Day 7 - Tourist Day

Friday, August 3rd:

Pastor Doug

I thank God for the devotions we had this morning. He used Doug to remind us all of an important fact that will be a crucial preparation for our trip back to the States tomorrow. As much as I have loved being here, and I love the people, and I love the land, and this time has been incredible and unlike any other in my life, Guatemala is not the source of my joy -- my joy comes from the LORD. 

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit -- we are sealed by the Spirit -- joy is of the Kingdom of God -- we are to be joyful always -- even in our troubles this joy remains with us

If I am feeling unaware of my joy, it is not because it has fled away somewhere; it is still right here in my heart, I am only distracted from it for the moment. When I return to the throne of grace, I will there rediscover my joy and with it, love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

Our devotional time concluded with a time of prayer with Guatemalan family praying for those of us heading back North tomorrow. It was a great way to prepare us for our last full day in their beautiful country.

We headed to a coffee estate in the mountains outside Antigua for a zip lining excursion. It was a great time of fun and fellowship.

You can't keep cool like this hidden, so don't even try

Zipping over coffee trees

It was a great time of fun and fellowship. I shared my testimony with one of the translators for whom I felt a burden to warn him about the influences of culture that can initiate a slow and subtle side path from the way that can eventually diverge so far from where we belong that getting back on track is very hard for ourselves and those who love us.

Me and Kevin probably discussing the various merits of a Kurt Cobain conspiracy theory 

My Guatemalan Family

We then headed back down the mountain into Antigua proper for lunch at the local McDonald's, which was exactly like the ones we have in the states except for the fried chicken (Pollo McCrispy), fried cheese pie, espresso bar and the open air courtyard overlooking a volcano.  Apart from these things (and the waiters bringing food to the table and everything being in Spanish), it was just like home!

El McWrap de Jason fue sin pollo

After some shopping in the market, we headed back to the mission house for a great dinner and time of farewells. This group of lads from among our translator team found it quite amusing the apparent resemblance I bear to a character from The Office, which was fair because I said the twins looked like Justin Bieber.

Bieber #1, Dwight, Bo and Bieber #2