The power of the gospel!

This evening I received a call from Tomas Garcia from Mactzul V (Quinto).  Many who read this blog have visited the church of Mactzul V and know Tomas Garcia who is one of the HTI promoters.  Mactzul V started as a small church and many remember the small adobe building they used to have and now have seen the large building they are working on.

Before

Current

This call from Tomas was to tell me an exciting story of what is happening in his community and in the church.  The story started a while back when a young lady named Juana Yacon from the community came to the church because of some problems she was having with her vision as she was unable to see well.  After prayers and after visiting the clinic, this yound lady was healed and not just by medicine but by the power of God.  Later she started attending church and was later baptized into Christ and now her and her children are members of the church and one daughter Josefina Silvia Leon Yacon is part of the ABC program.  Unfortunately her husband left her even before this time. 

It turns out that Juana's father is one of the leaders in the community and as Tomas pointedly described him 'kind of like a king" - people respect him and he drives many of the activities that happen in this community as well as the traditional mayan religion.  When his daughter Juana started to come to the church he became interested and had asked the men from the congregation to come and speak with him and they did.  His attitude was to always mock the gospel and continue his traditional practices.  Now you know where this is going......

This past Saturday the man asked the church to come back (of which they probably had visited him multiple times) to talk some more about the gospel, God and christianity.  During this last meeting he accepted the gospel of Christ and wants to change his life.  He stated that he has been in the world and has been a priest for his entire life and he realizes that it has not given him the answers he has wanted in his life and he now realizes that the one answer is Christ and that he wanted to start coming to church to change his ways. 

He came to church on Sunday with his family and then yesterday after another meeting with the church stated that he wants to be baptized for the remission of his sins.  Today he indicated that he had not been able to sleep well for some time and would constantly wake up with anxiety, but last night he "went to sleep and did wake up until morning when it was time to get up."  

What a powerful testimony for this man and for the church who has shown him an example of hope and peace that can only come from our Father in heaven!  

Please continue to pray for this man and his family as they start a new life in Christ.  Also, rejoice with the church in the example they have shown in their community and to all of us.

The other side of the story is yet to come as when people started to hear that he was going to the church it kind of left everyone speechless and through his example many more may follow.

God is good.

In honor of local churches

Sorry we have not posted in awhile!  It is not that we do not have anything to write about, there is just so much to write about we have writers block of which one to write about!  We have had a great month so far with a group coming from many parts of the US, starting some health classes and delivery of anti-parasite pills in the schools (we have dewormed close to 1000 children in the local schools thanks to some donated meds), standard clinics, attending church festivities, and prepping for new community classes.

Today, we wanted to give an update on 3 of the churches that we partner with - Las Cuevas, Mactzul III (Tercero), and Mactzul V (Quinto).

Mactzul III is one of the smaller communities in the area and also one of the smaller churches; however, this does not stop them for wanting to make in impact in their community.   They started with the church meeting in the home of one of the brothers and maybe 2 years ago they started buidling a church building on the donated property from one of the families.  Today they have the walls, the roof, the windows and doors complete and have started having worship services in the building.  This is the church where a small group from TN came and helped build the latrines which are now fully operational as the members of the church finished the septic well.

The church is small but continues to grow and over the last year have added 1 - 2 families.  On the day of the visit we had clinic, hosted a deworming activity with the school and delivered some water filters to the children in the ABC program who have recently been sponsored.  This is the Sucuqui family.  Mom is a widow and the 2 little ones are in the ABC program; however, with the assistance the mom has also sent the older child back to school and she is in the first grade along with her younger sister.

Las Cuevas is the smallest community we work with and also one of the furthest away.  This church has struggled for many years through droughts and more poverty than the rest of the communities that we work with.  They too started a new building project at the beginning of the year and received support from the local churches of Christ to start their building to the tune of almost $1000 and then also received a nice donation from the local mayor.  In speaking with Santos, one of the church leaders, the mayor has been very supportive on the churches in the area as he realizes the importance of the church in the social integrity of the communities - very nice!  This church is also growing and this last year we have added about 4- 5 families to the ABC program. 

The day we visited the church in Las Cuevas one of the sponsoring U.S. families joined us and were able to meet the child they sponsor from this community.  It was a good day for all.  We sat and talked for a few hours about life in the area and came away very impressed in the contentment they have in what God has provided them.

This is one of the new ABC families - the Ajmac Uluan Family.  They have 12 children in total with a pair of twins who are in the purple blouses.  Both the twins are awaiting sponsors in the ABC program.

Mactzul V is probably the fastest growing church in the area and has probably doubled in size over the last few years.  They also started a building project in the last 2 years and as you can see it is a pretty sizable building.  This church is involved in a number of ministries in their community and spend much time visiting families and praying with them.  They have also started a youth program, childrens program and tutoring program for kids who are not doing well in school.  This past Saturday we attended a family day celebration which included clowns, a cake eating contest between two elders (without their hands), and a short worship service held by the boys of the congregatin.  Great day!

This is Gerber Tomas Salvador Yacon with the opening prayer.

This is Israel Esteban Garcia Tecum (son of HTI Promoter Tomas) leading singing.

This is Diego Jeremias Garcia Cuin giving a short devotional.

This is Hector Ircac Ajanel leading more songs.

This is Kevin Yacon Yacon leading the closing prayer.

Elders in the cake eating competition.

Clowns - Armando Ismael Salvador, Tomas Salvador and Jose David Garcia - great job!

Ana Elizabeth Yacon (previous scholarship recipient) and Marciela Yacon (high school student) were 2 of the leaders of the childrens activity.

Part of the church of Mactzul V.  With everyone would be around 250 people!

Please continue to pray for these churches as they serve the Lord in their communities.

Happy 235th Birthday!

Happy Independence Day! We especially want to send a shout out to our nephew Zach who is serving our country in Afganistan.  We are so proud of you!
Of course this is just a U.S. holiday, but we lucked out this year and got a three-day weekend because of the Army Day holiday that we worked last week.  We spent the rainy weekend doing projects around the house and reading.   Tonight we are having a 4th of July party with area missionaries.  We are taking a pot of chile so we needed to get up to town for some ingredients and to run some errands at the bank.  While waiting for the bank to open, we decided to check out one of the stores in town that sells candy--we want to try the Mentos/Diet Coke explosion for tonight! In talking to our Texas family, it looks like they won't be using any fireworks (under penalty of imprisonment), so my sister Aimee told me about a good alternative to liven up the party--we just had to try it too! 

Now it is raining up a storm and a chilly 65 degrees outside--we are working on developing another hurricane down here.  We'll pray it carries some moisture up to the States.  I hope everyone enjoys their celebrations and family time. May God continue blessing the United States of America!