Day 2

Its the end of the first full day of service. Everyone is pretty tired, but its a good tired.  Every team came back talking about how responsive the audiences had been and hpw much fun they had interacting with the kids and students.  Medical saw over 200 people - a pretty good start!  The clinic was at a school/orphanage in the heart of Guatemala City.  They could see the faces of the people in the windows of the airliners landing at the nearby international airport.  Many of the people that came were families, mostly moms with 2 or 3 children.  It was a joy to be able to serve these people because they don't often have access to medical care.  But it was also difficult, knowing that for some we did not have the necessary medicine or they needed more in-depth and longer-term care.  The school where the medical clinic was held has a drum and bugle corps so they did a presentation for the team at the end of the day.  A prayer request for them would be for emotional strength to deal with the range of ailments they will be seeing as well as physical strength to carry on through the long, hot days.

Sports and drama took their show on the road, going to several schools around the city.  They did not fare so well on the soccer pitch, but the put up a valient effort and made a good impression on the Guatemalan students.  The drama was very well received.  At one school they visited in the morning the principal was so impressed with the skit that she asked the team to come back in the afternoon, even if it was just to perform the skit for the afternoon students.  A prayer request for them would be energy.  Both the games and the drama require a lot and they are a small team.

Service worked at the Iglesia Renuevo, hanging some sheetrock, doing some plumbing and painting as well.  They are getting a nice variety of experiences and the church members are very grateful to have the work done.  A prayer request for them would be safety as they are tackling many different jobs.

The mime presented their program 3 times today and all went very well.  They had a pretty good turnout at each location and the program was wel-received at each stop. A prayer request for them would be both physical and spiritual energy.  It takes a lot of both to do the presentations so many times over the course of the trip and be fully engaged in every presentation.

For all health is always a prayer request. So far everyone is doing great and we are praying that continues. Its hot and rainy, but the sleeping conditions are good and we're eating lots of really interesting food. After tonight's dinner we had the added treat of 3 birthday cakes as we celebrated the birthdays of Garrett, Emily and Jordie.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will follow a schedule similar to today's.  Tonight we have a student service wth Iglesia Renuevo.  Its starting with a time of praise and worship through (very loud!) music.  That is followed by testimonies from both a few members of the church and a few from our team.  The students and leaders are all enjoying the oppotunity to worship with those we have been serving with today.

Our word for today comes from the pastor, in a brief message from Philippians 1:6 - "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."  His point was that we need to keep in mind that even as we are serving others for Christ he is still working in our lives and to be open to that growth as well. A good message to help set the results of the day in the context of eternity.

Have a good evening, and thank you for your comments.  I will be sure to make them available to the team as they are a great encouragement.  Following are a few pictures from the last couple days.