By now you may be growing tired of hearing about mission trips to Guatemala, but let me tell you about this one anyway because it was a great one. Five adults and 15 teens from 5 states made the trip to San Juan LaLaguna via a stopover in San Bartolo where we presented our new CBC church there with $2,000 toward their new church building. $2000 to help the orphanage at Casa.
As the evening was coming on, we decided to go to Casa Alalujah, a home for children who have been orphaned or whose parents can no longer afford to care for them. We had to walk about a half mile in the pouring rain to get there but not one of the kids complained as we donned our parkas and headed out. Many of the kids fell in love with the children there and the children loved having someone to play with. We took pictures of them in groups and they loved seeing their pictures. The director of the home and Adam Clemmons, the director of Live it Loud Ministries, the place we stayed, commented on what it said to the people of the home that the group would be willing to walk through the pouring rain to spend time with children that many have forgotten.
We then moved on to San Juan the next day and soon were at work on the New Dawning School, a Christian School that runs from pre-school to 9th grade. We repainted their entire gymnasium with bright colored paint adding to the student’s pride in their school. We also provided $6000 to finish the doors and windows in all the classrooms and the new addition, as well as put down the tile in the addition. Eleven of the teens helped with the English class and had so much fun doing it.
After we had unloaded all of the stoves that were delivered to us and bagged 2000 pounds of groceries, we loaded on a Chicken bus with 4 pickups loaded with food, bibles, toy cars, Spanish gospel tracts, 110 blocks and parts to build 10 cook stoves. It was a long day and part of it was done carrying stove parts in the rain to homes that had very little. Some of the team came back in tears that evening having seen how the people of the mountains lived and how little they really had and how grateful they were for a bag of food and a wood cook stove. It was very tiring but what a blessing!
The next day we loaded up the same way, loading 110 blocks on the truck, 100 bags of food at 20 pounds each. 100 more bibles and the 120 or so pieces needed to build the stoves. This filled 4 pickup trucks and about the time we finished passing out all the food, bibles, and little toy cars to the children that a member of one of the churches had made, we ate our lunch as the heavens opened up and it began to pour down the rain. We spent the next 4 hours carrying blocks and stove parts back mud paths, up and down steep hills to get the stoves to the people and getting them built. By the time we got back on the bus, we were drenched to the skin and very cold but happy to have completed our mission. The people were impressed that we would work so hard in the rain and cold: it was only 66 degrees, to bring them a stove from so far. We told them were just being God’s hands and feet and God made the rain, so it was no problem.
The next day we did a game day for the children at the school. We face painted and played all sorts of games then grilled hotdogs with chips, cookies, and a drink.
Everyone enjoyed a lot of laughter and fun, and it was a day the principal told us the kids had been looking forward to for a while. We had lots of smiles and hugs and a day filled with blessings. Francisco, the principal, thanked us for all that we had done for the school and hoped we would come again. The whole group agreed that would be a good thing. We finished up our last day in Antigua, a beautiful old city filled with history, where we spent time thanking God for all we had seen and done. We shopped a little too. All in all, it was a great time to remember what God had done and how He had used us to touch lives for His Glory.
Submitted by Craig Howard – Publications Committee
