Today was a good day. Kemmel went to a church leadership meeting this morning at the church of Christ in Chichicastenango. Over the years the local leaders have been meeting and organizing various projects including which churches need assistance in training preachers, help in times of trouble, etc. In recent times, this has diminished as the churches have continued to mature and most of them operate pretty independently with a number of preachers and elders in each church. Some of the leaders have been meeting with churches farther out from Chichi and have seen a need to help promote much of what was promoted in the past. In this meeting, they discussed how there are a number of churches in other areas who are in the stages of growth that Chichi was in 10-20 years ago. As a result, the churches are coming together to discuss plans how to assist these smaller churches mature, build leaders and teach preachers. Needless to say this was an exciting meeting. There was much discussion of how they could do this financially but that they as leaders would meet with their congregations about the opportunities that they have to build up other churches.
These leaders expressed gratitude to the previous missionaries from the US that dedicated time to this area and to also training preachers from here in the bible institutes of Xela and Guatemala City and expressed the question "would if they had not take interest in us?". Thus, this is part of the basis they are using to say they are in a position to now assist other churches in these other areas.
I, Kemmel, feel very honored to be invited to the meeting and pray that God will continue to open doors for these brethren to encourage and build up the church. Please pray for these brothers and their churches that they will feel the urgency to provide the resources and funding necessary to build these churches. This meeting was pretty much Quiche all the time but I did get the general gist of what was going on - sure does wear you out though!
On the gringo, MET student, side of the day, we had a half day gringo day at the house and invited all of the students over for lunch and a break from Spanish and Quiche. Lisa grilled some brats (not quite the same) and prepared some baked beans and grilled vegetables. Everyone feasted and rested while checking Internet, laying in hammocks, talking and at the end making chocolate chip cookies.
Lisa has some pictures we will post later.
This all equals a great day.
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