Closing Ceremonies

Hey!

We're sitting at the Guatemala airport waiting for our flight to Texas. We're grabbing WiFi from a Pizza Hut waiting for our pepperoni pizza at 10:30 in the morning.
Yesterday was a very exciting day for the team. We started off by cleaning our rooms and packing. Around 9:30 local time, we went outside onto the sun soaked lawn to give Katy Bolvito an affirmation. Afterwards we went inside and Bob ran us through the Chula ceremony. Chula in Spanish means cute but Bob has given new meaning to the word by giving a Chula Award to the person who put his or her foot in his or her mouth. The campaign was neck and neck between Katy Peterson and Tyler "The Pope" Britton. Katy won, allowing her to put her signature on a stuffed frog.

Afterwards we went to lunch with Bob and then returned and loaded our bags onto vans and traveled to the location of our final night in Guatemala, SETECA Seminary. The enitre time we were there we focused on team bonding and transitioning from missionary work back to our everyday life. We did affirmations for everybody which really helped give closure to this trip, and more importantly allowed everybody to hear how they have grown on this trip. This experience was very important to me because I came on this trip without having friendships with any of the other team members. The feedback I received was very special for me and I think everyone else had similar experiences.

All in all our experience here in Guatemala has been live changing in some way or another. We want to thank everyone who has supported us both financially and through prayer. This trip would not have been possible without you guys. God has truley blessed us through this experience. Thank you everyone!

Charlie and Megan

Jailbirds

Today started out with an hour's drive and another ride down a dirt road. We walked up to the maximum security section of the prison which was where we would be for a short time. Wednesdays and Sundays are visitation days, it was interesting and yet oddly saddening to see families with children coming to visit their father who was locked up. After we finished through security we were in an area that felt as though it were a community rather than a prison. Prisoners had the privilege of freedom to be outside of their cell during the day. At first this was unsettling to hear because if we did not make it out before lunch we would be staying for it. We walked through the main yard and down a narrow hallway to a chapel where the inmates held their own church services.

We were greeted by the chapels band. After some brief welcomes given by both the pastor and Bob, we got on the stage to share all that we had prepared in both music and testimonies. We played the same songs that we had played on this past Sunday in Bob's church. Interspersed in between our songs were the testimonies of both Jaime and Tom. These testimonies had an apparent effect on the faces of the inmates as I watched them try to really focus and hang on every word that was being spoken. It was a very interesting experience as well as one that was very educational in a way that I would have never personally expected.

After we all had left the prison we headed to the craftsman market. It was a beautiful market filled with all different kinds of knick knacks. Its always an exciting rush to get to barter for the better price, even if in comparison to the American dollar it is only a few cents. What was interesting to me was how alot of the little stores were family run, or there would be a mother with her son. It was quite the change in lifestyle switching from the exiguous conditions of those who lived in the dump. To the hustle and bustle of a marketplace where everyone is looking for their next sale. It would have been fun to of had more time to spend in the market just observing the people in our surroundings.

As our trip is starting to come to a close, everyone is doing fine, and those who have been feeling under the weather are improving. We all are looking forward to being reunited with our families as everything is winding down. We will see you guys in a few days. Love you mom dad and ash.

Jeremy

P.S we have learned much about the papacy and Tyler has decided to one day become pope :)

Hello,

Today was our second day with Bob. We spent our time working with children and relaxing after a long week of manuel labor. The change of pace has been good for the team as we slow down a little, see another side of Guatemala City and create even deeper bonds.

Something strange has happened for this team, that almost all agree rarely happens, that is that we all have bonded really well without the clicks or popular crowd that so often comes within groups. It's been a cool experience learning more about each other and finding ways to bond despite the work and busy schedules we've been used to for the past week.

Please keep praying for us as we continue our mission.

God Bless,

Guatemala Missions Team

Church and m&m's

Hola from Guatemala! Yesterday was fantastic, relaxing day! After a hard week of working and little sleep, we arrived to the Henriques estate exhausted only to be surprised by the treatment we were about to get! Their house is absolutely breathtaking and the Henriques family is more than hospitable. In their backyard is a breathtaking view of a revene, no garbage! Jenn reminded us not to take advantage of all of this, especially after all we've seen in the past week, and she was right. We are all truly grateful that God allowed us to come here.

We started out by going to Bob Henriques church and singing for them. Jeremy and Kathryn did a fantastic job sharing their testimonies. After we were finished in "big church" we all went and did VBS for the kids. It was a lot of fun teaching them about relying and trusting in God through the story of the blind man! We played a great game that Katy created where you blind fold someone while another kid leads them through an obstacle course. The kids loved it! After church we went out to lunch at a soccer themed restaurant where we all enjoyed a nice, juicy peace of steak, so yeah we all enjoyed that quite a lot!

After the restaurant we had a long awaited nap! Aaaah :) Before dinner we were treated with a personal concert from a guitar and singing duet named Mildred & Manolo! They were absolutely amazing and everyone was thrilled to be hearing their music! They shared their testimonies with us as they played through many different songs. Don't worry parents, you'll be able to hear their music since most of us got their cd!

We love and miss you all! See you guys soon :)

Our last day at potters house!

After a ton of back breaking work, lots of sweat, and some very interesting smelling students we finally finished one house completely reconstructed, and two others that recieved new floors and roofs. I wish all of you reading this right now could have seen the expressions on the families and the childrens faces when they saw where their new bed would be going, and where they were able to shower, and where they would be spending every rainy season dry! life is Guatemala is certainly different, to say the least. but there is clearity, carefreeness, and a strong bond between the Guatemalan people. They were right along side us the whole time working just as hard, and not just the people recieving the new houses. Neigbors, friends, and even complete strangers, that is how strong there community is. visiting the trash dumps this morning was unlike anything i've ever seen. you really couldn't even imagine where these people work, raise their children and live everyday. this past week I fully believe we have shown Gods light and his grace and love. don't be surprised if some of your children decided to extend there stay... just kidding, but these kids have changed our lives and it was really hard to leave. i hope all is going well back in virginia/ohio! we love you all and can't wait to share all of our stories!
Adios,
Katy Peterson

ps. hey dad! :)

Painting Out Our Lives in Guatemala

Hey everybody in Virginia! It's been a fantastic experience so far here in Guatemala. Today we spent our morning constructing fuel efficient stoves in the edge of the city dump.
To do this, our team was required to bring each of the pieces up the side of a ravine, where the recieving shanties were constructed on the mountainside. It was some of the hardest work we have done yet, but I felt God's presence with us as the required teamwork strengthened our bonds.
Wow. Today I felt connections between our team and the people of the Guatemala City dump as we once again worked for Potter's House. Now that the foundations for the houses we are constructing are finished, we now had to paint the interior. As our team stetched their abilities, the people in the nieghborhood opened up to us more than ever before and I truly felt God's hand at work. Tomorrow is our last day in Potter's House Ministries, so keep praying for us!
~Coleman

God and Coke-Bringing people to together.

As we walked into the dimly- lit one room house I thought to myself, what on earth am I going to say that will in any way relate to the woman who graciously welcomed me into her home? Thoughts rushed in my head as I took in my surroundings, a whole house's contents in one room. As we gathered around her in the cramped space, she looked at us with guarded eyes yet a warm smile slowly crept on her copper, sun-baked face. With her small children at her side we introduced ourselves and began the somewhat awkward "speech" of why we were here.
Now, I never prepare what words I say because they are not mine to choose. All of us were supposed to share our testimonies and to be honest, I was not sure how to go about saying that to someone I have no connection with. Lets just say it was uncomfortable. But after we asked what prayer needs she had, what I needed to say was as clear as the awkwardness I had only felt seconds earlier. She had hepititis. Not surprising for the conditions and lack of health care there. Also not surprising, she could not afford treatment. I could see the worries for her and her family expressed in the chocolate eyes as she looked at me.
Without thinking I began to tell her about my father, Tom, who has cancer. I knew how she felt and the worry that is so devistating for her and her children. Truly, without any preconcieved thought I poured my heart out about something I do not like talking about nevertheless share with a stranger. So what happened? In that moment, God was able to use something terrible to heal and bring people to Him. I was just his hands and feet. My dads illness was a terrible blow to not only him but our family. Never would I have thought something healing, powerful, and cleansing could come from it. But isnt that how God works? As mentioned tonight in our team discussion, God never promised us a happy life...meaning no sickness, no pain, no struggles. He did promise us, "abundent life," a indescribable joy found only in Him. Even living with a disease or the worst luck imanginable, we have full abundance in Christ which should be enough. To the woman, she has no hope for a "full life" in Him because she did not have Him. Can you imagine? I pray that my words will encourage her to draw on Christ for strength and commit her life to Him sunk deep in her heart. God's words sunk into mine.

And yes, the kids are all great! Two more days of work and the three houses are finished. We.are.tired. But I dont hear them ever complaining and we all work together so well. It is one of the best teams Ive ever seen..you have truly amazing children that are fun to be around. It doesn't hurt when my dad buys them all coke during our break today too! I swear it could have been a Coke commerical..the Americans and Guatemalans..dirty,sweating, and sitting on a curb sippin' on Coke. "If I could teach the world to sing in perfect harmony..."

Adios from Elizabeth Bognanno!

Hola From Guatemala!
I apologize for the lack of blogging yesterday. As you can probably imagine, the internet connection in Guatemala City is not exactly up to par for American standards. When you last read the blog, we had just flown into the city and gotten our orientation from the Potter's House. After a good night sleep, the team woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast. Once the bus picked us up at 7:45am, we departed for the Potter's House to start our first day of work at the dump. When we got there, there was another orientation on what we were going to be doing for the locals this week. We were told that we were going to be building a cinder-block house, installing a concrete floor, and putting a metal roof over 3 houses in the local area for the families that attend the Potter's House services. When we left the Potter's House front door, we were truely struck by the poverty that we saw. One thing that I noticed instantly was the smell. When you were walking between the piles of trash, the stench was overwhelming. The other things that were quickly noticed were the living conditions of the majority of the people. Most of the homes were built from tin or cardboard, and they were directly in the middle of the dump. Something that was a major misconception was the word 'dump'. When Americans think of a dump, they think of an organized place with an entrance and piles of trash. In Guatemala, the conditions of living continuesly got worse until you were walking between piles of trash and junk. We continued to walk through the dump until we reached a small 'community' where we were going to be working for the week. As soon as we entered the front passageway, the group noticed a complete difference in the visual aspects of the area. Outside this community, everyone was just surviving. Many didn't even acknowledge our presence, and those that did, did so half-heartedly. But once we walked in, we saw the colorful strings hanging from the rooftops, and were greeted by a small fireworks display. After recovering from the initial shock of the gunshot sounding fireworks, we were introduced to the families that we would be helping in the community. Through the use of a translator, we thanked the families for letting us work there, then said an opening prayer and started to work. We broke into three groups, one for each of the houses that we would be working on. The first was a cinderblock house that we needed to spackle, stukko, paint, put in a floor, add a roof, and finish the home. Inside this building, there were many nice locals who were willing to learn from us as much as we were learning from them. The other two houses were just patches of dirt that needed a floor and a roof. We were supposed to level the ground, dig holes, and bury posts for the foundation. Through these three houses, we were very busy until lunch. After lunch, we returned to the site, where we found the children home from school or the dump. Once the language barrier was broken between us and the kids, we started to interact with them through games and work. Some of us went to play a pickup soccer game in the alley while others brought kids with them to build the homes and learn from each other's cultures. At the end of the day, with smiles on everyone's faces, we left the site and walked back to the Potter's House. Once we picked up our stuff, we got on the bus and drove back to the hotel for a quick shower and a delicious dinner. After dinner, we went into the basement and talked about what we had seen that day and how it had affected us. Then we went to bed early to prepare for the next day's work. Once we woke up, we played a minor prank on two of the members (Jeremy Traficant and Tyler Britton) and got on the bus for the Potter's House. The orientation was very similar to the previous day, along with the workload. When we got there, we met up with all of the same workers from Tuesday, and picked up directly where we left off. At lunchtime, we walked back to the Potter's House for lunch. Instead of returning to the site, we decided to serve lunch to the local youth who were attending classes at the Potter's House. After saying goodbye to the children, we made our way back to the homes, where we finished putting the Stukko (SP?) on the walls and installed the tin roof and the shower heads. We also installed the foundation on the other homes and added posts for walls. As we were breaking up the previous floor, a pipe was struck by a pickax. After praying and cleaning up the spill, the work continued while I made my way over the children, who were playing with some bubbles that Bethany brought. I gathered some of the older boys and started a pickup baseball game with James. Once the crowd around us grew, I asked if the kids would rather play Futbol (soccer), which was greeted by smiles from all. I ran and got a soccer-ball that I brought, which I gave to a wonderful little 4 year old (the youngest in the group). We started playing, and it seemed that all language issues seemed to melt away with these little kids. When it was time to go, we left the children playing while we walked home. After a repetitive trip back to the hotel, we showered, ate, and continued downstairs to update each other on the things that we had learned that day. We talked about the differences between American life and the conditions that we witnessed in the dump. It was interesting to see how people with so little could be so content. After reflecting on the realizations of the day, we returned to our room, where I am currently typing this bl0g. The plan for tommorow is to continue our work on the houses, and also visit homes of the locals to pray with them and share the word anywhere that it is wanted. I need to go to bed, so I will end this by asking for your continued prayer support and thoughts everyday.
Zack Renier
ISM Guatemala

Hola!

Hola from Guatemala!

It is almost 8:30pm Guatemalan time and we're all turning in. We are beat! Our travel to Guatemala was effortless, well, minus a fairly long check-in at DCA! You should have seen all are bags lined up ready to be checked; hope someone got a picture. But we breezed through security, and our flight left on time. We arrived in Texas, enjoyed our last American meal at Einstein Bros and boarded our flight to Guatemala, which was delayed an hour. Once in Guatemala, we spent about a half hour trying to exchange our American dollars for Quetzels (sp?) and were preparing for a long wait through custom. To our extreme delight, there was no one, and I mean NO ONE, in the customs line. And our bags were waiting for us at baggage claim. No waiting whatsoever! (Thank you, Jesus!)

Our guide from the Potter House was at the aiport to greet us with two vans...one for us, and one for our bags! After leaving the airport, we headed straight to the Potter's House right at the base of the city dump. There are really no words to describe the scene we witnessed; there is just nothing most of us could compare it to. The extreme poverty was overwhelming convicting, needless to say.

We were brought into a meeting room shortly after arriving and given an overview of the Potter House organization and prepped for the week ahead of us. It looks like we will be doing everything from building, to participating in their education initiative, to walking door-to-door to share the Gospel and providing them with gifts in the name of Christ. We only spent about 1 1/2 hours at the Potter House before leaving to check in to our hotel (which is extremely quaint and clean)! There is a hotel on sight which served us a nice dinner, although most of us looked as if we could barely keep our eyes open while eating! After dinner we met quickly to go over our schedule for tomorrow morning, pray together as a team, and have a devotion for heading off to sleep. Speaking of sleep, it's about that time...6am is going to come quick!

God is already working and we are excited to see what He has in store during the rest of our time here!

Buenos Noches!

-Jenn Dodd

Welcome!

Hello,
This is Ben Hayes, one of the students on the team.
We leave in a week. Pray for us please, we're currently working on finalizing some of the stuff we going to do down there, Vacation Bible School with kids, crafts, lots of stuff. It's lots of fun.
Through out the trip various different students will be posting about their experiences while in Guatemala. But first let me introduce you to the team members.
Students:
Katy P
Bethany T
Jeremy T
Coleman M
Tyler B
Megan B
Kathryn J
Katie B
Charlie C
James M
Zack R
Elizabeth B
Benjamin Hayes

Adult Leaders
Tom B (Mr. B)
Jenn D
Janice C
Jaime G

Again, I ask that you pray for us, and hope you'll check back to see all that God is doing in Guatemala. Thank you and God Bless you.

In His Service,
Benjamin D. Hayes