Day 10 | Return to Guatemala City

Betty's place was the stage for our last meal in San Pedro. We ate our delicious breakfast while contemplating a question posed us by Mr. Henriques. For the past couple of days we had been talking about the will of God. This morning the question was asked, "Is there any wiggle room in the will of God?" Of course, this ignited some discussion among the group. I like questions that make me think. I enjoy the challenge of finding a passage or principle in the Word of God on which I can base my opinion. Then I know what I believe and why I believe it.

After breakfast we headed across town to the Baptist church where we would be ministering that morning. A few minutes before service started, our group traipsed up the spiral staircase to the top of the tower. Several of us kicked ourselves for having not brought our cameras that day as we were struck by the panorama of color. We almost had to be dragged back down into the church away from the beautiful view.

As the rest of the church sang in Spanish our group joyfully belted out the words to the hymns in English if we happened to have them memorized. Even though I knew many of them, sometimes the songs were hard to recognize when sung in Spanish. I kept having to ask Kristi which song they were singing! At one point they even sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I had always considered that an American patriotic song, so it was awesome to sing it purely as a battle hymn of God's kingdom. The singing lasted for an hour before the service was handed over to Mr. Henriques for the message. Then the rest of our group left for the children's program where Luke and Co. presented 'The Muddy Glove' story. Bethany did an awesome job in her debut as the 'Mud Girl' even thought she still wasn't feeling 100%.

Service being over, we jumped back into our beloved truck and sang gospel songs all the way back to the hotel - well, almost all the way back. In the center of town we met a parade and after a few minutes of deliberation we finally decided to just hoof it and see if we couldn't beat our own ride back to the hotel. Beat it we most certainly did. Quickly we grabbed our belongings and made our way to the dock for our boat ride back across Lake Atitlan.

This boat ride was much different from the first. Everyone was awake, for one thing. The sun was shining with all it's might so Jerry and Nomeish decided to take advantage of the fact and pretend to nap on the bow. For some reason Karen kept getting splashed, but I think everyone else managed to stay relatively dry.

Back at the missionary camp compound we had to say our goodbyes to Esdras and Sinai. They ran to catch their bus as we began our journey back to Guatemala City in the beloved Japanese 15-passenger van. For some reason the return trip was not nearly as stressful. Construction and clouds had a cleared a bit - and I was not sitting in the front seat, closest to oncoming traffic.

On our last evening in Guatemala we enjoyed the company of Pilo and Hosanna at the Henriques' home. Over dinner Pilo shared his testimony with a few of us describing how God had worked in his life to bring him to that point. Hearing his story strengthened my faith in our ever-faithful, omniscient God.

Our final speaker verbally walked us through the impact the past ten days had on each of our lives. After our debriefing, most of us went to our rooms to pack. As I passed Mr. Henriques' office a couple hours later, Luke asked me to round up everyone I could find and pray that our flights would work out the next day. A hurricane was threatening the coast of Florida, so our flight from Guatemala City to Miami might have to be cancelled. If that happened we would all miss our connecting flight and our flights home the next day. About ten of our number gathered in the living room and discussed our options and finally brought the situation before our heavenly Father.

After talking with the airline, Luke was able to exchange two of the tickets for a flight that was departing about two hours earlier and flew into Dallas, rather than Miami. Because of extenuating circumstances, Jerry and I were given those tickets. I was so grateful, as I crawled out of bed at 4:30 AM the next morning, that the next day I would be on my way home to Oregon. It had been a good trip, but I was ready to see my family!

I'm so grateful that God allowed me to be part of this first VOICE mission. He has stretched and grown me so much through it. He has shown me His power and just a few more reasons why He is so eager to save mankind. He has shown me that He is at work in Guatemala.

Celia Anderson