Third Day (UPDATED)

UPDATE: (I fixed the problem with the page loading. The blog program doesn't like when I paste stuff from Microsoft Word)

Hey everybody! It's been a productive day since I last wrote. Last night we ate a delicious lasagna dinner (a true Guatemalan delight!) and then we headed over for worship. But not before Ian and Clark wanted to show off their pantalones de fiesta that they bought in the market.

We began our worship time with one song, and then brother Wayne got up and gave us a fascinating look into the world of Bible translation. Did you know that there are literally thousands of languages in the world today that don't even have an alphabet? There is literally not a single syllable that has been written down . That's hard to imagine. Consequently, and more seriously, those millions of people have no Bible. They have no access to the precious Word of God. Even if a person in this language wanted to have a Bible and read it, he couldn't. I had no idea of this until I came into contact with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

The task of Wycliffe is to send out missionaries into people groups without a written language. Once there, the missionaries live with the people for years learning their language, developing an alphabet and grammar and loving the people. Wayne did this for several years in Guatemala with his wife Alice among the Uspanteco people. During his presentation, Wayne showed us a little glimpse into the vast task of learning and writing down a language. The Mayans make all kinds of sounds when they talk that we've never imagined. He taught us about the way we make sounds using different parts of our face and head. Wayne brought in a Guatemalan man who speaks a Mayan language called Tzutujil (zoo-too-heel) and showed us the process he used in those early days. He asked the man to name several objects: a rock, an avocado, a large rock, two similar rocks, a small rock, a leaf and water. What an incredible task. It's amazing to realize that faithful men and women had to do this kind of task for the English language hundreds of years ago. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a Bible and would be ignorant of God and alienated from Him. Glory to Him! The kids love Wayne. I sure wish you could be here to hear him glory in the overwhelming greatness of knowing God and having His Word as a lamp for our feet and light for our paths. He ended his meditation with Revelation 5:9, which describes the worship in heaven consisting of "people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation..." He reminded us that the Mayans have a place there. We have a place there because of God's loving providence and power to rescue us by His Spirit through the spread of His wonderful Scriptures. Salvation is by faith alone and faith comes through hearing! Glory to God!

We worshiped some more and we felt God's Spirit moving there. We sang the amazing truth that "No power of hell, no scheme of man/Can ever pluck me from His hand/Till He returns or calls me home/Here in the power of Christ I'll stand." In our prayer time afterward, I reminded the kids of an important truth: the question for your life is NOT "Is God calling me into world missions?" but rather the question is "HOW is God calling me into world missions?" There are senders and the sent, but God has not made involvement an option. Does God want you to be a sender, who provides resources and support? Or does God want you to GO? Have you ever considered that question yourself? Since there is no third option, are you a sender or are you being called to go? God has saved us by His grace, so there is nothing that He cannot ask of us.

As we do every night, we spent time Giving God the glory for our day. Here are some highlights:

• Garrett Myer: "for having my bro on this trip" (awwwww)
• Ernie Elbert: "for how the language barrier shows our vulnerability"
• Sadie Murray: "for the Guatemalan moms, who work so hard to even with about 4 kids strapped to them at all times." She ended by saying, "moms are special people" (double awwwww)
• Slava Seely: "for my new friend Manuel" who is now Slava's BFF
• Garrett Cannell: he went over to a rock nearby that is an idol worshiped by folks in this region. He said, "God is so powerful that He could turn this thing into millions of pebbles at any second"
• James Floyd: "for Wayne" (Amen!)

After our worship time, we got to play for a while.

You might be surprised to find out that bedtime is not a difficult ordeal here on the trip. This is because the kids are so utterly exhausted by bedtime. So, after many great conversations we fell asleep and awoke to be at breakfast at 7am (a record for some of these kids this summer). Breakfast was delicious. And during our meal Ernie got up and gave us a meditation on Matthew 28:18-20 - The Great Commission. He convinced us of 1) Jesus's power (why would the disciples be willing to go out to live and die for merely another moral man?); and 2) Jesus's presence. It was a great start to the morning.

I took a group of kids with Andrew and Sarah Haverly to La Viña studio. The trip across was so awesome. The temperature never rose above 75 degrees all day. Are you jealous?

And we got to stop at a beautiful waterfall once we crossed over.

The mission of La Viña Studios is to put the Word of God into audio and video formats so that it can be spread as far and wide as possible. Though the languages in this area have alphabets and are written, not everybody is literate or comfortable learning through reading. So La Viña has recorded the New Testament into dozens of Mayan languages. They use music, amazing finger puppet videos for children (and adults...admit it, you like Veggie Tales), and other mediums to spread the hope of Christ. Ellen loved the props.
Below we have Pharaoh, obviously. He's missing his eyes, but you get the idea. The sets are elaborate and the work is so painstakingly detailed. I was thoroughly impressedWe ended our time at La Viña by jumping into their fully equipped recording studio and laying down some legendary tracks of "We Are the World." Coming soon to a store near you.

At Camp David work continued on moving lots of rocks and dirt so that they could plant some little trees around the basketball court.

They got done so fast with that work that they got to go and clear out a new portion of the land. This involves digging and ripping out coffee plants. This was a lot harder this year because the ground was so rocky.
Joe Burkett was at Camp David and was bragging about Whitney Presbaugh. She was relentless and was SO excited to actually be holding a machete and chopping down plants (whether they needed it or not). She was just as eager to haul rocks as the boys were. Praise God! These kids are all working so hard. You should be very proud of them. Our leaders are keeping up, though. Lauren Borgeson was so into it that she didn't even notice when a branch that had been folded back was released and just swatted her right over. Way to go, Lauren!



After lunch, the kids had done so much work that they finished the day early! So they got to compete in some international competition. It was USA v. Guatemala.
They had to end when the trucks got there. Believe it or not, the score was tied up 2-2. We lived to play another time!

It's almost dinner time and the rain is coming down. I hope all is well in hot Ft. Worth. Maybe we can bring some rain home with us. What a great day.