From Pastor Mark:

Monday: Today the Michiganders and the Mississippian left at 3:00am to fly home. The Canadians and West Virginians woke up pretty early as well, feeling somewhat dehydrated from all of the tears that were shed last night. We drove to the incredibly beautiful Lake Atitlan, stopping at Burger King for breakfast, which consisted of ice-cream for some people (*cough* Rebecca Barker *cough*)  🙂   We arrived at the lake surrounded by volcanoes in good time and many of us were able to ride the X-Tremos zip-lines, consisting of 7 separate lines, giving us an amazing view if the beauty of Guatemala, gliding above and around the lake at amazing speeds! Those that didn’t go on the zip-line had lots of fun feeding monkeys and walking around the jungle trails. Following this, we visited David and Denaya McDonald in Panajachel, enjoying a wonderful meal with them and interacting with the students living with them, that they are teaching English. They were able to accompany us on a boat-ride across Lake Atitlan to shop. The view as we travelled was truly unbelievable and we were so blessed by the amazing majesty of God’s creation that literally surrounded us wherever we looked. After spending some time shopping in the markets of Santiago Atitlan, we returned to Panajachel and drove back to the mission house. Arriving at 800pm, we were so blessed to enjoy a wonderful dinner of sloppy-joes. After supper, we prepared lunches for the people at the El Tejar Dump. Finally, the guys and Rachel lit off the firecracker supply that we’ve been stockpiling over the past week. We are going to bed early as we are ALL incredibly tired. Pray for our ministry at the El Tejar Dump, as well as a VBS that we will be conducting for 200-250 children in Chimaltenango.  We will wrap up our day of ministry by attending a church service in El Tejar. Pray for us; that we will have the energy to minister effectively to the Guatemalan people! Also pray for all those who will hear about the Gospel tomorrow (Tuesday), that they will be deeply impacted by it. Pray that we will have an amazing last day of  ministry to Guatemalan families and children! Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf.  Everything is going great!”