Starting to be really busy here with preparations for VBS and also work around Las Buenas Nuevas.  I am trying not to take on too much in a hurry this time, however.  I think we will wait until Jan. or Feb. to start English classes again.  There is enough to do here and at church right now.  On Wednesday, the ladies Bible study group from the church met at the home of one of our members who is really gravely ill, the mother of our friend, Noe.  It was very interesting.  They definitely have specific customs on how to greet one another, the sick one, etc.  First, we all sat down and they sang.  It is so beautiful to hear the ladies sing, really loud and third world.  I finally found a book of choruses that they sing, but by the time I found the chorus in my book, they had moved on to another!  Then my friend, Ana, gave a short devotional about how when we are sick, we should pray and call the elders of the church to come and pray for us, etc.  It was very good.  Then it was time to pray.  They asked me and one other woman to lead out in prayer.  I am really still learning how to pray in Spanish, so it was difficult, but that was all right.  However, as soon as I started to pray, all the women started to pray at the same time, outloud.  I couldn’t even think.  I guess maybe that was good, as least I didn’t have to worry about what I was saying, because they weren’t listening anyway!  A definite cultural experience!  In church, when someone prays, they don’t do that usually.  After prayer,  the daughter  of the sick woman brought out a tray with cups of coffee just as we were leaving, so we had to sit back down and drink it before we left.  The coffee that they serve in cases like that is pretty weak and has sugar in it.  That’s it.  I was afraid it would keep me awake since I never drink caffeinated coffee after morning, but it didn’t, so I guess it was weak enough not to affect my sleep.  That is good to know.  I was thankful that I had worn a skirt.  They all had on the tipical women’s corte(skirt) and blouses.  I felt really good

  t hough, like I am finally fitting in as part of the church family.  Then we started to leave and the daughter had her granddaughter there.  About a year old, I would guess.  Anyway, that baby was so afraid of me, she couldn’t stop looking at me like I was an alien!  Then I realized that I really do look different.  These are precious people and I am so glad that God has put us here.

Our church here obtained a water purification system from a church in California to use to help the community and to be a testimony, but after they got it, they didn’t keep it up and were actually giving out polluted water as purified!  They charge 4 Quetzales (their dollar) for each 5 gal. container, which is a lot less than the people can get pure water elsewhere in town.  And they really didn’t know how to use it as an evangelical witness, either, so Niel has been going to the church two days a week to man the system, talking to the people who come for water, etc.  And he is making sure that it really is pure water.  He is working on a tract to give out to the people who come, talking about how Christ can give them living water, etc.  I really am proud of him.