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Today was our biggest, busiest day of the week.  We returned to the city of Amatitlan, about an hours drive.  But to a location known as Gonzalez Park.  If you see the pictures on Facebook you will see that they use "park" very loosely.  Just a concrete slab with some concrete walls on two sides and an old broken basketball hoop.  Today we were joined by a group of students from Spring Arbor University in Michigan.  They are here in Guatemala for a 3 week cross cultural experience and spend one day with the ministry.  There were 20 college students in the group.  They went on home visits with us and then helped with the faith lesson.  They were a great group and an amazing help. , especially since today we had around 250 kids in the faith lesson.  It's amazing how you can actually get 250 kids from 6-11 years old to sit down, stay quiet and listen, but they do.  Everyone on the team continues to do an amazing job, having fun with the kids and leading parts of our faith lesson.  Today was no different, except that today we were showered the entire time with ash from a nearby volcano.  We were never in danger of anything, but there was enough smoke and stuff coming out to spread quite a bit of ash.  In our home visits I got to visit Dulce Maria today.  My family sponsors Dulce so she can attend school.  She is 11 years old and we have been supporting and in touch with her for three years.  It was especially good to get an update today.  She is number one in her class at school and she is growing in confidence.  She used to be so shy she could not look me in the eye and would barely whisper a word, now she will actually carry on a conversation.  God is truly working in her life.  But it also reminds me of the importance of relationship.  Even if it comes in very brief visits, spread out over time, I have formed a relationship with Dulce, her mom Angelica and her brothers.  That relationship is a blessing to me and my family and I pray to hers as well.  Relationships are important to God - our relationship with Him, first and foremost, but then with each other.  I am reminded that we all need to invest in relationships in our homes, our neighborhoods and our communities.  Then allow God to do His thing in the midst of them.  We have one more day to foster relationships with our final faith lesson tomorrow, then preparing for our return trip home.  It has been a fast week but truly blessed.  Thanks for all the prayers.

Pastor Steve

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