Amazing Day

I attended church today at a church called La Vida y Fe:  What an experience.  I spoke a little about it a couple of weeks ago, but then I was only able to stay for an hour.  Today I was able to stay for he entire service:  al 2 1/2 hours!  After the praise team led singing for an hour, there were some prayers and more music.  The pastor started preaching some time a bit after 10:30. He preached for a little over an hour and the service ended at noon!  Other than being very repetitive, the sermon was quite good.  He preached about our being works of God with a purpose and always with the opportunity to do more with our lives for the glory of God.  That were each created for the purpose of doing good works and when we fulfill pour purpose, our lives will be blessed.  The music was excellent and included the spanish version of many praise songs that I know,  and many Hillsong spanish praise songs.  The praise team leader was a woman who song with incredible passion and conviction and the lead guitarist was one of the best I have heard as part of a church praise team.  In fact, one of the women at the project had given me a Hillsong CD and many of the songs on the CD were ones that were sung at the service; however I believe that the praise team offered better interpretations of the songs than I hear on the CD.

After the service I had lunch with my friend Andrea.  If you read my blog entries from my time in Spain, you will remember my describing this over the top Italian fellow: well that was Andrea.  We learned through Facebook that we were both in Guatemala and have been trying to set up a way of meeting.  Well last night while I was settling down to have dinner and watch TV there was a knock at the door and it was Andrea.  Needless to say, I was completely blown away!  He was only in Antigua for a couple of days, so we spent quite a bit of time talking last  night, and then met for lunch this afternoon.  Since returning from the Camino, he has met up with several other of our Camino companions in various parts of the world.  

This past week was a good one at the project.  I have set up a reading room and started reading groups for the mothers to be able to practice reading.  The women are excited about it and look forward to the time.  One of the goals will be to also help them to start reading to their children.  Reading is not a common past time here in Guatemala and efforts are underway to try to get the people to start reading more.  I have four groups for the women:  2 beginner groups and 2 advanced.  I'm using a combination of children's books that we have, passages from the Scriptures and some writing from latin-american women writers that I found on the internet.  Last week I started labeling the books based on their reading level so that the women will be able to choose books to read on their own.  We have also arranged the room to create as nice an atmosphere as possible so that it is inviting and a comfortable place, that way reading will not seem like a chore but will be associated with relaxation and tranquility.

Hasta Luego