Grace Missions Blog

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) 

As I write this entry, it is 5:35AM on Friday morning.  Both the Grand Rapids and the Mobile teams made it to their respective airports last night without a glitch.  We thank God for another great day of travel as their were no delays or problems.  That was true going and coming so I have to give Delta credit for a job well done on this trip. 

The final report shows that we built and dedicated fifteen houses, hosted a three day VBS at Rios de Agua Viva, made major strides (electrical & tile) in getting the parsonage at RAV ready for Pastor Walter and his family to move in, had some quality visits with Amor del Nino to open the door for a partnership with a Christian school in Michigan, did some work at GMO (Bernard Cohen) in Panimaquin, distributed food & clothes to one hundred families, continued to build our relationship with the boys from Vencedores (Casa Aleluya) as well as the one with President Tico Vargas from the seminary, and had great fellowship among our team members.  Of course we also saw the engagement of Kira Ellens & Daryn Kuipers which was a first for any of our GRACE teams.  Who knows?  This could be trend setting – can you say Jwayne & Lindsey?  By the way, we also planned the December ’07 wedding of Jennifer Wetterer & Jordon Zirlott – it is going to be awesome with a chimney, reindeer, bridesmaids in gift boxes, etc – it is going to be awesome and you are invited! 

Derrick & Jodie Wilkerson are literally days away (8/19) from coming home after their eighteen months as our interim resident missionaries.  I have seen a growth in their lives and thank them for another good week of ministry as they were a big help to this team.  Pray for Derrick & Jodie as he resumes/completes his seminary studies in New Orleans over these next nine months and as they reapply with the IMB of the SBC for appointment as international missionaries. 

Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you to those who gave financially to make the ministry portion of this trip possible.  Thank you for helping us take the Gospel to the precious people of Guatemala.  Pray that we will be faithful to share that same Gospel with our family, neighbors, co-workers, and friends as we work in and through our respective church families.  God is good and we give Him the glory for all He did these past eight days through the GRACE ’07 IV trip.   

The Lord blessed us with a good final day as we dedicated all fifteen houses that this team built this week.  We dedicated houses in loving memory of Jimmy Arnold, George Brown, Mary Ann Glover, & Stan Strickler.  This was a special time for all of us. 

We basically finished the work in the parsonage at Rios de Agua Viva.  Pastor Walter and family are now simply waiting for the door and windows to be installed which was supposed to happen today but now is supposed to be tomorrow – welcome to Guatemala. 

Our team members mowed the lawn at the mission house, washed the vehicles, sorted clothes, and organized the tool boxes in order for them to be ready for the next team. 

Tonight after supper, most to the team hurriedly loaded into the vans and headed toward Antigua to get a close up view of the volcano named Fuego.  That volcano was really spewing tonight and we got a good look from the mission house too. 

We are leaving the mission house early in the morning so this will be my last post until I do a final recap tomorrow night or Friday.  Or, if the mother of the bride insists it could be Monday – it is wedding week!  Pray for us to have safety in travel all day long.  Thanks for keeping up with us via this means! 

Yesterday was a good day as we did a variety of things in bringing the work portion of this trip to a close.  Allen Glover & Ryan Miersma went back to the parsonage at Rios de Agua Viva and completed the electrical work – praise the Lord!  Daryn Kuipers & Rachel DeYoung spent the day there finishing the tile work and doing the last of the grouting.  So, we basically have to do some clean up and Ross Genzink is going to install the kitchen sink and shower head and it should be ready to move in.  The windows and doors are supposed to be installed this afternoon. 

To be honest, I didn’t get a report on yesterday’s VBS but assume things went well.  Those ladies have done a nice job in preparing for, and leading, this ministry opportunity. We will have one more day of VBS this afternoon.   

Derrick Wilkerson did a nice job of leading our ministry to the fifty boys and four jefes (bosses) from Vencedores.  Wayne DeYoung and Troy Brock did a lot of driving yesterday to allow our folks to visit Casa Aleluya and then transporting the boys back and forth.  Special thanks to Dr. Mike Clark for allowing our team to visit and Tico Vargas for allowing the boys to visit the seminary to play soccer.  The boys had a great time and finished off twenty-four pizzas as though they were nothing and followed that with ice cream. 

Tyler Compagner & Rob Miersma went to Panimaquin (the place where wedding engagements happen) and finished some work on the house for the missionary scheduled to arrive in a few days.   

We had a small group go to La Canoa and completely finish the houses.  All fifteen houses have received the cement, have the fronts on, and are good to go.  We will dedicate those houses today. 

Jill Ellens and Margie Engle basically came on this trip to gather information about Amor del Nino as their Christian school will adopt this ministry for the upcoming school year.  Derrick took them back to visit with Steve & Shyrel yesterday to gather more information.  Ironically, in the course of their conversation, Steve & Margie found out that they attended the same high school in Philadelphia.  It is a small, small world!

Today we will do the house dedications and ready for our trip home.  We will leave the mission house around 5:00AM as our flight departs at 9:25AM.  The Grand Rapids group is scheduled to arrive home at 8:19PM and the Mobile group at 7:16PM.  Pray that today will be blessed as we remember some special people in the lives of our team members, host another day of VBS, finish the work in the parsonage, and ready the mission house for our departure.   We have had a good trip thus far and are thankful to God for His many blessings.  God is good!   

Good morning and thank you for taking the time to check up on our GRACE team.  We will begin our day in about an hour with our morning devotion.  Plans then call for some folks to go back to the parsonage to hopefully finish the electrical installation, finish the grout in the hallway, and do a little more tile work around the glass blocks, the walls, and replace a broken tile or two.  We will also have a group going to La Canoa to finish the cement work and putting the fronts on the remaining few houses.  A group will be going to Amor del Nino to visit with Steve & Shyrel Osborn and another group to Casa Aleluya to take the tour. 

This afternoon we will host the boys from Vencedores.  There will be around fifty boys, ages 9 – 12 years old, and they literally love to come to the casa blanco.  They will run around these hills, play soccer, and enjoy a ton of pizza.  We began doing this when Danny & Angie LeBlanc were their dorm parents and we have just continued the tradition.  It is always fun to host this energetic group of boys! 

I pray that you will have a good day.  Please continue to pray for us.  Also, would you pray for Amuy Monroy as she is in the hospital and has been having contractions regularly.  She is in her 28th week of pregnancy and the doctors want her to get to her 34th week.  Her baby weighs around three pounds now but the doctors are concerned that his lungs are not developed enough to enter this world.  So, she will remain in the hospital for another day or two and then will be on complete bed rest.  Pray for Amuy, Mario, and their daughter, Katherina.  Thanks!

She said YES!  It is late here (10:30PM) and this is my first attempt at a post today.  The reason?  Daryn Kuipers proposed to Kira Ellens Sunday afternoon in Panimaquin and I couldn’t share the news until they had the opportunity to call some of their folks/friends in Michigan.  The timing of the engagement was a complete surprise to Kira and was made possible thanks to a huge assist from Rita Arriola and the cooperative spirit of Bernard Cohen.  They left Panimaquin and drove to El Sereno restaurant in Antigua for a romantic evening meal.  They got back to the mission house around 9:00PM and it was joy, joy, joy from that moment on! 

We had a great Sunday with a service at Rios de Agua Viva in the morning, lunch at Las Antorchas, and an evening service in the seminary chapel. 

Today has been a busy day and a small group of us literally just walked in the door as we have been grouting the tile in the parsonage.  Here is a brief recap of today:  Derrick & Jodie Wilkerson took five others to Amor del Nino.  Ross & Allen led a team to the parsonage.  Allen & Ryan Miersma got temporary power on which allowed us to work tonight.  Jill Ellens & Margie Engle led an afternoon VBS at Rios de Agua Viva which was attended by approximately 50 children.  Daryn Kuipers led a team to La Canoa where they built the final one of the fifteen houses.  Another team poured concrete in two and a half more houses leaving two and a half to be done.  Wayne DeYoung led a team to Panimaquin where they worked on a house for a new staff member who is scheduled to arrive later this month.  Everyone seemed to have a good day and the attitudes have remained super!  We thank God for a good day. 

Thank you for praying for us.