Back to Panyebar by Thomas Gibson

Today we got the opportunity to go back to Panyebar!

Thanks for everyone´s prayers. We were able to go back to visit with our Guatemalan family and continue work on the house we began on Monday. And, it was an amazing day. We weren´t really sure we would get back there when we left our hotel this morning but I know God knew the desires of our hearts and he provided the way for us. There were still roadblocks but with Tony and Freddie´s help we were allowed through. We did have a little trouble climbing the mountain in a 15 passenger van since it was loaded with 16 passengers, so we had to stop half way up and wait on another van to come pick us up. We were hoping we could just strap a rope to the van and let Mick pull us up but we couldn´t convince him to do it. I don´t think anyone minded admiring the beauty that surrounded us as we waited on this mountain...the view was amazing! Words don´t and won´t do it justice. I don´t even think our pictures will do justice to the views that we saw from half way up that mountain as we were looking down on Lake Atitlan and the beautiful villages that surround it´s coast.

We made it to Panyebar about mid morning and we were excited to see the progress that the family had made on the house since we had been gone. We all worked on preparing, laying and spreading morter on the block house for a few hours before it was time to stop for lunch. It was nice to take a little break and at this point the children in the village had started to make it home from school. We went to the through the corn field to the village´s little church next door to eat our lunch and every time we would look toward one of the windows of the church we would see one of the kids peering in at us to check us out and see what we were doing. They were so excited that we made it back and just couldn´t wait for us to come back and play with them.

After lunch Mick, Jenn, Charlie, Ashley, Brandy and myself went back to the house to continue working while the rest of the team stayed at the church to do Vacation Bible School with the kids. I can´t speak about their experience but I know we could hear lots of singing and laughter through the corn field and all of the kids came back with big smiles on their faces. I know we were excited to get to go back to the house to continue laying block because we all desperately wanted to get it as close to finished as possible.

Unfortunately our time ran out before we were able to get it finished and our day of working in the clouds...literally, we were working above, and in the clouds...was about to end. But, before we left our entire team gathered in the small structure along with the family, Freddie, and the village pastor to dedicate the house. It was a really touching experience as the husband spoke to us to express his gratitude. Our leader Amanda spoke a few words to tell them how grateful and appreciative we were to get the opportunity then Ashley prayed for the family, the house, and the pastor before we had to say goodbye to the kids and head back down the mountain. Of course they loved the candy that we passed out as we left the village and we even had two kids jump in our van before we could get the door closed but they ended up being the lucky ones because they got lots of candy.

After an hour or so on the bus we made it back to the compound for dinner but before dinner we had some time to play with the kids from the neighborhood. They loved kicking the beach ball in the street, at least until we had to stop for dinner. We didn´t really hang around after dinner because we are being picked up at 6.15 a.m. ...yes, 6.15 in the morning and we wanted to get back to the hotel for our evening devotional before we turn in for the night. Therefore, I´m going to wrap this up so I can get going but I wanted to say....

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS....WE FEEL THEM AND WE APPRECIATE ALL OF THEM!