Sunday Activities

This is my Guatemala blog post from Sunday, June 19:

At home I have a doggie doorbell, with my golden retriever Samson alerting me of anyone on the front porch or even remotely nearby. Here in Guatemala I don’t have a doggie doorbell, but I do have a doggie alarm clock. Unfortunately this particular clock seems to be malfunctioning. The barking did sound at my wake up time but also at T-90 minutes as well as a few times in between.

Except for the morning barking, Nina and Stark are well-behaved German Shepherds, and a nice addition to the Ministry Center. To me they are big versions of Pepper, my childhood pet.

Today the team’s main priorities were to worship at church and to visit an orphanage.

At 8 am a big, yellow school bus arrived to pick us all up for church. We are here with another team from Fellowship Bible Church in the Atlanta area so we have a big group of 33 or 34 volunteers plus MMM staff. I was glad Jack and I snagged the front seat of the bus due to my motion sickness issues. (Happily, I’ve done very well so far.) As we rode along, Jack noticed that there was a metal plate attached to the front of the bus with information--and it said that the bus was made in Lafayette, Georgia. I guess the bus had traveled just as far as we had to be here!

The Alb’s home church is Vida Real, which I blogged about last year. I really enjoyed attending that large church service with all the singing and speaking in Spanish. We were able to understand due to headsets which picked up what a translator was saying. It was fun that we knew some of the songs in their English version so we just sang along in English as the congregation was singing in Spanish. This brought to mind thoughts of heaven where people of all nations and ethnic backgrounds will worship God together, perhaps each in their own native tongue.

Since I had been here last summer, Vida Real planted a new church in Antigua with Dr. Alb acting as a pastor and as part of the core team to start the church. Initially I was disappointed not to be going to Vida Real’s main campus, but I quickly revised my thoughts once we arrived. Though smaller, it was a vibrant congregation full of passion for the Lord. I truly enjoyed worshipping together with them, even though I didn’t understand all that was said. We had a translator like last year, but not everything was translated. It made for an interesting experience.

The church was in a sermon series called Social Networking. The pastor spoke on Fathers Day and male/female relationships. He warned us at the beginning of the service that he would be talking about sex during the sermon and they had child care for up to age 13 if we did not want our children present to hear it. I figured that my 11yo son had heard plenty at school and through friends about sex (with questionable accuracy) that hearing a Biblical perspective on sex would be beneficial. The pastor made numerous points over the course of his sermon, but a few stuck out to me:

He quoted the Bible verse that goes something like this: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (be careful what you read, look at, watch on TV or movies, and who you spend time with.)

• Many couples spend much time and energy on planning the wedding and not on planning the marriage.
• Love and respect are interdependent in marriage relationships, and the Bible teaches that a man should strive to show love to his wife and a woman should do her best to show respect to her husband. (From Ephesians 5:31-33, I think.)
• He stated that remaining pure before marriage decreases baggage and gives the marriage a better chance of success. He also said that those who are married should be having lots of sex. Only with each other, of course!
• He concluded with a music video of the song “Slow Fade” by Casting Crowns. The song says something like, “It’s the second glance that ties your hands…” That line reminded me of the quote by Martin Luther about lust…basically, that you cannot stop the birds from flying around your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair. So the initial lustful though is not the sin, it’s the dwelling on it.

After lunch we went to Casa Para Ninos Aleluya. This is a children’s home for orphans or those whose parents cannot take care of them. Since I love babies I headed straight to the baby room. A sweet little girl about 2yo and I mutually took a liking to one another, so I spent most of the time holding and playing with her. I had a great time, but I was and am very concerned about her teeth. The front ones are rotted and brownish, and in the back ones I could see dark colored holes. Susan told me that MMM has a dentist arriving tomorrow, so I plan to relay my concerns to her and see if something can be done. I spoke to Dr. Alb about it and he said that she is probably new to the orphanage since they do a good job taking care of the children's teeth.

At first Jack wasn’t sure what he should do at the orphanage since our roles were not clear (which is the same way I felt last summer at my first visit). After some time he stationed himself at the swings and ran back and forth pushing 3 children on their swings. When the children were called in for dinner, Jack said, “Whew! I feel like I just ran a 3K.” Later he told Lori that so far the orphanage visit was the best part of our journey.

Tonight we packed food for tomorrow’s long journey into the northern part of Guatemala near Mexico. We are pretty sure that we won’t be able to post to the blog while we are there, so you probably won’t hear from us until Wednesday night or Thursday. The area we are going to is where we most risk contracting malaria or having stomach issues--your prayers appreciated!!