Pastor Joe David Bailey was in charge of the team this morning as far as assigning work assignments.  Five of the ladies opted to spend the day at the feeding center helping Lazaro & Glendy with the cooking, serving, cleaning, playing with the children, et cetera.

The other thirty eight headed West again.  They had a very productive day as, after three days of building, twenty nine houses are up, twenty six have receive concrete, and those twenty six are totally finished i.e. doors, windows, et cetera.  This team definitely has a mind to work!  Pastor Joe David obviously pushed them really hard today.

It appeared to me that no one was going to need to be rocked to sleep tonight.  Back at early in the morning with more ministry opportunities waiting.

Keep praying and keep checking on us.  Thanks!

Sunday for the team was a typical Sunday.  Nothing out of the ordinary took place.  Zip lining, shopping, meal at Las Antorchas and a service at the GRACE Community Church.

About the biggest news of the day was that Pastor Joe Bailey took his suit coat off even though he was the messenger.  He will go home on Thursday and will leave that mess for me to clean up – I appreciate it!

Thanks for praying for this team.  Keep doing so, please.  All is well.

Saturday was a productive day for our team as all forty five headed out to build houses.  Ten more houses were built with two more started i.e poles in the ground.  Fourteen more houses received concrete bringing that total to eighteen.  Six of the houses are now completely finished.  So, yes it was definitely a productive day.

I stand corrected.  Samuel Acan tells me that two teams in the past have traveled a greater distance to build.  Not much farther but farther.

Sunday will be the usual with some folks doing zip lining while the majority will shop, eat lunch at Las Antorchas in Antigua and then attend the service at the GRACE Community Church.   Joe David Bailey will be bringing the message.

Pray for us.  Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read this brief update.  Everyone is well.  To God be the glory!

We have water!  Everyone can shower!  Hooray!  That was the best news of the day for this team after a really good day of ministry.

Our Friday was productive.  We had four young ladies go the feeding center to help with the children.  They had a good day.

The rest of the team went to a village that is farther away from the mission house than any GRACE team that I know of has ever gone.  It took us about two hard hours of driving to get there.  We literally did not start building until noon and stopped at 5:30PM.  Ten houses were built, four received concrete and then those four were finished with the exception of hanging the doors and windows.

Our day began with some great worship led by Rex Looney and then a good word from the Word by Mike Clark.  It is always good to have Dr. Mike & Miss Dottie join us.

Today, all forty five of us head back to the village.  Our goal is to build ten more while finishing the ones built yesterday.

Pray for us.  Thanks for checking on us.  Everyone is well!

All forty five team members are now on the GRACE Mountain.  The Danville crew arrived around 10:15PM.   Everyone being here is the good news.

The other good news is that they got the pump replaced.  The bad news is that we have a leak that prevents us from using it so we still have no water except to sponge bathe and flush the toilets.

Everyone is well.  We will post again tonight or first thing in the morning (Saturday).

Thanks for praying.  Thanks for checking on us.  Blessings!

Today, 7/30, we have forty four folks traveling to Guatemala.  They are coming from Grand Rapids (12), Mobile (12), Gulfport (1) and Huntsville (19).  They are scheduled to arrive at 11:00AM, 12:00PM and 7:30PM.

Pray for the water situation here on the mountain.  As of this morning, we still do not have water.  Praying that it can be restored late this afternoon.

Thanks for checking on us.  More updates to follow.

We had no internet access on Tuesday night which meant no entry to this blog.  So, I will summarize the past two days in this entry.

Our Tuesday went extremely well as the team was completely finished with the twenty five houses by 3:00PM.  Wait, the number was 24, not 25.  At breakfast on Tuesday morning, Lazaro shared that one of the families in our feeding center program had been displaced and were homeless.  We had a team go back the materials and build a house for that family on Tuesday as well.  So, this team built 25 houses lock and key when all was said and done.

We gathered in the upper room at 5:00PM for our share time.  As always, that was a special time.

Our Wednesday consisted of the team going back to the village to dedicate the 24 houses there.  We divided into four groups with each group dedicating six houses.  There was one profession of faith during those dedications.  Praise the Lord!

It was then to Rincon Suizo for lunch.  Good food and great fellowship.

We then came back to El Tejar.  One group went to put the door and window on the 25th house and then to dedicate it.  Everyone else began to get ready to leave.  Pastor Keith Martin and the folks from Kennedy Baptist Church left the mission house at 8:00PM as their flight departed Guatemala at 12:20AM.  I am typing this at 3:30AM Guatemala time and the computer says their plane is basically landing now in Atlanta.

The rest of the team left the mission house at 3:00AM.  Everyone except Bro. Chris is flying United and is scheduled to arrive in Mobile at 12:59PM.

This has been a really good team.  Great attitudes.  Great work ethic.  Great worship.  It was a joy to be a part of this experience.

Pray for safety in travel today.  Thank you for following us on this blog.  I apologize for the lapse in the internet service.  Blessings!

Our Monday was a full day.  The focus was on two things – building the houses and distributing food and clothes to 150 families.  Both ministry opportunities were a success.

Here is where we stand on the construction of the houses – twenty three are up with two only needing the roof tin before receiving the concrete.  Of those twenty three, twenty have already received the concrete as our team was able to concrete eleven houses yesterday.  Nine of the houses are completely finished.  So, the team has two roofs to put on, one house to build, and four houses to concrete and we will reach our goal of twenty four houses being built lock and key.  God has certainly blessed us!

The food and clothes distribution went very well too as it took place in the same village where the team is building houses.  That is always a special ministry.

The team has had a bump here and a bruise there but all in all everyone is well.  Attitudes have been great!

Thank you for checking on us.  Keep praying!  Blessings!

Yesterday, 6/14, was a good day of worship and rest although it was a very full day.  We had our morning praise and worship time and then Jordan Lollar brought us the word from the Word.  He, along with his wife, Lana, Rachel Baines and Jimmy Thomas have done a really nice job of leading our musical worship each day.  I am grateful.

We had about fifteen folks to leave early heading to the zip lines near Antigua.  Everyone else, minus me, hit Antigua to shop and just look around.  I had the privilege of preaching at our daughter church that meets on the campus of the seminary.  We all then met up in Antigua for our normal lunch at Las Antorchas.

We then headed back to the mission house, changed clothes and headed down the hill for the church service at our other daughter church – GRACE Community Church.  They meet in the feeding center.  Jordan and the Jets led our musical worship in English and Pastor Keith preached the Word.  As usual, he did a very nice job.  We then observed the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper which was the first time for this young body of believers to do so.  Good service.

Our folks were then blessed to be able to feed the others in attendance.  They enjoyed a meal of tamales which is a favorite dish here.

Our evening was spent in a time of fellowship and getting the clothes ready for tonight’s distribution.  Jennifer Glasgow has led that effort and has done great.

Plans call for today to be a long one.  Pray for us.  Thank you for checking on us.  Blessings!

FWIW – I am told that Coach Collier is a terrible shopper!  Just saying!

Today, 6/13, was a very blessed day.  We left the mission house at 7:00AM in anticipation of another wet day and because we needed to leave the work site by 1:00PM in order to get ready for a block party.  The Lord showed us favor as we had a beautiful weather day and were able to work until 1:00PM.  We now have fourteen houses up with three of them only needing a roof before being ready to receive the concrete.  Nine have the concrete already as six were concreted today.

The greatest obstacle we have faced has been mud – lots of mud.  We could not put concrete in some houses simply because they were too muddy.  The tops are on now so they will be able to dry out by Monday.

Mike Parker and one of his staff members came to the school in El Tejar to host a block party for us.  It was a really great time with literally hundreds of children enjoying games, a bounce house, cotton candy, sno cones and lots of candy.

We had our devotion tonight with Jeff Holifield bringing us a word from the Word.  He did a nice job.

Everyone is doing great.  Attitudes are excellent!  Thanks for praying!  Blessings!