Sunday - Welcome at the church

Upon our arrival in Guatemala City, we stopped at the church where we will be working this next week to meet Pastor Celso and walk the site. On the roof, we were given a small 8.5 x 11" paper which had the roof plan on it. While we were looking around at the construction work the church has started -- and made progress on after hearing that we were coming to help them, a rainbow was placed in the sky behind us for us to take time to pause and observe. It was a good sign for many on the team.

team at work site
the plan . . .
Pastor Celso and the Maestro who will be helping us . . .

the rainbow to the right of Pat


Then, we went to the sanctuary on the first floor where there were many of the church members. We gathered together for a short welcome service in which we were greeted very warmly with both words and song. The pastor's family was introduced to us, and then we introduced our team to the congregation.
(This was the second song the group sang -- we recognized it and were singing with them, but not in Spanish!)



Augusto let the church know it was Dale's birthday, so the church also sang "Happy Birthday" to him in Spanish and then the pastor prayed a prayer of blessing for Dale. After the worship service, we were served coffee, cake, and pastries. Interestingly when they sang to him in Spanish, they acknowledged his age as they counted up by 10's and then added the last 2.