Tuesday, January 20, 2015

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

Monday, January 19, 2015

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

Sunday, January 18, 2015

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

Saturday, January 17, 2015

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

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.