Thursday

Today was lots of fun! We started our day with a sunrise breakfast at 7 o'clock where we learned Pastor Steve eats his bananas like a monkey (opens it from what we would call the bottom and uses the top as a handle.) We then had a bilingual morning devotion lead by one of the Guatemalan missionaries, Caesar. He spoke both English and Spanish throughout the entire devotion. He was able to translate for himself. We then split up into two groups and rode in two separate vans to the village of El Rincon, which was about an hour away. We rode through the city and then into the small villages in the mountains. We saw many different lifestyles on our ride there. When we got to El Rincon, we split up into three groups and made some different visits. One group included Maggie, Harry, Janet, Sydney, and Sharon. They visited a women named Sonya. Sonya had been shot in the back 5 years ago and was told she would never be able to walk again. She came out of her house using only a walker to get around. She never received any physical therapy for her legs. She had the strength to relearn how to walk, despite having been told she was never going to be able to walk again. The group prayed with her and told her that if it were God's will that she would be healed. She was very gracious towards us for visiting her. Another group included Christine, Greg, Mindy,  and Jenny. They went to a public school to see a young girl named, Katerin, who Mindy is sponsoring.  This sponsorship includes sending money each month to pay for everything this girl needs for her school. (books, pencils, uniforms)  The children who are on scholarships maintain them by receiving 70% or above in their classes.   When Mindy met with her she found this girl's family had many similarities to Mindy's. Katerin was very grateful.  The group also was able to walk in on a few classrooms, some of which had fifty children or more.  The school overall was much more hectic than what we are used to. The third group included Pastor Steve, Lynda, Bill, and Connie. They all went to meet Lynda and Bill's sponsor family. Lynda and Bill sponsor a boy named Wilson who is 15 years old. Wilson is going to school for soldering and steel work, which is a very valued professional down here in Guatemala. Wilson leaves his house every morning at six a.m. and does not return home until six p.m. He has an hour bus ride each way.  Wilson's family kindly invited the group into her home. The group shared many stories with the family and prayed with them.  At some point after their meeting, a phone call was made between Wilson and his mother.  He wanted to see who his sponsors were, so, his mother took a picture of Bill and Lynda after our faith lessons later on in the day.  We all had many different experiences throughout the day that make for amazing stories to share. After we returned from our visits, we had our lunch. We then set up for our faith lessons which took place outside of a small building. We read with the children for almost an hour after we had eaten our lunch. We then began our teaching. We sang all of our songs to the children and we even taught them two songs that they didn't already know.We then read our lesson to the children in Spanish. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the lesson and seemed to understand it. The group then explained the story to the children and they proceeded to make the craft. Many of the kids needed help finishing the craft but we were all happy to help out. Maggie and Sydney ended up sitting in the teenager section. They were in a separate group from what we were teaching. They helped the youth learn several phrases and words in English.  The youth then helped them learn several of the same phrases and words in Spanish. Maggie and Sydney taught the youth how to say things like, "God Bless You" and "God Loves You." Once the group finished their lessons and cleaned up, we headed home. Once we got home we were fed a wonderful potato bar for dinner. We then proceeded to have evening devotions led by Pastor Steve. We discussed our faith lessons together and discussed our different thoughts about how it went. All of us thought it went very well. We ended the lesson by praying with our partners for the week. All in all the day went very well and I think we are all very excited for our early morning tomorrow! You will be able to see many pictures from today on the Groundwork Guatemala Facebook Page.

Dios le Bendiga,

Maggie, Christine, and Sydney