Getting Their Hands Dirty

First of all, take a moment to enjoy the picture of Brett eating a whole lot of ice cream. The rumor around the team's house is that Brett has been given the nickname "hairball" by one of the kids here. No word yet on why that is! Brett shared with us last night that he joined the team late and got his passport in one day! Talk about a miracle!

The group of folks doing the construction work have been demonstrating a very strong work ethic and have worked all day long to accomplish their tasks. The pictures above are hopefully just the beginning of the pictures we can share on here.

Don was quite an inspiration yesterday as he was sick as a dog and still managed to squeeze out a half day of work anyway.

Pauline, Carol, Gale, Judy and the ladies of the painting team demonstrate the perfect attitude of servanthood and a humble willingness to do "whatever is needed."


The ladies in the office have been painting up a storm! They have already finished the office and are off painting class rooms. It is quite possible that this band of merry painters for the Lord will paint the entire building before we are done.

Outside, Hillary shows herself to be just as tough as the guys as she performs on their level all day long without complaint. Bill Brown is also an inspiration. Primarily a member of the ministry team, he has such a heart for the kids here and a willingness to serve. He can be found jumping in outside whenever he has some down time and being the first to jump in for the ministry team when we need something prepared for tomorrow's services.

It can sometimes be hard to manage a mission team of 3 different teams. The construction team, the ministry team and the dental team have very different tasks and very different roles to fill here. Each is equally important to sustaining the work of Mission Impact. It is hard for some members of the team to appreciate the work that the other teams are doing, and of course, the enemy seeks to use that to divide us.

You should know also, that many of the members of the team have talked about how they like the new accomodations (which are a much nicer facility) but they miss the Proximos Pasos location in the heart of Santa Maria. The daily interaction with the people and children of the village was a source of inspiration to them. A team will be returning to minister at that school on Wednesday.

On the family front, I am home sick today. Reagan and Jackson just enjoyed another bath in the backyard using bottled water, and we are getting ready for lunch and then the afternoon nap. They have been holding up relatively well under the circumstances, but your continued prayer for them is greatly appreciated!

I will be posting another blog later today with photos from the worship team and our ministry with the kids. Hopefully when Lauren and Jaci return this evening they will have some photos of the hard-working dental team for us to post as well.

One final update, despite being the rainy season, it still has hardly rained at all. Today is another beautiful sunny day.

The View From Proximos Pasos

The photos above are the view from the 3rd floor of Proximos Pasos. This is the school in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus that is located on the volcano of Agua. At night the folks staying at the school were able to also see the distant peak of the ACTIVE volcano Picaya (complete with a visible lava flow at the top of the volcano!)

The road up to Santa Maria is long, steep and winding. Also, yesterday during our pretty intense afternoon rain storm, several trees fell into the only road leading up the volcano making the road impassable.

Thankfully some locals had chain-saws in their trucks and many of the guys from our team (Justin, Brett, Rick, Bob, Don and others) got off the bus and helped chop up and remove the trees from the road so that people go get to Santa Maria (and Proximos Pasos!)

Last night's dinner at Proximos Pasos was dark and chilly! The team had no electricity due to the storm, and candles were used for lighting. Lauren shared her testimony and the team was encouraged by Pastor Gary as well. It was a cold night, but the team was in good spirits!

Pastor Gary Has To Stay After Class & The End of The World Via Toilet Paper

The team from GCCC arrived this morning. When they came out of the airport, I could tell I had some blog fans as they told me that descending the escalator caused them to think about our little "upside down turtles" on our own arrival here. That made me laugh! They had lunch and orientation at EVE (Esquela Vida y Esperanza AKA School of Life and Hope.) This school is the location where the work team will be building on the newly purchased plot of land. The land was possibly going to be sold to put up a brothel right next to the school, but God had other plans! Now the school will be able to expand their facility and not have to worry about a brothel opening up into the courtyard where the kids play. Above are some pictures of the area that is being cleared for construction.

Now, I'm not going to lie. Many people come into a missions trip with their own personal agenda on what to accomplish. One of two things will happen. They will "take their toys and go home" after not getting their way, or they will experience a tremendous breakthrough as God teaches them something in their humility and service to others. Part of the secret to a successful trip (and a successful life) is being flexible to what God has in store for you. Things don't always play out the way that you had planned, but your goals and agenda are much more limited than the endless possibilities that God has for you. As with any mission trip, there will surely be some folks here that need a breakthrough. Please pray for them that they don't miss out on the tremendous blessing God has for them.

So, today during orientation, there was a big to-do over toilet paper. In Guatemala you can't flush anything that doesn't come out of your body in the potties. This was a difficult thing to deal with for the team. Many questions were offered as to what this means for the future of humanity. Lauren simply told them that they need to fold and double fold their toilet paper and place it gently into the trashcan. More than one team member came to fearfully confide in me that they had flushed some toilet paper at the airport. Toilet Paper--the end of the world as we know it. You're not in Sewell anymore folks!

As Lauren was trying to get through her presentation, one Rev. Gary Clark was cutting up in the back of the class room and texting on his phone. You can't teach an old dog new tricks folks. He's just as zany down here!

Marcus, Sara and Becca broke out in an impromptu worship session in the stairwells of the school before leaving as well. It was a nice moment for the team.

Oh, and Lauren and I took everyone's money to "exchange" it for them. Little did they know, that we just had a great time shopping on their dime! (For all the friends and family of the team reading this, please note that was sarcasm. I didn't really steal from your family members and friends in the middle of a mission trip!)

Side note to anyone who uses facebook: If you are friends with Lauren on Facebook, you probably remember reading a status update a few weeks back where she was humorously lamenting being chased by wild dogs and accosted by a drunk man in the street before coming to work. I got to see the drunk man. He probably would have left the GCCC team alone, but for Gary Clark. Gary walked right up to him and said "hola" to him causing the man to stagger along with the team to the school. That Gary, always causing trouble!

The team headed to Proximos Pasos to get settled and Lauren and I headed home to pick up Jaci and the kids for dinner! Jaci had been home all day with the kids as we met the team and got them started. We went into Antigua for a nice Italian dinner for my birthday. Jackson, Reagan and Noah enjoyed throwing pennies in the restaurant's fountain.

Tomorrow we have a dental clinic to run at Proximos Pasos and the work team is going to head back to EVE to begin work. Pray for safety, but also pray for a humility and grace for each member of the team. Pray that we would be vessels here to help the Lord's work at Mission Impact, and not a hindrence due to our own agendas.

Psalm 121 says "I life my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth."

It is not in us that miracles will happen and lives will be changed. It is in that ever-powerful help that comes from the LORD! Continue praying for our little ones as we will be on the go for the next week pretty extensively. Also pray for the team to be of one mind, to be humble and a blessing to Mission Impact, and that God would accomplish exactly WHAT HE WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH during our time here!