Tuesday's Posting



Krysta and Kelly Jo drawing animals in the dirt with the children

  

Bill Boor hard at work building a stove





Theresa showing children their picture



The team breaking up clay for morter

Just a couple of the many children in El Yalu

 10 PM Tuesday Night.

Another interesting day in Guatemala for the team!  We still have some people having cold showers and some have even changed rooms as theirs have had problems with power.  Tonight was an adventure for me and my roommates Matt and Sam.  Sam was taking a shower and the power went off.  I ran down to the breaker box outside down the sidewalk and tripped the breaker to get our power back.  I saw there were two breakers that were popped and tripped them both on.  I did somebody a favor.  Well this happened 3 times and I was the lucky one standing with shampoo in my hand naked in the shower in the dark.  Ok enough of that picture.

This morning we began our worship with a few songs with Deb and her guitar.  Peter Wetzel gave our devotional and it was based on teamwork.  I particularly paid interest in a parable of one potato in a sack rotting all the potatoes in a sack and if we didn’t work as a team that could happen to us.  It was just a reminder to stay focused as a group and work together for one common purpose of serving God in Guatemala.

After our worship it was into the bus and onto Oscar’s house for a breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit.  I am not particularly a pineapple fan but it is really yummy down here.

After breakfast we were off to El Yalu again for working on the stoves we had started.  Today was not quite as intense and physical as yesterday as we had gotten the materials already to the homes we were working on.  Various people split up again and went working on stoves.  Some have gotten farther along than others but they all are coming together.  There have been many opportunities to meet with the people and especially the children as we walk to the homes and as we work.  We have masons that are mostly doing the cement work as we mix and cut brick and anything else that is needed. 

The interaction with the children is something to be cherished.  They seem so at peace and content.  They have so little but just seem to have calmness about them.  As I wrote yesterday many are malnourished and are not living in the best of conditions but they are still children who love to play and just learn and watch us.  They often love to see themselves in a photo in our digital cameras.

Oscar took each of the teams one at a time to see a completed stove in the village.  There are 24+ now and we were able to meet the people that are using them and they are very appreciative and proud of their new stoves.  One of our masons was the proud owner of one and we were building one for his grandmother’s house today.  BTW I got a lot of video of these interviews that I am sure will come of good use the some of you will eventually see.  We have so much and they have so little.  This has become a real passion for the folks at Los Olivos to help these people in need and our support has really made a difference but there still is a great need here.

Late in the afternoon we went back for a quick cleanup and then to Oscar’s house for a dinner of barbecue ribs, baked potato, and salad.

After dinner it was of again to the church for our English as foreign language training.  It has been a real hoot.  We have all ages from children to elderly.  They are enjoying the training and we already are walking in the street or around the church and they are approaching us speaking in English they just learned.  Melanie also continued her training with a good sized group on how to create and teach Christian lesson plans to the children.

Peter and Krysta Wetzel met with the elders of the church this evening to discuss their so to be full mission work with the Los Olivos church.  Let’s pray for them that things will work out and they continue to accumulate the support and funding to be able to move to Guatemala and serve God as missionaries.

Well its 10:45 and my roommates have already crashed so it is time for me to close down and call it a night.

Thanks for reading this and all your prayers and support!

Sincerely,

The Impact Guatemala Team.