Last Post for This Trip

It's Friday, which means in less than 24 hours we will be on our way home. Which means that between now and then there will be lots of tears shed. Our group has connected in ways that many of them weren't expecting. Already they are anticipating the inevitable, and not exactly looking forward to it.

We wrapped up the work that we could finish this morning, which was basically continuing to trim and hauling the brush out of the back door of the compound to be burned at a later date. If your child went on this trip and ever complains that you are making them do too much work or too many chores, feel free to remind them how much work they did here. (Please don't tell them I suggested that) They have worked their tails off! I am so proud of them! And subtract the minor bumps and bruises and there was no drama at all. That is rare for a youth trip, let me tell you.

Ice cream sure is popular! Last night we took some students who were being rewarded for good behavior out for ice cream, and today we will be making homemade ice cream with all the kids. You won't hear me complain.

Sorry for the lack of photo updates at our Flickr site. I have problems uploading pictures. When I get back to the States, I will try it again.

Thanks for your prayers, financial, and emotional support. We couldn't have done it without you. See you soon!

Hard Stuff and Shopping

Last night was pretty rough emotionally. After our normal time spent playing soccer, we gathered together with Staci in the meeting room. During that next hour, we asked her about certain children that we had become close to and she filled us in on their life details. Most, if not all, of these children have been through a very rough time and are dealing with a lot of emotional baggage. As a dad it was very difficult hearing all of these details. But I think it was good for our students to hear the reality of what these children are having to, or have had to, deal with. And it was also great to hear stories of the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. One girl had been abused to the point of her father sticking her feet in boiling water. Some time after having come to the home, she informed the NLCH staff that her feet no longer say who she is, that now, Jesus tells her who she is. She realized that her abuse doesn't define her, but what Jesus says about her does. What an encouraging message that is! And great for us all to hear.

After that, we needed a light and easy day today so we went to Antigua. We left early in the morning and went to a five-star resort in Antigua and had a buffet breakfast. It was delectable! From there we took a tour of a coffee plantation and learned how coffee is made and processed. Did you know that for 1 pound of coffee it requires the beans from one coffee plant for an entire year? After touring the plantation we then checked out Antigua, some of the shops there, and some ancient church ruins. After a chicken lunch we then went to the market and spent way too much money on some very inexpensive items. We may have to pay for some students' extra baggage fees on the way home.

We got home in time for dinner and had our normal beans and tortilla dinner with our various homes, with the added joy of plaintains. I don't know about anybody else but I love those things! Afterwords who headed back to the gym for some more soccer. Being later in the week, we are starting to get some nicks and bruises here and there but nothing serious and nothing medical-attention-worthy. Don't worry moms and dads, everyone is fine.

While the shrieks and laughter of game-playing wafts out of our common room, I am going to head to bed. Thanks for staying up to date with us!

Church!

Something that is encouraging to me is the fact that we worship the same God who is worshipped around the world. We went to church this morning (Sunday) at a huge church in Guatemala City. The facility seats 12,500 people, and there were probably 6,000 people in worship. While most of what happened was lost on us - particularly those of us whose translating headsets didn't work (about half of us) - there were some connection points. They sang two songs that we recognized and we took Communion. As soon as the message kicked in, a few of us were lost, but we were able to connect by looking up the Scripture references that were on the screen.

After church we took eleven of the younger kids who were being rewarded for good behavior to McDonald's for lunch, followed by a visit to Space Zone (think McD's playland on steroids). The little ones had a blast running around, many of them in dress-up clothes. The favorite was the little boy who wore a dinosaur costume, fairy wings, and a witch hat. They wore themselves out, so many of them slept on the way back to the home.

Back at the home, we ate dinner at the various home units. Each night we break up and eat at the separate homes: big boys, big girls, little boys, and little girls. Generally speaking we have some form of beans and tortillas and something else. Those meals are enjoyable, but challenging as the language barrier is so pronounced when you are sitting around a table looking at each other. But our crew is doing well and is not intimidated by the experience. After dinner, we played in and out of the rain with the kids, some more than others. And after they all went to bed, and we had our debrief time, we gathered with the interns and two of the oldest boys, Esdras and Ramses, for a fierce game of volleyball (it was soccer with all of the kids the night before and last night). The most fierce was clearly Austin. At one point a simply tried to punch the ball, missing it completely, and it hit him in the face. I thought we were going to need oxygen for some of our team from laughing so hard!

Yesterday was a work day, so we got split up into three teams to complete various menial tasks around the compound: weeding, trimming 'hedges', filling ditches, dismantling rotten picnic table, cleaning out gutters, and so on. It's not nearly as much fun for the group as it is hanging out with kids, but they served joyfully knowing what good their work was doing for the kids and the missionaries here. When we do these jobs, it allows them to be doing other things, so everyone wins. As a result, we were a little spent last night. I think lots of ibuprofen were consumed. We will have more of the same today.

It's almost breakfast time, so I will sign off and try to blog more later. Thank you for your continued prayers!

Guatemala Pics

I just uploaded some pics from our first day plus in Guatemala. I hope to update more tomorrow. Suffice it to say we've had a great time with the kiddos!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theporchlacroix/sets/72157630486651232/

Made it to Houston

Guatemala #1: Made it to Houston safe and sound. We all got on the plane OK, despite Cory asking if we needed to keep 'this,' pointing to his boarding pass. I heard on the trip to the airport that Megan doesn't do well on flights. Needless to say, I ended up sitting next to her. :-) Except for a bit of an upset stomach, she made it through with flying colors. Everyone was real excited and energetic in the van on the way up; that gave way to sleep, reading, talking, and playing on cell phones on the plane. We'll be leaving for Guatemala shortly, so thanks in advance for your prayers!

Update from Halley (Team Williams)

Yesterday was exhausting, so our team had a hard time getting up this morning. We are working with Y-CAP this week - a day camp for inner city students. They've been such a blessing.

The students have been in charge of 45 minutes every morning. That include a game and devotions. Tomorrow we have the 45 minute block and a 2 hour block. Some of the students have never done a devotion without access to materials besides the Bible so it has been quite the learning experience. The boys gave their testimony this am and the girls did the Good Samaritan yesterday.

Ashley Miles had a young girl tell him that they had never heard the story of the Good Samaritan. This blew her mind.

We also had a young man walk up to us yesterday as we were carrying sheet rock and asked us if we were doing all this on our vacation. He was dumbfounded.

Team Williams Out.

Tired

It's only 3:30pm and I'm pretty wiped already. I'll blame it on the 4:30am wake-up call. But we did have a full day and we still have dinner and a prayer tour to come. So to have a little window of rest is a good thing. Not all of the groups have this luxury. Ha-ha!

This morning our group went to Project CURE, which is an organization that ships medical supplies to developing countries. They are doing great work all over the world. Half of our group tested, sorted and moved hospital beds, while the rest of us sorted and packed medical supplies: syringes, sutures, catheter tubes, gauze, etc. While not the most interpersonal form of ministry, it is cool to think about the people that our work is helping (and I don't just say that as someone who has received medical treatment in one such country).

At lunchtime we met up with Team Lynn. What a story they had! While digging to prepare a garden, Intern Dave and Alex hit something hard. It turned out to be what appeared to be a large bone, perhaps a femur. They continued to dig, unearthing around 30 bones, including what seemed to be vertebra, shoulder blades, hip sockets, and so on. The police were called and they came with a forensic investigator. Needless to say we are hoping it was just a deer, but if not, Intern Dave may be getting a call.

This afternoon we got oriented at our anchor site for the week, Family Affair Ministries. They provide an array of services for people in the community, from tutoring children, to feeding them, to providing food service training, to teaching computer skills, and so on. Our job will be to help them with their day camp, which could draw 150 kids. Our group is getting pumped! What a great organization to get to work with!

I also got an interesting picture texted to me from Team Cline. It turns out that part of what they did was to wash the feet of the homeless individuals who came in, and the picture was our Danny Rees performing one such pedicure. I wish I could have been there for that!

Going to go get my rest on now. More updates to come, but hopefully not at 5:00am..,

We're Here!

After an uneventful trip, we made it to Nashville safe and sound. After unpacking and getting settled and a brief leaders meeting, we departed for dinner. But not before meeting our roomies from near Muncie, IN. Part of our group went to the International Market for Thai food, while the rest went to Istanbul for Turkish. While at the Thai restaurant, some of our crew decided to try the squid jerky. I'm pretty sure that's the last time they'll try that.

After dinner we came back to the Eastland Baptist Church, our home for the next week for our orientation. We have a great group of city hosts. Our (Team Cash) host is Jonathan who seems really great, despite his directional disadvantage. (translation: we have already gotten lost) The others seem great also. Then after our orientation, we basically hung out until bedtime.

Bedtime went off without a hitch. I can't say the same for wake-up. Some of our guys were up before 5am. That is why i am blogging on my phone at 6am instead of sleeping. That has to change or I will hurt someone...Not literally...maybe. We'll see if they are still getting up that early by Thursday or Friday.

Thanks for your continued prayers. We look forward to bringing home lots of stories...