April 11

Greetings!
This morning we got up at around 6:30. We had breakfast early so that we could leave for Cham Chee (School of Light) at 7:05. We attended devotion with the children this morning, and it was amazing how the kids worshiped. They sang with all their hearts, and prayed without caring who was listening. Les translated for us, and so we knew what the children were singing. The words were praise to God because He listens to us and cares about us. Even though these children are from broken homes, they were sincere in everything they said to God.
After this we drove to the sink hole. As we stood around the entrance to the sink hole, we felt the intense darkness. Witches had been offering sacrifices to Mayan gods that morning, and the air was still thick with the smoke. A woman we talked to at the entrance had come to meditate in the darkness, which made some of us uncomfortable. The decent down was steep, and we could feel the darkness pressing against us. When we got to the bottom of the sink hole, we sang songs and prayed to God. It was amazing to feel the difference in the atmosphere after we had worshiped. Although we still saw the candles and sacrificed animals, we could definitely feel the presence of God with us.
We went back to Les’ house for lunch, and relaxed there for a while. We played soccer with Les’ sons and had a great time. However, it started to rain, and although it was just like mist at first, it became a downpour soon after. Josh, Brian, and Laura got soaked in the rain.
Right after this we went to visit our sponsor children. This was a really exciting time for all of us. Amanda’s sponsor child has a type of arthritis that will affect him until he is older. Seeing how grateful he was for his medication was touching for all of us. Although the family was shy and they didn’t speak a lot, we could see how much it meant that Amanda would pay for his medication and that we would come to see them. We went to see a few other sponsor children as well. They were all such beautiful children, and we could see that we had given them hope where they had not had hope before. The children clung to us and wanted to be held and hugged. They just wanted us to love them, and they loved us back.
We returned to Les’ house for supper, and had a delicious meal of guacamole, rice, and beef. We also had something we had never seen before for dessert: a pastry filled with icing. After this we had a worship time. I think we were all more open to worshiping with all our hearts after seeing the children worship this way. We discussed the highlights of our days, and what we found odd or different about the Guatemalan culture.
Everyone is doing really well so far. No one is sick and we’re all learning a lot of new things. It’s evident that we’re all growing spiritually which is amazing.
God bless.


Submitted by Kristi Abramoff