Lutheran Church of St John Groundwork Guatemala Mission

Tuesday     Today our construction guys left for Buena Vista at 7pm.  They had a very productive day working on the shelter there. They should be able to put roof up tomorrow.  They continue to receive great help from their new Guatemalan friends. They have faced a few obstacles along the way but have been blessed to find solutions and overcome.  Thankfully some of the time which might have been considered wasted has been filled with extra time to get to know and form relationships with folks here.        Pastor Steve and I were able to travel to El Rincón with the missionaries.  Our devotion time was led by Sandra.  We were able to do one home visit before lunch. These visits are always a special time to meet some people, share scripture with them and pray.   After lunch we helped Oscar with the kid's faith lesson, craft and snack time. There were over 140 children present! It is always amazing to see thi...

Monday Today our work began with a 7 am departure for the village of Buena Vista.  Andy, Tom, Mick and Pastor Steve were joined by Guatemalan missionaries Julian, Carlos and Ana.  When we arrived, after a 2 hour drive, we were met by two young men who lived in the village and were waiting to help us with our work for the day.  After doing a quick survey of the structure they wanted built and an assesment of our tools and materials we got to work.  It did not take long at all for six holes to be dug and a plan to come together.  The Americans were in awe of the Guatemalans and their hard work, but especially their concrete work.  They simply open the bags on the ground, form them into what looks like a volcano, fill the top with wáter and start mixing.  After a lunch break half the group set the posts while Mick and Andy took a try at welding.  They gave it their best effort, but could not get the hang of it.  So after a while of trying they ...

Travel Day Our group of 6 left Chicago early this morning.  We had a safe and uneventful day of travel, flying through Miami.  We finally arrived in Guatemala about one this afternoon.  After taking a while to clear immigration and customs, we met up with Kevin Holmes and our driver Manuel who brought us to our home for the week.  We took the afternoon to get settled into our surroundings, unpack our donations and organize the tools we will be using for the week.  We are tired from a day of travel and hope to sleep well tonight.  Tomorrow the ladies will stay at the house to help the missionaries with various projects.  The guys will head down to the coastal plain and the small village of Buena Vista.  There we will start to build a shelter that will be used to house their weekly medical clinic.  We are not quite sure what to expect when we arrive there or exactly how long things might take, so come back often to hear our updates.  Plea...

This Saturday, 6 servants will start their journey to Guatemala to serve and work alongside the missionaries and staff of Groundwork Guatemala.  Our team this time is made up of Andy Caley, Mick Gooding, Steve & Carie Hayden, Lynda Keller, and Tom Obert.  This time our trip will be a little different.  Instead of spending our time teaching faith lessons to children, most of the team will be focused on building projects.  If all goes according to plan, which doesn't often happen in Guatemala, they will travel to El Rincon to work on a bathroom project, Buena Vista to build a shelter, and do some concrete work in Guatemala City.  All of these projects will help the ministry to better serve the people of Guatemala as they reach out with the love of Jesus.  A couple members of the team will stay with the missionaries to support and assist them in their daily tasks.  Come back to this blog all next week to get updates and more specifics on our work....

Friday, January 22, 2016 Our day began once again with morning devotions with the Guatemalan missionaries and Kevin and Ginny Holmes. The missionaries are all Guatemalans who live here in Guatemala City with their families. Many of them travel 1-2 hours (some mornings it was three hours due to traffic) by bus each day to do the work here at 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 and ask that anyone reading this blog do the same.  At the end of the devotion time we each shared a bible verse with them to encourage them in the work they do here.  We had a special prayer time to pray for each of them and for the work they do here.  We took many group photos of our LCOSJ team with the missionaries to share with everyone on our return. Another nice experience we had was walking to and through the Kaminaljuyu (Mountain of t...

Today was our biggest, busiest day of the week.  We returned to the city of Amatitlan, about an hours drive.  But to a location known as Gonzalez Park.  If you see the pictures on Facebook you will see that they use "park" very loosely.  Just a concrete slab with some concrete walls on two sides and an old broken basketball hoop.  Today we were joined by a group of students from Spring Arbor University in Michigan.  They are here in Guatemala for a 3 week cross cultural experience and spend one day with the ministry.  There were 20 college students in the group.  They went on home visits with us and then helped with the faith lesson.  They were a great group and an amazing help. , especially since today we had around 250 kids in the faith lesson.  It's amazing how you can actually get 250 kids from 6-11 years old to sit down, stay quiet and listen, but they do.  Everyone on the team continues to do an amazing job, hav...

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 We had another awesome day here at Groundwork Guatemala. Our day began really early as we left with the mission team at 7:00 AM to travel two plus hours to the village of Buena Vista.   Buena Vista is on the costal plain, approaching the Pacific Ocean.   The main “street” in the village is an old railroad bed minus the tracks. We saw trucks loaded with sugar cane on our way into the village.   The morning after our arrival was spent visiting Connie and Greg’s sponsored child, Jorge Ramon Hernandez (he is 10 Years old and he is in 5th grade) during his break from school and then he took us to visit his school.  The school is nothing like what we know.  It is just an open air cement block building with six rooms (open doorway) and a tin roof. They were modestly decorated and had desks for the children. Several of the boys were playing their football (soccer) during the break and Ramon joined them while we were there. We next...

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 So we started off the day by waking up between 7 and 7:30 in the morning because breakfast was served Holliday Inn style (minus the waffles).  From there we went to the location that we were having our faith lesson and working with the children.  The location was called El Rincon and when we arrived we unloaded our gear and left the vans to find the bathroom.  First of all the bathroom was in the yard of this nice man who's name is Carlos.  Second of all it was basically a hole in the ground with raised walls around it so you could sit down.  That was interesting, definitely didn't plan on going #2 while I was there.  After we learned where the bathroom was I got to pull some water out of a well that was extremely deep.  The thing about this water was the fact that because we were so close to an active volcano it was all hot water not cold.  From Carlos' house we went to Francisca's house who is the littl...

Monday, January 18, 2016 It was a beautiful day in Guatemala City.   The temperature was about 70 and the sun was shining brightly all day.   Breakfast was ready promptly at 7am.   Ginny made pancakes and they were delicious.   We were all very excited for today because the Guatemalan missionaries would be arriving shortly before 8 so we could join them for their daily devotions.   All of us, except for Harrison, had met and worked with the missionaries in at least one prior year.   It was good to hug our friends and to get caught up on their families and lives.   Manuel gave the devotion on Romans 5 verses 1 through 11.  Since Manuel does not speak English, Cesar translated for him.   Carlos, who has a beautiful voice and often leads the music at his church, led the singing.  After devotions we loaded the van driven by Manuel and went to the woodworking shop of Only A Child.  This is ...

Sunday, January 17, 2016 Today was a very relaxing day compared to yesterday. We woke up around 8:30 and got ready for church before breakfast at 9:00. After breakfast we finished getting ready and had a few minutes of downtime before we left for church at around 10:15. We got to church safe and sound thanks to our awesome driver Manuel. At church we got to sing some songs that we know, just not in our native language. The message was very good, coming from Nehemiah chapter 9:1-38. After church we visited with Carlos and his oldest daughter. Then when we got home we ate a delicious lunch of grilled cheese and organized all of the donations. Thank you SOO much to everyone who donated something to this trip, it will be used for great things! After organizing the donations the ladies spent some time getting crafts ready for the kids to do during their faith lessons later in the week. Then we had about 2 hours of downtime to nap and reorganize our bags. I spent some quality time with...

January 17, 2016 Hola! We arrived in Guatemala City at about 1:00 AM. We had left church at 3:30 AM and drove to St. Louis in the church van.  Thanks to Aaron Clark for driving the team to the airport.  It made it much easier for unloading the bags that is for sure.  Thanks again to everyone that donated supplies.  We were able between the seven of us to get the donations to Groundwork Guatemala. Our first leg of the journey lead us flying into Atlanta, GA. There we had about a 2 and a half hour layover.  Our next leg was to Mexico City. We arrived there around 3:30 PM and then this is where our "fun" began. We were tied up in long lines for immigration for two hours and consequently missed our flight to Guatemala City. Once through immigration we then had to rebook new flights, get boarding passes and check our luggage again.  This all took an additional two hours.  We finally flew out of Mexico City somewhere around 10:00 PM and then did not...

Monday, January 4, 2016 We are starting this blog as an easy way for family and friends and church members to track our journey as we work with Groundwork Guatemala in Guatemala. This is the third year we will have a mission team from the Lutheran Church of St. John traveling to Guatemala.  Our departure is less than 12 days away and the team is getting excited about the trip and the opportunity to share the gospel with the people in Guatemala. We have been preparing for the past several months for the trip.  We want to thank everyone who supported our efforts by attending the fundraising western night, advent meal and by donating the needed supplies.  We are still in need of some additional items which can be found in the weekly announcements. Donations are needed by January 10, 2016. We thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement. 2016 Guatemala Mission Team

Today was our last day of ministry as we wrap up things here in Guatemala.  In the morning some went to a coffee roasting facility and some on home visits.  On the home visits we got to meet Mario and his family.  Mario is sponsored by the kids of our Sunday School.  We have a video greeting from Mario to bring back for everyone.  In the afternoon children from the area around the city dump came to the ministry house.  We only had about 15 kids for this lesson, which was OK since we just meet in the garage.  Like the other locations it was great to share the Gospel with them and they proudly shined their lights!  After our day of sharing we had to say goodbye to the missionaries.  That was tough.  They are amazing people who daily share God's Word and compassion with the people of Guatemala.  We were all inspired by their service and encouraged by their passion.  We hope to bring that home to share with all of you.  The ni...

If you want to see the fun we are having you can find us on Facebook at the Lutheran Church of St. John page.  Enjoy.

Welcome to another beautiful day in Guatemala! After breakfast and devotions the team headed out to Gonzalez Park. This park was quite different from the parks we see in the US, it consisted of a large slab of cement between two block buildings. After we arrived at the park, some of the team members went to make home visits. During one of these home visits I got to meet my sponsor child, her mother, her brother and her sister. We received many hugs and refreshments of Coca Cola and tasty tostadas. After returning to the park after the home visits we found that the park had been transformed. Several shade tents had been set up along with stools for the adults. We read books to the children, jumped rope and blew bubbles while waiting for all of the children and adults to arrive for the faith lesson. Once again the children enjoyed the singing and doing their crafts. I had a chance to spend more time visiting with Keyli and her family throughout the afternoon. On our way home, we had a su...

Today was adventuresome!  It was an early morning because we drove two hours to get to our village, Buena Vista.  On the way, we got to see the four volcanoes around our area.  Fuego was erupting but from the road, it looked like black smoke.  It was an amazing sight to see! In Buena Vista, we met a lot of interesting people.  We made some home visits to meet several  families.  There were lots of chickens, ducks, pigs and some really cute dogs which we were not allowed to pet.  Our faith lesson went well. It was held on a soccer field under the mango trees where it was shady.  Miss Rochelle and several other team members played soccer with the children.  On the way home, we got to see the men of the village work in the sugar cane fields.  They burn the sugar cane to remove the leaves before they chop it down with machettes.  This is how they make their living.  Crystal

Today was our third day here in beautiful Guatemala. We began our day bright and early with breakfast just the way we like it at 7 o'clock! We had a lovely (very long) morning devotion led by Manuel, one of the Guatemalan missionaries. We left the house and started our hour long journey to El Rincon, or The Corner. We met Carlos, a man who experienced God's mercy throughout his entire life. We were blessed to use their new and improved "bathroom." We went back to the corner and split into several groups and went on some house visits. There was one visit with a family whose daughter is sponsored by someone from our congregation. Her family's story was simply amazing, and her faith in the Lord is so strong. It was so amazing getting to connect with the young girl and getting to talk to her and pray with her. After the home visits we shared our faith lesson with the kids and played with them a little bit. They were very well behaved and very sweet and fun to work wit...

    Our morning started with a delicious breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit at 7:00.  We then had our morning devotions led by Julian, one of the Guatemalan missionaries, reflecting on Ps.119:7-20. He spoke of the need to search for God and to keep our eyes open to the needs of others.          We then proceeded to visit the ministry "Only a Child". This ministry was established by George Leger, who left his employment as a pastry chef in Boston upon being moved to minister to "street boys" in Guatemala City.  He felt he received a calling from God in 1994 to do this.  "Only a Child" provides shelter, a woodworking shop for employment and opportunities for education and advancement. For more information go to www.onlyachild.org.   Then our group went to the city cemetery which borders on the city dump, the "land fill" for Guatemala City.  Private and city trucks come there daily to dump their trash and oth...

We have had another blessed day in sunny Guatemala!  This morning, we attended a spirit filled worship service.  We started with praise and prayer complete with singing and clapping with a full band, dancing and several singers. God was definitely in that worship!  A lay leader then presented the sermon. I understood only a few words of his speedy Spanish but he was very animated and had a such a good sense of humor, I felt so uplifted as if I understood the whole sermon!  The service lasted about two hours...about half of it was standing. This afternoon was spent unpacking, counting and putting away all of the donation items we brought from our generous congregation. (Thank you!)  We spent the remainder of the afternoon reorganizing, playing cards, plus several napped since we arrived so late last night. In the evening, we practiced our songs...in Spanish...and our lesson that we will share with the kids this week.  The theme of our lesson is John 3:16....

Well it was a long day, but uneventful.  That's always best when we travel.  We rolled into our home from the week about 12:30 am.  Everyone is tired from the long day, but excited at the same time.  We are getting settled into our rooms and getting ready for an amazing week.  Thanks for the prayers.  We will also be praying for you while we are gone.  Come back for more tomorrow.