Power outage again tonight so this will be short and sweet. We finished strong and healthy - just tired but full of praise for what God did here with our hearts. Your prayers were answered - hearts were broken and many began the process of healing as well.  I know it is tough to get your son or daughter to open up and go into detail on what messages they heard (and saw) from God while here, but the extraction effort will be worth it. As usual, God over-delivered on our small requests - callings were acknowledged, sins confessed, gifts were used - and at least individuals (that we know of) gave their hearts to Christ. I suspect there were many more but that is all we were allowed to see.

A remarkable trip - it was and is life-changing for some. Ask them. Ask me. Ask God. Thanks for praying - see you tomorrow night!
Mr. B

Hola,

We finished renovations on one house today and did most of the the painting on the newly constructed house. We had an armed guard to protect us this morning since we're not in the safest part of the town. Our courageous team is trusting in God's protection to finish His work here. It was a joyful day celebrating Rebecca's birthday despite the spiritual opposition.  A few of the team members are not feeling their best, please keep our team in prayer for healing and to finish strong by His grace.

After the great food critique from Nick yesterday, he also led a great devotion with the team tonight and his story really encouraged the rest of us. As we faithfully share what God has done and continues to do in our lives; pray that He will speak into students lives to bring Himself glory.

We miss y'all back home and can't wait to see you again soon!

 Janice

Mr and Mrs. Troung:
This is Mr. B. Just wanted you to know how we celebrated Rebecca's birthday today - something I hope she will never forget. The day started off with all of us singing Happy Birthday to her at breakfast. Next we arrived at Potter's House for another day of work and ministry. As we entered our room for the morning's orientation Rebecca was greeted with balloons and a special card made by the PH staff. Another round of Happy Birthday followed and she I think was hoping that everyone would just forget it was her birthday! That did not happen. I had arranged for some cake and ice cream to be served at lunch when we returned from our morning tasks. After lunch the cake (with candles} was brought it by the PH staff and they joined us (all 50 of them) in yet another singing of the birthday song, and then stayed to celebrate her birthday.  They also presented her with two small gifts (hand made items from the "treasures" in the dump) and, well, she was the center of attention in a way that she had never dreamed of.  She quietly thanked everyone for the well wishes and then enjoyed her special birthday cake - Guatemalan style! This was something unusual and special for the PH staff as well - the fact that we included in them in our "family" celebration. They really appreciated it and did a wonderful job of helping acknowledge her special day. After, on the bus ride home, I asked her how she felt about all the focus on her birthday - and the surprise lunch treat. She said that she was humbled by it - embarrassed but "in a good way". We love her and all of us are so glad that she is here with us. She is a very special young lady and has blessed us and everyone that we have encountered over the past two weeks. Thank you for letting her come and for doing such a good job of raising her.  She is truly our "treasure"!

Hello World,

I am here tonight to share with you about the wonderful cuisine that we have experienced as well as some slightly more important matters that deal with the spiritual matters of this trip. First of all the food at the mosquito infested Casa Blanca is quite atrocious mainly because the scrambled eggs and sausage salsa which consists of a cheesy hotdog and tomato sauce does not float my boat. But on the other hand the catered lunch at Potters House is AMAZING. The tortilla soup and the stuffed fried bell peppers as well as the fruit pie have been in my opinion the best dishes that we have been given. And finally about the dinner, after having a quickly put together dish of rice, untoasted toast, boiled rubber chicken and boiled veggies made by Casa Blance, we have now been given delicioso sandwiches. Well enough about food because Mr. B is tired and wants to sleep so here comes the important stuff. Today we did an activity in three groups called house visits. During these visits each group visits 5 houses and one person is in charge of giving their testimony and praying for the families. The beautiful thing about the house visits is that each person's testimony shared related to their house. It is such a beautiful thing to experience that I wish you can one day experience it. The testimonies worked so perfectly that one man at the age of 26 gave his life to Christ because he was shown that the best way to love his son was to follow God, and that Rebecca was able to share her testimony to a girl that had almost the same problems and thoughts as her own. Yes we have also been working on  the construction of two houses but that is not important compared to sharing our story with others. I thank you for supporting us and I wish you could experience the sights, smells, sounds and most important of all (just Kidding) taste.

Thank You and God Bless
Goodbye World
Nicholas R. Leontiev

PS JAJAJAJAJAJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
(inside joke having to do with janice)

Hello Everyone.

In the morning we said goodbye to Andrew as he left to go back to school. We then, began our work at the Potter's House . At the Potter's House we are renovating and building houses and teaching a VBS. I was part of the house building team and we spent the day breaking up concrete, shoveling dirt, and stuccoing the walls of the house. It was a great day of hard work that we ended with pizza and a time of encouragement as we shared how God has been at work in our lives. God is penetrating our hearts and we can only praise Him for what is happening.

Thank You for the Support
Daniel Davenport 

Hello again!
   Today was full of safe travels, singing, and roadside snacks as we left Chi Chi for Guatemala City. We are now in a neat hostel where we will be staying for the rest of the trip. We had a much needed pizza dinner and are now meeting some other teams that are staying here as well. We said goodbye to our friends at ASELSI and are transitioning tomorrow into a brand new experience.We bonded with so many children and families and I personally fell in love with my surroundings and specifically the little girls. Not only are we staying in a new place this week, but we're also going to encounter new lives and new struggles. We're in a much more urban place with a completely different feel than the beautiful mountains that we left this morning.Our prayer is that our hearts are broken by the Lord. We desire to touch and be touched in exciting ways in our journey, and I believe God will fufill that desire.
   As a team we woke up this morning much more refreshed and energized thanks to extra sleep, and headed  to a conference room to have a beautiful morning of worship with missionary families. I think the whole team can agree that the sermon was what we each needed to hear and I know that I was especially blessed.
   Please continue to pray for our hearts as we enter into a fresh start, for our health and protection, and for team unity and boldness for the Gospel. We'll be going on home visits Wednesday and we could use prayer for each of us to say the words that God intended for us to say and for hearts to be open. We're excited to see what God has for us this week and we'll make sure to keep you all posted!
  As an added note, Andrew and Daniel wanted to say: "hi mom."

Much love,
Bethany Tibbets

Today was a great, fun, and relaxing day after a week of hard work and in preparation for a week of hard work ahead! We started off  the day with zip-lining through the beautiful forest of Panjachel. It was quite the experience! :) Then we all went on a boat trip on Lake Atitlan, which was amazing. Seeing all this stunning nature really shows how amazing and creative our God really is. We then did a little shopping in a local market and ran into the President of Guatemala! We finished our night with dinner at the hotel and a great devotion by Luke and a time of really inspiring prayer. We would love if you could keep our team's health in your prayers, as some of us aren't feeling our best. God has shown us some amazing things this week, and we are looking forward to what He has in store for us next week.

-Morgan Akers

         Hello world! Sorry for the lack of post last night, one of the nightly severe thunderstorms knocked out our power (which we are very used to by now) but last night it also disabled the wi-fi. No worries, we're all still alive and kickin! The past two days we've been continuing to work at the church in Poco Il, finishing the outhouses and painting the church itself- painting was my job, and it involved balancing on a tiny dirt ledge which often gave way and a extremely unstable "scaffold"... every time I had to move I had to hold the paintbrush in my mouth. It was fun.  Today was our last day working and being with the kids from Church of God, and it culminated in a worship session where we got outrocked by the Guatemalan youth groups, then said good-byes and exchanged forms of contact.  We are ready for a fun day at the beautiful Lake Aticlan and then off to Potter's House for the next week.  Hasta luego,
                        James Montavon

Hola from Guatemala! A quick recap of the past two days - Yesterday morning we visited a school. The kids were ages about 4-7. As soon as we walked in they cheered for us, they made us feel so important. Just a simple "hola" made them smile from ear to ear. After playing games with them we headed to a local hospital. We split up into groups to visit women's surgery, men's surgery, and pediatrics. The groups prayed for the patients and gave them gift bags. It was an eye -opening experience. In the evening, we played soccer with some local Guatemalans, they were very talented. We were a little embarrassed.

Today in the morning we first met up with ASELSI and led staff devotions. Next prepared hamburgers for a feeding program, while some of our team went downtown to hand out tickets for a free meal. Before handing out the meal we put on a program for them in the middle of the square with a skit and music. Andrew gave a salvation message and we prayed with them. We then split up into groups again. Some went to build a chicken coop, some to paint a church, build an outhouse, or babysit. Once we finished that we had a pretty relaxing evening. Keep us in your prayers and be thankful we are all safe and healthy. Its amazing to see the work of God firsthand.

- Shannon Hemmer

It's weird how God works. I never in my life thought that I would be on a trip outside of the country with a church sharing the gospel with people. I always told myself, "When I get older, I'll follow the Lord. I have things that I want to do before I settle down and devote my life to him." Long story short when God called me to go on a missions trip, I resented it. I literally hated Mr. Bognanno because he was so passionate about the Lord. Everything inside of me screamed to just quit. It was the summer before my freshman year of college and it was my time to party it up before I went. Then May 5th, 2011 happened; God called for me to give my life to him, with no holding back. He put in my heart to have a heart to yearn for being used as reckless abandon for his kingdom. Two months after coming to know Christ I was here in Guatemala as an infant in my faith, yet he used me in a way that I can take no credit for. He made sure last year that he was going to use me in a way that for the rest of my life, when anything happened for His kingdom, I would remember I was only used through him because without him I am nothing more than a lost sheep who had gone astray.

This year being in Guatemala, I have already gotten to see how far God has taken me. Being in America, change is so constant in our lives that Gods significant work in our hearts can be cheated and confused with just growth in our lives along with everything else. To be removed from Guatemala and this specific trip for a year, and then to see how things have changed in me is mind blowing. I went from hating Mr. Bognanno and wanting to get out of the trip to driving 2 hours into the rural areas of Virginia without technology just to spend 7 1/2 hours of prayer with Daniel Davenport over our trip, over our hearts as leaders on this trip, and for our lives. I went from keeping to myself about my struggles and my relationship with God to 2 Corinthians 11:30 "If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show how weak I am." I get to boast about my weaknesses to say how great and how strong my God is. I'm loving my trip so far and how God shows me more and more how he is active and living in our hearts to those who believe in him.

On the the stuff you really want to hear is our day! Today was an interesting one. We got our official orientation of ASELSI and from there began to get sorted and prepared for the youth group event we were going to be putting on tonight. After that we broke into individual groups and went on home visits to just invest our lives into people. Mr. Bognanno being who he is told me 5 minutes before we get in the cars to leave that I will be leading the visit for my group. To be fair he did that for Claire and Nick also, but there is something suspicious about him giving short time notices when I'm involved. For my group, it was encouraging to see as soon as we got to the house there was Jesus written on one of their doors. I thought I could assume that they were believers, and the majority of them were. We got to meet this family and hear some of their story and it really hit my heart hard. The mother of the family had problems with seizures and the family spoke of an instance where she had a seizure and she fell into a fire. It immediately made my think of the story of Jesus healing a boy with the unclean spirit in Mark 9:14-29 and just thinking of the father exclaiming "Help me with my unbelief!" The father of this family was a believer but he had been a drunk and after the fire incident he stopped going to church and felt like it was his fault that this had happened to his wife. They had at least 7 kids and all but 2 were believers. Daniel was in my group and he shared the gospel with him. What happened after that will be in my mind the rest of my life. Daniel and I offered words of encouragement to the mother and what was coming out of my mouth to her was straight from God, he was just pouring into my head different things that he had revealed to me that I could share with her, and Daniel also. Afterwards Shannon who had been quiet for most of the trip stepped up and prayed for the mother in confidence and boldness. With faith she came to the father we serve that there will be healing in her life, and even if it's not on this earth she knows her real healing, and her real rest is in heaven because she is a believer in the God of this universe. I then prayed for the father and shared a little in my life to show I know a little of what he was experiencing. He rededicated his life to the Lord right then. Then Daniel prayed for the little girls and they accepted Christ into their hearts. It is a beautiful thing to see someone come to accept Christ as their personal savior. We then presented the family with a gift bag and about the equivalent of $40 to go towards medicine for the mother. Their family touched my heart and  I hope that they together will continue to live and to glorify God.

Lastly was the youth group for the night, and God was most certainly in the building. The skits that I had worried about went exactly how it should have. The testimonies were the perfect ones that were meant to be said (Phillip and Morgan), the music went well, and the time of the bonfire went well. God is definitely working in our lives and I'm really getting to see growth in different team members and even mine. Everyone who is on this trip was meant to be on this trip, and God is going to do miraculous things in the days to come. I apologize for typing so much, I get it from my parents. :)

Andrew Washington

Ohhh man where to begin?  Today has been exciting from start to finish, it began with several clogged showers and a delicious egg and french toast breakfast, Guatemalan style.  We then got the opportunity to go into the city of Chichi where we were able to see the Church of Saint Thomas which was built on the ruins of a Mayan temple.  Then we pushed our way through the crowded market streets and went to the city cemetery.   One of the first things we noticed as we walked through the gates were the Mayan shamans or witch doctors who praying over alters and wafting their smoke incense all over the place.  Our guide Eman, who understood what they were saying, told us that they were praying curses and enchantments against us, the Christians.  After we left the cemetery we were allowed to put our Spanish speaking skills to the test by walking around the market bartering, shopping and constantly refusing and trying to avoid the swarms of children and old ladies trying to sell us blankets and bookmarks. Following an intense and very musical Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel we all got to relax and it was here that Daniel and I found our undiscovered and incredible talents of interpretive dance.  Not long after this glorious discovery we went to the Church of God where we were finally able to put all of our missions meetings and team practices to use.  First we all stood up front and serenaded the congregation with a little La Nina De Tu Ojos action, then Rebekah, Daniel, Bethany and I preformed the King of Hearts skit.  After that Jonathon gave his testimony and I went up and tickled the ivory with some How Majestic is Your Name.  Then Daniel came to the pulpit and wowed the crowd with an incredible sermon on our team verse 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 while the rest of us took the kids and had a Bible lesson.  After Daniel finished we mingled with the congregation for a little while, got to know the youth group and finally came back to our hotel.  It's been an amazing day and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us tomorrow.  
          

Safe Arrival

Tim emailed last night to say that the team has arrived in Guatemala safe and sound. They are ready to minister this (Sunday) afternoon at a local church. They will post a more detailed update as they are able.

2012 Guate Team!

We are very excited about being in Guatemala next month!  Please be in prayer for our team as make preparations and specifically for the funds that still need to be raised.

Our team:  Morgan, Luke, Daniel, Wesley, Shannon, Philip, Nicholas, Claire, James, Bethany, Rebecca, and Andrew and team leaders, Tim, Tom, Janice, and Jonathan.

A few of our prayer requests:

*  Students would be bold in sharing their faith and for physical and spiritual strength
   as they minister and evanglize in the city dump, medical clinic, and rural areas.

*  Students would love the "treasures" (scavenger families) with Christ's love, helping to
   transform their lives, families, and their community.

*  Our ministry partnership with Potter's House and Aselsi ministries.

Thank you for lifting us up, we appreciate your support.