Saleeby Family in Guatemala--Sunday

Even though I've gotten behind, I felt like I should finish out the "series" on the Saleeby's visit to Central America!   Sunday morning we were up and out of the house by 8:30 and arrived at the Hotel Westin in plenty of time to help set up for the service.  As usual, it was great to see all our friends at IBVN, Guatemala, the music (led by William) was awesome and Joseph did a great job sharing his passion for evangelism.

After church, we went to Oakland Mall and had lunch and then also visited Starbucks for coffee.

Saleeby Family in Guatemala--Saturday

After breakfast on Saturday, we all piled in the van and headed to Antigua--one of my favorite places.  No one should visit Guatemala City without taking the 45 minute drive to Antigua.  Joseph was with the campaign team when we went to Guatemala in January, but, of course, his family was not.  

We walked to the central park, shopped at the market, ate kaq'ik (traditional Mayan soup) at La Fonda Real, rode a horse-drawn carriage around the town and took pictures everywhere we went.

We also caught up with Eric and Kindsey, a couple from our church in Lee's Summit.  They are studying Spanish in Guatemala in preparation for ministry with an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.  We had coffee with them and met their beautiful daughter, Mackenna.

We returned to the city in time to go to "Crecer," the church's intensive discipleship 2 program.  Nelson taught for an hour and a half and Joseph, with Nelson's help, shared his heart for evangelism.  

Saleeby Family in Guatemala--Friday

We spent Friday sightseeing in Guatemala with good friends.  In the morning Javier, Claudia and Aldo took the seven of us downtown Guatemala.  We visited the train museum and took some awesome pictures.  

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After the train musuem we walked over to the central square to see the national cathedral.  it is an amazing building, but, unfortunately, the people who enter to pray and worship do not hear the gospel of our resurrected Lord.

We went back to Nelson and Rosemarie's house for lunch and a short rest.  Later in the afternoon, Rosemarie took all of us to Cayala, one of our favorite places in Guatemala.  Nelson and Camila weren't able to go because they had praise band rehearsal in the evening. Once again the photo opportunities were incredible.

 

Saleeby family in El Salvador/Guatemala--Thursday

We slept in and then packed our bags at home on Thursday while Joseph and his family did the same at the hotel.  We picked them up at 11:15 and then stopped at Subway for lunch. After lunch we drove to the church to pick up Francisco Moran who dropped the seven of us off at the "bus" station in the Sheraton Hotel.

The girls were pretty excited to see that the bus was a double decker--another first for them. The amazing views were pretty difficult to catch on camera, though.  The border crossing was relatively easy and painless.

We made it to Guatemala City in just over 5 1/2 hours and Nelson was at the Holiday Inn to pick us up within minutes of our arrival.  The traffic back to the Rivas home was heavy, but not impossible.  The girls really enjoyed the light dinner Rosemarie prepared for us.  

After discussing plans for our visit in Guatemala, we called it a night!

Saleeby Family in El Salvador

Last Wednesday we picked up Joseph, Christy and girls at their hotel and they had lunch with us at our apartment.  Stephen taught them his card tricks while Christy and I prepared quesadillas.

In the afternoon, we met the team at the church so we could go to the orphanage with them.  Even though it was extremely hot and the trip was long, the girls were real troopers.  Since it is a government orphanage, only Guillermo had his camera; everyone else left their phones/cameras on the bus.  

The evening ended at Pollos Real, where Christy and the girls ate pupusas for the first time!  As usual, they were a hit!