Day 5, Thursday

After yesterday's incredibly early wake-up call, it felt good to sleep in until 6:00 today.  Morning began with a return to Casa Brava and our breakfast buffet.  Then we headed to the orphanage with a super heavy schedule for work projects.  Before we could make great headway, we needed supplies, both for painting and for the dropped ceiling.  Once those arrived, we began working with a vengeance.  Dividng into teams, we tackled making progress in the smaller classroom, and, in fact, completed all but the perimeter of the room.  Sometimes keeping the little ones out (those under three) provided quite a challenge.

Over in the dormitories, some completed the work in the younger boys area.  Another group tackled the area for older girls.  The challenge here lay in the fact that, with small rooms, we needed to remove furniture like shelving for the girls' clothes and relocate these in a storage area down the hall. Unfortunately, this means that the girls may experience some difficulty in finding their clothes as well as other belongings when they prepare for school in the morning!

At this time, much painting remains, and so it will be all hands on deck tomorrow morning.  Completing of the dropped ceiling should move along quickly, although fluorescent lights need electrical hook-up in each of the classrooms in order for us to say that we completed the work. In addition, tomorrow means closing activities, including the purchase of the food needed for our barbeque tomorrow night.

But we get ahead of ourselves.  After dinner tonight, we returned to the orphanage for "glow stick" night and bonfire.  Happily, the weather remained good,with no rain,even though the forecast indicated that we should expect rain.  In fact, during VBS this afternoon we heard some rumbles of thunder, but the Lord spared us from even a sprinkle.

Today in VBS spirited singing describes the opening activity, followed by Bible lesson and craft.  As always, punch and cookies bring smiles on oodles of kids' (big and small, oung and old) faces.  As each day this week passes, we enjoy the love and affecion of the children.

Back to tonight:  the boys and girls love the glow sticks,and we even gave them glow balls and balloons, some of which glowed.  They enjoyed these while the fire grew ready for the roasting of sausages and marshmallows.  All of this provided time for special bonding.  Before we left for our hotel, Fundacion Salvacion unveiled a plaque honoring East Martin for eight years of work and service at the orphanage.  Love and appreciation flowed from them to us and from us back to them.  More hugs and heartfelt thanks spontaneously came from the kids,a very touching time for us all.

Tomorrow brings us to the final day in Huehue, always bittersweet.  For all of us, parting is sad, yet in the Lord we enjoy a wonderful bond  Work projects in the morning, followed by playtime with the boys and girls in the afternoon and into the evening.  They will hold a program for us, and we will give them the gifts we have for them.  Then, barbeque time comes, followed by fireworks, and those tough goodbyes.  Yet we leave in the wonderful love of God.

Saturday will bring us to our rest and reflection day including a boat ride on Lake Atitlan and a time to pick up souvenirs to bring back home.  We will cookour own dinner on the grill, play pingpong, as well as enjoy a hot tub and a pool for those of hardy stock, as the water generally tends toward the chilly side.  We stay at Coco's Village, where we will have our own house.  However, we will not access wifi there, so we will not be able to report anything for the blog on Saturday.

Then, on Sunday, we return to the United States via a bus ride to Guatemala City from the Lake, and flights first to Atlanta, and then another from there to Grand Rapids, with expected arrival around 10:30 Sunday night.  We look forward to sharing our experiences and excitement!

Days 3 and 4

Tuesday slipped away incredibly quickly. Needing to be on board our bus by 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, a late evening blog entry didn't happen.

So, first, a recap of Tuesday's activities.  We enjoyed another great breakfast and time of devotions at the hotel before heading to the orphanage at 8:00 a.m.  The orphanage is quiet on weekday mornings, as all school age children begin classes at 7:00 a.m.

Work projects continued, and the painting of the young girls dorm room, including bathrooms was completed. The room was transformed to clean, brightly colored walls.  The dropped ceiling in the larger study room was nearly completed.  Many expressions of thanks and "oohs and awes" were heard as children entered the dorm room and study room.

School is out at 1:00 p.m., and we served the eagerly anticipated pizza lunch to the children and staffs of Fundacion Salvacion and the School of Hope.  Forty six large Domino's pizzas and 18 three liter bottles of soft drinks were delightfully consumed. The record I heard of for most pieces consumed by one of the 30 - 50 pound Guatemalan children was seven! Ashley was so busy serving, that's she only had one piece of pizza before it was all devoured.

Our VBS time, scheduled from 2:00 to 4:00 o'clock, included a skit of the Good Samaritan.  Pastor Derek was beat up and robbed, and left to die, but the Good Samaritan provided compassion and mercy, demonstrating how we should act. After VBS, we were given an extra hour to interact with the children, playing games, and receiving their smiles and hugs.

Following dinner Tuesday evening, we again engaged in a time of devotions and sharing highlights of the day.  Also, there were many hearty laughs reflecting on some of the humorous things of the day.

Wednesday, day 4, saw us arriving at the orphanage a little past 5:00 a.m. We prepared fresh fruit dishes, and filled cereal cups. Breakfast for the children is at 6:00 a.m. We served the fruit, cereals, milk, and orange juice to around 100 children.  Cereal is considered a treat, as they seldom have what we take for granted. The chocolate flavored cereals were most popular.

Work projects proceeded well.  The dropped ceiling in the larger study room was completed, and work well underway on the smaller study room. The painting of the younger boys dorm room also is progressing well.

VBS included a skit on the fiery furnace, enthusiastically received by the children.  Also, children and adults alike much enjoy our opening songs with motions.

We spent two hours after dinner autographing the backs of our team photograph, with the intent of giving a photo to every orphanage child on Friday. We again closed our day with devotions and sharing.

We experiences God's presence and blessings every day.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Day 2

The Adventure Begins

Monday morning found us up and at it early.  After one full day of travel and one full day of relaxing, the early morning wakeup call was a bit "alarmng."  We arrived at Fundacion Salvacion and began working on our projects, the dropped celling in the larger classroom and painting in the girls' dormitory. After a slow start, both projects are on track.  Things in Guatemala are not at all like things in America.

In the afternoon we had our first taste of this year's VBS programming, with the presentation of the account of David and Goliath.  David lost his sheep in the river and Goliath got his head chopped off. The kids laughed hysterically.  Back at our Ritz Calton hotel, Fuente Real, we enjoyed a short dinner respite before heading back to the orpahange for movie and popcorn night.  This came not without excitement, as we experienced muultiple deluges and a firewoorks display in the sky from the hand of God.

We viewed Jonah and learned the importance of showing mercy to others and giving them the second chance that the Lord provides us.  First-time team members enjoyed bonding with the kids as we munched popcorn and drank juice while watching Veggie Tales.  Laps were full and hugs plentiful.

Tomorrow's adventures begin at 7:00 AM sharp.  Food is good, hospitality great.  Team comraderie is outstanding.  We look forward with excitement to what the Lord will show us tomorrow.

This year rules as the longest bus trip from the city to HueHue.  We arrived, Michigan time, at 11:30 last night and went straight to dinner.  For most of us, this meant being up for over 20 hours.  Needless to say, we were bushed. Let's simply describe the traffic out of Guatemala City as very congested. 

Today, our wonderful day started with devotions and then we headed for a breakfast buffet.  At the orphanage, cheering, hand-waving, excited children welcomed us.  After spending most of the afternoon playing with the children, we all have special stories we can tell.  We played games, read, and tossed balls back and forth.  For some, it was a renewing of relationships with kids.  For the newbies, it provided an opportunity to be loved by the smiling faces and build new relationships. 

Tomorrow, Monday, we start our work projects and have VBS in the afternoon.  That evening, we will enjoy a movie and some popcorn.

8/7/2014 - Ladders and Benches

Today we awoke to a cold morning, we were on the bus by 7:00am and went to a local restaurant Casa Bravha which served a breakfast buffet of juice, coffee, cereal, omelets, tortillas and waffles.  After we headed to the orphanage to continue our unfinished projects from the day before.

We started by taring around the roof vents that we installed the day before.  After this was finished we installed insulation on the ceiling in the bodega, tomorrow we will finish the rest.  Others in the group put sealer on several benches that the group from Providence church had built weeks before.  Another two benches were also repaired today.  Tomorrow we will finish installing ceiling insulation, fixing benches and make a broom closet for the boys dorm.  Today we were served lunch by the orphanage, we had tamales wrapped in banana leaf with fresh baked bread, they were very good!!  After we went back to the hotel to clean up and grab our VBS supplies.

Today we sang and danced with the kids before todays project.  The project for today began with a another coloring project and conclude with sheep masks that the kids made by putting cotton balls on the masks. We also served the kids cookies and crackers with fruit punch.  We concluded by playing with the kids and playing another soccer game. We left at 6:00pm and had dinner back at the hotel.  We had pork chops, potato salad, vegetables and tortillas.  Devotions followed which were lead by Ryan and Jessie.

We had another great day working on the projects and playing with the kids.  Tomorrow will be our last day with the kids and our last day to finish projects.  The week is going very fast and we're all dreading having to say goodbye to all the wonderful kids!