Two more days to tell you about...

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a little tough on our team. The actual building, children's ministry and medical clinic went very smoothly but a couple of our team members were struggling with some physical issues. Keep praying for the health of our team - both physical and emotional.

The village we went to was smaller than the one Monday but the people were as warm and welcome as you could ever imagine. Here are three stories from each of our teams:

The medical clinic went well. It was an emotional day. Interacting with poverty and a fallen world brought tears to some of us on the medical team. We had so many children and adults who had stories to tell... stories of family deaths, stories of domestic violence, and stories of untreated illness. The children in the village had quite an outbreak of strep throat. It was neat that we could be there to give out antibiotics and other medications. - Deanna

I was lucky enough to be a part of the building team on our missions trip here in Guatemala. Our first day I wasn't too sure about what I should do, or if I would be a help or a burden. But by the end of the day I was doing so much, it was hard to keep track of what needed to be done. Not only was building a house part of the experience but giving the house to the family was entirely different. I felt privileged to be able to do that. The family was so thankful and loving and I was blessed to see God work in their lives. I wish I would be able to witness that all the time, and this trip made me realize I actually can do that. -Alyssa

Being on the Children's Team has been an amazing experience. I often get stuck in the trap of thinking "Oh, we are going to help these poor people so much". However, what I never would have expected is how much these people have given me. While most of the world would descend upon them as being "below the poverty line", the lessons they have taught me are invaluable. They have shown me true gratitude and joy. Most of the time I am too caught up in myself and daily life to notice the blessings God is constantly providing, but here in these circumstances I saw Him in a whole new way.-Christa

And as promised, here is a link where you can see a bunch of pictures from our trip...

www.picasaweb.google.com/chichipics

Feel free to add comments or order pics for yourself!

Tomorrow we head to Antigua!

Catching up...

Did I mention that the days go by very quickly around here? It's Monday afternoon already and there is so much to tell you! Here's how the last two days have been filled...


Sunday, April 5

We began the day worshipping together at the Missions Frontier church; it was incredible to worship God in this beautiful place and to hear Him speak through Don Logan. I think we will all identify differently from now on whenever we hear the name, "Barabbas".

After that we headed down to the market - the largest one in all of Central America. We learned to barter (some of us!) and then we came back and compared what we bought and what we paid. Riding back from the town in a "tuc tuc" was all the rage among our team members.



We watched a documentary about the Guatemala City dump called "Recycled Life" - you can go here: http://www.recycledlifedoc.com/ to watch it. Later we will get to spend time with a girl, Jamie, who used to live in the dump (children under 14 years old are no longer allowed to enter it) and was rescued from that life by the Potter's House Association (http://www.pottershouse.org.gt/index.htm). Matt & Leslie partner with them to offer children who meet the Potter's House standards an opportunity to come to Casa del Ray for a week in November to study here in Chichi.


There is hope.

Monday, April 6 - FIRST WORK DAY!! YAY!!

The Children's Ministry team:

The Medical Team:

and the all powerful (and very modest) Building Team:

At 8:00am we loaded up our chicken bus and headed for one of the villages surrounding Chichi. We arrived to find hundreds of adults and children who had been lined up since 6:00am waiting for us to come. We divided up into our specific areas and got to work. The building team carried building materials up the mountain to build a house. The community had already come together to construct the foundation of adobe bricks, approximately 2ft high. Our team added wood walls and a corrugated metal roof (with a skylight!) and a couple of bunkbeds on the inside. The family participated in the building process and were so thrilled to have their own home and so awesome for our team to be able to bless them with it. (Pictures to come soon!)

Our children's team was almost overwhelmed with the number of Niños who came to play. They did an incredible job of loving the kids who loved playing all kinds of games, singing songs, colouring - you name it, they did it with a lot of smiles, laughter and hugs. Language was not a barrier!

While the children were being entertained our doctors were busy seeing 185 people from little babies to men and women in their 80's. The ailments were often similar but not to the individual standing in that little cubicle (constructed with ropes and shower curtains). I got to see each of our doctors, nurses and pharmicists touch these people who so rarely receive treatment and they did it with such love and tenderness. Truly the hands of Jesus in these peoples lives.

Here Deanna is examining a patient and we had another visitor in the form of a black puppy curled up under her chair. I'm sure he was very hygenic!

I think the most humbling moment of the day came near the end when the pastor of the church stood up and presented a gift to our group. In his thanks he said that he knew that it had cost us a lot of money to come to his village to help his community but that they were so grateful that we had come. And I thought about that, I thought about what we had done and it just seemed like so little - like we'd put a bandaid on gaping wound. The life these people live is not easy. They work hard just to survive; there are few opportunities for them to improve their lot in life; they have very little money and they suffer with common illnesses for years, unnecessarily when simple treatments are so readily available in our country. The pastor's gratitude and that of the community was humbling.

But thankfully our efforts are not just our own; thankfully, God fills in the gaps of our inabilities, our brokenness and accomplishes more than we can ever imagine. That may sound trite because it is something we say so often but when you see your limitations as vividly as we did today, you realize how true it is.

One more thing before I sign off for the night; clearly you are only seeing a few pictures out of the hundreds that each family is taking. We are going to setup an account (shutterbug or something like that) so that you can go and see how your family and friends are doing and how they have been serving this week. As soon as it's up and running, I'll post a link.

Thank you again for all your support. We could not do what we are doing, see what we are seeing and being used by God in this place without each one of you.

volcanoes, ziplines and our own rastifarian

While our medical team held their first medical clinic today the rest of the team spent sometime working hard at playing.

The day began with a boat trip on a volcanic lake; some of our team members bravely splashed around in the very cold water trying to find the hot springs which were intermittent at best.

We ate a beautiful restaurant which in addition to having an incredible view of the lake and its surrounding volcanoes, served a local favourite drink called a limonada in the funkiest glass (which we were tempted to walk away with....)

After Mitchell Ray did a little shopping we piled on our 'chicken bus' (that's what the buses are known as around here) and headed for the mountain to zipline.

Here are some of the observations we made at our debrief meeting

tonight:

· people of all ages (particularly young children and very old women) were selling things
· not many boys selling stuff; playing soccer; men working on the boats, in the fields
· it costs money to use the bathroom
· women/girls carry huge baskets on their heads
· if you get a drink to go, it gets put in a plastic bag with a straw
· a lot of kids walking around by themselves, no parents with them

And update from our medical team...

· treated 98 people; 49 were kids – eventually had to cut off the people coming in
· people were not “reserved” (contrary to what we heard before the trip and were expecting), instead they were very gracious, very warm

The clinic went very well, each member of the team (even those with no medical/phrarmaceutical training) jumped right in and did what needed to be done. They experienced a lot of peace, no stress - a real sense of God's presence there with them.

We HAVE arrived!

Ok, so travelling with 28 people can have its challenges but we were exceptional! Everyone arrived at the airport by 5:00 am, got through security inspection without any problems and before we realized it, we were off to Atlanta. We only had about 40 minutes to get to our connecting flight which was all the way at the opposite end of the airport and so it was a mad dash through the terminals…picture “The Amazing Race”. Fortunately we all got on the plane and were in our seats ready to take off…two hours later. It’s a long story but apparently a pilot in Guatemala City went missing and they had to find a replacement to bring our plane back to the US. Time for the “party plane” – we brought out snacks, cards, ipods, some mingling around the cabin…two hours went by pretty fast.

Thank you so much for praying for us. We have arrived here safe and sound, all the medical supplies made it (all 28 bags, each loaded with 50lbs of medical supplies, hygiene kits and craft supplies) without so much as a glance from the customs agents – which is wonderful considering there was a group that came before us that had all their supplies confiscated.)

There will be more to come…we’re off to the lake.

Our armed escort (no kidding) while we ate lunch at Burger King...yes, we're all about the authentic Guatemalan cuisine. :)