I'll be honest. Yesterday was tough. We spent the day picking up rocks and leveling tough ground. It wasn't the work that was tough. In the morning, as the sun rose high in the sky, we were a team on a mission. We were loading bags and buckets and a wheelbarrow with rocks (not dirt clumps!) and created piles outside of the greenhouses. (These are the greenhouses that are going to supply the peppers and other veggies to the Central American Walmart chain.) Sidenote - they took out a loan to build the first four greenhouses from an American business man. He is not charging them interest and they only have to pay him back as they find sponsors for the project. I think that kind of faith is awesome, to KNOW that God is going to provide the money and to go ahead with the project. Some would call it crazy, why go into debt? But for some reason, at this mission, it doesn't seem crazy. It's faith.
Anyways, in the morning, we were good. Working hard. Moving rocks. Leveling dirt. We went to lunch (which was delicious as always). Once we returned to the work site after lunch, it was a little bit of a different story. To quote Aaron, "We took a walk on the sun." It was easily 95 outside and then even hotter in the greenhouses (because they are made to retain the heat afterall). We had to take a break and sit in the shade after (literally) 10 minutes. Some of us were getting dizzy, got headaches, just couldn't get our bodies to move. We couldn't get our core temperatures down (Thanks for the verbage, Graham!). Somehow, I think with a miracle (and mandatory team breaks every 20 minutes or so), we completed the project. I'll be honest, a few of us are struggling with a little bit of stomach unrest this morning and I really believe that it's the heat. It was a tough day.
But, after showers, some pool time, some orphanage time, and ice cream after dinner (!!!), we had a great devotion with Natalie talking about making your whole life an act of worship. Even moving rocks.
Please pray for health today. We are painting the wallboard in the hospital and are excited to be on the site! Thank you so much for your prayers so far. They are felt and appreciated!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday
Good morning! (My clock got reset to EST so I'm up an hour too early...) Yesterday was an amazing day and a pretty monumental day for the village of El Modelo and we got to be a part of it! You may remember El Modelo as being the village where we have built a church (Jan 2008) and sponsored 4 homes (Jan 2009). The village continues to grow. Some updates on El Modelo - when our team was here in 2009, they were trying to dig a well very close to the construction site. They went down like 500 feet (might be an exaggeration...) and couldn't find water. They tried in a different location and had success! They have plans to build a pavilion type building to do hot meal/feeding distributions. Yesterday, we participated in the very first ever feeding in El Modelo. We served chicken soup type food with carrots and potatos, rice and tortillas and juice. They each bring their plate/bowl and a cup. If they come without them, we have styrofoam plates and cups to give them so we don't turn anyone away hungry. We also handed out 2 bags of dried lentils to each mother. Each bag should make 50 meals for her family. It was a little chaotic because the villagers didn't understand the line thing. There were people cutting in line all over but let's be honest, if you were hungry, wouldn't you cut in line?? The mission had planned for about 500 children. We fed close to 1000 people yesterday. It was definitely a loaves and fishes kind of moment. We were down to the dregs of the soup and had about 20 people to go. God pulled through! We were so honored and excited to be able to be part of such a big event because we have ties to the village. In fact, we saw two of the boys that we built the houses for and they remembered us!
On the way back to the mission for lunch, we had our own adventure - the bus started making a really strange noise and wouldn't shift gears. Praise the Lord we were out on the highway and not going uphill through Zacapa. The driver was able to pull over to a nice wide clear spot on the side of the road. Yup, the bus broke down. The guys called for another bus that came and got us. While we were waiting, they had coolers of drinks for us and with all the windows open on the bus, it was comfortable. We had a great little adventure. When we finally got back to the mission, there was a large helicopter on the landing strip. There were people from Guatemalan congress here to meet with Carlos.
We also took the tour with Sal, Carlos's brother. I know that I see new things and hear new facts everytime I come. We visited some new greenhouses WAY in the back of the mountain. And today, I believe we are picking rocks out of the dirt in some HUGE greenhouses. They are working with Central American Walmart to be the provider for peppers. A lot of the newbies on the team were amazed at how many different areas the mission does. It IS pretty amazing. Devotions last night was great - Aaron led us through song worship songs and then Angel and Graham led devotions. And there was even a shooting star that crossed through the sky while Graham was reading a Bible verse. It was magical :)
Today we will be working under the hot sun. Prayers for sustainability would be appreciated! Pray we continue to stay healthy and have open hearts.
On the way back to the mission for lunch, we had our own adventure - the bus started making a really strange noise and wouldn't shift gears. Praise the Lord we were out on the highway and not going uphill through Zacapa. The driver was able to pull over to a nice wide clear spot on the side of the road. Yup, the bus broke down. The guys called for another bus that came and got us. While we were waiting, they had coolers of drinks for us and with all the windows open on the bus, it was comfortable. We had a great little adventure. When we finally got back to the mission, there was a large helicopter on the landing strip. There were people from Guatemalan congress here to meet with Carlos.
We also took the tour with Sal, Carlos's brother. I know that I see new things and hear new facts everytime I come. We visited some new greenhouses WAY in the back of the mountain. And today, I believe we are picking rocks out of the dirt in some HUGE greenhouses. They are working with Central American Walmart to be the provider for peppers. A lot of the newbies on the team were amazed at how many different areas the mission does. It IS pretty amazing. Devotions last night was great - Aaron led us through song worship songs and then Angel and Graham led devotions. And there was even a shooting star that crossed through the sky while Graham was reading a Bible verse. It was magical :)
Today we will be working under the hot sun. Prayers for sustainability would be appreciated! Pray we continue to stay healthy and have open hearts.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday
Sunday morning brought a cool breeze and many smiles as we all awoke in Guatemala! With breakfast at 8, we had a leisurly time getting ready for church only to get to breakfast and find out that church started at 10 instead of 930. haha Welcome to Guatemala!! Church was a great experience. Angel A gave her testimony on true joy found only through God. She did a great job!! Angelica helped translate the welcome part of the service. Our whole group got on stage to sing ¨How Great is our God¨ with Sam debuting his guitar skills in public. Xiomara, Christian the pastor´s wife, gave the sermon and she is such a passionate speaker. There wasn´t a translator because she speaks so fast that it would have been hard to translate!
While at breakfast, we were joking about how hungry we would be at lunch after only sitting in the service. Sure enough, stomach were growling and ready for food! They even surprised us with ice cream cones for dessert!
After lunch was free time. Most of our group was anxious to get to the orphanage! Marshall and Foster packed a few soccer balls, which helped start a rousing game. Rick and Graham were goalies - Graham was pummeled! Steve spent the game running and running and running. The kids who play soccer at the orphanage are ruthless. Aaron was also in on the game and all the boys who played were definitely sweaty when they stopped! Zach and Sam made it up to the orphanage a little later ready to take over where the others stopped except they were playing basketball with the soccer balls. Of course, the kids couldn´t let them win so they would hold the bottom of the basketball net so the balls couldn´t get through and they would hit them out the top so the boys couldn´t score any points. The girls of our group went a little more mellow with the activities. Angel A, Angel S, Angelica and Natalie were painting fingernails (and got their own painted as well). Marie, a woman from the western shore who is joining us for the week, spent much of the afternoon handing out candy and hugging on the girls. Brenna spent her afternoon loving on her kids. When she got off the bus, a lot of the orphans started chanting her name. It was cute :)
Showers were taken to rinse off sweat and dinner was inhaled by many of the team. Again, with all the fresh air and orphan playing, we were HUNGRY! We loaded the bus again and off to evening church we went! This time we attended the church in Rosario. The worship band at Rosario is the group of Cubans that play at the parties in the cabana or in town. They are so fun to listen to. Pastor Chris, from the small group from Texas, preached on discipling people not only in other countries but also in our own ¨Jerusalems¨. It was a great reminder that while we are on the missionfield now, we are also called to do the same in our own towns.
Today is an exciting day and a monumental day for the mission and personal for our team. I´m not going to share just yet what will be happening but we are dressed as Team Green and ready to go!! Please pray for safety and continued great health and open hearts today.
While at breakfast, we were joking about how hungry we would be at lunch after only sitting in the service. Sure enough, stomach were growling and ready for food! They even surprised us with ice cream cones for dessert!
After lunch was free time. Most of our group was anxious to get to the orphanage! Marshall and Foster packed a few soccer balls, which helped start a rousing game. Rick and Graham were goalies - Graham was pummeled! Steve spent the game running and running and running. The kids who play soccer at the orphanage are ruthless. Aaron was also in on the game and all the boys who played were definitely sweaty when they stopped! Zach and Sam made it up to the orphanage a little later ready to take over where the others stopped except they were playing basketball with the soccer balls. Of course, the kids couldn´t let them win so they would hold the bottom of the basketball net so the balls couldn´t get through and they would hit them out the top so the boys couldn´t score any points. The girls of our group went a little more mellow with the activities. Angel A, Angel S, Angelica and Natalie were painting fingernails (and got their own painted as well). Marie, a woman from the western shore who is joining us for the week, spent much of the afternoon handing out candy and hugging on the girls. Brenna spent her afternoon loving on her kids. When she got off the bus, a lot of the orphans started chanting her name. It was cute :)
Showers were taken to rinse off sweat and dinner was inhaled by many of the team. Again, with all the fresh air and orphan playing, we were HUNGRY! We loaded the bus again and off to evening church we went! This time we attended the church in Rosario. The worship band at Rosario is the group of Cubans that play at the parties in the cabana or in town. They are so fun to listen to. Pastor Chris, from the small group from Texas, preached on discipling people not only in other countries but also in our own ¨Jerusalems¨. It was a great reminder that while we are on the missionfield now, we are also called to do the same in our own towns.
Today is an exciting day and a monumental day for the mission and personal for our team. I´m not going to share just yet what will be happening but we are dressed as Team Green and ready to go!! Please pray for safety and continued great health and open hearts today.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
We´re HERE!!
Just a short little blog to let everyone know we are at Hope of Life safe and sound. We had quite a long travel day yesterday. We met at the Johnson house at 4am, prayed, loaded luggage, and off we went. We made excellent time to the airport (can´t imagine why, it´s not like we hit a lot of traffic at 5am on a Saturday morning...) and were smoothly checked in by 815. Everyone made it quickly through security (no body scans needed for this group!), boarded the plane and off we went! We had a quick turn around in El Salvador and a very smooth little hop of a flight into Guatemala City, passing the volcanos on the way!
We were pretty much the only people in line at customs so we quickly and smoothly made it through, grabbed our luggage (made simpler thanks to the yellow GROUP tags that labeled them!) and found our HOL staff anxiously waiting outside the doors! We were supposed to have been the last group of the 3 arriving today (we are here with a group of students from Salisbury Univ and a group of 5 from Texas) but we were actually the 2nd group. We were still waiting for the SU group. They were supposed to arrive around 12 but got very delayed in Miami. Melany said that they sat on the plane for almost 2 hours while they were working on a mechanical function - a broken toilet... Then they got off the plane to switch planes and of course had to wait to have it fueled and all the luggage switched over. So they actually landed about 20 minutes after us!
We did a quick stop at Pollo Campero (Guatemalan KFC) and off we went. We didn´t arrive at the mission until almost 8. Had a yummy dinner (that we were pretty much too tired to fully enjoy), got our room assignments and crashed!
Today will bring church and free time on site. I know our team is really excited to go to the orphanage!! Please continue to pray for good health, open hearts and opportunities to share God´s love. More to come...
We were pretty much the only people in line at customs so we quickly and smoothly made it through, grabbed our luggage (made simpler thanks to the yellow GROUP tags that labeled them!) and found our HOL staff anxiously waiting outside the doors! We were supposed to have been the last group of the 3 arriving today (we are here with a group of students from Salisbury Univ and a group of 5 from Texas) but we were actually the 2nd group. We were still waiting for the SU group. They were supposed to arrive around 12 but got very delayed in Miami. Melany said that they sat on the plane for almost 2 hours while they were working on a mechanical function - a broken toilet... Then they got off the plane to switch planes and of course had to wait to have it fueled and all the luggage switched over. So they actually landed about 20 minutes after us!
We did a quick stop at Pollo Campero (Guatemalan KFC) and off we went. We didn´t arrive at the mission until almost 8. Had a yummy dinner (that we were pretty much too tired to fully enjoy), got our room assignments and crashed!
Today will bring church and free time on site. I know our team is really excited to go to the orphanage!! Please continue to pray for good health, open hearts and opportunities to share God´s love. More to come...
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Godspeed!
Hey Team!
Hope you guys made it down safe. We're praying for you all and will continue to pray that you spread the love of Christ over the next week and that you are all blessed by this experience. Everyone tell Sandra-ita and the rest of the amazing kids I miss them and I’m praying for them! Godspeed - Josh
Hope you guys made it down safe. We're praying for you all and will continue to pray that you spread the love of Christ over the next week and that you are all blessed by this experience. Everyone tell Sandra-ita and the rest of the amazing kids I miss them and I’m praying for them! Godspeed - Josh
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Looking Back - February 2007
Nothing emotional, just the facts.
In February 2007, 14 missionaries from Soul Discovery loaded a van headed to BWI for an 8 day excursion to Guatemala.
The people involved:
Don Arter
Lonny Arter
Mike Davis Sr.
Evan Davis
Mike Davis Jr
Allison Hackler
Mick Haensler
Ken Johnson
Steven Latham
Nancy Mayonado
Brenna Shevlin
Margaret Swade
Rick Trenary
Lori Trotter
Cost of trip: $1500
Project: Wing (2 rooms) on the orphanage at Hope of Life, $4000
Dates of the trip: Feb 17-24, 2007
In addition to building (and dedicating) the wing at the orphanage, the team also packed and distributed over 500 boxes of food at nearby villages. They were the first team from Hope of Life to participate in a distribution at the landfill in Teculetan (about 30 minutes west of HOL). They also were the first team to distribute food in El Modelo, which would later become the site of future SD/HOL projects.
In February 2007, 14 missionaries from Soul Discovery loaded a van headed to BWI for an 8 day excursion to Guatemala.
The people involved:
Don Arter
Lonny Arter
Mike Davis Sr.
Evan Davis
Mike Davis Jr
Allison Hackler
Mick Haensler
Ken Johnson
Steven Latham
Nancy Mayonado
Brenna Shevlin
Margaret Swade
Rick Trenary
Lori Trotter
Cost of trip: $1500
Project: Wing (2 rooms) on the orphanage at Hope of Life, $4000
Dates of the trip: Feb 17-24, 2007
In addition to building (and dedicating) the wing at the orphanage, the team also packed and distributed over 500 boxes of food at nearby villages. They were the first team from Hope of Life to participate in a distribution at the landfill in Teculetan (about 30 minutes west of HOL). They also were the first team to distribute food in El Modelo, which would later become the site of future SD/HOL projects.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Reminiscing June 2006
For memory's sake, I would like to begin documenting our past trips. I'm going to start at the beginning with the very first trip, the discovery trip that started the entire process and changed the life of our church.
People involved:
Reid Sterrett
Mary Sterrett
Maddie Sterrett
Steven Latham
Phil Harsin
Steve Adkins
Margaret Swade
Trip cost: $700 per person (basically airfare)
Dates: June __ - __ , 2006
The five day trip was spent touring the mission site, visiting a construction site to see how the process works, attending hot meal distributions, and a boat trip. They returned to Soul Discovery with glowing reports and a strong desire to act immediately. Thus, the January 2007 trip was put into place!
People involved:
Reid Sterrett
Mary Sterrett
Maddie Sterrett
Steven Latham
Phil Harsin
Steve Adkins
Margaret Swade
Trip cost: $700 per person (basically airfare)
Dates: June __ - __ , 2006
The five day trip was spent touring the mission site, visiting a construction site to see how the process works, attending hot meal distributions, and a boat trip. They returned to Soul Discovery with glowing reports and a strong desire to act immediately. Thus, the January 2007 trip was put into place!
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