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

Wednesday (Dedication Day)

Dedication Day - Today we had the opportunity to return to the villages and dedicate the homes for the families we have built relationships with.  There were several opportunities to share the Gospel with the families - most were Christians and one man in one family was not.  Our interpreter, Josh, had a long serious discussion with this man.  He needs to realize that he needs to accept Christ and that his good works do not get him into heaven or he will be eternally separated from his family.  We need to continue to pray for this man and ask that you do as well. 

We were proud to see Claire Jafri dedicate a home that her grandparents sponsored to the sweetest family.  The mom had shared with us that they had been praying for this house as they had to choose to either pay for a surgery for their son or have a home of their own.  Claire boldly asked if they had Jesus in their hearts and they do.  She then prayed for their house to be filled with love, laughter, kindness, and smiles and continue to ask God for blessings on their family.  There weren't too many dry eyes during this dedication.

Rachael also dedicated a home sponsored by the Grassmid twins.  Again, the question was asked of them if they have accepted Christ in their hearts and they had.  God's blessings and faithfulness was evident today as well as all week.  It definitely makes parents proud to see their kids step out in their faith and boldly share it with complete strangers.

Tonight we will have our evening wrap up and hug line.  This is always a very emotional time of reflection for all of us.  We will be flying home tomorrow and ask for safe travels.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support this week.

Randy, Michelle and Rachael Bosse and Claire Jafri

Tuesday

Good evening everyone! My name is Alexis Jeltema, I am from First Cutlerville CRC! This is my first year on the Mission trip! It has been such an amazing experience so far! I knew coming here that I would leave changed, but I didnt realize how much I'd really change. On to our day today! We started out our morning here with a moderate volcano warning! We definitely don't have to deal with that in Michigan! We also had to deal with a demonstration, which is like a protest. So that made our typical drive of about 45 minutes. But with the protest it took at least an hour and a half or longer. We had 3 teams today that put the fronts of the houses on, and my group went to pour cement at our last house! My group went to the duplex house today to help put the cement in! This family will always have a special place in my heart. This family has 8 kids in their family! We got to the house and they kids ran up to the doors with open arms waiting for our group to arrive. I was able to make a connection with 3 of their kids, Gabby (age10), Henry (age 7) and lastly Jakcelin (age5). These kids have stolen my heart. The guys in my group worked real hard, and I was entertaining the kids! However we needed water so we could mix the cement, and this family doesn't have a direct access to water. They have to walk a good 5-10 minutes to get to water. Which made it hard to mix our cement, so we had to get an IBC tote (250 gallon tank) and run into the nearby village to fill with water. While the guys worked I took out my Polaroid camera and the girls wanted to each have a picture with my name on it to remember me! They have stolen my heart! This family was so grateful for the house! We had finished and packed up all of our equipment said our goodbyes and walked out the door. When the dad came running out and told us to come back, the women of the family made us dinner again! They made us dinner yesterday, and again today! We had fresh pasta with tomatoes, beans, fresh lemonade, and best of all right off the fire tortillas(they call them pollo here). It was amazing! They most amazing part of the day is that I was the translator for my group. And I failed Spanish class in High school. I was able to fully communicate with this family in Spanish! After we finished eating we headed to the Refugee center. Which is from the volcano last June. They have over 400 families in that camp. We were told about stories of families that lost almost all of their family. I was old about a story of a pastor who lost his wife and 7 out of his 8 children in the volcano. Along with their personal possession, and their house. And they don't have a lot to begin with. That story immediately made me think of a modern day Job. He lost everything, but is still putting his full trust in the Lord. How incredible is that?! While at the camp we joined up with our whole team, to put on VBS for the kids, and help pour cement for one of the churches in the camp. The refugees at the camp had started the cement at 6am this morning, and had gotten half way when we arrived. And we were able to help finish the cement in about 2 hours. The rest of our group put on the VBS. The story was about Paul and Silas, and their time spent in jail. The young adults in the group acted out the story for the children. The whole point of the story was about salvation through time in trouble. Which is a huge part of their community today. Over all i'd say it was a pretty successful day! I can say I have been truly blessed by this small country! Thank you for continued prayers and support. We all can defiantly feel them! Thank you!

Alexis

Monday

Hola! (That's Spanish for hello).

Before we talk about today, we're going to talk about our worship service last night. We were blessed to hear the testimony of a reformed gang member named Shorty. He had two other former gang members with him, who also shared their testimony. Their stories of how Jesus never stopped pursuing them resonated with all of us but on an entirely different level. Emotions ran high as laid our hands on them and prayed. We look forward to sharing the stories when we return.

Today started with breakfast (burritos) and some well done devotions from Randy Bosse. We then split up into three groups. Two of them went to mix the concrete floors. The other group went to the market to get housewarming gifts for the families. The concrete process was absolutely grueling and everybody did a wonderful job! 10 houses have floors in them as of this writing. The market was absolutely chaotic, but a good experience nonetheless.

Late in the afternoon all the groups met up at a church in the village to hand out food. We were ale to fill grocery bags to the brim with a month's worth of food and staples. The depth of gratitude was astounding. Love is truly the universal language.

We returned to the mission house and ate with the families that some of members sponsor. Lazero and Glendy as well as many others joined us.

That's all for now,
Thanks for all your prayers!

Matt and Meredith Bol

Sunday Funday January 20

Good evening fellow blog readers!

Today we began our morning with a lovely breakfast from our awesome cooks! After which, we split into 2 groups and headed to Antigua for the day. Half of the group started with some shopping in the market, while the other half went on an ATV tour through the city of Antigua and the out skirts. After we bounced our way out of the cobblestone roads, we made our way up a very dusty and steep mountain. Once we reached the top, we stopped at a little restaurant with some incredible views. Pictures won't ever do it justice. From there we headed back down and literally bounced our way back through the city to the other end where we climbed another mountain. There we got to see the giant cross that over looks the city. Then our tour guides took us around for some more exquisite site seeing. According to Matt Bol, the tour was much better on 2 wheels. (the only one who took a dirt bike.)

After the ATV tour we met the rest of the team at Monoloco for some delicious lunch. We were able to spend some time with the whole group and share our fun adventures. Once we were finished with lunch, the other half of the team went out for their ATV tour while we had some time for shopping in the market. 

We are now writing this as we wait for the other half of the team to return. Tonight we will have some dinner and then a time of worship. We have a guest speaker tonight named "Shorty." Many of you may recognize him from the Reparando movie that was made about the gangs going on in Guatemala City. We are very excited to meet him and hear his story. (We will report back tomorrow on that.)

That's all for today, thanks for reading :)

Emily Byker and Stacy Westhouse

Saturday

Saturday

We began our day with a time of worship singing the song "Your Name" this song is so fitting for our time here in Guatemala. We are relying on God to be our strong and mighty tower as we spread the love of Jesus to the people.
Our first stop as an entire group was going to the town dump. There are people who live in the dump. These people are rummaging through the garbage to find anything that maybe of value to sell at the markets. We brought sandwiches for them to eat. The environment was just heartbreaking to see. 
Today our family went to the orphanage called Love the Child (Amor Del Nino in Spanish). The children aged from 4 months to 6 years old. There are 23 children currently living there. The children are so well cared for and truly loved. The orphanage is beautiful and very clean. The outdoor space for them to play in is so amazing. It was truly a day filled with little children, sunshine and some really cute puppies.
The home building continued to go well today. The crews were able to get a few more houses framed. We now have 10 of our 12 houses built and covered. We hope to be able to get the 2 remaining houses done on Monday morning and then start the concrete floors in all 12. 
Please pray for our teams continued health, strength, and stamina. Also, please pray that we are able to find a person to lead the pouring of the concrete floors for the 12 homes.
Ben, April, Jerad and Jenna Berkenpas

Friday

Today (Shawn VanderWoude's birthday!) was our first day in the village, and it was beautiful! The weather was wonderfully comfortable (sunny with a slight breeze), the people were welcoming, and the view was gorgeous.  We are working in the village of Alotenango which we had worked in back in 2011-2013. The work sites are very spread out this year, so we were able to see quite a bit of the village. We all started our day at 3 different work sites, but after lunch some of us stayed and continued to build houses, and some of us went to a refugee camp. The camp houses over 400 people displaced when the volcano destroyed several villages. At the camp we lead a VBS for the children. The local Pastor said that it was great to see these kids smile, laughing, and just having a good time after seeing so much heartache.

-Susan, Justine, and Regan Wiegers

Thursday

Today was travel day for the team, everything went perfectly without a hitch. We arrived safely at the mission house at around 3:30. We had a short team meeting and headed down to Pollo's for dinner. The cooks just arrived back to the house with all of our food for the week and everyone is getting settled in and heading to bed early as they're all pretty exhausted from a long day of travel.

Thank you all for your prayers for our travel. We covet them as so many things could possibly go wrong but we see Gods hand in all of it and arrived safely and on time.

Emily Westhouse