Monday, July 21, 2008

Guatemala's Last Post

So we arrived in Tecpan and it is FREEZING! We take turns laying in
front of the one little hearter we have, but it's going well. We had a
few issues trying to figure out the shower, but we are all able to take
warm showers. We have been line drying our closes, which is kinda cool.
I'm sorry, but I won't be posting anymore pictures on snapfish until I
get back to the states. The internet connection here in Tecpan
unfortunately doesn't stay connected continually enough to post
pictures.
We painted a VERY long wall and we were all very relieved when we
reached the end.
We've been having open-air meetings in La Giralda which is up the hill
from where we're staying. We'd walk up there everyday, sunshine or
rain. The kids were a little hesitant at first, but when they saw Cara
running through the field they opened up a little. The Tecpan corps has
been going up there for six months yet the kids have never come down to
the corps. We had an average of 60-70 kids on Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday. On Thursday we had a little over 90! The best outcome the
Wilson's said they ever had.
We also had a carnival Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am VERY
happy to report that we had an average of 176. About 8 of those being
from La Giralda! We dressed up and told Bible stories. I think the
highlight of our night was the puppet show those. Put on20by Annie,
Maggie, and myself. The reason it was so funny though is because we
were able to put a puppet to a team member and then we would make them
do things that team member does. It was great and we had a blast.
On Thursday we ventured off to the market... I don't even know what to
say about that! It was really crowded and a little uncomfortable, but
it was very interesting to see the way it all worked.
I have some pictures of the market and in there you'll see a picture of
some chicks on a truck and I started snapping them and the guy who
owned the chickens showed me pretty clearly that he didn't want me
taking pictures of his baby chickens. It was kinda funny, but we
figured it was because I was white... oh well.
At the market we found roasted iguana, live crabs on a stick and
unproperly refrigerated chicken. As you can probably assume, it was an
interesting experience.
Friday we visited some Mayan ruins! So cool! We saw a few rituals that
were going on as well. We climbed the VERY steep steps to reach the top
of the pyramids. I'm hoping to start a youtube when I get home because
I have some funny videos... on including Cara rolling down the side of
a pyramid. CRAZY girl! We enjoyed ourselves very much.
Friday night we had a cook-out. The members from the corps in Tecpan
came and we enjoyed a great dinner with them.
Wow, after this blog you
guys aren't going to believe we've actually
been doing any work.
SATURDAY WE HIKED UP A
VOLCANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pacaya was quite an adventure. There are 37 named volcanos in
Guatemala. Four of those being active. Pacaya is the only active
volcano that you can get close to the lava. We were able to get so
close that we stuck our walking sticks into the lava which then BURST
into flames! It was a beautiful climb up. We were able to stick around
the lava for 30 minutes and then had to head out because it started to
rain. It rained the ENTIRE way down!!! We were all shaking and soaked
as we climbed back into the van.
Sunday morning came early, but we were excited to get to the meeting. I
gave the sermon in the morning and David gave it in the evening. We did
our timbrel routine for the 5 billionth time, but they loved it. It's
always difficult saying bye, but we knew it was coming.
We're now in Chimaltenango building on top of the security wall. We're
all VERY sore and it's only day two. We had to putt bushes with tons of
thorns off the fence and drag those around a few different places until
they decided where they wanted them. Then we cut rebar (not sure on the
spelling of that)... with a saw. Installed the stuff and reinforced it
all. It's the end of day two and we are all exhausted and my hands 0D
hurt...
We have 3 more days left of tough labor and then one more Sunday. We're
trying to soak it all in, but there's so much more to do.
We're excited to see you all though!

Team Guatemala

Monday, July 14, 2008

You're Invited!

Dear Friends,

On July 23 at 6:00 p.m. the Salvationist Service Corps will be hosting a Cultural Night to which you are invited to come. Please join us as we hear their stories and learn of their travels to the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.

Cultural Night will be held at Atlanta Temple.
The address is:
2090 N. Druid Hills Rd
Atlanta, GA 30329

Please RSVP to Joy Mikles at 404-728-1300 x470 or Joy_Mikles@uss.salvationarmy.org. You can also leave a comment here if you'd like.

Thanks!
Joy

Monday, July 07, 2008

Guatemala Team Update



Hey guys! Sorry it´s been so long since the last blog.


So we finished in Limon and Maya. It was hard to say bye to the kids in
Maya because they were really the first group of kids we were able to
interact with.


We had a few issues with food. Chris, David, and Tammi got sick. The
boys took a little time to get better and are back to work. Tammi just
wasn´t getting any better so Major took her to the hospital. She stayed
one night and came home the next day. There were a few times where she
started to feel better, but then it would just return.


Last Saturday we made a trip to the airport and picked up the
Iglehearts! We were so excited to see them and they were such an
encouragment to us. Unfortunately their trip was too short. The left on
the 2nd and they took Tammi with them.


So now there´s only six of us.
This week we were in Central and Tierra Nueva.
In Central we scraped old paint off and painted the outside, a room,
and the railing up three flights of stairs to the chapel. I think we
all woke up at least one day this week really not wanting to paint, but
we knew that God had something in store for us that much bigger than
our own desires.
A song that´s been on our minds lately has been. A lyric from it says;
I surrender dreams to the plans you have for me.


I think that our hearts have been challenged by this line. We´re
seeking what that really means and what that means to us.


Our team becomes stronger everyday and we realize more and more how
hard it´s going to be to part from each other...


Today we went to Antigua. We did TONS of shopping and I think we would
all agree that today was a very good bonding day.
This week we will be going to Tecpan and we´re very excited because we
will be staying at the camp there. This is up in the mountains and we
will be staying in a house. How awesome is that?!?
We will be with the Wilson´s there.. who speak English! YEY! They have
a busy schedule for us. I don´t know how many pictures we will have
from there because the people there belive that when a picture is taken
of you part of your soul is being captured. Craziness, but if that´s
the way they say it is then that´s the way it is...


We´re all excited that you guys have been keeping up with our blog.
We do have more pictures up.
www.snapfish.com
username : Misstritton@gmail.com
password: 307857


We will see you all in about two and a half weeks!
Keep praying for us!
Team Guatemala


Dominican Republic Update 5

We are going into our 5th week here and are all very excited to be almost done but also sad because we do not want to leave. We leave Cotui tomorrow and head for Moca. we will be there for 2 weeks and then head home. its hard to leave Cotui because we have been here for so long and have made friends with everyone. Our Sunday service today was amazing! Johanna preached about hands and servant hood. A lot of youth were there, which was great because we had an amazing youth meeting last night. I have never worshiped like we did last night. The Lord is wonderful!
We finished VBS for cotui yesterday. We ended up with over 200 children. which was hard to handle but God worked it out. So many of those children came to church today! Tonight we had a surprise birthday party for Johanna. We are early, but she would expect us to have it closer to her birthday and we wanted to surprise her! We totally did!
We are excited about tomorrow because we should be working really hard in Moca. It was nice to have some time off and relax a bit in Cotui but I think we are all ready to get back to working really hard for these last two weeks. Please continue to pray for us. We love and miss you all! oh! AND WE PUT PICTURES UP ON THE SNAPFISH WEBSITE! :-)