Day of Travel, Friday November 26, 2004

Left home and got to the airport.  We got on the shuttle and the driver named Carlos was making conversation and asked where we were going.  We told him Guatemala and he told us he was from Costa Rica and his wife from El Salvador.  He asked us why we were going and we told him we were doing missionary work.  He said that was a good thing, that most people were too busy trying to make money to help others.  He was certain that God would bless us for this in the future, and told us that he could tell we were different.  He said we had “God on our face”.  Then he said how nice it was to see two people, husband and wife together in ministry.  He was a genuinely nice man who professed to know “God and his son”.  A good start to our trip!

We checked in for the flight and were pleasantly surprised that almost everyone we ran into was nice.  Not cordial but downright nice!  We’re talking about the security screeners!  Nice.  Very nice!

The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Guatemala around 5 AM.  We were met at the airport by Angel and Jose Carmen and they drove us to the house where we napped for four hours.  We went to the Cisne where we met with the other guys and got ready for the first movie showing in Godinez.

We hooked up the screen (a sheet) in the street on a tall chain-link fence and proceeded to show the movie "Apocalypse".  Many people were present and most stood during the time have show.

On the way home Angel told us that three people had accepted Christ from the church in San Antonio last month after seeing the movie "The Passion" and are now attending the church.  Great news!

On Sunday Debbie and I had breakfast at one of our favorite pancake restaurants where Debbie found an ant floating in the honey.  She challenged me to eat it-- and so I did!  It was a little crispy but not too bad.

Sunday night found us at a church in a village about two hours away.  On the way we gave a ride to a couple carrying firewood. Look at the load in the picture above!  Oh yeah, and the woman was carrying a baby as well!  Things are different here.  We arrived at about 5 PM for the 6 PM showing and began the movie "Jonah".  Debbie and I and a few people began watching at about 5:30 and by 6:00 the church was almost full so we started from the beginning and Debbie and I moved to the very back.  But about 15 minutes later we were forced to leave the church as it was full.  Once again people were everywhere and more waiting to get in who couldn't find a seat or a place to stand.  We hung around in a side room where we devised a plan to get more people into the church.  It was simple, really.  After the first movie we would turn on the lights and ask everybody to step outside for 5 minutes while we repositioned the pews to allow more kids to sit in the very front on the floor and more adults in the back.  But the people would have none of that.  They began moving the pews closer together in a way that made it even worse!  But the mob ruled.  No one wanted to lose their seat so we just began the next movie.  Debbie and I sat on the floor the whole time (ouch!).

On Monday night we went to Solola where we were disappointed that they wouldn't let us show The Veggie Tales Movie "Jonah” for some reason.  Everyone the night before loved the movie.  We were disappointed because there were lots of kids there and the movie they chose was "Apocalypse" which we found to be quite boring.  Oh well, God knows.