Berean Bible Church - Guatemala Trip - Day 8

What an exciting, but sad start to the day as we packed our things, cleaned up the premises, and said goodbye to our new friends.  We took a group picture, encouraged the workers, and loaded our luggage on the bus for the long drive back to Guatemala City.  We were about 15 minutes away from the hospital and the bus pulled over.  As we sat wondering what was wrong, Julio, the administrator of the hospital caught up to us in his truck and boarded the bus.  He had been in a meeting and wanted to say good-bye to the team before they left, but was late.  He said he would have driven as far as he needed to to catch up with us to say thank you.  What a statement about the testimony this group has had this week.

The drive was actually quicker (only 7 hours) and much cooler (although it started to rain towards the end of the trip).  The kids played games, sang songs, generally were loud and obnoxious, but what else do you expect from a bunch of teenagers.  They love to laugh together.  It is fun to listen to them – it speaks volumes about the closeness of the group.

We stopped for ice cream about half way, and finally arrived in Guatemala City around 6.  We had Little Cesar’s Pizza for dinner – the kids (and the leaders) loved it!  We went through a bunch of pizza.

The place we are staying at is very nice – we can see the lights of Guatemala City all around us – it is beautiful.

After dinner we had our devotional time and then it was off to bed for most of us. 

Tomorrow we will be having church right here at the guest house with Dan Anderson (the AMG staff pastor) sharing from God’s word.  We are hoping that Tim and Eli will be able to join their worship team to lead worship tomorrow, but we will not know until then. 

After church we will be going to Antigua for shopping and sightseeing – Jeff said he will be looking for an American Restaurant to get a good American meal tomorrow.  We will see.

The team is getting excited about going home, but they already are missing being in Cubulco.  I pray that God uses this struggle to direct them in ministry for the future, and that maybe some would become missionaries here in Guatemala or somewhere else in the world.  Time will tell.

Berean Bible Church - Guatemala Trip - Day 7

And the week draws to a close.  This has been a very exciting day as we scrambled to finish the projects that were set before us.  The team started the day very energetic and enthusiastic – Alisa was called on to pray for breakfast, but I am not sure she was even awake.  Seriously, the group has worked so hard (and played hard) and they are getting tired.

The work that we are going to do on the projects was finished today, even though the projects themselves are not completely done.  Praise the Lord that they were all brought to a finishing point that will allow the people here to use the new spaces, even though they are not finalized. 

The church group finished the painting of the rooms and much of the rest of the facility that they were supposed to paint.  The walls were finished in the bathrooms and they are ready for the church to purchase the toilets and install them.  There was a lot of technical work at this project, and with the “creative” planning that needed to be done to accomplish the things they needed to do, they did an excellent job with all they accomplished.

The pharmacy group finished the walls and applied spackle to all of it.  Apparently they ran out of spackle at one point and were told they would have more at 2 PM.  By 4 it still had not showed up, and Luke said, “It’s because we are in a warm climate culture” – if you don’t know what that means, you will just have to ask.  Anyway, when we broke for dinner, they still had work to do, but some of the crew went back to work after dinner.

The laundry room was finished today – drop ceiling finished, lights installed, ventilation for the dryers completed and the washers and dryers hooked up electrically and placed in the room.  It is ready for operation.  At about 2 PM, Julio (the administrator of the hospital) showed up with ceiling fan blades, and eventually a ceiling fan that they wanted installed.  Adam had to alert them to the fact that the drop ceiling was not designed to hold that kind of weight, and if we were to install it, it would require a lot of work to revamp the design.  It was agreed that it could not happen today, but they were thrilled with the rest of the project.

After dinner, most of the team went for ice cream (even those that worked on the pharmacy), and then some stayed at the hospital and played games while others went and played soccer.  The soccer games were fun and eventful, but most importantly was the opportunity Ben had to share the gospel with 3 guys who asked to talk with him.  We discussed at devotion time the impact that the group has on the community as all eyes turn to the hospital and the church when “gringos” come to town.  They want to know why we are there – and the answer is always the same – because Jesus loves us and we want to share that good news with you.

After soccer we had our devotion time and spent some time in one of my favorite passages in Romans – Chapter 3:9-20 (really it’s my favorite because 21-31 complete the thought).  We discussed the indictments that Paul records against all mankind – resulting in an impossible defense, “every mouth may be closed”.  Praise be to God that we no longer have to fear standing before a holy God and see the truth that our righteousness is useless, but rather Christ has clothed us with His righteousness.

Tomorrow we will be waking up, packing, doing final clean up around the hospital and church and we will be heading for Guatemala City.  It is a long drive back (somewhere between 6-8 hours depending on who you ask).  We will be staying there until Monday when we return home.  The trip is not over, and the work (albeit different than it was) is not over.  We need to pray for strength and continued focus.

Berean Bible Church - Guatemala Trip - Day 6

Today is Katy’s birthday, so we sang Happy Birthday at every meal and at  9:00 at night (with cake and ice cream).  I think she enjoyed the day.

Throughout the day the team continued their work projects, but with only one day remaining, we are praying that God would help us finish the tasks.  The laundry room is almost complete – they are working on the drop ceiling to finalize the room.  The pharmacy team has gotten the walls completed, so tomorrow they are mixing the paint and the spackle to give the walls a “rough” finish look.  Both of those tasks should be completed by tomorrow.

The church group is experiencing a little more difficulty as much of their job has been very specialized and has required a LOT of creative thinking.  The team painted all of the classrooms the AMG yellow and blue colors, and the outside walls are next on the agenda. The bathroom is coming along as they are building the walls, but there is much to do.  We are praying that God would allow the team to finish the project (if it is His will), or that He would allow them to be satisfied with the fact that their service will be used to see the restrooms completed by the church people.  Either way, God’s glory is the preeminent goal, and that is what we want to submit our wills to.

After work we ate dinner, and then all headed off to the local pool.  This place was incredible.  It had a small “heart-shaped” children’s pool and an amoeba shaped larger pool that had a concrete walkway over the center.  The shallow end had a pretty cool slide as well.  The team had a great time playing games, throwing each other in, competing in various things (like trying to climb up on the bridge from the water).  They all had a great time – even Katie (who did not put a bathing suit on) got in on the action when she was thrown into the pool (I have no idea who threw her in – wink-wink).

About 8:00 we headed back to the hospital for our worship and devotional time.  We sang a number of songs and then we spent time in Romans 2:1 – 3:8.  I love the fact that this team is studying and talking about the passages they are studying even during the day.  The size of the team makes “small group” dynamics difficult, so our time in the word is often me speaking and asking questions, but it has been wonderful.

After we finished, we had cake and ice cream for Katy’s birthday. The cake was a light cake with peaches on top – delicious!  As we were eating our cake, we started a discussion of what God has been teaching us and the lessons we have learned since we were here in Guatemala.  One by one the team shared lessons that God was showing them.

·         A greater appreciation for the things they have

·         A greater appreciation of church/youth group

·         a longing to share the gospel with the people around them but they are limited by language

·         an enjoyment of worship with the team the work ethic of the Guatemalan people

·         the friendliness and joyful service of the Guatemalans that are caring for us

·         the example of Jami’s life and trust in God

·         the example of the Pastor from the nutrition center

·         lessons on missions and developing a passion for missions

·         lessons learned about

o   trusting God

o   dealing with arrogance

o   patience and slowing down

o   worry

o   faith

What a wonderful time it was – this team really loves each other well, and obviously they love God as well.

More work tomorrow – Lord willing we will finish our tasks.   

Now it’s time for bed.

Berean Bible Church - Guatemala Trip - Day 5

Another wonderful day, very similar to the previous days, however there were 3 highlights of the day.

After breakfast this morning we had the group that went to the nutrition center share some of the things they saw and the lessons they learned.  They talked about the way the testimony of the pastor impressed them.  They talked about the children who were shy and the parents who were a little tentative to hand their children over to the team members.  They recalled the story of the massacre that happened in this village over 30 years ago and how that impacted the pastor and many of the people there.  They had much to share, but I am certain as they process their own thoughts and the things that they saw, they will have much more to talk about.  Maria gave us pictures that we put on a powerpoint to encourage conversation.

Lunch time brought another opportunity for a special group to share.  Five of the team members had the opportunity to go on home visits today.  They went to 3 homes, but only 2 of the families were home.  The people that went talked about the kids, the homes, the families, and how blessed they are to have the things that they have.  I wish more of the team could go on these visits, but space was limited.  Again, I believe they will have more to share after they process for a while.

Finally, after dinner and some worship songs, Jami shared her testimony.  She is the daughter of the administrator of the hospital and his wife (Julio and Veronica), and on June 4, 2010 they were all in a car crash.  Julio should have died, and Jami  had deflated lungs, a severed intestine, and a broken back.  She was told that she would probably never walk again – as a matter of fact, only 2% (Julio told us) of the people with her injury ever walk again, and most of them need some form of assistance.  Here we are just 2 years later, and Jami is walking around, with a little assistance, but she truly is a miracle.  God spared their lives and gave them a story to tell.  As a result, Jami wrote her story down and a brief movie (20 minutes) was made.  We had the privilege of watching that movie tonight as well.  It was very moving.  The coolest part is it is being shown on television stations around the area, and in churches and other places.  They give all glory to God.  It is an amazing story.

The rest of the day was pretty similar to the other days – the projects are coming along.  We are praying that they will be finished by Friday, but the pharmacy team in particular is running against the clock.  They have spackling to do tomorrow, and hopefully by Friday they will have it done.

I spent much of the morning uploading pictures to the FTP site, and much of the afternoon cleaning out the maintenance shed.  This might become a job for about 5 more people tomorrow – it truly is a mess!

Soccer tonight for half of the team, and the rest stayed and played games at the hospital.  Some went out and had some local Guatemalan Ice Cream – I hear that is something you will have to ask about.  I didn’t have any tonight, but I have always loved it.  However, I never had dried pickles and avocado in my ice cream – Logan said that she did.  Erin said she got the bubblegum flavor, but did not realize it had bubble gum pieces in it – she said she almost choked.  Well, I guess they will learn to stick to fresa, vanilla and chocolate.  :-)

Tomorrow is more of the same – more work, more laughing, more sharing, more study of God’s word…  I am looking forward to another day of serving God here in Guatemala with this crew!

Berean Bible Church - Guatemala Trip - Day 4

The day began like a normal missions day – breakfast, and some conversation about what we have seen God do so far.  It was cool to listen to the young people and the leaders as they shared the lessons they are learning.

The morning schedule was similar to yesterday, with the exception of a special trip to the nutrition center in a village about 25 minutes away.  15 of the team members went and played with the kids, fed them lunch, and were able to hear the testimony of the pastor who works there.  It was obviously a very touching time for those who went – many of them said they spent much of the time crying because it was a very emotional time.

Before they left, Danny approached me about something he thought was an bug bite or an allergy.  As soon as I looked at his leg, I knew he had been bitten by a spider. He had a softball sized red, swollen, hot spot on his leg.  Thank God that he mentioned it to me (as we told all of the kids to report anomalies) and thank God that we are working at a hospital.  Within 15 minutes he was treated and on his way to the nutrition center.  By mid afternoon, his leg looked much better.

The remainder of the team that stayed at the hospital worked diligently on their projects.  The laundry room now has completed plumbing and much of the wiring has been pulled and is in place.  The pharmacy group has been putting up walls all day, and they are getting close to ready for dry wall.  The church group had a few mishaps that you will have to ask about (especially regarding Jeff), but they are coming along nicely.  The ladies working at the church are scraping walls getting the classrooms ready to paint.  This group is working hard – everyone is doing their share.  Praise the Lord for that.

We are experiencing a few issues – diarrhea, constipation, scrapes, bruises, blisters and cuts, but everyone is responding well to treatment/instruction for care of the issues. 

Just like last night we had dinner, worship time and a time in the word in the evening.  I love hearing the kids talk about what they understand the scriptures to be saying as we make our way through the book of Romans.  I pray that as we continue our study they will grow in their passion for theology and for knowing God.  Paul does such a great job laying out the basics of the faith in this book. 

Following dinner – just like yesterday – some went and played soccer against/with the locals, while others stayed home and played games.  I love the fact that this group plays together as well as they work together.

We definitely need continued prayer for the small bumps and bruises, for the continuation of the projects, for the team to grow in their understanding of God and in their passion for missions.

Tomorrow’s plan is similar to today (minus the nutritional visit), but we have a special speaker after dinner.  One of the ladies here, Jami they call her, is going to give her testimony.  I am looking forward to hearing it as both Nico and Phil say that it is a miracle that she is alive.  I pray that God uses her testimony to impact the lives of the leaders and the teens – and myself as well.

Enough for tonight – it is almost 10:30, and I need to get to bed – it has been a long day, and my muscles need a break.