Day 6 Rest and Relaxation

We visited the park this year where the Mayan replicas are displayed and viewed a nice overlook of the Lake Amitilan area.

Later we drove to the cross that overlooks Antigua and the Volcano Agua.

 
We enjoyed our day shopping and taking a few pictures from the hotel.

Day 5

Our final day of ministry was visiting more classrooms doing a drug education game and discussion with the students. In this classroom the teacher participated with his class. He was a great role model for his students.

 



 The "field of temptation" was a way that the children could name things in their lives that cause them to sin. It was a good way to present to them the friends that may cause them to sin or friends that keep them from falling into sin. The other children watched carefully and encouraged the pair to not step on the paper sheets that were all named different sins.

 

 

It was a great week of ministry as we worked with 800 - 1,000 students throughout the week at this school. We created many relationships and they are looking forward to our return next year.

 



Even the teachers and principals were great to work with as well.

 
 



Day 4

We had a little different schedule today.  The school was doing a fund raiser for one of their teachers that has had to undergo a series of surgeries and complications on his leg. We were not able to see as many children today because of this request in the morning.

After lunch we were able to work with 2 classrooms playing whiffle ball. We had the children play catch with each other and take some batting practice. Between playing catch and batting practice, we talked with the classes about a relationship between teamwork on the field and the members of the body of Christ. We prayed with the children to ask Jesus into their hearts and many of them prayed to receive Christ.

We also had 2 other classrooms that enjoyed our Bible stories, songs and puppet presentations. We have perfected a short presentation and interactive time working with the children to our constrained 40 minutes time allotment.

Denice and I visited with a family near the school for prayer at the conclusion of our ministry today. The family had recently lost a child that was 2 days old. We were able to spend time with the family through a translator and offer prayers and some food for the family.

We went back to the cabins and had dinner and devotions to conclude day 4.

Day 3

Today was basically the same program as yesterday. We split the team into sharing the gospel with the older children and the younger children. We had the same number of classrooms that we visited and were able to do the same activities.

We have seen a total of 20 classrooms so far and have shared the gospel with so many children. The children like to come up to us throughout the day at their recess and visit with us.

We played catch with another 2 classes today of whiffle ball. Again, we paused during our time playing catch to talk with them about Christ.
 

We concluded our ministry today by going to a store like Costco and having pizza. Some of the team members bought some coffee and we also bought some soccer balls for the children at school to play with during recess.

It has been hard this year keeping up with the blog as I have had very little access to the internet. I hope to add pictures soon, but it may not be until we get home.

We are all still doing okay health wise, but please keep praying for continued good health, safety and team unity.

Dios te bendiga.

Day 2

Our day started at 7AM and we had a nice pancake breakfast with fruit and coffee.

 

We got started at the school just before 9AM. We divided the team into 2 separate teams to work with the younger children and the older children.

The team that worked with the younger children was able to present to 5 classrooms today. They did an interactive song named, “El Sapo” and a Bible story. The children learned a about Daniel and the lions den. The team also performed a puppet show, “Becoming a Christian”. The children then get a salvation bracelet and the beads on the bracelet each has their own significance. The children are given the opportunity to accept Christ during the explanations of the bead bracelet.

The team that worked with the older children worked with 5 classrooms too. The older children participated in an interactive game that teaches them the effects of drugs. After the game we give them a story about some teenagers that had a problem with alcohol and suffered some consequences. We also played a game that we call, “Field of Temptation” with the children. The game uses 10” X 12” pieces of paper and they are placed at randomly on the floor. We ask the children to name a sin to label each piece of paper. The children are then paired up and one of the children in the pair is blindfolded. The one that isn’t blindfolded guides them through the pieces of paper on the floor. The idea is that we need people in life to keep us from falling into temptation.

The final activity of the day is to work with classrooms on playing whiffle ball. During the time when we were paired up playing catch we asked the children to tell us what was the most important position was on the baseball team. After discussing with them that every player had an important role and they all needed each other, we talked about the church. The church also need to have people that are willing to participate, as that helps the church grow and bring more people to know Christ.  The other comment that we made was that we are all special in God’s eyes even when others say that are insignificant. Christ loves them and he has a plan for their lives.

After our ministry day, we went back to the hotel for a nice dinner. We concluded the evening with our devotions and the rain started to fall for the rest of the night.

Thanks for reading and keeping us in your prayers

Day 1

Day 1

We arrived at the airport 2 hours before our scheduled departure. We had time to eat breakfast and relax before our flight left at 9:50AM for Atlanta.

In Atlanta, we spent time together as a team before we boarded our flight to Guatemala. The trip had a relaxed schedule, so we could get ourselves prepared for our ministry.

 

The customs in Guatemala was interested in our athletic equipment and Bibles, but after they looked at the whiffle ball equipment and a box of Bibles, they were satisfied and we had no other questions.

Our accommodations are quite nice and we look forward in taking pictures of them in the morning when it is daylight. The cabins are set up to accommodate 2-4 people. We arrived after 8PM and it gets dark around 6PM.

 

 

Tomorrow is our first day of service and we look forward to getting started.