Travel Day - Guatemala City

Travel day went really well, considering we departed Pease at two in the morning and we couldn't find Chick-fil-A at the airport. Other than that we had a great day! We had absolutely nothing to complain about. Great flights, a perfectly timed out layover in Atlanta, no long hours in a packed van, no health issues, and everybody had great energy!! 

(Waiting for our flight to Atlanta)

(Our gate to Guatemala)

As soon as we arrived in Guatemala City we drove straight to Guatemala's National Cemetery where we met up with a man named Joel Van Dyke, a product of Holland, MI, where he gave us AN AMAZING vision for missions through the teaching of Guatemalan history by using its national cemetery as a teaching guide. Death is viewed a lot differently here than back home. Ever hear of the "Day of The Dead"? Death is celebrated here. Death is very much of the everyday fabric of Society down here - and it's not weird! 

I actually just googled the cemetery and saw some pictures of people carrying deceased family members. Now I gotta be honest - that got me a little weird.....but they simply embrace death down here. 

Anyway, I'm getting off topic and losing out on some Z's. Before I move on I want to share a phrase, by Pastor Joel, that got my attention this afternoon. "Ministry of memory" - this is why Joel spends so much time and effort diving into Guatemalan history and culture. This is why he spends so much time in this cemetery and literally surrounds himself by death, because "you learn from it". Death creates memories and memories create history and history(memory) is ministry. Like many countries, Guatemala has a painful history and is still dealing with the results of a 36 year civil war that just ended in 1996. It's a gaping wound here, but Joel says we can't go around it. We can't ignore it. We need to go right through the wound. "The cross compels us to go through the wound."  When we do, that's missionary. 

(Setting the tone for visiting the dump/La Limonada on Saturtday) Joel said, "we can't ignore the wounded. We can't ignore the forgotten." He was talking about the ignored & forgotten population in the city dump/La Limonada. He then asked us, "who are the forgotten in your community?" 

"You can do good deeds but it means nothing without good news" ~Pastor Michael

We later toured Guatemala City on foot, visiting a Catholic Church & Guatelama City's very first Presbyterian Church

(Catholic Church)

(Guatemala's first presbyterian church)

To see more of the National cemetery view this link. 

http://chappiage.blogspot.com/2013/07/guatemala-national-cemetery.html?m=1

Thank You for the prayers and we'll talk later. Write us below!