We're HOME!!!

Hey gang- Great job. We are now home. Once you get used to flushing toliet paper and eating food other than chicken...wash your bag and bring in to the Student Ministries office.

Thanks!!

Airport Reminder

It´s hard to believe that we will be home in two days. Just wanted to remind all parents to be at the aiport to pick up your children. Our Continental Airlines flight from Houston will be arriving in Minneapolis at about 2:15 PM. Hope to see as many of you at baggage claim as possible.

It would also be great to have several families who live closer to church stop by church on your way back home to help unload our team service bags from the truck.

The students are loving R & R. We are at a beautiful hotel. It´s called Tiosh Abaj Hotel y Restaurante. You can see where we are online by visiting http://www.turicentroioshabaj.com. See you Sunday!

A Time To Recharge

The service portion of our 2007 Operation Central America Mission Trip is officially over. This afternoon, after spending some time with some beautiful orphans in Solola, our students traveled to Panajachel for some shopping. Their arms are full of machetes, blankets, t-shirts, purses, paintings, jewelry and more. From there we took a boat across the lake to Santiago, where we are now staying in a beautiful resort. It´s a little bit different than Campur. I love this part of the trip, and it makes me a little bit sad that the trip is ending so soon.

We started our day celebrating Taylor Foster´s birthday with traditional Guatemalan firecrackers and noisemakers.

Here are the entries that our students handwrote yesterday afternoon, on our last day of ministry.

In Him,

Brian Schulenburg

Hi Everyone!

Today is our last day of ministry and I am both relieved and bummed out. So far today we have performed at a school where the afterward the kids asked us for our autographs. It was so cute. After being a part of the mime team for teh past two weeks I have accumulated an amazing tan . . . mime tan . . . on the parts of my face that are not covered in the white paint. It looks ridiculous! I´m really really excited for my seinor pictures when I get back! . . .

Love you,

Christina

>Hi Mim, Dad and friends,

It is Taylor. Today is our last day of service and I am kind of sad. We are supposed to build a stage for the church today and then put in a water filtration system. If we get done with that early we might hang out with the mime or childrens team, that would be fun! I just realized it´s my birthday tomrrow . . . I´m going to be so old. I´m looking forward to the two Red Bulls Sarah bought for me - they are going to be delicious. Hope all is well back home with you guys. I´ll call you tomorrow night so I can talk with you on my birthday.

I love you all!

Love,

Taylor

Hi family,

I want to shower. I miss Tate!!

Cole

Mom,

I love you and I had a fantastic car ride yesterday. I learned how to play a new card game. I suck at it.

Love,

Jeff

p.s. Love you too Kelsey, Tre, Michelle and Dad

San Marcos . . . Continued

It´s our last full day of ministry. Can you believe it? It seems like these ten days have flown by. Our students continue to be encouraged by the way that God is using them. I´m happy to report that as of today, everyone on the team is feeling better. We´ll be leaving San Marcos at 8 AM tomorrow and we´ll drive straight to the orphanage in Solola, where we will spend four hours watching and playing with the children. From there, our students will enjoy a couple days of rest and relaxation in the Lake Atitlan region, and then in Antigua.

There was an area wide power outage in San Marcos this morning that postponed some of our ministry. But, all of that is now running fine. We do have three major prayer requests though. (It´s typical that our enemy would try to distract us on our last day of ministry).

1) Jenn Christel, the adult leader on the Children´s Team may have had her backpack stolen today. We believe that this happened at the second school that the children´s team performed at. Jenn had her wallet (with her id, money, credit cards, etc.), 5 rolls of film, and a Bible that her mother gave her in that backpack. She had taken her camera with her and left the backpack in the van. The van was not locked when the children´s team left. It was probably stolen while they were in the school.

2) The team video camera was also left in that van. It is also missing. This means that all the video that we have taken on this trip is lost.

3) My computer, which the team has been using to update the blog on this trip may have been given a virus. I use internet cafe´s while we are here. I put my jump drive in the computer and post the information from our students and save the comments from parents. Last night at dinner my antivirus software said that it had quarrantined a virus. When I turned the computer on today, it no longer worked. The computer boots up, logs me onto the system, and immediately shuts down. So, that is a bummer, and will make the blogging thing more challenging. Please pray for these issues to be resolved.

Here are the entries that our students wrote at dinner last night. Yesterday was an amazing day, you´ll want to read these! I´m assuming that our next update will be at our hotel tomorrow night or Friday.

In Him,

Brian Schulenburg

Hey Everyone,

Today was an amazing day for the mime team. After we all got back from our homestays (mine was nice, but some other people had weird ones), we went off to several schools, during which we had almost no time between them. We had a great day with three performances, all of which had great responses. At the first school, we had somewhere around one hundred to 125 people, and almost everyone prayed the prayer to accept Christ into their lives, and got sixty-two out of eighty-eight response cards that said it was their first time accepting Christ, even though the power went out near the beginning and we had to restart, it was AMAZING!!!! The second one had even more people, with another amazing response! We had over 250 people from the school watch, and had another amazing response, with well over one hundred first-time commitments to Christ! The last one was the best – we had somewhere around SEVEN HUNDRED students watching us perform the mime. The power went off for about five minutes when we were in the middle of the mime, and we started over once the power came back on since we gained some students. Even with those problems, we had well over 350 students note that they accepted Christ for the first time at that performance! God does work in wonderful ways.

I should better get off now so that some other people can blog. Waiting to see you all again soon.

Matt


Hey mom and dad and nick and marlie!!
I just wanted to give you an update on everything!! So guess what? Allie and I have NOT gotten sick!!!! Im supper thankful! Hopefully I wont jinx it! Im supper excited that joan and dad are going to make me dinner. I need some good food! Haha We went to 4 really fun schools today. Its crazy how fast its going! Tomorrow is our last ministry day. Its crazy. What day are you going to Chicago?? Tell nick good luck!! He will do awesome I know. LOVE YOU TONS!!
Love Lindsay 

Hey mom and dad and mitch and tay!
So I already wrote today but Brian told me he put the picture of me and three little kids up and I thought I would tell you a little bit about the kids. The boys were beaten so bad that they were going to live on the street. The little girl was raped by her dad. She was taken out of her home by the government. Luckily a wonderful woman opened a school which she did so there would be a safe place for the kids living in a dangerous neighborhood. It was such a sad story but you could tell that they now felt loved and I was so happy to contribute to that. They were smiling and laughing and having a great time! Love you guys, I’ll have more stories to tell you when I get home. Still healthy, woohoo!
Allie 



Hi Family,
Wow that’s so exciting they’re moving back! I hope they stay. Guatemala is soooo fun…it’s going so well. I will have MANY stories and pictures for all of you when I get home. So far so good as far as sickness goes….I’m feeling pretty healthy so far! Camille: stop signing things as “nelson.” LOVE YOU.
-Claire 

Hola Madre, Padre y mis amigos!
Yo soy Taylor! How lucky are you guys two messages in one day! Today me and Jeff left the group and drove to put in the water systems! Little did we know it was an hour and a half drive and we were going to be in the back of a pick up! Thank you lord for Dramamine!! We had a ton of fun and at points we were above the clouds it was so beautiful! I took probably more than 20 pictures of the clouds and mountains it was so fun! We were only an hour and a half from Mexico but we didn’t go even though we’re telling everyone we did! I am having so much fun and really taking advantage of this once and a life time opportunity! My home stay is ok I hate the food I almost threw up like 3 times at breakfast but I tried everything! We had steamed milk, with grits in it and some brown stuff plus cereal all in one bowl! Then we had plantains and it was awful to the point where I had to put a dinner roll in my mouth to choke it down! Other than the food I guess it’s ok but I can’t understand my people! I love you all and I’m not sick yay! I hope I can make it through the whole trip without being sick but who knows I’m just glad for making it okay thus far. I love and miss you all so so so much!
With love Taylor


Hey family,
Today was another intense day at the clinic. People had lots of weird diseases and odd problems. Last night Tim Shortreed and I stayed together in the same homestay. It was a little awkward because they only spoke Spanish. Everything is going great here, today was one of the best days in my opinion. Im not sure but I think today might be the day that Greg Gorham is leaving for Tanzania for his missions trip. Everyone should pray for him because his trip is going to be amazing. I’ll see all of you when I get home!
Love,
Trent the Bold


I’m covered in paint!
~Tim

Medical Team BRIEF Update –

Another GREAT clinic day in the city of San Marcos. The Team is doing consistently well with helping to meet the physical and medical needs of the 123 patients that we saw today. The pastor of the church joined us to pray for each patient that we saw, and this was the first time that this happened at one of our clinic sites. The translators continue to help us a lot, but those students who had some Spanish prior to coming are actually getting pretty fluent.

The OCA Team as a whole is staying healthy for the most part – a few illnesses, but nothing a little Zithromax or Cipro can’t take care of when needed. The area of San Marcos is surprisingly cool for June and this close to the equator (dehydration is not an issue). Being at 7,000 feet above sea level has some benefits!

Parents, again your students are doing great and you have every reason to be proud of them. Please continue to pray for everyone and our ability to meet the needs of the people here in as many ways as possible – Mime, Children’s, Service and Medical. God bless!

In Him,
Pete Dehnel


Just another quick update from M Krech
I went to help with the clinic this afternoon. I with the assistance of Tim Fox and a woman leader of the church pre-bagged 160 bags of 30 Tylenol in each bag…it fit my energy level perfect! We had a great steak dinner back as a big group tonight with people we served with and our translators and the OCA team. As the medical team arrived dinner late after all the others were eating everyone clapped for us. I heard the kids say how much they appreciated everyone cheering them on. Today at the clinic, the students continue to find “goodies” in my bags, the highlight today was pink and green splashed scrub jackets, Trent and Trent were quite the fashion statement in San Marcos!! Wendy and Connie you will love the photos! This was the first day where the clinic pace and the region of the city allowed students to rotate walks with Tim Fox to get some sweet treats they didn’t normally get! We have never gotten to leave a clinic before! The kids are great kids and they ease the stress even when we are really busy, they pitch in with out being asked and get the job done!
Today the kids, Doc and I got the cards from Mari and Kristin….thanks girls the kids really liked them! Thanks for the prayers, we love you!
Tomorrow we leave at 7 AM for a one and a half hour drive to a school where we will set up clinic…I am expecting huge needs as we move out of the city area and into the mountain schools.
Thanks so much for all your prayer…keep your prayers coming, it makes all the difference!
I love you Rick! Can’t wait to see you!
Mary



Children Team Update

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day of missions is tomorrow. We have seen hundreds of children already in San Marcos. At one of the schools we visited today there was over 300 children. The team still has much enthusiasm towards their mission. We visited 4 schools today and are planning to visit 4 more tomorrow. Everyone seems to be in good health and is looking forward to a hotel stay. San Marcos is a beautiful area with mountains all around. The clouds begin to cover the mountains in the early afternoon and then it begins to cool off.

The team has the program down really well. Everyone is ready to setup the stage, do their puppet show, sing and dance with the children, etc and then pack up and go to the next school. We have a few of our members that are very animated, some that love to take pictures of the children and all seem to get involved with trying to get to know them.
Today, we had children wanting our autographs.

Thanks parents for your prayer support and allowing your kids to come on this awesome mission trip.

In Him,
Terry Dull

Don´t You Just Love Pictures?

We Love San Marcos!

Hey Everyone,

It´s Brian. Well, the kids at the schools in San Maros think I´m Jack Black from the movie Nacho Libre. They made me sign about 200 autographs today! Even the teachers were asking for autographs.

What a joy it is to be able to minister in the community of San Marcos. Our students are loving it! I was with the Children’s Team this morning, and between the two schools we were at, we must have ministered to over 600 students. God spoke through the program and I would guess that hundreds of students made commitments to Jesus Christ. Several of our group were sick over the past couple of days, but that seems to be getting much better. I was too sick to go to the service last night, so Chris Ericson did the preaching in San Marcos, and did a phenomenal job. It’s great to have such a talented group of leaders on this team. Tomorrow is our last full day of ministry for the 2007 OCA team. They will minister in an orphanage on Thursday. Please pray that we will stay focused and finish strong over the next day and a half. God has used this team to accomplish incredible things for His glory.

In Him,

Brian Schulenburg


Hola mi familia!!! Its Lindsay!
Just wanted to say how much I miss you! We are now in san marcos which is really fun. Our home stay is much different that our last one..(which was in a gated community) haha The views are awesome and its kinda cold. SO MUCH FOR A TAN!!haha Well we only have two service days left its sooo fast! I hope things are going well. Im sad I missed your birthday and fathers day! I will make it up to you! I´m excited to shop it will be awesome!! Right now were in the mountains. You can see the clouds super close. The kids are super cute. I met some really cute kids. I got their address so we can write letters to them. They were runaways because their parents were abusive. I´m excited to get home and write to them and you can too!! LOVE ALWAYS!!!
Ps- today the kids wanted my autograph! Haha I think they thought I was Lindsay Lohan!!haha it was sweet
LOVE YOU LOTS!! Lindsay

Hey family its Allie!!
I am having such a great time!! We’ve gone to 2 schools today and they were such a blast! The kids are so much fun, they are the happiest people I have ever seen! My home stay is really nice, the people are grandparents and super nice! Each school is so different, everyone is a new experience and so great! Im still healthy, woohoo! At the schools today the kids were so cute, they wanted our autographs!! We felt like such celebrities! I have so enjoyed this trip and am sad to have it coming to an end, but it will be so fun to come home and tell you all the stories! I can´t believe we only have one more service day after today! Love you tons!!!
Allie 


Hey there my family and friends!
We made it to San Marcos wowza well last night im pretty sure that I felt horrible I was dizzy ,nauseous, sharp intense pain in my upper abdomen but then we just went to our home stays and I slept and I felt a little better in the morning and as the day went on I felt a billion times better than I did earlier! San Marcos is gorgeous right now I am at a restaurant and the clouds are just rolling over the mountains it is just breathtaking wow its awesome! The kids here have been fantastic and they are so much fun im going to have a hard time leaving Guatemala but these last few days will be amazing! Well I should go now well I love you all so much and cant wait to see you! Miss you mom dad and elle! Much much much love!
aShLeY



Hi
This is Mary…
The view this morning is spectacular. I absolutely love being in the mountains! The buildings and structures of the area remind me of being in Mexico when I was a kid. I woke up Sunday morning as if I was waking up on an Easter morning. I was in full celebration of Jesus’ resurrection! I have been so blessed to be able to share with people medicine that can heal their physical needs. As we give the medicine we are able to pray with each patient, for God is the great physician and in him we all can have our needs provided.
I have not been well for the last several days. Sunday night and Monday was the worst. I have been able to eat today and I am feeling a bit better. I am still weak. I am going to join the medical team this afternoon after resting last night and this morning. Thank you to all of you that have been praying for me, it truly has made all the difference!
Continue to pray for the team! We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!
Love you all,
Mary

Buenos Dias from los mimos! Obviously we’re in San Marcos right now, and I’m in love with this place minus the freezing weather at night/morning. Last night we joined the local church for a service and then they served us dinner. My home stay is amazing in this city because there are 5 of us staying in a family’s hotel by ourselves. We have our own floor, two televisions (that play English Christian music), and our own bathroom. The family is really sweet and served us lots of food for breakfast, including boiling milk for cereal that we left untouched. Today we’re very busy though and are planning on 5 performances total. We went into two schools this morning and presented three of our sketches (Chris allows us to perform three of the six every time). We are now taking a short break for lunch, then heading to two more schools and then presenting in a large park tonight!! It’s a very busy and impactful day for us, and we’d appreciate prayer that everything continues to go smoothly so that we can convey our message clearly and effectively!! Also we could use some prayer for team unity because a lot of people are starting to reach their wits end with each other, and if things continue this way the entire team will be less effective. Much love to you all!
~elizabeth

Hola Madre, padre y mis amigos!
It is Taylor and Jeff here! Yesterday was a long day we drove for like 9 hours! Jeff took a sleeping pill or two and was out for most of the ride! Once we got there we sat through a really long service but it was pretty fun! We got our home stays yeah that’s all I’m going to say on that subject! Jeff was scared out of his mind and slept in his clothes with the lights on! It’s going to be a long next two nights! We are painting a church today it is a ton of fun! We’re also going to put in a few water filter systems too. That is about all for now hope all is going well with you guys back at home! We love you and miss you all!
With love, Jorge y TayTay

Hey everyone its Greg. I haven’t looked at any of the responses for awhile so if you sent something thanks and hello! We are in San Marcos right now and have another day and a half of ministry. After that we will be heading to an orphanage for a few hours by Lake Atitlan then we are off to our r and r. It will be fun…just pray that everyone keeps a lot of energy these last days of ministry because we are exhausted, sleepy, and hungry. Thanks everybody for all the prayers and all of the support I have received. I’m guessing Carleigh, Sarah, dad, and Kristin have posted so thanks for the posts and I’ll look at them when I can! Well I need to go thanks everybody!
Greg

Hey family and friends

Andy Schiemo

Off to San Marcos!

We´re off to San Maros in about a half hour. Please pray as we drive to our last city where we will be having all four ministry teams doing their work. (We will all be going to an orphanage for about 4 hours in Solola on Thursday). Our drive today can take anywhere between 5-8 hours, depending upon construction traffic in and around Guatemala City.

We have seen no evidence of the earthquake damage from last week on the roads. We will be driving closer to where the earthquake was today, but we do not expect to see any of the damage.

Several of us came down with various stomach ailments last night. So, please pray for that as well. It´s no fun to travel when you feel like you are going to have to stop a couple of times per hour for bathroom stops. We´d love a quick healing!

We´ll write more, and try to put some new pictures up, when we get to San Maros.

In Him,

Brian Schulenburg

Happy Fathers Day and Report for June 17, 2007

First off Happy Fathers Day to all the dads reading this. BTW this is Tim. Today was amazing, in the morning we met at the church and played with the children at the park near the church. After that, we attended the church service and it was pretty fun, and yet a little weird. Once it was over, we had lunch and went to a park down the street a ways; played with kids and young adults and watched the mime team perform.Yes mom I took pictures. A ton of people ended up accepting Christ. Watching that happen renewed my spirit for the trip, and makes me want to stay here longer. Adios
Timoteo

Happy Fathers Day Daddy. Happy 22nd Birthday Tóny. I miss you all very much. I´m having a great time and I want to stay longer. But I know you want me home. I am a little sick but I´ll survive. Today was fun though, us mimes performed at the church service this morning, and we got to play at the park. Me and this one guy were dancing it was a lot of fun. We performed the mime again at that same park. Hope Jenni and Ryan and JJ are doing okay. Glad you two got a vacation. See you in a week.
Love
Andreya

Hey family Its Jeff Sorry that i havent written in a while. well the home stays in guatemala were odd but really fun. the father in the family is an architect and the mother can speak fluent english so i dont really have to try to speak spanish. now we are back as a group in guatemala city and tomorrow we are going to san marcos on another really long bus ride. and i saw my grades, sorry mom but math just isnt my thing. say hi to tre kelsey and michelle for me. and happy fathers day dad. right now we are worshiping to ill talk to you all later
Love You All

Hey All,

The mimes are doing great. Today after presenting at a park, many individuals made public professions of faith. Praise the Lord. I saw an older man sit through the presentation, consider the message, bow his head and pray. I saw two young people do the same. When asked to publically indicate if they had made a decision, they did so. God is indeed drawing people here to himself and He is using this team. We literally invaded this park this afternoon and just started having fun. After a period of time, we presented Forgiven by His Love, then a Guatemalan from the church that was hosting us gave his testimony, that was followed by the mime team doing Goal and Finale which was followed by an evangelistic message by William, our El Salvadorian evangelist. The church then distributed literature to each person who made a decision to receive Jesus. Lots of smiles and hugs followed. Rejoicing in Heaven going on folks. Keep praying.

Chris Erickson

Hey there family and friends, its Peter Anderson. I am having such a blast down here. Im sorry that i havent been writing at all on the blog but im having so much fun i dont want to sit calm down. My head is doing fine and the stitches will probably come out around Wednesday, the only downside is that i cant wash my hair with the water down here. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. I have had so much fun, from experiencing the worship here and the different church services, to playing with the children and moving over 400 bricks down a muddy slope in Campur for a family. I felt a slight head cold last night but took some Airborne and am doing great. The homestay here in Guatemala City was great and i am looking forward to more wonders at our next destinations. I hope Amy had a great week without me and i know that she will have a blast in Chicago. Happy Fathers Day Dad, i love you so much and would use some exclamation points but i cant figure out punctuation on this computer. I took my first picture today...sorry about that but i heard Brian is going to create a cd with a bunch of pictures so i can use those in my album i guess. I am having a lot of fun with various team members and the translators and i even had the chance to play drums for fun at Jaime´s´church yesterday. I will try to buy some gifts and souveniers these next days. I also wont rush to write again, but know that i am sáfe and having a blast. I love you all so much especially you, mom and dad and amy...bye for now and see you soon.
Love, Peter

Hola madre,padre,familia y amigos.
Yo soy taylor. Before i forget Dad and Marty happy fathers day sorry i couldnt be there hope it was great. Hopefully my mom passed on the word that i had a great home stay in Guatemala city for friday night and saturday night we got there and the house was beautiful. It is a mom dad a 16 year old girl and a 17 year old down syndrome boy he is absolutely adorable.Yesterday the service team cleaned up a park re-cemented an amphnetheatre or however you spell that. Then we went to a youth service at the church at 3 and i loved it. Singing in spanish was amazing and the people are so passionate about worshiping God it was great. Then our host family took us to a máll for dinner and a movie we saw shrek 3 it was so fun. The movie was in english with spanish subtitles it was a really fun experience. This morning we went to church and i brought my host brother the one with down syndrome his guitar that he plays and he was so excited he hug and kissed me on the cheek i almost cried he is too cute. That was my favorite part of today. I have met so many people in Guatemala and i have made 4 new friends here. My host sister Sarah, spoke very good english, we had a blast together and she has my e-mail to keep in touch. Another friend i made was a girl named Pilar shes so funny and speaks pretty good english she has my number and e-mail so we can leep in touch. I had a blast making fun of her english and she had fun making fun of my short tounge and me not being able to say my double r words. Michelle one of the translator is amazing, we talk all the time and joke around we also dish out crap to eachother everyday. Last but not least her sister Gina is hilrious and everyone thinks we look alike but im actually like 4 inches taller than her. We are back at the seminary for the night and im hoping to get a ton of sleep. Tomorow will be a long long day for we have between a 5 and 9 hour drive to San Marcos. Pray for safety for the drive there is some construction areound here. I am having a blast and am definately coming back next year to see the friends i have made this year. I love you all and am thinking about you every day and hour.

With love Taylor

Happy Fathers day to all dads. Especially mine and my brother scott and gpa. Nice to talk to you and mom this am. Things are going well. we ate at a mall food court tonight, yeah for pizza hut. long drive tomorrow and then after 2 more days of service we have r and r...which Im looking forward to. Service team is doing great. They have a ton of energy and make me smile every day. About once a day some of the boys like the Trents, and shiemo and peter anderson find it funny to surround me and dance. Its quite akward but funny. Thats all for now. Im ready for a good night of sleep.
Sarah or suki or my new nickname- Tomb raider...thanks to the trents and schiemo

Happy fathers day dad. sorry, this computer wont let me use the exclamation point. these last couple of days have been really strange, andd my home stay kinda freaked me out. me and andy scheimo met a guy who said that he had the gift of prrophesy, and he prophesied that i would be a great man of god, and lead millions to christ, and that i would have many trials, and tests... etc, yeah wel talk more when i get back. love you. Cole

HEY MOM AND DAD AND NICK AND MARLIE
i was glad i got to talk to you this moring i hope everyones doing awesome. sorry if i cant blog. IT ´GETS´BUSY hahah well love u lové u love u
love lin´z

to claries parents<<<
happy fathers day and mom where are my plastic bags

Hey everyone, Its ´Krista here. i am typing on a spanish keyboard, it is sooooooo weird. ánywho. First of all, I wanted to say happy fathers day. Dad, I hope you remembered that I put your card on the dresser. Today was a fun day. [I cant figure out how to add exclamation points here.. or other punctuátion marks.. otherwise my update would be a lot more energetic] We have had two great days in Guatemala City. Home stays were really fun. I stayed with Sophie and Andreya. We saw a cockroach within the first ten minutes that we were there. hahaha but we killed it. i am still rather paranoid about the bugs and germs. but im slowly getting used to it. we had a great time at the mall tonight for dinner. it was nice to have american food for a change[insert exclamation point here]. i had sabarro, and i split a cinnabon with christa and kelly. it was amaazing. the kids here are amazing. absolutely adorable. yesterday we had a chance to minister in a relatively poor area in guatemala city. some of the kids came from abusive families, and some were even street children. it was so incredible to spread joy to them. i think so far that has been one of the most memorable experiences.

carleigh and megan,
you are great encouragement. [insert many exclamation points here]. it is so awesome to hear from you guys. i love and miss you tons.

my darling debutant... [i told you i would start a blog comment to you like this]. i miss you dearly. i talked to sophie tons last night about how i iwish you were here. i hope you have an incredible time in Costa Rica. i have been praying for you this week, and i will continue to do so. we had a dance party today in the middle of a basketball court before the mime performed, and i definitely thought of you as i tried to pull off some of your famous dance moves. hahaha i failed miserably. but it made me laugh a tonnnnnnn. hope you are having a wonderful time chatting it up with evan. hahaha. trent palmberg is standing behind me and wants to wish you luck in Costa Rica. he says he will be praying for you as well.

love you all. i cant wait to share all my stories with you.

parents, i miss you. but not enough to come home yet, sorry. hehe. i hope you are having a great time hanging out with bruce and karen. and molly. hah! oncee again, happy fathers day dad.
love,
Krista


Heý there everyone this is ashley !
well i am having a fantastic time here in guatemala i lóve it so much! ´thank you all for the comments well 2 days ago we madé it back to guatemala city and we got our home stays i lovéd the´family that i was with i had a dad a mom 2 brothers a´nd 1 sister and it was so much ti´me to spend time with them they were so nice and loving. well yeah last night at our home stayy there house smelled like grandma terrys house it was very comforting i slept very well! im very excited to have pizza and artichoke dip im hoping well it has been just an amázing time here and tommorow we leaave for San Marcos and im super duper pumped i think that it will be amazing well yeah!

Dad i want to wish you a HAPPY FATHERS DAY! i miss you tons and cant wait to seee you in a week well i have good news i still have not gotten sick ive been very healthy and it feels good wow welll i think i oughta go now people are waiting well i miss everyone and cannot wait to see everone oh how are clovís and pudding i hope they are doíng good well oh carleigh i míss you tons and cannot wait to see you adn megan ah wow its just not the same seeing you like ´twice a week well i better skidadle well miss yall tataloo!
Ashley
´love ashley!

Feliz dia de los padres dad!! sorry that i´m never home for this or your birthday! Things are going well here..we left our host families this afternoon after attending their church last night, and mime performing for them this morning. chris is letting us incorporate our new mime material more often, and we did our finale for the first time today!! it is sooo incredible, and i wish we could do the whole half hour presentation for all of you because its sweet! i had quiznos and cinabon today, and oh boy was it amazing. a nice break from the other food even though its good too. speaking of such tpalms is feeding me a banana chocolate "popsicle" so i can type faster! hahaha..its interesting tasting. well..im off to let him use the computadora. carleigh i expect your lovely face and something american to meet me asap upon my return to the us. megan doll i love you, and i hope you signed up for the estudia de la Bibla so i wont be alone. catherine and madeline thanks for the comments! youre both amazing. much love to mom and dad. thanks for the letters the email was my host familys.
Elizabeth

Hey friends and family!
Writing to you all from Guatemala city. Happy Fathers day Dad, wish I could spend it with you, we will have to make up for that when I get home. The clinic that we set up in Guatemala city treated many people in need. We actually had 4 doctors there, instead of the usual 2. God is moving in amazing ways down here. Today after the church service, we went to a park, and started to to play basketball with the people there. We set up music and games and eventually had a pretty large crowd. The mime team presented the gospel, and there were many who had accepted christ for the first time. There were many children, but also many adults, and Í even spotted an older man. It was amazing.´ These past 2 days I stayed with my host family. They were some of the nicest people that i have ever met. Last night we stayed up late talking about our countries and our lives. There story is so interesting, and it seriously influenced my life. They were very hospitable, and they gave us some pretty amazing meals!! :) Please keep praying for my mom and dad, and all others reading this!

Love,
Trent Palmberg

HEY DAD!
thanks so much for the comment. Hope you had a great fathers day and im sorry I wasnt there to celebrate it with you. we are in guatemala city right´now and tomorrow we lerave for san marcos. im having a great time and the people are amazing. the trip is is going so fast i cant believe that san marcos is our last ministry city. our homestay family in guatemala city was so nice and their house was like nicer than ours! last night they took us tio see shrek 3 in english! they are both doctors and i even got to work with them in the medical clinic. well, allie´needs to use the computer and i have to take a shower. i love you so much and happy fathers day!
love andrea.

Hey dad and mom its allie.
I dont know how to use the keyboard otherwise there would be an exclamation point. Happy fathers day dad, sorry i didnt have time to write in your book before I left, ill do it when I get home. Today was our last day in Guatemala city. We leave for san marcos tomorrow. Yesterday we had our mime program and childrens program in a neighborhood ´where there was a school. The medical clinic was set up inside the ´school and the programs were done in front. It was so much fun. There are so many funny stories I cant wait to tell you but if i wrote about them all it would take a page or two. I miss you guys and hope everything is goind well. I havent gotten sick at all, woohoo. Another place for an exclamation. I cant believe how fast this trip is going. Love you guys.
Allie

hey family its christa
so dad happy fathers day and when i get back to the states i am going to buy you a steak and make you dinner. and its going to be good. i love guatemala so much and i really miss the kids from campur a lot. we leave for san marcos tomorrow and its supposed to be like a 6 hour drive or something but i guess theres tons of construction and i was told its going to be closer to like 9 hours. i have tons of intersesting stories like when we tried to land there was a dead animal on the runway. and to many happy bars will make you really happy. kike wont stop touching my ears. its freaking me out. and he just licked his finger. sick. im really excited to take a hot shower. its so nice in guat. i think im gonnna live here someday. we had a really cool ministry thing the otherday. we set up in the street and id a puppet show and the mimes did theyre thing. and today we set up in a park and did the same minus the puppet show. we had music going to bring a crowd and then we did balloon animals and a parchute it was really cool. specially when some people from the crowd accepted christ. im gonna finish watching indiana jones. peace.
christa

pickles.

howdy yall...
hey, so its adam. yeah, exciting, i know. so i guess i´ll go with the trend and say something to the effect of "happy fathers day" or "im sorry im not there to celebrate fathers day with you." But yeah, i really am. er kinda. im fairly sure that serving my heavely father is a good way to spend fathers day.
anyway...
Mr. Lima, thanks for your comments. they were definitely uplifting. in the past week i have heard various reasonings behind me being a "chino". some, like yours, say that it is simply a cultural thing and that no harm is intended. On the other hand, its also been explained by saýing that the koreans that live here run factories and treat their workers, the guatemalans, líke dirt. therefore, they dont look upon people of asian decent very highly. However, through this experiance, i have learned that their reasoning behind calling sophie and i chinos doesnt matter. either way God loves them, and calls me to love them too.
Grandma and Grandpa, heres ýour very own section in my post. arent you excited!? anyway, i hope everythings going well and whatnot.
Madeline, hows it goin back yonder? hahaha wiimote? who all is "stuck" to their wiimote?
Everyone else (dont you feel so loved being at the end of my post and all lumped into one catagory!?!?) anyway... so yeah, things have been going good. Like i said a few lines up yonder, im slowly learning to not let the whole chino thing get to me, though it still seems somewhat odd. This past week has been amazing. God has shown me so many cool things, and he has really revealed himself to me in the past week. Its so hard to describe everything that ive felt and seen in the past week. Im so excited for this 2nd and final week. On the medical síde, we have been really busy all of the days, and we have seen so maný people that we have begun to run out of meds. unforunately, the stores to acquire said drugs were closed on the weekends. But, here i can really see Gods hand in action. we ran out of meds on friday. and, like i said, we cant get meds till monday. So, our medical clinics on saturday and sunday would be out of a lot of crucial things. However, God planned our trip in such a way that the next clinic is on tuesday, giving us ample time to acquire more medication. Tis pretty spiffy huh?
ýeah, so we did that whole homestay thing. yeah, it was interesting. ill have to explain later but lets just say this...
"Lancer Evo" "Cheese filled hotdog" "Beans" "Tokyo Drift" "Beans" "Breakdancing" "Spider Solitair" "Beans" "No speak!?"
But yeah, its still wicked out down here. Im melting. Ill probly come home a pile of slush, just like a snowman oughta.
Anway... i feel that ive typed way too much, but said way to little. So yeah...
Adam



Hi Dad,
This is Chelsey. Happy ´Fatherçs day i miss you! This trip is so fun and I have 2 little guatemalan brothers!
Love you all,
Che3lsey

Hey dad happy fathers day! If i was home i would play you in an intense game of foosball. Guatemala is sweet. today we went to this basketball court in the middle of the city and set up a mime show and hunng out with kids. we played music and had a dance session. Chris is going to teach me how to do the robot. thats a bummer that you had to leave the cabin and come back to drive mari to camp. tell her to have fun. see you when i get home
Love,

Trent

Medical Team Report

The Medical Team has been been having a great experience while meeting many of the medical needs of the people here in Guatemala. The students on the team - Adam, Claire, John, Sophie, Andera, Amanada, Trent P. and Trent S. - having been doing a great job and it is truly a blessing to have them as a part of this work. We have been also blessed to have a Guatemalan physician - Dr. Byron - as part of the team, which has aided us greatly in seeing patients. Our translators - Tessie, Jossh and Kike - are all experienced medical team members, and their help has been invaluable as well.

We have seen a total of 464 patients, ranging in age from infancy to people in their nineties. The greatest basic medical needs have been in the Campur region, and we have had three clinic sites in the towns of Campur, Rubel Choc and Sesampanac. There are many things seen in these clinics that one just does not see in the United States any more because of the inability of the people in this region to obtain basic medical care.

We held the fourth clinic site at a school started for street children in Guatemala City. We had two additional local physicians join us for this clinic, and we saw more children here than at our other three sites. While there are many more medical resources in the area people still have a hard time accessing them, especially those without much money or transportation resources.

One of the important aspects of seeing patients has been for students to pray with people that we see as they are leaving the clinic. Their spiritual needs are often as great as their physical needs, and it has been great to see the team working to address these needs as well.

Your continued prayers and support are greatly appreciated as we head off to the San Marcos region. Your continued prayers for health and safety for everyone on the trip are always welcome. This has been an incredibly safe and healthy trip up to this point, and this is truly one of those ongoing gifts from God. All parents of all the teams should be very proud of the way that their teens are working hard to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people here in Guatemala.

In His love,
Mary Krech
Pete Dehnel

Childrens Team Report

We have experienced many challenges this past week presenting our program, ministered to hundreds of children and have dealt with some difficult terrain.

Many of the schools we visited in Campur did not have electricity, so our sound system could not be used. The other problem was that since the children all speak Kekchi, everything has to be translated anyway. It actually worked out fine as it gave time for the children to understand what was going on in the puppet shows, the down side was that our team had tired arms from holding up the puppets twice as long. The songs have been lead by the Guatemalan Team. They have very fun songs for the children and the team could stand up front or go amongst the children and participate in the songs. We often do not know what we are going to do when we get to a school. We have a plan and depending on the size of the school, number of children, conditions of the play area, how long it takes to get to the school (time for the program) and weather causes us to make a lot of last minute changes. The team has really had to learn to be flexible.

Ministering to the children has been the biggest joy our team have experienced. The children greet us with cheers and smiles and are eager to see what we have for them. The team will shake hands with them, give them high fives or hug the children. The children enjoy us sitting with them and having this close interaction. The team has truly loved these children. Our team will play games, have them color, blow bubbles, face paint, hand out bead bracelets, jump rope or just hang out with them. It is hard to leave these children, their smiles and hugs will be remembered for a lifetime with many of the members on the team. This team has been a joy to work with and our making an impact in their lives. They are sharing the love of Christ at every location. The Childrens Team donated several Bibles in Kekche to the church for outreach. The pastor was filled with joy as she has a need for more Bibles that the local people can learn about Christ.

The terrain to many of the schools has been bumpy as the roads in many cases are rocks that we drive on. The view is very scenic and beautiful. The schools that we have visited have difficult paths to travel to get to the school. Some were slippery due to the rain and mud, this caused us difficulty getting up and down the hills. It probably would not seem so bad, but we had to carry our duffle bags with supplies.

There is so much to tell, but I know your kids will have a more detailed report when you see them again. There have been Gigabytes of photos taken to capture as many memories as possible. I want to thank you for letting your kids come on this mission trip. These kids are doing a good job. Please continue to pray for good health, perseverence for our team and that God will continue to bless our ministry.

In Him,
Terry Dull

Guatemala City

Buenos Dias! I’m writing here after finishing a morning of ministry in the poorer streets of Guatemala City. Just thought I’d let you all know that after two days of painstaking sickness, I am finally up to par again!! No worries, my illness didn’t prevent us from serving, I was somehow able to perform three times as my stomach stopped churning the instant I stepped onstage. I appreciate everything so much more now after having had it taken away for a while. After traveling yesterday we arrived in Guat City and went to homestays, but 3 of our families were in the bowling alley so 6 of us traveled to meet them. We ended up staying there until midnight after playing several rounds of bowling with our Guatemalan families and break dancing lessons. I apparently am worthy of the nickname “bowler” mostly because I beat Andy so badly. It was fun, and I won a prize from our friend Primo. I’m really really exhausted since we got minimal sleep, but it was an adventure that was worth the sleep loss. Since I have very limited down time here, I must go eat my hot dog (with 15 odd Guatemalan toppings) and then get back to practicing mime. Thanks for the letters mom & dad, and Catherine your note in Spanish made me laugh when I was sick!! I’ll get that postcard to you when I get a chance to shop. We’re constantly moving and ever busy, but it’s a blast!! Sr. Diaz is my hero since I don’t need a translator very often, and I’ve decided that despite the sickness, I’m moving down here! Hasta lavista! Love you all,
~elizabeth

Hi family and friends! I’m now in Guatemala City and it is so nice here. Wish I was home. I miss you all very much! We all are staying in home stays which is really nice. The hostess name is Daisy and she’s really sweet. She’s says she speaks little English but I think she speaks it very well. I’m rooming with Krista and Sophie. We decided to take a shower together in our bathing suits. The water was warm and it felt so good!!! Since my roommates are afraid of bugs I ended up killing a spider. Then we saw a cockroach, it was monstrous. I tried to kill it but it wouldn’t die!! Daisy ended up killing it. I slept well and we had pancakes this morning. We got to spend time with the children’s team (us mimes that is). We got to play with the kids with those big parachute things with balls and also blew bubbles. We performed once again. I’m having a great time and making new friends. I love you all! Mucho!!!
-Andreya-

Hey Everyone!
We are now in Guatemala City and began our home stays last night. I’m staying with the Calvo family which has five people. I’m there with Amanda Montouri. Last night when we left we got a flat tire so we had to call Brian and some of the other guys to come to the gas station we were at to fix it. When we got the tire fixed we began to drive towards their home, but then the car stopped in the middle of the road and it wouldn’t start for a while…when the car finally started we ran into a hug traffic jam that ended up being caused by a crime scene in the middle of the road. When we finally got to the home Amanda and I were very relieved. I can somewhat communicate with the family, but Amanda can’t. It was really interesting to be able to talk to the family this morning at breakfast. They know minimal English, just like I know minimal Spanish so it actually worked out pretty well. It was strange to hear that Cobán, the place we just left, was cold in their mind. Today for ministry we went to the same place as the medical and children’s team and it was really fun! The kids were really cute, but it was so hot out when we were doing the mime! Well, I’ve gotta go practice some more of the mime right now…Love You!
Christina
P.S. Happy Fathers Day!

Whats going on Minnesota?!
Well we arrived in guatemala city safe and sound. Me and andy scheimo are staying with a guy named mabolo, and he makes cookies for a living… and we went bowling into the wee hours of the night, and I sucked terribly. Mabolos a little quiet, and his brother is obsessed with this Australian band, and showed me some of their stuff and they are pretty good. Well…that’s all for now. Bye!
-Cole

Hey everyone- It’s sarah from the service team. We got to Guatemala city last night and got to our homestay. I’m with taylor, Adrienne and andrea. Our host family is very sweet and speaks very good English. They offered to take us to Shrek 3 tonight so that will be fun. This morning the service team worked to clean up a park about 1 block from the church. We machetted trees- the boys couldn’t have been happier. Don’t worry- they were supervised. Then this afternoon a few of the kids worked on repairing the roof of the church. At the park we moved old branches and leaves and then made some cement to fix an amplitheater area. The park is used by the churchs children’s ministry for Sunday school so now they have a nice clean area to sit. All kids are doing wonderful. It is weird to think that today is almost the halfway mark. Thanks for all your prayers and support- see you next week!!

It’s been a good morning here in Guatemala City. Our service team worked on the roof of the church and on putting concrete in at a local park. The medical, childrens and mime teams all traveled together to a ministry for children who are on the brink of living on the streets. Many of the children that we spent time with are abused by their parents or come from homes where the parents are addicted to drugs. It was sobering to see them. When the mime team was performing a man started shouting that we were “Satan” and that “Guatemala is free – go away!” William, our evangelist, and I went to talk to the man and he immediately left. Then when the part of the mime comes where Jesus is hanging on the cross, a little boy walked onto the set and started mocking the mime by pretending to be Jesus on the cross. He quickly left. Needless to say, we felt the spiritual warfare. God was so good though. When William was giving the invitation, the entire mime team prayed and many people made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. Please remember to pray for these churches as they follow-up on those people who make decisions for Christ. This afternoon has been spent in the medical clinic for the medical team and Lindsay, Allie and Greg from Children’s team, and then for the rest of us at the church hanging out with the youth of the church. Praise God for what he is doing!

In Him,
Brian
p.s. Happy Father’s Day, Dads!

We Are In Guatemala City

We arrived safely in Guatemala City this afternoon. The students had lunch at a local mall and then we visited a topographic map of the country of Guatemala and Central Park in Guatemala City. Central Park is where the government of Guatemala is headquartered and the location of the National Cathedral, where Pope John Paul II spoke on two different occasions.

After our time at the park, we drove to the church and had a fantastic dinner prepared by the women of the church. It is now 9:30 PM and the students are at their home stays. This is the first location where our students are staying with local families. Some of the students are a little bit nervous because they do not speak Spanish and their host homes do not speak English. This will be a great experience for them. They are excited about hot showers and private bathrooms!

Our day begins at the church at 7:30 tomorrow morning. We will have another medical clinic. The service team will be involved with work around the church. The mime and childrens team will travel together.

It is common at this point in the trip for students to begin feeling very tired and a little homesick. Please keep them in your prayers.

Goodbye Campur

I´m writing this at an Internet cafe in Coban, Guatemala. (The team is eating breakfast at Pollo Campero, the largest restaurant chain in Guatemala) We departed Campur at 6:45 this morning and are on our way to Guatemala City for a weekend of ministry. Our team will experience home stays for the first time. The team has bonded so much in the first ministry location. It´s tough to leave Campur, but we are excited about what God has in store. Thank you for the prayers, encouraging comments and different ways that you have shown this team love. They are enjoying reading your comments each day.

In Him,

Brian

The last two days have been awesome. We drove out on mountain roads for an hour to hour and a-half to very primitive environments to serve people. Yesterday we were in a 12 x 2 space with wall half way up and wire mesh to the top. The doctors each had a room, but no windows for air. They saw many people with worms and skin infections. This day was so hard, we had to turn away almost 100 people. There were 75 people signed up that we could not serve. I stood with Betty a missionary from here with a translator to Q’iche. We asked what there problem was and gave vitamins and advill if they had pain. We gave out about 50 more vitamin packs of 30 multi-vitamins. Then we gave the children toothbrushes, this time it was very grabby and kinda frustrating that we had to turn so many away without be able to give them anything. Kids watched us all day with their little faces up to the screen. Today we were in a school, we had better spaces, but I know that intake was very crowed….people so much longed to see the doctor. Today we saw several pregnant women. There was a small boy with a large tumor on the back of his neck the size of a child’s closed fist. Please pray for these people. Today was a bit more under control. At the end of the day, I went out with our extra toothbrushes and had the children line up in a line (well, really two lines, girls and boys cannot be in the same line) Then with two translators, from English to Spanish to Q’iche I taught them how to brush their teeth….actually demonstrated. The students really thought it was funny when I “spit”!!!! That is very important for these people to learn since the toothpaste actually tastes good. Then we gave each child a toothbrush…we had enough left to give the men each one (remember it is a very sex divided society) the man who was helping to interpret told the men to line up next. Only about five women were able to get toothbrushes. Our prayer team also teach and we have them giving out the toothbrushes and toothpaste to each person with the patients that the doctor sees.

Now for personal notes, Barb I took the blanket you gave me….it has given me a perfect night sleep every night except the one I had someone sharing my bunk!

Rick and Kristin…and Joel too in Colorado – I am so thankful that I have your photos to look at on my binder! I love you soooooo much! Rick you can cut and copy this to Joel. I hope all is going well. Hugs and Kisses!

Shirley, I know Rick will print this for you, thank you so much for all your help with Greg’s Graduation party and helping us get ready to go…we love you very much.

Mom and Dad…I’m not sure if you have found the blog site or if Rick will email this to you….I love you much, hope you are well and I will be ready to paint when I return.

All for now…I’ve been getting grief!
Love,
Mary


Check out the next blog for sure!!!
-Anonymous




Hey parents and family! I hope Scotts head is doing well. He is continuing the legacy of people getting hurt in Colorado. Its really hot and rainy here. Today I worked in the medical clinic speaking a lot of Spanish. I only had a Spanish to ketchi translator because I spoke Spanish directly to him. The bathrooms are squeaky clean. O and last night we had a spider on our wall about the size of my palm. And I have large hands. Ill see you when I get home, tell Mari to have a great time in Camp forest springs.
~Trent Stensrud




HOLA! Schiemo’s and Stensrud’s. We are currently practicing our highly anticipated mime. Its really hard-core. Andy and I tamed a jaguar today. We commanded it to give trent Palmberg a high five but it ripped his arm off. It was bloodier than a massacre of wild hyenas. Sorry palmbergs. We’re gunna go eat some Guat food now. (for lunch I had a bologna and katsup sandwhich) mmmmmmm…

T-RENT + A-SHY


Hola Madre, Padre y Mis amigos!
Yo soy Taylor! Today was the most difficult day of my life! The service team got to the site of the house with no translator because they said I knew enough Spanish that I could translate! Our job was to haul this stack of cinder blocks down this mountain side that was steep and very muddy due to the rain from yesterday! We worked from 8 to 11 making an assembly line down the mountain side! We took a lot of breaks it was so so hot I sweated through my shirt! I am going to throw it away because it is covered in mud! Little did we know there were 400 cinder blocks if not more, and I’m not exaggerating! We did what we could before lunch then took an extra long break! After lunch we returned tired and hurting but we knew why we were here and didn’t complain! The cinder blocks cut my fore arms my back hurts my shoulders have like 12 knots in them and I am in a ton of pain! Most of us wanted to quit but we had done so many that the rest of us wanted to finish and were very determined! Our team completely came together and pushed ourselves way past our personal limits and we actually finished all of the blocks! I turned into the team mom telling people to take breaks and drink more water! It was so hard and at points we all thought we were going to die but we made it as a team and counted down the last ten! It felt so good to get all the blocks down there and so the other three Guatemalan men could make a dent in building the house! They got three rows done by the time we got all the blocks down to them! We walked away and I almost cried thinking about how we just helped six people start their new life! It was a very tough day but one to remember forever! The whole service team is very happy tomorrow is a travel day and we can rest! I think about you guys all the time and I can’t wait to come home and be with the family again! I miss all of my friends like crazy there so many times I think about you guys during the day! I hope all is well back home and you guys are doing well! Just remember I am always thinking about you and I pray for you every night!! I love you all but now it is time for me to sleep! Buenos noches!
With love, Taylor!




Hey Family and Friends,

This past week (or portion of it) has been very fun. We have had many experiences to present the mime and have had a great response at all of the events. God provides greatly to us – in the morning, we had to present a mime without electricity for the sound system, but God provided a way to get the sound loud enough for everyone to hear it, run off of only batteries, also, yesterday when we were extremely hot when we were presenting, Chris prayed for rain during the mime, and before we finished the mime, it was raining, which was nice, although we had to pack up quickly and could not do the later mime that day because there was no one to present to since it was raining. After that, we ran into a tree that had fallen onto the road after it was hit by lightning, and had to stop, but luckily we had a machete to chop it up and throw it over the cliff.

Today was also fun: we went back to Coban, where we stopped for lunch on the way down, and presented mimes in a private school, the mall where we ate lunch (it was a spur of the moment decision as we got off the bus for lunch, and we were kindly received by the staff of the mall – they let us do it and even set up a stage for us to present on), and at a stage in a park. In the last two places, we had all kinds of people, including people who had never heard the gospel watching us intently and accepting the message. God is amazing.

Love you all,
Matt

Hey everyone.

Its Krista again. It has been quite an interesting day… not feeling the best, but I’m definitely doin better now. So… funny story for you all. This morning, I woke up at about… 1 o clock. No biggie. I heard something scurry on my bed, and I thought it was a cockroach. I sat there for a good two minutes with my watch staring at it, and I eventually woke up Tessie (one of our translators) to kill it. Once she was awake and at the end of my bed… I realized it was just an earplug. How embarrassing. J

Ash-dawg, its k-rizzle and t-thug (palms):
Wasssssssssssssssup Wassssssssssssssssssssssup? J I miss you tons! I hope you are having a wonderful time packing… and I hope you have a wonderful time in Costa Rica! I have lost track of the days, so I’m not sure when you leave. Even though I think you have a while. T-thug says, “hi. The end. Yeah. Ok. Well, maybe not. But probably.”

Parents, no worries. I’m doing wonderfully. We had a great day today traveling with the mime team. Even though I felt sick. I’m totally fine though. Hope everything is going well. Tell molly I miss her. J

Lots of loveeeeeeeee,
~Krista

Hey friends and family,
It’s Trent Palmberg, alone this time, not accompanied by Andy and Trent at midnight. For the past three days we have set up medical clinics and have seen hundreds of people, about 150 per day. The first clinic was in the church, about 20 feet away, the second was on a rocky road about 30 minutes away, and the third was about an hour away in a remote village high in the mountains. The amount of diseases is overwhelming, and we often can’t see everyone that comes to the clinic. The end of the day is probably the most saddening part of the day, because we cannot treat many people who have came from far away..who do not really receive medical attention for many months. Apart from this, we have been able to treat many Guatemalans, some with simple problems such as worms or vitamin deficiency, to others with heart conditions and crazy skin diseases. The medical team is one of the most eye opening experiences I have even had in my entire life. I will leave you all with that for now, im sure I will post sometime later in the trip, we leave tomorrow for our next city.
Miss you all!
Love,

~Trent Palmberg

p.s. Siri, I miss you, and Krista does too (she is sitting here)

Hola mi famila! Hey mom dad joan and nick and Marley! Thins are awesome here! The views are amazing. Today is our last day in campur which is really sad! It was truly amazing. Today we got to go to 2 schools and a park and a mall to perform and share about jesus. I loved it. Our team has been amazing and were having so much fun! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! Im so sad I missed it!!! Pray for the roads! There crazy but al and I got the whole bus to play jello. It was sweet! Haha Al and I also have contests to see who can say hola TO LOTS OF people. We probably look dumb screaming out of a bus window with Minnesotan accidents! I MISS YOU SOO MUCH! Im so THANKFUL for the snacks!!! Hahah LOVe you love you love you~
Lindsay J



Hello this is Ashley!
Well its great to say that we were not effected by the earthquake so mom you can tell everybody that im fine! Well I have grown to love campur a ton all of the kids im going to miss them so much! Today was an amazing day for the childrens team we went to 2 schools and they were fantastic the kids spoke Spanish and some even spoke a little English not much but a little! Oh it was great then we went with the mime team to this park in coban where there were tons of people and it was great tons of kids we made balloons for, and the mime did fantastic it was great! Well it was a really great feeling to know that people were watching and we know of at least one person who has accepted Christ woohoo! Well yeah it has been great im going to have a tough time leaving all of the kids that I have met they are so much fun! Today once we got back all the kids were waiting and we were playing with them it was great we had tickle wars and played cards and obo shinotintotin it was really fun! Everyone here is incredibly nice and something for you guys to pray about just pray that the church in campur will grow and the pastor isabelle would continue to make a huge impact she is an amazing person! I wish that I could sho you guys the pictures I have taken amazing! Ah dad guess what I ate at mcdonalds it was good and the service is incredible there and it is way cleaner than mcdonalds at home so yeah just thought I would let you know that I miss you a lot and want to hear from you to! Mom thank you for the note it was much appreciated I miss you a lot to and tell elle I say hi and miss her to and I hope her cooking camps are going good! Well I should probably go I have to go and start to pack we are leaving tomorrow at about 7 am so that means I have to get up pretty early! Ah one thing about Guatemala time when you think it is like 6 in the morning and your all rested its only like 1:30 am its weird but nice! Oh and my mosquito head net has been much help to me it makes me feel safer sounds really cheesy but it does I like to so yeah I could sit here and type all night but im not going to but I miss you all so so so so so so so much and hope to hear from yall very very soon! Love you a tone tataloo!

>Ashley<

Hello.
This is Adam.
So yeah, this is kinda weird, I’m just kinda typing my thoughts into a computer hoping that you guys (you know who you are). Anyway…
So, despite what everyone else might be saying, its been pretty hot. So far I’ve sweated through half my shirts and we’re not even half way done. Uh oh…
Ok. So basically, to the Guatamalans, I have no name. Instead, I am (not always so affectionately) called Chino (Chinaman) or Chinita (little Chinaman (?)). For the first day or two, it wasn’t too bad and it didn’t really bother me. However, at the medical clinics that we set up yesterday and today, it started to get to me. I approached a group of kids today and they ran away screaming “Chino!!!”. Needless to say, that wasn’t very encouraging, but they’re only kids so I can’t really blame them too much. However, later on, I walked past some older men (about 40ish) and they whispered (not so kindly) “Chino” under their breath. As frustrating as this is for me, I’m only here for two weeks. These few examples just make me feel really bad for those people of Asian heritage that live here permanently. It must be really tough for them to get through every day being labeled and shunned like that.
But, be that as it may, this trip is going great! The patients are so thankful for the smallest things like vitamins and Tylenol. Its amazing to see the joy that God wishes for all of us, coming from people who are considered to be so poor and weak.
Anyway, its been great to hear from you guys!
(Haley, thanks for working out my scheduling, we’ll have to go over the rest of it when I get home.)
Adam
(Yoon Jae ;-) )


Hi. Its Christa. Im coming back to Campur Guatemala. I love it here. Love you all. And Applebees did WHAT?
Christa

Greetings,

Mime team ministered in a public school, a shopping mall and a public square today. We worked with the children’s team most of the day. It was fun to be with one of the other teams. Pray for health for each team member. Liz is not feeling well with some stomach aliment and Chris has been up and down for the past day. They are resting now and have a day of travel ahead of them giving them time to take it easy. We received a response card today from a student who told us that she received Jesus for the first time today because we demonstrated who Jesus is and then gave her the opportunity to respond. Pray that those that do respond are then followed up on by the church and/or individuals we co-labor with in the areas we minister in. On to Guatemala City tomorrow. Pray for safety in travel.

Chris Erickson
II Timothy 4:7

What an incredible day! God has really moved during our time in Campur. It’s off to Guatemala City tomorrow morning, and I think most of our team will leave a piece of themselves in this community. We have been treated so well by the body of Christ in Campur. And, God has revealed Himself to us as well.

I had a “God moment” while at the Internet Café today. I met a worker with the Peace Corps. She has been in Campur for the past two months and will be here for the next 22 months. She is the only worker with the Peace Corps that is located here. She is also the first Peace Corps person in history to be located in Campur. She has been doing a great job working with a program called, “Healthy Schools.” While talking with her she told me that she found out that she would be in Campur three weeks before arriving. When told her location, and realizing that Campur is not on the map, she wanted to find out as much information as possible. Her dad did a Google search on Campur, and found my blog. Apparently when you search Campur, Guatemala my blog is the third thing that comes up. Her dad was excited upon reading my blog to find out that his daughter would be able to communicate with him via the Internet at the café. She arrived in Campur and began asking people where the Café was. No one knew for the first two weeks. She finally ran into someone who could tell her where it was. She told me that she thought that “this Brian guy must have been crazy, because there was not nor had there ever been an internet café in Campur.” She was relieved to finally find it. When she walked into the café today, she put two and two together and realized that I was the guy whose blog that she had read, when researching this town. We had a great conversation. She had not heard about Viva Abundante Church, so I invited her to check it out with me. She came by and met our service team and then I invited her to have dinner with our team. She was able to meet Pastor Isabelle and will have some new friends when we leave town. God is certainly amazing in how He works out circumstances.

In Him,
Brian Schulenburg

And a few more

Here are a few more pictures. We will post more on Saturday.