Days 3,4,5

So busy with working I haven't had a moment to update the blog...

These three days were exactly the same in the schedule.  Check out the pictures to see all that we accomplished with the time we had.

6:30AM: Leaders meeting/ Go-Over daily schedule and make sure we are all prepared for the day.  I challenged our leaders from Matthew 7, Nehemiah 1, and John 20-21 this week.  We have a prayer time at the end and go get the rest of the team and make sure everyone is ready for breakfast.

7:00AM: Breakfast- The food has been amazing here.  It has been awesome to literally taste the Guatemalan culture.

7:30AM: Team Devo- I shared the same verses with our students and challenged them to go spend a few minutes in prayer and spiritually prepare themselves for the day.

8:00AM: Load Buses- God has blessed Shalom Church with two buses that carry the teams around.  It is ridiculously tough trying to get around here, lots of traffic and few traffic laws.  Nathan told me that the only time they ever pave the roads are when they build them, so as you can imagine the bus rides are mucho bumpy.  This morning on our ride to Paradise we were blessed by being able to see the Fuego Volcano spewing out steam and ash, way cool!  

8:20AM: Unload the buses and get ready to get after it for the Lord.  We have a group prayer and "Guatemalan team hug".

8:30AM: WORK OUR BUTS OFF!  Two teams working extremely hard with making concrete for the soccer stadium and puling off an awesome mobile VBS.  Both teams did an awesome job this week and I am extremely proud of them!  We were the final team to work on the soccer stadium.  We were blessed by God to be the team the completed over two years of volunteer work, quite and awesome experience.  Our team met Leonzo at the job site, he had a vision for this soccer stadium 30 years ago, and today we got to bring his vision into fruition.  It was an awesome moment for our students to realize that when God gives you a vision, He WILL bring it to fruition.

12:00PM-Load buses to Seminary for Lunch.  Lunch is divided in two shifts, the soccer/setup shift and the SWA/Evangelism shift.  Soccer/Setup shower first and then eat so they can head to the fields.  SWA/Evan. eats and then showers.  It is a great system that is extremely efficient.

1:30PM-Soccer/Ministry time- The soccer team did a great job this week keeping the "main thing" the "main thing".  Soccer is our avenue to build relationships so we can share the gospel.  The SWA/Evangelism team did a great job of reaching out to all of the spectators and trying to share the gospel with them.

5:00PM-Free Time at the Seminary.  Students hang out, play cards, silent football (not sure on that one), and more soccer.  

6:30PM-Dinner/Team Devos

Again awesome food, awesome testimonies.  It is great to see how God has worked in so many lives.

9:00PM-Lights out- Most everyone is wiped out from the hard labor and ready for a nice night's rest.

Pray for us on Thursday as we head to the remote village of Santiago and that God would give us favor with the people.

God Bless, 

Ben

Guatemala Mission Trip (Day 2)

Guatemala Day 2:  HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

 Wakeup @ 7AM: Lots of tired students because they stayed up too late talking about the nonsense things that teenagers talk about.  They were quickly bright eyed and bushy tailed as the all had to take COLD showers.  Not just cold shower, ridiculously cold showers... not fun, but hey we're on mission.

Leaders meet at 7:30AM:

Since we are staying at the Nazarene Seminary, it is set up a lot like a retreat center.  We have a cafeteria where we eat, as you'll notice in the pictures and a large room where we hangout, play cards, meet, etc...

8AM: Awesome breakfast!  Eggs, Bacon, fresh pineapple and cantaloupe... Great food.  After breakfast Patti Antcliff and Brittany Bernard shared their testimonies.  Awesome to hear how God has worked and is continuing to work in these ladies lives.

9AM: Head to Shalom Baptist Church where our group split into two groups and experienced Sunday School Guatemala style.  Great time, relationships beginning to be formed across the cultures.  It was very fitting that the lesson for Sunday was on materialism, we all were thinking how can these people struggle with materialism...

10:45AM: Main service.  Awesome worshipping with Brothers and Sisters who love Jesus but can't understand a word we say.  The worship was incredible, ironically they sang some of the same songs that we do at McGregor, only in Spanish.  So we all jumped in and sang along in English, very cool experience for our team.  Our youth choir performed and it was very well received.

1:00PM:  Notice how long the services last.  I am sure that Pastor Alvaro was exhausted, but it was a great message on Luke 8, or so I heard.  My spanish is a little rusty.  We all head back to the Seminary for lunch, but we have enough time to stop at a convenience store to help support the local economy and feast on some Chicy cookies.  These cookies have got to be the left over manna from heaven, they are seriously that good.  If you would like to try one when we get back, come find me I'll take care of you.

2:30PM: 

Off to Paradise for Prayer Walking... a seriously eye-opening experience for our students.  10 people living in a shack the size of their room in Fort Myers.  Extreme poverty...  It was neat to see our students get a glimpse of how the rest of the world lives.

4:00PM:

A look at the local "Wal-Mart"  our team stocked up on water, gum, and cookies to give away this week in Paradise as we minister their.  Crazy items for sale:  Gorilla Snot Hair Gel, Octopus tentacles, and free shots of whiskey for shoppers (don't worry we kept everyone away from whiskey).

5:00PM: 

Dinner at Pollo Campero... awesome food, we enjoyed ladies table tennis and strong woman competition on ESPN Desportes. Weird, but the food and the fellowship was awesome! Some of our students had FLAN for the first time... yummy.

6:30PM:

Back to the Seminary for the team meeting and prep time for tomorrow's big day...  Everyone is excited to work hard for the Lord.

9:00PM:

Everyone's in their rooms and the leaders are caring for Collette who wasn't feeling well. Praise the Lord that Robert Iwaniec and other leaders were helped care for her.  The good news was that with a good night's rest Collette was back to normal this morning.

10:30PM:

Lights out-Can't wait for Monday...

Guatemala Mission Trip (Day 1)

WE MADE IT!!!

We are here in Guatemala City and loving life.  The team has settled into the seminary dorms and are enjoying the cultural experiences of being in Guatemala.  We had a great meeting last night with Nathan Hardeman, Shalom's Mission leader.  Right now all of our team in Sunday School with Shalom's youth group and I am here in the office trying to update all of you.  Everything has gone well so far, keep praying.  We have a great team and I look forward to sharing with all of you our missionary journey.

This morning I challenged our group with Matthew 7:7-13, challenging them to ask, seek, and knock for opportunities to minister to the people here in Guatemala.  Will you join us in this prayer challenge as we spread the Gospel.

Check out our pictures at

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Blessed,

Ben