Grace Missions Blog

Friday, February 5 – our day began with the morning worship/Bible study time.  Carla Mast, Laura Nyitray & Juan Marcos Ruiz led the musical praise.  Good job!  Evangelist Michael Mason brought us a word from the Word.  Good stuff.

The doctors left early heading to their two appointments.  They said both meetings were productive.  I personally appreciate Dr. Mike Clark taking the time to meet with them.  What a gracious man!

While I do not have the exact numbers, I am told that the medical team had a good day of doing ministry at the feeding center.  They were planning to build a medical file for each of the seventy five children in the center.  The feeding center is such a valuable part of GRACE Ministries.  The members of this team know they can spend as much time as they like at the center.  It trumps the medical clinics and the construction.  Important!

A small building team drove the one hour and forty five minutes or so to a village.  What a great crew!  They completely finished (minus doors & windows) four houses which means the concrete was poured too.  Two other houses were completely finished up to the point of being ready to receive concrete.  This team did not even get started until almost noon and yet they got a lot done.  God thing!

Supper was followed by fellowship.  Looking forward to tomorrow.  Thanks for praying.  Thanks for reading.  Blessings!

Yesterday/last night marked the arrival of thirty seven new folks joining the six of us already here to make up the second half of GRACE Ministries team #1A.  Those thirty seven arrived in three waves – 1:30PM, 8:30PM & 10:30PM.  I met the afternoon group, Derek Draft & David Scholz met the first evening group and Nick Davis met the last group.  I appreciate Derek, David & Nick going “above & beyond” to help with this vital part of the trip.

So, our day begins with our morning worship time at 7:00AM.  Evangelist Michael is our team pastor while Carla Mast will be leading our musical worship.  John Gissal will be our guest soloist for the day!

We have one group of medical folks that will be in two meetings which will basically consume their day.  Another group of medical folks led by Lisa Bomers & Laura Nyitray (ok, so we had no one else to lead!) will host a medical clinic.  The rest of the team will head West and begin building houses.  Those folks will be led by Rick Bradley, Dean Kapenga, Paul Schab and Freddie Turrentine.  (Actually, Samuel Acan and I will be leading this team but it makes those four feel good to see their name in lights!)  Tony Gettig will be capturing everything on camera.  Jan Kapenga will be cooking supper.  All set!

Pray for us.  Hopefully we can recap the day in another report tonight.

How often have you made plans only to have those plans get changed?  We were told that because of a protest we would not be able to travel West until after lunch on Wednesday.  We delayed everything and was set to have our share time at 9:00AM when the call came that the roads were clear.  So, we shifted gears and quickly got everything ready to leave by 10:00AM.  We had zero problems in our travels to and from the village.  Thank you Jesus!

We divided into five dedication teams with each team taking six houses to dedicate.  The dedications went extremely well.  Dr. Rex told me that a couple of the young men from Danville Baptist led in their dedications and did a really nice job.  The people in this new village were very gracious and grateful.  Pastor Juan was a huge help.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Dr. Ashley Holladay and her assistants, Lori Bailey & Dena Free, pulled around fifty teeth Tuesday and Wednesday combined.  The patients were families involved in the feeding center.  I appreciate Ashley doing this for those people.

After lunch, we went down to the feeding center and had our share time.  Why the feeding center?  The upper room was very hot and we sat in the shade between east side of the building and the bank.  Very pleasant.  This group was not very talkative.  Hopefully, God did a great work inside each of us.

Seventy five percent (33) of the team members left for the airport at 9:00PM.  They have a 12:20AM flight.  The remaining twenty five percent (11) will leave the mission house at 3:00AM on Thursday.  Pray for these forty four folks as they travel.

This team has been great!  Really great!  Pastor Joe David, worship pastor Rex Looney, deacon Ross Genzink, Sunday School teacher Soy, and a host of others have all done excellent in helping lead this team.  Perhaps the greatest of all of these was Ellis!  The man is amazing!  Absolutely amazing!

The Lord blessed this team.  We give Him thanks!  We thank you for praying and for following us on this blog.  It has been good!  To God be the glory!

The team enjoyed a productive Tuesday.  We had our usual morning time of worship and time in the Word before beginning our day.  Those times in the upper room are always special and I thank God for them.

The team went to the local dump to share some food and to just love on the people who were working there.  They shared the Gospel and encouraged the people there.

The team then made their way to the Casa Alleluya Children’s Home for a tour.  Adam Clemmons began the tour and then Dr. Mike Clark took over.  It was a very informative time as they saw the new hospital being built and spend some time in the dialysis house.

The team then divided up with a group coming back to the mission house to sort clothes and get ready for the night of distributing those clothes and food in the village where they have been building houses this trip.

Everyone else went back to the village to finish the houses which took about two hours.  The other team members arrived with the food and clothes and one hundred families were blessed with those items.

Today, 8/5, is testing our “flexible” attitudes.  There is going to be a major protest by the teachers all over Guatemala this morning.  They will literally shut down many of the major highways.  We have opted to spend the morning in our share time and then go out after lunch to dedicate the thirty houses that have been built.  This is the plan “if” there are no problems and the highways are clear in a timely manner.  We shall see.

Pray for this team.  Thank you for checking on them!