Dedications done

We did split up the team into a few trucks to go to each of the five homes built this week. Prayer and thanksgiving were offered at each. Oneof the homes was built for a woman with five children, each one with a different father. Her oldest daughter also has a son and no husband. The woman had awbandoned the children to be raised by her sister. The pastor talked very frankly and instructed the woman to stop sinning! He also challenged the children to forgive their mother.

One of the women from the pastor training team was able to go to three homes yesterday to visit. She said that she did not see how the women were able to do home visits all day. The pain and emotional energy the morning took for her, she has an appreciation for those of us doing this all week. Othersof us have gotten the doctors to come to homes where the sick are unable to come to the clinics. Teeth of one of the construction workers in San Pedro came to the hotel and had his tooth pulled on the balcony a couple of nights ago. Some of the computer team have reported their challenges. Even though they are attempting to tell us in lay terms, some of us remain clueless. Suffice it to say, all of us have worked together well all week. Teams have helped each othr. People, like Paul, a trained dentist, was on construction until the two dentists from Guatemala City were down. Then he pulled and cleaned teeth in extremely primitive conditions. Friday was the poorest village and some of the tools had gone to Guatumala City with the dentists that needed to return before the week was done.

All in all, this week has been amazing. Much has been accomplished. Many seed have been planted. The churches have families identified that need to see specialiats and need to help make that happen. Some of the returning team members have reconnected with friens from the pat. All of us have made new friends. April first at six thirty in the evening we will gather to share some of our experienes with any and all of our supporters and those other interested parties at Wooddale Church.

Please excuse any delays, brevity, typos, and ommissions from this week's blog.

We will eat lunch shortly and it smells like much garlic. We take one more boat ride across this beautiful lake, load up on buses and head to Antiquia for an evening off with money to dine any place we would like.

Thank you for all your prayes. Contiue to pray for the health and safety of the team. Four people fly back Sunday morning. Especially pray for the wait staff that talked with a coule of us later last night, once done with his duties. He is reading the writings of other religions. He did accept a New testiment and committed to read the book of John. He will e-mail his comments to one of us after he does that. He is a very plesant young man traveling the world and searching for what to believe above the focus on the present and accepting bad as well as good. Pray he comes to see Christ for who He is.

Until later!

Last day of ministry

Sorry we did not post a blog page last night, we had a church service and it was realy late. Today is the last day of ministry and tommorrow we are going to look at the houses that the home construction team have made, we are also going to Antigua to go to the hotel Don Rodrigo for the weekend. We also lost 3 team members that went to Guatemala City and the Nelsons went to Intermission, a conference for any missionaries in the country. It is held this weekend in Panajachel.

A previous team member had moved to a town about 1.5 hours from San Pedro. He has agreed to teach various Bible classes at the English speaking high school. Yesterday most of the teams were in San Padro, the town where we are all staying. We were in the poorest village around Lake Atitlan today. There are so many needs there. We helped with some. There will be a surprise play after dinner.

Until later, keep praying for us for safe travels, good night sleep, and health!

Midweek Update

Today the teen ministry had their big opportunity to present a drama to a large group. We will hear later this evening how that went. The children continue with their boundless energy to work as clowns, do dramas, and play with all the local children. It is before supper and some of us were able to shower in between the electricity breaker flipping off due to on demand hot water heaters. The crew who headed out early this am willnobe back until after supper.

Most of the team updates and highlights are shared after supper. So, the information I have now is very limited. All but the coastal crew is back. More are using sunscreen and a number of us have stomach cramps. Due to HIPPA, I cannot give specifics. The bottom line is, a few have missed somework due to abdominal distress. The medical team did see a young woman who nees to have immediate medical attention for asthma. We had nothing we really could do for her other than stress she get to a specialist, soon.

Yesterday, one of the women's home visiting teams spent time with a widow and other family members of a man who committed suicide 5 days before. He had also taken another wife. His 15 year old daughter refused to remain in the home with her mother because of so much sadness there. She did come talk with us and told us that she is a Christian. Her mother is not. Today we visited a 93 year old couple. They had had 4 children, all of whom had died. The man was selling off his tools to get money for them to live. They did recieve a home consisting of two rooms built by one of the local churches. We did challenge the women of the church who took us on the visit to think od the needs of this family and what could they do. The idea of carrying water all the way up the hillor washing the women did not seem obvious to them, butwas tous.

I appologize for the lack of photos on this post. If you would like to see pics of one family's experiece, go to www.boelkefamily.blogspot.com.

Until latter.

Day late and not sure why!

Sara Lloyd and Connie Dummer posted about our first ministry day last night. Today, it is no where to be found!

Monday and today, clowns have joined us at breakfast. Yesterday we asked the question,"Who is that clown?". The ministry teams have been working at their various locations. Most of the teams were in Panajachel on Monday and today in the villages around Santiago.

The dental team was busier today and did not have time to treat all the patients. Some of the visits to the homes were the same homes the team, including Connie Dummer visited six years ago the first year of the home visit ministry.

Water filtration is going well. The government has tested the water and reported to the communities it is clean. Drinking it is increasing. The 38th system will be installed tomorrow some distance away. Steve Dummer and Lewie Marshall will attempt to leave at 6:30am. Pray they get going and have safe travels.

The computer lab is fully installed in Tzancha. There are many people in that community who will be able to access educational materal juat off the main road around Lake Atitlan past Santiago.

Teaching English was done in a public school today. The team seems to be enoying themselves as the young Mayan children, who don't know Spanish get to try to learn numbers and colors in English.

A baker's dozen of pastors gathered for Bible training and activities on the joy of the Lord. The leader's of that team are pleased with the day.

We are worshiping God and learning songs in Spanish to sing in the celebration service on Thursday night. There was an opportunity to shop after the worship time tonight. Beautiful weavings and garments madeby a pastor's wife in San Pedro.

I am sure there is more to share. Mant are sunburnt, some on cipro already, and a few meltdowns, but good overall. Dr. Mark claims he did the least intrusive micro prolapse surgery today--or something like that. One patient had a raging throat infection and antibiotics will prevent the heart damage from strep throat that we do not even think about in the USA.

Until later. Hope this posts!

Team preparation day

Today we had 4 transportation options a big bus, a medium bus, a van or a car. We went on a big boat across lake Atitlan to get to the hotel Mikaso in San Pedro. One team member is sick and many people got sunburned. The lake is very high, and many businesses had to close! And for lunch we had pink noodles!

In the afternoon we broke up and went to our ministry groups. The teams made there plans and got ready for the big day! The medical team and dental team sorted all of there stuff.We are gathering for dinner. Buenas Noches!

On the airplane to Guatemala!

Buenos dias! We woke up at 2:00 am and our bus at church left at 3:05 to drop us off at the airport. Things went well; an extra bag is now a $40.00 fee. Leaving Atlanta was delayed 1 hour. This meant that both teams on each airlies arrived close together.

The team supplies were held in customs for over 5 hours! Some leaders stayed in customs while the rest of our team loaded on 2 buses to go to our hotel.After dinner we learned our bags got through customs. There are many beuatiful birds and flowers! For diner we had soup, chiken or fish, tortillas and rice milk. This is the first time we have met team members from other states: Tennesse, Texas and Nebraska.

It has been a long day! Breakfast at 8:00.

Prayer Letter