The West Mobile Baptist team consist of eight women and two men.  Although they have a smaller number of people, they have definitely accomplished great things.  On Thursday they were able to build two houses and cement one of the houses.  On Friday, they held a medical clinic and a “block party” at a local church.  Mike Parker’s ministry always does an outstanding job as they provide cotton candy, music, games, face painting, and an inflattable jumper!  Between the cotton candy and Spider Man jumper, the kids were just a bit hyper!  Today the group worshipped with the congregation of Alpha and Omega, climbed the volcano, and ate dinner in Antigua–What a full day!

Mayela, Paul, and Cristi have been responsible for cooking breakfast and dinner for the team.  It goes without saying that the food has been absolutely delicious.  The fab five are very grateful to the team for inviting us to every meal.

Thank you for continuing to pray for the team this week.  We covet your prayers.  Our God continues to WOW us with His unending love.  He never ceases to amaze us!  May He leave you absolutely speechless as He gives you a WOW moment this week!

It is hard to blog if there is no Internet service!  I am assuming that Kirk Lightfield corrected the problem–Thanks Kirk!

The Dalraida team had a very successful week although they were without their personal medicine.  They met the needs of 1000 Guatemalans in four days!  The building team built, concreted, and dedicated a total of 10 houses.  Since the rains have began to come, I am sure there are ten families who are grateful that the Lord used North Americans to provide a “better” home.  The greatest success were those who prayed to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!  It is worth every frustration, time, and financial sacrifice!  A soul is priceless!

The mission house is ready and waiting for the Friendship folks to occupy the beds.  We have enjoyed all of the people from the past groups, but we are looking forward to seeing the faces of Friendship.  Please pray as the other half of the group will land in Guatemala around 7:00.

We are waiting anxiously to see everything God has in store for the upcoming week!

He deserves all of our praise!

-Deidra

We had a great church service this morning at Alpha Omega Church.  It was a full house, as they had to put chairs along the back and even outside the church.  It was an evangelistic service with guest musicians, and four people were saved during the service.

The group from Dalraida went to Daniel and Millie’s church this morning, where they also had a great service.  After church, the medical team saw 75 patients at Christy Leytham’s church.  The rest of the group had a relaxing day in Antigua.

Overall, we are having a great experience here in Guatemala.  We are so blessed to have this opportunity to serve God!!

Pam and Brandon

Dalraida Baptist has only been in Guatemala for three days, but they have experienced a multitude of emotions.  John King, Pancho Arriola, and others have worked tirelessly to have the medications released, however, they remain sitting in the airport.  Please continue to pray that the medicines will be released and that God will receive all of the glory.

One of the highlights in this summer is being able to participate in the group devotions.  Jim Peters spoke about not asking God “Why?” but “What can I do?”  His challenge to the group was to do what you can with what you have wherever you are for the glory of God.  Our plans are not always God’s plan and we must be willing to follow Him.  This team has had an awesome attitude, humility, and willing heart to do whatever they can to serve others.

In spite of the craziness with the medicine, they are 90% finished with building ten houses!  I love hearing about their accomplishments in house building, but I especially enjoy listening to their enthusiasm about playing with the children.  There are several bilinguals on the team, and they had the privilege of leading two people to Christ!  Perhaps the “plans” were rearranged in order for these to know Christ.

Thanks to John and Laurie King and GRACE ministries, the medical team was able to use some medicines to hold a clinic in a local village.  Based on the number of tickets they gave to the people, I know that they treated at least 250 patients.  They worked a long, 12 hr. shift today!  I am sure that no one will have to rock them to sleep tonight!

We are praying that God is glorified in your worship services tomorrow!  He alone deserves all of our praise!

Today was a very busy day as we watched the Arkansas team depart and the Dalraida team arrive!

It is refreshing to clean the house knowing that 40 more people will quickily come to begin their ministry.  Soy and Brandon have the responsibilty to make the beds.  (I will not mention that it took them five hours to make 32 beds last week.)  However, the Arkansas team decided to “help” and made 20 beds this morning!  While Pam, Alisha, and I were on our hands and knees scrubbing toilets, Soy and Brandon were inspecting their bed-making skills!  They do not get our sympathy vote!

The Dalraida team arrived but without medicine.  Several of them are suppose to meet with a congress woman this weekend for permission to release the medicine.  Please pray for them as they work with the Guatemalans officials.  Although this throws a kink in their plans, they are being very flexible and trusting that this did not take God by surprise!  I am thrilled that I serve a God who is in complete control!

Keep Praying!

-Deidra

The building team completed the final touches on all of the houses today.  They have worked very hard to build and concrete four houses in only 4 days.  The entire group returned to the village to spend time in dedicating all of the houses.  I did not participate, but I was thrilled to hear the enthusiasm as they talked about the house dedication.  They really prayed that God will bless the house dedication and I believe it was the “icing on the cake”.

The medical team had another long, but great day.  They will continue with the medical clinic for one more day.  Please pray for them.

The maintenance team moved from the seminary to Amor del Nino, which is the orphanage of Steve and Sheryl Osborne.  As you can imagine, help is always welcomed when you have that many children to care for.

The night ended with pizza and an awesome worship time.  David and Jamie are definitely blessed musicians and we are thankful they use their talent for the Lord.  It has been a very blessed week.

Please continue to pray that the team from Montgomery will be able to bring their medicines into Guatemala!

-Deidra

The Foothills Fellowship team has accomplished a great deal in the last two days.  They are sending out a medical team, house building team, and maintenance team.  The house building team has almost completed a total of four houses. They will spend tomorrow working on the finishing touches for the houses.  They are planning to spend the afternoon dedicating each house.  Please pray for them!

The medical team has seen a total of 230 sick people.  Yesterday, Alisha spent the day with the medical team and she has bragged about how well the doctors/nurses have ministered to the people.  They have shown the love of Christ throught meeting physical needs.

The maintenance team has worked at the seminary with various painting jobs.  Tico shared his appreciation for the wonderful job they have done.  Rumor has it that one team member checked to see if the beds are comfortable by taking a siesta while on the job!

The food tonight was absolutley delicious!  In addition to the team members, there were about 20 Guatemalans who joined us for dinner.  Mrs. Kathy and her family did an excellent job!  It was a great time of food and fellowship.

During the devotion tonight, Kirk Lightfield shared some things God has done in his life while serving in Guatemala.  He spoke about the danger of becoming arrogant with who we are.  He reminded us that apart from God we are nothing.  It is God alone who works through us, allowing us to love and serve others.  Bro. Kirk also received a minor outpatient surgical procedure tonight.  It is always good to have doctors around.  You never know what you are going to experience at the mission house!

It is exciting to see all of the wonderful ways God continues to work in the lives of people!  Keep praying!

Today I got the chance to go out with a group from the team to work a medical clinic. When I say work a medical clinic I mean be the medical clinic! We arrived at a remote village about an hour from Chimaltenango and set up our clinic in a church. In less than 20 minutes we had a make-shift reception/nurse table, doctor’s office, and pharmacy. We had 99 people come through with a number and about 15 without a number. I worked at the reception/nurse table. It was so amazing to get to sit with each person that came through the doors to find out their name and what they needed to see the doctor for. We had everything from people suffering from headaches to scabies. The saddest thing was to meet two pregnant women who were both very concerned about their unborn children. One young woman was seven months pregnant but was losing weight very quickly. You couldn’t even tell that she was pregnant, much less seven months. The other young woman was four months pregnant and had not felt her baby move. For those of you who have traveled to any third world country, you understand when I say that they were so thankful for the medicine and suggestions that the pharmacist and doctors gave them.

-Alisha Vice

We are going to try to keep the pictures from each team uploaded.  Simply go to the home page of www.friendshipfamily.net and under the media section click on gallery.  The pictures are filed under GRACE 2009 and will be divided according to the group.  We hope you enjoy seeing the ministries in Guatemala!

According to Facebook, Faith Baptist has arrived safely in Memphis.  They left the mission house at 7:30 a.m. and landed in Memphis at 10:30 p.m.  We are grateful for their safety in a long day of traveling.  I have pictures of the Faith team that will be posted on the site as soon as I figure out how to do it.  Help Chino!

Bro. Don Tibbett and three other team members arrived at the mission house this afternoon.  The remaining team members will arrive on Saturday.  It is a special week for Mrs. Luisa because this group is from her home church.  Please pray for this group throughout the week!

I tried and miserably failed!  I bought meat from the same market that everyone else in Chimaltenango buys their meat.  Due to my lack of Spanish and the butchers lack of English, I am not exactly sure what cut of meat I purchased.  I am pretty confident that it was beef because it was laying next to the cow tongue!  After the meat finished cooking, we (all six of us) decided that it was a mix between tough beef jerky and a car tire.  We will try again, but with an interpreter.  We are graciously saving some of the meat for Larry Whitehurst!  We are very grateful for Pollo Campero!

I wish you could have seen our faces around midnight when Soy answered the door and my mom stood on the other side!  We were surprised and confused!  (Soy’s mother-in-law surprised him in Guatemala–What more could he want out of life?)  It is a very unexpected birthday surprise for me.  Of course it could not be a birthday without Mrs. Diane’s cake.  The workers at customs thought it was such a pretty cake and the flight attendant kept it in the cockpit so it would arrive in one piece!  I am grateful that Mrs. Luisa has changed off days with me so we can enjoy the weekend.  I am blessed !

Beth Moore quoted, “no amount of success in ministry can make up for failure at home.”  I can honestly say that I have watched my parents be the same Monday-Saturday as they are on Sunday.  They have made it a priority to raise us based on Biblical truths even when it was not the popular choice.  I have watched them sacrificially give beyond belief, and I have seen God continue to bless them over and over.  They have a passion for Christ that compels them to love and serve people.  IMO, they are champions for Christ!  I will forever be grateful for godly parents!

-Deidra