Hola from our first full day in Guatemala! It is only day one and we already have stories and adventures to share! How does one sum up an entire day's activities in this little blog...
This morning we went to worship a couple blocks down from the house. We were debriefed about the service by Ginny and Kevin before we left, so we all knew that this would be nothing like a traditional LCMS service. We were not disappointed! It was such a unique and awesome experience! The service began with about 45 minutes of praise songs led by a band in the front of the area their congregation uses for worship. At first we kinda awkwardly stood there while trying to follow along to the unfamiliar songs on the screen, attempting to blend in as best as we could. Then, much to my surprise and happiness, we started hearing some recognizable tunes! The band played "I'm Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord)" and "You Are Good" (the Gospel song, a personal favorite) both in Spanish. However, knowing the tunes made it much easier to follow the words and even sing along in Spanish! The band also played "Lord I Give You My Heart" in Spanish, but at one point, the song leader looked straight at our group and told us (in perfect English!) to sing the following verse in English:
Lord I give you my heart, I give you my soul, I live for you alone
Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake, Lord have your way with me
Needless to say, it was awesome. The song leader telling us to sing this part in English really showed how much the congregation cared about making our group feel welcome. Besides the songs, the rest of the worship time was a message, lasting about another 45 minutes. The sermon texts included 1 John 4:8-18 and Luke 17:7, focusing on obedience and God's love. The native people at these worship experiences get immensely emotional and physical. It was not uncommon for people to be praying out loud, raising their hands high, crying, screaming, clapping, or any combination of these during the song and prayer times. Definitely way different from traditional services. At the conclusion of the worship time, we greeted each other (those in and out of our team) with 'Dios le bendiga!', or 'God bless you!'. The genuine happiness and care from the faces we saw I think touched each and every one of us.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. After lunch we had a good amount of time to relax. The vast majority of us found our ways onto the roof to write in our journals and soak up some Guatemalan sun (pass the aloe!). Later in the afternoon we met as a team to go over our faith lessons to be used during the remainder of the week at the different towns. It was a little challenging trying to memorize the memory verse and the songs in Spanish, but we are making progress! We also took time to rehearse our skit, which ended up being both productive and very entertaining! I'm sure there will be many photos and videos to come...
All in all, it was a fantastic first day. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the week holds for our team and the rest of the missionaries. To God be the glory! Dios le bendiga!
Jennifer Becker
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