The last 2 weeks have been a nice refreshing break. Monday of last week we had to go to the immigration office to renew our passports so we did not become illegal immigrants. The first day we did not have all of the information we needed so we had to go back Tuesday. That was all we did those two days. Wednesday it was my turn to preach my graded sermon. Again I had to write it off of Mark 10:1-12. I chose to preach on how God intended marriage. I titled it Is it Worth the Wait? I talked on purity and used different verses and stories in the bible to relate how God intended marriage and what man does instead. I ended it with John 8 about the adulteress woman. After I preached it Brother Kirk got up and had the class critic it, they did not have much to say but he said that I tackled a tough subject that many churches seem to neglect. He said he was going to ask Pastor Miguel who is the pastor at the church we attend if I could preach it to the youth in a few weeks. I was so excited and can not wait to share it. Also, the missionary from Mexico heard it and told me that I am def preaching it in Mexico when I go at the end of June.
This week since it is Holy Week we have the week off and get to do whatever. The four Americans that stayed at the house are taking advantage of it. We are doing absolutely nothing. We went to Antigua one day and went to the auto safari. But other than that we are lying around the house, we bought a kiddie pool and are hanging out on the patio and just relaxing. In about 2 weeks we will be taking our 6 day hike in the mountains and preaching in the villages and sharing the gospel through playing with the kids and just ministering to the people there. We will not be able to take showers that whole week ahh we are going to stink haha but, we had an introduction with that this week because our water pump broke and we had to bucket water out of the cistern and boil it because it was not pure water. And then some how manage to take showers out of buckets. Man did I learn not to take running water for advantage any more. It was a crazy week and we were so excited yesterday when the pump finally got fixed!
Since Guatemala is a Catholic Nation they celebrate Holy Week like you would not believe it. Wednesday night for Palm Wednesday they had a parade around our colony. You might think o that’s pretty cool but no in reality it was sad. First they had kids walking with palm leaves and ashes, next they had something we were not sure what it was to be exact bc we were standing on our roof thing, and last they had a sanctuary looking thing made out for mary with a statue of her on it. I guess tonight they have even a bigger parade for the death and then everything is back to normal around the city and they just forget about resurrection Sunday and leave Jesus hanging on the cross. But from what I heard from people here is that in Antigua during this weekend they have this big parade and if you are a good catholic man and you die today you can be carried around in the parade as Jesus. Speaking of the parades today it is 8 in the morning on Friday and there was just a parade. This one had people carrying a float of Jesus carrying a cross and then again of a statue of mary.
Other than that life has been pretty good here in Guatemala. We have had our scare of earthquakes the last few days just little tremors but enough to feel them and make us get out of the house. Just continue to keep me and everyone else in prayer for our safety and security. Also, continue to pray for Mexico and my trip to there at the end of June. For those of you that do not know about that God has put it on my heart to go to Mexico for a month and a half directly after here. I will be an intern for a missionary there and help her with the short-term mission teams. I will also have the opportunity to share the gospel with the young people living in her colony. I would like you to pray about financially supporting me on this trip and if you can not financially support me to pray for me and the trip. After all prayer is the best thing a missionary can get.
