Wooddale Operation Central America - 2009

Greetings! The 2009 OCA team from the Wooddale Church senior high ministry is training for this year's trip. We leave early on the morning of June 14 and return late on June 28. In between we will visit three different communities in Guatemala: Chisec (in the rain forest 6 hours north of Guatemala City), Villa Nueva (a suburb of Guatemala City), and San Marcos (high in the mountains west of Guatemala City).

We have a little smaller team this year - 27 students and 10 leaders. We will have a medical team, childrens team, mime team, and service team. We have a nurse travelling with us but no doctor this year. Once we get to Guatemala a local doctor will join us for the duration of the trip. We may have some graduate students from a dental school in Guatemala City join us for some part of the trip as well, but we are still working out the details on that part.

We recently held a weekend retreat for the team. It was a great time of fellowship and team bonding. During that time some of the students wrote down what they were looking forward to:

Erika - I am looking forward to connecting to the rest of the medical team
and talking with the people that we help.
Lauren - I am looking forward to getting to know the children we meet at
the different towns and learning about their everyday lives.
Sarah - I’m looking forward to just go to a different country that’s so
different than ours and learning about how different they live than us. The
teams exhaustion and uncleanliness might be kind of fun too :]Ö
Katie S - I am super excited for the trip!!! I am so excited to become tight
with the whole team. Yes I am that excited. It’s true I am that excited.
And I love Marine especially but not in a cliquey way because our team is
better than that. YEAA childrens team is the bomb.com!
Steph - I am excited to see all of the huge spiders that are going to be
hiding in my bed. O and I am pumped for the mime team too. Ya mime team.
Jess F - Our medical team is awesome! I can’t wait to see our little clinic
up and running & serving the people of Guatemala. Also, already craving
some authentic Guatemalan coffee, beans and rice!!
Amy N - Our medical team rocks!! I can’t wait to see God’s glory among all
the groups!! Hopefully, my tummy can handle the bus rides!!
Brittany B - I’m excited to be on a different team this year. I think it will
be a great experience. I am also excited to get out of here and go somewhere new!
Joel L - I’m excited to meet new people and see a new country.
Riley B - I’m excited to talk to the kids and people, and I’m really looking
forward to learning about Guatemalan culture.
Tim - I am looking forward to seeing the student’s reactions at the end of
the first day of Service in Guatemala.

So stay tuned We have three more training meetings and then we are off on this year's adventure. We will post updates along the way so you can see what God is doing. We appreciate your prayers and support for the team!