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Started with, what I thought would be a routine, morning at church.  Boy, were we in for an event.  As we parked in the dirt parking lot we saw hordes of worships filing into the church.  It seemed each was happier than the next, each smiling and offering our Gringo tribe “bienvinedos”.  Ashley guided us to our seats positioned in the center of approximately 2,000 worshipers.  At our seats, each “gringo” was separated by an empty seat.  This empty seat would soon by occupied by an interpreter enlisted from Ashley’s extremely large circle of Guatemalan friends.  When the music started, the worshipers (2000!) began to sing songs familiar to us, yet sang in Spanish.  The closest thing I can compare this situation to is a roller coaster.  The walk in is the clickity-clack pull up the initial hill and the sound of the song leader and two thousand Christians praising “Cristo” as the descent from the top of the first hill.  It was without a doubt one of the most moving experiences in my 41 años of life!  The words to the songs were projected on a screen above the full band and choir accompanying the music, which helped my Spanish singing skills immensely.  As I sang, the woman to my right was weeping uncontrollably giving me concern that my singing is, in fact as bad as I had feared.  It turns out that Guatemalans worship fully and without reservation, something this gringo hasn’t figured out yet.   The sermon’s message was about being sincere, honest, authentic, intentional, and patient.  These attributes were very evident in this congregation, no doubt.

Following church, the 12 amigos, Ashley and several of her friends went to a local park and ate lunch.  Sometime during lunch an impromptu soccer match broke out.  It was niños vs. los padres.  With the exception of Tyler, we must of looked pretty silly, as I haven’t played soccer since 5^th grade.  The locals seemed impressed, or at least were amused.   Once we to tired to play, or were done embarrassing ourselves we all piled back into our 15 passenger bus and drove to a park in the neighborhood of Mama Carmen’s orphanage.  Were we played with her orphans.  It was another touching moment of the day.  More soccer was played  and fun was had a the various seesaws, etc.  Once we again too tired of playing e went to Mama Carmen’s and distributed beanie babies, shoes , soccer balls, and Jerseys.  While there, the plight of a 3 year old named Nehemiah was brought to our attention.  Nehemiah’s temperature was extremely high due to an infection in his stomach.  He required surgery that would cost nearly $2,000 of which $1,000 was still needed.  We laid hands on this young boy and prayed as a group.  We were deeply moved, especially Peter who led the charge to pledge the balance of the funds the next day.  We left Mama Carmen’s and immediately began making arrangements for a wire transfer.  Later the next day, we returned to Mama Carmen’s with a check for $2,000 and Nehemiah’s surgery was arranged.

As you can see the roller coaster ride of emotions never stopped that day.  One thing was certainly  God was in charge and in the front seat of the coaster with us.

Dan

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