RANDOM MOMENTS

 A few more pics of random things from the past week or so...

We had a two day mini-retreat with 4 or our interns at Las Buenas Nuevas in Panajachel.

Intern retreat at Panajachel

We seem to get a lot of former interns that come back to visit! Allison, an intern from 2010, came back for a visit and had dinner with us and two of this years interns, Alex and CJ. We had a fun evening, but whenever I try to have a serious discussion....

You try to have a serious moment...

Sometimes Sandi even has trouble being serious...

was it something I said?

Really, trying to be serious...

 We continue to have youth activities on Saturdays and had Alex and CJ join in.

Here we played some fútbol even though it rained a little...wet is okay when it's this much fun!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

I even scored a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

although not in this picture,

That is CJ's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL.

The end of another fun afternoon!

A wet, but happy little group this Saturday!

Intern Retreat

 So, haven't posted in a while, but not because we haven't been doing anything, more because we're always doing something! We have been busy with our interns, mostly with Alex and CJ in at the Casita. We have spent a lot of time with them, Ellie has been sick, but is now getting well. Then Alex got sick. Funny how that works, several of us got a little cold, flu like thing from little Ellie.

We have had the girls home with us most week-ends and it's been fun. We've also had other guests, overlapping so the house has been busy! Sundays are always a treat as we take kids to church with us, and never really know how many we might have until we pick them up. Sometimes they come home with us after church for the afternoon also. Like Father's day...we had a house full ALL day...it was wonderful!

Always extra activities along with our time for the interns.

We also just had a mini-retreat with four and a half of our interns. We took Marissa, Lauren, CJ, Alex and Ellie to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. Along with Oscar and myself, Sandi & Maria. 

Visit with the Foote's

Highlight of the trip was having lunch and visiting with Danny and Daphne Foote and their 5 kids.

The Foote's live in Santiago, Atitlan, which is across the lake. We rented a boat, took a ride across the lake to the Foote's own dock! 

Alex and Ellie on the boat ride

 The Foote's had a great lunch ready for us, then we spent time hearing their story of their work in Santiago, and even learned a few words in Tz'utujil, the Mayan tongue spoken there,

Dinner and the all women Marimba band

Back in Panajachel, we had a dinner out and were entertained by an all female Marimba band. They were very good, and the food wasn't bad either. We spent some time worshiping back at our 'house' and then spent some time with the interns sharing experiences and frustrations, hard things etc. It was a really good time of knowing them all better and growing much closer as a group.

This is a very special group of young ladies.

These kids and more, with their families, will be at the outreach "Excursión Familiar"

I want to briefly share about an upcoming outreach we will be having. This coming Sunday, July 3rd, we will take two buses filled with families from zona 3, in the neighborhood right alongside the largest landfill dump in Central America, out of the city to "Senderos de Alux". This is a beautifil eco-park, on top of a mountain with trails, kids play areas, beautiful views of Guatemala City and fresh air! Many of these families have never seen anyplace like this! The purpose, however, is primarily for the men. Many children basically live in single parent homes becomes the men choose not to be involved. Many are drug users, or alcoholics, in gangs etc. Abuse in the homes is more common than not, both spouse abuse and child abuse. We will have messages for the men about the importance of being a good role model, etc, and the damage when they are not. There will be an evangelistic message for all, lunch, games for the kids and for the families, prizes, piñatas....a full day of fun!

Please pray for this event, that God would prepare and soften hearts for the Gospel that can change their lives!

EMERGE Summer Interns 2011

 Our EMERGE Summer Intern Program 2011 is under way!

We have 4 1/2 interns here now with another to arrive in just a few more days.

Lauren Courtney arrived two weeks ahead of the others to study Spanish in Antigua. Then, on May 25 we were to receive three more. Marissa Marrone, Brynne Mattson and Alex Chatfield with her 14 month old daughter, Ellie! I had scheduled three airport runs for that day, one in the morning, one afternoon, and one in the evening. However, due to tornadoes in the mid-west flights were canceled and or changed, so I made one airport run in the evening to get two girls, and one the next morning! They were all well with no problems, so that is all that really mattered.

Interns 2011 - Ellie, Alex, Marissa, Lauren & Brynne (l to r)

 All of the flight changes caused us to basically scrap our schedule for our four day orientation, and change it all on the fly! That is actually good news for me, cause I do random better than scheduled!

Some things are important, we spend a lot of time talking culture, safety and security (very important) normal living here, ministry expectations etc.

We also spend time seeing a little of Guatemala, and they even got some Spanish lessions.

Worship at Kairos House

We spent an evening leading a worship time at Casa Kairos, a compassion ministry sort of like a Ronald McDonald House, for children with cancer and their families.

Brynne trying to make tortillas like Susana's

 One of the best cultural lessons of course is FOOD! They got to eat Guatemalan food, and some even tried their hands at making tortillas!

Spanish class 

We had a certified Spanish teacher for two days of lessons.

Alex and Ellie cheering Barcelona to victory!

 One of the highlights (at least for me) was our Champions League Final party! We had 26 people over, our interns and some of our youth, to watch the final game, Barcelona vs Manchester United. Most all of us, were supporting Barcelona to the title with our team jerseys, even little Ellie!

Singing at church

The last day of orientation we visited a church near by. Unfortunately we could not attend our church because they were having an all day retreat we could not go to because of other commitments. Although we did get to go to our favorite taco stand for lunch!  

Now, the interns have finished their orientation and are serving in their ministries. 

Brynne is in Xela serving with the Scott's, fellow CAM missionaries.

Marissa and Lauren are serving at El Oasis in San Lucas.

Alex and Ellie are at Casita Benjamin in Guatemala City.

We have one more intern coming, Claire "CJ" Hall, will arrive June 8 and will also serve at Casita Benjamin.

Barcelona - Campeones

Okay, so what is maybe the only thing bigger in fútbol (soccer) than the World Cup Final?

Well, it is the final for the UEFA Champions League! 

This is a months long tournament of the top professional club teams of Europe. 

So, as far as talent goes, these teams are better than national teams would be.

And, as expected, Barcelona, from Spain, considered by many to not only be currently the best team in the world but perhaps the best of all time, was in the final against Manchester United from England.

Well, we can't let an opportunity for a fun day pass without doing something, so we hosted a

 "Champions Day Party".

What made it even better was that it happened to be right in the middle of our four day EMERGE Summer Intern Program Orientation time.

The Champions!

We made a great deal to buy enough Barcelona jerseys (our favorite team) for everyone, invited a bunch of our youth that love fútbol, and had a GREAT day!

Ready to begin!

 The house was decorated, the mood was festive and the game began!

Intensely focused

 Manchester put up a good battle for the first 5 - 10 minutes, then Barcelona took control.

General admission section

 There were only two or three traitors (Non Barsa fans) out of an announced crowd of 26 people! And, they were pretty good sports after getting beat 3-1 in a game not that close. 

During the game we had pizza, and after the game cake as we celebrated a couple of birthdays.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching a movie with the youth.

It was fun for our interns to see the passion for fútbol, even in the younger kids.

Evelyn with our youngest intern, Ellie!

And, of course, even our youngest intern is a die-hard Barsa fan! I think she clapped the loudest when Barcelona won the game!

Intern - Tim Sloma - aka - Tim from Maine!

Many people wonder "just what do interns do with Mike & Sandi?"

Well, meet Tim Sloma, aka: Tim from Maine, or aka: Single Tim from Maine! or aka: Tim the bug man.

Tim is from Maine, where there were sub-freezing temps and snow when he left (and also when he returned).
Interns do many different things with us. Some serve in specific ministries etc. Some just want to learn what being a missionary is.

It can be very hard to sum up what we do, so Tim's purpose for coming was mainly to just do what we do on a regular basis, to see just what everyday life is like for a missionary here. He wanted to help where ever needed and just be a part of what we do.

Tim from Maine

 What Tim discovered over 5 weeks with us is that it can be hard to define what we do and put it all into words. He learned that it is very hard to quantify or measure what we do. We don't do numbers well, but what we do do is make relationships. Tim learned a lot about time running differently here. Time is to be spent with people, and he did lots of that. When I asked Tim at the end of his time here, what was something here that he hadn't expected before he came. He said, "I didn't expect to spend so much time with kids and youth. But...I loved it!"

Painting buckets for water filters with youth group

 Tim also brought 28 water filters with him to be given out to families in need. So shortly after he arrived we bought buckets and had an afternoon painting buckets with many of our youth.

Giving away clothes at Casita Benjamín

 Tim helped us with a big clothes give-away at Casita Benjamin in partnership with Abrazando mi Guatemala, a local ministry we assist. We were able to give away a LOT of clothes to poor families that live in the neighborhood around the dump. While the adults were picking out clothes the kids were having a fun time with organized games!

Team from St. Andrew Presbyterian church, Denton, TX

 Tim helped us prepare for a team from St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Denton, TX. 

He then joined in as part of the team for 10 days as we worked at a school in Puerto San José for 3 days before returning to the capital to work at Las Aldeas children's home.

Ferry to visit a small rural church

 While in Puerto San José he joined me and a couple others for a day visiting 8 daughter churches and giving out water filters. He learned a lot of the challenges facing these small rural churches.

Providing water filters to another church

 Each church we visited we were able to provide several water filters, one for the church, and some for the families with greatest need in each church. 

These were important visits because they laid groundwork for building relationships with these churches for future partnership in spreading the Gospel.

Mayan ruins at Iximché

 Tim also got to see many different things in Guatemala. He saw more Mango trees than most people will ever see! He also saw and learned more of the Mayan culture that is the root of Guatemala.

Lago de Atitlán

 He also visited what is perhaps the most beautiful lake in the world! 

Tim's pet "Cuchillo"

 Tim also has a strange attraction to bugs. He collected several different things and kept them alive as pets!

He had a scorpion he named Cuchillo (knife in Spanish), 2 cucarachas, a good sized spider etc.

Sandi told him several times "Tim, our house is NOT a zoo!"

He finally embalmed them in alcohol to take home with him (after losing a spider and cucaracha trying to get them into the alcohol...finally catching them again before Sandi found out)

playing with kids...it's what we do!

 Did I mention we spent a lot of time with kids?

Actually doing some work! well, watching Mike work.

 We did finally try to get some actual, measurable work done...fixing drains still plugged since Volcán Pacaya blew and cyclone Agatha hit last year. 

Well, Tim watched...okay, he did help some too, although I still haven't finished due to many activities etc to do with kids and youth!

Taking youth group bowling

 He helped me take a group of 21 youth bowling, many of them for the very first time!

Making mariposas with youth group

 Tim learned so many different things on this internship. He now knows how to make mariposas (butterflies) out of coffee filters and pipe cleaners!

Celebrating Maria's cumpleaños

 Tim helped celebrate a couple birthdays while here, one in Las Aldeas for one of our youth, and another for our daughter Maria!

Buying a hand crafted box after providing a water filter to this man for his family

 We also visited the neighborhood by the largest landfill dump in Central America to give water filters to some very needy families. We gave one to a gentleman that has a very small one room woodworking business. After we gave him a filter for he and his family to use, he showed us some of his handiwork. Tim even bought a small hand carved wood box from him!

Any wonder he didn't want to leave?

Tim also got to know many of the young people we work with, many of which happen to be girls. Tim seemed to really enjoy the relationship building part of our ministry! Just kidding!

Several of these girls are part of our youth group, and go to church with us etc. so Tim got to know them a little bit. This foto is saying goodbye before he left for the USA. 

So, Tim...miss us?

What a blessing having Tim here was for us, and a big encouragement to know that God is raising people up to do great things for His Kingdom.

Thank you Tim from Maine!

Getting robbed...what a Blessing!

So, I want to share a HUGE praise with you all!

Won't sound like it at first...but, it still astounds me!

Tuesday morning our car was broken into and we lost a lot.

In the previous post you can read about the team we just had here from St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Denton, TX. 

The team left Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning I went to the gym to swim (for my back, Drs. orders). While in the gym someone broke into our car and stole lots. Tore the dash console open to steal the radio. I left my cel phone and my wallet in the car, because the parking lot is guarded and there is nowhere secure in the locker room. Anyway, I had an extra large amount of cash because I need to pay the remaining bills for the team that just left. So, they stole the stereo, my cel phone, and lots of money. BUT...PRAISE GOD, AND BIG. They took the time to go through my wallet. Think about this. You're a thief stealing things from a car in a guarded parking lot with people coming and going at about 8:30AM. You want to get stuff and go as fast as possible...right? You find a small wallet, what do you do? Well, I would put it in my pocket and go....later, in a safe place, I would go through it and throw away what I don't want.

My license

Okay, well, whoever did this, made a conscience decision, I believe it was Spirit led, Susana is sure it was angels, but I had money folded up in my wallet between cards etc. They removed all the cash, but they left, my driver license, my cedula (national ID, hard to get and replace) my tarjeta de circulación (proof of ownership for the car you must have at all times) my credit card and debit card!
You have no idea how much trouble, time and money it would take to replace those things. All told we probably lost around $500 including phone, stereo, cash and fixing the door.

Cover of my Cédula

So, I have replaced the phone and put the dash console back together (they took it apart carefully, not breaking anything!) and fixed the door lock which they forced with a screwdriver.

I am sooooo thankful this didn't happen while the team was here.

I am sooooo thankful for God's providence in this. There just is no other explanation for finding my things. Even the pictures of my kids were replaced in my wallet!

We are so blessed, we lost a few things,  but that's all they were...cash, radio, phone...

we were spared the tremendous stress, time and cost of having to replace IDs and other necessary things.

God is good...ALL THE TIME!

Equipo San Andrés es lo mejor!

Some of our FAVORITE people came to serve with us from St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Denton, TX March 13 - 21. I'm sure some of you are wondering why they are some of our favorites.....well, for starters, they brought me a supply of red licorice and Root Beer!

This was the 4th consecutive year we have hosted a team from St. Andrew for Spring Break. This years trip was full of many different experiences for the team.

We started the first morning by taking them to Puerto San José on the Pacific coast...yes, we visited the beach!

Equipo San Andrés

 In Puerto San José we worked at Colegio Evangélico Génesis, a school connected to the CAM church in San José. The colegio has 220 students and is working on completing a 3rd floor.

The students loved watching the gringos work!

 We poured concrete columns, demo'd some walls, plastered a lot of walls etc. We also put chain link fence around the perimeter of the roof area which also serves as a small fútbol field!

The team also were the program for the Tuesday night children's program at the church, with games, story, crafts and songs.

Plastering walls at the colegio

While we were in San José I had the privilege to take 3 of the team with myself and Rony Montepeque, the director of the colegio, to visit some of the 8 daughter church's of the CAM church.

Giving filters to Iglesia Monte Sion

 We met some pastors and elders of the churches, and heard some of their successes and challenges.

We also gave out several water filters at each church, for the church to use and also to give to the families with the greatest needs.

Giving filters to another baby church  

 All told, we gave out 20 filters throughout the day. And it was a full day...when we left we were told it would be about a two to three hour tour. Remember, Gilligan was told the same thing! Well we ended up being gone all day!

Taking a ferry to visit another remote church plant

 But, it was a GREAT day! We took a small ferry to cross a river to visit a small remote church. The ferry had many gaps and holes in the floor, with the water just a couple of inches below, but it was fine.

We gave out more filters at this church

 We also saw more Mango trees than most people see in a lifetime! At this church, we ate yellow Mangos picked from the tree, drank and ate Coco picked from the tree, ate Oranges and green Mangos with Limones picked from the tree. (Did you know they have at least 9 different types of Mangos?) We also saw Papaya and Almond trees on the church property. So...guess it was a lot like Gilligan!

New swings at Las Aldeas

 After three days in San José we returned to Guatemala City. We then worked two days at Las Aldeas, painting the inside of houses and also repaired play equipment and provided new swings. There were afternoon activities with all the kids after they returned from school.

Breakfast with the Tia's

 One of the high-lites for me was being able to do something special for the Tia's. The women who are in charge of the houses and 115+ children that live there. Their job is one of little thanks and recognition, the children always getting the attention. But I have witnessed the love and sacrifice given these children that mean so much to me, and wanted them to have a special day. So, with a few of the girls from St. Andrew, we took all the Tia's out to breakfast, then returned and the gals had a short program to encourage and thank them. I was able to explain our ministry to the many new Tia's also. 

The Tia's with their new aprons

 Then, the Tia's all received wonderful gift bags the team brought for them, and each received a beautiful apron made by Jan Lewis.

Lago de Atitlán

 There also has to be some 'cultural' experience so we took a day and visited the Mayan ruins at Iximché on our way to beautiful Lake Atitlán. Makes a long day to do all that but it was a wonderful day!

Singing at Iglesia Heme Aquí Señor

 Sunday we attended the church Sandi and I have been attending the past month+ and really enjoy. It is Iglesia Heme Aquí Señor.

The women of the team sang four songs for the church after an hour+ of worship with the church worship team.

Brandon preaching

 Then, Pastor Brandon was given the opportunity to give the message through a translator. For a first time with a translator Brandon did GREAT!

TACOS!

 Then, after 3 hours at church the team deserved....TACOS!

Visiting Casita Benjamín

Monday morning before heading to the airport we visited Casita Benjamín, where a team from St. Andrew had worked two years ago. We sang several songs with the kids, then the children sang some songs for us! 

What the team doesn't always get see are the benefits we receive after they return home. Their service at Las Aldeas last year opened many new doors for me there. And their service this years is going to do the same. They helped us start a new partnership with ministry in Puerto San José. Their return to Las Aldeas and the activities and program for the Tia's will for sure grow our youth ministry there.

THANK YOU ST. ANDREW!

You are a tremendous blessing for us, you will be rewarded in heaven for your love and sacrifice.

We Love You!