Day 2 - Guatemala City

Today brought new opportunities to bring Christ’s love into new places. The Mime team went into a large school to perform and share the Gospel for over 700 students at a private but not Christian school. Many of the teachers and administrators were Christians, so they welcomed us with open arms and with a warm reception, treating us as celebrities. After the mime team performed and William presented the Gospel, many students responded to the invitation to accept Christ- over 50! Praise God. Despues (after that) the mime team was able to share the Gospel at a temporary homeless shelter for those who lost their homes during the tropical storm. Over 100 people each night stay at the shelter. God continued to move in great ways during the presentation at this location also. At the end, un muchacho stood in front of the whole group to confess that he has stolen multiple things from those around him, that he was sorry for stealing and that he desperately wanted to change. The team was encouraged to see what God has done and to be a part of it.

The Childrens team traveled with the Mime team. While the Mime team was performing at the high school the Childrens team was about a block away at an English emersion grade school. They played games with and performed for the students (about 100 between the ages of 5 and 11) - they had so much fun the Mime team could hear the noise over a block away! At the second stop the team performed in a little streetside park near the emergency shelter. They had a great turnout there, as well. At the third place the two teams performed together in a park near a school. They drew in families and kids of different ages who were playing in the park. And as the program progressed 3 or 4 classes of students appeared from somewhere, swelling the crowd to 200 or more. Our time was cut short by impending rain, but not before William was again able to preach the message after the Forgiven By His Love sketch. A large percentage of the crowd raised their hands indicating they had prayed with William. As Kari said above, the Spirit is at work here.

Medical had an interesting day at their clinic, seeing 170 patients or so. It was much more efficient now that they are experienced. Between what the doctor had, what was left from the BridgeBuilders team and a little shopping they were able to get the additional medicine needed to treat the range of symptoms and conditions they are seeing this year. The clinic location was a different kinds of interesting today, but the team is very adaptable and took the new “opportunities” in stride.

Service had a much less physical day. They worked at Jaime’s church, painting the support beams that will be used to build a roof over a new children’s area. They enjoyed working in a shaded area after being in the sun so much yesterday. They were able to finish all of the beams, work the church will benefit from for a long time.

We ended the day with a little rain shower and a church service at Jaime’s church. It didn’t seem like a lot of rain, but it was running 6 inches deep in a lot of the roads. The church has a tin corrugated roof so we were able to enjoy the soothing sound of the raindrops (because they nearly drowned out everything else!). The Mime team performed and Mark gave the sermon and we had a good time of worship. A great way to end our time here in the city.

This is our last night in Guatemala City. Tomorrow we plan to leave for San Marcos about 9:30 In the morning. We will be on the road for about 6 hours, so you can be praying for safe travel and good roads. Please continue to pray for health and energy as well. Everyone is doing pretty well which is an answer to prayer, but each day brings new challenges. We will plan to have some of the students write the blog entry for tomorrow so you can hear first hand how they are seeing God work.

Here are a few pictures from some of today’s activities: