Keeping things in Perspective...

This piece was produced by our friends out of Oklahoma.  This is a great reminder for perspective in our lives.



camposdesuenos.com

Hopeful Students...

I don't get out with the teams as much as I used to.  This past week, I had the exception to the rule.  We had a team of business students that attend Hope College, in Holland Michigan.  This team was sponsored by Sawyer Products were we get our PointOne Filters.  And did we ever get out and about.  The week looked like this...

Assembly of the Aquabile prototypes and drilling out 100 buckets...

Roadtrip to Rabinal to give away 36 filters...

PointOne filter distribution in Santa Maria de Jesus - 34 filters and helping the feeding program...

Yet one more distribution in Cerra San Pedro - 30 filters... 

followed up with an 11 mile hike through the mountains back to  Santa Maria de Jesus...

A great week with a great team...  Yea God!

A good day...

The Prototype...

At the end of last year we set out to design and construct an affordable home that could serve as a replacement home for families living with cornstalk walls and dirt floors.  By the grace of God, we have accomplished this.

Even more exciting is that this home is completely built from local material in the back of the church.  We are expanding our ideas from a single room 12'x16' structure to include to other options: 1 - a midsized structure 16x20 with two rooms;  2 - a large structure 32' x 40' with 5 rooms.  While these are a work in process, this is what we have so far.

Connection Groups...

Our Connection Groups are under way. Visit this link and join in.

Contact Joaquin Aragon (502) 4846-2741 

or e-mail conexion@iglesiadelcaminogt.com.

Corpus Christie...

Sandra Limón...

This is Sandra.  She has been an active part of Campos de Sueños, our feeding program, and the student ministry of Aposento Alto.  At present the ministry services nearly 150 children and students with the church and over 200 in the feeding program.

This week Sandra was found dead from a gunshot wound in a cornfield on the edge of Santa Maria de Jesus.

We always hope that the message of a man named Jesus and His gift that changes lives is heard.  Sandra is one of many in this ministry  that have made a decision to follow the teachings of Jesus and had requested to participate in our upcoming baptism services in theIDC.

We believe that this man named Jesus came to this world to save that which was lost.  He was crucified, dead and buried, then He walked out of the grave.  He demonstrated that death as we think of it could not hold Him.  And for all who believe in Him they too can have eternal life with Him.

Sandra is one who professed her faith in this hope.  She is one that did not get away.

A Good Sunday...

This Sunday was a good Sunday.  Yea God!

The Otto Family Farewell...

This post is a difficult post to write.

This weekend we said the official goodbye to the Otto Family.  Steve, Jessica and their three children - Nate, Shelby and Jack - have been serving with us as volunteers for the past 4 years.  They came when our International Missions program for theIDC was small.  They helped to grow this critical component of our work here.  Many of our current successes that we enjoy are in no small part to their sacrifice to come with us and go beyond themselves.

As they have accomplished for us what was the primary goal it is time to return to the states and I am sad to have to say goodbye.

Amazing things to see in Guatemala...

While running, or should I say riding my moto while Nancy was running, we saw first hand the power of the volcano.  These images were shot with my iPhone several miles away.  Volcán Fuego is very active an should not be taken for granted simply because we do not always see or dismiss the evidence at hand.

This image was taken by an observer several weeks later when Volcán Fuego erupted again. He had the appropriate lens but was still less than 3 miles from the eruption.  Stunning, grace and beauty amidsts the trauma of the moment.

El Mirador 2, Pastores pt2...

So this week Antonio and I had the opportunity to effect change once again for the small community of Mirador 2 in Pastores.  With the help this time from Operation Blessing here in Guatemala, we were able to distribute an additional 16 - PointOne Filter kits to a community withour running water.  This is a sharecropper community which carries their water from the closest source.  The source is either a faucet 2 kilometers round trip - or a drainage runoff of a water main that passes through the community.

It was fun to hear the antedotes from the community leader Franscesca Monroy as she told us about the impact the previous 16 filters had and how excited she was to be able to have filters for the remainder of the households in this place.  

This simple offering effects change.  Yea God!

To the coast...

These last couple of days Nancy and I were able to get down to the coast for a visit with our friends Brad and Cindy.  They let us share in their company get together.  They own and operate a billfishing company out of Puerto San Jose.  Guatemalan Billfishing Adventures - also on Facebook...

To see the the port is very impressive.  Especially the Iguanas that live in the shore rocks.  We were able to take Koko y Mita with us.  One morning while walking them in their neighborhood, an Iguana ran across the street.  Seeing the reaction from the dogs you would have thought is was a Mississippi Squirrel.  All of that running wore them out.

We are blessed to have friends that would share their home and life with us.  Thank you Brad and Cindy.

Dia de Madre...

This week we, members of my team from theIDC and myself were blessed to participate in a "Dia de Madre" event in Santa Maria de Jesus. Pastor Gabriel, Mario and the SMdJ team coordinated a ribbon cutting for the new platform in one of the schools we are working with - Mariano Navarrete - along with 300 or so of our new best friends.

This was a fun time to share, laugh and of course consume the excellent local cuisine.

Beach Day in theIDC...

Taking the house...

This last September, after we had been operating the feeding program in Santa Maria de Jesus for about 4 months, a family involved and participating in the program offered his home to us.  He wanted to sell us the property as he had an opportunity to make another purchase.  We didn't have the cash.

It wasn't but 60 days later and God had provided the resource to make the purchase.  Due to process we couldn't begin to close the deal until December.  And due to more process it wasn't until January that we closed.  And as the family needed to time to build their new house it wasn't until this last week we took posession.

As a part of the celebration, we were able to bless the children with a little bit of Disney - all  8 of them.  They needed a bigger space.

Obed, Gabriel and Mike with Florencio and his family...

This family, while they have received payment for their property, gave us their home at less than fair market value.  They have uprooted and moved into their home, not yet finished.  They have sacrificed to make a future for the feeding program.  The new home for this center has been appropriately named - "Campo de Sueños, Jeremías 29:11" - "Field of Dreams, Jeremiah 29:11".

PNC Breakfast...

While we had several months off - they have come again.  Opportunities to share values with the National Police of Guatemala.  Yea God!

Wednesday Nights...

So we are at it again.  Wednesday nights sharing food for both the body and the soul.  Not complicated.  We meet to eat what comes to be shared.  Then we read a passage from the Bible, answer questions and learn what the Bible has to say for our lives.

Momentum, movement... passing it forward...

In the fall of 2009,  I had the priviledge of pitching a to a group from South Tulsa Baptist Church.  They are very intentional to be building churches.  I proposed that they should consider helping build a small church in Santa Maria de Jesus SMdJ, not by necessarily using brick and morter as much as empowering the young pastor serving in the church with a scholarship for seminary training and then as he grows more, the church will grow more, and the need to supliment the building will be proven or not.  Here is the progress to date. In addition to making a 3 year scholarship happen for astor Gabriel seen on the left in this photo, the building has gone from this... 

to this...

then to this...

 

and then to this...

And now the church members have stepped up to build the walls to accomodate the needed space for the over 100 children and youth that are now actively a part of this church 's weekly activities.

Momentum, movement...  passing it forward.  Yea God!

CPR Taining...

Amongst the various work that our teams help us with, it is always good to have the extra expertise that comes in to help with special training.  As is the case with with our friends from Southport Baptist.  In addition to water filtration sponsorships, children´s outreach events, helping in the feeding center and building a couple of homes, they helped to facilitate a CPR training course for the Civil Police of Pastores.

When this was being planned the question of whether or not we had CPR dummies available was raised.  This made me very nervoius that they may ask this dummy to step in.  Fortunately they had dummies with which they could pack and go.  Yea God!

Time to pray...

I never tire of this.  Taking time to pray on a Sunday Morning.  Both services - many voices unified in prayer - not that's multiplicity.

4 days in Mexico...

2 Services...

Meet Feliciano (Chano) the greeter.

He says welcome two one of our two services - 9am and 10:45am

Double the treasure, double the fun...  attendance is up.  Yea God!

Mirador 2... again.

It is amazing how a little piece of plastic can impact a life.  This family lives in Mirador2, Pastores - a community not too far from La Antigua.  It is a small community of about 35-40 families living as sharecroppers in the farmfields that make up this community.  

Their water source is one of two sources - a garden valve on the north end of the community which translates to a minimum of 1.5km as the garden hose is in the community center and surrounded by fields.  They charge Q5-10 pending the size of your container.  A Q - Quetzal is the GUA bill - Exchange Rate Q to $ 1:7.7ish.  The other option that most use because Q5 means food or not, is a toxic river.  Boiling the water before usage has been the norm, but then they have expense of wood or gas is they are fortunate.

The ill effects of this method of purification is that it doesn't always clean the water.  As was the case with this young girl in front, she developed a rash from consuming the ¨boiled¨water.  Out of generosity from others last August, they were provided with a filter for their home as seen in the photos in background and below.  Clean water, no rash.

I know that world wide, things are tight for everyone but maybe you could buy one of these smiles - give up something for yourself - sponsor a filter that we can give to someone that you don't know. If that sounds good to you, email me and I will tell you how.