Our first few days in Tactic

There has been so much going on here in Guatemala. I don`t even know where to start. I think we have all experienced some serious changes in our lives already. God is here... He is working in our team. And it is SO exciting to see! The team has quickly realized that I am the emotional one of the leaders... I`m sure they have all laughed at me, but I am absolutely blown away by everything here.

Monday... in Guatemala City... after eating in Pollo Campero... we toured around the capital city. On our walk through Central Park, we saw everyone cleaning up after Holy Week (easter). The fountain was off, but they turned it on, just for us! We had a wonderful tour of the National Palace. Our tour guide, Jorge, was great... very knowledgeable about all the history in the Palace and in the country. It was a very interesting tour. After going through the Palace, we toured through the Cathedral across the park. Les explained to us a lot about their religion and the differences and similarities between Christianity and Catholisism. There were so many images inside the church that were a little disturbing... idol worship and other stuff. It was really interesting to see how they take what is truth in the Bible, and just give it a little twist in some areas and completely disregard other areas. I think it was really good for our team to find out the history and the relgion of this culture. I think it opened our eyes a bit and prepared us for some of the other things we will be experiencing while we are down here.

After touring the Capital city... we drove for a few hours, up the mountain to Tactic. I don`t think any of us would have thought we were ready for what we were going to see as we were driving... everything from policemen walking around gas stations with guns, to major wealth, to extreme poverty. It definately opened my eyes.

Tuesday morning... (Brittany`s birthday)... we went to Beerseba school to have a devotional with the kids at the school. It was something that I definately was not prepared for. Knowing that these kids come from extreme poverty, but seeing how they absolutely ADORE their Saviour. They weren`t just singing... they were shouting to the Lord... praising God is ways that we don`t back in Canada... Complete worship, not holding anything back... but just loving God! Incredible! Makes me wonder why we don`t worship our Majestic King like that back home...

After being at the school, we drove about half an hour to the work sight. We are building a school on land that was given to Impact Ministries. It`s an incredible story about how they got this land... we`ll have to tell you later! So, our job was to move rocks... sounds easy, but these rock were so heavy! Seriously, after our two weeks here, we will all have some pretty sweet arm muscles!

I want to skip ahead to today... because there was so much that happened, but the team has started their devotional with Les and I want to finish this up quick...

Today, we went to Chicoy school for our devotional. It was incredible... again, the kids worship God like no other. After they were done singing, Les introduced us, and then asked the team to come up the the front. All the kids in the school came up to the front, laid hands on us, and prayed for us. It was amazing to see them all praying for complete strangers. After prayer was done, we all lined up outside for hugs... those kids give the BEST hugs! I wish that I could have done that all day! There was one little boy, Edgar, he came through the hug line about 3 or 4 times! He was so cute!!!

After the devos, we went to a sinkhole. This is a place where the witches go to worship the gods of the underworld... a place made some beautifully by God, but then changed into something so evil. Les gave us a big talk about all of this... that we needed to go into the sinkhole with faith, not fear... because fear is not from God! We went down into this amazing piece of creation... it was absolutely incredible. When we were at the bottom, by all the sacrifices and the altar, we started singing worship songs. We sang and prayed... God was there. It was an absolutely incredible feeling... the presence of God was there, and HE was the only one that had any power in that place! I cant even explain how phenomenal this experience was.

We did some more work after the sinkhole... moving more rocks and building more muscles. Its awesome to see the school that we are building for these kids, and that progress we are making on it.

Lunch was next... some amazing tortilla thing, stuffed with cheese, with cabbage and tomato sauce on top. It was delicious. And the coffee here is amazing! Did you know that you can buy a pound of coffee here for about $4 CDN... and they sell it to Starbucks for $17 CDN. I will be bringing home some coffee... no doubt about that!

After lunch, we headed over to the hospital to do some visits. This was a very sad thing to see. We saw babies that had just barely been born, babies that had been abandoned, children who had problems... and to hear the stories about how far some of these people had to come just to get help for their kids. It is really sad... but it really makes you appreciate what we have at home.

One highlight after the hospital was going for icecream... YUM. Cappucino, Pina colada, mango... so good.

That is about it for now... I am going to leave now... I am missing out on a really good devotional.