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.