An Exciting Adventure!
Tomorrow morning Jon and I along with 5 other adults and 25 teenagers will be heading to Guatemala! We have been planning this trip since September 2012. It has been so exciting to see God working just in all the details of this trip already. You see after I went to Africa last summer - I felt that the young people in our youth group needed to have a similar experience as I did. Well one of the couples that I went to Africa with shared with me a mission trip to Guatemala with Paradise Bounds Ministries. I thought it sounded like an amazing trip and decided to talk with the other youth leaders about it. You see we thought that we were going to have a small group of kids this year - like 15 and really thought a trip like this would be something we could do. We had so many obstacles to go through before this could ever even happen. First of all it was going to be more costly than our other trips - $60,000. We were also concerned about our (and the youths) safety. Also, when we plan our summer mission trips we start in January. We had to submit an application by the third Monday in September - our youth group doesn't start back up until the Sunday after Labor Day - so we had to move on it quickly. We went to talk to our consistory to get their support - which we did. Then we had a parent meeting to make sure we would have their support for a trip like this. On that night we had 19 youth and their parents show up that night. Before they left for the evening they had to fill out a paper letting us know if they would allow their kid(s) to go, could they pay the $200 to put towards the trip and were they willing to give any more (if so how much). After the meeting was all over we had 100% say yes they would let their teen go and we had around $10,000 committed to our trip. We felt after that night that God was calling us to Guatemala. We wouldn't find out until mid-late October that we were one of the groups selected to go!! We were so excited. We did several different things to raise our money. We raked leaves, picked up walnuts, held a pancake supper and sent out support letters. You know how I told you we were worried about the money - well we had it all raised before Christmas plus more!! God is GOOD!! It's been absolutely amazing to see God crush what we thought were huge obstacles - things we saw as mountains - now are more like an ant hill! I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in Guatemala!! We are definitely going to be stretched on this trip. First off, we will only have electricity from a generator that only runs for 4 hours out of the day! Yep, that means no hair blow dryers, curling irons or any electricity of sorts. We will basically have no communication back home. We will be updating a blog - so you will know what and how we are doing but that's it. The water is undrinkable - so we have to be careful not to drink it and to hopefully not get sick. For three days we will be building five homes. During those days we will eat lunch with the community - they will be serving us the food - so we hope to not get sick from that as well. Two days we will be doing a medical clinic in remote villages. Along with those days we will show the Jesus DVD and share our testimonies with the people. Our last day their we will spend the morning in their orphanage and in the afternoon head to Antigua to shop in the market. One of the other sponsors made up a prayer calendar and sent it out to those who financially supported us and for those that requested it. I'm going to share it on here with you guys so you can be praying for us! We really could use your prayers as this is a whole new experience for all of us!!
Tuesday, June 25 - This will be a long travel day, our planes leaves at 9:30 am from Des Moines, travels to Denver, Houston and finally arriving in Guatemala at 9:02pm. Pray everyone is responsible and keeps track of their passports. Pray for patience for everyone and for safe travels. Also pray for those who have never flown before or may be afraid to fly. Pray everyone's luggage arrives with us, safe travels to our "home away from home" and a good night sleep. (I'm going to add to this - pray for everything to go smoothly at the Guatemalan airport).
Wednesday, June 26 - This will be our first day of home construction. Pray for safe travels to our worksites and that we will accomplish what we are supposed to. This will be a day we will be excited but nervous at the same time. Pray we can show God's love to everyone we come in contact with. Pray for the families we are building homes for. Pray for good working weather. (I'm also going to add Pray that we will have a good meal and no one will get sick)
Thursday, June 27 - Our second day of home construction. This might be a day that some of the kids (and maybe adults) are getting homesick; pray God will fill that void. Also pray for our loved ones at home, because I'm sure they are missing us too. Pray everyone will be filled with the Holy Spirit at our devotion time tonight. And that everyone is willing to share where they see God working.
Friday, June 28 - Pray that we are all staying healthy, that we are handling the food and getting enough sleep. This will be our last construction day so pray we can finish strong. Tonight we will be the night we dedicate the homes to our families and invite them to accept Christ. We believe this will be an emotional high for us. Pray everyone is willing to share their testimonies with the Guatemalan people.
Saturday, June 29 - This will be our first day of helping in the medical clinics and building relationships with the remote village people. Help us to love them like Jesus loves them. Pray for those coming to the clinics that the medications we take them will be healing. Pray communication will not be a problem. Also, pray for safe and easy travel, we understand we could be traveling on very bumpy roads several hours away.
Sunday, June 30 - This will be our second day in the medical clinics. Pray for this village, that when the Jesus film is presented, that many people from the village will come to see it and many will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Pray the Bibles will nourish their souls and that the food we give them will nourish their bodies. Help us to connect to the people.
Monday, July 1 - In the morning we will get to go to the Open Doors Orphanage and play with the children. Pray for the children, that they may be well cared for and maybe someday be adopted by a loving family who can take care of them. Pray for us as this will be an emotional day when we have to leave the children behind. This will also be our last day here. Pray everyone has connected with God and grown closer to Him. Pray for a good night sleep as tomorrow will be another long travel day.
Tuesday, July 2 - We fly out of Guatemala at 6:40am, fly to Houston and arrive back in Des Moines at 5:02pm. Pray we all make it through customs without any problems and that we have good weather to fly in. Pray for those who may be homesick, that they day goes by quickly. (Pray for those coming to pick up this youth - that they arrive safely)
Feel free to add your own prayers! We are all so thankful for all of your prayer support. I'll definitely let you all know how the trip went. I won't be able to update here - however you can check out our blog that we will update when we our down there. It is: http://teamcentralreformediowa2013.wordpress.com. Not sure how often we will be able to update - just keep checking!! Thanks again for all of your prayers and we will talk in a week!!
Tuesday, June 25 - This will be a long travel day, our planes leaves at 9:30 am from Des Moines, travels to Denver, Houston and finally arriving in Guatemala at 9:02pm. Pray everyone is responsible and keeps track of their passports. Pray for patience for everyone and for safe travels. Also pray for those who have never flown before or may be afraid to fly. Pray everyone's luggage arrives with us, safe travels to our "home away from home" and a good night sleep. (I'm going to add to this - pray for everything to go smoothly at the Guatemalan airport).
Wednesday, June 26 - This will be our first day of home construction. Pray for safe travels to our worksites and that we will accomplish what we are supposed to. This will be a day we will be excited but nervous at the same time. Pray we can show God's love to everyone we come in contact with. Pray for the families we are building homes for. Pray for good working weather. (I'm also going to add Pray that we will have a good meal and no one will get sick)
Thursday, June 27 - Our second day of home construction. This might be a day that some of the kids (and maybe adults) are getting homesick; pray God will fill that void. Also pray for our loved ones at home, because I'm sure they are missing us too. Pray everyone will be filled with the Holy Spirit at our devotion time tonight. And that everyone is willing to share where they see God working.
Friday, June 28 - Pray that we are all staying healthy, that we are handling the food and getting enough sleep. This will be our last construction day so pray we can finish strong. Tonight we will be the night we dedicate the homes to our families and invite them to accept Christ. We believe this will be an emotional high for us. Pray everyone is willing to share their testimonies with the Guatemalan people.
Saturday, June 29 - This will be our first day of helping in the medical clinics and building relationships with the remote village people. Help us to love them like Jesus loves them. Pray for those coming to the clinics that the medications we take them will be healing. Pray communication will not be a problem. Also, pray for safe and easy travel, we understand we could be traveling on very bumpy roads several hours away.
Sunday, June 30 - This will be our second day in the medical clinics. Pray for this village, that when the Jesus film is presented, that many people from the village will come to see it and many will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Pray the Bibles will nourish their souls and that the food we give them will nourish their bodies. Help us to connect to the people.
Monday, July 1 - In the morning we will get to go to the Open Doors Orphanage and play with the children. Pray for the children, that they may be well cared for and maybe someday be adopted by a loving family who can take care of them. Pray for us as this will be an emotional day when we have to leave the children behind. This will also be our last day here. Pray everyone has connected with God and grown closer to Him. Pray for a good night sleep as tomorrow will be another long travel day.
Tuesday, July 2 - We fly out of Guatemala at 6:40am, fly to Houston and arrive back in Des Moines at 5:02pm. Pray we all make it through customs without any problems and that we have good weather to fly in. Pray for those who may be homesick, that they day goes by quickly. (Pray for those coming to pick up this youth - that they arrive safely)
Feel free to add your own prayers! We are all so thankful for all of your prayer support. I'll definitely let you all know how the trip went. I won't be able to update here - however you can check out our blog that we will update when we our down there. It is: http://teamcentralreformediowa2013.wordpress.com. Not sure how often we will be able to update - just keep checking!! Thanks again for all of your prayers and we will talk in a week!!
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