I’ve decided I want to write up our trip to Guatemala in as much detail so I can share it with other people. I figured someone out there might want to read about everything that happened. I like telling stories, but I can't tell all my stories to every person I know, so this is a good way for me to get these experiences in a form that other people can consume. Also, it gives me a way to share some of the amazing things that I saw God do with as many people as possible.
Notes on the account: since this is for other people to read, I've left out a few things, mostly just jokes that only make sense if you were there or some of the random conversations we had while we were there. I didn't include much description of the scenery either, mostly because there is no way I could do it justice in words. For an idea of what we saw while driving around Guatemala, see my Flickr photo albums. I also made a small identity change to a couple of people involved in the Pre-Trip portion, since they asked that I not share their identities with the public at large. I want to respect that request.
Other than that, there isn't much I didn't include. Because this is my account, I figured you'd want to hear my voice and my thoughts on the stuff that was happening. So almost everything that happened while in Guatemala is here.
One other thing: my memory isn't perfect, but I did my best. I tried very hard to get all the details correct or at least note when I wasn't sure about something. I know I got the big things right (like what days we went where and things like that), but some of the other stuff I might remember incorrectly. If I did get something wrong, I apologize.
I hope you enjoy.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Pre-Trip: A Story about God's Provision
My story actually started back in late February when God told me that I needed to go on a trip to Guatemala that I’d heard about at church. They'd been talking about missions at church and they had just announced the trip. Something in my heart stirred (read: the Holy Spirit) and I just knew I should go on the trip. That night, I e-mailed Alex Rodriguez saying I would come to the meeting to get more info. That was February 26th.
The meeting was supposed to be the next week, but was canceled because of snow (I think). Instead, Stacy (Alex’s wife) called me the afternoon of March 2nd to give me the info about the trip. She went over what we might be doing, who was probably going, and how much it would cost. After we talked, I told her I needed to talk to Ed (my husband) to make sure he was okay with me going. I also mentioned that I really felt like God wanted me to do this. Later that day, after a talk with Ed, I sent Stacy an e-mail confirming that I wanted to go ahead and commit to going on the trip.
That night I was still a little unsure though. I mean, it was a lot of money and Ed wasn’t sure where it would come from. I was worried that I’d misheard God and that He didn’t actually want me to go. That night in bed, I prayed, asking for God’s assurance and peace that he wanted me to go on this trip. He gave me both immediately. With that peace resting on my heart, I said, “Okay God. You want me to go, so I trust that you’ll provide the money.” It had happened in the past every other time I'd gone on a trip. God was always faithful to provide, so I knew He would be again this time. Still, I wasn’t prepared for what He did next.
The next day, a good friend and her husband called us and asked if they could borrow a backdrop kit of Ed’s for some photos she needed to take for a class. We said sure, so they made plans to come pick it up that night (I promise this has a point).
That evening, they stopped by while Ed was out. I got them the backdrop kit and we took some time to chat. Right before they were leaving, I mentioned that I had two questions for them. One had nothing to do with this trip and I don’t even remember what it was anymore. The other, I told them, was that I was getting ready to go to Guatemala in June on a mission trip. Before I’d even gotten the statement out completely, my friend started laughing. Confused, I asked her what was so funny. Instead of answering, she told me to just go on and ask my question. Still confused, I obliged.
I told them I was going on the trip and that it was expensive and that I needed to raise money. I mentioned that I was going to sell coffee (among doing other fundraisers), so if they wanted any or knew of anyone that wanted some, to let me know. Basically, I told them I was going to hit them up for a little support, if they could spare it. Key words here: a little.
By the time I was finished talking, both my friend and her husband were laughing again and I was frustrated and even more confused. I didn’t understand what was so funny. I asked them to tell me, so she looked at her husband and said, “You wanna tell her?” So he did.
It turns out that one of the things they do is regularly contribute to missionaries. It also turned out that the missionary that they had most recently been contributing to had met her funding goals. Because of this, they were looking for a new person to contribute to. In fact, just the previous night, they’d been praying asking for God to lead them to a new person they could help. And here I was, needing some help to pay for a trip to Guatemala.
At first, I thought this meant that they just wanted to help out a little bit, you know a few hundred dollars or something. Turned out, they had something a little different in mind.
They asked how much and when the trip was. I told them. The husband did a few quick calculations in his head head (he’s good with math) and then said, “Yeah, I think we can do that.”
Bug-eyed, I asked, “What?”
They then proceeded to tell me that they would send me a check every week until my trip was paid for. Since it was four months out at that point, that meant that they would be covering the whole cost (minus spending money). I was, understandably, speechless.
We got the final details worked out and they left, after giving me the first check. It was the most astounding thing I’d witnessed up to that point.
All I can say about it is that it was completely God. To have that happen in that way is something only God could have orchestrated, and I am forever grateful.
The meeting was supposed to be the next week, but was canceled because of snow (I think). Instead, Stacy (Alex’s wife) called me the afternoon of March 2nd to give me the info about the trip. She went over what we might be doing, who was probably going, and how much it would cost. After we talked, I told her I needed to talk to Ed (my husband) to make sure he was okay with me going. I also mentioned that I really felt like God wanted me to do this. Later that day, after a talk with Ed, I sent Stacy an e-mail confirming that I wanted to go ahead and commit to going on the trip.
That night I was still a little unsure though. I mean, it was a lot of money and Ed wasn’t sure where it would come from. I was worried that I’d misheard God and that He didn’t actually want me to go. That night in bed, I prayed, asking for God’s assurance and peace that he wanted me to go on this trip. He gave me both immediately. With that peace resting on my heart, I said, “Okay God. You want me to go, so I trust that you’ll provide the money.” It had happened in the past every other time I'd gone on a trip. God was always faithful to provide, so I knew He would be again this time. Still, I wasn’t prepared for what He did next.
The next day, a good friend and her husband called us and asked if they could borrow a backdrop kit of Ed’s for some photos she needed to take for a class. We said sure, so they made plans to come pick it up that night (I promise this has a point).
That evening, they stopped by while Ed was out. I got them the backdrop kit and we took some time to chat. Right before they were leaving, I mentioned that I had two questions for them. One had nothing to do with this trip and I don’t even remember what it was anymore. The other, I told them, was that I was getting ready to go to Guatemala in June on a mission trip. Before I’d even gotten the statement out completely, my friend started laughing. Confused, I asked her what was so funny. Instead of answering, she told me to just go on and ask my question. Still confused, I obliged.
I told them I was going on the trip and that it was expensive and that I needed to raise money. I mentioned that I was going to sell coffee (among doing other fundraisers), so if they wanted any or knew of anyone that wanted some, to let me know. Basically, I told them I was going to hit them up for a little support, if they could spare it. Key words here: a little.
By the time I was finished talking, both my friend and her husband were laughing again and I was frustrated and even more confused. I didn’t understand what was so funny. I asked them to tell me, so she looked at her husband and said, “You wanna tell her?” So he did.
It turns out that one of the things they do is regularly contribute to missionaries. It also turned out that the missionary that they had most recently been contributing to had met her funding goals. Because of this, they were looking for a new person to contribute to. In fact, just the previous night, they’d been praying asking for God to lead them to a new person they could help. And here I was, needing some help to pay for a trip to Guatemala.
At first, I thought this meant that they just wanted to help out a little bit, you know a few hundred dollars or something. Turned out, they had something a little different in mind.
They asked how much and when the trip was. I told them. The husband did a few quick calculations in his head head (he’s good with math) and then said, “Yeah, I think we can do that.”
Bug-eyed, I asked, “What?”
They then proceeded to tell me that they would send me a check every week until my trip was paid for. Since it was four months out at that point, that meant that they would be covering the whole cost (minus spending money). I was, understandably, speechless.
We got the final details worked out and they left, after giving me the first check. It was the most astounding thing I’d witnessed up to that point.
All I can say about it is that it was completely God. To have that happen in that way is something only God could have orchestrated, and I am forever grateful.
June 11, 2014: Wednesday - Traveling to Guatemala
Finally, after months of preparations, the day we left had arrived. I don’t think you really want to hear about my packing or getting up the morning of the trip, so I’ll leave that out and start with getting picked up by Jillian.
She got to my house at 6:00 a.m. with her mom. We loaded my stuff into the car, I said goodbye to my husband, and off we went. It’s not a far drive from my house to the airport, about 15 minutes, so we got there a little early.
Jillian and I unloaded our bags and sat down just inside the doors to the terminal to await the arrival of the others. We were only there a couple of minutes before Hugh showed up, coming from another part of the airport. He’d gotten there and come in another door, but decided to come looking for the rest of the group.
Not long after that, everyone else began arriving (by everyone else I mean Heather, John, Will, Stacy, and Dominic. John's brother Ben was meeting us in Houston and Alex was already in Guatemala). We took a few minutes to write luggage tags and put bright purple tape on our bags so we could easily see them, then it was time to get in line to check our bags.
The wait was going to take a while, so we decided to put all of our nearly 20 bags off to the side of the check in counter. Hugh sat with them while the rest of us got in line and waited. Eventually we got through the line. Just as we were getting to the counter, John, Will, and Hugh grabbed all the bags and pulled them over to us. This caused a little commotion because one of the people at the check in counter only saw us pulling over our bags, not us waiting in line. This made him question whether we'd butted in line or not. We assured him we hadn't and after a moment, he let us proceed to get checked in. Once we checked all our bags, we headed through security then on to our gate.
It was on the way to the gate that we first learned that our flight was going to be delayed. Initially, it looked like the delay would only be by about 30 minutes. This worried everyone a little, since our layover in Houston was only about an hour long, but we thought it might be okay. Then we got another look and realized that we’d been delayed by nearly an hour. This was extremely worrying since that meant we definitely wouldn't have enough time to get to our connection. If we missed our connecting flight, that meant we might wind up not getting to Guatemala until later that night. Stacy told us that that would be bad.
This was the first time, but certainly not the last, that we were very grateful to have John Ryan with us. As soon as we got to our gate, he went up to the counter and started explaining the situation to the two women there. He stood at the counter, insisting that they keep working, until they got something worked out. It was something like 30 minutes later when they finally arrived at a solution.
Turns out that the United people called the Houston airport (several times actually) and found a way to get us an extra 15 minutes so that we could make it to the other gate and on the plane. We didn’t find out until we boarded the plane to Houston that this happened because they canceled a flight to Philadelphia. We’re pretty sure that John’s insistence on them figuring something out is what got the flight canceled. Which is hilarious. And another big God thing. Once more, His hand was very evident on this trip, and we hadn’t even left St. Louis yet.
The actual flight to Houston was uneventful. We sat on a plane while it flew. That’s all.
Once we landed in Houston, we prepared for our sprint to the next gate while the plane taxied. As soon as we reached our gate, we stood up and the flight attendant asked that everyone else on the plane let those with connecting flights get off the plane first. Hugh picked up Dominic, the rest of us grabbed all the carry-on bags, and we took off so we could get all the way to the other side of the airport in time. Our trek to the other gate involved a tram ride past two stops, Hugh carrying Dominic on his shoulders, and practically running down a few moving sidewalks. Still, we made it. In fact, we weren’t even the last people to get on the plane.
Once more, the flight to Guatemala was just that: a flight. The funniest thing about the flight was that despite it getting delayed and us getting delayed by nearly an hour in St. Louis, we actually got to Guatemala City a little before we were scheduled to get there. Let’s say it together now: God thing!
After getting to Guatemala City, it took us a bit to exit the plane. Once we accomplished that, we met up with Ben Ryan (John’s brother) and headed to baggage claim. On the way, we had our first experience with Guatemalan bathrooms. It actually wasn’t that bad. It’s a little weird not to flush toilet paper, but it didn’t smell like I was worried it would. Of course, that could have just been because I have almost no sense of smell.
Anyway, once our bladders had been relieved, we made our way to baggage claim. When we got there, Stacy found some men with a cart to help us with the bags since we each had two checked bags with us plus carry-ons, what with all the donations we’d brought. They piled all the suitcases onto the cart into a huge pile, then we went and stood in line to have our bags checked for customs.
While we stood in line, Stacy told us that often what would happen is that the people checking the bags would go through the stuff and then decide you had to pay them a certain amount of money before you could keep going. John told us a similar story from one of the last times he was in Guatemala when they had to pay to get through customs too.
Despite this being the usual practice, when we got to the head of the line, the guy looked at our pile of bags, took our papers, and waved us around the search. This allowed us to completely bypassed the place where we were going to have to pay who-knows-how-much to get into Guatemala. This was sort of a big deal and another example of God’s provision.
Once we got through customs, we headed outside to find Daniel and our ride. I’m not sure if Daniel was waiting for us or if he pulled up not long after we got outside. Either way, he was there and we headed straight over to the van.
Stacy got worried though, because Alex was not there. We found out that his car broke down again (something that had happened a few days before also) so he couldn’t actually make it to the airport. Instead, we were going to meet him and pick him up somewhere just outside the airport.
While we figured all this out, the Guatemalan men who helped us with our bags finished loading them and it was time to pile into the van for the four hour drive out to Chiquimula. I initially thought that this was going to be pretty stressful for me. I am not a people person. I am friendly and I can carry on a decent conversation (barring small-talk of course), but I don’t do well in large groups, especially large groups of people that I don’t know well. Since that was exactly what this trip consisted of, I was nervous. Up to this point, we actually hadn’t had much down time for talking or getting to know each other. Now we were going to be stuck in car with each other for four hours. Talk about scary.
Turns out, my fears were unfounded. The drive was a lot of fun. The people who had been to Guatemala before pointed out interesting things and told stories of previous trips. We also just chatted and started getting to know each other. We introduced ourselves to Daniel and his daughter Mary Kathleen (known mostly as CeeCee). There was much joking and laughter.
About half-way to Chiquimula we stopped for lunch/dinner (linner?) at a place called Sarita’s. Unfortunately Jillian and I made the mistake of ordering burgers instead of actual Guatemalan food. While she and I may have ordered the same thing, I can’t help but point out that while we both got teased, she got teased more. In fact, dinner marked the beginning of the week-long teasing session of Jillian. I’m not entirely sure why, but everyone decided she was the perfect target for quite a bit of friendly teasing.
Lunch was also where we first got a real taste of what Daniel is like most of the time. Which is to say, he is a giant goofball who loves teasing people and making jokes. His favorite target was Jillian, but he teased all of us. It led to a lot of laughing throughout the week, which was awesome.
After we finished eating, we piled back into the van and continued the drive to Chiquimula. We got slowed down a bit due to a huge mudslide that closed down part of the road. But other than that, I think we made pretty good time.
After dinner my memory gets a little fuzzy. I don't remember exactly when we got to Daniel and Brandi's house. I think it was after dark, but I could be wrong. I know we unloaded the car and introduced ourselves to Brandi and the other kids (they have three kids. Levi is their oldest son, then CeeCee, and finally their youngest son Uriah) at some point. We put our stuff in our rooms, but beyond that, I'm not really sure what went down after we got there. I do know eventually we went to bed though.
She got to my house at 6:00 a.m. with her mom. We loaded my stuff into the car, I said goodbye to my husband, and off we went. It’s not a far drive from my house to the airport, about 15 minutes, so we got there a little early.
Jillian and I unloaded our bags and sat down just inside the doors to the terminal to await the arrival of the others. We were only there a couple of minutes before Hugh showed up, coming from another part of the airport. He’d gotten there and come in another door, but decided to come looking for the rest of the group.
Not long after that, everyone else began arriving (by everyone else I mean Heather, John, Will, Stacy, and Dominic. John's brother Ben was meeting us in Houston and Alex was already in Guatemala). We took a few minutes to write luggage tags and put bright purple tape on our bags so we could easily see them, then it was time to get in line to check our bags.
The wait was going to take a while, so we decided to put all of our nearly 20 bags off to the side of the check in counter. Hugh sat with them while the rest of us got in line and waited. Eventually we got through the line. Just as we were getting to the counter, John, Will, and Hugh grabbed all the bags and pulled them over to us. This caused a little commotion because one of the people at the check in counter only saw us pulling over our bags, not us waiting in line. This made him question whether we'd butted in line or not. We assured him we hadn't and after a moment, he let us proceed to get checked in. Once we checked all our bags, we headed through security then on to our gate.
It was on the way to the gate that we first learned that our flight was going to be delayed. Initially, it looked like the delay would only be by about 30 minutes. This worried everyone a little, since our layover in Houston was only about an hour long, but we thought it might be okay. Then we got another look and realized that we’d been delayed by nearly an hour. This was extremely worrying since that meant we definitely wouldn't have enough time to get to our connection. If we missed our connecting flight, that meant we might wind up not getting to Guatemala until later that night. Stacy told us that that would be bad.
This was the first time, but certainly not the last, that we were very grateful to have John Ryan with us. As soon as we got to our gate, he went up to the counter and started explaining the situation to the two women there. He stood at the counter, insisting that they keep working, until they got something worked out. It was something like 30 minutes later when they finally arrived at a solution.
Turns out that the United people called the Houston airport (several times actually) and found a way to get us an extra 15 minutes so that we could make it to the other gate and on the plane. We didn’t find out until we boarded the plane to Houston that this happened because they canceled a flight to Philadelphia. We’re pretty sure that John’s insistence on them figuring something out is what got the flight canceled. Which is hilarious. And another big God thing. Once more, His hand was very evident on this trip, and we hadn’t even left St. Louis yet.
The actual flight to Houston was uneventful. We sat on a plane while it flew. That’s all.
Once we landed in Houston, we prepared for our sprint to the next gate while the plane taxied. As soon as we reached our gate, we stood up and the flight attendant asked that everyone else on the plane let those with connecting flights get off the plane first. Hugh picked up Dominic, the rest of us grabbed all the carry-on bags, and we took off so we could get all the way to the other side of the airport in time. Our trek to the other gate involved a tram ride past two stops, Hugh carrying Dominic on his shoulders, and practically running down a few moving sidewalks. Still, we made it. In fact, we weren’t even the last people to get on the plane.
Once more, the flight to Guatemala was just that: a flight. The funniest thing about the flight was that despite it getting delayed and us getting delayed by nearly an hour in St. Louis, we actually got to Guatemala City a little before we were scheduled to get there. Let’s say it together now: God thing!
After getting to Guatemala City, it took us a bit to exit the plane. Once we accomplished that, we met up with Ben Ryan (John’s brother) and headed to baggage claim. On the way, we had our first experience with Guatemalan bathrooms. It actually wasn’t that bad. It’s a little weird not to flush toilet paper, but it didn’t smell like I was worried it would. Of course, that could have just been because I have almost no sense of smell.
Anyway, once our bladders had been relieved, we made our way to baggage claim. When we got there, Stacy found some men with a cart to help us with the bags since we each had two checked bags with us plus carry-ons, what with all the donations we’d brought. They piled all the suitcases onto the cart into a huge pile, then we went and stood in line to have our bags checked for customs.
While we stood in line, Stacy told us that often what would happen is that the people checking the bags would go through the stuff and then decide you had to pay them a certain amount of money before you could keep going. John told us a similar story from one of the last times he was in Guatemala when they had to pay to get through customs too.
Despite this being the usual practice, when we got to the head of the line, the guy looked at our pile of bags, took our papers, and waved us around the search. This allowed us to completely bypassed the place where we were going to have to pay who-knows-how-much to get into Guatemala. This was sort of a big deal and another example of God’s provision.
Once we got through customs, we headed outside to find Daniel and our ride. I’m not sure if Daniel was waiting for us or if he pulled up not long after we got outside. Either way, he was there and we headed straight over to the van.
Stacy got worried though, because Alex was not there. We found out that his car broke down again (something that had happened a few days before also) so he couldn’t actually make it to the airport. Instead, we were going to meet him and pick him up somewhere just outside the airport.
While we figured all this out, the Guatemalan men who helped us with our bags finished loading them and it was time to pile into the van for the four hour drive out to Chiquimula. I initially thought that this was going to be pretty stressful for me. I am not a people person. I am friendly and I can carry on a decent conversation (barring small-talk of course), but I don’t do well in large groups, especially large groups of people that I don’t know well. Since that was exactly what this trip consisted of, I was nervous. Up to this point, we actually hadn’t had much down time for talking or getting to know each other. Now we were going to be stuck in car with each other for four hours. Talk about scary.
Turns out, my fears were unfounded. The drive was a lot of fun. The people who had been to Guatemala before pointed out interesting things and told stories of previous trips. We also just chatted and started getting to know each other. We introduced ourselves to Daniel and his daughter Mary Kathleen (known mostly as CeeCee). There was much joking and laughter.
About half-way to Chiquimula we stopped for lunch/dinner (linner?) at a place called Sarita’s. Unfortunately Jillian and I made the mistake of ordering burgers instead of actual Guatemalan food. While she and I may have ordered the same thing, I can’t help but point out that while we both got teased, she got teased more. In fact, dinner marked the beginning of the week-long teasing session of Jillian. I’m not entirely sure why, but everyone decided she was the perfect target for quite a bit of friendly teasing.
Lunch was also where we first got a real taste of what Daniel is like most of the time. Which is to say, he is a giant goofball who loves teasing people and making jokes. His favorite target was Jillian, but he teased all of us. It led to a lot of laughing throughout the week, which was awesome.
After we finished eating, we piled back into the van and continued the drive to Chiquimula. We got slowed down a bit due to a huge mudslide that closed down part of the road. But other than that, I think we made pretty good time.
After dinner my memory gets a little fuzzy. I don't remember exactly when we got to Daniel and Brandi's house. I think it was after dark, but I could be wrong. I know we unloaded the car and introduced ourselves to Brandi and the other kids (they have three kids. Levi is their oldest son, then CeeCee, and finally their youngest son Uriah) at some point. We put our stuff in our rooms, but beyond that, I'm not really sure what went down after we got there. I do know eventually we went to bed though.
June 12, 2014: Thursday - Pastor Fulgencio's Village
My day started particularly early on Thursday, and not by choice. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep all that well, but that's not unusual when I stay in new places. I kind of expected to wake up early.
I spent the early part of the morning reading my Bible and writing about the trip. I also took some time to walk around and take pictures of Brandi and Daniel's house. Where they live is so beautiful, I doubt I can do it justice in words. Still, I'll try.
They live in a mission house that is set up kind of like a . . . well not quite compound, but sort of. They have a smallish main house, and then two other small buildings, as well as a pool, and portico/porch area near the main gate. The whole thing (buildings, portico/porch, yard, pool) is surrounded by a wall. They also have a bunch of fruit trees all over the place that never quit dropping fruit. Seriously, the ground was littered with mangoes. There were also a few coconut and cashew trees. Hugh also told me there was a lemon tree around there some where, and there were a couple of trees that grow a fruit that was a combination of a lemon and an orange (I think).
The way the house was arranged, the portico/porch was right by the big gate. The pool was in the center of the courtyard. The main house was on one side, with the sleeping quarters for us at the back and the third building (which housed bathrooms and a large storage area) along the other wall.
There was also a front yard area that had more fruit and other trees, as well as a little grass and a lot of concrete. It was originally the entrance, but they closed up the gate and now everyone just enters through the side gate.
Around 7:00 Brandi was up and started making breakfast, so I offered to help. She decided I got to make pancakes. I mixed up the batter and got started working. It had been a while since I'd made pancakes, but I think they turned out okay. I didn't even burn any of them.
While I was cooking, I got the chance to talk to Brandi. She and Daniel are from Alabama but they had lived in Guatemala for about 5 years at that point. We talked about what led up to God calling her and Daniel to be missionaries in Guatemala as well as a few other things. Basically I just spent some time getting to know her, which was nice. Both she and Daniel are pretty awesome people and I'm really glad I had the chance to meet and get to know them over the course of the week.
After breakfast, we gathered up all the things we needed to bring with us because we were going up to a mountain village that day. We pulled out the donation suitcases and all the other stuff that we needed, including food that Brandi had bought so we could put food baskets together. We also gathered everything we would need personally, like water bottles, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. Once everything was together, we loaded it all into the two vehicles we were taking and set out.
Daniel drove his giant white F350 and Hugh drove the smaller Toyota Rav4. I rode in the car with Hugh and Jillian. I think we were by ourselves that first trip, but I'm not sure. I do know that on the way up to the village Ben and Will rode in the pickup's bed, while everyone else rode in the cab.
We made a quick stop for gas not far from Daniel's house, then another a little further on to pick up Pastor Carlos. Pastor Carlos is the man that Daniel wants to take over leading a group of about eight mountain churches. He sort of wants him to be the head pastor, leading and caring for all the other pastors in the group. He accompanied us to all the villages throughout the week.
After picking up Pastor Carlos, we got back on the road to our first village. The drive took about 2 hours (maybe longer). Half of that time was spent on paved roads. The last half of the trip, we had to drive dirt roads that wound up the side of the mountain. It was slow and bumpy. In a few places, there were really big ruts carved in the road that we had to navigate. In others, there were big rocks that we had to find our way around. I asked Hugh if the roads had been this bad when he came last time (he'd been there in February of 2013) and he said he didn't think so. It made me think that there was probably a lot of washout because our current trip was in the middle of Guatemala's rainy season. That means that they get heavy rain pretty much every day. This has a rather negative effect on the dirt roads that most mountain dwellers have to walk/drive on.
Following the long, bumpy drive up the mountain, we got to the village a little after 11:00 (I think. I didn't have a watch with me, so I'm guesstimating times here). The first thing we did upon arrival (and getting out of the cars) was do introductions with Pastor Carlos and Pastor Fulgencio. They had fun with some of our names. Which is completely understandable since there are certain sounds in English that aren't really used or said the same way in Spanish. John's, Will's, and Ben's names were easy enough, but Hugh, Heather, Jillian, and I all have names that aren't easy to say for some Spanish-speakers.
After introductions, we got to work. First, we helped carry a food delivery up to the kitchen that stood just below the church building. The church was located up a hill from where we drove in. It wasn't a long walk, but it was a little steep. After we carried the food up, we all went up into the church and got chairs out so we could sit down and talk with Pastor Fulgencio for a while.
The church building was a small structure with a concrete slab foundation. The slab was surrounded by four cinder-block walls that were not quite finished. Overhead, the roof was just a couple of large pieces of tin. While there was plenty of shade inside the church, there weren't a lot of windows, so it wasn't much cooler than outside the church. Still, it wasn't bad.
When we got up to the church, we all pulled out some of the plastic chairs they had stacked in one corner and sat down. When I say plastic chairs, I don't mean the folding kind. Nope, these were those inexpensive outdoor chairs that you can get for a couple of bucks just about anywhere. Nothing about this church was like what we have here in the states. For a sound system, they had a couple of speakers, a couple of mics, and one tiny amp that controlled everything. Everything about that church was just so incredibly different than what we're used to here in the States.
Anyway, sitting in our plastic chairs, we started talking with Pastor Fulgencio about how he got started in ministry and what was going on in his life and his church. Daniel translated the conversation for us, but I don't think I remember everything that was said. I'll tell you what I can about Pastor Fulgencio and his church, though.
Pastor Fulgencio is in his 60s, so not a young man anymore. I don't remember how long he's been pastoring, but it's been a while. On top of being the pastor, which involves preaching several times per week, discipling other leaders, and caring for his church members by visiting them, Pastor Fulgencio also works in the fields so that he can support his family. He not only has to care for his family, but the family of one of his sons. This is because about 6 months ago, his son died, leaving behind a widow and four children.
Pastor Fulgencio's wife also passed away not that long ago. This put a lot of strain on him. He did eventually get remarried, though, and now has someone to help him with his family. In general, he's just got a lot going on.
Besides his own personal struggles, he mentioned that his church is struggling a bit in terms of male leadership. They have a lot of women in the church, and a number of female leaders. But Pastor Fulgencio has very few male leaders in his church.
After Pastor Fulgencio had finished telling us about himself and his church, we all prayed for him. He, in return, prayed for us.
When we were finished praying, it was time to eat lunch and get things ready to go visit villagers. Lunch was sandwiches, so nothing too spectacular there. The things we had to put together for the villagers were baskets of food and personal care items that had been purchased and donated. I say baskets, but actually all of the items were placed in some blue plastic tubs that the people who received them could use in a variety of ways. We put things like rice, beans, sugar, salt, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc., in them. John and Heather started putting them together, but then stopped to eat lunch. After lunch, I went back over and helped Hugh and Nancy (Daniel and Brandi's Guatemalan assistant) put the rest of the baskets together. That was fun because I got to practice some of my (very) basic Spanish skills.
After getting the baskets together, we also sorted out the various other donations we were going to take with us. Those included things like shampoo, conditioner, soap, more toothpaste, and lots of toys.
While we worked on that, Hugh and Will got out a couple of frisbees and taught some of the children who'd come to see us how to play. They had a lot of fun with it. I think their favorite part though was when they got to give the frisbee to the kids for good. It was really cool to see.
Once we had all the donations and baskets sorted out, it was time to start visiting houses. We gathered everything up and headed down the hill to our first stop, Pastor Fluhencio's house. We presented his wife with one of the baskets we'd made, as well as a gift that the wives of the elder's from Summit had put together for her. I think we also gave her some new flip flops. It was hard to tell, but I think she really liked the gits.
While we were there, we also got to give a basket to Pastor Fulgencio's daughter-in-law. She was the wife of the son who had died, so we were very happy to be able to give her something. Along with the basket, we gave her some new flip flops and gave her children some new toys. They were all very appreciative.
We continued our journey throughout the village, stopping at 7 more houses. A few of them were church members, but a number of them weren't. One place we stopped, the woman wasn't a Christian so Alex spent a while talking to her and explaining the Gospel. Despite this, she still chose not to accept Christ, which was utterly dumbfounding in some ways.
Everywhere we went, we got the chance to interact with villagers and give out things. Will wound up being in charge of the toys and the Silly Bandz, a job he completed with abandon. He didn't just give things to the kids in the houses we visited, either. Any time he saw a child, no matter where, he'd go up to them and see if they wanted a bracelet.
Another thing we did with every family we stopped at was pray with them if we could. We prayed for any specific needs they had, for their kids, and for God to be present in their lives. It was really cool to watch our team praying over people, even when there was a language barrier.
I wish I could remember all the names and stories of the people we visited. Unfortunately, I can't I didn't take notes or nearly enough pictures, so I just remember faces in most cases. Still, it was an amazing and humbling experience.
We finished with the last of the baskets around 4:00 and headed back to the church to get ready for service that night.
Service started around 5:00 and was a bit different than our services back home. It started with Pastor Fulgencio welcoming us to the church and then praying for us. After that, we sang some worship songs. They were all in Spanish, so I knew none of them, although the very first one was familiar to some members of our group. There was a lot of clapping though, so I did that. After singing, John got up and gave a short sermon based on the parable Jesus told about the vineyard owner and the workers he hired throughout the day (Daniel translated for him). Then Alex stood up and called for anyone who wanted to be saved to come forward and pray. When no one came forward, he then called for people who needed prayer to come forward to be prayed for. At least, I think that's what he was doing. It was all in Spanish and Daniel didn't translate that part of it, so I'm guessing based on the few words I understood and what everyone did.
The service ended with Pastor Fulgencio introducing Daniel to the congregation (I think. Spanish and all). During the introduction, Pastor Fulgencio also mentioned Nancy. Except he clearly thought that Nancy was Daniel's wife. At first I didn't understand what was going on and why Nancy was embarrassed, but then Daniel explained that he and Nancy weren't married and that his wife was Brandi and she was home with his kids. Again, all of this was in Spanish, so I only caught part of what was said. I do know the word for wife (esposa) and a few others (hijos=kids, casa=house), though, so I got the gist of the whole thing. We all found it hilarious (as did Daniel and Nancy) and everyone teased Nancy about it off and on the rest of the week.
After that, service was over and it was time to go home. So we gathered up everything and headed back to the cars for the 2 hour drive home.
Nothing else really happened for me that evening. On the ride home I chatted with Hugh, Jillian, and Heather, but once we got back to Daniel and Brandi's house and got everything unloaded, I pretty much went straight to bed.
I spent the early part of the morning reading my Bible and writing about the trip. I also took some time to walk around and take pictures of Brandi and Daniel's house. Where they live is so beautiful, I doubt I can do it justice in words. Still, I'll try.
They live in a mission house that is set up kind of like a . . . well not quite compound, but sort of. They have a smallish main house, and then two other small buildings, as well as a pool, and portico/porch area near the main gate. The whole thing (buildings, portico/porch, yard, pool) is surrounded by a wall. They also have a bunch of fruit trees all over the place that never quit dropping fruit. Seriously, the ground was littered with mangoes. There were also a few coconut and cashew trees. Hugh also told me there was a lemon tree around there some where, and there were a couple of trees that grow a fruit that was a combination of a lemon and an orange (I think).
The way the house was arranged, the portico/porch was right by the big gate. The pool was in the center of the courtyard. The main house was on one side, with the sleeping quarters for us at the back and the third building (which housed bathrooms and a large storage area) along the other wall.
There was also a front yard area that had more fruit and other trees, as well as a little grass and a lot of concrete. It was originally the entrance, but they closed up the gate and now everyone just enters through the side gate.
Around 7:00 Brandi was up and started making breakfast, so I offered to help. She decided I got to make pancakes. I mixed up the batter and got started working. It had been a while since I'd made pancakes, but I think they turned out okay. I didn't even burn any of them.
While I was cooking, I got the chance to talk to Brandi. She and Daniel are from Alabama but they had lived in Guatemala for about 5 years at that point. We talked about what led up to God calling her and Daniel to be missionaries in Guatemala as well as a few other things. Basically I just spent some time getting to know her, which was nice. Both she and Daniel are pretty awesome people and I'm really glad I had the chance to meet and get to know them over the course of the week.
After breakfast, we gathered up all the things we needed to bring with us because we were going up to a mountain village that day. We pulled out the donation suitcases and all the other stuff that we needed, including food that Brandi had bought so we could put food baskets together. We also gathered everything we would need personally, like water bottles, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. Once everything was together, we loaded it all into the two vehicles we were taking and set out.
Daniel drove his giant white F350 and Hugh drove the smaller Toyota Rav4. I rode in the car with Hugh and Jillian. I think we were by ourselves that first trip, but I'm not sure. I do know that on the way up to the village Ben and Will rode in the pickup's bed, while everyone else rode in the cab.
We made a quick stop for gas not far from Daniel's house, then another a little further on to pick up Pastor Carlos. Pastor Carlos is the man that Daniel wants to take over leading a group of about eight mountain churches. He sort of wants him to be the head pastor, leading and caring for all the other pastors in the group. He accompanied us to all the villages throughout the week.
After picking up Pastor Carlos, we got back on the road to our first village. The drive took about 2 hours (maybe longer). Half of that time was spent on paved roads. The last half of the trip, we had to drive dirt roads that wound up the side of the mountain. It was slow and bumpy. In a few places, there were really big ruts carved in the road that we had to navigate. In others, there were big rocks that we had to find our way around. I asked Hugh if the roads had been this bad when he came last time (he'd been there in February of 2013) and he said he didn't think so. It made me think that there was probably a lot of washout because our current trip was in the middle of Guatemala's rainy season. That means that they get heavy rain pretty much every day. This has a rather negative effect on the dirt roads that most mountain dwellers have to walk/drive on.
Following the long, bumpy drive up the mountain, we got to the village a little after 11:00 (I think. I didn't have a watch with me, so I'm guesstimating times here). The first thing we did upon arrival (and getting out of the cars) was do introductions with Pastor Carlos and Pastor Fulgencio. They had fun with some of our names. Which is completely understandable since there are certain sounds in English that aren't really used or said the same way in Spanish. John's, Will's, and Ben's names were easy enough, but Hugh, Heather, Jillian, and I all have names that aren't easy to say for some Spanish-speakers.
After introductions, we got to work. First, we helped carry a food delivery up to the kitchen that stood just below the church building. The church was located up a hill from where we drove in. It wasn't a long walk, but it was a little steep. After we carried the food up, we all went up into the church and got chairs out so we could sit down and talk with Pastor Fulgencio for a while.
The church building was a small structure with a concrete slab foundation. The slab was surrounded by four cinder-block walls that were not quite finished. Overhead, the roof was just a couple of large pieces of tin. While there was plenty of shade inside the church, there weren't a lot of windows, so it wasn't much cooler than outside the church. Still, it wasn't bad.
When we got up to the church, we all pulled out some of the plastic chairs they had stacked in one corner and sat down. When I say plastic chairs, I don't mean the folding kind. Nope, these were those inexpensive outdoor chairs that you can get for a couple of bucks just about anywhere. Nothing about this church was like what we have here in the states. For a sound system, they had a couple of speakers, a couple of mics, and one tiny amp that controlled everything. Everything about that church was just so incredibly different than what we're used to here in the States.
Anyway, sitting in our plastic chairs, we started talking with Pastor Fulgencio about how he got started in ministry and what was going on in his life and his church. Daniel translated the conversation for us, but I don't think I remember everything that was said. I'll tell you what I can about Pastor Fulgencio and his church, though.
Pastor Fulgencio is in his 60s, so not a young man anymore. I don't remember how long he's been pastoring, but it's been a while. On top of being the pastor, which involves preaching several times per week, discipling other leaders, and caring for his church members by visiting them, Pastor Fulgencio also works in the fields so that he can support his family. He not only has to care for his family, but the family of one of his sons. This is because about 6 months ago, his son died, leaving behind a widow and four children.
Pastor Fulgencio's wife also passed away not that long ago. This put a lot of strain on him. He did eventually get remarried, though, and now has someone to help him with his family. In general, he's just got a lot going on.
Besides his own personal struggles, he mentioned that his church is struggling a bit in terms of male leadership. They have a lot of women in the church, and a number of female leaders. But Pastor Fulgencio has very few male leaders in his church.
After Pastor Fulgencio had finished telling us about himself and his church, we all prayed for him. He, in return, prayed for us.
When we were finished praying, it was time to eat lunch and get things ready to go visit villagers. Lunch was sandwiches, so nothing too spectacular there. The things we had to put together for the villagers were baskets of food and personal care items that had been purchased and donated. I say baskets, but actually all of the items were placed in some blue plastic tubs that the people who received them could use in a variety of ways. We put things like rice, beans, sugar, salt, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc., in them. John and Heather started putting them together, but then stopped to eat lunch. After lunch, I went back over and helped Hugh and Nancy (Daniel and Brandi's Guatemalan assistant) put the rest of the baskets together. That was fun because I got to practice some of my (very) basic Spanish skills.
After getting the baskets together, we also sorted out the various other donations we were going to take with us. Those included things like shampoo, conditioner, soap, more toothpaste, and lots of toys.
While we worked on that, Hugh and Will got out a couple of frisbees and taught some of the children who'd come to see us how to play. They had a lot of fun with it. I think their favorite part though was when they got to give the frisbee to the kids for good. It was really cool to see.
Once we had all the donations and baskets sorted out, it was time to start visiting houses. We gathered everything up and headed down the hill to our first stop, Pastor Fluhencio's house. We presented his wife with one of the baskets we'd made, as well as a gift that the wives of the elder's from Summit had put together for her. I think we also gave her some new flip flops. It was hard to tell, but I think she really liked the gits.
While we were there, we also got to give a basket to Pastor Fulgencio's daughter-in-law. She was the wife of the son who had died, so we were very happy to be able to give her something. Along with the basket, we gave her some new flip flops and gave her children some new toys. They were all very appreciative.
We continued our journey throughout the village, stopping at 7 more houses. A few of them were church members, but a number of them weren't. One place we stopped, the woman wasn't a Christian so Alex spent a while talking to her and explaining the Gospel. Despite this, she still chose not to accept Christ, which was utterly dumbfounding in some ways.
Everywhere we went, we got the chance to interact with villagers and give out things. Will wound up being in charge of the toys and the Silly Bandz, a job he completed with abandon. He didn't just give things to the kids in the houses we visited, either. Any time he saw a child, no matter where, he'd go up to them and see if they wanted a bracelet.
Another thing we did with every family we stopped at was pray with them if we could. We prayed for any specific needs they had, for their kids, and for God to be present in their lives. It was really cool to watch our team praying over people, even when there was a language barrier.
I wish I could remember all the names and stories of the people we visited. Unfortunately, I can't I didn't take notes or nearly enough pictures, so I just remember faces in most cases. Still, it was an amazing and humbling experience.
We finished with the last of the baskets around 4:00 and headed back to the church to get ready for service that night.
Service started around 5:00 and was a bit different than our services back home. It started with Pastor Fulgencio welcoming us to the church and then praying for us. After that, we sang some worship songs. They were all in Spanish, so I knew none of them, although the very first one was familiar to some members of our group. There was a lot of clapping though, so I did that. After singing, John got up and gave a short sermon based on the parable Jesus told about the vineyard owner and the workers he hired throughout the day (Daniel translated for him). Then Alex stood up and called for anyone who wanted to be saved to come forward and pray. When no one came forward, he then called for people who needed prayer to come forward to be prayed for. At least, I think that's what he was doing. It was all in Spanish and Daniel didn't translate that part of it, so I'm guessing based on the few words I understood and what everyone did.
The service ended with Pastor Fulgencio introducing Daniel to the congregation (I think. Spanish and all). During the introduction, Pastor Fulgencio also mentioned Nancy. Except he clearly thought that Nancy was Daniel's wife. At first I didn't understand what was going on and why Nancy was embarrassed, but then Daniel explained that he and Nancy weren't married and that his wife was Brandi and she was home with his kids. Again, all of this was in Spanish, so I only caught part of what was said. I do know the word for wife (esposa) and a few others (hijos=kids, casa=house), though, so I got the gist of the whole thing. We all found it hilarious (as did Daniel and Nancy) and everyone teased Nancy about it off and on the rest of the week.
After that, service was over and it was time to go home. So we gathered up everything and headed back to the cars for the 2 hour drive home.
Nothing else really happened for me that evening. On the ride home I chatted with Hugh, Jillian, and Heather, but once we got back to Daniel and Brandi's house and got everything unloaded, I pretty much went straight to bed.
June 13, 2014: Friday - School and Hospital
Friday morning started pretty much the same way Thursday had. I got up, read my Bible, wrote out a brief description of what I'd done the previous day, then waited around for everyone else to get up.
Ben and Hugh eventually got up and I spent some time talking with each of them. It was my first real conversation with Ben and it was a good one. Next was that Stacy came out and I asked if I could help with breakfast, but she said Hugh had it all under control, so I stayed put. Anyway, after breakfast, we loaded everything and everyone into the cars and set off for our first stop of the day.
The first place we went was a school that was about 20 minutes away from where Brandi and Daniel live. The name of the school was Escula Official Rural Mixta Veguitas San Juan Ermita. It was a primary school so the students there ranged in age from Kindergarten (I think) to 6th grade. Also, it had both boys and girls at the school (not all of the schools do).
After we got to the school, we carried all of our stuff up to it, then set up the small sound system and got things organized for the drama we were going to perform for the students. Before we could start laying out our props, we had to wait for the class in the room we were going to use to finish. While they did, I took a few pictures of their classroom, as well as some of the kids who'd already come out to see us.
Once class was over, we pulled our prop trunk (a suitcase) into the classroom and started getting everything out. The drama is about 20 minutes long, so we had a lot of props to get out and organize. I checked with Will and he decided he wanted to paint his face like it was in the video we'd watched to learn the drama. So he sat down and I painted his face for him. I felt bad for him later because the paint wound up running since he sweated so much and it got in his eyes. Still, he thought it was worth it.
After everything was ready, we started the drama. Without going into too much detail about what everyone's parts were, the drama was basically about a kid who tried out a lot of different things before realizing that the only thing that would satisfy his soul was a relationship with God through Christ. There are certain members of our group that were less than thrilled with performing it, so we didn't take any pictures. Plus, all of us were in the drama, so it wasn't really possible for us to take pictures. That being said, I do know that Brandi and Nancy got a few pictures, so you can go find those if you're just dieing for a look at our performance.
When we finished the drama, Alex got up and spoke to the kids for a few minutes. I don't know exactly what he said, but I do know there was an illustration using paper that wound up as a cross. At the end of his message, he called for people who wanted to accept Christ to come forward. 14 kids came forward, which was really cool.
After praying with the kids, we gave out candy to everyone. Once we'd given out all the candy, we spent a little time talking to different people and taking pictures of various things. At one point, Stacy presented donated school supplies to one of the school administrators.
Finally, it was time to gather everything up and head back to Brandi and Daniel's house.
Back at the house, we had lunch of some kind. I honestly don't remember what we had for lunch or most of what we did between getting back to the house and leaving again. I do know that we spent some time with Nancy getting things ready to take to the hospital. But beyond that, I've got nothing.
After we got our stuff together, those of us going to the hospital loaded into Daniel's truck and he drove us to the Hospital. Not everyone went this time. On Friday, it was just Brandi, Nancy, Heather, Stacy, Jillian, Hugh, and me. Will, Ben, Alex, and John stayed with Daniel and the kids.
The hospital was difficult on an emotional level. The hospital there isn't like the hospitals here in the States. The way Hugh described it to me before I'd had a chance to see it for the first time was kind of like the hospitals you'd see in an old '50s or '60s film. There are wards instead of separate rooms, everyone's together, and there's pretty much no privacy.
On top of all of that, there’s also the fact that it’s just not as clean as our hospitals. It’s hot and there is no air conditioning in most places. So people are sweaty and flies buzz around everywhere. Also, they can’t throw out used things like hoses, so they have to wash them and use them again. In general things are a bit dirty, which really doesn’t contribute to people getting well. That’s why most people only go to the hospital if they are going to die. That or if they are too poor to afford medicine, so they go there to get it for free.
When we got to the hospital, we first went to the NICU. Basically it was just a moderate-sized rooms with a number of young babies on beds arranged around the perimeter. At first, we thought only two of us were going to be able to go in at a time, but it turned out that the doctor okayed all of us coming in at once. Once inside, we split up into a couple of groups and started praying for different babies. I prayed for one baby that was all by himself, although I didn’t know his name at the time. A little while later, Brandi had me come with her and I prayed for a young girl named Santa Lucila. She had a fever and diarrhea and we think she also probably had some sort of respiratory issue since she was on a breather. We prayed for her and her mother, Brandi translating for me.
After we prayed for the children, we got out some of the donations we had brought. We gave them each some diapers and wet wipes, as well as a blanket and burp cloth and some literature.
Once we had finished praying for all of the babies in the room, we packed up our bags and headed over to the children’s ward. There, we split into two groups again so we could pray for more people. I went with Brandi and Jillian while Stacy, Nancy, Hugh, and Heather went to the other side.
On our side, there were a lot of kids. So many that we didn’t get the chance to pray for all of them. Instead, we slowly worked our way down one wall, praying for each child and their family individually.
As we walked into the room and started talking to the first family, a mother and daughter, we were approached by another woman. She spoke rapid Spanish with Brandi, and though I didn’t really understand her it was clear she was asking for something. Brandi told her something (which I guessed amounted to “We'll be with you in a bit.”) and then we got back to praying for the child we were with. Brandi told us later that the woman had come up and asked for money. Later, when Brandi confronted her about it, the woman denied ever doing that. Even later than that, she’d come up to Jillian and I, asking for more stuff after we’d prayed for her child and given her some toys and clothes. She finally stopped when we just told her we didn’t speak Spanish.
We spent the next hour or so making our way down the line of children and praying for them. There were a lot, so I don’t remember most of their names. I do remember that pretty much all of them had some sort of upper respiratory infection, probably pneumonia. Later, I mentioned it to Hugh and he said that wasn’t uncommon at all. Which makes sense consider how most people there live with all the dust and what not.
When we finished praying for as many children as we could, it was time to head out. We just had one more stop in the hospital before we did. We made our way over to the office area and Stacy and Nancy went in to give them the last of the donations that we had brought. These were specifically for the staff and included hand cleaning sponges and medical wipes.
After that, it was time to go home. To get home, we were going to have to take a bus. Brandi asked if this was okay and all of us said it was. Who wasn’t up for a little adventure?
To get to the bus, we had to take a “short” walk up a hill from the hospital to get to a particular corner where the correct bus would come by. Once we got there, it wasn’t too long of a wait. So we piled into the bus (which was actually just a van without a side door), said bye to Nancy, and sped off on our way back to the mission house.
Back at the mission house, we had some down time before we had to leave for our next destination. Heather decided we should make up some of the Salvation bracelets that she’d brought supplies for so we could give them out at the village the next day. She pulled out the beads and the twine and we got to work.
While we worked with the twine she’d already cut, Jillian took the rest of the spool and went inside to cut more. Once she was gone, we kind of forgot about her. We spent a while making bracelets and wound up getting 20 or so done (I think) before it was almost time to leave. About then, I went inside for something and saw Jillian sitting on the couch with a massive pile of twine strings cut and most of the spool gone. All I could say was, “Uh, Jillian, I think you can stop now.”
That evening, we drove over to Zacapa for dinner at Rapadilo’s with a ministry friend of Stacy, Alex, and John. The restaurant is a place that Stacy and Alex went all the time when they lived in Zacapa. In fact, they went enough that when we showed up that night, one of the waitresses actually remembered them. Stacy was pretty excited about that.
We started the evening by eating dinner. Stacy suggested the Tortillas de Harina, which Rapadilo’s is apparently known for. I went with that, getting a chicken one. It consisted of a giant tortilla wrapped around grilled chicken (or pork or beef), cebollitas (baby onions), black beans, cole slaw, and mayonnaise. I got mine without the mayonnaise, but kept everything else. It was very good, but I could only eat half of it and the chicken from the other half.
After dinner, it was time for the baby shower we were throwing for the two missionaries we were eating dinner with. Their names were Alyssa and Josue and they were having a son. We all stood up and watched as the opened all the different gifts people had sent them. I took lots and lots and lots of pictures. They really liked all of the gifts.
Once all the gifts had been opened and all the pictures had been taken, Stacy convinced everyone that we should go for dessert at her favorite coffee place that was about a 10 minute drive away.
Since it was nighttime, I decided to ride in the back of the truck with the guys and the kids. I wound up holding onto to CeeCee while she, Dominic, and Levi played a game of I Spy with Will. It was a beautiful night so it was a nice ride.
We arrived at a lovely little coffee shop and all piled out of the cars again. Heading inside, we got tables and all sat down. Not too much later, everyone was enjoying the various desserts and beverages. We sat around talking for a while, getting to know Alyssa and hearing about how she wound up being a missionary in Guatemala and marrying Josue.
When everyone was finished, it was time to head home. We said goodbye to Alyssa and Josue and then piled back into the cars and headed back to the mission house to go to bed.
Ben and Hugh eventually got up and I spent some time talking with each of them. It was my first real conversation with Ben and it was a good one. Next was that Stacy came out and I asked if I could help with breakfast, but she said Hugh had it all under control, so I stayed put. Anyway, after breakfast, we loaded everything and everyone into the cars and set off for our first stop of the day.
The first place we went was a school that was about 20 minutes away from where Brandi and Daniel live. The name of the school was Escula Official Rural Mixta Veguitas San Juan Ermita. It was a primary school so the students there ranged in age from Kindergarten (I think) to 6th grade. Also, it had both boys and girls at the school (not all of the schools do).
After we got to the school, we carried all of our stuff up to it, then set up the small sound system and got things organized for the drama we were going to perform for the students. Before we could start laying out our props, we had to wait for the class in the room we were going to use to finish. While they did, I took a few pictures of their classroom, as well as some of the kids who'd already come out to see us.
Once class was over, we pulled our prop trunk (a suitcase) into the classroom and started getting everything out. The drama is about 20 minutes long, so we had a lot of props to get out and organize. I checked with Will and he decided he wanted to paint his face like it was in the video we'd watched to learn the drama. So he sat down and I painted his face for him. I felt bad for him later because the paint wound up running since he sweated so much and it got in his eyes. Still, he thought it was worth it.
After everything was ready, we started the drama. Without going into too much detail about what everyone's parts were, the drama was basically about a kid who tried out a lot of different things before realizing that the only thing that would satisfy his soul was a relationship with God through Christ. There are certain members of our group that were less than thrilled with performing it, so we didn't take any pictures. Plus, all of us were in the drama, so it wasn't really possible for us to take pictures. That being said, I do know that Brandi and Nancy got a few pictures, so you can go find those if you're just dieing for a look at our performance.
When we finished the drama, Alex got up and spoke to the kids for a few minutes. I don't know exactly what he said, but I do know there was an illustration using paper that wound up as a cross. At the end of his message, he called for people who wanted to accept Christ to come forward. 14 kids came forward, which was really cool.
After praying with the kids, we gave out candy to everyone. Once we'd given out all the candy, we spent a little time talking to different people and taking pictures of various things. At one point, Stacy presented donated school supplies to one of the school administrators.
Finally, it was time to gather everything up and head back to Brandi and Daniel's house.
Back at the house, we had lunch of some kind. I honestly don't remember what we had for lunch or most of what we did between getting back to the house and leaving again. I do know that we spent some time with Nancy getting things ready to take to the hospital. But beyond that, I've got nothing.
After we got our stuff together, those of us going to the hospital loaded into Daniel's truck and he drove us to the Hospital. Not everyone went this time. On Friday, it was just Brandi, Nancy, Heather, Stacy, Jillian, Hugh, and me. Will, Ben, Alex, and John stayed with Daniel and the kids.
The hospital was difficult on an emotional level. The hospital there isn't like the hospitals here in the States. The way Hugh described it to me before I'd had a chance to see it for the first time was kind of like the hospitals you'd see in an old '50s or '60s film. There are wards instead of separate rooms, everyone's together, and there's pretty much no privacy.
On top of all of that, there’s also the fact that it’s just not as clean as our hospitals. It’s hot and there is no air conditioning in most places. So people are sweaty and flies buzz around everywhere. Also, they can’t throw out used things like hoses, so they have to wash them and use them again. In general things are a bit dirty, which really doesn’t contribute to people getting well. That’s why most people only go to the hospital if they are going to die. That or if they are too poor to afford medicine, so they go there to get it for free.
When we got to the hospital, we first went to the NICU. Basically it was just a moderate-sized rooms with a number of young babies on beds arranged around the perimeter. At first, we thought only two of us were going to be able to go in at a time, but it turned out that the doctor okayed all of us coming in at once. Once inside, we split up into a couple of groups and started praying for different babies. I prayed for one baby that was all by himself, although I didn’t know his name at the time. A little while later, Brandi had me come with her and I prayed for a young girl named Santa Lucila. She had a fever and diarrhea and we think she also probably had some sort of respiratory issue since she was on a breather. We prayed for her and her mother, Brandi translating for me.
After we prayed for the children, we got out some of the donations we had brought. We gave them each some diapers and wet wipes, as well as a blanket and burp cloth and some literature.
Once we had finished praying for all of the babies in the room, we packed up our bags and headed over to the children’s ward. There, we split into two groups again so we could pray for more people. I went with Brandi and Jillian while Stacy, Nancy, Hugh, and Heather went to the other side.
On our side, there were a lot of kids. So many that we didn’t get the chance to pray for all of them. Instead, we slowly worked our way down one wall, praying for each child and their family individually.
As we walked into the room and started talking to the first family, a mother and daughter, we were approached by another woman. She spoke rapid Spanish with Brandi, and though I didn’t really understand her it was clear she was asking for something. Brandi told her something (which I guessed amounted to “We'll be with you in a bit.”) and then we got back to praying for the child we were with. Brandi told us later that the woman had come up and asked for money. Later, when Brandi confronted her about it, the woman denied ever doing that. Even later than that, she’d come up to Jillian and I, asking for more stuff after we’d prayed for her child and given her some toys and clothes. She finally stopped when we just told her we didn’t speak Spanish.
We spent the next hour or so making our way down the line of children and praying for them. There were a lot, so I don’t remember most of their names. I do remember that pretty much all of them had some sort of upper respiratory infection, probably pneumonia. Later, I mentioned it to Hugh and he said that wasn’t uncommon at all. Which makes sense consider how most people there live with all the dust and what not.
When we finished praying for as many children as we could, it was time to head out. We just had one more stop in the hospital before we did. We made our way over to the office area and Stacy and Nancy went in to give them the last of the donations that we had brought. These were specifically for the staff and included hand cleaning sponges and medical wipes.
After that, it was time to go home. To get home, we were going to have to take a bus. Brandi asked if this was okay and all of us said it was. Who wasn’t up for a little adventure?
To get to the bus, we had to take a “short” walk up a hill from the hospital to get to a particular corner where the correct bus would come by. Once we got there, it wasn’t too long of a wait. So we piled into the bus (which was actually just a van without a side door), said bye to Nancy, and sped off on our way back to the mission house.
Back at the mission house, we had some down time before we had to leave for our next destination. Heather decided we should make up some of the Salvation bracelets that she’d brought supplies for so we could give them out at the village the next day. She pulled out the beads and the twine and we got to work.
While we worked with the twine she’d already cut, Jillian took the rest of the spool and went inside to cut more. Once she was gone, we kind of forgot about her. We spent a while making bracelets and wound up getting 20 or so done (I think) before it was almost time to leave. About then, I went inside for something and saw Jillian sitting on the couch with a massive pile of twine strings cut and most of the spool gone. All I could say was, “Uh, Jillian, I think you can stop now.”
That evening, we drove over to Zacapa for dinner at Rapadilo’s with a ministry friend of Stacy, Alex, and John. The restaurant is a place that Stacy and Alex went all the time when they lived in Zacapa. In fact, they went enough that when we showed up that night, one of the waitresses actually remembered them. Stacy was pretty excited about that.
We started the evening by eating dinner. Stacy suggested the Tortillas de Harina, which Rapadilo’s is apparently known for. I went with that, getting a chicken one. It consisted of a giant tortilla wrapped around grilled chicken (or pork or beef), cebollitas (baby onions), black beans, cole slaw, and mayonnaise. I got mine without the mayonnaise, but kept everything else. It was very good, but I could only eat half of it and the chicken from the other half.
After dinner, it was time for the baby shower we were throwing for the two missionaries we were eating dinner with. Their names were Alyssa and Josue and they were having a son. We all stood up and watched as the opened all the different gifts people had sent them. I took lots and lots and lots of pictures. They really liked all of the gifts.
Once all the gifts had been opened and all the pictures had been taken, Stacy convinced everyone that we should go for dessert at her favorite coffee place that was about a 10 minute drive away.
Since it was nighttime, I decided to ride in the back of the truck with the guys and the kids. I wound up holding onto to CeeCee while she, Dominic, and Levi played a game of I Spy with Will. It was a beautiful night so it was a nice ride.
We arrived at a lovely little coffee shop and all piled out of the cars again. Heading inside, we got tables and all sat down. Not too much later, everyone was enjoying the various desserts and beverages. We sat around talking for a while, getting to know Alyssa and hearing about how she wound up being a missionary in Guatemala and marrying Josue.
When everyone was finished, it was time to head home. We said goodbye to Alyssa and Josue and then piled back into the cars and headed back to the mission house to go to bed.
June 14, 2014: Saturday - Pastor Sefariño's Village
Saturday started early, like all the other days. After reading my Bible and writing in my journal, I spent some time doing something, though I don't really remember what. Then it was time to help with breakfast. It was also the time for something funny to happen (at least, I think it happened on Saturday. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this.) I wound up helping cook the toast (apparently bread was my specialty on the trip).
After the toast was done, I asked Brandi if she needed me to do anything else. She asked if I could fill up a pitcher with cold water. She told me I’d probably need Daniel’s help since the switch for the cold water dispenser was broken. I went out and asked Daniel if he could help me so he took the pitcher and started filling it. After a couple of seconds I told him I could hold the pitcher if he wanted, so he could do other things. He said okay, then immediately got called away.
At first, I wasn’t too worried. I figured he’d be back and there was still plenty of room in the pitcher. When it got to about ¾ of the way full, I began to get a little worried and tried to find a way to turn the water dispenser off. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the way to shut it off, Daniel still wasn’t back and the pitcher was almost full. I yelled for Daniel, Brandi, and Alex hoping someone could help me. Alex and Brandi came running and we all tried to get the water turned off. Unfortunately, by now the pitcher was overflowing. We frantically searched for the way to turn it off, but the water kept flowing. Finally, after what seemed like forever and way too much water, Alex found how to turn the switch off.
Of course, right about then Daniel came back and asked what happened. I told him he left me alone and I didn’t know how to turn the water off. He said, “But you said you had it.” I said, “No, I said I could hold the pitcher!” We were all laughing though, so it was all good.
After the great water fiasco, we ate breakfast and then got everything together for the day. Then it was time to head out to the next village.
The drive to this village was similar to the drive to the first village, except the time on paved road was shorter. We only spent about 30 minutes on the regular roads. The rest of the trip to the village was accomplished by driving 1 ½ hours on a very dusty dirt road that wound up, down, and around two mountains.
At one point during the drive, we pulled over so the guys could relieve themselves. It also gave us a chance to take photos of the beautiful mountains that surrounded us.
Back in the cars, we bumped the rest of the way to the village.
As soon as we got to the village, we unloaded everything into the church (basically a structure with several support pillars and a tin roof, but not really anything else) and started making up the baskets we were going to give away. While we made up the baskets, we learned that a group of people who were going to receive some of the baskets were already there. They were all of the women and children and a few men that were sitting around watching us.
Since most or all of them weren’t Christians and we weren’t sure if they would come back for service that night, John, Daniel, and Alex decided we should do a quick impromptu service for them. Alex got up and spoke for a while. First he did an illustration with two empty Gatorade bottles. One was easily crushed by the volunteer Alex had called up. The other, not so much.
Alex went on to explain how the uncrushed bottle represented people who’d accepted Christ. Because the Holy Spirit lived within them, they were better able to stand up to hard times. On the other hand, people without the Holy Spirit are crushed by hard times. At least, that what I think he said. You know, limited Spanish and all.
Anyway, after that he prayed and asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ. No one did. Also, no one had us pray for them. So he ended the prayer and we started handing out baskets.
Since most of the people were there, Pastor Sefariño called out names from a list and someone came up to get the basket. Whenever someone came up, one of our group would step forward with the basket and had it to them. Daniel and Nancy also gave them a copy of the books of John and Romans in Spanish and a comic book that depicted the life of Christ.
After all the people had received their baskets, we gave out the Salvation bracelets that we’d made the day before. We all took time and tied bracelets on all the kids’ arms, and even some of the adults. Once everyone had bracelets, Heather stood up and explained what each colored bead meant.
When the meaning had been explained and everyone had begun to disperse, it was time for lunch. Daniel had informed us a little earlier that Pastor Sefariño’s family had decided to cook lunch for all of us. Since lunch was finished cooking, it was time to go up to his house and eat.
We got up to the house and went inside and the first thing Hugh made me do was take a picture of the stove that the women were cooking tortillas on. It’s nothing like the stove that we have at home. It’s a clay structure with an open fire and a metal pan placed on top where they place the tortillas to cook. It was really neat and really hot.
When I’d finished taking pictures of the stove, we all sat down around the table to eat the meal Pastor Sefariño’s family made for us. It consisted of a broth made from oil/butter and water with vegetables and potatoes in it, tortillas, and a chicken they’d killed and boiled for us.
The whole chicken thing is a big deal cause chickens are really valuable for more than just their meat. People don’t eat meat everyday there like we do here. It’s a big deal and a lot of work to eat meat there. So yeah, super humbling for them to do that for us.
After lunch, we sat down with Pastor Sefariño and talked about his life, ministry, and church. He told us his story and what he’d seen go on. He talked about how at one point he broke his back and how he should not have been walking. But God had given him the ability to walk again, despite everything the doctors said. It was really cool to hear all his stories and learn more about all the amazing things God was doing in his life and in the lives of the people he pastors.
When he’d finished talking, we took some time to pray for him and his family. In fact, he called his whole family into the room with us so they could be there to be prayed for. It was really cool.
After we finished praying with Pastor Sefariño’s family, it was time to try and visit a couple more families before church service started. Since we didn’t have much time, we decided to split into two groups. I wound up in a group with Alex, John, Ben, and a couple of Guatemalan church members. Everyone else went with Daniel.
My group headed down the mountain. This involved carefully making our way down a very narrow path with the mountain on the left side and a sheer drop on the right. The path was barely wide enough for us to walk on and pretty steep in some places. I realized pretty quickly that I just needed to concentrate on walking on the path and not worry about going too slowly or what was going on around me. It was the only way I was going to get down the path without falling.
I should also mention that I was doing all of this with a rather bad headache. I had a headache because as I was coming out of Pastor Sefariño’s house, I didn’t duck quite far enough and managed to ram my head into the top of the door really hard. After about twenty minutes I had a nice headache and a good sized bump on the top of my head.
So there I am, hiking down a mountain with a super headache. Sounds like fun right?
Actually it wasn’t that bad. Nerve-wracking: yes but bad: no. At one point, we made our way along a path that had a portion of it washed away. I wound up having to take a really big step over a washed our section of the path. That was the point that had me the most nervous the whole time, but it turned out okay and was kind of fun.
We visited three houses on our trip, but we only talked to people at two of them. The third house didn’t seem to want us to stop by, but since I didn’t understand what was being said, it’s hard for me to know for sure. The other two were both Christians, I think. Again, not good with the Spanish, so I’m not sure.
Once we’d finished hiking around to houses, we headed back to the church to wait for church service to start. We were the first group to get back, so we sat down and Alex started talking with the Guatemalans who had already gathered there.
After a while, the other groups started to trickle back in. First came Hugh and Heather and Nancy. They told us their group had split up again after we left them so that they could visit even more houses. Finally, the rest of the group showed up and it was finally close to time to start service. What followed was a very long church service.
Service started with music led by musicians that Pastor Sefariño had hired just for our visit. There was a lot of singing and it just kept going. After that, Pastor Sefariño had us all come up front and made Daniel introduce us to everyone. Daniel went down the line and told everyone our names and what we did.
After that, Hugh and Jillian got up and shared portions of their testimonies while Daniel translated. Then John stood up and preached for a while. This time, Alex translated for him.
After John finished preaching, Alex asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ. No one did, so after a while, he asked if there was anyone who needed prayer for anything. A bunch of people stood up, so everyone else in the group went up and prayed for all the people who were standing.
After all the prayer, service ended and it was time to go home. We packed up our stuff then made a quick pit stop at Pastor Sefariño’s outhouse so we wouldn’t have to stop on the way home. After that, we all loaded into the car and got ready for the ride back down the mountain.
John wound up riding in our car on the way down the mountain. He said his 50 year old body couldn’t handle the bumpy ride back down the mountain in the back of the pickup, so he came with us. He told us a few stories and in general we had a decent ride down the mountain, even if it was nerve-wracking cause the sun went down about half-way through the ride.
When we’d gotten about half to three-quarters of the way down the mountain, we suddenly came upon a group of young men and policía and had to stop. They stopped and talked to the people in the truck, then came over to us. One of the policía stepped up to Hugh’s window and Hugh tried to tell them he didn’t speak any Spanish (No hablo español). Only, he wound up saying he didn’t speak any English (No hablo ingles). At first, I couldn’t react, I was too stunned. Then I realized what he was saying and quickly said “Español, español!” He corrected himself and the police eventually went away. Although I think some of that had to do with Ben giving out water to them.
After they’d gone, Hugh said that the police officer had given him a really funny look when he’d told him that he (Hugh) didn’t speak English. We all had a good laugh about it then.
After getting past the police checkpoint, we got to the bottom of the mountain and were ready to head home. But something happened to Daniel’s truck as we came off the mountain road and his clutch broke. We knew right away something was wrong, but it was a few minutes before we pulled over.
Pulling over to the side of the road, Daniel got out and attempted to create a temporary fix that would get us home to Chiquimula. He spent a good 10 minutes working on it before getting back in the truck only to discover that it hadn’t worked. Which put us in a really bad spot.
We didn’t have enough room in the Rav4 for all of the stuff, plus all of the people. Actually, we didn’t even have enough room in the car for everyone to ride home. Someone was going to have to stay with the truck. This was less than ideal because it was night in Guatemala and we were at least 30 minutes from home. No one liked the idea of them sitting out on the road waiting for a tow truck, but we had little choice.
So Heather, Jillian, me, Alex, and Pastor Carlos, piled into the car with Hugh, while Daniel, Nancy, John, Ben, and Will took all the stuff and put it into the pickup to wait for the tow truck.
The ride back to Chiquimula probably would have been a rather quiet and intense one except for the fact that Hugh managed to hit a speed bump going about 50mph. To be fair to him, I don't remember seeing a sign for the speed bump. In fact, I didn't even know we were coming up on one until we'd gone flying over it (I was sitting in the front passenger seat).
So there we are, driving along, all silently worrying about everyone back at the truck (well, at least I was silently worrying. I don't quite remember about everyone else). All of the sudden there's a large bang and we go airborne for a few seconds before thudding back to the ground with a big shout of surprise from everyone in the car, especially those in the back seat.
At first, we had no idea what had just happened, but then we figured out that Hugh had just taken us over a speed bump at 50mph. As a result, everyone in the backseat and Pastor Carlos back in the trunk had gone flying and banged their heads on the ceiling. Heather, who we found out later was already not feeling great because of dehydration, wouldn't let Hugh forget about it the rest of the way home. We all had a good laugh after making sure everyone was okay, but after that, any time we got near a speed bump Heather made certain Hugh was paying attention.
We made it back to the mission house about 40 minutes after leaving the truck behind. We sort of knew the situation we were walking into, but not completely till we got there, so the rest of the evening was still interesting.
See, earlier in the day, the electricity had started fluctuating and randomly sort of going off. Well, before we left, Brandi discovered that the main circuit box had been made into a honey comb by a colony of bees. That's what was causing the power issues. Because of this, she'd spent all day trying to find someone who could fix the problem and get full power restored that day. Because of the power issues, she and Stacy hadn't been able to get everything done at the house that they'd needed to. Apparently the washing machine wasn't working correctly either, which made Brandi get behind on laundry. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but things get dirty so fast there that getting even a little behind can cause a lot of problems. Also, throughout the day, she'd had two different electricians come and tell her that they weren't sure they could fix the electricity that day. I think one said he'd come back later, but they weren't sure he actually would. Add to all this having to deal with several rowdy kids all day and you get a very stressed out Brandi and a very stressed out Stacy. Which is what we came home to.
Despite being stressed out, Stacy and Brandi greeted us and served us the dinner they'd prepared for us (spaghetti, green beans, and bread). While we were getting ready to eat, another electrician arrived to see if he could get the problem fixed. To fix the problem, he'd have to cut all the power to the whole house for something like 10 minutes. Cue everyone grabbing flashlights.
For 10 minutes or so, Hugh, Heather, Jillian, Alex, Carlos, and I, along with Brandi and Stacy, sat in the dark eating and talking. During this time, the kids also wound up waking back up. Eventually though, all the lights came back on. After that, Brandi brought the electrician around, introduced him as a hero, and then took him over so he could fix the washing machine too. He did and left to much thanks from all of us.
At some point during all of this, Alex left to take Carlos to a relative's house. After all of the electrical drama, the other group still wasn't back. Brandi wanted to wait up for them, as did Hugh. But Stacy wanted to get Dominic back to bed and Heather wasn't feeling well. So Heather, the Rodriguezes, and Jillian all headed to their rooms while Hugh and I hung out with Brandi to await the arrival of the other group.
I helped Brandi with dishes and we just chatted for a while. Eventually, the others got back. I thought it was around 11:00, but Brandi told me later that it is was actually 10:00ish when they got back. Anyway, they all got back, so Hugh and I ran outside really quick and helped everyone unload all the stuff from the truck so Daniel could take Nancy home and then go check on the truck at the shop it was being taken to.
After we got everything unloaded, Daniel left with Nancy while Brandi and I made up plates for the three Ryans. It took a few minutes, so I talked to Ben for a bit while their plates heated up. Once all their meals were done, I made sure Brandi and the Ryans didn't need anything else, then I headed to my room to take a shower and go to bed. It had been a long day.
After the toast was done, I asked Brandi if she needed me to do anything else. She asked if I could fill up a pitcher with cold water. She told me I’d probably need Daniel’s help since the switch for the cold water dispenser was broken. I went out and asked Daniel if he could help me so he took the pitcher and started filling it. After a couple of seconds I told him I could hold the pitcher if he wanted, so he could do other things. He said okay, then immediately got called away.
At first, I wasn’t too worried. I figured he’d be back and there was still plenty of room in the pitcher. When it got to about ¾ of the way full, I began to get a little worried and tried to find a way to turn the water dispenser off. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the way to shut it off, Daniel still wasn’t back and the pitcher was almost full. I yelled for Daniel, Brandi, and Alex hoping someone could help me. Alex and Brandi came running and we all tried to get the water turned off. Unfortunately, by now the pitcher was overflowing. We frantically searched for the way to turn it off, but the water kept flowing. Finally, after what seemed like forever and way too much water, Alex found how to turn the switch off.
Of course, right about then Daniel came back and asked what happened. I told him he left me alone and I didn’t know how to turn the water off. He said, “But you said you had it.” I said, “No, I said I could hold the pitcher!” We were all laughing though, so it was all good.
After the great water fiasco, we ate breakfast and then got everything together for the day. Then it was time to head out to the next village.
The drive to this village was similar to the drive to the first village, except the time on paved road was shorter. We only spent about 30 minutes on the regular roads. The rest of the trip to the village was accomplished by driving 1 ½ hours on a very dusty dirt road that wound up, down, and around two mountains.
At one point during the drive, we pulled over so the guys could relieve themselves. It also gave us a chance to take photos of the beautiful mountains that surrounded us.
Back in the cars, we bumped the rest of the way to the village.
As soon as we got to the village, we unloaded everything into the church (basically a structure with several support pillars and a tin roof, but not really anything else) and started making up the baskets we were going to give away. While we made up the baskets, we learned that a group of people who were going to receive some of the baskets were already there. They were all of the women and children and a few men that were sitting around watching us.
Since most or all of them weren’t Christians and we weren’t sure if they would come back for service that night, John, Daniel, and Alex decided we should do a quick impromptu service for them. Alex got up and spoke for a while. First he did an illustration with two empty Gatorade bottles. One was easily crushed by the volunteer Alex had called up. The other, not so much.
Alex went on to explain how the uncrushed bottle represented people who’d accepted Christ. Because the Holy Spirit lived within them, they were better able to stand up to hard times. On the other hand, people without the Holy Spirit are crushed by hard times. At least, that what I think he said. You know, limited Spanish and all.
Anyway, after that he prayed and asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ. No one did. Also, no one had us pray for them. So he ended the prayer and we started handing out baskets.
Since most of the people were there, Pastor Sefariño called out names from a list and someone came up to get the basket. Whenever someone came up, one of our group would step forward with the basket and had it to them. Daniel and Nancy also gave them a copy of the books of John and Romans in Spanish and a comic book that depicted the life of Christ.
After all the people had received their baskets, we gave out the Salvation bracelets that we’d made the day before. We all took time and tied bracelets on all the kids’ arms, and even some of the adults. Once everyone had bracelets, Heather stood up and explained what each colored bead meant.
When the meaning had been explained and everyone had begun to disperse, it was time for lunch. Daniel had informed us a little earlier that Pastor Sefariño’s family had decided to cook lunch for all of us. Since lunch was finished cooking, it was time to go up to his house and eat.
We got up to the house and went inside and the first thing Hugh made me do was take a picture of the stove that the women were cooking tortillas on. It’s nothing like the stove that we have at home. It’s a clay structure with an open fire and a metal pan placed on top where they place the tortillas to cook. It was really neat and really hot.
When I’d finished taking pictures of the stove, we all sat down around the table to eat the meal Pastor Sefariño’s family made for us. It consisted of a broth made from oil/butter and water with vegetables and potatoes in it, tortillas, and a chicken they’d killed and boiled for us.
The whole chicken thing is a big deal cause chickens are really valuable for more than just their meat. People don’t eat meat everyday there like we do here. It’s a big deal and a lot of work to eat meat there. So yeah, super humbling for them to do that for us.
After lunch, we sat down with Pastor Sefariño and talked about his life, ministry, and church. He told us his story and what he’d seen go on. He talked about how at one point he broke his back and how he should not have been walking. But God had given him the ability to walk again, despite everything the doctors said. It was really cool to hear all his stories and learn more about all the amazing things God was doing in his life and in the lives of the people he pastors.
When he’d finished talking, we took some time to pray for him and his family. In fact, he called his whole family into the room with us so they could be there to be prayed for. It was really cool.
After we finished praying with Pastor Sefariño’s family, it was time to try and visit a couple more families before church service started. Since we didn’t have much time, we decided to split into two groups. I wound up in a group with Alex, John, Ben, and a couple of Guatemalan church members. Everyone else went with Daniel.
My group headed down the mountain. This involved carefully making our way down a very narrow path with the mountain on the left side and a sheer drop on the right. The path was barely wide enough for us to walk on and pretty steep in some places. I realized pretty quickly that I just needed to concentrate on walking on the path and not worry about going too slowly or what was going on around me. It was the only way I was going to get down the path without falling.
I should also mention that I was doing all of this with a rather bad headache. I had a headache because as I was coming out of Pastor Sefariño’s house, I didn’t duck quite far enough and managed to ram my head into the top of the door really hard. After about twenty minutes I had a nice headache and a good sized bump on the top of my head.
So there I am, hiking down a mountain with a super headache. Sounds like fun right?
Actually it wasn’t that bad. Nerve-wracking: yes but bad: no. At one point, we made our way along a path that had a portion of it washed away. I wound up having to take a really big step over a washed our section of the path. That was the point that had me the most nervous the whole time, but it turned out okay and was kind of fun.
We visited three houses on our trip, but we only talked to people at two of them. The third house didn’t seem to want us to stop by, but since I didn’t understand what was being said, it’s hard for me to know for sure. The other two were both Christians, I think. Again, not good with the Spanish, so I’m not sure.
Once we’d finished hiking around to houses, we headed back to the church to wait for church service to start. We were the first group to get back, so we sat down and Alex started talking with the Guatemalans who had already gathered there.
After a while, the other groups started to trickle back in. First came Hugh and Heather and Nancy. They told us their group had split up again after we left them so that they could visit even more houses. Finally, the rest of the group showed up and it was finally close to time to start service. What followed was a very long church service.
Service started with music led by musicians that Pastor Sefariño had hired just for our visit. There was a lot of singing and it just kept going. After that, Pastor Sefariño had us all come up front and made Daniel introduce us to everyone. Daniel went down the line and told everyone our names and what we did.
After that, Hugh and Jillian got up and shared portions of their testimonies while Daniel translated. Then John stood up and preached for a while. This time, Alex translated for him.
After John finished preaching, Alex asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ. No one did, so after a while, he asked if there was anyone who needed prayer for anything. A bunch of people stood up, so everyone else in the group went up and prayed for all the people who were standing.
After all the prayer, service ended and it was time to go home. We packed up our stuff then made a quick pit stop at Pastor Sefariño’s outhouse so we wouldn’t have to stop on the way home. After that, we all loaded into the car and got ready for the ride back down the mountain.
John wound up riding in our car on the way down the mountain. He said his 50 year old body couldn’t handle the bumpy ride back down the mountain in the back of the pickup, so he came with us. He told us a few stories and in general we had a decent ride down the mountain, even if it was nerve-wracking cause the sun went down about half-way through the ride.
When we’d gotten about half to three-quarters of the way down the mountain, we suddenly came upon a group of young men and policía and had to stop. They stopped and talked to the people in the truck, then came over to us. One of the policía stepped up to Hugh’s window and Hugh tried to tell them he didn’t speak any Spanish (No hablo español). Only, he wound up saying he didn’t speak any English (No hablo ingles). At first, I couldn’t react, I was too stunned. Then I realized what he was saying and quickly said “Español, español!” He corrected himself and the police eventually went away. Although I think some of that had to do with Ben giving out water to them.
After they’d gone, Hugh said that the police officer had given him a really funny look when he’d told him that he (Hugh) didn’t speak English. We all had a good laugh about it then.
After getting past the police checkpoint, we got to the bottom of the mountain and were ready to head home. But something happened to Daniel’s truck as we came off the mountain road and his clutch broke. We knew right away something was wrong, but it was a few minutes before we pulled over.
Pulling over to the side of the road, Daniel got out and attempted to create a temporary fix that would get us home to Chiquimula. He spent a good 10 minutes working on it before getting back in the truck only to discover that it hadn’t worked. Which put us in a really bad spot.
We didn’t have enough room in the Rav4 for all of the stuff, plus all of the people. Actually, we didn’t even have enough room in the car for everyone to ride home. Someone was going to have to stay with the truck. This was less than ideal because it was night in Guatemala and we were at least 30 minutes from home. No one liked the idea of them sitting out on the road waiting for a tow truck, but we had little choice.
So Heather, Jillian, me, Alex, and Pastor Carlos, piled into the car with Hugh, while Daniel, Nancy, John, Ben, and Will took all the stuff and put it into the pickup to wait for the tow truck.
The ride back to Chiquimula probably would have been a rather quiet and intense one except for the fact that Hugh managed to hit a speed bump going about 50mph. To be fair to him, I don't remember seeing a sign for the speed bump. In fact, I didn't even know we were coming up on one until we'd gone flying over it (I was sitting in the front passenger seat).
So there we are, driving along, all silently worrying about everyone back at the truck (well, at least I was silently worrying. I don't quite remember about everyone else). All of the sudden there's a large bang and we go airborne for a few seconds before thudding back to the ground with a big shout of surprise from everyone in the car, especially those in the back seat.
At first, we had no idea what had just happened, but then we figured out that Hugh had just taken us over a speed bump at 50mph. As a result, everyone in the backseat and Pastor Carlos back in the trunk had gone flying and banged their heads on the ceiling. Heather, who we found out later was already not feeling great because of dehydration, wouldn't let Hugh forget about it the rest of the way home. We all had a good laugh after making sure everyone was okay, but after that, any time we got near a speed bump Heather made certain Hugh was paying attention.
We made it back to the mission house about 40 minutes after leaving the truck behind. We sort of knew the situation we were walking into, but not completely till we got there, so the rest of the evening was still interesting.
See, earlier in the day, the electricity had started fluctuating and randomly sort of going off. Well, before we left, Brandi discovered that the main circuit box had been made into a honey comb by a colony of bees. That's what was causing the power issues. Because of this, she'd spent all day trying to find someone who could fix the problem and get full power restored that day. Because of the power issues, she and Stacy hadn't been able to get everything done at the house that they'd needed to. Apparently the washing machine wasn't working correctly either, which made Brandi get behind on laundry. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but things get dirty so fast there that getting even a little behind can cause a lot of problems. Also, throughout the day, she'd had two different electricians come and tell her that they weren't sure they could fix the electricity that day. I think one said he'd come back later, but they weren't sure he actually would. Add to all this having to deal with several rowdy kids all day and you get a very stressed out Brandi and a very stressed out Stacy. Which is what we came home to.
Despite being stressed out, Stacy and Brandi greeted us and served us the dinner they'd prepared for us (spaghetti, green beans, and bread). While we were getting ready to eat, another electrician arrived to see if he could get the problem fixed. To fix the problem, he'd have to cut all the power to the whole house for something like 10 minutes. Cue everyone grabbing flashlights.
For 10 minutes or so, Hugh, Heather, Jillian, Alex, Carlos, and I, along with Brandi and Stacy, sat in the dark eating and talking. During this time, the kids also wound up waking back up. Eventually though, all the lights came back on. After that, Brandi brought the electrician around, introduced him as a hero, and then took him over so he could fix the washing machine too. He did and left to much thanks from all of us.
At some point during all of this, Alex left to take Carlos to a relative's house. After all of the electrical drama, the other group still wasn't back. Brandi wanted to wait up for them, as did Hugh. But Stacy wanted to get Dominic back to bed and Heather wasn't feeling well. So Heather, the Rodriguezes, and Jillian all headed to their rooms while Hugh and I hung out with Brandi to await the arrival of the other group.
I helped Brandi with dishes and we just chatted for a while. Eventually, the others got back. I thought it was around 11:00, but Brandi told me later that it is was actually 10:00ish when they got back. Anyway, they all got back, so Hugh and I ran outside really quick and helped everyone unload all the stuff from the truck so Daniel could take Nancy home and then go check on the truck at the shop it was being taken to.
After we got everything unloaded, Daniel left with Nancy while Brandi and I made up plates for the three Ryans. It took a few minutes, so I talked to Ben for a bit while their plates heated up. Once all their meals were done, I made sure Brandi and the Ryans didn't need anything else, then I headed to my room to take a shower and go to bed. It had been a long day.
June 15, 2014: Sunday - Pastor Carlos's Village
On Sunday, the plan was for everyone to sleep late because we'd been up so late the night before. We were just going to go to a buffet breakfast that morning, so we didn't need to be up early. Unfortunately, my body had different ideas and I was up ridiculously early, like every other morning that week.
Eventually the rest of the group got up and it was time to leave for breakfast.
Everyone piled into the cars and we headed into Chiquimula to a restaurant called Charlie's. It's actually a pizzeria, but they also serve a buffet breakfast on Sunday mornings. We got there and Brandi said that she'd called and the staff had assured her that they would have a table for us when we got there. When we walked in, we thought there was a table set up for us, but it was actually for someone else. After a bit of confusion, they eventually led us upstairs to where they hold banquets and special events and told us we'd be eating up there instead of in the main restaurant. We were the only group up there.
Once we'd gotten our stuff set down, we headed downstairs and got in line for food. What food I did eat was good, but my stomach had been finicky all week, so I didn't really eat much. I felt bad cause everything looked so tasty. Everyone else really liked the food, in any case.
We all sat down and relaxed in the air conditioning and enjoyed our meal. After everyone had had enough too eat, we started just hanging out and talking. I think at some point someone asked if there was anyway for us to see the soccer game where we were. There weren't any TVs up there so I think we were just gonna leave when all of the sudden a couple of the guys come in carrying a TV and all the wires to hook it up. We realized that they may have just gone out and bought a TV just so we could watch the World Cup game that was on. Because of that, we decided we should probably stay for a while longer. No one really complained.
At one point, Daniel came over and sat down to talk with Jillian and I about the trip, see if we had any questions, and ask what our thoughts were. Jillian asked about the history of the country and the culture and whatnot, so we got into a long conversation about the Guatemalan culture and how the descendants of the Mayan Indians were treated differently and how they wound up in the mountains, among other things. Eventually most everyone had gathered around and was listening to Daniel talk. He also told us stories about ways that God had provided for him and Brandi as they'd been in Guatemala and for the other pastors, like Pastor Carlos.
After a while the conversation died out and the guys went to finish watching the game. We stayed until the game ended, which wound up being a little before noon. I think we were there for three hours. It was wonderful and relaxing and the most downtime we'd had all week.
When the game finished, we headed back to the house. We had some time before we had to leave for our last village church and I was exhausted, so I took a nap.
After I woke up, we had a little more time to kill, but I don't totally remember what we did. We left for the last church, Pastor Carlos's church, at about 2:00.
We started out the ride like usual, with John, Ben, and Will in the back of the pickup truck (a tiny red rental that Daniel had gotten since his big truck was in the shop). As soon as we pulled out, John, who was standing up in the back of the truck, looked ahead and pointed: we were driving right into a bunch of rain.
Not long after that, Daniel pulled over and asked the Ryans if they wanted to either get in the truck or at least put ponchos on since we were definitely going to get rained on. They all said no, insisting they would stay dry by sitting up against the back of the cab of the truck. Daniel said okay, got back in and started driving again while the guys rearranged themselves in the back of the truck. Meanwhile, in the other car, we were all laughing our heads off and wondering if they would actually get to the church without getting soaked. We got our answer not long after that.
Within five minutes of pulling onto the road again, the rain started. At first, the Ryans seemed like they might just get away without getting too wet, even after it started raining harder. Then we got stuck behind a number of slow cars and it began to pour. To say they got soaked would be an understatement. I have one picture of them and they are all pretty much curled up in little balls but they're smiling, probably cause they saw me taking the picture.
After a while, the rain kind of stopped, so the Ryans decided to try and dry off by standing up and letting the wind air-dry them. I'm not sure how well it worked and I'm pretty sure it started raining again before we got there, but A for effort on their part.
We finally got to Pastor Carlos's church about 40 minutes after leaving the mission house. His church was a bit different from the other two churches because it was an actual completed building. It had all four walls done, a roof, doors and windows, and a stage where they had a couple of speakers and a podium. The wall inside were even painted and had some murals on them. It also had banners hanging from the eaves of the ceiling. It just goes to show that you don't need a big fancy building to worship God.
It was very interesting to see the differences in all of the different churches. They were all so unlike anything you would typically see here in the States, but that just proves that you don't need a big fancy building to worship God. You can worship Him in a simple four-wall structure, or a place that has a roof and not much else. It's yet another humbling reminder of God's greatness.
By the time we got to the church the rain had slowed some, so we unloaded everything into the church. We wanted to go give out donations, but before we could, we had to put together all of the baskets. Unfortunately, it took just enough time to put the baskets together for it to start raining again.
We decided to wait and see if the rain would let up. Will started playing with the kids while pretty much everyone else sat around talking.
After about an hour (or maybe half-an-hour. Still no watch, so I'm not sure) of watching the kids and waiting for the rain to stop, John and Daniel decided that we should go ahead and talk with Pastor Carlos the way we had with the other pastors. Since he'd been with us the other two times, he was ready with photos and stories.
We learned that he went to University and had a couple of degrees. He also worked in construction, which helped his church a lot because he was able to build a nice church building because of that. He told us stories of God's provision for him and his family and for his church. Like all the other talks, it was good to hear from him.
We decided to wait to pray for him until after we went to give out baskets because by this time the rain had finally slowed down a bit. So we gathered up some of the baskets and split into two groups to try and get some of them delivered before church started.
I was in a group with Daniel, Brandi, their kids, Will, Jillian, Hugh, and one of the Guatemalan men from Pastor Carlos's church. Everyone else went with Alex. Our group was going to some of the houses that were a little further away, so we drove. As we were pulling away from the church, Brandi mentioned that one of the women she had spoken to thought it was going to rain again. Brandi said that the woman was usually right about these things. Sure enough, about half-way to our first house, it started pouring.
We pulled up to the area just outside the first house, the home of Doña Aueria, and we all ran as quickly as possible to get under some shelter and avoid getting too soaked. Sadly, in our rush, we forgot a couple of things. We sent Will back to the truck to grab them and on the way there, he managed to grab a barbwire fence and gash his finger. I tried to get him to at least put a band-aid on it, but he insisted that with the rain, the band-aid wouldn't do any good.
Another accident happened while at the first house as well. While we were talking to the first woman, CeeCee decided to stand on a stool that was there. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but suddenly the stool flipped and she fell. I'm not sure if she hit her eye on the way down or if she hurt that some time later. All I know is that she started crying and the next day she had a scratch and a black eye. Poor girl.
Aside from the accidents, our visit with Doña Aueria followed the same pattern that all of our other visits with villagers had. We spent some time talking to and praying for her and invited her to join us for service that night. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about her story. When we'd finished praying with her, we gathered up all our stuff and ran back to the truck. It was still down-pouring.
Next, we drove a little while and stopped at another house. It was still raining, so we sort of rain into the house to be greeted by Doña Tina and her family. We wound up staying at that house for a bit because it began raining really hard while we talked and prayed with her. After about 10 minutes, the rain finally slowed down enough that we could get back to the truck. At that point, we opted to head back to the church and wait for service to start.
Back at the church, Hugh, Will, Jillian, and I decided we should get ready for church. After we got changed, we stood around waiting for the other group to get back, but they took a long time. Eventually Will, Jillian, and I sat down and decided to play a game of Bible trivia. It was Will’s suggestion. I suggested cards instead, but Will pointed out that we couldn’t be sure playing cards wasn’t a big sin for the people in the church. So Bible trivia it was.
We played for a while, each taking turns coming up with questions that the other two had to answer. When we weren't sure about the correct answer to one of the questions, so we got out John's Bible and checked. It was a fun way to test our Bible knowledge, but eventually we started running out of questions. It isn't easy to come up with Bible trivia questions off the top of your head.
Eventually, one of us said something about a TV show that we all knew and, after more struggling to think of questions, Will suggested that we just talk about TV instead. We all agreed, so he asked what shows I watched. I listed off most of them and he said he actually watched almost all of them. He asked if we watched much Netflix and I said yes so then we got to talking about Netflix and the shows we'd watch there. It was fun just sitting and chatting with him and Jillian.
Not long after that, the other group got back and church service started. This service was a lot like the others, in structure and execution. But also different.
At the beginning of the service, Pastor Carlos got up and spoke and prayed for a bit, then he asked Daniel to bring all of us forward and introduce us. He went down the line and gave the congregation everyone’s names and said what they did in the church.
After we were introduced, Pastor Carlos called up people from the congregation to pray individually for each of us. Being prayed for in another language is an interesting and cool experience. It’s also humbling to know that God doesn’t need everyone to speak the same language to know what they are asking and saying and what they need.
After we were prayed for, we went back and sat down and service continued. Next came worship. Two women from the church got up and started singing. At some point during the song, one of the two women started singing something that didn’t sound quite like the song the other girl was singing. She also started sort of dancing. At first, everyone kept singing and clapping, but eventually some people started praying and the other girl put her mic down and left the stage and the guitar player stopped playing. All of us Americans kind of started looking around and trying to figure out what was going on. Heather later said that she was pretty sure the woman started speaking in tongues, but I’m not sure. Unfortunately, I never really got to ask anyone else about it.
After worship ended, Heather and Jillian got up and gave some testimonies. Stacy translated for them. When the girls finished their testimonies, one of the men from Carlos’s church got up and I think he gave his testimony. It was hard to tell since there was no translator.
Next came Alex giving a message to the church, all in Spanish. Then Carlos got up and asked us to come and pray for the people in his church. We did.
The last thing that happened in church was that Carlos grabbed Will and asked if he would come up and say a couple of words to the church. I think he asked him to do it in Spanish even. Will had been practicing Spanish all week and had gotten pretty good at speaking without an translator, so he agreed. He got up on stage and, completely in Spanish with very little help, thanked the church for welcoming us and praying for us and letting us worship with them. I’m not sure about everything he said, though he did tell me later. Still, it was pretty cool that he got up there and spoke completely on his own in Spanish. I think everyone in the congregation really appreciated it and I know we were all proud of him.
After service ended, we got the chance to go to Pastor Carlos’s house and eat dinner with him and his family. They had cooked for us, so that was cool. They made us a noodle dish that had vegetables and chicken in some kind of sauce all mixed together. They also served us the sweetest cup of coffee I’ve ever had. I only took about two drinks out of it. I don’t like coffee to begin with and it was way too sweet for me. Hugh noticed I wasn’t drinking it, so he asked if I was gonna finish it. When I told him no, he asked if he could have it and I told him to go for it.
When we’d finished eating, we gave Pastor Carlos and his wife some gifts we had brought for them. Pastor Carlos got some hats and his wife got the things that the Elder’s wives had sent.
After dinner there was a little more talking, then it was time to go home. We all climbed into the cars and headed back to the mission house.
On the way back, we had a bit of an adventure. Because of all of the rain, there was a lot of washout on the road. Hugh and Alex compared it to driving in a live video game. We had to dodge around big branches and rocks that had fallen into the road during the storms. At one point there was an entire tree that had fallen into the road. We did eventually make it home in one piece though.
Eventually the rest of the group got up and it was time to leave for breakfast.
Everyone piled into the cars and we headed into Chiquimula to a restaurant called Charlie's. It's actually a pizzeria, but they also serve a buffet breakfast on Sunday mornings. We got there and Brandi said that she'd called and the staff had assured her that they would have a table for us when we got there. When we walked in, we thought there was a table set up for us, but it was actually for someone else. After a bit of confusion, they eventually led us upstairs to where they hold banquets and special events and told us we'd be eating up there instead of in the main restaurant. We were the only group up there.
Once we'd gotten our stuff set down, we headed downstairs and got in line for food. What food I did eat was good, but my stomach had been finicky all week, so I didn't really eat much. I felt bad cause everything looked so tasty. Everyone else really liked the food, in any case.
We all sat down and relaxed in the air conditioning and enjoyed our meal. After everyone had had enough too eat, we started just hanging out and talking. I think at some point someone asked if there was anyway for us to see the soccer game where we were. There weren't any TVs up there so I think we were just gonna leave when all of the sudden a couple of the guys come in carrying a TV and all the wires to hook it up. We realized that they may have just gone out and bought a TV just so we could watch the World Cup game that was on. Because of that, we decided we should probably stay for a while longer. No one really complained.
At one point, Daniel came over and sat down to talk with Jillian and I about the trip, see if we had any questions, and ask what our thoughts were. Jillian asked about the history of the country and the culture and whatnot, so we got into a long conversation about the Guatemalan culture and how the descendants of the Mayan Indians were treated differently and how they wound up in the mountains, among other things. Eventually most everyone had gathered around and was listening to Daniel talk. He also told us stories about ways that God had provided for him and Brandi as they'd been in Guatemala and for the other pastors, like Pastor Carlos.
After a while the conversation died out and the guys went to finish watching the game. We stayed until the game ended, which wound up being a little before noon. I think we were there for three hours. It was wonderful and relaxing and the most downtime we'd had all week.
When the game finished, we headed back to the house. We had some time before we had to leave for our last village church and I was exhausted, so I took a nap.
After I woke up, we had a little more time to kill, but I don't totally remember what we did. We left for the last church, Pastor Carlos's church, at about 2:00.
We started out the ride like usual, with John, Ben, and Will in the back of the pickup truck (a tiny red rental that Daniel had gotten since his big truck was in the shop). As soon as we pulled out, John, who was standing up in the back of the truck, looked ahead and pointed: we were driving right into a bunch of rain.
Not long after that, Daniel pulled over and asked the Ryans if they wanted to either get in the truck or at least put ponchos on since we were definitely going to get rained on. They all said no, insisting they would stay dry by sitting up against the back of the cab of the truck. Daniel said okay, got back in and started driving again while the guys rearranged themselves in the back of the truck. Meanwhile, in the other car, we were all laughing our heads off and wondering if they would actually get to the church without getting soaked. We got our answer not long after that.
Within five minutes of pulling onto the road again, the rain started. At first, the Ryans seemed like they might just get away without getting too wet, even after it started raining harder. Then we got stuck behind a number of slow cars and it began to pour. To say they got soaked would be an understatement. I have one picture of them and they are all pretty much curled up in little balls but they're smiling, probably cause they saw me taking the picture.
After a while, the rain kind of stopped, so the Ryans decided to try and dry off by standing up and letting the wind air-dry them. I'm not sure how well it worked and I'm pretty sure it started raining again before we got there, but A for effort on their part.
We finally got to Pastor Carlos's church about 40 minutes after leaving the mission house. His church was a bit different from the other two churches because it was an actual completed building. It had all four walls done, a roof, doors and windows, and a stage where they had a couple of speakers and a podium. The wall inside were even painted and had some murals on them. It also had banners hanging from the eaves of the ceiling. It just goes to show that you don't need a big fancy building to worship God.
It was very interesting to see the differences in all of the different churches. They were all so unlike anything you would typically see here in the States, but that just proves that you don't need a big fancy building to worship God. You can worship Him in a simple four-wall structure, or a place that has a roof and not much else. It's yet another humbling reminder of God's greatness.
By the time we got to the church the rain had slowed some, so we unloaded everything into the church. We wanted to go give out donations, but before we could, we had to put together all of the baskets. Unfortunately, it took just enough time to put the baskets together for it to start raining again.
We decided to wait and see if the rain would let up. Will started playing with the kids while pretty much everyone else sat around talking.
After about an hour (or maybe half-an-hour. Still no watch, so I'm not sure) of watching the kids and waiting for the rain to stop, John and Daniel decided that we should go ahead and talk with Pastor Carlos the way we had with the other pastors. Since he'd been with us the other two times, he was ready with photos and stories.
We learned that he went to University and had a couple of degrees. He also worked in construction, which helped his church a lot because he was able to build a nice church building because of that. He told us stories of God's provision for him and his family and for his church. Like all the other talks, it was good to hear from him.
We decided to wait to pray for him until after we went to give out baskets because by this time the rain had finally slowed down a bit. So we gathered up some of the baskets and split into two groups to try and get some of them delivered before church started.
I was in a group with Daniel, Brandi, their kids, Will, Jillian, Hugh, and one of the Guatemalan men from Pastor Carlos's church. Everyone else went with Alex. Our group was going to some of the houses that were a little further away, so we drove. As we were pulling away from the church, Brandi mentioned that one of the women she had spoken to thought it was going to rain again. Brandi said that the woman was usually right about these things. Sure enough, about half-way to our first house, it started pouring.
We pulled up to the area just outside the first house, the home of Doña Aueria, and we all ran as quickly as possible to get under some shelter and avoid getting too soaked. Sadly, in our rush, we forgot a couple of things. We sent Will back to the truck to grab them and on the way there, he managed to grab a barbwire fence and gash his finger. I tried to get him to at least put a band-aid on it, but he insisted that with the rain, the band-aid wouldn't do any good.
Another accident happened while at the first house as well. While we were talking to the first woman, CeeCee decided to stand on a stool that was there. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but suddenly the stool flipped and she fell. I'm not sure if she hit her eye on the way down or if she hurt that some time later. All I know is that she started crying and the next day she had a scratch and a black eye. Poor girl.
Aside from the accidents, our visit with Doña Aueria followed the same pattern that all of our other visits with villagers had. We spent some time talking to and praying for her and invited her to join us for service that night. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about her story. When we'd finished praying with her, we gathered up all our stuff and ran back to the truck. It was still down-pouring.
Next, we drove a little while and stopped at another house. It was still raining, so we sort of rain into the house to be greeted by Doña Tina and her family. We wound up staying at that house for a bit because it began raining really hard while we talked and prayed with her. After about 10 minutes, the rain finally slowed down enough that we could get back to the truck. At that point, we opted to head back to the church and wait for service to start.
Back at the church, Hugh, Will, Jillian, and I decided we should get ready for church. After we got changed, we stood around waiting for the other group to get back, but they took a long time. Eventually Will, Jillian, and I sat down and decided to play a game of Bible trivia. It was Will’s suggestion. I suggested cards instead, but Will pointed out that we couldn’t be sure playing cards wasn’t a big sin for the people in the church. So Bible trivia it was.
We played for a while, each taking turns coming up with questions that the other two had to answer. When we weren't sure about the correct answer to one of the questions, so we got out John's Bible and checked. It was a fun way to test our Bible knowledge, but eventually we started running out of questions. It isn't easy to come up with Bible trivia questions off the top of your head.
Eventually, one of us said something about a TV show that we all knew and, after more struggling to think of questions, Will suggested that we just talk about TV instead. We all agreed, so he asked what shows I watched. I listed off most of them and he said he actually watched almost all of them. He asked if we watched much Netflix and I said yes so then we got to talking about Netflix and the shows we'd watch there. It was fun just sitting and chatting with him and Jillian.
Not long after that, the other group got back and church service started. This service was a lot like the others, in structure and execution. But also different.
At the beginning of the service, Pastor Carlos got up and spoke and prayed for a bit, then he asked Daniel to bring all of us forward and introduce us. He went down the line and gave the congregation everyone’s names and said what they did in the church.
After we were introduced, Pastor Carlos called up people from the congregation to pray individually for each of us. Being prayed for in another language is an interesting and cool experience. It’s also humbling to know that God doesn’t need everyone to speak the same language to know what they are asking and saying and what they need.
After we were prayed for, we went back and sat down and service continued. Next came worship. Two women from the church got up and started singing. At some point during the song, one of the two women started singing something that didn’t sound quite like the song the other girl was singing. She also started sort of dancing. At first, everyone kept singing and clapping, but eventually some people started praying and the other girl put her mic down and left the stage and the guitar player stopped playing. All of us Americans kind of started looking around and trying to figure out what was going on. Heather later said that she was pretty sure the woman started speaking in tongues, but I’m not sure. Unfortunately, I never really got to ask anyone else about it.
After worship ended, Heather and Jillian got up and gave some testimonies. Stacy translated for them. When the girls finished their testimonies, one of the men from Carlos’s church got up and I think he gave his testimony. It was hard to tell since there was no translator.
Next came Alex giving a message to the church, all in Spanish. Then Carlos got up and asked us to come and pray for the people in his church. We did.
The last thing that happened in church was that Carlos grabbed Will and asked if he would come up and say a couple of words to the church. I think he asked him to do it in Spanish even. Will had been practicing Spanish all week and had gotten pretty good at speaking without an translator, so he agreed. He got up on stage and, completely in Spanish with very little help, thanked the church for welcoming us and praying for us and letting us worship with them. I’m not sure about everything he said, though he did tell me later. Still, it was pretty cool that he got up there and spoke completely on his own in Spanish. I think everyone in the congregation really appreciated it and I know we were all proud of him.
After service ended, we got the chance to go to Pastor Carlos’s house and eat dinner with him and his family. They had cooked for us, so that was cool. They made us a noodle dish that had vegetables and chicken in some kind of sauce all mixed together. They also served us the sweetest cup of coffee I’ve ever had. I only took about two drinks out of it. I don’t like coffee to begin with and it was way too sweet for me. Hugh noticed I wasn’t drinking it, so he asked if I was gonna finish it. When I told him no, he asked if he could have it and I told him to go for it.
When we’d finished eating, we gave Pastor Carlos and his wife some gifts we had brought for them. Pastor Carlos got some hats and his wife got the things that the Elder’s wives had sent.
After dinner there was a little more talking, then it was time to go home. We all climbed into the cars and headed back to the mission house.
On the way back, we had a bit of an adventure. Because of all of the rain, there was a lot of washout on the road. Hugh and Alex compared it to driving in a live video game. We had to dodge around big branches and rocks that had fallen into the road during the storms. At one point there was an entire tree that had fallen into the road. We did eventually make it home in one piece though.
June 16, 2014: Monday - The Last Ministry Day
Monday was our last ministry day. As such, we had something of a lighter day.
It started a little earlier than our other days because we had to be at our first location by 8:00 a.m. So we all woke up early and had breakfast by 7:00ish.
Our first location of the day was a school where we were going to put the drama on for a second time. I don’t know the name of the school we went to. It actually was three schools that used the same building, but met at different times. Nancy explained it to us after we left. She said that the boys’ school meets there in the mornings, an early childhood school meets during the middle of the day, and a girls’ school meets there in the afternoons. Because of this, the school had three different names and I don’t know what any of them were. I do know that it was much closer than the last school, only about 15 minutes away in Chiquimula proper.
We got to the school right on time, but we had to wait to get in for some reason. Daniel knocked on the door several times before someone finally came to open it for us.
This school was very different from the last one. The other one was small and pretty open. This one was much larger and the classrooms were pretty contained. Also, in the center was a large recreation area where the kids could play soccer, basketball, and lots of other games. The recreation area also had rows of concrete bleachers around it for people to sit on. At one end was the stage we would be performing on.
We got there and looked around for a few minutes, then got busy setting up for the drama. At some point during this time, it was realized that something had been forgotten back at the house. So Daniel went to get it while the rest of us finished setting up and then stalled.
We got the props set up and organized and I painted Will’s face again (he insisted, despite the fact that last time, the paint had dripped into his eyes because of sweat). After that, Alex stalled by playing a game with the kids.
I’m not really sure what type of game he was playing with them. It was a bit like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, but you only had to touch your head, stomach, and knees. Also, it was played in pairs and the pairs had to tap each other’s respective body parts. John and Will wound up paired up against the other pairs of boys. I watched the whole game, but I’m not sure who won, or even how they would have won.
After we finished the game, everyone was asking if anyone knew more games to play because Daniel wasn't back yet. Just then though, he walked in and it was time to start the drama.
This time around, I think the drama went a little smoother. Probably cause we kind of knew what we were doing.
Right as we got to the end of the drama, I noticed that the suitcase needed to be repacked, so I worked on that. In fact, I stayed back there organizing the bag and getting everything packed while everyone else was up front handing out candy to the kids. Someone needed to pack the bag and organizing is something I do well, so I took care of it.
I don't totally know why, but Alex didn't give a message to these kids like he did at the last school. I think Stacy explained it to someone, but I didn't hear the explanation. Because Alex didn't present a message, right after the drama ended, everyone else handed out candy and then we packed up the sound system and it was time to go.
We headed back out to the van (we had a van today instead of the rental truck and Rav4), but we couldn't leave right away because Daniel had to go to the paint store around the corner and pick up some paint for some reason.
Once they'd gotten the paint, we packed into the van and headed back to the house. It was a little after 9:00 a.m.
When we got back to the house we took a few minutes to put our stuff away and then it was time for our next project and find out what that paint was for. We were going to paint Brandi and Daniel's living room. It's something they had really wanted to do for a while but had no way of doing on their own. The way the room is set up, it's a hexagon at the center of the house off of which all the other rooms branch. In the center is a small hexagonal atrium thingy where Precious (one of their two dogs, a little white mop of a thing) slept. They had painted the wall of the interior part of the hexagon but couldn't get the exterior hexagonal wall painted on their own. That's where we came in.
We started by moving all the furniture away from the wall. We also had to take down four wooden valances. Will and I handled taking down the valances while everyone else moved furniture and cleaned the walls (dusting them and getting rid of cobwebs). Hugh was in charge of mixing the paint.
Once everything had been moved, taken down, cleaned, and mixed, we got to work painting. Most everyone took rollers, but Alex and Nancy took brushes and cut in around frames and near the ceiling. Jillian wound up getting an extender and she took care of painting the top portion of the wall where no one else could reach. Hugh was in charge of refilling the paint pans and he did a little rolling too.
We wound up putting three coats on the wall. After two coats, most of the group had sort of stopped working for various reasons. John, Alex, and Stacy had to leave cause they were going to visit someone elsewhere in Chiquimula and most everyone else had been painting for a couple hours straight at that point, so they needed a break. Ben took over and he and Jillian basically put on the last coat by themselves.
We ate lunch and by the time we finished our sandwiches the paint had pretty much dried. Since the paint was dry, Will, Hugh, and I put the wooden valances back up on the wall. By the time we finished, it was time to get ready to go to the hospital again.
At first, Brandi said we didn't have to go, but everyone really wanted to go back. So we went and cleaned up, then Hugh drove us to the Hospital. This time Ben and Will joined us while Hugh headed back to the house to finish putting it back together after our painting.
Just like the last time, we started in the NICU. Unlike last time though, Brandi wanted to just take in one or two people at a time to pray for children. She thought it would be a little less chaotic and the rest of us who'd been there before all agreed.
Ben and I were the first two to go in with her. The first baby we saw was Santa Lucila, one of the babies I'd prayed for the last time we were there. She had been moved and seemed to be doing a little better. I offered to pray for her again, since I remembered her. Just as we finished praying her mom appeared again and Brandi spoke with her for a few moments to explain what we were doing before we moved on to the next baby.
Next we prayed for another baby that we didn't know the name of and the parents weren't around. Ben prayed for her this time.
After that, Ben and I headed back outside to sit with Will and Nancy. Right away Ben went over and sat with some of the families that were sitting out in the hallway. He wound up striking up a conversation with one of the women there. He eventually had to call Nancy and Will over to help translate, but at first he talked to her all on his own. They told me later that the woman's husband was in the ICU because he had 20 tumors in his stomach. Apparently he needed to go to a different hospital but he couldn’t leave yet because the doctors in Chiquimula had to wait for test results on the tumors to come back before he could go. Ben offered to go in a pray for the woman's husband and she said okay, so he did.
When he went back into the ICU, Nancy and Will came back over and we got to talking. Eventually Jillian and Heather came back and it was Will and Nancy's turn to go in and pray.
After Will and Brandi came back from praying for the last of the kids in the NICU, it was time to go to the Children's Ward. When we got there, there were a lot fewer children than there had been on Friday. I hope that that was because most of the ones we'd prayed for had gotten better and gone home, but I never got a concrete answer about that.
Instead of splitting up like we had on the previous visit, we all stayed in a big group. We headed to the very back of the ward to start praying there. In that section, we found two children who both had diarrhea and a fever so we prayed for them. Unfortunately, I don't remember their names.
When we had finished praying for them, we turned around to find one of the people Hugh and Heather's group had prayed for on the last visit standing behind us. It was a 17 year-old-girl with physical handicaps who had been raped. She was at the hospital because the rape had resulted in a pregnancy. She'd just had the baby a few weeks before and was now living at the hospital because he family had kicked her out. She had come to see us carrying her baby, a little girl named Dulce. Nancy and Heather took turns holding Dulce and we prayed for her and her mother.
After praying for Dulce, we moved back to the front of the ward. By this time we only had a little bit of time left before visiting hours were over. We wound up praying for four little boys, all with different needs. After praying, we quickly gave them some clothes and toys. Will also wound up praying in Spanish by himself for another mother and child who were there.
By that time, visiting hours were over and we needed to leave. We gathered up all our stuff and headed out into the hall. When we got there, we were stopped by one of the nurses who asked if we could pray for her mother who was in a hospital in another town because of a brain aneurism. We prayed for her, as well as giving out a few things to some other kids that came over to us.
Finally we were forced to leave.
After finishing at the hospital, we went back to the house for a bit. The plan was to leave a little later and go watch the soccer game with some of the church elders from Daniel and Brandi's church at Charlie's (the pizza place we'd eaten breakfast at the previous day). All the guys were pretty excited about it (it was during the World Cup and the US was playing Ghana).
We wound up leaving late though because Daniel was on the phone with someone for a while for some reason that I never got the chance to ask about. Because of this, we missed seeing the first score of the game. Apparently the US scored on Ghana within the first 45 seconds of the game. Still, everyone was happy we would get to see the game at all.
We loaded into the van and headed over to Charlie's to meet John, Stacy, and Alex. We spent the next couple of hours watching the game, relaxing, and talking.
After the game was over, it was time to head back to the house for a bit, then go to dinner. We were having dinner at a Chiquimula firehouse. The firefighters (bomberos in Spanish) were cooking for us.
We go to the firehouse and looked around for a bit before dinner. The first thing everyone wanted people to see was the roof. We headed up there and got a great view of the surrounding area. You could see all the way to the mountains. I took a few pictures of the streets and Alex and Stacy wanted a picture too, so I took that for them. At that point, most everyone else headed back downstairs, but Will, Heather, Ben, and I headed over to the edge of the roof to see what we could see there. After that we decided to head back downstairs with everyone else.
Downstairs, everyone sat around for a while talking and watching the kids watch TV. After a while, Will, Hugh, and Daniel wandered over to the fire pole. Of course Will wanted to try it, but he wasn't totally sure. So Daniel did a little convincing and eventually he got Will to go down it. Will loved it of course. Naturally, this meant everyone else wanted to try. Next came Hugh, then Will went again. After that John tried it out and even Jillian wound up trying it out once as well.
Around then, dinner was pretty much finished cooking, so we all sat down and got ready to eat. The bomberos had cooked us steak, potatoes, rice, and beans. All the food was really good. I wish I could have eaten more of it.
After dinner, the guys got up and talked with some of the bomberos. John spent time talking with the station chief and Ben talked with a few of the other bomberos. I don't really know what they talked about, but I did get pictures of them during their conversations.
Finally it was time to leave, but there was one last thing to take care of before we did. Everyone wanted to go down the fire pole one last time. All the guys went first. Then Jillian did. At that point, they started trying to convince Heather and I to try it. It took a bit, but eventually I agreed. I was pretty nervous since I'm a klutz and I wasn't completely convinced I wouldn't fall to my death, but I still did it. And Will has the video to prove it. He took video of all of the girls going down the fire pole, much to Jillian's consternation and my delight. I wanted the proof that I'd done it. Jillian, not so much.
Once everyone got back downstairs, we started to head out. We waited a few more minutes though because a few people stopped to pray with one of the firefighters. I don't know what about, but I saw them stopped with their heads bowed right before we left.
When we got back to the house, all of us girls decided to finish packing since we had to be up at 4:30 the next morning. Then it was time for bed in preparation for the early morning the next day.
It started a little earlier than our other days because we had to be at our first location by 8:00 a.m. So we all woke up early and had breakfast by 7:00ish.
Our first location of the day was a school where we were going to put the drama on for a second time. I don’t know the name of the school we went to. It actually was three schools that used the same building, but met at different times. Nancy explained it to us after we left. She said that the boys’ school meets there in the mornings, an early childhood school meets during the middle of the day, and a girls’ school meets there in the afternoons. Because of this, the school had three different names and I don’t know what any of them were. I do know that it was much closer than the last school, only about 15 minutes away in Chiquimula proper.
We got to the school right on time, but we had to wait to get in for some reason. Daniel knocked on the door several times before someone finally came to open it for us.
This school was very different from the last one. The other one was small and pretty open. This one was much larger and the classrooms were pretty contained. Also, in the center was a large recreation area where the kids could play soccer, basketball, and lots of other games. The recreation area also had rows of concrete bleachers around it for people to sit on. At one end was the stage we would be performing on.
We got there and looked around for a few minutes, then got busy setting up for the drama. At some point during this time, it was realized that something had been forgotten back at the house. So Daniel went to get it while the rest of us finished setting up and then stalled.
We got the props set up and organized and I painted Will’s face again (he insisted, despite the fact that last time, the paint had dripped into his eyes because of sweat). After that, Alex stalled by playing a game with the kids.
I’m not really sure what type of game he was playing with them. It was a bit like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, but you only had to touch your head, stomach, and knees. Also, it was played in pairs and the pairs had to tap each other’s respective body parts. John and Will wound up paired up against the other pairs of boys. I watched the whole game, but I’m not sure who won, or even how they would have won.
After we finished the game, everyone was asking if anyone knew more games to play because Daniel wasn't back yet. Just then though, he walked in and it was time to start the drama.
This time around, I think the drama went a little smoother. Probably cause we kind of knew what we were doing.
Right as we got to the end of the drama, I noticed that the suitcase needed to be repacked, so I worked on that. In fact, I stayed back there organizing the bag and getting everything packed while everyone else was up front handing out candy to the kids. Someone needed to pack the bag and organizing is something I do well, so I took care of it.
I don't totally know why, but Alex didn't give a message to these kids like he did at the last school. I think Stacy explained it to someone, but I didn't hear the explanation. Because Alex didn't present a message, right after the drama ended, everyone else handed out candy and then we packed up the sound system and it was time to go.
We headed back out to the van (we had a van today instead of the rental truck and Rav4), but we couldn't leave right away because Daniel had to go to the paint store around the corner and pick up some paint for some reason.
Once they'd gotten the paint, we packed into the van and headed back to the house. It was a little after 9:00 a.m.
When we got back to the house we took a few minutes to put our stuff away and then it was time for our next project and find out what that paint was for. We were going to paint Brandi and Daniel's living room. It's something they had really wanted to do for a while but had no way of doing on their own. The way the room is set up, it's a hexagon at the center of the house off of which all the other rooms branch. In the center is a small hexagonal atrium thingy where Precious (one of their two dogs, a little white mop of a thing) slept. They had painted the wall of the interior part of the hexagon but couldn't get the exterior hexagonal wall painted on their own. That's where we came in.
We started by moving all the furniture away from the wall. We also had to take down four wooden valances. Will and I handled taking down the valances while everyone else moved furniture and cleaned the walls (dusting them and getting rid of cobwebs). Hugh was in charge of mixing the paint.
Once everything had been moved, taken down, cleaned, and mixed, we got to work painting. Most everyone took rollers, but Alex and Nancy took brushes and cut in around frames and near the ceiling. Jillian wound up getting an extender and she took care of painting the top portion of the wall where no one else could reach. Hugh was in charge of refilling the paint pans and he did a little rolling too.
We wound up putting three coats on the wall. After two coats, most of the group had sort of stopped working for various reasons. John, Alex, and Stacy had to leave cause they were going to visit someone elsewhere in Chiquimula and most everyone else had been painting for a couple hours straight at that point, so they needed a break. Ben took over and he and Jillian basically put on the last coat by themselves.
We ate lunch and by the time we finished our sandwiches the paint had pretty much dried. Since the paint was dry, Will, Hugh, and I put the wooden valances back up on the wall. By the time we finished, it was time to get ready to go to the hospital again.
At first, Brandi said we didn't have to go, but everyone really wanted to go back. So we went and cleaned up, then Hugh drove us to the Hospital. This time Ben and Will joined us while Hugh headed back to the house to finish putting it back together after our painting.
Just like the last time, we started in the NICU. Unlike last time though, Brandi wanted to just take in one or two people at a time to pray for children. She thought it would be a little less chaotic and the rest of us who'd been there before all agreed.
Ben and I were the first two to go in with her. The first baby we saw was Santa Lucila, one of the babies I'd prayed for the last time we were there. She had been moved and seemed to be doing a little better. I offered to pray for her again, since I remembered her. Just as we finished praying her mom appeared again and Brandi spoke with her for a few moments to explain what we were doing before we moved on to the next baby.
Next we prayed for another baby that we didn't know the name of and the parents weren't around. Ben prayed for her this time.
After that, Ben and I headed back outside to sit with Will and Nancy. Right away Ben went over and sat with some of the families that were sitting out in the hallway. He wound up striking up a conversation with one of the women there. He eventually had to call Nancy and Will over to help translate, but at first he talked to her all on his own. They told me later that the woman's husband was in the ICU because he had 20 tumors in his stomach. Apparently he needed to go to a different hospital but he couldn’t leave yet because the doctors in Chiquimula had to wait for test results on the tumors to come back before he could go. Ben offered to go in a pray for the woman's husband and she said okay, so he did.
When he went back into the ICU, Nancy and Will came back over and we got to talking. Eventually Jillian and Heather came back and it was Will and Nancy's turn to go in and pray.
After Will and Brandi came back from praying for the last of the kids in the NICU, it was time to go to the Children's Ward. When we got there, there were a lot fewer children than there had been on Friday. I hope that that was because most of the ones we'd prayed for had gotten better and gone home, but I never got a concrete answer about that.
Instead of splitting up like we had on the previous visit, we all stayed in a big group. We headed to the very back of the ward to start praying there. In that section, we found two children who both had diarrhea and a fever so we prayed for them. Unfortunately, I don't remember their names.
When we had finished praying for them, we turned around to find one of the people Hugh and Heather's group had prayed for on the last visit standing behind us. It was a 17 year-old-girl with physical handicaps who had been raped. She was at the hospital because the rape had resulted in a pregnancy. She'd just had the baby a few weeks before and was now living at the hospital because he family had kicked her out. She had come to see us carrying her baby, a little girl named Dulce. Nancy and Heather took turns holding Dulce and we prayed for her and her mother.
After praying for Dulce, we moved back to the front of the ward. By this time we only had a little bit of time left before visiting hours were over. We wound up praying for four little boys, all with different needs. After praying, we quickly gave them some clothes and toys. Will also wound up praying in Spanish by himself for another mother and child who were there.
By that time, visiting hours were over and we needed to leave. We gathered up all our stuff and headed out into the hall. When we got there, we were stopped by one of the nurses who asked if we could pray for her mother who was in a hospital in another town because of a brain aneurism. We prayed for her, as well as giving out a few things to some other kids that came over to us.
Finally we were forced to leave.
After finishing at the hospital, we went back to the house for a bit. The plan was to leave a little later and go watch the soccer game with some of the church elders from Daniel and Brandi's church at Charlie's (the pizza place we'd eaten breakfast at the previous day). All the guys were pretty excited about it (it was during the World Cup and the US was playing Ghana).
We wound up leaving late though because Daniel was on the phone with someone for a while for some reason that I never got the chance to ask about. Because of this, we missed seeing the first score of the game. Apparently the US scored on Ghana within the first 45 seconds of the game. Still, everyone was happy we would get to see the game at all.
We loaded into the van and headed over to Charlie's to meet John, Stacy, and Alex. We spent the next couple of hours watching the game, relaxing, and talking.
After the game was over, it was time to head back to the house for a bit, then go to dinner. We were having dinner at a Chiquimula firehouse. The firefighters (bomberos in Spanish) were cooking for us.
We go to the firehouse and looked around for a bit before dinner. The first thing everyone wanted people to see was the roof. We headed up there and got a great view of the surrounding area. You could see all the way to the mountains. I took a few pictures of the streets and Alex and Stacy wanted a picture too, so I took that for them. At that point, most everyone else headed back downstairs, but Will, Heather, Ben, and I headed over to the edge of the roof to see what we could see there. After that we decided to head back downstairs with everyone else.
Downstairs, everyone sat around for a while talking and watching the kids watch TV. After a while, Will, Hugh, and Daniel wandered over to the fire pole. Of course Will wanted to try it, but he wasn't totally sure. So Daniel did a little convincing and eventually he got Will to go down it. Will loved it of course. Naturally, this meant everyone else wanted to try. Next came Hugh, then Will went again. After that John tried it out and even Jillian wound up trying it out once as well.
Around then, dinner was pretty much finished cooking, so we all sat down and got ready to eat. The bomberos had cooked us steak, potatoes, rice, and beans. All the food was really good. I wish I could have eaten more of it.
After dinner, the guys got up and talked with some of the bomberos. John spent time talking with the station chief and Ben talked with a few of the other bomberos. I don't really know what they talked about, but I did get pictures of them during their conversations.
Finally it was time to leave, but there was one last thing to take care of before we did. Everyone wanted to go down the fire pole one last time. All the guys went first. Then Jillian did. At that point, they started trying to convince Heather and I to try it. It took a bit, but eventually I agreed. I was pretty nervous since I'm a klutz and I wasn't completely convinced I wouldn't fall to my death, but I still did it. And Will has the video to prove it. He took video of all of the girls going down the fire pole, much to Jillian's consternation and my delight. I wanted the proof that I'd done it. Jillian, not so much.
Once everyone got back downstairs, we started to head out. We waited a few more minutes though because a few people stopped to pray with one of the firefighters. I don't know what about, but I saw them stopped with their heads bowed right before we left.
When we got back to the house, all of us girls decided to finish packing since we had to be up at 4:30 the next morning. Then it was time for bed in preparation for the early morning the next day.
June 17, 2014: Tuesday - Antigua
Tuesday started early for everyone. We had to have our bags out to the car by 5:00 a.m., so all of us girls got up at 4:30 to make sure we had everything and get them out there early. After we got our bags out to the van, we headed back into the rooms and cleaned up. We made our beds, swept the floors, and generally tidied up. It actually didn't take that long to clean, so by about 5:30 a.m. we were in the car on the way to Antigua (that's Antigua Guatemala, not the island in the Caribbean).
The drive to Antigua was pretty uneventful. The first half was quiet cause all the kids were asleep and half the adults were too. Things didn't really pick up until we got to Sarita's for breakfast.
After eating breakfast at Sarita's, we got back on the road to Antigua. After breakfast everyone was a lot more awake, including the kids. The rest of the drive was a bit more lively because of this. I'm not sure what we talked about, but there were plenty of conversations and Will kept telling jokes. Bad, bad jokes. He eventually discovered that Stacy liked grammar jokes so he looked up several that she and I both enjoyed.
We finally arrived in Antigua at about 11:00 a.m. After we got to the hotel, Stacy and Alex got everyone signed in and we figured out what rooms we were in. Jillian and I wound up in Room 3 by ourselves. We were also the only ones in that hallway, so we were kind of away from everyone else, but not too far, since everyone else's rooms were just down the next hallway.
After finding out our room numbers, we went back outside to find our bags. While traveling to Antigua, all of our bags had been tied to the top of the van. While Jillian and I had been checking out our room, the guys had gotten the bags down. When we got back to the pile of bags, mine was there and Jillian's wasn't.
To her credit, she recognized the joke as soon as it happened. It was only at my insistence that Jillian asked about the bag, allowing the guys to get the full effect of the joke on both of us. They got a kick out of fooling both of us into thinking that Jillian's bag had fallen off the van, but really it wasn't that surprising that they'd done it. It was only to be expected after a week of teasing Jillian.
We were told we were going to have an hour at the hotel, but that turned into about 30 minutes. Because we thought we had more time, Jillian took a shower, but just after she got out, it was time to leave.
While Jillian took the aforementioned shower, I went out and took some pictures of the hotel. It's probably one of the nicest places I've ever stayed. It reminded me a bit of an Italian house/village with the way it was colored and the décor. During my walk, I came across Hugh and Heather also taking pictures. Then Hugh found the hammocks and and he and Heather settled in to enjoy them for a while. Before they could properly enjoy the hammocks, though, it was time to leave again.
We left the hotel at noon to go to the marcado (the market) and do some shopping. Everyone left together, but when we got close to the marcado, we split into two groups. The guys went to a restaurant to watch the soccer game, while us girls, the McIntyres, and Nancy headed toward the marcado.
Before we could go to the marcado, we had to make a stop at McDonald's because the kids needed food. The McDonald's we went to was probably the nicest Mickey D's I've ever been at. The interior was pretty typical, but outside they had this awesome courtyard that had really nice seating around the edges and a big fountain in the center. Heather, Jillian, and I had fun sitting out there and relaxing for a bit before our shopping excusion.
We finished eating just about the time Stacy came looking for us. She said that Daniel and Alex were going to stay with the kids while us girls (including Brandi and Nancy) got started at the marcado. We all agreed and headed out.
The walk to the marcado was short so soon we got to start shopping. Even if I tried, I'm not sure I could really describe the marcado. It apparently had a number of sections and I only saw one, the Artisan section.
When we got to the Artisan section, Stacy and Heather and I split off from Nancy, Jillian, and Brandi so we could cover more ground. We started on the exterior of the market and both Heather and I found a number of things pretty quickly. Eventually though, we moved to the interior of the market, which consisted of several connected courtyards with stalls stationed all around the exterior wall.
We shopped for something like 3 hours. My legs only lasted for about 2 ½ of those hours. Eventually, after I had gifts for my family bought, along with a few things for myself, I found a bench and waited for everyone else to finish. They eventually did around 4:00 and it was time to head back to the hotel.
To get back to the hotel, we decided to get tuk-tuks. A tuk-tuk is a little three-wheeled car that can only hold about three people and drives really fast over the cobbled roads. Jillian, Heather, and I wound up in one together. I got the middle while they both sat on the outside, hanging on for dear life in fear that they would tumble out of the shower-curtain door. I thought it was a lot of fun.
Back at the hotel, Heather went and grabbed her stuff and brought it over to our room. Originally she was going to room with Nancy, but some some stuff happened to change that and she wound up coming to stay in the room with Jillian and I.
Back at the room, us girls just hung out and talked while we waited to leave for dinner. It was nice just chatting with Heather and Jillian. We all got to know each other better and I feel like we really connected on a deeper level than I have with anyone in a while.
A little before 6:00 p.m. it was time to go to dinner. The guys were meeting us there, so the rest of us climbed into the van and headed to the restaurant.
We ate dinner at a place called Las Palmas. It was a pretty nice restaurant not far from the hotel. They had set up this nice long table for us in the front room. Right after we got there, John told me I had to take my camera and go to the roof. So Will offered to lead me up there. John was right. The view was spectacular. You could see two of the active volcanoes that are near Antigua and part of a church we'd walked by earlier that day.
I took lots of pictures, and at one point, one of the volcanoes started puffing smoke, which was pretty awesome to see. After taking all the pictures, we headed back downstairs to eat dinner.
For dinner, we had our choice between four entrees. I got the chicken, but I could have had steak, fish, or a vegetarian fajita instead. After ordering, we talked. Food eventually arrived and we ate, all exclaiming about how good it tasted.
After we'd finished dinner, John got up and said a few things to Brandi and Daniel, thanking them for letting us serve with them and mentioning that Summit had a gift for them. I also insisted on getting a picture of them with their family.
After that, it was pretty much time to leave. So we gathered up our things and headed toward the exit. Only, we could quite leave because the computer system was having trouble processing Alex's payment. So we wound up sitting around for a while talking some more. Eventually the payment went through and we could head back to the hotel.
The evening wasn't over yet though. Once we got back to the hotel, John wanted to have a debriefing with all the adults. So everyone dropped off their stuff (and children) and headed out to the outdoor living room. It was a little chilly, so we asked a hotel staff member to start a fire, then we started talking.
John asked us all to answer two questions: What was the most surprising thing about God that we'd seen this trip and what was something we wanted to see God continue working on in our lives when we got back home. We all took turns answering. Some people were more comfortable talking in front of the group than others, but eventually we all shared our thoughts. It ended up being a nice time of connection with the group and a good way to end the trip.
After all that sharing, it was finally time to go to bed.
The drive to Antigua was pretty uneventful. The first half was quiet cause all the kids were asleep and half the adults were too. Things didn't really pick up until we got to Sarita's for breakfast.
After eating breakfast at Sarita's, we got back on the road to Antigua. After breakfast everyone was a lot more awake, including the kids. The rest of the drive was a bit more lively because of this. I'm not sure what we talked about, but there were plenty of conversations and Will kept telling jokes. Bad, bad jokes. He eventually discovered that Stacy liked grammar jokes so he looked up several that she and I both enjoyed.
We finally arrived in Antigua at about 11:00 a.m. After we got to the hotel, Stacy and Alex got everyone signed in and we figured out what rooms we were in. Jillian and I wound up in Room 3 by ourselves. We were also the only ones in that hallway, so we were kind of away from everyone else, but not too far, since everyone else's rooms were just down the next hallway.
After finding out our room numbers, we went back outside to find our bags. While traveling to Antigua, all of our bags had been tied to the top of the van. While Jillian and I had been checking out our room, the guys had gotten the bags down. When we got back to the pile of bags, mine was there and Jillian's wasn't.
To her credit, she recognized the joke as soon as it happened. It was only at my insistence that Jillian asked about the bag, allowing the guys to get the full effect of the joke on both of us. They got a kick out of fooling both of us into thinking that Jillian's bag had fallen off the van, but really it wasn't that surprising that they'd done it. It was only to be expected after a week of teasing Jillian.
We were told we were going to have an hour at the hotel, but that turned into about 30 minutes. Because we thought we had more time, Jillian took a shower, but just after she got out, it was time to leave.
While Jillian took the aforementioned shower, I went out and took some pictures of the hotel. It's probably one of the nicest places I've ever stayed. It reminded me a bit of an Italian house/village with the way it was colored and the décor. During my walk, I came across Hugh and Heather also taking pictures. Then Hugh found the hammocks and and he and Heather settled in to enjoy them for a while. Before they could properly enjoy the hammocks, though, it was time to leave again.
We left the hotel at noon to go to the marcado (the market) and do some shopping. Everyone left together, but when we got close to the marcado, we split into two groups. The guys went to a restaurant to watch the soccer game, while us girls, the McIntyres, and Nancy headed toward the marcado.
Before we could go to the marcado, we had to make a stop at McDonald's because the kids needed food. The McDonald's we went to was probably the nicest Mickey D's I've ever been at. The interior was pretty typical, but outside they had this awesome courtyard that had really nice seating around the edges and a big fountain in the center. Heather, Jillian, and I had fun sitting out there and relaxing for a bit before our shopping excusion.
We finished eating just about the time Stacy came looking for us. She said that Daniel and Alex were going to stay with the kids while us girls (including Brandi and Nancy) got started at the marcado. We all agreed and headed out.
The walk to the marcado was short so soon we got to start shopping. Even if I tried, I'm not sure I could really describe the marcado. It apparently had a number of sections and I only saw one, the Artisan section.
When we got to the Artisan section, Stacy and Heather and I split off from Nancy, Jillian, and Brandi so we could cover more ground. We started on the exterior of the market and both Heather and I found a number of things pretty quickly. Eventually though, we moved to the interior of the market, which consisted of several connected courtyards with stalls stationed all around the exterior wall.
We shopped for something like 3 hours. My legs only lasted for about 2 ½ of those hours. Eventually, after I had gifts for my family bought, along with a few things for myself, I found a bench and waited for everyone else to finish. They eventually did around 4:00 and it was time to head back to the hotel.
To get back to the hotel, we decided to get tuk-tuks. A tuk-tuk is a little three-wheeled car that can only hold about three people and drives really fast over the cobbled roads. Jillian, Heather, and I wound up in one together. I got the middle while they both sat on the outside, hanging on for dear life in fear that they would tumble out of the shower-curtain door. I thought it was a lot of fun.
Back at the hotel, Heather went and grabbed her stuff and brought it over to our room. Originally she was going to room with Nancy, but some some stuff happened to change that and she wound up coming to stay in the room with Jillian and I.
Back at the room, us girls just hung out and talked while we waited to leave for dinner. It was nice just chatting with Heather and Jillian. We all got to know each other better and I feel like we really connected on a deeper level than I have with anyone in a while.
A little before 6:00 p.m. it was time to go to dinner. The guys were meeting us there, so the rest of us climbed into the van and headed to the restaurant.
We ate dinner at a place called Las Palmas. It was a pretty nice restaurant not far from the hotel. They had set up this nice long table for us in the front room. Right after we got there, John told me I had to take my camera and go to the roof. So Will offered to lead me up there. John was right. The view was spectacular. You could see two of the active volcanoes that are near Antigua and part of a church we'd walked by earlier that day.
I took lots of pictures, and at one point, one of the volcanoes started puffing smoke, which was pretty awesome to see. After taking all the pictures, we headed back downstairs to eat dinner.
For dinner, we had our choice between four entrees. I got the chicken, but I could have had steak, fish, or a vegetarian fajita instead. After ordering, we talked. Food eventually arrived and we ate, all exclaiming about how good it tasted.
After we'd finished dinner, John got up and said a few things to Brandi and Daniel, thanking them for letting us serve with them and mentioning that Summit had a gift for them. I also insisted on getting a picture of them with their family.
After that, it was pretty much time to leave. So we gathered up our things and headed toward the exit. Only, we could quite leave because the computer system was having trouble processing Alex's payment. So we wound up sitting around for a while talking some more. Eventually the payment went through and we could head back to the hotel.
The evening wasn't over yet though. Once we got back to the hotel, John wanted to have a debriefing with all the adults. So everyone dropped off their stuff (and children) and headed out to the outdoor living room. It was a little chilly, so we asked a hotel staff member to start a fire, then we started talking.
John asked us all to answer two questions: What was the most surprising thing about God that we'd seen this trip and what was something we wanted to see God continue working on in our lives when we got back home. We all took turns answering. Some people were more comfortable talking in front of the group than others, but eventually we all shared our thoughts. It ended up being a nice time of connection with the group and a good way to end the trip.
After all that sharing, it was finally time to go to bed.
June 18, 2014: Wednesday - Coming Home
The day we left Guatemala I almost slept late. Instead of waking up at 4:00-something their time, I woke up at 5:30ish. Then I went back to sleep and got up at about 6:30 (I think).
After I finished getting ready, Jillian and I went in search of Heather (who'd left the room earlier). We found her in the breakfast room having ordered breakfast already. We joined her and not long after, Hugh joined us as well. We got to talking about the trip and the conversations from the previous night.
Eventually it was time to head back to the rooms and finishing getting ready to go. We gathered all of our stuff together and headed out to the front of the hotel. The guys loaded up all the bags. While they did that I took some photos for people. Once all of the luggage was loaded we had to go in search of a good place to take a group photo cause we couldn't leave until we had.
We finally found a nice spot in the under a trellis that had leafy vines growing over it, so I turned my camera to full auto and handed it to Daniel so he could get the photo. He, being him, got a little camera happy and took a bunch of photos of us getting into position for the official photo. He also decided to pretend to be a paparazzo and took funny-angled pictures of Stacy. Eventually we did get a decent picture.
Once the pictures were taken it was time to drive to the airport.
The drive was subdued. We all talked and joked, but I think everyone was tired and a little sad to be leaving. It had been a great week and it's always hard to leave those behind.
We pulled up to the airport and Daniel and Hugh quickly pulled all our bags down. Then it was time for the goodbyes. After saying goodbye to Brandi, Daniel, Nancy, and the kids, (which wasn't fun at all), we all headed into the airport to check in for our flight.
Check in took a while since there was this big group in front of us and at first only one person was checking people in at the United counter. Eventually we got through the line, but we also found out that our flight had been delayed (deja vu anyone?). We weren't thrilled about this, but since our layover in Houston was supposed to be longer, we thought we'd be okay.
After check in, we headed through several security checkpoints before finally getting to our gate and sat there for a while. Eventually a woman started speaking over the PA and announced that our flight had been delayed again. At this point, we all knew we'd be in trouble and were probably going to miss our connection. No one was particularly happy, but we chose to hope that we might make it again.
Finally, an hour and 45 minutes after we were supposed to leave, we flew out of Guatemala City. The flight itself, like all the others, was uneventful. The same cannot be said about the trip through Houston.
After taking 20 minutes to get off the plane, we hurried to immigration/customs and had to get into a huge line to get our passports scanned. After getting that done we all ran down to baggage claim so we could get our bags and go through customs. John and Will were ahead of us at this point, so they got there first and Will wound up talking to a United person. He found out that all of us had already been bumped to new flights since there was no way to make our original flight. Hugh and Alex had been put on one that was leaving at 7:00 p.m. while everyone else had been bumped to one that didn't leave until the next morning. We really weren't happy about this, but we weren't sure anything could be done. John and Will decided to grab their bags and try to get through the last customs cehckpoint and security as fast as possible and see if they could get anything done for us.
The rest of us followed a few minutes later (maybe 10 or 20). After we got our bags checked again, we wound up having to stand in one line to wait to get moved to another line to go through security. We stood there for a at least ten minutes before going up the stairs and standing in the security line for another 20 minutes. When we got to the second line, we could still see Will, John, and Hugh in line ahead of us.
They eventually got through and so did we about 20 minutes behind them. We hoped they were on their way to the gate to see what they could do to get us on a plane that night. After we got through security, we hopped on the train to get to the other terminal (it was back in the same terminal we'd flown into when coming from St. Louis a week earlier).
We finally made it to our gate about an hour and 40 minutes after we deplaned. Our original flight had long since left, but we found out that all the other flights had been delayed, so there was a chance of some of us still getting home that night.
We got to the gate to find John and Will talking to a United person about what our options were. She did some computer magic and said she would help us as much as possible. Hugh decided to keep his flight, as did Alex. Thanks to some work by the United person, Dominic and Stacy also got on the flight with Alex, in the same row even. We all cheered for that because we all wanted them to be able to get home together.
After that, the United person managed to find another seat and Jillian received that ticket. That was good because her parents were leaving the next day and if she didn't get home that night, she'd miss seeing them.
There weren't any seats left, so the rest of us were put on standby for the flight that everyone else was on. We had Heather go first, then me, then Will, then John. Once that was done, we just had to wait and see.
We all took seats at the gate and sort of relaxed. Will and John came up with a plan for the evening for those, if any, who did not make the flight that night. Whomever didn't make it on the plane would go out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant John and Will knew and then go to the hotel. Then they'd wake up super early so they could get to the airport in time to successfully navigate the security. Heather and I agreed to the plan.
Finally it was time to board. We all said goodbye to everyone who was on the flight as they boarded. Then we waited. After everyone was boarded there was a final boarding call. Then it was time for standby passengers. There were three seats open. So Heather, me, and Will had seats. But Will decided that he wanted to stay with his dad instead. So Heather and I boarded the plane and John and Will stayed behind to come home the next morning.
The rest of the trip wasn't too spectacular or interesting. Although, we did get stuck on the tarmac for a bit because we somehow got in early and there were a lot of flights for some reason. Eventually we deplaned, met up with family, and grabbed our bags.
Finally, at 10:15 that night, we all said our goodbyes and headed to our own homes. Our mission trip to Guatemala was finally over.
After I finished getting ready, Jillian and I went in search of Heather (who'd left the room earlier). We found her in the breakfast room having ordered breakfast already. We joined her and not long after, Hugh joined us as well. We got to talking about the trip and the conversations from the previous night.
Eventually it was time to head back to the rooms and finishing getting ready to go. We gathered all of our stuff together and headed out to the front of the hotel. The guys loaded up all the bags. While they did that I took some photos for people. Once all of the luggage was loaded we had to go in search of a good place to take a group photo cause we couldn't leave until we had.
We finally found a nice spot in the under a trellis that had leafy vines growing over it, so I turned my camera to full auto and handed it to Daniel so he could get the photo. He, being him, got a little camera happy and took a bunch of photos of us getting into position for the official photo. He also decided to pretend to be a paparazzo and took funny-angled pictures of Stacy. Eventually we did get a decent picture.
Once the pictures were taken it was time to drive to the airport.
The drive was subdued. We all talked and joked, but I think everyone was tired and a little sad to be leaving. It had been a great week and it's always hard to leave those behind.
We pulled up to the airport and Daniel and Hugh quickly pulled all our bags down. Then it was time for the goodbyes. After saying goodbye to Brandi, Daniel, Nancy, and the kids, (which wasn't fun at all), we all headed into the airport to check in for our flight.
Check in took a while since there was this big group in front of us and at first only one person was checking people in at the United counter. Eventually we got through the line, but we also found out that our flight had been delayed (deja vu anyone?). We weren't thrilled about this, but since our layover in Houston was supposed to be longer, we thought we'd be okay.
After check in, we headed through several security checkpoints before finally getting to our gate and sat there for a while. Eventually a woman started speaking over the PA and announced that our flight had been delayed again. At this point, we all knew we'd be in trouble and were probably going to miss our connection. No one was particularly happy, but we chose to hope that we might make it again.
Finally, an hour and 45 minutes after we were supposed to leave, we flew out of Guatemala City. The flight itself, like all the others, was uneventful. The same cannot be said about the trip through Houston.
After taking 20 minutes to get off the plane, we hurried to immigration/customs and had to get into a huge line to get our passports scanned. After getting that done we all ran down to baggage claim so we could get our bags and go through customs. John and Will were ahead of us at this point, so they got there first and Will wound up talking to a United person. He found out that all of us had already been bumped to new flights since there was no way to make our original flight. Hugh and Alex had been put on one that was leaving at 7:00 p.m. while everyone else had been bumped to one that didn't leave until the next morning. We really weren't happy about this, but we weren't sure anything could be done. John and Will decided to grab their bags and try to get through the last customs cehckpoint and security as fast as possible and see if they could get anything done for us.
The rest of us followed a few minutes later (maybe 10 or 20). After we got our bags checked again, we wound up having to stand in one line to wait to get moved to another line to go through security. We stood there for a at least ten minutes before going up the stairs and standing in the security line for another 20 minutes. When we got to the second line, we could still see Will, John, and Hugh in line ahead of us.
They eventually got through and so did we about 20 minutes behind them. We hoped they were on their way to the gate to see what they could do to get us on a plane that night. After we got through security, we hopped on the train to get to the other terminal (it was back in the same terminal we'd flown into when coming from St. Louis a week earlier).
We finally made it to our gate about an hour and 40 minutes after we deplaned. Our original flight had long since left, but we found out that all the other flights had been delayed, so there was a chance of some of us still getting home that night.
We got to the gate to find John and Will talking to a United person about what our options were. She did some computer magic and said she would help us as much as possible. Hugh decided to keep his flight, as did Alex. Thanks to some work by the United person, Dominic and Stacy also got on the flight with Alex, in the same row even. We all cheered for that because we all wanted them to be able to get home together.
After that, the United person managed to find another seat and Jillian received that ticket. That was good because her parents were leaving the next day and if she didn't get home that night, she'd miss seeing them.
There weren't any seats left, so the rest of us were put on standby for the flight that everyone else was on. We had Heather go first, then me, then Will, then John. Once that was done, we just had to wait and see.
We all took seats at the gate and sort of relaxed. Will and John came up with a plan for the evening for those, if any, who did not make the flight that night. Whomever didn't make it on the plane would go out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant John and Will knew and then go to the hotel. Then they'd wake up super early so they could get to the airport in time to successfully navigate the security. Heather and I agreed to the plan.
Finally it was time to board. We all said goodbye to everyone who was on the flight as they boarded. Then we waited. After everyone was boarded there was a final boarding call. Then it was time for standby passengers. There were three seats open. So Heather, me, and Will had seats. But Will decided that he wanted to stay with his dad instead. So Heather and I boarded the plane and John and Will stayed behind to come home the next morning.
The rest of the trip wasn't too spectacular or interesting. Although, we did get stuck on the tarmac for a bit because we somehow got in early and there were a lot of flights for some reason. Eventually we deplaned, met up with family, and grabbed our bags.
Finally, at 10:15 that night, we all said our goodbyes and headed to our own homes. Our mission trip to Guatemala was finally over.
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