Guatemala Mission Trip Day 5 Highlights

Day Five, Wednesday, June 23:
We are all at the house this morning, playing bucket brigade to get the cement floor in the front room done. Messy and backbreaking work. We were happy for the lunch break. The men went back to finishing the cement work such as cementing in the shower pipes, chiseling a hole in the wall for a sink, and repairing the hole punched through the wall by a certain Pastor who decided he should not quit his day job. ;-)










Meanwhile the women made a quick run back to the hotel to clean up before VBS.


VBS was calm, compared to Tuesday. We only had about 45 children. We played a winding circle game called Let My People Go (Moses leading his people out of Egypt) and decorated wooden bookmark crosses. After the usual delicious supper and another one of Pastor Andres’ special desserts, we went back to the La Fragua Church to teach the local women how to use the manicure ministry to bring the good news of Jesus to their friends.









Then back to the hotel for another night of debriefing, devotion, and sleep.

Guatemala Mission Trip Day 6 Highlights

Day Six, Thursday, June 24: We were going to do another manicure ministry this morning, but we had seen all the women on Tuesday, so part of our group prepared for the afternoon VBS, while Charlene and I went with the men to the house. Mike installed the actual electrical switches and outlets, while Charlene, Pastor Alan and I worked on making steps for the front door. This meant Pastor Alan got to use his handy dandy pick ax again so Charlene and I could shovel dirt out of a 3’X 3’ area to about 10” deep. The mason/concrete expert then fashioned the steps out of block and we mixed up cement and, after filling much of the dirt back into the hole, we then brought buckets of cement over to finish the steps.




During the day there were moments when Pastor Alan felt truly inspired by what he saw and was doing in Guatemala. At other times he was just plain down and dirty from playing in the cement! ;-)


Back from lunch and the usual baños run, we were ready for our last day of VBS—and so were about 90 children! Later we were told that was the most they ever had in a VBS program at that church! We heard the last of the stories (Peter and the miraculous catch, read by Oscar, our helper), sang songs, played the Let My People Go game, and made bead and wooden cross necklaces, while the men finished last minute details at the house.




We couldn’t have survived the week without the help of Karla, our interpreter

and Pastor Andre, whose church we were using,

and a young man by the name of Oscar, who loved practicing his English and was great at cleaning up. We headed back home to another delicious supper and a special dessert from Pastor Andre, when we were reminded of God’s mighty power through an earthquake tremor after supper that evening.


At the Hotel every night we wait around the table expecting Carlos & Nora to drive up around 7:00. But it is not just us - a youth group from Arkansas is also interested in what we are having to eat. Plus, tonight Andre had said he would make us something special for a dessert. So, tonight we had baked chicken in Carlos's special sauce (I think it was a mojo with honey- delectable); some of the most amazing potato salad I have ever had (it was tiny potatoes, tiny carrots, freshly picked uncooked English peas, green onions, celery); cream de pollo soup (yum - with cilantro); fresh, warm tortillas; and yet another amazing dessert item from Andre - Banana Cream Pie. This was not your jello brand banana creme filling, but made with fresh bananas and homemade custard (I think Andre's family owns a bakery in Brazil), homemade crust, and a somewhat solidified fudge crust on top. The fudge has only enough sweetness to tip the scales from unsweetened to sweetened fudge. Mmmmm. He has baked his way into our hearts.

I hear the rest of the group out on the patio laughing and playing Boomo on the patio, so I am being torn away.

'Til later . . .

Guatemala Mission Trip Day 7 Highlights

Day Seven, Friday, June 25:
Done with the house. Today is house dedication day for both our group and the group from Gloria Dei in Houston, Texas. The Texas group has been working in the Gaulan area (about an hour northeast of Zacapa) during the week. On the way to Gaulan, we crossed the Motagua river and stopped on the bridge (literally stopped on the bridge - just try to do that in the US!) to look at the devastation from flooding of the river caused by Tropical Storm Agatha. Many families lost their homes and are still living in tent cities.




We met the group from Houston at their hotel and then both groups traveled up into the mountains to La Avanzada to dedicate the two block houses their group completed during the week.













After lunch we drove through Los Limones and saw more of the devastation from the flooding and also visited one of the temporary houses that CALMS builds. They are wooden structures on a cement slab, have a metal roof, and are meant to last about 10 years.



Later that afternoon both groups traveled back to La Fragua to dedicate Blanca’s house - the house our group helped construct during the week.






After the busy day it was time to say our farewells for the day and depart for the hotel for supper, dessert, devotions, and sleep!




Note: To see Days 8 - 9 click on "Older Posts" below.