Guatemala's story

We are in Tactic!  I forgot to tell you a funny story from our time in Houston airport.
We had a lovely supper at Ruby's.  Graham jokingly tried to pay the waitress with Canadian money.
She said, "I knew you had to be from Canada, you are suspiciously nice!".  We laughed heartily over that.
Our journey to Tactic was very interesting and informative.  It took all day to get from Guatemala city to Tactic.  In that time we had a tour of the National Palace and the cathedral.  Les gave us a historical tour that included the spiritual history that lead to the cultural reality.  Guatemala's native people are Mayan.  The Spanish conquerors invaded Guatemala and took its resources back to Spain.  They forced Roman Catholicism on the people but it was in action and ritual only.  The people did not experience Christ's love.  Because of this they merged the Catholic rituals with their pagan beliefs and became entangled in a spiritual bondage that was full of fear, mysticism, and guilt devoid of a personal relationship with the Lord.  The result was a society of usury, poverty, and oppression.
Fast forward to today when true Christian ministries like Impact Ministries, bring Christ's message of hope and love to these people in spiritual and physical poverty, they are like parched land that has received a refreshing rain.  Their hearts grab a hold of His love and it has transformed them into a people with a hope and a future.
I am blown away at the difference that two Canadians, who were obedient to God's call, could make in the lives of so many people.  They stepped out in courageous faith to share Him with Guatemala.  They persevered when it didn't look possible.  The meetings in their home with a handful of willing listeners has blossomed into 3 churches with about 750 families.  Multiple Christian schools, teaching and feeding 1500 children a day and it is growing.  Sponsorship money had certainly been the fertilizer to nurture this but it is the faith of the Guatemalan Christians that is causing the fire to spread.
The moto is to teach the love of Christ, using Biblical principles to direct our daily lives, and then to use our Blessed lives to serve Christ and bring others to Him.  What a simple yet powerful vision.  That vision has real physical fruit to show that it works.  The people are being healed and the people are prospering spiritually and physically.  An actual economic shift is being noticed in Tactic.  The people here are quick to share their testimonies and give the Glory to God.  What a witness that is to my North American heart.  I am also saddened when I think that in North America, our spiritual history was much different.  Our ancestors came to the New land so that they could worship the Lord freely.  The founded our nations on Godly principals and we reaped the blessing from that.  We live prosperous lives because of that foundation.  Yet we have lost that knowledge and become worshippers of creation rather than our creator.  Our society has headed in the opposite direction and we are seeing the negative fruit of that.
My prayer is that we will wake up, that the Christians of North America will renew their faith and find their voice to share the Love of Christ with power and bring Him back to the centre of our society.