For the past 10 days things seem to have been moving along at warp factor 4. April 27 -29 was just an awesome time that we are really just now being able to realize everything that happened.
On Friday the 27th Pastor Luis Martinez and his wife Dinora from Impacto Ministries arrived in Memphis. After a short visit with Pastor Ernie and Anne Frey we took them to Central Church for a walk around. We meet with representatives from Union University for lunch to discuss the logistics and details of bringing groups of nursing students to Guatemala for a medical mission trip. Later that evening we all returned to Central for the event "La Experiencia de Guatemala". Over 200 people showed up to learn about the Dixon family, Impacto Ministries, Guatemala, and missions. We had great food, art projects, a market, dancing, Spanish BINGO, and a slide show from Pastor Luis. This all was an awesome thing to witness and very humbling as we think about all those that volunteered to make this event successful. We closed the evening with a birthday party for Dinora complete with a birthday cake and pinata.
Saturday we started early again on board the bus to travel to Hickory Hill to join with Nueva Direccion Church for games, fellowship and food. Saturday night was a wonderful opportunity for fellowship with Pastor Luis and Dinora. All those that had been to Guatemala on missions, along with the missions committee, elders and senior staff gathered for dinner at the home of Scott and Nicole Kloek. What wonderful host to have around 70 people for dinner and fellowship. We did a pot luck with a Thanksgiving theme, needless to say no one went home hungry. We ended the night around the piano (played by JP Gradone) singing old hymns. I do believe God was smiling down on us.
Sunday was our day of commissioning and it was a wonderful day in the house of the Lord! We were truly blessed by all those that came forward to pray for us. The message by Dustin May was so appropriate for the day and well delivered. Dustin and Andrew led the congregation in a Spanish/English version of "How Great is our God". Don Gilbert presented each of us with a Spanish/English NIV Bible. The day continued with Pastor Luis meeting with the missions committee and then meetings with us.
We were sad the weekend went by so fast and wished for more time with Pastor Luis, but we were thankful for the time we had.
This past week has been consumed with sorting packing and preparing to sell the worldly possessions we will not have use for while serving in Guatemala. We were blessed by several commitments of monthly support this week along with the news that we officially have a home in Guatemala. We still have a lot to get done as we are only six weeks from departure now. We still need prayer for monthly support commitments, the sale of our Honda Fit, and a large garage sale this weekend.
