Three Days in Chisec Complete, Now to Villa Nueva

Good evening from Guatemala City! Today we drove through a gentle rain most of the day, coming back to Guatemala City from spending three nights in Chisec. At Chisec all of the teams worked hard. It was amazingly hot when the sun was out and quite humid so we went through a lot of water. It started raining yesterday and was still raining when we left this morning. It prevented us from being able to play soccer with the youth group from the Chisec church but we were able to finish the service work before the rains came.

The students and leaders are doing great. There are a few who are experiencing some upset stomachs and intestinal "processing issues", but so far nothing very serious. Please keep praying for good health for everyone as we continue to experience variable sleeping conditions and food. Tomorrow we will start service in Villa Nueva and go into new home stays. Thanks for your continued prayers. Here is a perspective from some of the students....


Mime Team written by CJ:
Hey all, overall, the mime is going very well. Prestly says 'hey mommy I miss you...not really :)' The whole team took a trip in the rainforest the other day, and the bumpy ride was fun and death defying, kidding, kind of. The reactions from the audience has been nothing but positive. Our pastor from El Salvador said he has seen changes in the faces of the audience, and some little kids cried when Jesus is crucified. Amanda says 'Mom I'm alive.' Some people on the team have had to switch roles and Steph Tebbe did very well when she was put on the spot. Very impressive. I guess I'm a really sweaty Jesus. My shirt is drenched every single time we perform, or just stand around. I am making less mistakes every time we perform. The restof the team is amazing, I couldn't ask for a better team. My stomach is mad at me, but besides that we're all good. A few sicklings is all. We were able to swim a few times which is so incredibly refreshing in this heat and humidity. Miss you family, friends, more than you know. P.S. Victor, Josh, Kike and William all came back!


Service Team written by Scott S.
Hey everyone! we are all having a great time here with everything we have been doing. Me and Jeremy stayed in a home and slept in hammocks outside under a tin roof while it rained every night and it was a pretty cool experience. communicating with all of the people is hard but we are definitely getting a lot of work done. In Chisec Andy, Jake, Nick, and I worked on painting the whole inside of the church and although a bit frustrating it was a good time. They were using some old paint rollers and using really watered down paint,and when brought out the fresh rollers and thick paint things really started to improve. many of the children that were hanging around in the church building picked up paint brushes and paint rollers themselves and helped us the best they could. it was really cool to see that. we also went with the childrens team for a little while and helped out with the kids. Many kids really enjoy throwing around the Frisbee! some of the locals helping out painting wanted to change the color of the paint and decided that adding gasoline was the best solution. it did change it a bit but it definitely changed the smell of the room. We made it work and got the church finished! also I was feeling real sick and after painting for a little while I felt like i had to throw up. so i ran to the bathroom quick and threw up a lot. after going back into the church i noticed that i didnt feel my retainer with my fake teeth in my mouth! so i ran to the toilet and had a very interesting time digging through a very dirty guatemalan toilet for my retainer. but i found them! with my bare hands. im feeling a whole lot better from that and now everyone is dealing with the usual guatemalan symptoms. its been a great time so far and we are excited to continue to work in the next city! its a lot of work but it is worth it and is a great time! we miss you all a lot! see ya soon. (leader's note - we will clean the retainer thoroughly before he even thinks about putting it back in!)

Medical Team written by Missy Vavra

Hola padres! (hey parents!) We just arrived back to our "home base" in Guatemala City after our three day stay in the town of Chisec. We had our first home stays of the trip and LOTS of different experiences that we have enjoyed sharing with each other at breakfast at the nice hotel where we were very fortunate to eat three excellent meals while there. Although everyone has pretty much experienced their own medical issues/ bodies adapting to the food and climate in unpleasant ways, lack of American plumbing has been significantly missed by all to say the least. We still have high spirits and have been able to share with each other the love we've experienced with the Guatemalans, with each other, and with God. His love has definitely been seen in incredible ways and it is so encouraging to hear how God has worked through us, despite the language and cultural barriers to share the love of GOd. The first day of the clinic was definitely overwhelming for us all. We were thrown into this city after a six hour bus ride of mountain roads and we were all a little mixed up on the time of day and our energy levels were out of whack but it was amazing to see how we pulled together and got right to work. There were already tons of people waiting in the church where we set up the clinic and so we got to work immediately. I was really excited to use my spanish that I've been studying for six years...little did I know, the people in Chisec speak Ketchi!! Luckily we had Chisecians who were willing to sit with us for hours in our makeshift intake area and pharmacy station to translate from Spanish to Ketchi (no english/spanish translators but enough of us knew Spanish to figure out a working system). By the second day, we were pros atrunning this clinic instead of it running us down. Team members who didn't know much Spanish, aside from Hola and me llamo, stepped in and took vitals for patients in intake and served as the walkers who walked patients from the waiting area to the doctor and from the doctor to the pharmacy, and also served amazingly well in the pharmacy filling prescriptions. The others of us who could make us of our spanish knowledge communicated with the translators and patients to obtain their symptoms and information about the patients. Working in the church, in the clinic, was a challenge, we all faced obstacles that we didn't necessarily prepare for but I think God had prepared our hearts for our service and we were able to help so so so so So many people it was incredible. We've grown quite close within our medical team and I think this was probably the hardest town considering the circumstances that we worked under (according to the students who went on this trip last year). Most of the patients we saw had worms and complained of stomach problems and rocks in their eyes. It was hard to see all the small children and infants who were dehydrated and some of the more severe cases, non responsive. We have been working with a dentist and his team of students who have been extracting teeth so that's really cool that we have the medical and dental resources to provide these people. I hope in the next town our prayer and teaching area of our clinic can work out, with the language barrier (ketchi/spanish) and lack of sufficient translators, we couldn't provide that part of our clinic which is the most important spiritual aspect of our service. We have adopted the phrase "Dios le bendiga" that we say (meaning God Bless you) to the people and they are very gracious and seem to understand that we are here to serve GOd.

Side note: It's really cool to see one of our leaders on the trip, Victor,from El Salvador, lead intense in-depth talks about God and his life with God and our lives with God and his message is all about the Bible and how to live essentially. The Bible is the truth, there is only one Christianity, one way, and that is all found in the Bible. So, as he has accentuated to us, ask yourselves "have you read today?" Parents, you can take on the challenge too, Christianity is a race, start running with your eyes fixed on Christ and start living the life that GOD has given YOU. =) Dios le bendiga!