Sunday

Sunday morning brought a cool breeze and many smiles as we all awoke in Guatemala! With breakfast at 8, we had a leisurly time getting ready for church only to get to breakfast and find out that church started at 10 instead of 930. haha Welcome to Guatemala!! Church was a great experience. Angel A gave her testimony on true joy found only through God. She did a great job!! Angelica helped translate the welcome part of the service. Our whole group got on stage to sing ¨How Great is our God¨ with Sam debuting his guitar skills in public. Xiomara, Christian the pastor´s wife, gave the sermon and she is such a passionate speaker. There wasn´t a translator because she speaks so fast that it would have been hard to translate!

While at breakfast, we were joking about how hungry we would be at lunch after only sitting in the service. Sure enough, stomach were growling and ready for food! They even surprised us with ice cream cones for dessert!

After lunch was free time. Most of our group was anxious to get to the orphanage! Marshall and Foster packed a few soccer balls, which helped start a rousing game. Rick and Graham were goalies - Graham was pummeled! Steve spent the game running and running and running. The kids who play soccer at the orphanage are ruthless. Aaron was also in on the game and all the boys who played were definitely sweaty when they stopped! Zach and Sam made it up to the orphanage a little later ready to take over where the others stopped except they were playing basketball with the soccer balls. Of course, the kids couldn´t let them win so they would hold the bottom of the basketball net so the balls couldn´t get through and they would hit them out the top so the boys couldn´t score any points. The girls of our group went a little more mellow with the activities. Angel A, Angel S, Angelica and Natalie were painting fingernails (and got their own painted as well). Marie, a woman from the western shore who is joining us for the week, spent much of the afternoon handing out candy and hugging on the girls. Brenna spent her afternoon loving on her kids. When she got off the bus, a lot of the orphans started chanting her name. It was cute :)

Showers were taken to rinse off sweat and dinner was inhaled by many of the team. Again, with all the fresh air and orphan playing, we were HUNGRY! We loaded the bus again and off to evening church we went! This time we attended the church in Rosario. The worship band at Rosario is the group of Cubans that play at the parties in the cabana or in town. They are so fun to listen to. Pastor Chris, from the small group from Texas, preached on discipling people not only in other countries but also in our own ¨Jerusalems¨. It was a great reminder that while we are on the missionfield now, we are also called to do the same in our own towns.

Today is an exciting day and a monumental day for the mission and personal for our team. I´m not going to share just yet what will be happening but we are dressed as Team Green and ready to go!! Please pray for safety and continued great health and open hearts today.