ShareHim Guatemala Update:
Students Journey Down the Rio Dulce to Livingston

Having completed their 15-day ShareHim evangelistic series, the students boarded a bus early Sunday morning for the journey to Livingston, Guatemala.  Accessible only by boat, Livingston was founded by a pirate, and is home to four ethnic groups that live peacefully together: Haitians, Brazilians, Guatemalans and Indians (from India).  


After a four-hour bus ride we boarded a long speedboat for the 45-minute trip down the Rio Dulce to Livingston.   In addition to the breathtaking jungle scenery and flocks of water fowl we saw as we zoomed down river, the students enjoyed our stop at the "water market."  There girls in canoes came to our boat hawking their wares.  

Once in Livingston we checked into the Posada el Delfin, a delightful hotel located right on the waterfront, and owned by an Adventist. After we deposited our luggage in our rooms we re-boarded our boat for a 30-minute ride, now in the rather choppy Caribbean Sea, to a private beach called Playa Blanca.  Off in the distance we could see the coast of Belize.  Lunch consisted of fish cooked over a wood fire, rice, tortillas and tomatoes.

The sea was very rough on the way back to our hotel.  Climbing the waves and crashing down the other side was like going on a 40-minute roller coaster ride!

The view from our hotel in Livingston

After enjoying some marimba music performed by Aldolfo Xol, president of the Northern Guatemala Mission, we ate a hearty breakfast of beans, cheese, coconut bread and fruit.

After our final worship together as a group, we spent the rest of the day travelling to 
Guatemala City.  After a 45-minute boat ride back to where our bus was parked, we drove for another six hours first to the offices of the Guatemala Union of Seventh-day Adventists and then to our hotel.

In keeping with a CUC tradition, Julio Davila and Dr. Haynal pose with a copy of the Canadian Campus along with
Enrique Baltazar, (left) secretary-treasurer of the Northern Guatemala Mission, and Gustavo Menendez, the ShareHim
coordinator for Guatemala.

ShareHim Guatemala Update:

Students Prepare and Present 19 Sermons in 15 Days

Atalia Trejo preached her sermons in Spanish so did not have to deal
with some of the translation problems several students had to overcome
early in the series.

None of us were fully prepared for how time-consuming and challenging it would be to prepare and present 19 ShareHim sermons in 15 days.  After spending much of the day preparing at the hotel, students faced a variety of logistical challenges actually presenting the messages ranging from power outages and computer problems to the dynamics of some unusual venues.

ShareHim Guatemala Update:

Hammocks Play Key Role in Relaxation in Guatemala

Whether it was on the back patio of the head elder's house, at the hotel in Livingston, or at Playa Blanca (White Beach), relaxing in a hammock was a new-found pleasure for the group from CUC. 

In the video below I am relaxing with "Chilo" the head elder of the church at which I spoke, as we wait for his wife to finish preparing Sabbath dinner.  After eating our fill of white fish caught in Lake Flores Itza, beans, rice, and tortillas, we returned to the hammocks for a siesta.

ShareHim Guatemala Update:

ShareHim Evangelistic Series Result in 46 Baptisms

The 10 CUC students who have been holding ShareHim evangelistic meetings in and around Flores, Guatemala, were thrilled to learn that 46 individuals were baptised as a result of their efforts and the ongoing work of personal evangelism done by local
church members.  Eight church groups, representing meetings conducted by 7 students and Dr. Haynal, gathered at Lake Peten Itza Sabbath morning to witness 36 of the baptisms.  Six of the remaining baptisms were held at another location, and 4 were baptised on Thursday evening.

After an abbreviated Sabbath School program and an earlier-than-usual church service, members from eight churches gathered in the forest by Lake Peten Itza at 10:45 am for the baptism.  After an extended song service the president of the Northern Guatemala Mission gave a short talk.  The candidates were then asked to indicate their agreement to a series of doctrinal statements.

After this the entire group moved to the edge of the lake to witness the baptisms.  As we sang hymns, the candidates entered the water in groups of four, walking to the waiting pastors between two lines of Pathfinders, or Conquistadors as they are called in Central America.

ShareHim Guatemala Update:
Daily Routines have been Established

Now that we have been here nearly a week, the days have a regular routine.  When we hear the newspaper ladies go by hawking their papers, we know it's about 8 am and time to head down for breakfast.  Except for the day we were served pancakes (who wants to travel all the way to Guatemala only to eat pancakes?) the meals have been outstanding.  



At 9 am every morning except Sabbath, we meet as a group for worship and to discuss how things went at the previous night's presentation.  We also share ideas about how to present the evening's message.  For the first five days of our stay Jeremiah Weeks, the associate director of ShareHim, met with us and shared ideas.



After the morning meeting most of the rest of the day is spent preparing for that evening's presentation.  We have not been pleased with the sermons ShareHim provides.  All of us spend a great deal of time re-organizing them, shortening them, and making them relevant for our audience. In addition to preparing the sermons, the students also have daily reports they must prepare and e-mail to Dr. Boyd.  Because of the Internet, I cannot fully escape my CUC work, either.

Although most of the meetings don't start until 7:30 pm, students are picked up as early as 6 pm and driven, usually by an elder of the church, to their meeting site.  While most of the time students ride in cars or trucks, one evening Enock travelled to his site in a tuk-tuk!



Our routine was broken on Wednesday when we got up at 3 am so we could watch the sun rise over the Mayan ruins at Tikal National Park, about an hour drive from Flores.  We also knew it would be far more pleasant touring this UNESCO World Heritage Site during the cool of the morning.  I will share more of this experience in my next post.  Here is just a quick preview.  It's not often a member of CUC's Acronaires gets to do part of her routine on the top of an ancient Mayan temple!

ShareHim Guatemala Update:
Happiness is a Sabbath Siesta in a Hammock

The head elder took me to his home for Sabbath lunch.  Even though I speak only a little Spanish and he and his family spoke even less English, thanks to all of us having smart phones with translator apps we were able to have a grand time.  The highlight of the afternoon was relaxing in hammocks on his back porch. 

As I write this the students are in their hotel rooms cooling off, resting, and preparing for tonight's sermon.  The temperature is presently 39, and considering that some of the students will this evening preach for the third time in 24 hours, cooling off, rest and preparation are all needed!

Things went quite well at my church.  There were about 150 in attendance, many of them young adults.  The church is in San Benito, next to the offices of the Northern Guatemala Mission of Seventh-day Adventists.  The Mission covers the northern half of Guatemala and has just over 34,000 members, 93 churches, and only 16 full-time pastors.

The treasurer of the Mission, Enrique Umanzor, served as my translator.  He said that since he is a conference employee he is expected to wear a suit when up front on Sabbath.  I quite literally had to follow suit.  Fortunately, there were overhead fans throughout the church, including one strategically positioned right over the pulpit!

I was pleased to see how seriously they take the children's story during the church service.  All of the children came forward for a full-length Bible lesson.  At the end of the presentation the children were quizzed, having to answer questions in front of the congregation!

The head elder, Cecilio Gizon, with his wife and granddaughters.

ShareHim Guatemala Update:
Students Successfully Preach their First Sermons

Students review their sermon notes while eating breakfast Sabbath
morning.

Several students preached their first of 19 ShareHim sermons Friday evening.  Now that the area youth rally has ended, everybody on the team will be speaking for the church service in his or her respective churches. 

Both Michael Hall and Shonette Peters reported that while everything went smoothly, the sermon provided by ShareHim was just too long.  (Most of the sermons have around 95 PowerPoint slides.)

Those of us who did not speak Friday evening went to the area youth rally.  Although only our group leader, Julio Davila, who speaks Spanish, could fully understand what was being said or sung, we enjoyed the music and the enthusiasm of the preaching.


I will be speaking at the 1st Seventh-day Adventist Church in San Benito, only a 10-minute drive from our hotel.  Shown below is a greeting from the head elder of the church.  Check back in a day or two for a translation.




For the most part all of us are in good health.  On Friday Julio took three students to the pharmacy for some over-the-counter decongestants and an antibiotic ointment for an eye infection.  Pharmacists in Guatemala appear to have the ability to dispense much of what you need, without a prescription

Breakfast consisted of orange juice, a small bowl of fruit, an English
muffin filled with scrambled eggs and tomatoes, and a bowl of black beans.

ShareHim had arranged with the hotel to provide us a set breakfast each morning.  Shown to the right is a photo of Friday morning's breakfast.  It was delicious, but not big enough for the young men in our group.  Rather than have them go hungry, we have arranged for anyone not filled up by the set breakfast to get all the rice and beans they can eat!

ShareHim Guatemala Update:
All Night Bus Ride takes its Toll

We left Guatemala City at 5 pm, at the height of that city's notorious rush hour.  Words simply cannot adequately describe the overwhelming cacophony of horns, crush of vehicles and noxious cloud of exhaust fumes that is rush hour in Guatemala City!  For the next 10 hours a 24-passenger Toyota bus was our home.  It was just after 3 am when we finally arrived at our hotel in Flores.

We are staying at the Hotel Casa Amelia, rated by TripAdvisor as the 3rd best hotel in Flores.  I've provided a video clip of our lake front hotel, and the view from rooftop terrace.  We will have our daily group worship and meeting on the terrace at 9 am.


Breakfast each morning is provided by the hotel and is far better than the uninspired breakfasts offered in most hotels in North America.  This morning I enjoyed three tortillas stuffed with scrambled eggs, tomatoes and cheese, with a generous helping of exquisitely seasoned black beans on top.

ShareHim has arranged with a nearby restaurant to feed us lunch each day.  Today they served us a toasted sandwich stuffed with a wide assortment of grilled vegetables, everything from eggplant to radishes.

Given our early morning arrival, most of the group slept in, or took naps today in between exploring the town and working on the first three sermons.  The plan is to preach 19 sermons in 16 days.

At tonight's orientation meeting I learned that the church to which I have been assigned was not expecting to begin the ShareHim series on Friday night.  In fact, they are ending a youth rally Friday night and Sabbath and I will begin my series Saturday night.  This came as a surprise to our ShareHim coordinator, Jeremiah Weeks.  Thus, the plan is for me to observe the Friday night meeting, attend church services Sabbath morning, and begin the series at 7 pm.

It's now 10:12 pm the students are all headed out with our group leader Julio Davila to eat authentic Guatemalan food purchased from street vendors.  No amount of Pepto-Bismol would get me through the night if I were to join them.  As a result, you have been able to read this blog post.

Yesterday I failed to post the following video showing how tight the security is at banks in Guatemala City.  Only one person at a time can enter or exit a bank.  He does so through a double door entrance would make it extremely difficult for any bank robber to vacate the premises quickly.  Shown here is Michael Hall leaving Banco Industrial through the bullet proof entrance.

ShareHim Guatemala Update:
Half the Group has Made It All the Way

Michael Hall and I enjoyed some fresh
coconut milk at Guatemala's Central Market.
Two coconuts cost us 50 cents.  I'm sure we
paid more than we should of, but I feel
sorry for merchants who work hard
to earn a living.

Nine students and I will soon be holding ShareHim evangelistic series in and around Flores, Guatemala.  We left Calgary Tuesday morning, May 7.  Half the group went by way of Toronto so as to avoid the hassle of passing through fortress United States.  My half of the group, Joe Steel, Michael Hall, and Gimps Atisme, flew from Calgary to Houston and then to Guatemala City.

When we checked in at the Calgary airport one student was told that since his bag weighed 83 pounds he would have to pay a $400 surcharge!  We immediately began redistributing his 50 copies of the Spanish language Great Controversy between us.  We were eventually able to get his bag down to 50 pounds.  However, our carry on bags were now quite heavy!

While we were able to get his first bag down to 50 pounds, there was still going to be a $42 charge for his second bag.  When he indicated he would pay the fee in cash the agent replied, "Well, then I guess it's free because our machine that prints cash receipts is not working." 

We arrived in Guatemala at around 9:30 pm.  Two pastors met us and took us to a Best Western hotel.  Because the elevation of the city is 1500 meters, the climate here is far more pleasant that it will be in Flores.

Because the other half of our group would not arrive until Wednesday afternoon, we were able to take a three-hour private tour of the city for $40.  I have included a few photos from our escapade. 

Traffic in Guatemala City is horrendous.  Pedestrians do not appear to have any rights whatsoever!  Motorcyclists weave in and out of heavy traffic, often while talking on a cell phone, head tilted,  clutching the device between ear and shoulder.

Later this evening we will board a bus for an all-night, 10-hour journey to Flores.  After a day of orientation our meetings begin.  Please pray that God will bless our efforts and send extra angels to watch over us.

Palacio Nacional de la Cultura (National Palace of Culture

Blog Attracts Record Number of Viewers in April

The President's Page blog received 4144 page views in April, 2013, just over 1000 more than April, 2012.  While most of the viewers were located in Canada or the United States, this blog was viewed by users in Russia, Germany, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Myanmar and Singapore.

Please keep checking this blog for the rest of the month of May for reports from Dr. Haynal and CUC students who will be in Guatemala, May 8-28, conducting ShareHim evangelistic series.

Choir Tour Updates:

Choir Flies Home after a Successful Tour

(The President's Page Blog is pleased Clement Morton and Rachel Slaunwhite have agreed to submit regular updates as CUC's choir tours and performs through eastern Canada.  This is their final update.) 

The morning dawned bright and fresh and we traveled from our hosts' homes to Sandy Lake Academy where we enjoyed a breakfast of hash-browns, scrambled eggs and tofu. Bulging at the seams, we sang three songs for worship for the students then mingled for a while before our bus for the airport.

We waved goodbye to our new friends as the bus pulled out of the parking lot. We traveled to the airport looking at the sites of Halifax as we did so. There was a rush unloading and lining up at the terminal to check in and get our boarding passes. We then checked in the luggage, and of course passed through security where we then waited to board, prepared for a long ride home.

The first leg of our flight was from Halifax to Ottawa in a small plane. Bumpity bump along we went down the runway. Our takeoff was a bit rocky as the plane fought to lift our weight.   (Must be all the goodies we bought!) 

Our flight attendant was an exceptionally pleasant lady who helped sooth our nervousness over being in such a small plane. We landed in Ottawa around 6:33 PM. The weather outside was grey and cloudy.

While we waited for our next flight an announcement over the PA system informed us that our flight had been oversold. Two volunteers were asked to step forward to take a later flight home. They would be given $200 as well as a meal voucher to take a later flight home. Oh those brave souls! We wave goodbye to you wishing you the best of luck as we board the aircraft to continue our trek back home.

The rest of our flight was uneventful as we kept up with the sun for about four hours of flying time. Because of this it was sunset for our whole flight. We landed in Edmonton around 10:30 pm. It is so good to be home!

Our tour was amazing!  We made many new friends, witnessed to many people, and touched the hearts of all who heard our music. Praise Jesus we were given this opportunity, and thank you one and all who have supported the Canadian University Choral Union in one way or another. Your support has been a wonderful blessing.