THURSDAY and FRIDAY - the final days in Guatemala   :- (

Thursday was a beautiful day that got even better as we drove our convoy deep into the mountains towards a very remote village. This village was incredibly scenic and the people were wonderful.  It was also a unique village compared to the previous three, in that there was no church or school to use as our medical camp.  Instead, we used someone’s home and it was a nice home for a Guatemalan village (by this I mean it had electricity, a glass window and tile flooring).  This was a neat community that was heavily agricultural; corn, beans, flowers, strawberries, and other plants everywhere.  We particularly enjoyed lunch, which was a delicious veggie, pork, broth stew with tostadas.  It was next to the livestock where we played with the roosters and toured the cornfields.  Also, we went on a prayer walk where one of our missionaries walked around to bind evil presence and bless the villagers. 

We met some wonderful people that day and definitely equipped the locals with a better understanding of Jesus and what living a life for Him can mean in their lives.  Another huge blessing is the dental equipment with generator was working today, so the dentist was able to actually do preventive treatment instead of only being able to pull out teeth.  The only sad part of the day was knowing it was our final clinic.  Or at least we thought…..
Which leads us to Friday, 8/3/12.  Today was our last official day with the Guatemalan team before we head home tomorrow.  We had our last devotional of the week led by our very own Doug, and included the dentist, Guisela, sharing her testimony.  The rest of the day included a team building activity zip lining down a mountainside with our medical mission team.  One zip line was around 750 feet long, 200 feet above the mountainside floor below, and the teenage interpreters certainly kept it entertaining with their youthful spirit.   

Afterwards, we enjoyed a lavish lunch at, none other than, McDonalds in Antigua.  But all kidding aside, it was great because they served fried chicken and had a beautiful courtyard overlooking the volcano.  Then we went to the market area to shop for trinkets and gifts for our generous supporters.  The ‘haggling’ was made easy in that our mission hosts brought us to the Christian owned shops that gave us the family discount of about half the price of the others.   Also, with reference to this not being a day to witness, that was not in God’s plan; near the end of the day, a team member was approached by a market vendor to trade one of their bracelets for an evangelizing bracelet (with symbols illustrating Jesus’ story).  This led to the opportunity to share the story to five people working in the market.  One person even got his wife on the phone to listen in.  We ended up leaving three of these bracelets with them, on the condition they go tell this story forward.  One person in particular, Daniel, was so fired up about learning Jesus’ story, he came with us to get more literature and we gave him a bible.  Yes, some amazing seeds were planted today and we weren’t even looking for the opportunity.

Well, we’re leaving tomorrow morning to re-enter the U.S.  It’s certainly more of a bitter than a sweet, considering how amazing of a trip this was.  Our thanks again to all of our wonderful supporters.  We, of course, could not have come down and been so successful in glorifying God’s kingdom without your prayers and financial support.  God bless you and hope to see you all soon!

Love,   GMMT 2012