Dedication

On Sunday, November 27th my little chapina was presented in front of our church, Vida Real. We committed to raising her in God's love and to provide her not just a biological family, but a church family as well.



Our Vida Real family surrounded us, prayed over us, and expressed such a powerful love for Georgia that it will affect her life forever. It was so moving it brought me to tears.



Our church here in Guatemala has meant the world to me. I have literally never met Christians like the ones that belong to our church.

When we first arrived in Guatemala, we visited many, many congregations.
(You may even recall me writing about the experience in my blog entry "La Vid Verdadera" on 10/24/2010). We even regularly attended a very Pentecostal church for the first three months or so we lived here. Although we enjoyed that church very much, after about three months we realized that Sunday mornings were getting to be too hard on our family.

There is a monthly magazine printed in Antigua that carries a classified section. One week I was saw an ad for a church service that would be meeting in a local hotel. The ad said there was a 9:00 a.m. service and an 11:00 a.m. service and that there were activities for children.

"Stephen," I said, "If they have another service just two hours after the first one starts, surely the service finishes within two hours." (Note: This statement gives a little insight as to why the other church started to be very difficult for our young family.)

So, the next Sunday we went and loved it. Come to find out, the church had opened its rented hotel doors just a few weeks before. We started attending regularly and literally became one of the first Antigua families to commit to the congregation.

Here is why I love this church:
1) My kids love it thanks to the amazing people that minister to them.
2) The people pray. And mean it. This is huge.
3) There is a vision and a plan and they are executed.
4) There is kindness so genuine you wonder if it's really genuine. But it is.
5) I am excited to go on Sunday mornings.
6) I am excited to go to my small group.
7) I have made wonderful friends.
8) I invite people without reservation because I am proud of the church.
9) There is a beautiful balance of being served and serving.
10) It feels like what church should be – not free of differences, but free of the pettiness that easily turn differences into problems.

I will miss you, Vida Real.