Full day in Malacatan - yikes is it hot!

Today was our last day in Malacatan. When the Guatemalan’s warned us it would be warmer here, they weren’t kidding. I understand it was up near 100 degrees today, with a humidity to match. We went through a lake’s worth of water, though, so everyone (so far, at least) is coping. We haven’t seen any serious sunburns on anyone, either, so praise God for continued health for the team.

The mime did 5 shows today, 3 in the sun. It was a draining but rewarding day with many of the audience members indicating they had made a decision to ask God into their life. The local church brought along a lot of their youth so they mingled with the crowds after the program to make a local connection with those making decisions and giving them information on what steps to take next. It was a true partnership between our team and theirs.

The childrens team “only” had 3 shows, but they spent a lot of time in the sun playing games and putting on puppet shows for the kids. At the last program 4 of the older kids (6th or 7th grade) not only raised their hands to indicate they had prayed to accept Christ, but were also willing to step forward out of the crowd to pray with the church representatives and talk about how to connect with the church. Between the mime and childrens teams we will have lots more company in heaven!

Service spent the day painting the inside of the host church, turning it from a perky orange to a soothing off-white. They finished the entire sanctuary and most of the stairs leading up from the street entrance - it looked great when they were done.

And then there is medical,. The saw nearly 300 (yep, 300) patients today, many who had very difficult situations. Apparently there is not a lot of medical care available for the people in the area and so many had gone without care for sometime. We used up a lot of the medicince we had brought and more that we had purchased here. It was a hard day for the nurses because a number of the patients had conditions that we just couldn’t treat. The whole team held on to the fact, though, of how many people they were able to help who would otherwise have continued to suffer. The kids have grown into their medical roles incredibly well. All I can say is God knows how to pick a team!

Tomorrow morning we had back southeast to the Lake Atitlan area. We will be driving about 5 hours back over the same roads we recently took up from Guatemala City. We have experienced many things over the days since we were last on those highways. We will end up in Santiago where we will have 1 and a half more days of service before we head into R&R time.

A couple prayer requests:
1) energy for the team to finish strong in Santiago. With all the performances that have already been done it is sometimes hard to be as energetic do the same thing one more time.
2) medicines for the medical team. Because of the volume of patients and the severity of the cases we have used up nearly all of our medicines. Pray that we will be able to find (and have the money for) the medicines we need to finish the next clinics.
3) overall focus for the team. They have been great so far, but the pace is wearing us all down little by little. Pray that we end strong in Santiago so we head into R&R with confidence that we have done our best for God and the people of Guatemala.

Gracias for you prayers and support! Enjoy the pictures from today’s activities and some notes from team members…


Hola Tebbe & Sullivan Families,

It’s Monday today and we just finished doing children’s programs at 3 schools. Many kids raised there hands to indicate they had accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior! It was definitely worth all the sweat due to the heat and humidity. What a privilege to part of this missions trip. It only took 1 full day to recover from being sick and 2 to be back singing and dancing with the kids, God is Good Sabu!!! Happy Father’s day Larry, hope you had a fun and successful fishing trip. I Love You and miss you Grande! Jill, hope you got the job you wanted and all is well in Fargo, missing you Mucho! Que Pasa Steph, Victor and William both say Hi back to you and wish you were here besides me. Maybe next year?!
Thanks for all your prayer’s Mom, Laura, Tom, Connerton’s, and all you Sullivan’s, and friends, we couldn’t do any thing without them. I’ll see you in a week. Got to go, I miss and love you all!

Peggy


Hi Denice and Danielle,

We have been seeing many children ask Jesus into their heart on the mission trip. We are at Malacatan which is near the border of Mexico. We can see the highest point in Central America from our home stay. It is where Danielle’s birthmother lives, Volcano Tumulaco. Trying to get some good pictures of it, but I do have our home stays e-mail address here and they have some very nice pictures that they could share. Learning some Spanish, but I still have mas to learn. Hope everyone is doing well. I miss you guys. We have a day of travel tomorrow and some mission work in Santiago Atitlan.
Love you, Terry.

It is so hot we are melting like popsicles.
Katie Unger

Hi family. Its super hot and humid in Malacatan. I’ve been pushed way out of my comfort zone over these past few days. My home stay doesn’t have a real shower so I had to take a basin shower outside. Church here on Sunday was VERY different from anything I’ve ever experienced. All the Guatemalan kids were crying and screaming and falling down on the floor. Even though it was quite frightening to me, I’m glad I was able to experience something so unique. Love you and I can’t wait to get home and take a hot shower and sleep with a real pillow.
PS. I sprained my ankle the first day we got here, but the bruising and swelling is starting to go down and it doesn’t hurt as much. I’m starting to think I might live. Love ya!
From, Aimee

HEY family!! ITS Autumn. Thank you for the support that you have been giving our group on this blog. It haws been a really cool experience down here and I cant wait to share all the stories with you. Tell Bowe I say happy belated birthday and tell Ron and dad I say happy fathers day!! And Rayna as well. Anyway its all good. Just keep praying for us. LOVE you all.
-Autumn Blatz



Mom I forgot to feed Magenta (my bamboo plant next to my bed.) it would mean the world to me if you would feed it. Thanks mom. Love you lots.

Maria


Greetings,

First time on the blog. The mime team has been doing a great job! They’ve presented the 30 minute program 20 times in a variety of settings to a total audience of over 5,000 people. Many people have received Jesus……hundreds. Everyone is tired after doing 5 presentations today, but now enjoying a pizza dinner and I’m sure a good night’s rest tonight. It’s an amazing time. Keep praying.

Chris Erickson