Lutheran Church of St John Groundwork Guatemala Mission

Yesterday was somewhat of a sad day for us.  After morning devotions we said our goodbyes to the missionaries.  They are all Guatemalans who live here in Guatemala City with their families except for Kevin and Ginny.  Many of them travel more than an hour by bus each day to do the work here in Groundwork Guatemala.  They are such great people working for the Lord, each with their own unique talents and abilities. We will keep them in our daily prayers from here on out. We each shared a bible verse wiith them to encourage and build them up.  We held a prayer time for them to pray for each of them and the work they do here. We took many group photos of our LCOSJ team with the missionaires. Another nice experience we had yesterday morning was going to the Godfrey Coffee Company.We learned how coffee is obtained from the cherries processed, roasted and packaged for shipment.  We learned about some of the lives of the owners, the coffee plantations and the life around the coffee plantatio

Thursday,  April 3          After breakfast and morning devotions, our group traveled to Amatitlan which is approximately 75 minutes from Groundwork Guatemala's house in Guatemala City.  In the morning we split into two groups for home visits. One group went to the home of Dulce Marie, Pastor Steve's sponsor girl who is in fourth grade. The group was able to meet with her, her mother and two brothers.  They learned about Dulce Marie and her family and shared more about Pastor Steve's family.  The other group went to the home of the Keller's sponsor boy who is in second grade.  They met with his mother, grandmother and sister since he was with his class on a field trip.  Fortunately, he returned before our group left Amatitlan so the Kellers were able to meet Francisco.  At both homes our groups shared Bible passages and their meanings as well as praying for the families for health and other issues for which they requested prayers.  Both families seemed very appreciati

Today was a long day for our group. Breakfast at 6:00 AM and in the van and on our way to Buena Vista village by 7:00 A.M.  Buena Vista is on the costal plain, approaching the Pacific Ocean, about a two hour drive from Guatemala City.  The main "street" in the village is an old railroad bed minus the tracks.  The people live in makeshift housing, on a gentle decline along the tracks.  Many of the men work in the nearby sugar cane fields. Groundwork Guatemala visits this village once a week.  The adults have prayer and scripture lessons.  Pastor Steve shared his message in Spanish.  We divided into smaller groups, accompanied by our Guatemalan missionaries and visited people in their homes.  The memories from those visits with young mothers, children, the disabled and even the dying will be a lifelong blessing to us.  We had PB&J sandwiches and chips for lunch, then we did our Good Samaritan story, singing, memory work and crafts with 88 children.  Afterwards we packed u

Today was lots of fun! We started our day with a sunrise breakfast at 7 o'clock where we learned Pastor Steve eats his bananas like a monkey (opens it from what we would call the bottom and uses the top as a handle.) We then had a bilingual morning devotion lead by one of the Guatemalan missionaries, Caesar. He spoke both English and Spanish throughout the entire devotion. He was able to translate for himself. We then split up into two groups and rode in two separate vans to the village of El Rincon, which was about an hour away. We rode through the city and then into the small villages in the mountains. We saw many different lifestyles on our ride there. When we got to El Rincon, we split up into three groups and made some different visits. One group included Maggie, Harry, Janet, Sydney, and Sharon. They visited a women named Sonya. Sonya had been shot in the back 5 years ago and was told she would never be able to walk again. She came out of her house using only a walker to get

Today has been an eye-opening experience for our team.  We began our day with devotions after breakfast.  Devotions were led by one of the Guatemalan missionaries, Carlos.  Carlos burst into a song of praise during his devotions and touched many of our hearts.  We then visited a ministry focused on "street boys", called Only a Child.  The boys live 24/7 in this ministry and work by crafting beautiful wooden boxes.  They attend alternative school on the weekends so they can receive an education.  Many of the these "boys" are in their 20s and are still working on their junior high education.  This ministry is started by a man who was a pastry chef in Boston, George Leger, but now he works full time with this ministry.  The boys have to follow strict rules in order to receive their lodging, food, and education.  The team was then introduced to the Guatemala City dump.  This is a very large dump where people scavenge for anything that they can sell for money.   People f

We had a great day yesterday.  We had a wonderful breakfast fixed by our hostess Ginny then we went to a Guatamala Church, Sendero de la Cruz. We know the last word is cross. It was a great experience to see how the Guatemalans worship.  They had about 30 minutes of just praising and singing before the church service.  The service was about two hours in length. We spent the afternoon preparing a craft that will be used next week and unpacking and storing all the supplies we brought.  We also rehearsed our faith lesson we will be teaching the children in the villages this week.  The temperature was in the low 80's.  We are a mile high here so it seems warmer.  Connie And Greg visited their Quincy friend and family for dinner. The rest of the team remained at the mission house.  Bedtime devotions were on Beautiful Feet, Romans 10:12-13.

We arrived in Guatemala City at about 9:30 PM. We passed through immigration and customs with no hassel.  No line at this time of day.  Guatemala does not do Daylight Savings time so we are an hour behind Quincy. It was beautiful flying in over the city at night.  We saw fireworks from the air. I'm sure they were not there for our arrival. Our hosts Kevin and Ginny met us at the airport in a truck and a van. It was a short 15 minute trip to the mission house.  We got oriented to the house and sleeping quarters tonight. It has been a long day and everyone is tired but still excited to be here. We will attend church at a Guatemalan Church in the morning. Good night to all.

We leave for Guatemala in the morning. We are meeting at the church at 10:00 AM and carpooling to St. Louis with our flight to Houston leaving at 2:15 PM and then on to Guatemala City with arrival at 9:30 PM. We have been planning the trip for over 6 months and it is finally here. Pray for safe and problem free travel as we journey to Guatemala.

Three days to go until we depart. Everyone is so excited! Sunday, March 23 at the 10:30 AM service we had our Service of Commissioning.  Each team member received two strips of  cloth from the "sending" cloth the church received from Groundwork Guatemala.  One strip the mission team member is to keep and the other they are to give to a prayer partner. Following the Commissioning we sang a Spanish Praise song "Alabare" for the congregation and then the congregation sang the song in English as the Sending Song.  Following the service the mission team members divided up the supplies we will be taking for Groundwork Guatemala. We are all very blessed and encouraged by the many church friends who will be praying for us during our week long trip.

Ten days to go!  Thanks to all who supported our Lenten meal last week.  We raised a little over $200.00 for Groundwork Guatemala.  Sunday, March 16, 2014 was a fun family night (see adjacent pictures). Thanks to all who attended.  The Guatemala Mission Team shared the faith lesson they will be teaching in Guatemala, "The Good Samaritan", taught everyone the Spanish songs they will be using and shared memory work. Lastly, everyone helped us assemble 500 craft kits we will be using during our sharing time with the children. We had quite the assembly line.  Young and old alike were able to help us. Please  pray for us who are traveling to Guatemala City March 29 for a week to work alongside the Guatemalan missionaries in reaching out to the people of Guatemala.

All but one member of our team made it to last weeks meeting.  We were able to take a group photo. We had a wonderful visit with Ruth, our Guatemalan friend, and her husband and daughter.  She shared with us about the history of her country, climate, dress, customs and food.  She brought hard tortillas with typical Guatemalan toppings for us to eat.  We practiced the Spanish music we will be singing in Guatemala. The team is sponsoring the March 12, 2014 Lenten Meal.  It will be a free will offering.  Money raised will go towards our special offering we want to present to Groundwork Guatemala to support their ongoing mission work. Dios te bendiga  "God Bless You"

Guatemala Mission Team leaves in 35 Days We have about 5 weeks until our departure.  At our meeting this week we will be visiting with a now Quincy Resident who is originally from Guatemala.  She will be at our team meeting to share information about her homeland. We are busy preparing the faith lessons we will be sharing, accepting cash donations for school and medical supplies and collecting items to make hygiene kits.  All items and donations are due by March 9, 2014. Let’s show our “ grace overflowing ” to our brothers and sisters in Guatemala. We are still on target to sponsor a Family Night on March 16, 2014 in the Family Life Center at 6:00 PM. We are requesting prayers from our church friends and relatives. Please pray we will be able to share the gospel and Christ's love to the people in Guatemala and that we will grow in our faith through this experience Dios te bendiga  “God Bless You”

I am starting this blog as an easy way for family, friends and church members to track our journey to Guatemala. The Guatemala team has been busy meeting since September to prepare for the trip.  We now have 9 weeks before departure (March 29-April 6, 2014). Members of the team are preparing the materials we will be using to share Jesus with the people in Guatemala.  In addition, we will be making hygiene kits to give to the Guatemalans, collecting medical supplies and collecting cash donations. The congregation will be able to help us by supplying needed materials for the hygiene kits, donating medical supplies and cash. We will be having a Family Night March 16, 2014 to share the Faith Lesson we will be teaching and to prepare the craft materials and hygiene kits we will be using. We thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement.