Sunday Night by the TRIANGLE plus julia

The afternoon was spent at the park, sleeping, talking, playing basketball with the kids, reading in the Reading Room, and listening to a few people practicing music for the evening church service. We had a special church service joined by locals and some of the older orphans from Casa Samuel. One of the orphans shared his testimony and new friends expressed their appreciation while Rafi translated for us. After the service, we said some goodbyes and then headed to a familiar place, the ¨golden arches.¨ We just returned to Rafi´s church and said goodbye to a family that we´ve gotten close to, a mother and her four children who have been deserted by their father. Last night, we raised over $300 by our team as an offering to the family so that their electricity, which has been off for three months, can be turned back on. Today was the oldest boy, Christopher´s, birthday and we celebrated with a feast at McDonald´s.
Signing off for the first Guatemala trip,
The Triangle
and Julia

GRAHAM´S SPECIAL BLOG

Today we woke at seven to the usual buenos dias from Rafi. Climbing the volcano required getting an early start, so we were on the road by seven thirty. We drove to the village at the base of the volcano, and we were greeted by horses for the whole gang. Some more scared than others,we hoofed it up the slippery slopes. Stopping for a couple scenic views, the whole climb took about forty five minutes. Once at the top, we proceeded on foot to climb the dried magma leading up to the peak. Not being allowed to actually reach the top, we settled for several hot underground tunnels containing lava. Sticking our walking sticks in the pits would burn them befre they hit the bottom. After this we returned to the plateau at the top before the magma starts. We ate lunch here and looked helplessly at a group higher up the had man break his leg. The trek down was greeted with a rain fall, which slowed everything down. Returning home we ate lunch at Rafi´s church. We have been here since all participating in different low key activities

Saturday by THE TRIANGLE.

We woke up ready to head to the volcano for the day, but found a rainy morning. We went to the market in Antigua, Guatemala, and enjoyed the morning shopping. At the market, we split up into groups and explored the area, its culture, architecture, and artifacts. It was an old town, with cobblestone streets, old churches, and quaint cafes. In the city square, we listened to music while we enjoyed some freshly peeled oranges. After that, we headed to the black market, a store filled with fake Lacoste, Polo, etc. shirts. We heard a shooting outside, catching our attention. Luckily, no one was tragically injured by the drunk drive+by shooting. We came back to Rafi´s church for lunch and the Triangle has spent the last hour blogging. Until next time....

The Triangle

FRIDAY by IanSaRen

We woke up to finish the patio and say farewell and adios to the orphans. It was a special goodbye as a few of them shared their thanks through a translator and they each handed us letters of gratitude that they had written. We headed back to the widows house, stopping on the way to buy Pringles and chilled bevs. When we arrived to the widows house we transported the clothes we had brought (donated by people from Stanwich church) to their shack, which doubled as a sauna. People from the town lined up to receive clothes from us. One woman came with her ten children. After another dip in the stream, we were chased from the stream up the mountain as dark rain clouds loomed overhead. Thankfully we made it out of the dense foresty region with only a few raindrops daring to touch our windshield wipers. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!! We arrived for dinner at Pollo Campero where we enjoyed the play pen, ice cream, and, naturally, the pollo (which is CHICKEN if you don´t know that). We headed back to Rafi´s church for the night.

Thursday by IstLisAre (The Triangle)

We spent the morning working on cementing the patio and playing with the kids. We had an excellent meal and later on headed to the beach. We drove to a small town that had many long, thin boats lined up. We fit about 50 people in our boat, our team and some of the kids from the orphanage, and arrived at another town where we then walked to the black sand beach. We spent the afternoon soaking in the sun and bobbing around in the violent Pacific (up to 15 foot waves). We returned to the orphanage and after cleaning up, had a dinner of plantains, cream, goat cheese, bean sauce, and tortillas. After dinner we had a bonfire where a couple of the orphans told their testimonies as did the director and Rafi. Then we headed to bed, where many of us slept outside a few feet from the roosters and geese, who enjoyed keeping us up at night.

Tuesday by ChrAlKar

The weather was beautiful on the drive to the widow´s house, as was the scenery. We had a 35 minute ride on a muddy dirt road and had to walk part of the way. When we got to the widow´s house, we were warmly greeted by the widow, her children, the mayor, the pastor, the head of the school board, and neighbors. We went right to work, knocking down the old wood house inside the new cement house. We had to watch out for black widows, scorpions, and mice. We worked for a few hours in 90 degree, very humid weather. Earlier that morning, they had killed a lamb for us for lunch, which portrayed their gratitude and hospitality because it´s such a rare treat. After lunch, half the group continued working while the others went to the nearby school to hand out a stuffed animal to each child. After a long day of work, we took a hike to the distant stream where we took a dive into the cool rapids. Later that night, we went to the local church where we sang songs. After another change of plans, we headed to the orphanage for the night. We arrived late and went right to sleep.

Saturday by Jordan reporting on Wednesday

Wednesday

I woke up, no I was rudely awaken by th sound of some rosters crowing. Its like they wanted to annoy me but I recieved my revenge that lunch, fried chicken. Our task for the next few days was to cement a floor in the orpanage. It was a difficult job but had to be done because the Guatemalin health deprtment would shut the orphanage down if they did not cover the dirt floor they had before. We finished about half of the floor after a full day of work. My job for the day was to hail wet cement from the mixer to the floor to be spread. During lunch break we played soccer against the locals, we lost 0 to 2.... hmm. I did not interact with the kids a lot because I was working all day but most of the girls were able to spend some time with them. That night we had a church, their was a some music and a clown that was simply amasing. Even though I could olny undersand a little of what he was saying he still was hilarious, but the coolest thing about the clown was that he had a biblical point intertwined with all of his tricks. After church I went with Trevor to engrave my name in the cement. After that I soon went to bed. On interesting thing about the orphanage was that it was surrounded by high walls and guarded by a man equipped with a shotgun. Its just another reminder of what a diffrent world Guatemala is.

Back in Guatemala City

Just wanted you all to know that we are back in Guatemala City. We had three excellent and labor intensive days. Thanks for praying. The group has been great! We got back into the capital later than expected last evening so we did not have the oppòrtunity to post. We head to the volcano this morning but I will try to get some of the teens to post their experiences.

Blessings!
Chuck

Tuesday Morning with Karen

As I type this, we´re about to head off to the village where we´ll be helping with the widow´s house. The vans are getting packed up and I can hear the boys playing frisbee. Everything is going well! The trip here was very smooth, and flight 1 enjoyed a long layover in Dallas. We talked with 2 other mission teams here in Guatemala, from both Missouri and California. We arrived as an entire team last night at the airport Guatemala City to find Rafi waiting for us. Danielle, Trevor and I rode on top of the high mound of luggage in one van as we saw the beautiful city by night. We met the other van at Pollo Campero, sort of like the Guatemalan equivalent of Kentucky Fried Chicken. We arrived at Rafi´s church very excited, finding a large Welcome Stanwich Church sign that was made for us. With all the excitement, it took some of the boys quite a while to settle down for sleep. We woke up this morning to find a delicious breakfast prepared by some of the women here...eggs and ham, corn flakes, bread, bananas, orange juice, and good Guatemalan coffee. Though some of our team didn´t get much sleep, it is a beautiful morning and we´re all excited about what we will be doing today! The highlight of my morning so far was seeing the smoking volvanos from Rafi´s roof. We are in such a beautiful place and it´s a cool but sunny day, perfect for our work. Chuck reminded us this morning as we prayed for our day that we are using God´s energy in all we do. I can´t wait to see what He will do today!

Tuesday AM

It is 630 AM and everyone is up, getting showered and ready to ride. Breakfast is cooking in the background. I wanted you all to know that we are all safe. I will get some others on here before we take off to give their play'by'play of yesterday.

Chuck

Getting Ready for the Gang to Arrive

I am at Rafi´s in Guatemala City. My travel was smooth and we spent the afternoon getting the vans lined up, purchasing vegetables at an open market and other supplies for the week. Christian arrived directly from Costa Rica to help with shopping. We are watching the All Star home run derby and having a cup of java. We are off to the airport in about 30 minutes to meet the rest of the gang. I will try to get one of them on the computer later to give a final arrival update. We head west tomorrow to work on the widow´s house. We will be out of internet contact for the next three days but get back to you on Thursday.

Pray for us as we travel!

Chuck

Made it half way...

So eveyone arrived at Stanwich Church bright and early this morning, passports and luggage in hand. As we were getting ourselves organized, we noticed our airport transportation arrive - two escalades and a stretch limo! I guess since we booked our transportation so last minute, this was all they had left! AND since we had 60 pieces of luggage to get to Laguardia, they had to call for back-up and bring in another Escalade! What a way to start off our mission trip! The group of us who were on the first flight out to Dallas had a smooth trip, however Tony was rather rambunctious on the plane! The next group will be landing here in Dallas shortly and we are hoping for another uneventful flight into Guatemala City. We hope to be able to post something again soon and please keep on praying. -Danielle

Prayed Up and Ready to Go!

Today in church, our Guatemala team was commissioned. We appreciate all of your prayers as we go. We hope to be able to give update along the way. Tuesday-Thursday we might not have access to internet so do not lose hope if we are silent in that time period.
Blessings!
Chuck

Welcome

Welcome to the Stanwich Guatemala 2008 summer missions blog site! Whenever we have internet access in Guatemala, we will attempt to give you updates and download photos. We will also keep the blog running for debriefing after the trip! Come along for the ride!!!