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