THURSDAY and FRIDAY - the final days in Guatemala   :- (

Thursday was a beautiful day that got even better as we drove our convoy deep into the mountains towards a very remote village. This village was incredibly scenic and the people were wonderful.  It was also a unique village compared to the previous three, in that there was no church or school to use as our medical camp.  Instead, we used someone’s home and it was a nice home for a Guatemalan village (by this I mean it had electricity, a glass window and tile flooring).  This was a neat community that was heavily agricultural; corn, beans, flowers, strawberries, and other plants everywhere.  We particularly enjoyed lunch, which was a delicious veggie, pork, broth stew with tostadas.  It was next to the livestock where we played with the roosters and toured the cornfields.  Also, we went on a prayer walk where one of our missionaries walked around to bind evil presence and bless the villagers. 

We met some wonderful people that day and definitely equipped the locals with a better understanding of Jesus and what living a life for Him can mean in their lives.  Another huge blessing is the dental equipment with generator was working today, so the dentist was able to actually do preventive treatment instead of only being able to pull out teeth.  The only sad part of the day was knowing it was our final clinic.  Or at least we thought…..
Which leads us to Friday, 8/3/12.  Today was our last official day with the Guatemalan team before we head home tomorrow.  We had our last devotional of the week led by our very own Doug, and included the dentist, Guisela, sharing her testimony.  The rest of the day included a team building activity zip lining down a mountainside with our medical mission team.  One zip line was around 750 feet long, 200 feet above the mountainside floor below, and the teenage interpreters certainly kept it entertaining with their youthful spirit.   

Afterwards, we enjoyed a lavish lunch at, none other than, McDonalds in Antigua.  But all kidding aside, it was great because they served fried chicken and had a beautiful courtyard overlooking the volcano.  Then we went to the market area to shop for trinkets and gifts for our generous supporters.  The ‘haggling’ was made easy in that our mission hosts brought us to the Christian owned shops that gave us the family discount of about half the price of the others.   Also, with reference to this not being a day to witness, that was not in God’s plan; near the end of the day, a team member was approached by a market vendor to trade one of their bracelets for an evangelizing bracelet (with symbols illustrating Jesus’ story).  This led to the opportunity to share the story to five people working in the market.  One person even got his wife on the phone to listen in.  We ended up leaving three of these bracelets with them, on the condition they go tell this story forward.  One person in particular, Daniel, was so fired up about learning Jesus’ story, he came with us to get more literature and we gave him a bible.  Yes, some amazing seeds were planted today and we weren’t even looking for the opportunity.

Well, we’re leaving tomorrow morning to re-enter the U.S.  It’s certainly more of a bitter than a sweet, considering how amazing of a trip this was.  Our thanks again to all of our wonderful supporters.  We, of course, could not have come down and been so successful in glorifying God’s kingdom without your prayers and financial support.  God bless you and hope to see you all soon!

Love,   GMMT 2012                 

WEDNESDAY, 8/1/12 –  Day three; serving in the clinics for the village of Cruz Quemada

We started our day off with a special treat; one of the doctors, Hector, led us in our morning devotional, citing some excellent insights in to how we can get exhausted and, only through the grace of God, can we overcome opposition.  The verses surrounding this were from the book of Isaiah 40:28-31;

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
This was beautifully explained by Hector where he talked about the life of the eagle – how when it reaches the age of 40 and its beak gets so long it cannot eat.  Also, the talons and feathers get so long it can’t grab or fly well enough to survive.  The eagle then has a choice to jump off the cliff and die, or it can persevere and bang its beak against a rock until it breaks off, and then pull the talons and feathers out with its new beak.  Once the eagle endures this suffering and surrender until it is healed, it is then a new creation and can survive another 30 years.  Hector related the life of the eagle to us.  How we reach a point where we realize we need Jesus in our hearts and, once accepted, we are a new creation having renewed strength.  Hector then pulled a U.S. quarter out of his pocket and pointed out the icon of the American eagle in our country.  He asked we think of Jesus whenever we see this and said a prayer for everyone in our country, thanking God for our sharing of love and prosperity, and asking we continue to be blessed.    

After devotional, we left for our third day of clinics.  When we arrived, we were delighted to pull up to a horseshoe shaped school ground with a basketball court size slab in the middle, and FILLED with beautiful children.  We set up the medical, dental and vision stations and while the adults and families were being treated, we played all kinds of games, including soccer, with the joyful, incredibly well-mannered children.  At the end of the night, we played all kinds of worship videos and sang together as a wonderfully united team.  We were celebrating because God really worked some miracles through us today.  We had amazing conversations, teachings and prayers at our clinics today with our Guatemalan guests.  Many individuals accepted Jesus today!  An especially exciting and rare moment was when a father, who rarely joined his family (wife and three children) at church on Sundays, accepted Jesus Christ.  And then, in a separate setting, his 12 year old daughter accepted Jesus as well!  This was an amazing moment and the miracle does not stop there; people that say the prayer to accept Jesus provide their contact information so that the local church can follow up to help them continue in their growing relationship with Jesus (i.e. bible study, community group involvement, how to disciple your family and others, etc.).  Praise God! 

MONDAY AND TUESDAY, 7/30 & 7/31/12  –  Physical and spiritual healings galore in Chimaltanango!

After a POWERFUL prayer warrior session Sunday night, led by our amazing Minister, Dr. Herman, we were spoiled to start our Monday morning with his incredible two hour devotional covering how and why we are called to go forward and shine God’s light.  Through testimonies, scripture, worship music, and powerpoints, we received 20 years of invaluable mission work wisdom and mentoring. 

We then loaded up the trucks with medical supplies, children’s ministry props, and bibles to give to those requesting them, and made our way to Chimaltanango.  It was about a 2 hour trip through beautiful mountainous roads.  Much of the scenery was lush mountains, including a live volcano, beautiful farming plots, and gorgeous partly cloudy blue skies.  Since we’re about 7K feet above sea level, the clouds are lower and it’s a cool, subtle difference.  We also drove through the city area, which was an interesting array of automotive repair shops, bars, children in private school uniforms, motorcycles zipping between lanes, and Tuc Tuc’s (three wheel taxi’s), etc.  We also noticed many of the homes off this main strip were tin sheds.  It weights heavy on the heart.

For Monday and Tuesday, we spent both days serving the Guatemalans in a large village – Monday in a church and Tuesday in a schoolhouse and square.  Both days, we were greeted with amazing open arms, including the town officials announcing our welcome via a speaker system.  It was very moving!  Each day, we opened up with prayer and then the people got in line to see the doctors, dentist, and the children joined the children’s ministry activities.

As an overview of the logistics, the doctors and dentist set up their treatment stations, they then have the prescriptions sent to the pharmacy tables (set up and ran by the support staff and our team members), and while the prescriptions await their medication, they come to meet our team members at counseling stations (with the accompany of an interpreter on staff). 

With all volunteer roles, we have one goal for being there, to shine God’s love on them.  By engaging in conversation, we seek to ask how we can pray for their physical illnesses, as well as understand if there are any faith based or relationship/family pains we can pray for.  Often, in those conversations we can learn what they know about Jesus, and what knowing Him can mean for their lives and families.  Of the 200 patients we saw in the last two days, there aren’t enough pages to summarize the joy, comfort, enlightenment, curiosity, tears of healing, forgiveness, love, appreciation, etc.  the Guatemalans’ experienced with us these last two days.

Praise God for speaking through us to these wonderful people.  Salvation occurred and seeds were planted for future growth in a relationship with Jesus!                

p.s. to Luke and Micah: mommy says she loves you and misses you! 

p.s.s. the same goes to all the loved ones following along with our journey!  Thank you for sharing this experience with us from the U.S.!