God gave us an awesome day yesterday (it rained but nothing significant) and the team gave a superb effort!  It began with Pastor Rainey sharing a message from the Word.  Tom Burris, Kendall Griffin, & Colie Dunn led us in our musical worship setting the stage for the preaching.  Great job!

The BBC folks continue to do a great job and were joined by Lori & Melissa Vargas yesterday as they served as translators.  That team comes back happy every day. 

The team built 8 houses from start to finish yesterday and poured cement in nine others – wow!  That means 20 houses have now been built with sixteen of those having the cement already.  I am not sure how many were completely finished as I was on the other side and we left late. 

The party for Daysee was special.  This team was so good to her.  I appreciate their spirit of sweetness. 

We hope to finish building today which will involve building four houses, pouring cement in eight, and putting the fronts on the rest. 

Pray for us.  We are going out thirty minutes earlier because we have village ministry tonight.   

Our Sunday began with a good word from the Word by Pastor Eddie Burdette.  He spoke to us about being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We then made our way to Rios de Agua Viva for their church service where Pastor Walter Aju preached about being a good soldier in the army of God.  Juan Marcos served as the translator and, as always, we appreciate his help. 

Deacons Tom Burris, Bret Hart, Donald Pannell, & Jerry Potter of Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, TN presented a beautiful banner to Pastor Walter and the deacons of Rios de Agua Viva.  It simply had the name “JESUS” on it and was made by the members of the banner ministry at Faith.  The church was very appreciative of the gift. 

Lunch at Las Antorchas, shopping, and an evening of fellowship rounded out our Sunday.  This morning we will have a time in the Word with Pastor Terry Rainey and then it will be building, cement work, and BBC. 

This evening we will host a 15th birthday party for Daysee Aju, daughter of Pastor Walter & Balvina Aju.  Her birthday was in April but she did not get to have the traditional 15th birthday party.  Lisa, Deidra, and Lisa Vargas have been a huge help in planning & preparing for this party.  I appreciate their help. 

Pray for us.  We need to have a strong day on the construction side today.  The team is doing great and the attitudes have been superb thus far.  Eddie Burdette has corrupted some of the children in the village by teaching them Clemson cheers but perhaps we can overcome that error!  Terry Rainey’s van definitely has a nose for the restaurants! 

Good Sunday morning to each of you!  I pray that you will have a great day in the Lord’s house today as you worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! 

God blessed and we had a good day yesterday.  The BBC team led by Pastor Rainey was joined by the Sonlight Puppets ministry from Central Baptist in Knoxville, TN (it hurts to write that!) along with Mike & Carla Parker of Clubhouse Guatemala Ministries.  The puppet team did great and then the BBC folks played games with the children and loved on them. 

On the house building side, four teams continued building houses and they were joined by three cement crews.  When the day was done there were twelve houses basically finished to the point of being ready for cement, seven houses that had gotten cemented, and one house completely finished.  A steady rain came in the afternoon but it wasn’t enough to cause us to have to leave – praise the Lord!  Good day! 

The entire team then went to Paulino’s restaurant near Tecpan for supper.  The place was extremely crowded but they served us very quickly and the food was very good.  We then went to San Jose Chirijuyu for an impromtu worship service.  The congregation sang, one young lady sang a special, and then the quartet sang several songs before Pastor Terry Rainey preached with Juan Marcos serving as his translator.  The church then made a special presentation and our team sang “Amazing Grace” for them. 

We arrived “home” at 9:30PM tired but happy with a good day.  We will meet this morning with Pastor Eddie Burdette bringing a message from the Word and we will then go to Rios de Agua Viva for their worship service.  It is then off to Antigua for dinner and shopping. 

Everyone is doing great.  Keep praying for us. 

I am sorry for the delay in getting this initial entry posted but, for some reason, connecting to the internet has been hit & miss.  I even tried earlier this morning and was knocked off.  Hopefully this one will get posted. 

This team of 51 arrived at the Guatemala airport safely and basically on time Thursday around noon.  The trip from the airport in six vehicles was non-eventful and we were at the mission house around 2:30PM.  We did the usual meeting, went into Chimaltenango for supper, came back for an instructional meeting and then got ready for the first day. 

Yesterday, we had five teams – four construction and one Backyard Bible Club.  Everything went well as four houses were finished up to the point of receiving concrete and two others were started.  We could not do concrete as the materials i.e. sand, stone, mix, weren’t on the site.  We had a little bit of a slow start as we had to help some of the folks from Tennessee i.e. Bret Hart & Donald Pannell learn which end of the hammer to hold but all in all it was a good day building.  Those teams were told by the locals to leave earlier than planned as the rains were approaching and getting the vans out in the rain would probably be next to impossible.  We are down in San Lorenzo and I do mean down!   

Pastor Terry Rainey of Life Aid Ministries led a team to San Jose Chirijuyu to do BBC.  They hosted 150 children and had a great time doing so.  Pastor Terry’s folks do BBC as well as anyone I personally know. 

We then hosted a food/clothes distribution at Rios de Agua Viva for 45 families.  Deidra coordinated that ministry and it went very well too.

Supper was wild!  We had around 80 folks eating and I had kitchen duty.  The difference between having kitchen duty last week and this week is like daylight & dark!  We washed dishes until the wee hours of the morning – or so it seemed.  An assist from Deidra & Lisa was greatly appreciated by me!  However, we got through it as we sang our “kitchen duty” song.  It was so great! 

Today we will leave at 8:30AM or so and will not return to the mission house until approximately 9:30PM.  Building, cement work, BBC with a puppet show, & supper at Paulino’s are all on the agenda.  Pastor Rainey will bring the message this morning.  Tom Burris, Kendall Griffin, & Brandon Baker are leading our musical worship.  “Time with Tavin” will get us started in a right frame of mind!

Pray for us.  Everyone is doing great!   

I apologize for this being a day late and I won’t bother you with the details but we did have internet connection problems this morning. 

What a great team!  I have nothing to say except thank God for each team member.  I am assuming they arrived home safely even though I have heard from any of them with the exception of Almost Daylight. 

This team built 18 houses and distributed provisions to four hundred plus folks.  They were willing to do “whatever it took” to get the job done.  I appreciate their willingness to serve.  The Pastors, the worship leaders, the cooks, the summer staff, and all team members are to be commended for a job well done. 

April McNiel asked the group to pray for me and I will simply say the Lord answered those prayers.  I appreciate the team members and their prayers. 

I got to go as Soy is showing “Tavin” movies and I can’t concentrate because of Soy’s laughing.  Thanks to each team member for being a blessing to the people of Guatemala and to me personally. 

Well, we can make plans but God orders our steps.  He does all things well.  We left early yesterday morning to “finish” the house building for this trip.  We were immediately delayed because the person who was supposed to show us where the houses were located was not available.  (At this point, my attitude was not nearly as great as that of our team members!)  However, we finally got started with four building teams, one finishing team, and two concrete teams.  We were on a roll! 

Twenty-two of our team members left at noon to visit/see Casa Aleluya.  No problem as they were going to return to SDX and help us “finish” the houses.  However, around 1:30PM the heavens opened and the rains came in a major fashion along with severe lightning.  We waited for about an hour and a half before deciding this wasn’t going to stop any time soon and the ground had gotten too wet to continue with the concrete process.  So, we got back to the mission house around 3:30PM.  I was a bit disappointed that we did not “finish” the houses as we only had one more day with this team.  I was more disappointed in my attitude from earlier in the day but God has forgiven me for that blunder on my part! 

An impromptu meeting was called for 5:30PM and we were going to eat at 6:30PM.  We sang, folks shared, and then God showed up.  Again, it was one of those that you had to have been there experiences.  The five pastors on this trip ministered to the folks and we concluded that time on our knees in a circle of prayer in the middle of the room.  Special, special time!  April McNiel then asked the group to pray for me and they graciously did that with Pastor Mel voicing that prayer.  Special to me!  That worship service ended sometime after 7:00PM but no one cared. 

Jack, Carolyn, & Olga Ciak came for a visit and we were able to present them with our 2009 VBS offering.  They were grateful.  They are good friends of GRACE Ministries and I look forward to their being involved with us for years to come. 

So, it is now 5:30AM and the men are about to head to SDX to “finish” those houses.  The women will join us around 9:00AM to begin the dedication process.  Pray that this will be a blessed day with many folks hearing the Gospel. 

The Lord blessed and we had a good day yesterday.  The weather was awesome!  We had to leave SDX early because we were doing village ministry.  However, we continued to make progress in completing the 18 houses we are committed to build.  Exactly half have now received the concrete and we have four more to be built.  So, today needs to be a huge day for us in the area of building.  We have been slowed by the fact that we are in a large town and the houses are not close to one another.  We are also building in some very tight spots. 

We had a great time of ministry in San Jose Chirijuyu last night.  What a special group of people.  We saw 91 families which equals over 400 folks.  We then enjoyed some wonderful fellowship & food at Paulino’s. 

It is our hope to send some folks to Casa Aleluya this afternoon but that may have to wait until tomorrow. 

Pray for us.  Everyone is well!  God is good!

Good morning!  We are getting an earlier start (6:30AM for morning devotion) as the rain could be problematic today and we have a busy afternoon/evening.  More about that in a moment.

Last night, Pastor Mel Hacker preached the Word to us and he did a good job of challenging us to be used of God to get the Word out!  He has certainly been a blessing to this team.  He was preceded by Doug, April, & Jaclyn leading us in our musical worship.  Good stuff!

We had a special called business meeting before last night’s service and several things happened.  Randy & Norma Collins, Callie Chappelle, & Lisa Harvey were voted into the choir while Brandon Baker was voted onto the praise team with his guitar.  They had choir practice last night after the service.  The group also voted unanimously that Tony Hacker cannot join the choir!  I’m not sure why?

The choir will lead us in our musical worship this morning and then Pastor Doug will bring a message from the Word.  We then will head to SDX to continue constructing the houses.  This afternoon we will go to San Jose Chirijuyu (Feb ’09 team) to distribute provisions.  After that, we will eat at Paulino’s since we will basically be next door anyway. 

Pray for us.  Bro. Jerry is keeping me posted on the happenings at Friendship.  We are praying for Pastor Erick Folkers and the team working on the Coast this week. 

We began yesterday morning with a time of worship led by Doug Chappelle followed by a message from the Word.  Dr. Mike Clark of Casa Para Ninos Aleluya was kind enough to take time from his busy schedule to come share with us.  It was certainly a joy to have Miss Dottie & him with us. 

Our day in SDX began with a block party which was co-hosted by Clubhouse Guatemala & GRACE Ministries.  That was a wonderful time which was especially meaningful to many of our team members.  I appreciate Mike Parker and the folks from Riverdale Baptist even though they had on some ungodly garb! 

Around noon we began to build and the rains came and didn’t let up.  However, our team members didn’t complain, worked hard, and came home very muddy.  I am not sure how many houses are completed up to the point of waiting on cement but I do know five have now been completed with cement. 

Pastor Mel Hacker preached at Palabra Viva yesterday afternoon and did an excellent job.  April McNiel & Jaclyn Weaver went and led the musical worship.  Those girls can bellow! 

We had an impromptu meeting prior to supper and it was a special time.  April & Jaclyn led us in a couple of worship songs and then folks began to share what God had shown them during the first three days of this trip.  Folks wept and it was one of those you had to have been there type things.  It is always sweet when God shows up! 

We attended the 7:00AM service at Alpha & Omega and it was good.  Nice message on The Second Coming!  It was then off to Antigua for shopping & lunch at Las Antorchas.  About half of the team came home to pray while the others are shopping some more. 

I will update in the morning about tonight’s worship service.  Pastor Mel Hacker will be bringing the message.  Doug, April, & Jaclyn will lead our musical worship.  I hope they don’t do too well or Pastor Mel may have a spell! 

Random observations – Jaclyn Weaver can flat out eat!  Callie Chappelle has some curly hair!  Stan Gordon doesn’t pay attention!  Janet Benavidez loves to talk on the phone late at night!  Kerry Woods loves shopping in the market!  Homemade baked beans are better than the canned ones!  I cannot predict the weather very accurately!  Charging to enter a city i.e. Antigua ought to be against the law! 

Happy Fathers’ Day!  I am heading out the door for a 7:00AM church service so I will update this afternoon.  Suffice it to say that all is well and we had a good day yesterday in spite of some serious rain.  Everyone is doing great and displaying great attitudes!  God is good! 

We will be praying for the services in our respective churches today.  Pray for us!