Worship Times Two

With each additional installation, we not only gain more brothers in Christ, but the complexity of managing all the responsibilities of follow-up and new site visits increases. Trying to manage a total of five location visits this trip presented a new challenge. So,  Sunday brought about a change in plans. Since the progress on the system installation was ahead of schedule, we were able to schedule an official visit to last year’s site– Huerto de Getsemani.This meant that we would attend worship service at our current site– Eglesia Eben Ezer– and then in the afternoon we would worship again with our brothers at Huerto!

So the day began with the bone jarring ride to Eben Ezer where we were treated as guests of honor. Jim said a few words before the Pastor’s sermon and then Raquel Paz Pom (Jacinto’s daughter from Colegio Mark– a dental student), Suzie Williams, and Mike Springer gave testimonies about their involvement with Agua Viva.

We had a little time to do some preparatory work for the water education effort starting tomorrow and the rest of the group got involved with fellowship with the local community. Then we jumped on the bus and headed to Worship II at Huerto. Think about the prospect of your church (Colonial in our case) announcing in the Sunday morning service that they were having a special service that afternoon for guests from out of town. What do you expect the attendance would be? Well, we worshiped this afternoon, the entire water team gave testimonies, and then we were greeted by a reception line that would rival the largest wedding that you’ve ever attended!

Our friends at Huerto had a coffee reception for us after the service and the “elders” from both parties met for some official business while the rest of the team again enjoyed relationship building with the community!

You would think that this would have amounted to a pretty laid-back day, but if you judge it based on the universal fatigue that permeated the team at dinner tonight, you would think we were digging trenches all day. It was without a doubt emotional fatigue from the sheer amount of hearts that were poured out and shared through the day’s activities.

We’ve certainly laid our footprints in Guatemala and been blessed by the opportunity to be God’s hands and feet, but as we shared with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters today; even though they’ve received the benefits of our work, we’ve truly been the ones who have received the most from the relationship.