Bible Study and other travels - God is good!

You should have been there last Friday for the Bible study in San Benito Poite, we had a blessed time! It had been raining Thursday and Friday, so I was a little concerned about turnout, since people would have to walk in the rain, but God graciously cleared the rain in the afternoon, so it did not present a problem.

I wasn't sure how many to expect for the study, but as soon as we got the generator running and a light hooked up, people began to show up, coming into the building in small groups. I like watching people come at night, the lights from their flashlights, like moving pinpricks of light in the blackness, winding their way across the village toward the church. I was surprised by the number who came... pretty much every bench was filled! The church building is under construction, so there are no windows or doors, but that didn't prevent us from having a wonderful time. Rick and Magdalena did an excellent job teaching, and although the people were a little shy at first, we had some good interaction after all. We look forward to see what God has in store for the future studies!

Saturday night I had the opportunity to speak at the Pastor Appreciation service in Maya Mopan. What a blessed time it was! I was blessed to see the people honoring the service of their pastor, my good friend Benito Tek. It was also a good opportunity to spend a little time with people there, since I don't get to go there as often as I used to. I was also blessed to be able to pray with one of my graduates, Anita, as she headed off to the hospital to give birth to her firstborn child.

Monday meant another trip to Poite, this time with Pastor Andres, to take care of an issue that I had been told about when I was there for Bible study. What a joy to see the truth of God's word bring peace in an otherwise difficult situation, and to see joy and peace replace the fear in Bro. Martin's (the local pastor) family. God is good!

It had rained quite a bit over the weekend, and again on Monday, so there were some patches on the road to Poite that had some fairly deep mud. We were so thankful for new tires that actually have some tread on them! We had no trouble at all. God is good!