Day Three: The Village Basketball Courts

After grabbing some sandwiches in the van, we headed up to a little village and set up station on some new basketball courts.  We're not really sure what kid of signal went out when we arrived but in a matter of minutes there were over a hundred children running up. 

We got to play soccer, jump rope, make chalk art, and bubbles with the kids, and we gave out twizzlers (which they weren't sure they were supposed to eat....but it didn't take them long to figure out!) and smarties candies.   Judging by their smiles, they had a blast! 

Once we played for a little while we got them settled down and Richard spoke with them about Jesus and His love for each and every one of us (and in a spectacular pseudo-spanish accent, i might add!).   It is at these types of events that our language barriers become very apparent and pretty frustrating for us all.  We see so many opportunities to really minister to some of the people here and it's very hard not to be able to communicate how we feel about them and tell them about the TRUE gospel.  Please pray that we will not get discouraged in this respect.  We use our interpreters as much as possible, but when there are 17 of us and only 1 or 2 of them, it gets hard.  Many of us have felt a renewed motivation to really devote serious efforts to learning Spanish so that we can more effectively communicate!  There are so many people down here who have shown interest in having conversations with us and although we know that God will work through us regardless of whether or not we know a single word of Spanish, we hunger to have those meaningful conversations! 

A few of us had the chance to go into one of the neighboring houses.  The family that lived there was so gracious to invite us in.  The floors were dirt and the entire house was made of cement walls and tin.  They worked only with natural lighting during the day.  There was a light in one of the bedrooms, but other than that it was only sunlight coming in from the openings throughout the home.  It really put into perspective just how blessed we really are.  Yet this family opened their doors and shared their home with us.  They were happy to offer what they had.  That is one of the main things that we've noticed here.  The people have so little, but they are will to share anything and everything they have.  They truly are a community here....they watch out for each other and help one another.  And they do the same for visitors as well.  These are amazing, resilient, strong people. 

Please continue to pray for us.  Pray we will remain strong and encouraged.  Please pray that despite the language barriers, these people will know that we love them and that God loves them.  And pray that something will stir in their hearts that will lead them to Christ.  Our hope is that, although we can't change Guatemala in one week, we can change the life of someone in the most powerful way possible!

In Him,

The Guatemala Team