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!

As Much Fun As Pulling Teeth!

Hi. This is Sandi. I'm just so excited to share about the privilege I had to join a team from Minnesota last week to do some dental & eye clinics in many different villages in Huehuetenango. 

Sandi and team from Minnesota

I was invited by Edwin Martinez and Gail Davison and am so thankful for the invitation they offered me to join the team and be blessed.

Dr. Rick DDS, Nurse Sandi, Nurse Nancy & Dr. Jeff DDS 

We had two Dentists, an Eye Doctor and several talented nurses, painters and children's workers. We saw God working in many miraculous ways as we came into contact with hundreds of people.

Sandi giving parasite medicine

I had the privilege of passing out over 200 vials of Parasite medicine, and most of the people were very grateful (although several younger children really didn't appreciate it much.)

Space age stuff for these kids!

But one of my favorite experiences was witnessing an 8 year old boy see clearly for the very first time. The Dr. checked his eyes and said that he had MANY problems and didn't think that they would ever find the right prescription (out of the many pairs of used glasses they had brought)

Seeing clearly for the first time!

but they found the perfect prescription and I got to watch as they put them on him and he said, "I can see!" and looked all around in amazement at the beauty of the mountains and people and things that he had never in his life seen clearly before. Then, I looked at his mother, who put her hands up to her face and cried as she watched this miracle before her eyes. It was so, so touching.

Dr. Rick pulling more teeth

After, passing out all the medicine, I had the privilege of working with the Dentists and an OR nurse. Just putting on a pair of rubber gloves and working with the medical people brought joy to my heart and made me realize how much I missed working as a nurse. All I did was help clean instruments and hold down some children for extractions and hold the peoples hands to help them through, but I never realized how much joy that could bring to me. The Dentists (as well as the others) were so loving and caring, it was just a blessing to watch them work.

Church service in Aguacatán

During the week, we also attended 3 church services, a funeral (which was so sad but it was very impactfull to us all), a singing and evangelism time in a market place, painting in a school and 2 maps in the Huehue Guest house, and several kids meetings. We also, had the chance to give out 12 Water Filters in Agua Dulce. It was busy, busy, busy! The fellowship we shared through out the week was so awesome, and I am so, so thankful to God for allowing me to enjoy such a blessed week.

Fútbol is life!

I had a dream!

Okay, so I spend quite a bit of time at Las Aldeas.  Las Aldeas is the facility where most all of the youth we work with are from. There are 13 homes on site with a capacity of 10 - 12 kids per home. Currently on site there are about 110 kids. Another 35 - 40 teen-agers live off site in 4 other houses, 2 for boys and 2 for girls.

If you visit Las Aldeas you will see many things, but one constant is there will almost always be someone playing on the soccer field! It is part of the culture here, many schools, neighborhoods etc are literally built around a soccer field! If there is a semi-flat piece of land, the soccer field goes there, then the rest is figured out! Many times here you will hear the soccer field of a school, park, neighborhood etc referred to as "holy ground".

Look at the photo below, what do you see?

Soccer field at Las Aldeas

 That is the well used soccer field at Las Aldeas. You can't see in this photo, but the corner where the pic is taken actually goes uphill about 2 feet. There are lumps and dips. Rocks and dust. In the rainy season it is mud.....but they still play!

So..........my dream. For two years I have been praying for God to provide the means for this. I have shared with many people over the last two years my dream of being able to improve the soccer field, level it, put in good drainage etc. 

My bigger dream, which I have been praying for also.......I shared with fewer people, because it seems too GRANDE for here was:

ARTIFICIAL TURF!

This would be nice because you just can't keep grass there, they can't afford the maintenance so it dies in the dry season, and drowns in the rainy season.

Artificial Turf

So, last November the new Director of CAG, the school our daughter attends, told me he wanted to see the sports teams at CAG do more than just play games. As part of their spiritual development he wanted them to become involved in the community, so he asked if I could help.

I offered to have them, both men's and women's teams, come visit Las Aldeas and play soccer, and teach the kids also.

So we began in December taking the men's team once every other week, and also the women's team every other week, to get to know the kids and teach them soccer and play with them.

It is wonderful! 

Now, after their first visit to Las Aldeas, one of the students came to me and asked if it would be alright for them to do a service project there? He said they would like to help level and fix the field!

HELLO???? Been praying for that for two years!!!!

So, we began to discuss the possibility.

I never shared with them I had been praying for exactly this, just waited to see what God was going to do!

My dream!

A short time later, the Athletic Director for CAG called me to ask a question.

He told me that the students were very excited about the prospect of fixing the field and were looking for more help. One of the students was sharing about it with their parents, and somehow, 

WE HAVE BEEN OFFERED A DONATION OF USED ARTIFICIAL TURF ENOUGH FOR THE ENTIRE FIELD!!!!!!

God is really, really good! Las Aldeas has agreed to accept the donation, and we are hoping it will happen soon.

Please pray for this project. There is much that will need to be done to be able to use the turf, leveling, drains, and a good base. 

But the students of CAG are looking for others to assist, and we hope to begin soon!

So, believe in the power of praying for your dreams, God will provide!

Coloring Books for Kids!

If you've read our blog before you know of our strong connection with Casita Benjamín.

The Casita is a care center for kids that is about 2 blocks from the largest landfill dump in Central America. This is a very poor area, very dangerous and very dark spiritually neighborhood.

The Casita is a light for the neighborhood, giving a safe, healthy place for kids during the day, where they receive love, nourishment and instruction in life's basic lessons as well as learning about God's love for them.

Casita Benjamín

One of the things we do with the Casita is provide interns to help with the ministry there. We have been blessed to be able to provide interns for a good chunk of every year.

One of our interns Heidi Harriman served there the first time in 2008. She had a passion to return and help even more. So she did return and served for 8 months during 2010. 

One of Heidi's goals was to begin a sponsorship program for more children to be able to attend the Casita.

This is an ongoing effort, and one thing she has developed to draw attention is a:

COLORING BOOK

She is sending these coloring books to those interested for a suggested donation of $5.

Please click on this link to learn more, and for how to order.


Click on this link to see another great blog about Heidi's coloring books!

The Casita, kids and all of us thank you!

More blessings!

It is such a blessing to be able to help connect people and ministries together. One of the things I enjoy is being able to combine different ministries to make bigger and better! We do that a lot with our ministry to youth, connecting them to help serve in other areas.

I have mentioned before a ministry here "Abrazando mi Guatemala", that is a local ministry trying to reach out to poor communities by helping with basic needs. We have partnered with them to provide water filters etc. They contacted me shortly before Christmas with a request for some help. They had 1,000 lbs of good used clothing donated, and wanted to give it away to people living around the dump.

They don't really have any contacts there so asked me to help them.

The only thing was, it had to be done before the end of 2010, and...I am slightly busy in December.

But...........can't say no, right?

Setting up for the give away

 Well, you can't just walk around those neighborhoods carrying lots of clothes, so we arranged to use Casita Benjamin, and invite the people to come there. So, Dec 30 we announced we would be there at 3 PM with free clothes.

People arriving

 We arrived a few minutes late, and there were already about 50 people waiting!

We set things up, sorting out clothes by: mens, womens, childrens etc then let the people come on in!

Checking sizes

 In about 20 minutes almost everything was gone! It was actually very organized and was a huge blessing to see so many people happy to receive new things!

Pleased with her selections!

 It is a simple thing, but so very appreciated by the people, clothes here, while inexpensive by North American standards, are still expensive for people in these neighborhoods, and they really have very little. You will often see kids wearing the same shirts day after day.

Candy bags for all of the kids!

We also had some candy bags for all of the kids that came.

It really is such a blessing to be able to do these things, that while they are small things themselves, they really do transform lives here. God is doing great things here, and we are so blessed to be able to watch Him at work and to be asked to help in His work!

Please keep praying, there is always more to be done!

NOCHE BUENA 2010

Okay, we've now had a couple of days to rest, recover, recuperate, relax, whatever you want to call it, so it is about time to report how things went!

I am pleased to report that all went very well, the only non-positive comment would be that there were fewer people attending this year than in the past years. That was a tad disappointing in that we were expecting more from the requests and contacts we had. One remark was that we have had some cold afternoons and evenings and lots of kids are a little sick so many people stayed home.

However, for those that were there it was a wonderful time!

Our Team!

 We began in the morning with a couple of our youth coming to our house to help us get ALL of the stuff ready to go. The bus arrived about 1 PM at our house and we loaded everything on it. We then went and picked up all of our youth team and headed to Casita Benjamín.

Like last year, when we arrived, I just told the team, "First thing, we need to decorate" and let them go.

In hardly any time at they had the place looking FANTASTIC!

Decorating & getting ready!

 Once everything was ready, we dedicated our time to the Lord, for His glory, and then waited for the guests to arrive.

Dedicating our time to the Lord in prayer before guests arrive!

 The people began to arrive and our youth entertained the children while the adults enjoyed some Christmas music inside.

Playing with the children

 After giving some time for people to arrive, we began by having the children join the adults inside and our youth led all in singing many Christmas Carols.

Singing Christmas Carols

 After singing Carols, we sent the children back outside to the patio, where our youth had a program for them while the adults heard a message about the hope we only find in Christ.

The children saw a skit performed by our youth about Christmas being a birthday celebration for Jesus!

Then after the skit they had a presentation with pictures explaining the Christmas story.

Performing a skit for the children

 After the programs, our youth served all a tamale dinner, with ponche and Sandi's famous Christmas cookies for dessert! After it was cleaned up, gifts were passed out to all the children, and each family received a canasta de viveres (basket full of basic goods).

Then we cleaned up and loaded all back on the bus to head for Las Aldeas!

Having fun on the bus!

 One of the highlites each year for the youth has been the bus ride back! This year was no exception! They were pumped up and it was fun! We gave each one a diploma to commemorate their service, and also a gift as a thank you!

This year, we returned to Las Aldeas, the home where these kids all live. There are 13 houses on site, with around 120 kids total.  Christmas is a depressing, sad, boring time normally for them, so we wanted to help build some GOOD Christmas memories for them.

We served them all a tamale dinner just like at the Casita, and then we set up our projector and watched the movie Polar Express with them!

They loved it!

Serving Tamales again at Las Aldeas

We want to thank you all so much for your prayers and support for this wonderful evening. It is a couple of full months worth of work to prepare, but is a HUGE blessing for many, many people. 

We are blessed beyond imagination by being involved, and couldn't do it at all without all of you behind us.

A big thank you also to Wildwood Church, a major supporter for this year! May the Lord bless you for your help and multiply all you have done!

Las Galletas!

We have come to the end of a long day, and with still a few more things to get done this will not be a long post.

We had 20 of our youth at the house all day today, making decorations for tomorrow and also 800+ cookies.

We were hoping for about 1,000, but most were a little thicker than normal (whatever happened to quality control?) and I think quite a few were eaten!

Sonia showing the star she made!

 The youth worked pretty hard, they made lots of stars, out of construction paper, made paper chains (about 75 feet) and also some puffy ball thingys....don't know what they would be called.

Starting the cookies

 They also made lots and lots of cookies! And, just like every year, there was flour from one end of the house to the other! The good part of that is they are pretty good at cleaning up, sweeping and mopping most all of the house.

One of the fun things was that over half of our youth today were taking part in the Christmas activities for their first time! There were also 5 more that weren't here today that will be tomorrow!

Frosting some of the 800+ cookies!

 In another hour it will be the 24th here and that is SHOWTIME!

The kids are excited and I keep telling Sandi we can make it, only one more day, then we can take a break!

Lots of work tomorrow, it will be another long day! After we finish at Casita Benjamin, we will return to Las Aldeas, the home where all these kids live, and have a tamale dinner with about 120 there, then watch Polar Express with them.

The jóvenes that worked all day!

Please pray for tomorrow, that God will bless these youth for their service, and that many lives in Zona 3 could be forever changed through knowing the hope they can only find in Jesus Christ.

Christmas Carols at KAIROS

Tuesday evening we took about 20 of our youth to visit Casa Kairos and sing Christmas Carols with the people staying there.

Casa Kairos is a compassion ministry for children with cancer and their families. It is a refuge for them as they come to the city for treatments.

Some of our youth singing at Casa Kairos

 Our youth did a great job of singing out strongly, and serving cookies and a small gift to each one there.

We were also able to provide a little help by giving some beans, rice, oatmeal and salt to the house.

Some of the guests at Kairos

 It was the first 'practice' for our youth in front of people as we continue to prepare for Noche Buena.

Tomorrow we will be spending ALL day with our youth baking cookies. The plan is for 1,000 cookies for TWO Noche Buena celebrations!

First at Casita Benjamin, then after that is over we will return to Las Aldeas and have a Tamale dinner and watch a movie with about 120 more people!

The end of a sweet evening

It was a GREAT time at Casa Kairos, and we look forward with great expectations to see how the Lord will work over the next few days.

Still some things to be done, but as always, without really ever knowing HOW,                                  somehow God gets everything done and ready on time!

MAKING CANASTAS!

Hunger is a BIG problem in Guatemala. Government numbers say over 60 % of the population is under nourished, and as much as 40% may be malnourished. As always, there are many factors for this, but primarily it is due to poverty.

This year to compound the problem, we had so much rain and flooding that a large percentage of crops were lost, which raises the prices for basic food items, beyond the reach of many.

Some of the 60 canastas we made!

A tradition here in Guatemala at Christmas is to give "Canastas de Viveres", which are baskets filled with basic everyday goods.

We wanted to try to give canastas to the families that will attend our Noche Buena dinner in Zona 3. We decided several months ago to plan for it, and trust God to provide all that would be needed. 

And He did!

We received offerings from several individuals, and a large gift from Wildwood Church in Illinois!

This allowed us to plan for 60 canastas to give families in need this Christmas.

Each canasta contains: Rice, beans, oatmeal, Incaparina (a nourishing drink), sugar, salt, cooking oil, pasta, juice packets, soup packets, Maseca (to make tortillas) & coffee. There are also 4 Gospel tracts in each canasta.

Karla, Gaby & Carmen finishing some canastas

So, on Friday we had 16 of our youth come over for all day to help. First thing they did was wrap over 150 Christmas gifts for the children on Noche Buena. 

Several of the goods we had purchased in bulk, oatmeal, beans, pasta etc. So we had a few youth packaging those things into smaller bags.

After we had pizza for lunch, we set up an assembly line to put the baskets together. It was a blast!

Before long we had canastas scattered all over our house! Then we had them all help wrap the canastas in cellophane and we were done!

Los jóvenes did a TON of work!

We had enough time afterward that I let them pick a movie to watch, so we watched Narnia 2!

It was a wonderful day, the youth LOVE getting to help serve others that have less than they do.

Please keep praying, we have lots more to do to be ready for Noche Buena in just 4 days!

Tomorrow we will have the youth together to practice carols and the drama they will perform. Then tomorrow evening we will take the youth to Kairos House to sing carols and do the drama there.

Thursday will be another all day activity with the youth making 1,000 Christmas Cookies!

Then.......FRIDAY IS SHOWTIME!