The Lord’s Day in Guatemala

Hi Everyone!

Today was a special day for all of us. Nineteen of us piled into a 15
passenger van and headed off to attend service at Manuel's church.
Manuel is one of the five Ministry Staff members whose picture is on the
Groundwork Guatemala display in our church Narthex. He is the one on
the right with the mustache. For those of you who haven't seen our
display board, you can see a picture of the Ministry Staff at the
following site:

http://www.groundworkguatemala.org/view/sponsor/missionaries

Wow! I have never attended a church service like this one before. The
Guatemalans know how to praise God with gusto! I was literally moved to
tears. Marilyn asked me what got me to crying, and all I could say was
that I didn't know. It was in Spanish, and I just didn't understand it.

I was asked by the team members if I would let you know that it has been
suggested for us to let go of our lives at home and concentrate on
getting to know the people of Guatemala during our brief visit with
them. This is why you don't see us posting anything on our Facebook
pages, and/or checking our email. (I expect my crops to wither in
Farmville on Facebook, but I've agreed to just "let it go.")

Since I'm in charge of communications, I'm allowed to post to the blog
and send updates to our Prayer Partners and others by special request.
I'm asking team members to feel free to add their thoughts to my
musings. Today Joyce is sharing some of her thoughts with you (see
below). Meanwhile, I'm heading off to bed Again, everyone else is
already sawing logs. I guess I'm the night owl in the group.

Blessings,
Connie

And now, let's hear it from Joyce:

Greetings from Guatemala! We arrived safe and sound with very few
problems. The weather is warm, wet, and warm again. My sweat glands are working very well!
Church this morning was wonderful. The message was from Joel 2: 12-19
(yes pastor we just can't forget you even if we try). God's spirit was
very evident as they sang, danced and swayed to the music. The band had
drums, coronets (3), base guitar, key board and 3 singers. Oh also 5
dancers. They all played very well and had us on our feet for over 45
minutes. I was given more kisses and hugs this morning than I have had
since the funeral and that is saying a lot if you know Rick and I. One
lady I thought wasn't going to let go.

I have completed one scarf and one more bottle holder so far this trip
that I will most likely leave here for Ginny and Kevin to give as gifts
at Christmas. All the candy we brought with us will also be given at
Christmas. Just got to keep my hands busy.

Gods love and mine, Will write more as the week progresses.

Joyce Rhodes.

Praise the Lord! We're here!

Yaaaaaay, Lord! We are finally here, safe and sound. We arrived in
Guatemala City a bit ahead of schedule, shortly after 6 am Sat. morning.
Surprisingly we got through customs fairly uneventful, considering all
the in kind offerings, craft and Bible study supplies we had packed in
duffel bags and our personal luggage. As the customs officials searched
through some of the bags, they just kind of rolled their eyes and made
comments among themselves with grins on their faces. Of course, none of
us really knows Spanish so we have no idea what they were saying about
this weird group of people coming to visit their country.

We were pretty travel weary when we arrived, as our flight out of
Chicago left about 3 am and we arrived in Guatemala City shortly after 6
am (their time, which is a couple hours ahead of us). None of us slept
much on the plane. However , I guess you can say we hit the ground
running, as several of us headed off to help on a project at the former
carpentry shop of Only A Child ministry. This ministry maintains a
shelter and carpentry shop for the street youth in Guatemala City. They
recently moved to a different location and are preparing the old
location to be leased by someone else. We painted walls alongside some
of the homeless young men and had a good time doing it. In spite of the
language barrier, we came away from there with the feeling that we had
made new friends. You can find out more about this ministry on the
following website: http://www.onlyachild.org/. Check it out. It's cool
what they are doing there.

That's all I'm going to write about today. Everyone has gone to bed, and
I'm feeling inclined to do the same really soon. It's been quite a day.
Thank you all for your prayers. Good night.

CLM

This is another test + a different email address for me.

Well, this is another test. Now I'm working with the netbook that I'm
taking on the trip. The keyboard is smaller, so I tend to make even more
typos than usual.

Also, I want everyone to know that I will be using a different email
address while traveling. If you get something from
grammacracker@gmail.com, it's me. You might want to do whatever you have
to do to keep it from going into your junk/trash folder.

If you want to send me email while I'm traveling, please send to the
grammacracker address.

Shelly, I haven't heard from you about whether or not you are receiving
my emails. I need lists of everybody's prayer partners. Do you have it?

Thanks,
Connie

More testing...

This time I’m testing the distribution of blog posts by email, and sending copies to others to share the information.  (This is my backup plan, in case for some reason it doesn't end up on the blog.)  I'm told the internet isn't always reliable down there, so I probably won't be able put the info directly in the blog. Posting by email may be the way to go.  I would appreciate it if those getting this email would reply, so I know that you got it.  Thanks.

Get ready, get set, let's GO!

This is a test message to see how I post to the blog via email. I just said a prayer that it works.

God's Blessings,
Connie

IT IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!
It is packing day! 3 days to go. Team members need to meet a 7:00pm at church. Please pack and bring what you can in the luggage you intend to bring so we can put in-kind donations in. I will bring a scale so we can make sure we are under the 50# limit. Remember we can only take 2 pieces plus carry-on.

Also Lynn Lassanske will also be there to help us and give advise and answer questions!!

**** IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT EVERYONE BE THERE ***
THANKS

more travel info

money issue: Take whatever you want to use as spending money and money to purchase with in Guatemala will need to be carried with you -- generally $20 bills with some smaller denominations .... The key is clean bills that look great (no tears/bends/wrinkled/writing etc) Each person or family group should bring a credit card with them for emergencies. Bring only copies of the driver license, your medical card etc. It is recommend a passport carrier around your neck when traveling ... put passport, all my copies and most of my money, records, and credit card in the passport travel holder -- it works great.