The Adventure Continues.....

Monday! We are up and ready to go! The group assigned to the breakfast runmade their way to the market and came back with fresh fruits, breads, and pastires. The food here is wonderfully flavorful. (the meat is tough, but marinated and full of flavor and sliced thinly). Much of the fruit is familiar, but much of it is strange but fun to eat. We always have to ask how to eat things. Eat the peelings, not eat the peelings, spit out the seeds, or the seeds are what we eat. Very confusing but very tasty.
My favorite continues to be a cookie that they call a bread and a thick strawberry jam. The cookie is like a brown sugar cookie, almost a short bread. You smear the jam on the cookie and eat it.
A few of us stayed at the hotel where we sorted donations and repacked the food into bags of 25 pounds for distribution later in the week.
The others headed out to the School of the Saints and started working on laying tiles and painting…..Well most of them headed that way. Estuardo’s group went strait to the school and went strait to work…..the other group, who were driven by the famous Ken Hart……well they took a tour of the city of Reu and showed up at work about two hours later. Apparently they wanted to wander in the wilderness alittle longer. Ken is reported to say “he knows the school is here somewhere”. They stopped for directions but none of them spoke Spanish, so all they got was a lot of pointing. No wonder we call Ken, Senor Loco.
When Ken finally showed up it was lunch time. We all gathered together for a great meal and lots and lots of laughs!

Getting There!

Sunday began in the O’Hare Airport with checking in, going through customs, and security, and watching the snow fall, and thinking in a few hours we will be in a place where there is no snow….Finally it came time for the plane to be boarded. It was a full flight, and while it was nice and warm in Chicago…..by the time we reached Guatemala City, the cabin was hot…..We disembarked the plane to 80+ degree weather. Some were able to sleep on the plane….all of us tried, but with varying results
We wandered through the airport and found baggage claim. It was quite a sight to see the parade of thirty-three people with suitcases on little trolley carts snake our way to customs. We made it through with no incidents and made our way to the bus. It was an old school bus that had racks on the top where our luggage was tied down. No air, so when the bus was stopped, it was beastly hot, but not bad when we were moving.
We had breakfast on the bus. Pouring coffee and orange juice proved to be a trick, I wore my juice but between being excited to be here and overtired, I didn’t care. We had pastries, chicken sandwiches, and chicken tamales for breakfast…yummy!
About half way to Reu, we passed a farm where a family lives. The family is very poor. It has become the tradition that the mission trip busses regularly stop there and leave food and other supplies for them. After a short visit, we were back on the bus.
The trip to Reu took about four hours. We arrived at Hotel Astor, our home for the next week. And then on to Estrado’s family for a yummy lunch. After lunch we went back to our hotel for time in the pool, getting to know our new friends, and for me, a nap!
Just before six, we met in the lobby to go to the Dardon’s for supper. Again the meal was delicious! I am not sure exactly what it was called, but none of us could get over how good it was, and the fresh tortillas and fruit.
We closed our evening with worship and communion, and anticipation of a great week……

Will You Follow Me......

The time has finally come…Dave and I wake up in hopeful anticipation after a restless night. Filled with ponderings of all the last minute things that we need to get done, the final list of things to get from the grocery store, and the list of things that we need to do to close the house for a week….you know, like take out the stinky garbage, turn down the heat, and clear the old messages from the answering machine. As we did these things, we thought about all the other people that were performing the same tasks to prepare for the same journey as we were.
The Charles City group met at 11:30 to put the packed donations on the bus, followed by a pizza lunch. We then left Charles City and met the rest of our group in Waverly, Manchester, and Dubuque. We got on the bus as strangers, but as the group numbers grow….so do the relationships.
Worship with Holy Trinity
Packing and getting everyone on the bus went smoothly and we made great time driving across the state….we arrived in Dubuque on time and we blessed by the hospitality at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Betsy and crew served us an incredibly delicious supper of maidrites, salads, and amazing mint brownies. YUMM! We were able to stay and worship with them at their Saturday Night Worship Service. The text for the evening was John 12:18. Pastor David Solburg preached on “Lavish Love, Sour Stinginess”. The final song was “Will you Follow Me” by John Bell….a song that has become my new favorite song not only for the catchy tune, but the call to all to follow where you are called and be transformed. ”will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known. Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me”.
What an incredible sending! Thank you Holy Trinity.

Guatemala is a country of contrasts…..unparalleled beauty in the mountains and volcanoes. Curious and friendly people who are creative and live life to the fullest. Everywhere you look there is color and music that add to the richness and diversity of the culture of the country. In stark contrast Guatemala is a a country that has 85percent of it’s population living in poverty. The needs of the people are many….including food insecurity (hunger and nutritional deprivation) economic-lack of sustainable income, and difficult to access education. Currently the effects of a longer than normal rainy season and extreme heat and drought have caused the sugar crops to fail in some areas that has caused an important source of employment to not be available. This has had a ripple effect in the economy that is now being felt in and around Reu. For that reason, we felt that it was important to bring needed food with us.
The Dardon’s secured 1000 pounds of Feed My Starving Children food that needed to be packed in suitcases and brought with us to Guatemala.
Due to distance, we were not able to all be together at one time, but those that could, met in Charles City on Friday night. We packed the food and donations of toothpaste and brushes, shoes and children’s clothing, and the food packs.
When we were done we had over thirty suitcases, filled with exactly 50 pounds of food and donations….yes as a matter of fact we weighed each one.

Ken, don't forget your PASSPORT!

Before anyone goes on a trip, you must check through your things and be sure you have everything packed.....somethings can be replaced, like if you forget your toothbrush, no big deal, go to the store and get a new one....however......when traveling to another country, you must have your passport. you will not leave the country without it......Ken forgot his passport and had to have it fedexed to Texas.....this time we can't do that....so Ken if you forget your passport, we will have to leave you at the airport.....and that just would not be cool.....SO KEN DON'T FORGET YOUR PASSPORT!!!! :)

It is almost time to go.....The bus is filled with fuel, the "Feed My Starving Children" food is packed.....all we have to do now is wait until Saturday when it is time to gather in Charles City, Waverly, Manchester, and Dubuque and then off to the airport....where we will get on a huge jet that is scheduled to take off at 2:00 in the morning. Can't wait!

I will post as much as I can, but internet access is undependable in Guatemala.

We are sooooo excited!

We have 35 people signed up and ready to go to Guatemala! We met on Saturday for an informal informational meeting and to meet together for the first time. We recieved our books and tee shirts. For many of us we are counting the days until we leave. We leave on March 20th and will take off from OHare Airport in Chicago late that night.
Please keep this group in prayer during preperations and as we leave for Guatemala.