Better late than never – I had kitchen clean up duty today and walked out of the kitchen at 10:00PM.  We had a great meal but the clean up was a killer! 

Our day began with a devotion and then we sent everyone except the cooks out to build houses in Itzapa.  We completed five up to the cement stage and completely finished a sixth one.  We had a terrible rain storm around 1:00PM but that was okay as we had plans to leave at 2:00PM anyway. 

We did a food and clothes distribution tonight in a town west of Chimaltenango.  It was a good evening as we ministered to 100 familes and had 381 folks come through the line.

Pastor Terry Rainey preached in chapel at the local seminary this morning.  I appreciate his willingness to minister to these students. 

Our plans for tomorrow call for more building of houses plus beginning the tile work in the parsonage of the Agua Viva Church.  I really believe, weather permitting, we will really put a dent in the house building tomorrow.    Pray for us and we will keep updating the blog. 

Happy Independence Day!  Although we are two countries removed to the south of the USA, our thoughts today will be on the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.  I am proud to be an American. 

Here is a recap of yesterday – we leave the church at 1:55AM arriving at the Pensacola airport at 3:20AM where we are first in line at the Delta counter.  Check in proceeds smoothly until one Delta agent and one TSA agent decide we cannot check food – especially frozen.  They then change course and decide we can check some frozen food and the other has to be carried on.  Kevin Vice now has 30 #’s of shrimp in his carry on luggage as others have various foods with them too.  This whole process of exchanging food, carry on bags, et cetera almost costs us as the last few of us literally have about five minutes to spare before the plane takes off. 

We have a smooth flight to Atlanta where we meet up with Pastor Terry Rainey, Pastor Eddie Burdette, 12 others from South Carolina, and Chris & Pat White from Missouri.  We arrive in Guatemala City shortly before noon and leave the airport a little before 1:00PM.  The traffic is congested due to road construction and we finally get to the mission house a little after 3:00PM after a brief stop at Casa Aleluya to meet with some folks from Tennessee. 

We have a brief meeting where we make room assignments and then unload the food and folks check out the surroundings.  We then go to the bank to exchange money and to Pollo Campero for supper.  Shortly after our return from supper, the place grows silent as most everyone hits the proverbial sack. 

Our missions committee meets for almost two hours discussing and praying for GRACE Ministries.  That is a spiritual time and I appreciate those folks, their wisdom, and their insights. 

Bernard Suthoff, Claude Landry, and William Sessions are on Continental and miss their flight in Houston.  I am writing this update shortly after 3:00AM and I honestly don’t know if they arrived on the later flight or not.  Oh well, if you had to lose three team members. . . (j/k)  Hopefully they are here somewhere! 

My plans are to post an update (if the internet is up) from today’s activities after we return back to the mission house tonight.  We will be joined in the work today by 20 folks from the Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, TN.  (This is a true mission trip as we minister to that group of foreigners!)  It should be fun!  Check back tonight for the update!