Dedication Day!

       We could feel the excitement building as we prepared and loaded into the vans this morning,  Today is Dedication day!  The construction has been completed, now it's time to turn these houses into homes.  Once we arrived in the village we divided into two groups; one led by Josh and Max and the other by Kirk and Juan Marco.  The translators would be very important today as we would be praying for the families and encouraging them with the dedication. Our desire is to share our hearts and the love of our Lord with these families.

        Even though language was a barrier we could feel their appreciation through the hugs and tears.  Each family had a story to tell of how this wouldn't be possible on their own, but knew that we were sent from God to fill this need in their life.  One of the more touching stories was from a mother of 6 who had to provide for the family as her husband was in jail.  They struggled to raise a family with two working parents, now she is left to do that on her own. 

        Mission Complete!  We finished the dedications and were able to enjoy some fun and fellowship with the families.  To our surprise they had gifts to present on behalf of the village as appreciation for our work there.  It was hard to leave our new friends in Christ, but our hearts were full of joy.  We were able to share God's love with them and even though it was adios (goodbye) for now, we look forward to seeing them again for eternity.

Moments treasured of being "ALL IN!"
Rayanna, Mike T, Bill F

Tuesday Trekking

While visiting El Tejar dump I really felt like the way that they lived, they didn't take anything for granted and even though they worked with what they had they were still joyful. We then went to the refuge camp after we visited the El Tejar dump and did  VBS with most of the kids there. To tell them we were going to have VBS, we road on the back of the pick-up truck with a mega phone as we drove through camp. We told the story of the feeding of the five thousand. The kids seemed excited to be there from the story, the coloring, and even afterwards we played with the kids. At the end of the day we started a pick up game of basketball with some people who lived near there, that was a really cool experience because even though there was a language barrier we still had so much fun and had a good game.  Even though we lost be 30-ish points, we had a fun time and played hard and got to know some of the people.

Where to begin on a day that was packed full of many emotions.  Tico commissioned us with his devotional from 1 Timothy on how Paul talked about strength, trust and being of service.  Visiting the El Tejar dump rally makes you stop and think how much we tend to squander back home.  Bringing about a nudge to change and really be grateful for all you have, be very aware of everything you use and let nothing go to waste.  Visiting with the families to distribute a lunch and share some intentional moments and how God's hand was bringing us together.  One van and the pick-up, then took on the task of finishing all the fronts in the village to ready all the houses for dedication.  The other two vans took the trek to the refugee camp to partake in some work to ready an area for a future computer training site for those in the newly placed village.  We then headed back to the house for the famous chicken and rice with carrots, which was the BOMB!!!  While a few youngins and an old guy took on the resident bball champs, Dedra gave an update on the new school and fed center.  A lot of work has gone into our time in Guatemala and we are grateful for the many prayers for safe travel, safe work and being able to make a connection with all of whom we have come in contact with throughout our week.  Please continue to have us in your thoughts and prayers as we go into tomorrow to truly be His disciples, dedicating houses to be places the Lord enters and continues to do His work long after we are gone. 

Thankful and Blessed,
Renae T, Tonya DV, Ed T

Great Day in Guatemala

Today was a great day in Guatemala.  Part of the team bought supplies for the families that we are serving. The rest of the team worked on the house building project.  All 12 houses are nearly complete.  All of the frames are complete, sides and roofs are done, and concrete is poured.  Tomorrow we just need to finish the fronts and all will be complete.  While this was going on, a team also provided VBS for about 80 children in the Village.  At the end of the work day, the entire team came together at the Church in the Village to distribute food to 150 families in the Village.  We think that this was the highlight of the day and very possibly the entire week.  The need in this Village is great and the appreciation in the eyes of the recipients is something that we will not soon forget.

Kyle Bennink, Scott Eisel, Kristi Handlogten

Saying "Yes"

Today we traveled into the city of Antigua, went to the local market, and did some sight seeing.  We are continually amazed by God's creation (people, mountains and volcano's) and the vastness of its beauty.  We were able to fellowship with each other today through sightseeing, shopping at the local market, and worship.
Tonight we had a worship service and heard from Pastor Pedro and how he said "yes" to teaching and equipping other believers to be leaders in their own communities.  Pedro continues to see how God is fulfilling the needs of Petra by providing for this ministry.  The theme that we continue to learn this week is the importance of saying "yes" to God's calling, being obedient and seeing how God provides to those who obey.

Mark Tehennepe
Jan Timmer
Elizabeth Westhouse

Guatemala Trip, Day 2, 2019

This morning we were blessed in devotions by Mark, a missionary from a neighboring village, who God has been using the last decade to form a Christian school of 140 students. He challenged to take the focus on missions back to our daily lives back home.


Our mission today took our group in two places. A small group of us went to Salt and Light English School. Where we talked to students who are learning to speak English. We talked with many different levels. The levels go from A to F, and we talked to students from level A, C, D, and E. We discussed topics like their interests, places they like to visit, what they want to study in college. The level A students only had three days of classes, so they could only ask us our names, nicknames, how we are doing, and how to spell our names. They could also read us a paragraph in English, and we helped them with their pronunciation.

Then we traveled to Los Gonzosos orphanage, which specializes in helping children with special needs. There, we met Maurine, the founder of the orphanage, and the nannies that help to care for 24 children. Maurine spoke to us about how she felt that she was called to start this orphanage through a dream she had. We got to play with the children and hear about their stories and how they came to be at the orphanage, about miraculous healing. We met a 17 year old girl named Helen (in picture) with Downs Syndrome. When she was 22 months old she was diagnosed with a heart condition that was only curable with surgery, but the surgery had to wait until she was three. However, they continued to pray for her. By the time she was three and went in to schedule the surgery, the doctors could no longer find the heart condition. Helen had been healed!

The other team went into the village to continue building houses and relationships. By the end of the day they were pleased to be a bit ahead of expectations of progress for building. Because it was Saturday, there were many more children available for Bible school, approximately 45 children. The were really a delight to work with.

Written by Rylee DeHaan, John Hall, and Don Westhouse

Village Day 1

Today we went to the town of La Canoa. The village is known for their incredible vegetables, and we saw many fields of produce like onions and carrots. We split into three groups to begin building houses. We prayed with each family before we began to build the house.

Once we began to use the chainsaw and power tools, it was almost as if we summoned the little boys, and they loved to watch us use them. We got out balloons for them to play with and of course, being the little boys that they are, thought that balloons making fart noises are funny.

It was a great reminder to us that no matter what the background is, people are still people.

After playing with the balloons, we encountered a baby, that was one of the cutest babies ever. He was all smiley and didn't at all care that he was being passed between about 5 people.

One of us from the group is an amazing artist. She loves to sketch the kids faces, and it is so cool to them to have a picture of themselves to keep.

We met a young girl that she was sketching and her mother, who later introduced us to her mother-in-law and her great grandma. We started to talk to them, and they started to talk to us about what they make on their looms. They invited us to go with them to watch and it was so amazing. These women sit in the same position for hours on end. Everything they make is by hand, with no help of extra tools. It made us realize that when we go to the market and get blankets and scarves for a "good deal", that what we just bought is worth so much more in time and effort.

After lunch we left with Juan Marcos and Josh, two of our translators for the week, to go to Vacation Bible School. Our story was about the lost sheep, and the kids loved it. They got really into the questions that were asked about the story, and they were really excited about the craft they got to do. They colored pictures, and later we went to jump rope. We're still unsure if they understand when to jump... After jump roping we decided to play "Pato Pato Ganzo", or duck duck goose to you non spanish speakers, until it was time to leave. Overall it was a wonderful day in the village and we were so blessed by all of the people there. We cannot wait to go back tomorrow!


Scott Westhouse
Gina Door
Becky Hendriksma

Day one, we have arrived, the cook's perspective

As the team makes their way to the mission house to unpack.  We the cooks, Becky and Sandie go with John King to get the groceries for the week.  The pick up truck driver, Bill Fennema and Ethan DeVries go with us.

First stop is Pricemart (Sams Club).  Loading 4 large carts (John calls them buggies) with food and supplies.  We try to follow the list, but sometimes items aren't there, and we have to substitute.  Our list includes 20# burger, 30# chicken, 28# bacon plus one more.

Second stop is Walmart.  Three more stuffed carts and we should be able to feed them for the week.

Tomorrow John Cain will get our fresh fruits and veggies from the local market.

Finialy off to the house. 

The team had their orgaizational meeting and prayer, then went out for dinner.

We arrived and unloaded 2 vehicles and the 4 suitcases of food supplies from home.   We can only hope we can find things tomorrow when we start cooking.

Its been a long day, but we will be ready in the morning, 4:30 am comes soon, so good night. 

-Sandie and Becky DeVries