Emmanuel

GOD WITH US. Have you ever thought of the many names our Lord has? Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23) is the name of the church we worshipped at this morning. During Sunday school, we learned more about who God is when we discussed 5 (out of 16) Old Testament "meaningful" names about God. The five we discussed are:

Elohim, Elyon, Adonai, El-Shaddai, & Jehová. 

Elohim - "EL" means God (in the singular) and Supreme Being. "ohim" (plural) represents the Trinity. 

Elyon - "yon" means He is Highest Being

Adonai - means Master & He who judges & He who reigns. 

El-Shaddai - Dios omnipotent (All Powerful) God All Mighty who controls everything. 

Jehová - God of covenant and His promises for us that never change no matter the circumstance. He is unchanging. His Nature is constant. 

It was a great study and the Holy Spirit really feels strong when you learn more about Him. Maybe you feel it now after studying His name. 

Next week they're learning New Testament names of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Welcome back! We had a great day today. As we ate breakfast this morning, we had the pleasure of listening to a local band, that features the marimba, Guatemala's national instrument. 

They even let us up there to get a closer look at the marimba. It was very detailed and sounded Awesome! Someone from our group made their way to the drum set to play along for a song. 

Worship this morning at Emmanuel was inspiring to say the least. It's refreshing to hear and sing along with them in Spanish. Even though, most of us don't know a lick of Spanish, we still felt the strong gravity of the Holy Spirit during worship. God is so good! We presented them with a gift made by John Fradette and Bonnie Kvien and sang them a song. 

After the service, we gathered for a great tasting meal, made by some of the ladies at Emmanuel. It's unbelievable how great it all tasted!! They made us a traditional Guatemalan meal. 

Later on we discussed projects, Ministries, presentations, heard testimonies from current seminary students and presented prayer requests. We discussed these matters from 1:50 to 4:30. It was a great time of learning more about each other and our needs. They are so thoughtful and appreciative. They thanked us endlessly with our church's donation, support and prayers.

They presented us with a couple gifts. 

Artisan cloth and a plaque

It was a great time all around. We are very thankful to share time with our brother's and sister's in Christ here in Guatemala. Thank you Pease CRC for your prayers, volunteer hours with apple pies, pins, wooden toy trucks, ordering supplies, mints, hui sticks and for the financial support you graciously give. We have a lot to be proud of but let us lift all this up to our redeeming God. 

After our meeting, we drove to Retalhuleu, where we'll be staying for most of the week. Once we arrived, we ate dinner and parsed out all the schools supplies so they can be handed out for each village. 

Thank You for checking in and great news!!! Patty is feeling well enough and will join us tomorrow morning as we will travel to Esperanza Miralta. Please Please Please continue to pray for her health. Please lift up Emmanuel church and Bethel CRC in their quest for a new pastor. Also lift up the seminary professors and students at Emmanuel. Please pray for Don Kiel and his family as Don recently found out about the passing of his brother-in-law. He has a very difficult decision to make whether to stay or travel back home for the funeral.

Have a great day and keep checking back in. God Bless and remember, God is Always with us.