Guatemala 2014 trip starts tomorrow!
We have 19 people going down this time and we are excited!
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Guatemala mission team.

Good Morning,
Yesterday was so busy, so here is a recap of our last day here in Guatemala. Joel-our missions coordinator, took us to Antigua. It's a beautiful little town about an hour from where we are staying. We drove up to a spot that overlooks the town. The view is beautiful with a huge cross there above the town. There is so much history here, and I'm so thankful to Joel for taking the time to share with us. The huge volcano is right behind this town and was just stunning to look at. We then drove back to the town to visit the market where we all did a little shopping. This was quite the experience! Joel took us to lunch after we finished up our shopping at a place called The Funky Monkey. The food was delicious, and the nachos were HUGE! The guys packed some up and took it with them to the dump. It was a wonderful day to spend together as a group.
We returned to Dorie's and some of the guys went back to the dump. Hope Renewed is starting a new carpentry program there in the Community Center so they can teach the men who live in the dump skills in woodwork so they can get jobs. They decided to take the lead carpenter from this program to shop for some new tools and supplies to get this program going. We hear he was very excited and so thankful.
Since yesterday was the last day here we had a big dinner with the kids. Joel ordered in Pollo Compero (KFC) and we all ate together outside. It was beautiful to hear these little children give thanks and sing their table prayer. After dinner the children all ran back onto the playscape. It was dark out and they were all in their pajamas. We handed out glow sticks and they loved it. We chased them around and played with them until it was time for them to go to bed. The older girls made us thank you cards and we all got some big hugs before we called it a night.

Well, here we are at the end of the trip! It's amazing to think about what was done this week, I feel like we were able to fit so much into our time here. Yesterday was a bittersweet day for all of us. We all enjoyed our time here and can't wait to return to share more with all of you. Thank you for your support and prayers this week.

(Katie)

Good evening!
Well, we had two amazing days! Yesterday, we started off by having some of us have devotions with the special mothers and some of us watching the children.  The older kids (5-13 years old) sang songs for us and recited Bible verses for us with such pride. After that hour, the whole team went to the backyard to help lift the roofs onto the playscape towers.  A short while later, half the team left for the dump to work and play with the kids and half stayed here to finish the last major stages of the playscape.  We brought Pollo Compero (KFC) to the kids in the dump! They were soooo excited! Each child attending the preschool in the community center (which looks amazing by the way) got their own piece. Those smiles were a mile wide! We got lots of hugs :). After lunch we went back to Dories to take the kids on an outing. We ended up taking them to a place that has go karts and bouncy houses and bumper boats. It was soooo fun! The picutures of our team flying around the track with the Dorie's kids are great! What an awesome afternoon!
  Today, we started off by all heading to the National Cemetary of Guatemala City. It was amazing. The cemetary sits on the edge of the dump, so we got to view the entire dump and all its surrounding communities from the outer rim. It was a little different walking around the cemetary with hundreds of black vultures flying overhead.  Joel (mission coordinator) gave us the history of Guatemala, it was extremely interesting. After the cemetary, we headed to the dump to finish up there and then headed back to Dorie's to put the finishing touches on the playscape. At around four o'clock the kids got the chance to go play on the playscape! I can't tell you how happy they were!!!  We will never forget the smiles on those kids faces!
   Tomorrow we're off to Antigua and then we're having a pizza party with the kids. Should be another amazing day!  Thanks for all the prayers!
Suzanne

Good Evening,
The team had another great day today! After experiencing Guatemala's rainy season the first few days, we could not have asked for better weather! We hear that we had prayers coming from Hartland for this and we are so thankful.

Shane started the day by making us all a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs, which was followed by our morning devotions. Today was a little different in that we switched places with the special moms for a bit. They came here for devotions and coffee. During this we went and cared for the children. The special mothers here are amazing and it was nice that they got to have this time, we had little gift bags full of chocolates waiting for them. It was so nice having the time with the children this morning. Roger took out the guitar and played some songs for the little ones and they loved it. Once the special mothers returned it was right to work for us. Some of us stayed here at Dorie's to continue the work on the playscape while others went back to the dump. The project here at Dorie's is going wonderfully! The children are so excited and we often catch them watching out the windows. They joined the team in the back today and gave them all beautiful cards. They got a close look at what was starting to take form in their backyard and they were so excited. Lots of cheering, smiles, and laughter. We also had a wonderful day at the dump. The guys got right to work on the building project and some of us just played with the kids for a few hours. All throughout the day little ones came and joined us for coloring, beading, and LOTS of nail painting. About lunch time the men stayed at the dump and we came back here so we could spend some time with the older girls at Dories. What a wonderful group of girls, they are so sweet! We spent an afternoon of nail painting and bracelet making with them.

Our day came to a close when we all met back here at the house for dinner and our daily wrap up. Our missions coordinator, Joel, has us ALL share our highlight of the day and our challenge. It's a nice time to get each other's perspective on the day and share about the different projects that are going on. Everyone seemed to have so many highlights about today and not too many challenges. It really was a wonderful day! It's so amazing to see God's hands at work down here and just letting him use us in whatever way he wants. We thank you for all your prayers and support, we can feel it!

~Katie

Wonderful Start

Good evening,
Sorry about not posting earlier, it was a little tricky getting onto the blog this time.
We have had an incredible first two days (as always). We started the day yesterday by attending church with the kids from Dorie's. We all piled into the van (kids on our laps) and headed off!  The church "La Vida Real,"was enormous! The pastor spoke about how God is God and we are not. Even though we only got bits and pieces of the message, it was wonderful to worship with the people of Guatemala. After church we brought the kids to the park. Our team had a ball playing with kid, and some instant bonds were formed. The kids are so affecionate, they grabbed our hands and gave us hugs so freely. After the park we headed off to the Maria Theresa Ghetto to deliver some food baskets to some VERY needy families. All of us were particularly impacted by the pastor in the ghetto. He thanked us for the food baskets but then proceded to talk to us about his faith. His faith was overflowing. He spoke about always living in the light of eternit, and to continually thank God for everything. He said that his humble home is just a temporary place, but we will be in Heaven together. We were all thankful that we will be spending eternity with him. During devotions that night, we were all discussing the pastor and how remarkable his faith was. Someone said "if we woke up tomorrow morning with only the things we thanked God for the day before, what would we have?" That made a huge impact. Something to think about.
     On Monday, half of us went to the dump with Ashley to work on the community center, and half stayed back at Dories to begin the playscape. Both work projects got a great start! The community center has new stairs and tomorrow the a new dividing wall and new doors will be added. All three shells of the playscape towers are up and the kids are SO excited! They can't wait to play in their new backyard. Fatigue is setting in today, so we are all turning in early. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow!
 

Going back again!

Trip number four is here! Tomorrow we leave for Guatemala again. We will be working in the Guatemala City dump, and building a new outdoor playset for the kids at Dorie's Promise! We are so excited to see what God has in store for us on this trip. Please keep our team in prayer!

The End Arrives

Well, our final day in Guatemala has come and gone, and Ellie and I both just said we didn't really feel like blogging tonight. It's been a busy day, a tiring one, and for me at least, very emotional, and I frankly just don't feel like crying again. But since I know so many people at home are looking at this, I decided to give some short highlights of the day.

The majority of the guys [and Ellie] went to the Dump and the Limonada. In the dump, they got the framing for the walls of the community center done, which was no small task. In the Limonada, they tore a roof off of a building in preparation for a new one to be built.

At Dorie's, Lindsay and Mark finished painting the murals on the wall of the yellow room, and Ron and Jeff built the outside wall of the storage room in the house we are staying in. I had my last ice cream party with the 2 and 3 year olds, and we all had lots of fun!

After lunch, Jeff and I went with Abel to the first ghetto, Maria Theresa, where we had church on Sunday. There were two houses that Desi has on her list for groups to help, and she asked Jeff if he would look at them and make lists of tools and supplies that groups would need to bring. The first house we went to was Jaime's mom's house, the little girl with the huge tumor on her back. Essentially, they want to move the entire house back about 6 feet, and build a hige stone wall in front of it. It's a huge job! The other house, along with two unscheduled stops , are not quite as big, but all pose a big challenge, since you have to walk down countless steps and cement ramps to get anywhere. I seriously lost count at 85 steps and 5 20 yard ramps, and that wasn't even halfway down. I took tons of pictures, so Desi can send them along to future groups.

After we climbed our way out of Maria Theresa and downed big bottles of water, we stopped at a store to buy a big expandable gate for the baby house. I'm really happy about this, because it will allow the Mamas to keep the babies and new walkers confined in the living room and play room, and still open the front door to get some air. The current system involves strategic placing of Alex's wheelchair and a bassinet, which a couple of the smart ones have figured out has wheels. It's a constant battle to keep them away from the stairs, the kitchen, bathroom [toilets are always such a draw for little ones!], and the front door. We ende up getting back too late for us to install, but Sammy will take care of it for us, and Desi will send pictures!

Since it was less than an hour until Abel had to pick up the Dump crew, he asked if we minded just going there. I hadn't been there before, and Jeff wanted to see how they'd done, so we thought it was a good idea. Until I looked at my feet. In my hurry to leave after lunch, I had forgotten to put my sneakers on, and was still wearing flip flops. It was a small concern in the ghetto, on the crazy steps, but the ghetto is so clean, the only thing I worried about was slipping. Jeff grinned at me and told me to watch where I stepped, and we were off.

The building looks great, and the party was about to start! The people of the community were so happy and thankful for our help, they wanted to have the first church service in the "building" with us, and turned it into a party, complete with clown. I can't even find words to describe the silliness. Suffice it to say, Ellie, my dad, Joe, and Thomas competed in a form of musical chairs, Evan, Kevin, Ellie, and I had to dance with a two foot stuffed lobster, and Joe, David, and Shane got blindfolded and dizzied, and had to smash a pinata almost as tall as me, hung from a wire with a padlock to keep anyone from running off with it. I got to meet so many of the kids and people I'd been hearing about all week, and the dump itself is beyond words. I have never, ever seen anything like it, and I don't think I can adequately describe it. But when we were sitting there with a woman from the dump praying, asking God to bless US and OUR families, to give us safe travels and to bring us back, even if we didn't build anything, I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. When it was time to go, they had carne tostadas for us. They are so generous, some of them ran out and bought cokes for all of us, too. We couldn't eat the tostadas, but Abel pulled over on the side of the road and we handed them to some homeless people, who were so happy.

Tonight we had a few of the kids who had had special things sent from home for them come up to the house. Silvia LOVED her yellow dresses and Barbie, and Lester would not let go of his picture of Noah and Eli. It was still in his hand when he went to bed! Ana loved her backpack and doll from my Ana, and Jose just liked being held and passed around. When I was eating dinner, Desi came into the dining room with Jose wrapped in a big blanket, and said, "He's been crying all afternoon. I think he missed you. When I went in there just now, the Mama asked where the American was, to take Jose, so I figured I'd bring him to you!" He stopped crying right away, and was smiling at me and Kevin, and everyone else who held him, until he finally fell asleep in my arms. I brought him down and put him to bed, and cried for a few minutes.

Then I decided a visit to Casa 6 would cheer me up. Only the oldest kids were awake, and Ana and Silvia and Nayeli were sharing their gifts with the rest of the girls, painting fingernails, putting barrettes in hair and playing with toys, so Jonatan and Brayan pulled me into the living room. I sat on the couch with Jonatan, who promptly laid down across my lap, watching Nickelodeon in Spanish. Amelia came to sit with me, too, and sang Si, Christo me ama [Jesus Loves Me] with me for a while. After a while, I figured I'd better go pack, so I told the kids adios. Jonatan [age 10] said, "hasta manyana?" and I said no, that I was going on a plane to America tomorrow. And then he cried. Oh, boy, how hard it was to leave there. I got lots of hugs and kisses, and promised to come back, and made my way up the hill.

So here I am, tears in my eyes and another lump in my throat, preparing to leave again. I cannot WAIT to hug my own kids, sleep in my own bed, and not have to struggle to find every word I speak. I know I'll be answering "si" for the next two weeks, and telling my kids to vamanos, and come aqui. I DON"T want to see how much snow is in my yard, and I really am not looking forward to wearing shoes again. But mostly, I don't want to leave these kids, who have a part of my heart. So everyone, gear up, because the next trip is coming. Soon. Is God calling you to come with us?