After teaching from the book of Philippians for the first two portions of my time in Guatemala, I felt a little like Paul visiting Timothy when I visited the church in San Cristobal for the third portion of my trip.
Katie Lynn Finch, IRSM’s intern from last year has served in the Amor Sin Temor (Fearless Love) congregation for the past eleven weeks. Among her primary responsibilities, she has been teaching women in one-on-one and small group Bible contexts.
For most of those studies, she’s used In God’s Right Hand, the same book she helped me with, through the final steps of the publication process, last summer. She had also taught a week with the Hispanic sisters in Denver, and recognized the difference in her experience and confidence, comparing last summer to this one.
It was an honor and a privilege to observe how God has worked in and through her! I also got to see how much she has grown in her Spanish skills through the relationships built and lives touched.
The entire trip was a tremendous blessing.
Partnering with Health Talents International, seminars on Philippians were presented in both cities in which they conduct their clinics. In Chichicastenango, over 70 women attended the two-day event. More would’ve been there, but only women leaders in the fifteen area congregations were invited to participate in the training.
Maria translated to Quiche for me again, for which I was grateful. And all of the women were excited to participate in small groups again. Since they had experienced them last year, they were more ready to jump into the discussions this year.
Clinica Ezell is home to the operating rooms for surgical campaigns, in which doctors and nurses from the U.S. come and provide medical services in their area of expertise. Another two-day seminar on the book of Philippians was conducted there, with about 25 women in attendance each day.
Finally, in San Cristobal, just outside the capital, I spent my final two and a half days encouraging the young congregation there, the interns who had served for varying lengths of time this summer, and conducting a ladies’ day event on Sunday before the afternoon church services.
Falling in Love with Jesus was the topic for the groups of troubled teens, battered women, Christian sisters, and other women from a nearby village who attended. All have developed great relationships with the Fearless Love congregation and I was able to visit with some of them in follow-up studies the next day, before my departure.
I returned safely and sleepily on Tuesday morning after a week and a half in Guatemala. There are more God stories to share from my trip, so stay tuned as I share some of them soon...
In the meantime, if you would like to see some of the pictures from the trip, here are the three albums, as published on Facebook.
Chichicastenango
Clinica Ezell
Amor Sin Temor