Sunday – San Vicente

Posted on August 10, 2014 Updated on August 10, 2014

We had a great trip to the Church plan in San Vicente. The trip was made without incident, thanks for praying for us. David is a SETECA graduate who is pastoring another Church. He is the Head Pastor, Youth Pastor and administrator. He has a group of elders who help him teach and shepherd the Church. It was great to listen to his heart as he shared his passion for the people in this remote area and helping with their physical needs as well as bringing the Gospel to them. It was about a 45 minute drive to get to David’s Church from SETECA. Then we all loaded up into a couple of pick-up trucks and rode about 40 minutes or so to the Church plant in San Vicente.

The people who live in this community were refugees that fled into Mexico during a civil war in Guatemala. The Government of Guatemala gave this land to them so they could move back. It has been a very dry raining season and since most of what they have comes from the land their crops have not done well so there is not a lot of food. We had a great trip, the kids and adults were very friendly and welcoming. There are 3-4 families that have accepted Christ as their savior. There are about 70-80 families – 300 or so people. Keep them in your prayers as they share the gospel and work with Pastor David to continue planting the Church. They are currently gathering materials for a Church building.

The area that we were at was near the coast and it was incredibly hot and humid. We were all very hot and sweaty. It was pretty crazy. It is generally so warm that David’s Church is open air and their are no doors or windows in any of the buildings they use for class rooms. It was neat to see that they had about 10 deaf people in their congregation. David and the elders were having lunch with them so they could know their needs better.

After we left we went to Sanita’s for lunch. It was really good! I had a bowl of Soupa Caldo Mexico and a Guatemalan style tamale, Tamal en pollo. Both were fabulous, and I would be lying if I did not say it was bitter sweet to eat so well having just left San Vicente. It’s things like that that are hard on my heart on trips like this. Praying God would bring the rains so they can get better crop yields there.

We left and headed for SETECA and we all took a nap. Once back at the seminary several people napped, some of us played futbol for an hour or so and then we had dinner in the brick house. Next we heard Jean and Paul’s testimony. We wrapped gifts for under privileged kids that Linda from SETECA works with. It was a fun time. We wrapped up with a game of Mafia.

Buenas Noches

Saturday, SETECA

Posted on August 9, 2014

Today we were at the Seminary all morning. We had an awesome breakfast Alex prepared for us and devotions, with several testimonies. Next was work. Sam, Caleb, Josh, Jake and I all worked on the data cabling in the office. We we finished the cable runs and started mounting the conduit and surface mount raceway’s on the ceiling and walls. JT and I did the conduit in the IT room.

It was a lot of fun working with Josh. It took us most of the morning and it was hot sweaty work. Drilling into concrete and putting anchors in the walls. It was a first for both Sam and I to use barbed wire as fish tape pulling the runs. They clipped the barbs. Very interesting.

We went on a tour next into the center of Guatemala city. We saw the capital buildings and palace. We went to a huge relief map that was very cool.

Next we drove up into the mountains for a over view of the city it was pretty cool. It started raining right after we left.

After the tour we went to the mall and hung out for a bit and had dinner in the food court. We went home and played several rounds of Mafia before turning in for bed. It has been a great time getting to know all the kids and have had lots of fun seeing them grow together as a team.

Dio’s te bendiga everyone…

Alex

Posted on August 9, 2014

Last night I was able to hang out with Alex after dinner a bit and hear about how God has been working in his life. He is an independent missionary with his wife. We learned that he is Moses’ dad. We met Moses last year and he shared his testimony with us. It was cool to meet his Dad who is now doing what Carl was doing at SETECA. Alex has an amazing testimony of God working in his life.

At one point in his first time at SETECA as a student he was feeling like maybe doing his studies and being a missionary here was not what God wanted him to do as he was having serious difficulties getting enough funds to keep his family here and be a student. One Sunday at Church when he was feeling very depressed and feeling like going home (USA) he went forward to the alter to pray. As he was praying he felt a hand on his shoulder and a woman told him “God wants you to stay and finish what you have started.” Pretty amazing since he had not told anyone what was going on.

There are a lot of faithful servants here and it has been such a blessing to get to work with them.

Dios le bendiga

Friday at SETECA

Posted on August 8, 2014

Today was a full work day. We did our normal routine of devotions and breakfast. However the best news came… My coffee from Mike at Crossroads Cafe will be here on Sunday. I can’t relate in words how excited I am. It is the best coffee ever and it supports the work Mike is doing. After breakfast we continued painting in our different areas. The wall has been my area. Nick, Jake and I wire brushed the old paint and dirt off the top of the wall, as well as starting to paint it rojo Wednesday. The wall, especially the top if very porous and difficult to paint. We ran out of rojo paint today and so have a bit more to do. We also started on the sides of the wall today.

The other group has been painting a courtyard and ladies area. They finished today as well. Sam, Travis, Nick and I started running new CAT6 cable in one of the offices that connects back to the distribution switches in the IT Dept area. We are doing 16 runs and surface mounting all the boxes.(pics tomorrow) We got halfway done with the runs today. Hoping to bust out the remaining runs and mounting tomorrow before we head out in the afternoon.

We went right from working to playing futbol with a bunch of the students. It was an awesome time mixing it up with these guys. They are fantastic futbol players…

That is all for tonight here are a couple of pictures from the wall.

Antigua, Guatemala

Posted on August 7, 2014

Today we started with devotions, breakfast and testimonies from 4 team members. Next we loaded on a private bus to go to Antigua. Our first stop was the church ruins that we visited last year. There are many ruins of Catholic Churches that were destroyed in the 1700’s when a big earth quake hit. I think it was at that time that they moved the capital to the current location Guatemala City.

After we visited the Church we went to a silver shop and were able to see how they worked/made the silver jewelry in their shop. We then walked up to the town square and had some free time. Eric, Josh, Travis, Caleb and I went to a coffee shop that Carl had taken me to last year and got a coffee drink. Then we went and walked around the park in town square and the kids got their first taste of the street vendors wanting to sell them their goods.

We then headed over to the the Restaurant that Carl and Jenni run in town. (Carl and Jenni run the childrenfeeding center we visited later) We had chicken frioles(sp) it came with black beans, rice (best rice in town!),  fresh guacamole, fresh tortilla’s and vegetable soupa. Oh my goodness it was good. It reminded me a bit of Nacho Libre… I was able to fashion a blow dart out of my straw wrapper and shoot Nicki, Jessica and Josh. It was amazingly accurate and the kids were in awe of my blowgun straw paper dart blowing skills. I was very careful not to attract the attention of the adults or other customers… 😀

Our next visit was to the large market in Antiqua. The kids were able to put their bartering skill to the test, or get schooled in the art of sales Guatemala style. Ask Josh about his machete… We had a good time and everyone got something they were looking for. We found the same young man we met last year that we found out was a christian and brought some business his way. It was funny because he saw me walking and recognized me from the year before and was calling out to me. All the kids and leader received a free bracelet from him as a thank you for just coming to Guatemala to do missions.

It was good to see him again. We headed out around 3:30 to the children’s feeding center. We(Pam) did a Bible story and then we helped the kids with a craft. I did not fair to well in helping them with the craft, the poor boy I was helping probably felt like I was a loco gringo. I destroyed three fish before I finally was able to get it stuck to the clear sticky sheet. It was a lot of fun though and we all had a good time interacting with the kids. After that we served them dinner. Queso and Beans with two tortilla’s. Eric asked the one of the kids if the food was good and he said it was really good! What a blessing Carl and Jenni are to this community. Carl and Jenni just celebrated their 11th anniversary. After dinner we played with the kids until it was time for them to go home. The kids presented all of us with a little card they had made for each of us. It was very cute.

Carlos spoke with us after the children left about the ministry and prayer requests. He was very gracious and basically said we all had a home in Guatemala in his home and thanked us for coming and serving.

We headed out for SETECA and stopped at one of my favorite restaurants in Guatemala, San Martins. oh baby… they have this chipotle tomato soup that is amazing! See pics below. Also shared a delicious pizza with Eric and Caleb.

Buenos Noches Amigo’s