Tuesday

Monday, January 18, 2016

It was a beautiful day in Guatemala City.   The temperature was about 70 and the sun was shining brightly all day.   Breakfast was ready promptly at 7am.   Ginny made pancakes and they were delicious.   We were all very excited for today because the Guatemalan missionaries would be arriving shortly before 8 so we could join them for their daily devotions.   All of us, except for Harrison, had met and worked with the missionaries in at least one prior year.   It was good to hug our friends and to get caught up on their families and lives.   Manuel gave the devotion on Romans 5 verses 1 through 11.  Since Manuel does not speak English, Cesar translated for him.   Carlos, who has a beautiful voice and often leads the music at his church, led the singing.  After devotions we loaded the van driven by Manuel and went to the woodworking shop of Only A Child.  This is a ministry for street boys and men which was started by an American from Boston.   His name is George Leger.   After reading a 1993 article in the Boston Globe on the death in Guatemala City of a street boy at age 16 by the name of Giovanni, he was moved by God to work through people in
Guatemala to start Only A Child.  This is a Christian ministry which provides shelter and work
for street boys who are interested in a better life.  The men make wooden boxes and crosses in the shop which are sold to help with the support of the ministry.   Then we went to the cemetery overlooking the Dump in Guatemala City.   Many people "work'' in the Dump for themselves by going through trash which is brought into the Dump. They sort out items which they can keep or sell.  Although to us this does not seem to be a good thing for these people to work in the filth of the Dump, we are reminded by Kevin that this is what they want to do.   We returned to the Groundwork Guatemala house for lunch.  After lunch we met with Oscar to review our faith lesson to let him comment on the Spanish pronunciation.   Pastor Steve, Bella and Harrison are so good with their Spanish that he had only a couple minor corrections.  At 2:00 we left for two home visits.  We first met with Aleta, Rosa and Daniel.   Aleta had gone through some tough times with her health but through her faith, prayer and prayers from her church she was able to bounce back and is now very thankful and happy of where her life is at this time.   Her husband has work.   Rosa, her sister, lives with them and Daniel is in elementary school.   We then went to Fina's home and met with her.  Fina has been a widow for 40 years.   She has experienced death of a son and has had numerous health concerns, the most recent being her eyes for which she will soon have surgery.   She was also very strong in her faith and despite her difficulties, believes that Jesus is always with her and is her Savior.  At both houses we were led by Sandra, one of the missionaries, who is a very caring and loving person.   We shared God's word with both women and prayed with and for them.   We returned to the ministry house about 4:45 and had dinner at 5:30.  After dinner our group practiced our songs and faith lesson for tomorrow's visit to El Rincon.  We will meet with the children and sing songs, do the puppet show faith lesson and work on a craft and memory verse.   We hope to be rested and have a spirit filled day tomorrow.

The whole team wishes our 3 year-old grandson, Wilson, a very Happy Birthday!!!

Bill and Lynda Keller