Friends,

The first half of this week has been great. We have finally gotten to settle into our home in San Miguel. Sunday we went to the church of Pastor Elias. It was a great time. We were welcomed by all and somehow ended up leading most of the service. Pastor Elias invited us to lead the congregation in a few songs and then asked Sophia to give her testimony. I was actually most impressed by their music. Not the quality, but the content. They had an entire hymnal (not bound and published, but printed on computer paper) full of deep theologically rich songs. Pop Christian music has plagued many churches with poorly written man-centered songs that have bad theology, lack any depth whatsoever, and produce nothing more than a superficial emotional response. This was not the case with Elias's church, and I praise God for that. In a biblical liturgy, gospel-centered songs are just as important as gospel-centered teaching.

Monday we went to the market in Salama. It is just as you picture it in your head. The downtown streets lined with rows of tents with vendors selling every handmade/homegrown commodity you can imagine. It was a blast. Believe it or not, the most memorable part of the trip was the bus ride to and from Salama. The buses around here are very... efficient. Since each passenger pays 2 quetzales, the more passengers they fit on the bus, the more money they make. To make matters worse, they are actually called microbuses - because they are not buses, they are vans. On the way to Salama, they fit 22 people into a 12(ish) person van. I found my self pressed up against the window, gasping for air, trying not to get too "acquainted" with the sweet sweaty old Achi lady next to me. It was quite the adventure.

That evening we had an OR4 meeting at our house, since we will be working closely with OR4 for the remainder of our trip. In english, OR4 stands for Operation Reconciliation, Restoration, Relationship, and Rescue. It is the local ministry that our brothers Hector and Eder run. It is essentially a city-wide youth group that focuses on missions and evangelism, however they have recently expanded their horizons to include other sorts of ministry as well. The meeting gave us a more clear vision of what the rest of our trip will look like. Lots of youth ministry! Personally, I will be spending a lot of time leading worship though song (which is probably not a big surprise to most of you). The past couple days I've been meeting with my Achi amigo (achigo?) Marvin, who also plays guitar and sings. In the past few days we have learned 10 songs in Spanish and 1 song in Achi. This picture was taken right after I put some new strings on his guitar (which used to belong to Greg). He was pretty stoked. I was too.

Today (Wednesday) we got up early to go to breakfast at the Barreras. Rodrigo Barrera and Marvin Gibson (abuelito) had to go to Guatemala City for a meeting with the Faith Comes by Hearing guys. Meanwhile, Sophia, Rachel, and I helped Carol tutor her English students before lunch, and then after lunch we went to the school where Irma teaches to help her with her English class. It was actually a lot of fun. Her class was made up of about 20 students of all ages. The three of us introduced ourselves, explained why we were in Guatemala, and spoke with the students in English to try to develop their ears. When we were leaving, one student, a man who was almost 50, stood up beside his desk, welcomed us to Guatemala and said "Thank you for helping my people" in English. Those words hit me like a ton of bricks, and I still can't get them out of my head. My prayer is that he would ultimately not thank us, but instead thank God. We can provide temporary physical aid, but we cannot save his people - only Christ can. We are hopefully visiting Irma's class again Friday. I can't wait to talk with him again and find out what he believes.

Tomorrow is our first day of ministry with OR4. I'm not sure exactly what it'll look like, but I am pretty excited. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow night (hopefully). Please continue to pray that God would use us to spread His glory broader and deeper.

Gracia y paz

Brian