Dedication Day

Our trip culminated today with house dedications! The weather was perfect, spirits were high, and anxious passengers rode quietly to the village.  Everyone along the route knew that the gringos were coming with our caravan of three vans and a truck and the kids started the "gringos, gringos" chant as we arrived.  Eighteen homes donated by special people for special people was our quest for the day. 'Manuel's house', the two 'widow's homes', 'Rudy's', the 'Tommer house', and the 'avocado house' were just a few of the nicknames of the homes we dedicated.

The vast majority of the houses dedicated were believers and attended church in their local village.  Their testimonies and thankfulness touched our lives as much as a "new house" impacted their lives.  God was certainly present today!  Each house received an adult bible, children's bible, and audio bible to continue their walk with Jesus.  They also received a prayer shawl, blanket, household supplies, and food to equip their new houses.  The dedication ended with a small fire-works show to celebrate the day (no fingers were lost).

Countless times throughout this week we have felt and visibly experienced the power of your prayers going before us and with us, leaving us with amazing and memorable stories to share.  We have fully experienced the fellowship of believers, a gift that transcends language barriers.  Most of all we have been refueled by the love of a compassionate and gracious heavenly Father whose plans were far greater than we could have ever hoped for or imagined.  May He receive all of the praise & thanks for a successful week in GLORIOUSLY warm weather (it had to be said).

Thank you for your support, we are eager to see you soon!
(Jeff, Mike & Michelle on behalf of) "The Team"

Tuesday

This day on Tuesday, February 24th, we woke up to another beautiful Guatemalan sunshining morning. The smell of the crisp bacon and beautiful smiles of the hard working kitchen ladies was sure to start our day out right.  After breakfast we sang songs and had devotions. We then drew names of who we were to keep in our prayers and encourage for the day, made our lunch, and headed out into the village or to the market for the day.
We added the finishing touches to the houses before the dedication on Wednesday. Some of us were lying on the grass when we got bombarded with boys and girls looking for juguetes (toys.) We gave the kids standing there a lot of the toys we had when another group appeared asking for the same thing. And then another. Then another. Until we had "no mas" (no more).
Right after we finished playing with the kids and completing the houses we got back into our vans and headed to do the food distribution at a local church. This was where we were able to line up in a line and put food and other items into their bags as they walked by.  We were able to hug them and give them our blessings and they did as well in return.  What a blessing it was to serve them in this way.  Their smiles and appreciation was a blessing in return to us. It was really cool to see how different our lives are from theirs and how God can use the blessings we received to bless others. And even those who have so little can still bless those who have much in words of appreciation.  We were so grateful for this opportunity and give God all the glory.

Paulette and Alexis Sterk

Monday

Today we went to Love the Child, an orphanage that we have visited for many years. We loved on many children and shared lots of laughs. Their stories are sad, but that only makes us want to love them even more. We also helped split and stack some wood that was at the site where the new orphanage building will be. We also had a chance to talk to Steve Osborne about what has happened in the orphanage for the past year, and some of the exciting plans they have coming up. Later, he came and talked at the mission house about a prison ministry and what is happening there. We are always very excited to visit Love the Child, and the children are always quick to love us right back. -Paige and Laura

February 22, 2015

Started the day with our devotions - this is one of my favorite things about this trip because they really make me think about the real reason we are here. It is Sunday so that means it is our excursion day, which was going to Antigua for dinner, some shopping and site seeing. We made it to the city nicely and then found our parking spots, seemed easy for some reason, but did not seem as busy today. We paid for parking went to dinner and the afternoon activities, when done and it was time to meet at the city square everyone made it back and we headed to the vans, only to find that where we left three there was only one left, now at first we thought we were on the wrong street, only to find we were in their right spot, just not the same as we left it. After looking at the remaining van and finding a ticket in the window we started looking for where the vans were towed to. One hour later we were on the road headed back, The Lord really had his hand in helping everyone keep their cool and thinking this little obstacle out. I was very fortunate to go to dinner with everyone and then leave with Lazaro to attend his church and see couple of people that attend there. What a wonderful experience, the people just are so full of joy and praise, they sing as loud as they can, and Lazaro's daughter Marcia, and son Josh lead the singing so well. After the service I was invited to go to the families house and see what a home looks like behind those steel doors that are along the roads we travel. Behind those doors is a Home, where it may be on the small side, and everyone has to live close, you can tell that it also makes the family close - kind of makes you think for a moment. Once again the people of Guatemala are showing us how a willing smile and friendly wave can be so easy to do here in the midst of having so little, it just humbles you. Dellen

February 21, 2015

Today was another great day serving the Lord in Guatemala. Starting off the day we knew it would be another exciting day because we had been asked to participate in a local carnival. Before we headed to the carnival we split up into two groups, two vans going to the village to help build and one van of people staying back to help set up for the carnival. Once at the village, we split up into three groups, two building and one VBS group. While the building crews made progress, the VBS group had a lesson that involved reading a bible story and making bracelets for the kids to take home. While the kids were crafting away, the building crew finished another 3 houses and had another 3 started. Next, everyone headed to a school where the carnival was being held. When we arrived there, 2 blow-ups were just getting there and cotton candy was already being made. Just outside of the gates of the school, there were kids lined up waiting to get in with their families. Once the doors were finally opened, everyone came rushing in and enjoyed all of the games and candy that came along with them. The carnival ended with a good game of soccer between the "Gringos" (the white people, us), and the local kids, it was a lot of fun! Coming back to the house, we finished the night off with baked potatoes and some card games! Tomorrow we are excited for our day off exploring Guatemala! - The Powder Puff Girls

Friday, February 20, 2015

Thank goodness it's Friday! After a great and much needed night's sleep, we were all finally ready to begin this incredible journey that the Lord has planned for us. Once we finished up with our morning devotions/praise we boarded the buses and traveled out to a village near Santa Apolonia, where we will be helping out. After we arrived, we split up into three building groups and a vacation bible school group. We got to know some of the locals, and right away we started working. Many of us had the tremendous opportunity to walk around the village and get to know many of the villagers, and expand our knowledge of their culture and our Spanish! By the end of our working day, we had built a total of seven houses, and started a couple more. As we wrapped up our working day, we played a few last games with the children and then had to say goodbye for the weekend. When we arrived back at the mission house, we were all happy to wash up and relax for the rest of the night. We look forward to another exciting day tomorrow serving the Lord! :) - Lauren

February 19, 2015 - We are here!

Happy Thursday night everyone! We arrived safely just after lunch with very good travel from home all the way to the mission house. Your prayers were definitely felt :). We've adjusted quite well to the 70 degree temperature change :). After unpacking and some of us buying groceries, we all enjoyed a great dinner at Pollo Campero. This week sounds very busy as we will be building 18 houses as well as bible school. We are so excited to be here and feel blessed to have all of you praying for us. We get the easy job... thank you very much for giving all of us this opportunity. At this fine hour of 9:30 only the few and the proud are still awake, however, even we are fading. The breakfast bell rings early in the morning and those of us who are little husky can not afford to miss the meal. Thank you all again for praying for us, and we ask that you also add the people that we come in contact with this week. May we be God's hand and feet here. Till next time... your friendly neighborhood mission house coloumnist

Guatemalan Update Tue Jan 20

We woke up to yet another amazing breakfast which has been such a treat all week. Thank you, Sandie and Lynelle! Nicole gave the devotion today and was spot on with her scripture. She used verses from Nehemiah and 1st Corinthians and compared our services of building to theirs. We are basically unskilled laborers of construction being guided by our Lord. She encouraged us not to stop serving when we leave on Thursday and to keep looking to serve being one toward Christ. After scripture we draw names to pray for a specific person from our group here and I do believe that extra focus helps us. We sent a crew of 4 men today back to the village to complete the fronts, windows, doors and locks on the houses we built. The rest of us went to get baby fixes at the orphanage and indeed we did! Such wonderful kids and nannies there and a very well run orphanage. A GOOD day indeed! Steve Osborne had a job at the orphanage. He had 2 giant trees that needed to be cut with chain saws plus cutting another one down. The guys had a great time! Saturday we had about 35 kids make trumpets and then marched around the "walls" of Jericho. Seven times around and then the kids destroyed the walls. We made so much noise the work crew down the street wondered what was going on. Monday was our last day of Bible School. We were pleasantly surprised by having 40 to 50 kids and moms that enjoyed coloring and making lion cootie catchers. These kids are happy with two crayons that are given to them. God is Good! We often overlook the everyday pleasures we have. Nicole's quote of the day " If you don't bring it, it won't be brought" Judy, Mary and Rita

Greetings from Guatemala! The day started out with Dellen leading devotions based on Colossians 4:2-5 and how important daily communication with our Heavenly Father is. It was another beautiful, sunny day out in the village. Some team members would debate that some of the houses did not even need concrete poured because of how rock-hard the soil was, which caused quite a challenge for us (Josh and Bird), so we were thankful that we came back this morning to find the rest of our holes dug at one house. Today the teams got a lot accomplished by wrapping up most of the houses and since the home owners pitched in by pouring their own concrete, we got a lot of the fronts added as well. However, the highlight of the day for everyone was the food distribution at the village we have been building houses in. It was especially fulfilling to give out food and clothing to the people we were building homes for and their neighbors. It was a humbling experience to see these people who have nothing, so appreciative of the love we showed them. Since it was predetermined which 150 families were able to go through the food lines and we had a limited amount of food, our hearts went out to those who we had to turn away. We also embarrassed Tom Marsman by singing happy birthday to him after the kids in the village asked when his birthday was and he responded by saying 'Yesterday.' No one had any idea that we had missed it. We almost thought we were back in Michigan today while driving to and from the village due to the potholes, but the chicken buses and the took-tooks reminded us that we were still here in the beautiful country of Guatemala. Oh, and so did the 80 degree weather. :) Lori Pylman, I (Josh) would like to say thank you for loaning me Ed for the week because of his tiger-like purring. His snores have lulled me to sleep every night. I'm glad we got to spend the week bunking together. On a serious note, we are requesting prayers for the commute to the airport in Guatemala City on Thursday as we have recently found out the teachers will be protesting their low wages and all major roadways will more than likely be blocked off for that day. Prayers also for safety and health are appreciated as well. We are looking forward to going to the orphanage tomorrow and I (Matt) can't wait to seeing Hannah. In Christ, Joshy DeHaan (Bird's game of the day was adding an 'e' to the end of every word; watch out for wipey juice, it wrecks your gum!), Matt VanDuyn, Shannon Bird and Jess Brink

Beautiful Guatemalan Sunday!

The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day today! We are so thankful to have the opportunity to be here! This morning, Dave Westhouse shared his heart with us during devotionals. Afterwards, the group jumped in the vans and headed to Antigua for day. We ate lunch together in town and walked through the marketplace and fountain area for the rest of the afternoon. There were numerous marketplace stands selling goods such as blankets, purses, hackey sacks, bags, paintings, jewelry, etc. Basically, if you wanted a specific souvenir, you could most likely find it there. Not all of us were able to see the ruins in the city from the earthquake years ago, but the town itself was just a really interesting atmosphere. There were a lot of people just hanging out by the fountain, which is weird comparing it to back home. Life seems to move at a slower pace here, not everyone is in a crazy rush all the time. When we left Antigua and got back to the mission house, a group went on a tour of the property that the mission house sits on. Paul, the owner of the property, shared some of his knowledge and wisdom with us while he gave us the tour. Turns out a coffee bean does not start out tasting like coffee; if you pull it straight off the branch and peel off the skin and pop the bean in your mouth, it has a sweet taste to it. Paul also showed us some Mayan artifacts that they've found on the property, and part of the property sits on an old Mayan temple. Paul has a bunch of different fruits and veggies growing in the garden, and he even let us pick some of it off the tree to eat it right there. Joel, a missionary who works in the urban areas of Guatemalan City, and his son joined us for dinner and lead a devotional for us after dinner. He read Luke 18:35-43, and encouraged us to be looking for Jesus outside of the normal ordinary day parade, to be different than the crowd, not to get stuck in routine. He also shared Mark 8:27-30 when Jesus asks his disciples who he is, and Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah. Joel spoke very passionately and was very encouraging! Nicole M

Colossians 3:23

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." We began today with this scripture and lived it wholeheartedly throughout the day. We started off with a little game of soccer/volleyball/golf/basketball in the driveway of the Mission House as we waited for the vans to leave. It was a great start to the day with plenty of laughter. We got to the village and started conquering construction like a bunch of pros. My team finished a house we started yesterday and then quickly moved on to the next. We learned that the next few houses we would build were up on the mountain! We all knew we were in for a workout but everyone picked up tools and marched up and up and up. I don't know when I've ever been so excited to get so exhausted to carry a water jug or tool box up a mountain. The guys got right to work measuring out posts and I spoke with the family to see where they wanted their door and how they'd like to collect water runoff. The families are so excited to see us and their smiles are so big. You instantly forget how tired you are from the climb and just get to work. We all know how many houses we have to get done in just a few days, too (18!!!) so we are so eager to make sure we get them all in and get them done right. I might be favoring my team just a bit but I have to say that we work so well together! Everyone knows what needs to get done and people get opportunities to try new things in the building process. The men don't do all the hard work and they allow us women to use our muscles, too. We encourage each other, we tease each other but no matter what - we build houses very well. :) As for a few of the holes in walls where we missed the posts - is that "Pulling a Sarah" or "Pulling a Matt"? haha! We did split up a bit today. As we got one house started, some of us moved on to the next location to get post holes dug up...mainly because we knew how long it took to dig through the rock. The kids were a riot today, too. Some of our team would play with them on the side and they made a point to learn all our names so that while we were drilling on the roof pieces they'd call out our names to us. Too cute. The second to last house of the day was when they were most enthusiastic. We handed out some toys and games and in return, they handed out rocks to our team. It was a very special gift to us and we were so grateful for their thoughtfulness. I'm so thankful to be part of this experience. I see the families and how much this new home is going to impact their lives. When we leave, we look back and they're inspecting the new construction or playing around in it and then make sure to wave at us leaving. We've worked two days so far and both times, no one wants to leave at 4:30 to head back to the Mission House. We all want to keep going. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." It's natural to live this message while on a Mission trip to Guatemala with 35 other loving Christians who signed up to work in the first place. But when we leave here we have to remember to live this every day back home with our families, friends and work life. It's easy to cut corners or get frustrated with someone who is difficult to work with or do the minimum required. But you'll find yourself trying harder, working harder and loving more when you picture that person, that work as if you were serving the Lord. With Love, Jess Garrett

Friday, January 16, 2015

God is Good! We had a great day here in beautiful Guatemala. We began our day with Tico Vargas leading our devotion time. He spoke to us on Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice." He encouraged us that regardless of the circumstances to rejoice in the Lord. Despite the most desperate circumstances we can still Rejoice in the Lord. After devotions, we loaded up and headed to the village. We had a 90 minute drive to the village which is extremely remote. For those of you who worked in Para Bey with us back a few years ago, we were on the other side of the mountain from Para Bey. It was difficult for some of the building in tight spots, down steep slopes and in rocky ground. We did manage to get three done and another three very close to being done. We were also able to do some Bible School with some of the children in the village. We had about 30 children in attendance and a few of the mothers. As we went through our day it kept coming back to me that God is in the details. As we drove to this village, we kept thinking OK, we have a long drive to a very remote village where our houses are very spread out and we decided to build 18 houses this year. How are we going to get this all done? We arrived at the first building site and found out we will not be doing the concrete work. The locals will work together to put the concrete in all the houses. Wow, a huge load off our week. Then as we continued to move on to more building sites we were noticing the lack of children in the area by the soccer field where we were told would be a good spot to do Bible School. How will we do this if the village is so spread out and we only see maybe a half dozen children around? Well we kept going to the next building site and found ourselves in a quaint little Mayan village where there was a school where we would be able to use as soon as school was out. We had a great opportunity to invite the children to come at 2:00 and several of them were there. God is good and provided everything we needed today and just when we needed it. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the details and logistics and how are we going to do this? We aren't! God is in the details and He will take care of everything. We just need to learn to leave it to Him and trust He has everything under control. This is certainly not an easy thing for any of us to do. As I go through this week, I am going to personally try to leave it to God and not worry about the little things. Thank you to all of you back home for the prayers you are offering on our behalf. We know that you have us covered in prayer and we appreciate all of those prayers.