Seven Years in Guatemala

This week marks seven years since we moved to Guatemala.  In our minds it is both a short time that has flown by especially when we think about how much we would like to do still; and it is a very long time when we think about how far away we are from family.  This work is hard sometimes, and lonely sometimes, but it is fulfilling and exciting and never boring.  God has been faithful and has helped us increase our faith in him and drawn us closer to each other and to him these  seven years.  We are grateful to our both our family and our church family for the constant support and encouragement. 
We were talking to one of the elders at the church in Mactzul 6 yesterday and asking him about how he became a Christian and how the church began in this area.  He told us about how at the age of 25, some Christians from the capital came and preached in the area and he and his wife and 5 other couples believed and formed the first Church of Christ in the Chichicastenango area.  He remembers that when they were baptized, the brothers and sisters from the capital came and brought food for the families and that one of the sisters who came was an old woman who walked about 10 miles with baskets of food on her head. These young couples also began to teach others and he describes it as the gospel taking off like an explosion.  He remembers one town where over 70 people were baptized on the same day.  What a blessing to sit and listen to his memories of the work he has done the last 38 years.  He was honored this week at a local church during the innauguration of their new church building, for his dedicated work spreading the gospel and planting and nurturing churches.  We asked him if he would do us the honor of doing a written interview to collect his memories of the history of the church here and he agreed.

We are so honored to work with people like Pedro and learn from their zeal to teach others about God's saving grace.  May we be as willing to be God's instruments in this world.