Day 2. Coban. Coban lies northwest of Guatemala City (see map). So as I said in my first blog, our campaign would officially begin in Coban. We left Guatemala City at around 5 PM to begin working our way up the mountains of Guatemala to Coban. While it appears to be a straight shot to Coban, we actually had to go through a series of winding roads through the mountains of Guatemala.
The road trip was definitely interesting. After stopping for dinner at the Guatemalan equivalent of a Denny's, brother Darvin mentioned in my last post drove most of the way to Coban while Byron (mentioned in last blog) drove the rest of the way. On the way up there Brother Darvin earned the nickname "Darvin Andretti." The guy knew what he was doing but we had some close calls in regards to him passing people and pushing a diesel engine to its limits.
A little bit about the roads. The roads and the driving here is NOTHING like in the United States. Guatemala has a variety of fault lines and some volcanoes so the roads have earthquake damage that is either still there or been repaired. Guatemala is somewhat of a tropical country so it can get rainy here. As a result, the mountainous land is prone to landslides so there is road damage because of that too. Entire roads can get wiped out. However, we made it Coban safely and are staying in reasonable accommodations with hot water showers. This morning we began working.
We began our morning with breakfast at a local hotel's restaurant with Byron. Afterwards we headed to services. The church here in Coban consists of around 15-18 members. The church actually meets at brother Darvin's home in an add on that used to be his yard. Service was different than here in the states. We actually had service first and then Bible class. I had three firsts for me today.
First, I helped translate Byron's thoughts and prayers during the Lord's Supper. Then I did the most nerve racking thing of my life. I delivered the sermon...IN SPANISH!!!! I stumbled through it but got my point across and everyone said I did a "good job" but I still feel otherwise. Afterwards, I did an hour of translation in Byron's Bible class. I was pretty wiped out afterwards.
After service, we all went out to eat at a place called "Pollo Campero" which is a favorite of BVBID's own Bill Stewart. It was pretty good chicken there. After we ate, we went and dropped off brother Darvin's family and also some brethren. After that, we went to a town called San Cristobal to a park and established a couple of contacts for evangelism. I pray something comes from that. We also went to the grocery store and picked up some water and snacks and other things we needed. We dropped off brother Darvin at his house and came back to the hotel where we are staying while in Coban.
This brings me to the close of this day. These last few hours have been spent preparing for the coming days and relaxing. We all split the cost on pizza and wings for dinner tonight. They actually have a Domino's Pizza here in Coban. Guatemala City and Coban also have other name brands like McDonalds and Subway. I look forward to tomorrow where we will begin a 3 night series on the various pieces of the armor of God per Ephesians 6. I spoke on the introductory lesson this morning. Jared, Tony, and Jordan are speaking the next 3 nights. During the day tomorrow, we will be visiting members and doing some door knocking. I will tell you all about how that goes in my next blog tomorrow night. LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS! THANKS AGAIN FOR READING!
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