Guatemala Week 6

Hello ,

My sixth week here has passed and the days since my last post have been full.  Last weekend our team took a trip to Semuc Champey, a gorgeous park located 9 hours from El Tizate by car.  We swam in, hiked at and relaxed by these pools on Saturday.  A few of us also went on a two hour cave tour of an underground river which included cliff jumping by candle light. It was amazing and so refreshing!  I’ve attached some pics below:

Semuc Champey

During this past week, we continued our work with construction at the new school facility, running the soccer camp, ESL, movie nights, and VBS program which continue to go well, although this coming Tuesday we’ll be wrapping up a few of these programs as we prepare to return to Ontario on the 24th. I will miss this small village .

Semuc Champey: A View from Above

On Wednesday some of us will be part of a three day spiritual retreat for the 80 kids that attend the school.  We’ve spent a couple mornings fasting and praying in preparation and the expectations are high for God to shower out his blessings on the kids.  Last year was the first year that the school put on this retreat and many kids were powerfully blessed by the presence of God as God worked among them; six had demons cast out of them.  I will be going again to serve the kids, and though I cannot understand Spanish well, I am sure that these up-coming three days will be unlike anything I’ve known before. The presence of the spiritual world as known through the manifestations of the Holy Spirit and the demonic has moved for me from a mere intellectual acquiescence to an experientially validated reality this summer.  Feel comfortable to ask me about this when you see me next.

I read a short but exceptionally powerful book by H.A. Baker last night entitled “Visions behind the Veil” which related vivid visions of the spiritual world which a group of Chinese orphans had in Southeastern China following an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  I highly recommend it.

Jasmin and Carolyn

Here’s a photo of Jasmin, my excellent Spanish teacher and the grade one teacher at the school with Carolyn, her beautiful daughter .

I’ll write more later .

cheers,

Steven