had a most wonderful surprise. Cesar, who has only been with the ministry full-time since February (we were his first “team”) and his mother came to bring us a special treat. Cesar’s father had made us each (15 in total, one for each team member, Ginny, and Kevin, and the other two are a secret so as not to spoil the surprise) a special bread that is made for Holy week. Now so you can truly appreciate this act of kindness, not only did it take Cesar’s father six hours to make these special breads, but Cesar and his mother had to ride a bus for 30 minutes, after dark, with Cesar’s mama carrying this basket of bread on her head. (Of course, after many tears, words of encouragement, thanks, and praise to God, they had to walk back to the bus stop, and then ride another 30 minutes, even later at night, to go back home.) Talk about being awestruck and humbled. And just as we dried these tears and said our heartfelt goodbyes we had another surprise. Sandra and her sister stopped by to tell us goodbye.
Again, these two girls had to travel over an hour and a half one way to get here merely to thank us again for all we did and to tell us goodbye. Funny thing was, it was Sandra who did so much for us this week. Sandra is approximately 4’10” but packs a dynamite love for the Lord and works tirelessly for the ministry and for her Lord and Savior After riding a bus for an hour and a half to get to work at the ministry, she works from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (well, usually more like 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. before she leaves), riding another hour and a half to go home, she goes to church for Bible Study. Every night she goes to church. And then she gets up the next day, and does it all over again, except for on Saturday when she goes to school all day (and then church at night), and Sunday, when she goes to school for a half a day (and then church at night).
This blog is probably the most difficult one that has been written this week. Not because we didn’t do anything or because we didn’t have anything to say, but because there really truly is no words or any way to say what we are feeling right now. So in closing, we will simply say, “God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.”
