Church!

Something that is encouraging to me is the fact that we worship the same God who is worshipped around the world. We went to church this morning (Sunday) at a huge church in Guatemala City. The facility seats 12,500 people, and there were probably 6,000 people in worship. While most of what happened was lost on us - particularly those of us whose translating headsets didn't work (about half of us) - there were some connection points. They sang two songs that we recognized and we took Communion. As soon as the message kicked in, a few of us were lost, but we were able to connect by looking up the Scripture references that were on the screen.

After church we took eleven of the younger kids who were being rewarded for good behavior to McDonald's for lunch, followed by a visit to Space Zone (think McD's playland on steroids). The little ones had a blast running around, many of them in dress-up clothes. The favorite was the little boy who wore a dinosaur costume, fairy wings, and a witch hat. They wore themselves out, so many of them slept on the way back to the home.

Back at the home, we ate dinner at the various home units. Each night we break up and eat at the separate homes: big boys, big girls, little boys, and little girls. Generally speaking we have some form of beans and tortillas and something else. Those meals are enjoyable, but challenging as the language barrier is so pronounced when you are sitting around a table looking at each other. But our crew is doing well and is not intimidated by the experience. After dinner, we played in and out of the rain with the kids, some more than others. And after they all went to bed, and we had our debrief time, we gathered with the interns and two of the oldest boys, Esdras and Ramses, for a fierce game of volleyball (it was soccer with all of the kids the night before and last night). The most fierce was clearly Austin. At one point a simply tried to punch the ball, missing it completely, and it hit him in the face. I thought we were going to need oxygen for some of our team from laughing so hard!

Yesterday was a work day, so we got split up into three teams to complete various menial tasks around the compound: weeding, trimming 'hedges', filling ditches, dismantling rotten picnic table, cleaning out gutters, and so on. It's not nearly as much fun for the group as it is hanging out with kids, but they served joyfully knowing what good their work was doing for the kids and the missionaries here. When we do these jobs, it allows them to be doing other things, so everyone wins. As a result, we were a little spent last night. I think lots of ibuprofen were consumed. We will have more of the same today.

It's almost breakfast time, so I will sign off and try to blog more later. Thank you for your continued prayers!