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March/April '07 Heritage Youth Team Updates
as of: 4/6/2007
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03/29/2007: Hello wonderful families and friends. It is midnight guate time and we made it safe and sound to the hotel in Guatemala City. Everyone did fine with the long trip. We were delayed about one hour out of Houston. Other than that...no problems! We had a time of worship and devotion in the Houston airport, and just finished up our bedtime devotion. Tomorrrow we head to San Pedro, so pray for a safe road trip. We are bushed! In Christ, Pat and the Team
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| 3/30/2007:
Hello families and friends. Arrived in San Pedro today after a long time of traveling. We met with the students of Colegio Bethel tonight and were fed a wonderful dinner of hot dogs and beans! We played games to begin to build relationships with the students. Tomorrow, we will hike a volcano...among other things. Time is short tonight on the internet so I must go. No sickness amoung us, praise God and our feet are getting better. God bless you all. Pat & the Team
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| 4/2/2007:
Hola friends and family. Sorry we missed email yesterday, but we had some sickness in our group...starting with me. We took all precautions and then some, but still a couple of us are down with the stomach bug. Thank God for the antibiotics and thank God for working to heal our bodies. All who were sick are feeling better and resting. These are: Pat, Alisa Marie, Brandon, and Rosa. We should be back at full strength by tomorrow. Nothing to worry about, but please continue to pray for our health.
Every one of our students is paired up with one of the teenage students from here for the week. Saturday, we met our comanions from the Christian School and spent most of the day building relationships with them while we hiked up the San Pedro Volcanoe. These kids are in great shape, because it was a very difficult hike. Our two girls with the feet issues worked in town with their companions. We enjoyed a hot dog dinner that night with our companions.
Sunday, we spent the morning learning more about the mission here. In the afternoon, we did home visits, which were beautiful and impactful on out team. It is so moving to see our kids relating to families here and praying for their needs. These people have so little, and none of their prayers are for ¨more,¨ except in the spiritual realm. We attended the Bethel Church last night for a great service of praise and worship. Our kids sang a song for the church, led by Steve and Liz. Afterward, we went out for pizza and crashed early.
Today has been amazing. We joined the students early this morning for morning devotions and I watched several of our students visibly moved by the power with which these Guatemalan students worship. We then broke into groups and worked for 3 hours cleaning up the streets of San Pedro. This afternoon, we are working on building the old folks home behind the school. Tonight we will meet with Pastor Emilio and his wife Esther to learn about the Mayan Culture in San Pedro. This is such a wonderful education!
God bless you all, and Lord willing, I will email again tomorrow. Love in Christ, Pat and the Team
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| 4/3/2007:
Hola Family and Friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers for our health. All who were ill are fully recovered and back to work today. Dan Davis became ill last night and is resting today. I expect him to be back with us tonight.
There are some really great things happening today. Our adult women are painting a large mural in a children´s playground. Our team is working side by side with the local people in several tasks. Jason and Daniel M. are up in the mountains cutting firewood. Alisa Marie is making tortillas to deliver to a needy family in about one hour. Caleah is shucking corn by hand. Sarah is washing clothes by hand in the lake. Others are building the old folks home. Everyone is doing great work. I am especially impressed by the manual labor skills of our girls! They are working like crazy!
Last night, we experienced a very interesting presentation on the culture of this village and the Mayan people of the region of Guatelamal. We learned the Mayan numeral system and did some math problems in Mayan. In the middle of the presentation, a bat flew into the room and gave us some fun.
All in all, we are learning, growing, helping, and falling in love with the people of this interesting village. Things in San Pedro are changing rapidly, and the cultural experience is so unique that it makes your head spin. I am sitting in an internet cafe...next to me is a man speaking on his cell phone in French. Outside are dogs, garbage, and incredible poverty. The contrasts are astounding. I thank God for this opportunity to bring this amazing group of people here. God is changing us all by opening our eyes to the work of His Spirit here. God bless you all, Pat and the Team
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| 4/5/2007:
Hola Families and Friends.
We had a big rainstorm last night and internet was down. It is not supposed to be the rainy season yet, but it has rained almost every night since we´ve been here. Last night was a deluge, complete with beautiful lightning and streets and alleys turned into small rivers for awhile. Unfortunately, the rain has affected our evening time with the students from San Pedro. Last night, we were supposed to have a campfire...instead, we gathered on the covered roof of the school with our companions for a time of worship and teaching from a local youth pastor.
Our work during the day has been hot(!) but the team is fairing well and working very hard on the old folks home. You should see Marie and Matthew mixing cement by hand, while Bobby, Steve and Alisa Marie lay block, and Kyleen and Daniel build and pore concrete forms, and Susan bends rebar. The fact that every inch of work we do is for the kingdom is so wonderful. Others are working at differenrt stations. Yesterday, Matthew and Jordan cut wood in the mountains; today, Steve and Brandon are doing the cutting. We will deliver this wood to needy families tomorrow.
Speaking of needy families, our kids have had some life changing experiences delivering tortillas and visiting with the poor of San Pedro. Really, even the well-off here are poor by our standards, but we have been visiting with the poor of the poor. Your kids will have great testimonies to share when they get home. They are becoming more thankful for the simple things in life. We have also had some spirit led and moving times of worship and devotion. Jenny´s devotion last night had us all in tears. Two night ago, we had a time of prayer for her foot, and some others who were feeling puny, and the next day, all the swelling in her foot was gone. Praise God!
This afternoon, we will be putting on a carnival for the small children at the school. The whole carnival is planned and led by your kids, with the great organizational help of Jason Schlegel, who really felt like God wanted him to take on this task.
Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. The team is tired, physically and emotionally, but our health is good. Aside from a few sunburns and sore muscles, all sickness is gone...thank you Lord. God bless you all, Pat and the Team
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| 4/6/2007:
Today was a beautiful day in San Pedro. Our team joined in finishing many work projects. This morning, the students of the Christian School here put on a wonderful presentation for us, by age, thanking us for coming here. There were many tears and the Spirit of God was strong among us as we realized that God had indeed touched us as much as our brothers and sister in San Pedro on this trip.
This afternoon, our girls finished painting a beautiful mural on the wall of the playground, and our boys delivered the firewood they cut earlier this week. They delivered it to very poor families or widows. One widow could not stop praising God for the wood, for she ran out today, and had prayed that God would help her, not knowing how she would cook her tortillas. She lived in two tiny rooms with no electricity, and literally the most ¨¨advanced thing in her life was a tiny wood stove. When Matthew and Jordan arrived with the wood, she knew God had answered her prayers by moving these boys to be there at just this moment. The boys, and everyone else involved in this ministry were so moved...it was beautiful.
Tonight, we had a special dinner and ceremony put on by the people of Colegio Bethel and there were many tears, thank you´s and glory´s to God expressed. I was very proud of all our young men and women, as they expressed their thanks to God for their special friendships.
Tomorrow, we leave San Pedro by boat, spend a few hours in Panahachel, travel to San Cristobal by bus to visit an orphanage, and it´s back to the motel in Guatemala City. Please pray for our travel, and a spirit led experience at the orphanage.
See you soon, Pat and the Team
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| 4/7/2007:
Wow. What a day and what a great trip we had. It was a long travel day today that included a tearful, heartfelt goodbye to our San Pedro families, boat, loud, crowded shopping, eating, bus, more shopping, a beautiful visit at the orphanage, and a final Guatemalan stop for the night before we head back to Anchorage tomorrow morning. Please pray for a safe and expiditious trip...God has been so obviously with us the whole way, and has really taught us more about prayer and reliance upon Him for everything. It was an incredible blessing for all of us today when I handed the orphanage the collection we took up among oursleves, which totaled over $1000 U.S. Praise God for moving in our kids to give.
When they arrive home, they will have some amazing stories to tell. I pray that God will not let the fire within us for Him and His kingdom to die, but that our reliance upon Him will produce fruit, in our lives like love, joy, peace, and fruit in the world as other come to know the power of Jesus through us.
See you tomorrow! Pat dna the Team |
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