We had a good final day and we thank God for His blessings.  However, I personally feel that the leader of this team didn’t do a very good job of making the last day one to remember and I have already spoken to him about that very matter!  The team members maintained excellent attitudes and had a excellent spirit all week long and that is something to remember!  I can say “thank you” to thirty-nine folks for being absolutely wonderful! 

One team poured the cement in the fifteenth house while two other teams dedicated all fifteen houses to the glory of God.  The dedication involved a time of sharing about Jesus, a prayer, the presentation of a gift bag, and many photos.  This is an important part of the process and I appreciate Shari Compagner and Mark Mast for leading these dedications.

A fourth team went to Rios de Agua Viva Church and finished the painting which included the inside of the auditorium, the hallway in the bathroom area, the exterior front which included painting a new sign, and finishing the front of the parsonage.  Those folks did an awesome job and the building looks brand new.  Pastor Walter Aju was bursting with pride over the upgrade to the facilities.

A fifth team went to the seminary in the afternoon to finish painting the exterior of the gymnasium.  This is where the story gets a bit interesting as this team consisted of Matt DeYoung, Don Ricci, and Ron Stenning.  Gene Davis and I dropped them off around 2:30PM, went and purchased some more paint and brought it back to them, and I told them that we would be back as they had no transportation, no phone or phone numbers, and no real idea as to the way back to the mission house.  They finished the paint job around 3:30 – 3:45PM.  Fortunately, I did remember to have someone pick them up.  Unfortunately, it was 6:00PM before I remembered meaning it was 6:30PM before the van got there to bring them back!  Those three were so gracious in their attitudes – “blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape!”   Thanks Don, Ron, & Matt for being so flexible and forgiving! 

Tom Compagner and Mark Mast took about twenty of the team members to visit Amor del Nino (Love the Child) which is the children’s home run by Steve & Shyrel Osborn.  They then stopped by Casa Aleluya which is the children’s home run by Mike & Dottie Clark.  They seemed to enjoy these visits as they left at 1:30PM and didn’t get back until 7:30PM or so. 

The evening was spent enjoying another delicious meal and having great fellowship with many guests and the fellow team members.  I left the mission house around 10:30PM or so and the games were in full force so I would imagine Friday’s flights will see some folks catching up on some sleep! 

Lord willing, there will be a final entry either Friday night or at some point on Saturday.  I have a funeral to preach on Saturday morning so my initial time home will be spent ministering to the Betty McDonald family.  I so appreciate Belvin and his understanding as he has waited until Saturday in order for me to be home for the service.  Pray for the McDonald family.  Pray for us as we board Continental (Alabama, Canada, Louisiana, & Texas) for a 1:25PM flight and the Michiganders plus Brad Bensinger (Troy) board Delta for a 1:58PM flight.  Again, your prayers are so very important to us and we deeply appreciate them! 

Our Wednesday was a full and productive day.  After our worship/Bible study time, we sent a team to continue painting at the seminary, a team to paint the interior of the auditorium at Rios de Agua Viva Church, two teams to mix/pour cement, a team to build the 15th house, and a team to complete house number fourteen. 

The house building team was led by Matt DeYoung and consisted of our other six high school students and one college student.  They built a nice house!  All fifteen houses have now been built with fourteen of those being completely finished.  The fifteenth one will receive cement today. 

We left at 3:30PM to drive to Comalapa to distribute food and clothing to one hundred families.  This is the same town where Bro. Jerry’s team ministered during June.  A group of ladies sang while our folks readied for the distribution.  The Pastor then brought a message encouraging the folks to receive Jesus as their personal Savior.  Our team then distributed the provisions to the families and Mark Mast gave each family a Gospel tract as they left the building.  A good evening of ministry! 

Wayne DeYoung suggested that we put gravel on the drive from the gate to the paved portion.  The drive has gotten really rough and is very slippery during the rainy season.    So, the past two days have seen us unload twenty cubic meters of gravel and place it in the holes.  The Lord has blessed as we have been getting rain for the past couple of days/nights which is helping the gravel pack into the ground.  Our original plan was to pave all the way down the hill but this is much, much more economically friendly.  Thanks Wayne! 

Danny LeBlanc replaced the carburetor on our mower yesterday.  I mention this only because it is about the only productive thing Danny has done on this trip and it took him all day to accomplish this feat!  Thanks Danny!

We are down to our last day which means a day of house dedications plus finishing up some painting at RAV and GBS. 

This team has been great.  I apologize for the fact that our VOIP phone has been down.  Dean Parker and the folks at Callis Communications in Mobile have been great in their efforts to correct the problem.  It now appears that the problem has to do with the internet provider here and Jim Dornbush and Juan Marcos Ruiz have been working diligently to restore phone service too.  We have survived without a phone!

Jan Kapenga’s hand is better but she did suffer a pretty severe burn as she has one huge blister and a number of smaller blisters.  She has simply kept on going as she has done well in helping prepare the meals.  Thanks to those who have prayed for her. 

As always, thank you for reading these entries and thank you for praying for us. 

Today was another good day.  The morning began with our time in the Word as Mark Mast brought us a good word from Matthew 14 and Mark 6 about the feeding of the five thousand men. 

We sent a team to the Guatemalan Bible Seminary to paint the exterior of their gymnasium and the interior of an office.  They had a productive day! 

We had three teams building and two teams doing cement.  Another five houses were completely finished, three more are ready for the concrete and one is almost ready.  So, ten houses are now completely finished. 

We also had a team conduct a VBS in the village where we are building.  Pastor Mario Monroy brought four of his young people with him and they did some evangelistic work in the village plus helped with the VBS.  That was a huge plus for us. 

We hosted Jack, Carolyn, & Ashley Ciak along with the 34 girls from the Esperanza Abajo dorm at Casa Aleluya for a time of recreation and food late this afternoon and evening.  The girls seemed to have a good time and we presented each girl with a small gift for Christmas. 

Unfortunately, Jan Kapenga suffered a steam burn on both hands tonight while preparing supper.  Laurie King is taking care of her but one hand was burned fairly significantly.  Please pray for her. 

I am sitting in the meeting room as Jim Dornbush is working on getting some pictures uploaded.  There are games being played all around.  This group has certainly had good fellowship. 

Please continue to pray for us.  Our phone is still not working but everyone, with the exception of Jan K, is doing well.  Thanks for your prayers! 

Sunday was a good day for our team!  The day began late (8:00AM) with a time of musical worship led once again by Kristen DeYoung & Miriam Mast and a message from the Word by Brad Bensinger.  (Brad is the Campus Minister at Troy University in Alabama and he will be leading a group of his college students here in March)  The girls and Brad did a great job of leading/feeding us spiritually. 

The Wayne DeYoung family shared a message in song during the morning devotional time and also during the worship service at Rios de Agua Viva.  Wow, that family can sing!  The neat thing is that they are always willing to minister through song which is a blessing.  (Eric, I now realize that you carry that group but lets keep that between us!) 

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, we went to Rios de Agua Viva for the morning worship service.  I was blown away when they made two presentations.  First, they presented a framed certificate of appreciation to GRACE Ministries for their support in the building of the church’s new parsonage.  Second, November is “Pastor Appreciation Month” in Guatemala and they presented me with a beautiful painting of the town square in Chimaltenango.  Pastor Walter Aju, the deacons, and the leaders of the women’s group all participated in the presentations.  Tom & Shari Compagner joined in the receiving of the certificate of appreciation as Tom is on our Board of Advisors and I wanted our Northern friends i.e. Michigan & Canada represented.  Thank you Pastor Walter & the members of Rios de Agua Viva for being so thoughtful! 

Missionary Mark Mast from Canada brought the message in the service as Eugene Dighero translated for him.  He preached from James 1:16-18 and God used him to speak His Word to us. 

After the service, we went directly to Las Antorchas for dinner.  One of the employess at LA passed away last Friday and four of her daughters also work at LA.  The owner, Phillippe Rambert, shared this with me and asked us to pray for them.  The four daughters joined us and we offered a prayer of support for them.  We were thankful for this ministry opportunity.  The team members did the shopping thing after dinner and   they seemed to have a good time. 

The evening saw Cesar from the seminary and three of his friends come to the mission house to share an evening of musical worship with us.  They set their equipment up on the parking area and we enjoyed a good time of worship in song.  Thanks to Tico Vargas for making this happen. 

I am hearing from some of you about no pictures being uploaded.  Deacon Dewayne or Ben Vickers, please send me an e-mail giving me instructions as to how best get some pictures on our website.  We will then do our best to upload some Monday night. 

We are still having problems with our VOIP phone so this remains our connection with family and friends back home.  Sorry about the problem but please know that everyone is doing well.  Please keep praying! 

The Lord blessed and we had a good day of ministry today.  Our day began with breakfast prepared by two or three of our men.  That was followed by our morning devotion with the musical worship being led by Kristen DeYoung accompanied by Miriam Mast on the guitar and keyboard.  Those girls did an awesome job!

We then traveled about three miles from the mission house into Chimaltenango to begin building houses.  We had four teams and were able to accomplish much as we completely finished five houses and got three others finished up to the point of waiting on the concrete to be poured.  This team is pretty incredible as we actually knocked off around 3:30 – 4:00PM because they worked so efficiently.  The houses are well constructed too. 

A group of our folks came back around 2:30PM to host a VBS at Palabra Viva beginning at 3:30PM.  They had about 100 children attend the service and reported that it went very well. 

Lorraine Brouwer, Shari Compagner, & Jan Kapenga worked in the kitchen all day and had a wonderful supper prepared for us.  We were joined by about 25 guests and everyone enjoyed the meal and the fellowship. 

Mario, Amuy, Katherina, & Josiah Monroy were four of our supper guests.  I was on the kitchen clean up team today so Mario & Amuy waited until I had finished for us to talk.  They are a sweet, godly couple/family and are believing God is leading them to do missions work in Spain.  We had a good time of discussion. 

We have internet service but for some reason our phone is not working.  So, this becomes the main source of communication for our folks back home.  Again, I plan on blogging nightly so keep up with us through this means. 

I hope you will be in church somewhere tomorrow.  Thanks for praying for us!   

It is day one but in some ways it seems like day two or three.  The remaining 27 members of our team arrived safely this afternoon coming from Louisiana, Michigan, and  Texas.  Thanks to Continental & Delta for getting them here on time. 

The vans rolled in between 3:00 – 3:30PM and soon the luggage was dispersed to the respective rooms and the storage area (ministry supplies).  We had a brief meeting and then took about thirty minutes before leaving for Chimaltenango and supper.  Folks exchanged money, ate, and enjoyed a time of fellowship. 

The C8 actually met us at the restaurant as they returned from a day of climing the volcano.  They seemed to have had a good time. 

So, now folks are winding down and getting ready for bed as we have breakfast at 6:00AM tomorrow.  Our worship time will begin at 7:00AM and then we will begin building houses in Chimaltenango. 

Pray for us as we are 40 folks from Canada and four states seeking to become one team to the glory of God!  I am excited to see what God will do in our midst during these days. 

I imagine that my posting will be in the evening each day so please check us out daily!  Hope you have a great evening and Roll Tide!  (Bret Hart – I am sharing the apartment with a die hard LSWho fan (Danny LeBlanc) which may be cause for me to break out my Razorbacks t-shirt)