I would advise you to get comfortable as this update is kinda long...I can't believe I actually wrote so much. :-)
Today we arose at 7:30am for Breakfast. We started with prayer. After prayer we all got ready and travelled with Les to one of the schools here (Chijacorral). This school is a Middle School as well as a High School. They were getting it ready for school to begin (which was soon). This building also houses their medical clinic. There we met a husband (Walter) and wife (Cathy). Cathy is a Doctor. We heard from them both about how pleased they were about the clinic. It is actually quite nice. They have a number of exam rooms as well as a Pharmacy. There is also a dental chair and dental xray unit in a room waiting to be installed.
We went up to a room in the school and met the Principal of the school, her name is Evelyn. We heard her story of her life and about how tough it had been. She spoke of attending the school and Impact Ministries had setup. She now speaks of her Love of God and thanks Les and Rita for helping her during her tough times and her journey to God. Her story was so emotional and heartfelt. I am pretty sure we were all crying, but in the end we were all smiling due to her success.
After leaving the school we went to a new building site where Impact Ministries has bought land to build another new complex. This site will have Bible Chapel as well as a school that will give the kids that graduate from High school an opportunity to continue their studies of God and Scripture and perhaps some day become Missionaries themselves. The hope is that by teaching these people (Guatemalan's) an even higher understanding of God then they already know that someday they can go out abroad and teach the word of God to more of their own people or perhaps even Muslams. The thought is that hearing about God may be more accepted coming from people of the same colour. They are hoping to build parking for something like 3000 vehicles, very optimistic according to Les. :-)
We then left here and went to Les and Rita's for tea. (yes I drank it! ;-)) It was a lemon tea. Les and Rita told us a bit of their family and of their adopted son Tim, who is Guatemalan and his story of how they received him. After tea we went back to our house in Tactic for lunch.
After lunch Karren (Activity Host) spoke to us about the home visits we were about to do. We then left for our home visits. I have to say that what we experienced over the next number of hours was both shocking and amazing. These people although appear to have nothing, they have great Love for God and family. We had some very tough walking up the mountains to get to these families. The trails were very steep and muddy in many places. At times you had to wonder what we were doing there but once we reached the homes it would soon become apparent as to why we were there. Each sponsor would meet their sponsor child and their family. We had an interprator named Heber (who also came up through Impact) who translated for us. At the end of the visit we would give a food box (due to our gifts not arriving) and then we would pray with them. We would sing sometimes as well. It is amazing to hear these mothers tell us that they pray for us always and that they wish us success and all of God's Blessings. At our second last stop we did like all other and at the end we prayed. To me this prayer was different because the mother prayed with us. Although I don't understand Spanish, hearing the mother praying was nothing short of life altering. She prayed so hard and with so much emotion, we cried with her.
After this visit we worked our way down the mountain to our vehicles. Heber, Cassie, Sarah, Christina and myself got to the vehicles first. When we got there, there were a number of kids sitting there and playing. Heber had a small boy on his knee and was going over his list for our next visit. He asked me where Wilma was. I said she was still making her way down the mountain. I seen his list and pointed to my name and said that is me. He looked at me with surprise and said, "oh, you are the sponsor", I said yes. He then looked at the little boy and said something. He then looked at me and said Jose. I said yes Jose is my sponsor child. Heber looked at me and said, "no, this is Jose!!!"...LOL I was shocked. Here I was standing in front of my sponsor child. I have to admin I didn't know what to say. Here was this little brown eyed boy staring at me and I am dumb founded. Eventually I started playing with him. Soon all the rest of the team showed up and found out what was going on. Everyone started taking pictures. I picked up Jose and we all made our way to his house. I carried him pretty much most of the way. I was getting very tired from carrying him so I tried to put him down, but he would not let go. :-) I eventually got him down and we walked the rest of the way holding hands. He talked to me all the way to the house, but of course I had no idea what he was saying. We made it to his house and with the help of Heber I spoke to his mother. I told them about my family at home, the kids and their ages. I told them how Blessed I felt to be there to see them. The mother said she felt blessed for us to have come so far. I gave them the food box and then we all gathered in the house and I led prayer for them. Since this really was the first time I tried to pray openly it was awkward for me but I did it. When prayer was finished I got my picture taken with Jose and his family. Jose during most of the visit was in my arms holding me like I was his Dad. I wasn't trying to put him down so this 'hold' was genuine. I held him in my arms and he put his head on my shoulder and sucked on the lace to my hoodie. i have to wonder if he gets hugs from his Father?
We all made our way back to the vans. At the vans the group starting commenting and asked about my experience. I lost it trying to explain it.....Graham came over and hugged me and cried with me. I have to say it was an amazing moment in my life I will never forget. To meet this family and to know I can make a difference in their lives with my sponsorship is very special. We went back to our house and had supper.
After supper we had a debrief with Les. He had a number of questions for us but we ended with a question about a moment that touched our hearts today. I explained about Evelyn's story, about the mother that we prayed for, but mostly I spoke about meeting Jose and his family. I bawled through the whole thing and I had everyone else crying as well. When they came to Graham he started crying right away. After a short time he said for him it was when we were in my sponsor childs house praying for them. He said to hear me pray knowing how hard it is for me was an awesome heart moment for him. We sang some songs then made our way to bed. Tomorrow we work.....
*****Update****
I was awoken from my sleep by the sound of voices and vehicles outside. It was just after 11pm. This is not totally unusual except for the fact I could hear English!! I got up an met Graham in the hallway. Our bags had
arrived!! It was like Christmas, only better. As I have told a number of people here. It is not that we invested alot in the bags, it's more that we would not be able to leave the items here with the people that need them.
My Bike
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Guatemala Mission Trip - Jan 13, 2011
Well we made it through the night but sleep was not something that was in abundance last night..lol Most of us were up around 4am or before either from being sore or cold. Eventually time went by and it was time for us to board our plane for Guatemala. 9:20am was our Departure time. The flight was fine. We arrived in Guatemala at around 12noon.
We had filled out our immigration papers and had to present them as we made our way through the terminal. This went without an issue. We then went to baggage to get our bags. This is where things didn't go so well. We waited until the belt had stopped but in the end we discovered we were missing 15 hockey bags and 6 personal bags. Graham and Joanned checked with the baggage help desk. We provided all the claim numbers for the missing bags and were told they may arrive on the next plane, 2 hours later. We then had to go through security with the bags we had which led to many questions. They opened the few hockey bags we did have and asked about the different items in the bags. We had, baby clothes, glasses, electrical wire, peanut butter, vitamins, etc. They were basically making sure we were not there trying to sell the things we brought with us. Once we got through this we went out to the public area and met Les for the first time. He was very excited to see us. We loaded our bags into the vans and waited a while as Les, Graham and Joanne checked on our other bags. It was decided that Les was going to take us for lunch while Graham and Joanne waited to see if our bags would arrive on the next plane. While we were having lunch Les got a call that the bags didn't arrive. We then all met up and started our ride to Tactic.
After about 4 1/2 hours we got to here (Tactic). We were met with smiling faces and a great supper. Some of us then had showers and after 54 hours of little or no sleep we are going to bed.
Tomorrow we start our Mission work here.
We had filled out our immigration papers and had to present them as we made our way through the terminal. This went without an issue. We then went to baggage to get our bags. This is where things didn't go so well. We waited until the belt had stopped but in the end we discovered we were missing 15 hockey bags and 6 personal bags. Graham and Joanned checked with the baggage help desk. We provided all the claim numbers for the missing bags and were told they may arrive on the next plane, 2 hours later. We then had to go through security with the bags we had which led to many questions. They opened the few hockey bags we did have and asked about the different items in the bags. We had, baby clothes, glasses, electrical wire, peanut butter, vitamins, etc. They were basically making sure we were not there trying to sell the things we brought with us. Once we got through this we went out to the public area and met Les for the first time. He was very excited to see us. We loaded our bags into the vans and waited a while as Les, Graham and Joanne checked on our other bags. It was decided that Les was going to take us for lunch while Graham and Joanne waited to see if our bags would arrive on the next plane. While we were having lunch Les got a call that the bags didn't arrive. We then all met up and started our ride to Tactic.
After about 4 1/2 hours we got to here (Tactic). We were met with smiling faces and a great supper. Some of us then had showers and after 54 hours of little or no sleep we are going to bed.
Tomorrow we start our Mission work here.
Guatemala Mission Trip - Jan 12, 2011
We awoke to a wonderful breakfast put on by the Baker's.
Our flight was to leave Halifax for Newark at around 12 noon so we were planning on being there around 10am. We got to the airport with all our luggage intact. Merrill and Karen Gillis drove over to Halifax early in the morning and met us at Tims' just outside the airport entrance. Merrill had a full truck load of 20 of our hockey bags full of various items for Guatemala. We found carts and managed to wrestle these 50 pound bags into the airport. We went to the checkout counter and got our boarding passes and checked our bags. We packed well as our bags were 50 lbs each or just under. Some in our group also checked some personal bags due to space limitations on the plane. This turned out to be a dreadful mistake. We checked all the hockey bags with only a few questions about the contents of them. They did a secondary check on the hockey bag I was carrying and it was funny to watch them open it and start pulling out these large pink stuffed animals and them asking,,,"is this your bag?!".. hahaha. We then went on to US Customs and breezed through there without issue. It was around this time we discovered that our flight was delayed due to our plane not having arrived from Newark due to a snow storm there. Our new departure time was around 4:30pm.
The snow storm that had caused our plane to not arrive from Newark was bearing down on Nova Scotia. As teh time drew closer to our flight time the storm got worse and worse. Our plane never did arrive but lucky for us there was another one already in Halifax, bound for Newark. The time came to load the plane. We got on the plane but when it came time to leave we were delayed due to the storm. We had taxied out to be deiced but they stopped that process due to the weather. We sat in the plane for just over an hour waiting for the weather to clear enough to take off. I have to admit the more we sat the worse the visibility was outside. I prayed that we be able to get a small window of clearing so that we may be able to take off. Just after an hour had passed we go the ok to take off. I was like what?? I can't see anything outside now..LOL.. Anyway we were deiced and away we went. The flight was ok but cramped. It was about 1 1/2 hours long. ..Thank goodness!!
Upon arriving at Newark we already knew we were going to stay in Houston overnight as our flight wasn't until the next morning. We hung out in Newark until we had to leave. We had a few hours to kill there. We looked up Hotels in Houston but found them expensive and we really didn't have the funds to stay in one.
Our flight time came and we boarded without issue. We arrived in Houston just after midnight. Since we knew we were staying the night we started searching for a place to sleep. An airport worker recommended we go over to Terminal D because it wasn't used anymore and would be quiter. We all walked there and found our places to sleep. Floors and chairs were our beds for the night.
Our flight was to leave Halifax for Newark at around 12 noon so we were planning on being there around 10am. We got to the airport with all our luggage intact. Merrill and Karen Gillis drove over to Halifax early in the morning and met us at Tims' just outside the airport entrance. Merrill had a full truck load of 20 of our hockey bags full of various items for Guatemala. We found carts and managed to wrestle these 50 pound bags into the airport. We went to the checkout counter and got our boarding passes and checked our bags. We packed well as our bags were 50 lbs each or just under. Some in our group also checked some personal bags due to space limitations on the plane. This turned out to be a dreadful mistake. We checked all the hockey bags with only a few questions about the contents of them. They did a secondary check on the hockey bag I was carrying and it was funny to watch them open it and start pulling out these large pink stuffed animals and them asking,,,"is this your bag?!".. hahaha. We then went on to US Customs and breezed through there without issue. It was around this time we discovered that our flight was delayed due to our plane not having arrived from Newark due to a snow storm there. Our new departure time was around 4:30pm.
The snow storm that had caused our plane to not arrive from Newark was bearing down on Nova Scotia. As teh time drew closer to our flight time the storm got worse and worse. Our plane never did arrive but lucky for us there was another one already in Halifax, bound for Newark. The time came to load the plane. We got on the plane but when it came time to leave we were delayed due to the storm. We had taxied out to be deiced but they stopped that process due to the weather. We sat in the plane for just over an hour waiting for the weather to clear enough to take off. I have to admit the more we sat the worse the visibility was outside. I prayed that we be able to get a small window of clearing so that we may be able to take off. Just after an hour had passed we go the ok to take off. I was like what?? I can't see anything outside now..LOL.. Anyway we were deiced and away we went. The flight was ok but cramped. It was about 1 1/2 hours long. ..Thank goodness!!
Upon arriving at Newark we already knew we were going to stay in Houston overnight as our flight wasn't until the next morning. We hung out in Newark until we had to leave. We had a few hours to kill there. We looked up Hotels in Houston but found them expensive and we really didn't have the funds to stay in one.
Our flight time came and we boarded without issue. We arrived in Houston just after midnight. Since we knew we were staying the night we started searching for a place to sleep. An airport worker recommended we go over to Terminal D because it wasn't used anymore and would be quiter. We all walked there and found our places to sleep. Floors and chairs were our beds for the night.
Guatemala Mission Trip - Jan 11, 2011
This is the first day of our journey to Guatemala. We left Belfast at around 4:30pm after loading the last of our bags onto a truck. We were a bit later than expected leaving due to Graham having mechanical problems with his School Bus.
We went to Charlottetown and picked up 2 laptops we had purchased for Impact Ministries. We then went on to Cows on the North River Causeway to say our final goodbyes. Beth, Lauren and Nikia were there as well as other team members family. It was very difficult to say goodbye and I could barely contain myself. Sometimes you seem to take for granted what you have until you go away from it for a period of time. We left Cows at around 6pm for Aulac NB. Here we were to pick up 2 more of our team members, Carl and Wilma. We also had a good supper there at the restaurant.
After we ate we continued on to our stop for the night just outside Halifax. We had 2 places that we were to stay the night. One was Brian and Dianne Bakers house and the other was at Gus Banfils brothers place. We arrived at their place around 10:30pm. I stayed at Brian and Dianne's along with the other men as well as Graham and Joanne and Carl and Wilma. We socialized a bit then headed for bed.
We went to Charlottetown and picked up 2 laptops we had purchased for Impact Ministries. We then went on to Cows on the North River Causeway to say our final goodbyes. Beth, Lauren and Nikia were there as well as other team members family. It was very difficult to say goodbye and I could barely contain myself. Sometimes you seem to take for granted what you have until you go away from it for a period of time. We left Cows at around 6pm for Aulac NB. Here we were to pick up 2 more of our team members, Carl and Wilma. We also had a good supper there at the restaurant.
After we ate we continued on to our stop for the night just outside Halifax. We had 2 places that we were to stay the night. One was Brian and Dianne Bakers house and the other was at Gus Banfils brothers place. We arrived at their place around 10:30pm. I stayed at Brian and Dianne's along with the other men as well as Graham and Joanne and Carl and Wilma. We socialized a bit then headed for bed.
Guatemala Media Fast
Hello Everyone,
I am posting this after the fact due to a Media Fast we had while in Guatemala. Before we left it was agreed that I would send daily reports back to PEI where Beth (my lovely wife) would relay them on to those that wanted the updates. I thought I would be able to update this Blog while on my trip but due to the Fast this was not possible. I decided I would post my journal when I got home so the following updates are from that journal that I wrote in each night while away on my Mission Trip.
These updates are very personal to me. I believe I am a changed person after being in Guatemala so you may see some of that in these posts.
Enjoy and all I ask is to keep an open mind.
:-)
I am posting this after the fact due to a Media Fast we had while in Guatemala. Before we left it was agreed that I would send daily reports back to PEI where Beth (my lovely wife) would relay them on to those that wanted the updates. I thought I would be able to update this Blog while on my trip but due to the Fast this was not possible. I decided I would post my journal when I got home so the following updates are from that journal that I wrote in each night while away on my Mission Trip.
These updates are very personal to me. I believe I am a changed person after being in Guatemala so you may see some of that in these posts.
Enjoy and all I ask is to keep an open mind.
:-)
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