We had one more afternoon stop, at a second small mission church - this one just a month ago - also in a rural area west of El Estor. The area's biggest evangelical Presbyterian church, Arca de Noe (Noah's Ark), was sponsoring this mission, in Barrio El Chupon. This is the first church we visited that had one of the Guatemalan national instrument, the marimba, a big xylophone-type instrument, which we had fallen in love at the Arca de Noe church in 2007. Here Pastors Jose Domingo and Raul Contreras serenaded us after our arrival.
It had been a long, hot afternoon, and both Guatemalans and North Americans were feeling some effects of the heat and travel.
But Pastor Gerardo Pop (speaking to us below) - who had helped negotiate the trip by phone - and - as pastor of the Arca de Noe church and secretary of the presbytery - was at least also nominally in charge of this mission church. Like Raul (Lowell), he had seem to be fading, but he revived as he spoke about the mission.
Antonio Tec, an old friend of Elena and a pastor from another part of the country, was listed in the brochure as helping out with the other mission church west of El Estor, Iglesia Puerta del Cielo. But he seemed to be at work in this El Chupon church also.
A marimba performance, short talks by Pastor Gerardo and others, and then we were on our way back to our host families' houses for dinner, before worship back at Arca de Noe.
-- Perry
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