Filed under: Uncategorized
From: Hawatthia Jones and Byron Benitez
Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:04 PM
Subject: More Than an Eventful Weekend
To:
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Greetings from the South,
Thanks for your love and concern for the church family here in Guatemala and for us. Your calls and e-mails have meant so much to us. We probably had the most eventful first ITL Lectureship that we ever could have had. And, through it all, we are thankful to God that we and those that we know are doing fine.
First, on the night of the banquet, there was a volcano that erupted. This particular volcano, called Pacaya, is about 20 miles from where we live. We did not feel the eruption, but received a whole lot of the ash. On that evening it was raining and the rain was black. As a result, the airport was shut down and travel became hazardous. What a way to start the lectureship.
Second, while in the midst of the volcano episode, we were hit by the tropical storm named Agatha. It started raining on Thursday and did not stop until Sunday. There was a lot of flooding and sadly some people lost their lives and others their homes. This especially happened to people who live on the hillsides in Guatemala. Even though it is a known fact that flooding is a common problem during the rainy season, the country’s leaders do not seem to take any measures to confront and help this situation.
The third is the VERY large sink hole in Guatemala City. This disaster has probably received the most media coverage of all that has taken place. The huge sink hole (approx. 60 feet in diameter and 200 feet in depth) is in zone 2 of the city. This is the second sink hole to happen in this zone of the city since we have been here; the first was in 2007. It is believed that the hole is a result of the poor compaction of dirt that was replaced after the instillation of sewer pipes many years ago. It is possible that pipes might have been leaking for some time and the eruption of the volcano and amount of rain received only aided this disaster. Much like the time before the occurrence of the sink hole of 2007, people had heard noises from below before the land collapsed.
THANKFULLY to God almighty, we are all alright. Many, however, are still in the clean up mode from all the ash that fell from the eruption of the volcano. To our knowledge there were not fatalities amongst those that we know. We have heard of none amongst the churches on the coast. God is definitely good to His people.
Now you are probably wondering about the lectureship. Even though the attendance was smaller than expected, we believe that God was glorified and that His people, who were able to attend, were edified. We had some of the best speakers from many places and some of the best food (PLENTY OF IT) to be found in Guatemala. Hopefully, we will be sending out more information about the lectureship very soon.
Thank you again for your prayers, love and concern. We are grateful to God for people like you. Please continue to lift this country to our Father.
Con el amor de Cristo,
Hawatthia
Byron
“Teaching the CENTRAL MESSAGE in CENTRAL AMERICA!”
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