Saturday, August 9th/recap

The Lord used each of us to do His work this week; especially at Precious Moments, the trip to the zoo with the kids from the orphanage, the church festival and the special prayer evening with Pastor Manuel and his family. Here are some reflections each group member wanted to share on our final blog.

Amy: afternoon service and carnival-- it was amazing and exhilarating to me to see so many families come to the church and laugh and have fun; for a few hours forgetting some of the sad and hard parts of their lives. My favorite quote was when a slightly bent over, wrinkled Mayan woman came to the balloon pop game and announced "I am 72 years old, and I am having more fun today than I have ever had in my life".

Laura: It was great to see the joy on the faces of the families having fun together and learning about Jesus.

Jenna: Yesterday evening we had prayer time with pastor Manuel and Dorita. The time was incredible. We all felt the presence of the Holy Spirit even without speaking the same language. Our God is truly amazing. We were brought together though Him.

Lorelei: The highlight of the trip for me was being able to continue building relationships that I started last August and February.

Connie: It was really great seeing Regina again who made the yummy snacks of empenadas for us at the festival. Regina struggles to support herself through catering food and fortunately we've been able to hire her to do some of that each trip. She was very tearful with gratitude when we saw her.

George (our driver): Going to the zoo with my family and the last day at the carnival was very fun! Seeing how excited and happy the kids were and getting to share those days with everyone was wonderful. I was determined to seek revenge on the two kids that had gotten me with water balloons at the carnival! No one has ever done something like this for the church before. Not only were the kids playing, but the adults too! I had an awesome time starting a new station of bowling with the kids.

Abby: The Guatemalan people touched my heart in so many ways. Sharing my faith story for the first time was really amazing. Playing with the kids and getting to know them more was so much fun! I want to come back to Guatemala very soon!!

Dana: I enjoyed seeing how great the faith was of the people here; I also got in my fill of hugs.

Lara: I enjoyed meeting our team/friends in Guatemala that have a deep love for The Lord! The festival and prayer service were special to me.

Tori: It was so special being able to establish relationships with the families in Sumpango. Spending the day at the zoo with the nuns and kids was definitely a highlight. Cannot wait to come back next year!!

As our trip comes to a close, we understand we go back to our lives in the States. We prayed a lot about our ministry continuing. We hope each day we can work to fill our lives with The Lord the way we did in Guatemala. We hope the same for the people of Guatemala as well; that they will continue to feel joy in their lives and the presence of the Holy Spirit daily. Thank you so much to all of the financial and spiritual supports we have. Without you, this trip would not have been possible!! I hope you all enjoyed reading the blog of our trip. It was only a slice of what went on this week, but I captured it as best I could. Praise be to God who strengthens us, guides us and heals us.

James 1:27

Friday, August 8th

Today was a rest day which meant shopping! We immersed ourselves in the culture and checked out the local markets. The first picture is of the beautiful kites on the ceiling. We had ice cream for lunch and went right back to shopping! It was a wonderful day. Tomorrow is our BIG festival at the church in Sumpango.

Hasta luego!

Thursday, August 7th

Fun day today! We started off with more home visits in the morning. Continuing to invite families to our festival on Saturday. Today both groups sang Jesus Loves Me in Spanish to the families! Singing is very uplifting to the families and helps to encourage the family as an entire team.

Next, we went and picked up the kids from the orphanage for the zoo!! We picked them up in a "chicken bus". These buses drive crazily around the city carrying up to two times max capacity. The kids were so excited and all had cute matching shirts on (which also made it hard to keep track of them!). We got Domino's pizza at the zoo which was a very special meal for them. Each of us were paired with two or three kids to hang out with at the zoo. This gave us (and the kids) someone to get to know a little better than when in the large group. A Popsicle snack wrapped up a nice day with los animales! Pollo Campero (basically KFC) was on the dinner menu. The kids actually got to go to the restaurant which was special. They had soda (they usually only drink water or juice without sugar) and got to play on the play place after dinner. We gifted each child a glow-in-the-dark cross as a keepsake! It is miraculous to see how gracious they are of the things they are given. Even through handing the gifts out at the restaurant and after they played, all the kids still had their crosses tight in their hands or pockets.

Dana's birthday party at Betty's wrapped up the day! It included firecrackers (before the cake so us Americans don't throw the cake) and yummy cake. Tomorrow is a day of rest for us.

Buenos noches!

Wednesday, August 6th

Yesterday we started off the day by painting at the church. We painted one of the new classrooms a bright green color!! It brought lots light to the room. We then went on a few home visits. One of the two teams (we split our team in half for the visits) had a very uplifting home visit. They met a young woman and her son Jimmy. She had met The Lord two weeks ago and they could just tell she was filled with so much love! It was very emotional for the team, but positively!

We went to Betty's house for lunch and shared stories about houses that have been built for Guatemalans by teams that come. She shared how sometimes people don't value the house that they are given.

After lunch we went  back to the orphanage. The afternoon included chalk, jump rope, three legged races (sponsored by Laura) and most importantly a game of baseball!! The kids love playing because it's a special thing they don't get to do every day. Amy was working hard to impress the kids and had a slight run in with the cement. She is okay though! We were all tuckered out after the day, but went back to Betty's for dinner. More arm wrestling was involved and many many laughs. Off to the zoo today!

Buenos dias!

Tuesday, August 5th

Another stellar day for the books. We started off at the orphanage in Sumpango. The orphanage is also a school in the morning. Some of us had the awesome opportunity of helping out with the English classes!! We then headed to lunch at Betty's house down the street where we shared yet another amazing Guatemalan meal.  We met Betty's sister Dorita as well.

In the afternoon, we went to the church where we met Pastor Manuel and his wife Dorita who run the church in Sumpango. The church is in the least fortunate part of the city near the dump. The church has been a blessing on the community in the past few years it's been there; especially with the new building built in the past six months. We saw the two classrooms, kitchen and bathrooms that were added by another team previously this year. We're hoping to help paint these rooms tomorrow! After seeing the church we went to homes in the area for house visits. We celebrated birthdays, prayed, cried and laughed with every family! They were very gracious for the bag of food we brought for them. We invited each of the five families we visited today to our festival at the church on Saturday. They loved having something to look forward to later in the week!

After the home visits we headed back to Betty's house. While waiting for dinner, we walked around the neighborhood. Betty showed us a piece of land she purchased hoping to build a home for her father. It was a sad time, but we prayed God will help Betty know how to use the land. This was emotional and moving for us all.

After dinner there were many laughs! Arm wrestling entertained many and a few will have "spaghetti arms" in the morning. A quiet bus ride back to the hotel allowed us to relax and reflect on the awesome day!

Gracias para leer mis amigos! (My Spanish is slowly improving :) )

Monday, August 4th

Another successful day! We woke up to a delicious breakfast at the hotel and Dana shared a devotion on prayer. The devotions are a great way to start off the day and get us focused for our Missions work. We traveled to the Precious Moments school in Guatemala City. Right when we got there things started moving quickly! We had a Rainbow Fish themed day planned for all of the kids. It started off with a puppet show in Spanish. The second group of children (older kids) got to participate in the show even. (They probably knew what was going on better than we did because they understood the story in Spanish!) We shared a nice lunch with all of the school teachers. Laura shared some teaching strategies with the teachers. The teachers were so pleased with her ideas and are looking forward to using the strategies in their classrooms! Some of the ideas included group work and hands on learning.

Afternoon was playtime! All of the pictures below are from playing outside the school. A few of these children are living at the school and this was definitely a huge highlight for all of them. The owner of the school decided putting us in a cart with wheels on it was a good idea! We each took turns. (The owner is pictured with Lorelei and Connie) This was a great time for us as well; taking in all of the joy these kids had in outdoor activities. They were sad to see us go, but comforting them a team will be back in six months left them something to look forward to!

Dinner at the hotel included a long discussion between us about the highlights of our day. So many had cute stories to share from the day! We are greatly looking forward to the week ahead. We walked around Antigua after dinner and got ice cream. Creama con Oreo! Tomorrow we will be heading to the orphanage and visiting homes in the area. Thank you to everyone for their continued support!

Hasta mañana!

Sunday, August 3rd

We have arrived safely in Guatemala! George (our driver for the week) and Jenna welcomed us warmly at the Guatemala airport. All of our flights were smooth and we had no issues at all.We especially appreciated the turkey sandwiches on our last flight. A nice surprise! Thank you to everyone who prayed for safe travels for us.

We then travelled to our beautiful hotel (See picture). They have taken very good care of us here! Delicious chile relleno for lunch and a warm stew for dinner out in the courtyard. After lunch, we hiked to the cross overlooking the city of Antigua. It was an inspiring first adventure to start our trip in order to open our minds and hearts to the community (Also pictured). We prayed over our thankfulness for safe travels to Guatemala and also for guidance this week. It brought the group together strong from day one!

Betty, our host here in Guatemala, was waiting for us at the hotel when we got back from the hike. Her adorable son Miguel was along as well! They welcomed us to Guatemala and spoke about what life has been like with recently losing her dad. She was comforted by our presence here as her friends. We hope to give her much support throughout the week. After a busy day, we are now preparing for our day at the school tomorrow. Each person has found how to best put their skills to work!

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers!!

~Ashley