On Sunday, the plan was for everyone to sleep late because we'd been up so late the night before. We were just going to go to a buffet breakfast that morning, so we didn't need to be up early. Unfortunately, my body had different ideas and I was up ridiculously early, like every other morning that week.
Eventually the rest of the group got up and it was time to leave for breakfast.
Everyone piled into the cars and we headed into Chiquimula to a restaurant called Charlie's. It's actually a pizzeria, but they also serve a buffet breakfast on Sunday mornings. We got there and Brandi said that she'd called and the staff had assured her that they would have a table for us when we got there. When we walked in, we thought there was a table set up for us, but it was actually for someone else. After a bit of confusion, they eventually led us upstairs to where they hold banquets and special events and told us we'd be eating up there instead of in the main restaurant. We were the only group up there.
Once we'd gotten our stuff set down, we headed downstairs and got in line for food. What food I did eat was good, but my stomach had been finicky all week, so I didn't really eat much. I felt bad cause everything looked so tasty. Everyone else really liked the food, in any case.
We all sat down and relaxed in the air conditioning and enjoyed our meal. After everyone had had enough too eat, we started just hanging out and talking. I think at some point someone asked if there was anyway for us to see the soccer game where we were. There weren't any TVs up there so I think we were just gonna leave when all of the sudden a couple of the guys come in carrying a TV and all the wires to hook it up. We realized that they may have just gone out and bought a TV just so we could watch the World Cup game that was on. Because of that, we decided we should probably stay for a while longer. No one really complained.
At one point, Daniel came over and sat down to talk with Jillian and I about the trip, see if we had any questions, and ask what our thoughts were. Jillian asked about the history of the country and the culture and whatnot, so we got into a long conversation about the Guatemalan culture and how the descendants of the Mayan Indians were treated differently and how they wound up in the mountains, among other things. Eventually most everyone had gathered around and was listening to Daniel talk. He also told us stories about ways that God had provided for him and Brandi as they'd been in Guatemala and for the other pastors, like Pastor Carlos.
After a while the conversation died out and the guys went to finish watching the game. We stayed until the game ended, which wound up being a little before noon. I think we were there for three hours. It was wonderful and relaxing and the most downtime we'd had all week.
When the game finished, we headed back to the house. We had some time before we had to leave for our last village church and I was exhausted, so I took a nap.
After I woke up, we had a little more time to kill, but I don't totally remember what we did. We left for the last church, Pastor Carlos's church, at about 2:00.
We started out the ride like usual, with John, Ben, and Will in the back of the pickup truck (a tiny red rental that Daniel had gotten since his big truck was in the shop). As soon as we pulled out, John, who was standing up in the back of the truck, looked ahead and pointed: we were driving right into a bunch of rain.
Not long after that, Daniel pulled over and asked the Ryans if they wanted to either get in the truck or at least put ponchos on since we were definitely going to get rained on. They all said no, insisting they would stay dry by sitting up against the back of the cab of the truck. Daniel said okay, got back in and started driving again while the guys rearranged themselves in the back of the truck. Meanwhile, in the other car, we were all laughing our heads off and wondering if they would actually get to the church without getting soaked. We got our answer not long after that.
Within five minutes of pulling onto the road again, the rain started. At first, the Ryans seemed like they might just get away without getting too wet, even after it started raining harder. Then we got stuck behind a number of slow cars and it began to pour. To say they got soaked would be an understatement. I have one picture of them and they are all pretty much curled up in little balls but they're smiling, probably cause they saw me taking the picture.
After a while, the rain kind of stopped, so the Ryans decided to try and dry off by standing up and letting the wind air-dry them. I'm not sure how well it worked and I'm pretty sure it started raining again before we got there, but A for effort on their part.
We finally got to Pastor Carlos's church about 40 minutes after leaving the mission house. His church was a bit different from the other two churches because it was an actual completed building. It had all four walls done, a roof, doors and windows, and a stage where they had a couple of speakers and a podium. The wall inside were even painted and had some murals on them. It also had banners hanging from the eaves of the ceiling. It just goes to show that you don't need a big fancy building to worship God.
It was very interesting to see the differences in all of the different churches. They were all so unlike anything you would typically see here in the States, but that just proves that you don't need a big fancy building to worship God. You can worship Him in a simple four-wall structure, or a place that has a roof and not much else. It's yet another humbling reminder of God's greatness.
By the time we got to the church the rain had slowed some, so we unloaded everything into the church. We wanted to go give out donations, but before we could, we had to put together all of the baskets. Unfortunately, it took just enough time to put the baskets together for it to start raining again.
We decided to wait and see if the rain would let up. Will started playing with the kids while pretty much everyone else sat around talking.
After about an hour (or maybe half-an-hour. Still no watch, so I'm not sure) of watching the kids and waiting for the rain to stop, John and Daniel decided that we should go ahead and talk with Pastor Carlos the way we had with the other pastors. Since he'd been with us the other two times, he was ready with photos and stories.
We learned that he went to University and had a couple of degrees. He also worked in construction, which helped his church a lot because he was able to build a nice church building because of that. He told us stories of God's provision for him and his family and for his church. Like all the other talks, it was good to hear from him.
We decided to wait to pray for him until after we went to give out baskets because by this time the rain had finally slowed down a bit. So we gathered up some of the baskets and split into two groups to try and get some of them delivered before church started.
I was in a group with Daniel, Brandi, their kids, Will, Jillian, Hugh, and one of the Guatemalan men from Pastor Carlos's church. Everyone else went with Alex. Our group was going to some of the houses that were a little further away, so we drove. As we were pulling away from the church, Brandi mentioned that one of the women she had spoken to thought it was going to rain again. Brandi said that the woman was usually right about these things. Sure enough, about half-way to our first house, it started pouring.
We pulled up to the area just outside the first house, the home of Doña Aueria, and we all ran as quickly as possible to get under some shelter and avoid getting too soaked. Sadly, in our rush, we forgot a couple of things. We sent Will back to the truck to grab them and on the way there, he managed to grab a barbwire fence and gash his finger. I tried to get him to at least put a band-aid on it, but he insisted that with the rain, the band-aid wouldn't do any good.
Another accident happened while at the first house as well. While we were talking to the first woman, CeeCee decided to stand on a stool that was there. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but suddenly the stool flipped and she fell. I'm not sure if she hit her eye on the way down or if she hurt that some time later. All I know is that she started crying and the next day she had a scratch and a black eye. Poor girl.
Aside from the accidents, our visit with Doña Aueria followed the same pattern that all of our other visits with villagers had. We spent some time talking to and praying for her and invited her to join us for service that night. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about her story. When we'd finished praying with her, we gathered up all our stuff and ran back to the truck. It was still down-pouring.
Next, we drove a little while and stopped at another house. It was still raining, so we sort of rain into the house to be greeted by Doña Tina and her family. We wound up staying at that house for a bit because it began raining really hard while we talked and prayed with her. After about 10 minutes, the rain finally slowed down enough that we could get back to the truck. At that point, we opted to head back to the church and wait for service to start.
Back at the church, Hugh, Will, Jillian, and I decided we should get ready for church. After we got changed, we stood around waiting for the other group to get back, but they took a long time. Eventually Will, Jillian, and I sat down and decided to play a game of Bible trivia. It was Will’s suggestion. I suggested cards instead, but Will pointed out that we couldn’t be sure playing cards wasn’t a big sin for the people in the church. So Bible trivia it was.
We played for a while, each taking turns coming up with questions that the other two had to answer. When we weren't sure about the correct answer to one of the questions, so we got out John's Bible and checked. It was a fun way to test our Bible knowledge, but eventually we started running out of questions. It isn't easy to come up with Bible trivia questions off the top of your head.
Eventually, one of us said something about a TV show that we all knew and, after more struggling to think of questions, Will suggested that we just talk about TV instead. We all agreed, so he asked what shows I watched. I listed off most of them and he said he actually watched almost all of them. He asked if we watched much Netflix and I said yes so then we got to talking about Netflix and the shows we'd watch there. It was fun just sitting and chatting with him and Jillian.
Not long after that, the other group got back and church service started. This service was a lot like the others, in structure and execution. But also different.
At the beginning of the service, Pastor Carlos got up and spoke and prayed for a bit, then he asked Daniel to bring all of us forward and introduce us. He went down the line and gave the congregation everyone’s names and said what they did in the church.
After we were introduced, Pastor Carlos called up people from the congregation to pray individually for each of us. Being prayed for in another language is an interesting and cool experience. It’s also humbling to know that God doesn’t need everyone to speak the same language to know what they are asking and saying and what they need.
After we were prayed for, we went back and sat down and service continued. Next came worship. Two women from the church got up and started singing. At some point during the song, one of the two women started singing something that didn’t sound quite like the song the other girl was singing. She also started sort of dancing. At first, everyone kept singing and clapping, but eventually some people started praying and the other girl put her mic down and left the stage and the guitar player stopped playing. All of us Americans kind of started looking around and trying to figure out what was going on. Heather later said that she was pretty sure the woman started speaking in tongues, but I’m not sure. Unfortunately, I never really got to ask anyone else about it.
After worship ended, Heather and Jillian got up and gave some testimonies. Stacy translated for them. When the girls finished their testimonies, one of the men from Carlos’s church got up and I think he gave his testimony. It was hard to tell since there was no translator.
Next came Alex giving a message to the church, all in Spanish. Then Carlos got up and asked us to come and pray for the people in his church. We did.
The last thing that happened in church was that Carlos grabbed Will and asked if he would come up and say a couple of words to the church. I think he asked him to do it in Spanish even. Will had been practicing Spanish all week and had gotten pretty good at speaking without an translator, so he agreed. He got up on stage and, completely in Spanish with very little help, thanked the church for welcoming us and praying for us and letting us worship with them. I’m not sure about everything he said, though he did tell me later. Still, it was pretty cool that he got up there and spoke completely on his own in Spanish. I think everyone in the congregation really appreciated it and I know we were all proud of him.
After service ended, we got the chance to go to Pastor Carlos’s house and eat dinner with him and his family. They had cooked for us, so that was cool. They made us a noodle dish that had vegetables and chicken in some kind of sauce all mixed together. They also served us the sweetest cup of coffee I’ve ever had. I only took about two drinks out of it. I don’t like coffee to begin with and it was way too sweet for me. Hugh noticed I wasn’t drinking it, so he asked if I was gonna finish it. When I told him no, he asked if he could have it and I told him to go for it.
When we’d finished eating, we gave Pastor Carlos and his wife some gifts we had brought for them. Pastor Carlos got some hats and his wife got the things that the Elder’s wives had sent.
After dinner there was a little more talking, then it was time to go home. We all climbed into the cars and headed back to the mission house.
On the way back, we had a bit of an adventure. Because of all of the rain, there was a lot of washout on the road. Hugh and Alex compared it to driving in a live video game. We had to dodge around big branches and rocks that had fallen into the road during the storms. At one point there was an entire tree that had fallen into the road. We did eventually make it home in one piece though.
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