We started our morning at 6:45am with a walk through San Lucan Toliman to the Promised Land Ministry School for breakfast. As we walked, we observed sights and sounds of the city coming alive. Our team was rested, refreshed, and our hearts were ready to serve. The path to the school is familiar already. We are starting to feel comfortable in San Lucas after just a few days in the country.
After breakfast, we broke into two teams and headed out to build houses for families in need. Over the years, Promised Land Ministries has built over 100 houses in the hillsides. They are simple houses. Cement floors with a few rows of concrete blocks to begin the walls. The rest of the house is built from rough-cut lumber. The roof is made from sheets of tin. It is an accomplishment for each team to construct a house from the material in a single day, but the truth is that the houses are simple. There is no plumbing. There is no electricity. But when the families walk through their finished homes, they are filled with joy. It was a gift to get to experience this with each of the teammates. At the end of the building day, we got to meet the families and pray with and for them. We prayed that God would bless
their home and that God would be present in their space. It was great. It was fulfilling.
We headed back to the school and had a much-deserved lunch. We then headed to a local village to deliver some perishable food to some locals. We met with the family, greeted them, and then prayed with them. We then stayed around for a while to play with some of the kids. It was life-giving, and we deeply enjoyed that part of the day.
We came back to the hotel. Full of the difficult things we had seen as we built homes for families. Full of the challenging things we have seen so far in Guatemala. Full of beautiful things that we have seen God in every step. We played some card games, rested, and spent time together. It was sweet.
In our porch time tonight, we looked at the spiritual discipline of submission. We talked about how submission is the act of submitting all control to God and recognizing that He is the one in control and not us. We read through some verses and considered what those verses taught us about submission. We looked at John 3:30, and the idea that submission means that we decrease so that God can increase. We looked at Hebrews 13:17 and talked about how obedience is a core part of submission. We looked at Romans 12:1 and how we are called to be living sacrifices. We looked at Philippians 2: 5-8 and how humility plays a role in submission. Lastly, we looked at Ephesians 5: 20-21 and how we are called to submit to one another in the fear of God. We considered in our journal time, "What is one more step that draws us closer to Him?"
We are excited and eager to continue on mission tomorrow. We will continue to build houses and serve with Joy.
For The Kingdom,
The Guatemala Team
