Chichi

Lisa went on call on Sunday morning, so I took the opportunity to go to Chichi. The missionaries in the area have an English service so the day started off with visiting and worshiping in English. It is always a treat to be able to worship in your mother language, especially when you are used to mostly kiche and some Spanish and trying to pick out what we can from the sermons. Today we discussed the Pentecost, the birth of the church and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The sermon was given by Bill Vassey, one of the pioneer missionaries to the Quiche area who translated the bible into one of the local dialects. He is a very dynamic speaker and is good at making you think.

After the service I went by the house to check on the electricity problem and the house had actually been re-wired. I was thrilled to see that it had actually gotten done. Before arriving I was pretty pessimistic about it being fixed and was ready to pay for a hotel. We still have a little more work but at least I could stay in the house for the night. I even had water! (city water, water pump still out) That was a special treat. In the morning I could not use the shower as the outside connections were only temporary and it was suggested to not overload the energy use until we had a permanent connection. So back to the heated up bucket of water, but it works. I met with another electrician from the electrical company early Monday morning and he will come and put the finishing touches on the connection and he will also add in a copper tube in for grounding since there does not seem to be any grounding at the house. (this was another one of the causes of the problem). Pretty scary huh? The good news is so far we are only out Q500 which is less than $70 for the wiring and electrical work, plus some extra work he did on the water pump. Maybe another Q500 and we will be done with this problem.

After checking on the house I headed out to Xepocol to worship with our friends and brothers and sisters there. In contrast to our English sermon, this sermon was all in kiche this time so it was hard to follow and I hate to say it, but also hard to stay awake. I found myself struggling and not having Lisa there to poke me. Luckily I did not get poked with the stick they use to wake up folks. I enjoyed worshiping in Xepocol and taking time to visit with the members. This is a great bunch of people who love our Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. They have recently had some growth with about 4 new people and then another new family has also started to attend the church this past week. I noticed this time that many of the young men (15-19 years old) in the congregation have taken more responsibility in the service and participate with the communion devotional and also in leading singing. Xepocol is the home of our first health promoter Gaspar Chan and it is great to see the growth they have experienced and continue to experience. Today Gaspar's oldest, Tomas, lead the communion devotion and singing. He did a great job.

On other church news, I have heard from 3-4 other congregations where we have clinics that are continuing to experience growth with new members or with people who used to attend church but have now returned to reconcile themselves to Christ. This is very exciting. I cannot say there is a direct correlation of the new growth to the clinics but the churches we work with continue to report that this ministry continues to provide them with positive feedback from the communities. One community, Mactzul V has seen growth of about 15 - 20 people in the last month, many of these all from one family who returned to reconcile. Sebastian from Mactzul 5 called me Wednesday night with the great news and to see how we are doing. The church was having a celebration. They have officially outgrown the building and many people sit outside during the service. The other communities that we have heard from are Chuchipaca, Chuguexa, Santa Cruz, Chichicastenango and Xepocol. We know other churches are continuing to grow as well and we are excited to see God work in this area. Just the other day Sheri saw a young man in clinic who they referred to the Chichicastenango church for follow-up. They promptly followed-up with this young man who has now been baptized and started to attend church in less than a couple of weeks. People are searching for Christ and we hope that this ministry will continue to be used as a tool to further God's kingdom.