Today marks our last day in Chichicastenago for little over a month. This month has been filled with excitement, great experiences and a chance to get to know our brothers in Christ much more. We have enjoyed staying with families in Paxot and look forward to doing this some more in the future - if we could just get some new drinks for them, it would be that much more pleasant. :) For those who have visited and know the drinks are thick, rich and not chocolate! Anyway, we have learned some more Kiche but have a looong way to go. However, we can understand more and spurt out some more inteligible responses.
The MET students will continue on with our team until Wednesday when they will take a break an visit Panajchel and Antigua before they head home. We never had much time to get pictures or to post them as we were without a camera for awhile, so eventhough there are no pictures please be sure to mention Blake, Daniel, Tara, Abby, Alicia and Theo in your prayers. They have been a great group and we and they have had some great discussions. They could be considered our philosophers of the month!
On the clinic ministry front, all is well and thank God we have not had many bad cases in the last couple of weeks. We continue to work with Tomasa Chicoj and she appears to be making progress. Matt and Heidi Bell, another married team here in the area, have had some pretty tough clinics lately with some pretty complicated patients, so please keep them in your prayers as well. They also have a blog - http://agapeenaccion.blogspot.com/. Our clinics continue to grow as we become more known in the areas. Of note, 2 elder ladies were recently baptized in the area of Mactzul who were in their 80's - Praise God! Also, our clinic in Mactzul 6 wants to reach out to their community more and feels that having the clinic in the church building hinders that oppurtunity, so they asked if we had a problem having the clinic in the Catholic church. Of course not! We welcome the oppurtunity to be able to serve the communities better!
Also of note we continue to see some of the churches mature, not because of us, but we see God working in the leadership of the churches and that they continue to show responsibility in making decisions on their own and funding projects within the congregations. Mactzul V recently purchased more land and have now cleared the land and are preparing to build a bigger church as they have out grown the old! The mayor of Chichi helped them clear the land because "he has heard about the good works of the churches of christ"! This would have costed the church $2000. Chuchipaca has also demolished their church and started building a new one as they have outgrown. Then Xepocol, a small church, with many people in need, have decided to fund the building of their own kicthen / class rooms and have started making financial commitments to build in 2 years. This is exciting news to us as the memberships are not seeking outside help to do these projects and to expand in their areas.
Also, many churches are now starting to sponsor evangelists to go out in their communities to spread the word and minister to their neighbors. We think this has been going on for some time, but it seems to be more of a priority for the churches now.
Well, sorry we do not have any pictures. We will try to post some soon!! For our friends and families in Arizona, Colorado Springs, Texas and Mississippi, we will see you all soon!
God bless - Dios catewechinik! Chabej chick (see you soon)!
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