It has been a marvelous day in Guatemala.  Oh, before I get too far with this blog, reader be advised that this is not Pastor Teddie…  I am Mark Mast, participant with the Grace Ministries Team, November 2008.  I hail from Canada and am blessed to have 12 fellow Canadians accompanying me, eh?  We are all having an absolutely wonderful time and would like to thank Pastor Teddie and all the people of Friendship for this awesome opportunity.

Getting back to today…  It started bright and early with a devotional from Pastor Teddie.  Miriam and Kelsey led in worship.  We couldn’t sing “off the wall” (powerpoint) because te power went off at 6:55am and didn’t come back on until after we had left to build houses.

We got a late start because of a l-o-n-g message by Pastor Teddie.  It’s a miracle we even had time to build houses after sitting through that marathon message… until well after 8:00am… Pastor Teddie shared from Colossians 3… “put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience… LOVE!”  I’m sure it was because of all the virtues that we were challeneged to “put on” that we were thus able to work together as a team so well today!

We went to the village (Aloga Tunino) to build houses again for a second time.  We had three crews building homes and another crew doing cement work.  All three building crews each had a house built by noon, and after lunch began working on another.

At 2:00pm, we invited the villagers to join us for a “block party”.  I wish that y’all could have been there…  Did you pick up on that “southern talk”?  The bubbas and bubbettes are rubbing off on all of us Yankees and Canooks (Canadians)…  Getting back to the block party.  It was one of the most wonderful times of my life!  Many people came out (mostly children with their mothers) and enjoyed eating cotton candy, bouncng in an inflatable jumping gym, getting their face painted and receiving lots of toys and candy.  The highlight was having Pastor Max share the Gospel and seeing a number of people come forward to receive Jesus Chrst as their Lord and Saviour!  We were all soooooo blessed to be a part of what God is doing in a tiny village tucked up in the beatiful mountains of Guatemala.  I personally cannot recall seeing bigger SMILES than the ones I saw on the faces of the children when we began blowing up the inflatable gym!!  These children had NEVER seen anything like it before.  When the first children went inside, they had to be taught what to do!!  They thought they had to slide around on thier belly!!  I began to jump up and down and encouraged them to do the same.  You really had to be there to appreciate it, but suffice to say, EVERYONE had a fantastic time!  “Gloria Dios!!”  (“To God be the glory!!”)

This evening we enjoyed a scrumptious supper of ham, beans and noodles.  Dessert was HOMEMADE PIES…  Wow…  I can’t beleive I ate the whole thing.

Many of us are now visiting and playing games.  It has been a blessed day and we are especailly thankful for  each of you who are praying.  God is doing beautiful things in Guatemala!!