Maraviolloso Dios

Today was a glorious day. We started off bright and early (Guatemala time that is) ;-) around 7. Getting up was easy enough for me, seeing as it was about 9 Atlanta time. As I got ready for breakfast and church afterwards, I was just trying to soak the fact in that today was going to be so different from my typical Sunday ritual in Atlanta. Not only was I in Guatemala, but I was about to share a beautiful service in Spanish with people who are dear to me through association from afar. Even though I personally did not have relationships with them (yet), I had heard millions of stories from my family about all of the members of the congregation of CCG.

Upon arriving to the church, children were running around and families were laughing while enjoying the beautiful view around the church which is seated on the side of a very large hill. Our group gathered together with the congregation within the large salon and worshiped God and I mean Worshiped. While singing with the worship group, I was stunned by the beauty of it all. Instead of having a bare wall behind the podium, there was a wall of open windows showing the beautiful sky and large green hills in the distance. The members of the band were all very young, one I'd even dare say no more than 13.  They had gone out of their way to make sure that they had songs sung in English along with Spanish to make worship even easier. The sermon was given by a 26 year old who has never gone to seminary or had any other training besides leadership training. As he spoke, the sermon was translated into English and we were blessed with a fantastic sermon about the purpose of God's church. I have never been in a two and a half hour service before and it felt no more than an hour. For the first time ever, I heard myself praying in Spanish. I was overwhelmed with the presence of God all over the room. To think, all of this came from a tenth of the budget any church in America would use for their service....

At the end of the service, we witnessed the baptisms of several members of the congregation. CCG uses the baptism of immersion for their members. They do this outside in a huge stone tub made just for this. What a wonderful thing to witness! We sometimes forget how much we need to celebrate baptisms and today was a reminder of how wonderful they are.

Departing from the church, our large younger group went on to Rio Dulce, while our smaller group was divided into pairs and each sent off with a family to enjoy lunch and share stories with each other. We each had very unique experiences, some going to malls, some going to restaurants, some went to Antigua, and still others went to the houses of the families. Megan and I were given a tour of an international German school and enjoyed a wonderful meal with our host families, the Leon family. The companionship formed between the families and our group members are so important because these are the people we will keep in contact with in future trips. These are the families we will learn to pray for actively and they will do the same.

Today was a day to see Maravilloso Dios (Marvelous or Wonderful God) work within each of us in getting out of our box and finding companionship with our brothers and sisters of the world. These siblings will be the ones we will not only keep in contact with from now on, but spend eternity with in God's gorgeous kingdom.

-Diana Crane

(La hija de Ariadne) :-p