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.!

SUNDAY, 7/29/12 – Taking in the beauty of Guatemala

An amazing first day in Guatemala!  We started the trip quickly realizing the value of arriving on a Saturday; the next full day being Sunday, the day of rest.  Therefore, instead of going to a village to serve other’s physical and spiritual needs, we found God serving our own spirits and each other’s with amazing fellowships, deep, relating conversations, and trust strengthening amongst the team as single cohesive unit, especially in our foreign environment (we had plenty of team building in GA before coming, but now we’re here and our spirits, attitude and comfort in God is put to the test).  As the day progressed, we concluded undeniably there are no accidents and that God designed this team with His perfect purpose.

Not to rehash Patrick’s summary, which I just noticed was there….   : - )  , but a couple notes from a different perspective (as he’s been here four times in the last five years and I was only here once four years ago) on attending church here; the church location, message, music and agenda was amazing!  Four years back, I attended church in an InterContinental Hotels seminar room located in the Guatemala City.  Now, four years later, the original message is performed and recorded at their own church now in Guatemala city and that video message is played each Sunday in eight other satellite churches around Guatemala (with more satelites to come).  The location we enjoyed worship at was a conference room in a four star hotel resort in Antigua (ironically, the resort was converted from a 16^th century Catholic monastery (which we toured later).  It was so awesome to see how the ministry in Guatemala is exploding through their NorthPoint like model of getting a single message out to multiple other locations and wrap around it the attractiveness of that satellite church location’s live worship music, pastor interaction and leadership, and fellowshipping with some amazing, loving brothers and sisters.   You could really see how purpose and technology will exponentially deliver God’s word to the people around this wonderful country.

Later, after fueling up over an awesome mountain top brunch, we burnt plenty of energy playing with the kids at the orphanage.  Patrick said it all.  It was just a huge blessing to give and receive so much love there.  Praise God!  What a day! 

Sunday

Today, we got up early and all excited about our first full day in Guatemala.  We ate breakfast and left at 7 am for church in Antigua.  It was a wonderful service about sharing the gospel.  It re-enforced the message that making a difference in one person's life can have a chain affect.  The service ended with a video with pictures to the Chris Tomlin's song, God of this City.  Awesome!

We had lunch on the mountainside.  Everybody enjoyed the food and the view.  The fellowship was was inspiring.  People were sharing parts of their lives with one another.  We got some pictures before we left.

We headed to the orphanage.  We spent about 3-4 hours there.  We arrived while most of the kids and staff were napping.  Then the kids started to trickle out.  The two year olds were so cute.  We got hugs and smiles all around.  These kids really know how to pour out the love of Jesus on you.  It melts your heart.  We had fun kicking the soccer ball around, playing with toy cars, and running around with the kids.  The kids enjoyed taking our cameras and taking and viewing their pictures.  We got to love on the kids and vice versa.  It's such a blessing.

Afterwards, we headed back to the mission house for some downtime.  [OK, I took a short Sunday nap.]  Some of the ladies made breakfast casseroles for Monday morning.  The house smelled good...mmm.  Then we ordered out for pizza.  It was good. 

Hermann and Linda came over to join our team for conversation during dinner.  Afterwards, Hermann spoke on healing.  We prayed for some of hour team members that needed healing.  As the Spirit led, one person after another was getting into the "hot seat" for prayer.  It was an awesome night!  All glory to God!  Praise Jesus!!

Everyone has taken showers now and is tucked into bed.  We have worship and devotional in the morning at 7 am before we head to the 1st clinic in Chimaltenango.  We are so looking forward to meeting the rest of the Guatemala team that will be joining us for the week.  We know that we will see some new faces and some family that we have not seen since last year.  Lots of hugs tomorrow morning.

God bless you all!  We love you!!

We have arrived!  Our team made it to the Mission House and we were received with open arms and a warm welcome, Guatemalan style. Thank you for your prayers for travel mercies and safety!      :-)  

As we journeyed through our first day not certain of what to expect, it became increasingly evident how God designed our team with His perfect combination of personalities, abilities, experiences and knowledge.  And, most important, the common thread that made it all gel so well together is that passion to be a servant, through love, for His kingdom.   This all shined through as we fifteen navigated our way through the shuttles, food courts, airports, and customs. 

Upon arriving, our long line of supply bins on carts (containing medical/dental/optometry supplies, children’s ministry items, bibles and gifts) were greeted by the Mission house doctors and staff to bring us to our home base for the week, via a school bus.  That was fun!  Since we got here pretty early, we were able to fully enjoy the entire day to divvy up the supplies, stock the food for the week, unpack, fellowship with one another and the Medical Mission Team, tour the beautiful new grounds of our temporary home (which doubled in size just one year prior, after 20 years of growth), and enjoy an incredible meal prepared by Brenda, our awesome culinary chef.

Yes, thank you Jesus for the gift to be here!  As mentioned throughout our group prayers today, we praise you for the honor of being here, as a unified body, to go forward and be the light and salt of the earth in your name.  May we hope to be able to give to the beautiful people of Guatemala as many blessings as you are already giving us.  

Love and thanks,

     

We are here in Guatemala!!

We made it safely. We had an early morning today. We met at the airport at 7 am. We got 34 pieces of luggage, 15 back packs, and an assortment of carry bags onto the plane. The plane was full. Praise God we were allowed to bring it all. And it all got here. We got to ride a school bus to the mission compound. That was cool. We had McDonalds for lunch at the house. We were hungry. It's so good to see our Guatemala family again! Hermann welcomed us and gave us a briefing. Then it was divide and conquer time. Some went grocery shopping, some stayed to repack the supplies. We had great teamwork today! We got it done and had some time for fellowship. Dinner is cooking and it smells good. Gotta go! Thank you for your love, support, and prayers! All for the glory of God!!

One more day until we go!

It's finally here.  The day before.  Time to get all the last minute preparations done before we leave.

Over the last month, we have purchased flip flops, packed supplies, had communion together, and been anointed & commissioned.  We've been blessed with dental supply donations and financial resources from hundreds of supporters.  Going on this trip with all these blessings to share with the people of Guatemala would not be possible if it was not for our supporters.  Know that we have prayed for you often and we will continue to do so.  Thank you!

Please continue to follow the blog while we are in Guatemala.  We hope to post updates often and with pictures!

Lots to do today!  Lots of excitement that can't be contained.  Everyone I meet will probably know I am going to Guatemala to do God's work.

Thank you Jesus!  We love You!