Thur 4 - 10 

 After only a one hour delay at Anchorage airport, we were off! During the delay, the team decided to spend some time worshiping God in the airport! One team member suffered from a little motion sickness on the trip to Houston, but after prayer by her fellow team members and a good rest in Houston, she is dong fine now. Praise the Lord, Brandon and Daniel made their connections flawlessly in Houston. At one point, we were a little concerned about Daniel because his connection time was pretty short and his connecting flight was listed as very late. Suddenly, the time listed on the marquee changed to ON TIME. We walked fast and made it with a good five minutes to spare.

The team enjoyed the time in Houston by praying for each other and some innocent bystanders. We shared a devotion time and ate meals. The prayer power in these team members is incredible.

It’s good to be safe and sound now in Guatemala City. Tonight’s worship and prayer time was so good, these students are so on fire for God and Pamela, our missionary here is already amazed and very expectant of the Holy Spirit’s work. Pray for a good travel day Friday  to San Pedro and that the team gets rest.

 Fri 4 - 11

Hello from San Pedro. Our day on the road was very good, and we had a great night in our motel last night. Everyone was pretty tired after our long journey, so we went to bed before midnight.

When we arrived, most of our team started meeting the local people and playing with the children. One small group was able to immediately visit in the home of an injured woman to pray for her and her family. It was a blessing to see our students so desiring to pray! We led this woman in prayers to deliver from fear of many things.

We then enjoyed dinner with the teachers from Colegio Bethel.

Sat 4-12

Today we spent learning how to build the stoves for our main project and meeting the families we will be building stoves for. This is an amazing project and will reap fruit for God´s kingdom in so many ways. I am more impressed and thankful for this group of students than any I believe I have ever worked with. I do not have to ever ask them to pray because they pray constantly, about everything. And praise God everyone is healthy and happy.

Please pray about church tomorrow, where the team will be singning and Pat will be preaching. And pray for the team as we visit in the homes of people in the community for the sole purpose of praying with and blessing them. We are expecting great things!

In Christ, Pat and the Team

Sunday 4 - 13

Thank you Lord for a beautiful day and a wonderful group of adults and teenagers to work with. We enjoyed a very powerful worship service Saturday night that went on and on. The Lord is so good and powerful in our midst.

Sunday afternoon, we broke up into small groups to make family prayer visits to homes in San Pedro. The families are chosen through the Christian School or the church. All of them had unique needs for prayer. In one home, the students reported that two people had been healed of pain they had experienced for years. In another home, the Holy Spirit came to comfort a family who had recently lost a loved one. In another, prayers of repentance for fear and anxiety were spoken and the relief was immediate and obvious. By the time church service started on Sunday night, our group was tired, but very thankful.

In Church, the group sang two songs with such heart-felt singing that Pastor Emil asked us to teach some of our songs to the children in the Christian School next week. It was an honor for me that I was asked to preach and I spoke on the subject of "Knowing Your Identity in Christ." At the end of the message, I was able to lead the congregation in prayers of repentance for self-bitterness and self condemnation. The whole evening truly felt like the Holy Spirit was present in power.

We enjoyed a pizza dinner at Mike’s Pizza after church. So far, we have needed to order more food almost everywhere, partly because everyone is healthy, and partly because these guys can eat!

We were exhausted on return to motel and everyone crashed early. Pray for our day tomorrow as we meet with families who will be receiving stoves, and will be tested on our ability to build the stoves by Helps international. Also pray for our continued health.

God bless you In Christ, Pat and the Team

Monday  4-14

Hello everyone.

For most of the team, the day was spent working with the stove projects. In the morning, we went to the homes of the families who will be receiving stoves so we could evaluate the plan for installation. Many of the homes have roofs that are literally five feet high, and many have dirt floors. These are the poorest of the poor families in a very poor community, and was humbling and special to visit them in their homes. In a couple of homes, our tallest team members had to stoop over for the entire inspection.

After lunch, we had an examination by the representative from HELPS International, to make sure we knew how to build and install the stoves correctly. It sounds easy, but these stoves are actually complex and doing it right is very important for safety reasons. The folks in the homes also have to be able to assemble and dissemble the stoves (Which all together includes 11 concrete blocks and about 150 pounds of other equipment). The good news is that we passed the test with flying colors! Our team is so into this project, they really wanted to make sure they knew everything and will do a great job. I am very proud of them!

After dinner, we enjoyed a very powerful time of worship on the roof of the motel. The weather has been strange: a bit on the cool and windy side, and last night it was very windy on the roof, but this is where the kids wanted to worship, so we took our coats and praised the Lord. A young man from San Pedro, one of the students at Colegio joined us for worship. After an excellent devotion time by Noela several of us gathered to pray with the young man who was having problems in his family and within himself. To make a long story short, he forgave himself for the sins of his past (this was difficult for him) and felt instant relief from the Holy Spirit. Then, he forgave his father for many things (which was even more difficult, because bitterness had a tight grasp on him). What an amazing moment of grace as the Holy Spirit began to speak to him and through him as he forgave his dad! Thank you Lord for being so faithful! It was such a beautiful moment as our own kids gathered around this young mane to pray for and encourage him. Mike Stuart received a word from the Lord from Isaiah 55 that was as good and on target as any sermon I have every heard! Joel and Matt and Noela are also doing a great job of leading us in worship.

Thank God, we are in good health. We have had a couple of mild upset stomachs, but all in all, we're good! Tomorrow, we will begin installing stoves.

Thankful in Him, Pat and the Team

 Tuesday 4 -15

Hello to Alaska!  Today  was a very exciting, busy and productive day. At 6:00 am, Josh, Kody, Greg and Matthew M. left to go up into the mountains and cut firewood using the local tools: Machete’s and Rope. The wood is tied up in 100 pound bundles and carried on the back.

While they were cutting wood, we were divided into five teams to begin installation of stoves in the homes. All the team members expressed at dinner their joy in this ministry. The families were so grateful to be blessed by God, as our team members blessed them with much more than a new stove. We also installed water filters and then delivered the firewood cut earlier in the morning to their homes. They were so blessed! All of the delivery had to be done the old fashioned way. One house was very difficult to get to, through back roads, and paths, and over rocks and through coffee fields. Imagine delivering 50 and 100 pound stove pieces by hand! Although everyone was exhausted, there were no complaints! Only joy at being able to serve. Thank you parents and thank you Lord for this group of kids.

While the stoves were being installed and the other guys were cutting wood, Bethany and Kylee worked with some local ladies making tortillas. These tortillas were delivered to the homes with new stoves. Remember, these are the poorest people in a very poor community. They were so blessed. Thank you HELPS international for making this project possible and thank you Project Fe for allowing us to be involved in this work.

There are many other things going on . I worked most of the day with an interpreter teaching in the school, and tomorrow I will be leading conferences with the teachers while Bobby, Penny Lyn, Brandon, Sarah and Rosa lead the work teams.

I am so thankful that our health situation continues to be good! Lord please keep it up. The team was tired tonight, so most of us were in bed by 9:30 p.m.

Blessings to all, Pat

 Wed 4-16

Greetings from sunny and warm Guatemala...finally! The sun came out today and the wind died down and it got hot. I think we went through twice the water today. It's good to know the teams are drinking.

The teams (I say teams because we are divided into five stove crews) worked hard building stoves and blessing families in the name of Jesus today. Some had difficult obstacles to overcome in construction regarding holes in roofs, stove locations and every now and then an important missing piece. Prayer is usually the first step in overcoming these obstacles. It is a joy to see your kids walking around San Pedro in their blue Project Fe T Shirts, carrying concrete blocks and stove pipes. The whole town seems to know what’s going on with the blue-shirt people and that they are here to bless! I cannot begin to express the impact of this project on us all.

The only health issues have been mild...sunburn, headaches, small stomach aches...so please pray that even those would go away and the Lord would continue to bless our health.

While stoves were being built and installed today, Zachary, Daniel Poll, Nathan, and Matt Stinson were up in the mountains cutting wood. Yesterday, it was suggested that the boys "take it easy" on the amount of wood cut because the loads are very heavy. The guys resounded a hearty "No! That means less wood for the people!" This afternoon, Alicia and Samantha made tortillas. This is no easy job, for the stoves and rooms where they make these are hot, making it a hot, difficult job. All the goods were delivered to the families and our kids were blessed! At dinner, the conversation always seems to be about how great our God is and what a joy it is to serve here. God is not only working through these kids but in them as well as Miah testified to in his devotion tonight.

This afternoon, I was able to meet with all the teachers at the Christian school for a teaching and encouragement session. I thank God for this opportunity.

After dinner, a few of the teachers brought in some things that they sell to supplement their income, so our group was able to purchase some "cool local stuff." A couple of kids bought some bongo drums so they could play during our times of worship.

Blessings to all. I look forward to lots more good things to tell you!

4-18 Friday morning 

 I cannot stop bragging about these kids. And I cannot stop bragging about what God continues to do though them and in them (and me!). To see them laying hands on the local people to pray for any need, and see the Holy Spirit respond to their prayers by bringing joy and truth to the people is a testimony! At the same time, many people are learning how and actually practicing prayers of confession of sin and forgiveness of those who have hurt them.

Yesterday was a beautiful but hot day. We completed our stove projects and it was such a great honor to be present for blessing poor families with stoves, food, Bibles, water filters and all with the love of Christ. Miah, Daniel, M., Mike and Joel cut wood in the mountains this morning, then delivered the wood and helped with afternoon stoves. Noel and Kali made tortillas.

Last night, there was a basketball game with the kids from the school. After all that work, our guys went out and played basketball for two hours. Pray for Daniel M, who over exerted somewhat and was down sick last night. He is feeling better today, but very drained of energy. We were all so exhausted last night...

This morning was a beautiful morning spent with the students from the school and the families that received stoves. The children put on skits and performed music, and then the families who received stoves came forward to thank us. They were crying and so were we. They all asked that "God would reward us in the future." I cannot imagine any better reward than their smiling faces and thank yous. It was such a morning of grace.

At this moment, the kids are getting ready to run a carnival for the children this afternoon. They are making posters, filling water balloons, setting up booths. A couple of others are helping the local medical doctor unload and organize the medical supplies we brought with us. Tonight, we will gather for a very special hand made Guatemalan "thank you" dinner. It’s amazing to me that we will celebrate this dinner on the night of Passover!

After what I’m sure will be a late night, we will load the boat tomorrow at 7:30m for Panajachel, spend the morning there shopping and resting, then board the bus for Guatemala City. We will stop at an orphanage / girls home and have dinner, then sleep at the Hostel. We then board the plane for home! I really think this trip was so fast! The kids are such a blessing and so blessed and although they miss families and comfortable beds and clean water, no one wants to go home. Pray that the fire of the Spirit they have experienced in service will continue and grow the rest of their lives.

I will do by best to email from Guatemala City.

This just in...The woman we prayed for when we arrived last Saturday was at our hotel, without her back brace, thanking God that she has been healed!

In Christ, Pat and the Team

Sat 4-19

We are in Gautemala City and had a great night's sleep last night. Several team members have experienced some sickness the last twenty four hours, but I believe they will be feeling better this morning. Pray for them: Sarah, Matt Stinson, Samantha, Kali , Pamela and Penny Lyn.

Everyone was sad to leave, but this was definitely a life changing trip for this team. We experienced some amazing things. I cannot tell you how proud I am of this group of quality young men and woman. You should be very proud of them. They are remarkable in maturity and spiritual desire, and love for people.

Pray for our travel day, especially the connection in Houston. We have a little more than an hour to pick up our luggage (now in the totes), go through US Customs, re-check our luggage, and run to our gate. Other than that, I expect lots of rest.

Our scheduled arrival in Seattle is Continental Flight 667 at 11:23pm. This will be at the North terminal.

Signing off...

Pat and the Team