Friday, January 30

We finished on the job site at noon today and it was a tearful farewell as we said goodbye to five of the most determined and dedicated men you will meet. These fellows are building 10-12 hours per day, sleeping on cots, cooking over a fire, often not knowing where their next meal will come from. They work in sandals and without gloves or hard hats. They live 4 hours away by bus so they only go home every second weekend as some need to stay back to guard the building site. They work in simple conditions with simple tools but their attitudes are amazing, their laughter is contagious and their love is evident. We were able to leave food, clothing and some cash for them. We had a good chance to pray together and to bless them before we left. But they were more a blessing to us as they model humility and faith and joy that have nothing to do with circumstances.

The president of the CMA Guatemala then took us for lunch to a Latino restuarant which was a thank you from the national office. They food was good and a treat to be in a restaurant frequented by the local people.

Now it is time to pack and get ready for the day of travel tomorrow. We will have memories that will last for years and as we sort them all out and sort out the ramifications of being involved in this project we ask God to guide and direct as to our involvement as a group and as PAC church with International Projects. Opportunities abound and we need His wisdom to proceed from here.

We will all appreciate prayer for the trip home. Shanon is travelling alone again at different times and route than the rest of the group so asks for prayer for that journey!

Thanks for tracking with us these past weeks. Jo and Maryanne will be giving a short report on Sunday morning at PAC and the Lees and Tom and Shanon will give reports on the following Sunday. Thanks to those who supported us through prayer and financial gifts. The project will need continued support until the costs are covered. It is fully tax deductible and can be given at PAC marked "Guatemala" on the envelope. The needs here are great and we are certainly thrilled that your gifts are helping to build a place that will minister to many.

Wednesday, January 28th

Today we went to Antigua to give our tired muscles a rest. We toured a coffee plantation. Antigua has the 3rd best coffee in the world.
We stopped at a monastary that had been destroyed in the 1976 earthquake and has been restored to a 5 star hotel.

Oasis Orphanage

This is a picture of one of the den mother(in the green) and 5 of the 44 girls that live in the orphanage where some of the clothes that we brought to Guatemala will be distributed. It was a very touching experience to be able to see where they live and hear some of their stories. The rest of the clothes will be taken up into the hills to a satelite soup kitchen orphanage. The girls there live in straw huts, caves and carboard boxes.

This is a picture of the homes where the girls live.

After a long day of shopping and siteseeing Tom is trying to help Bruce get the swing of things.

Monday Worksite Pictures

January 25th and 26th

January 25th - Sunday

Up at 6am to begin the 2 hour trip to Taxisco to attend the service at the Alliance Church where Domingo and Edgar, two of our on-site workers go. We discovered that dispite the language barrier during praise and worship we serve the same awesome God. We sang our hearts out in English and they in Spanish when they layed the familiar "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord". Jake, our team leader, with the aid of Jose, our interpreter and driver, preached a sermon from Daniel, Chapter 3. After the service the ladies served us a delicious traditional Mexican lunch. The pastor then suggested that the Pacific Ocean was only 30 minutes away so guess what we did for the afternoon? Roasted in 98 degree weather on the beach!!

In the evening we attended the Chinese New Years Eve celebration with Joseph and Helen, and most of the congregation from the Chinese Alliance Church that is our home away from home. Sun neen fie lok or Happy New Year to each of you back home.

January 26th - Monday

We had thought that we would be constructing the second floor of an Alliance church for the national Guatemalan people. Instead we are building the Guatemala Alliance National Church(GANC) office and guest house, which will touch the lives on many Guatemalan people. The pastors from the various Alliance churches in Guatemala will come here for training and then return to their various villages to spread the gospel. Our driver, Jose, was back teaching school today so we had the privelege of being chaffeured by the President of GANC. You can see in the pictures that we have actually accomplished a fair amount on the building. None of the rebar beams were in place when we arrived and before we leave we should have all of them in place for the second floor.

January 23 - 4th Day on the jobsite

Margeurito cooking his lunch

The five of us spent 2 days cutting and twisting wires used in tying rebar

The locals on their way to work

Guatemala traffic

Where's the safety harness??? Oh that's Marianne's job!!

Marguerito, Gerraldo and Edgar

Our mode of travel for the 14 of us is in a 12 passenger van so we are crowded in like sardines. As we pass the Guatemalan locals they look at us and laugh. Probably they are thinking, "Those crazy gringos!" Yesterday on the way home in busy traffic the back hatch of our van sprung open. Amidst screaching for Jose, our driver, to stop the van, the traffic around us was honking. We are indeed making a great impression on the Guatemalan people. As throughout this whole trip, God has been looking after us - no bags or tools fell out of our super packed van. If it had, by the time we got stopped there is no way the stuff would still be on the road.

On our trip to and from the worksite we see many old, super packed buses, people trying to sell various wares ranging from flowers to phone cards as they walk between the traffic stopped at lights, as well as security guards armed with sawed-off shotguns guarding the various storefronts and vehicle contents.

We are enjoying working with the Guatemalan men on the worksite. It is refreshing to hear the laughter and bantering that goes on between all of us. Although their ways of doing various construction techniques are very different from ours, the outcomes are very similar. They use very basic methods of producing items that we would purchase prebuilt from a local hardware store.

It has been great having Shanon with us the last couple of days. Jake, our team leader, expressed his appreciation of how well our team has melded together and what we have accomplished to date both relationally and project wise.

Tomorrow (Sat) we go to work for a half day and then have the rest of the day to relax and maybe take in an afternoon siesta.

Sunday we will be driving 2 hours south to attend the church of the onsite workers. We are looking forward to seeing the countryside.

January 21 - A Day of Adventure

Today The Breckmans, Jake, Ron and Henry took an active volcano tour. Bruce, Harry, Joy, Anne and Gail went with Helen Lee, the pastors wife shopping to the main Guatemala market. Shanon arrived safely. Hosea, our interpretor/driver took us to an scenic outlook of the city at night.

January 21 - 2 WORKING DAYS COMPLETED

Kelly having his afternoon siesta

Jo, Hosea and Gail bending rebar. After bending 244 in 2 days it looks like we'll be on a "four" day bender to complete the job (only 446 to go).

Is my face really dirty?

Marianne and Henry tying rebar

Gail, Hosea and Ron cutting rebar

Kelly teaching the 'older' Breckman boys how to lay bricks

The Team

Computer problems have kept us away from the blog but it hardly mattered. The heat, long days of work and great fellowship left us in bed shortly after supper. Slept hard and hit the job site refreshed the next day. Today is a free day so some of us are going up to see an active volcano while others are going shopping in downtown Guatemala City.

January 19 Tactic, Guatemala

After four days of sickness, one in bed, two dragging around and one on the road to recovery it is good to be back in a better state this afternoon. I have never been sick away from home before so it was an experience having this happen when I am more or less on my own. (The team here from Regina and Les the Director of the Mission have done very well accomodating and including a sick stranger in their midst.)

I am so glad I got to come to rural Guatemala. I am not sure how my friends are fairing further south but from the pictures it sure looks like they are getting better weather. Today the sun shone for the first time since Tuesday. I wore sandals for the first time but still needed my sweater. All around the country side you see laundry drying on barbed wire or clapboard fences or on bushes. We drove to the smaller villages around here this afternoon to see where the other schools are and to locate our sponsor children. I did not get to meet mine yet as we could not find his home.

I spent the morning with a little girl whose mom was cleaning at the house where I am staying as I was not well enough to attend the teachers celebration of school starting. She and I tried to teach each other spanish and english. She stuck with it for about two hours...amazing. She told me here favourite thing to play is "sweeping" ...seriously! Later I found that her dad was murdered last year when his truck was stolen.

It is hard to describe what it is like here and pictures just do not do justice. The bare feet in the cold, the weaving mats set up on mud floors where women sit and make beautiful tapestries, the children carrying thier siblings who are almost the same size as them, cows and goats tethered here and there, horses mingling (with no riders) among the traffic on roads meant to be used by donkeys, cell phones ringing, people hugging and smiling and stopping to greet and talk no matter the urgency of their travels, groups of people watching a drag line working on the ravine, schools in the midst of construction that are being opened tomorrow where a thousand children will swoop into classrooms with cement floors, no heat and very basic furnishings or none at all. There is so much to see that does not remind one of home. I have so much respect for these quiet and dignified people whose lives by comparison to ours are very difficult.

The church is awesome....started at 4:00 which meant 4:15, Opening prayer lasted 15 minutes, worship singing lasted 1 hour, announcements took 15 minutes and then the testimonies and preaching began, ending with prayer time at 6:45. Could understand little but enough for God to touch my heart. Two little boys about 6-7 years old were in the front row by themselves. They sang their hearts out, imitating the faces and actions of the men leading worship.

That is it for today. I head to the city, Guatemala City, on Wednesday and so may not get to add to the blog until then. Meanwhile, thanks for praying, especially about my health. In all it has been wonderful and I would recommend this to anyone!

Blessings,

Shanon

January 19

January 18, 2009 Sunday

Gail missing her grandchildren
Kelly having his Sunday siesta

Views from the rooftop

Chinese Alliance Church

Today was a lazy, restful day. We attended the Chinese Alliance Church service, went for a walk, watched baseball from the rooftop, baked in the sun and went for a meal at an authentic Chinese restaurant. The Breckman family mastered the art of eating with chopsticks, which left more food for the Lees because they could eat faster. Tomorrow is our first day on the job.

January 17, 2009 WE ARRIVED!!

We arrived safely at our destination - 2 hours late. We were met by Joseph and Helen Lee and the team leaders, Jake and Joy Thiessen. What a great bunch! Our accommodations are great. We will be attending the church service 2 floors downstairs at the Chinese Alliance Church. The service will be in Cantonese, Spanish, Mandarin and English, all at the same time, starting at 9am. Judy, Tom is fine!!

2 More Sleeps

Those of us who are still back in the deepfreeze of Manitoba have 2 more sleeps until we are headed for Guatemala. Our suitcases are getting packed and the vacuums are busy sucking all the air out of plastic bags so we can bring along a whole bunch of clothes for Joseph and Helen to use for the orphage girls. Thanks to Erica for the e-mail alerting us to that need. One phone call to a member of our church has generated an outpouring of girls clothes size 2-18 years. Thank you to everyone who donated clothes - you guys are awesome. Between the six of us from Portage we can bring 12-50# bags, plus our carry-on backpacks(right Shanon??) so we are busy scrounging light weight suitcases to carry all the extra clothes in. WOW! Our God is so good. See you soon Shanon. Thanks for the update and the great pictures.

January 14 All is well

Thanks for checking the block. Here are some pictures for you.

Travelling went well with no mishaps. The country is beautiful, very damp and cool. The warm clothes are very needed.

I had a chance to meet with the teachers today and do two sessions with two more tomorrow. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the teachers were very happy to get Spanish documents...thanks to all the help I got at home.

Rita, Director of the Schools and wife of the director of the mission, had to leave today as her brother died suddenly of a heart attack in Denver Colorado. So presently I am here with all Guatemalan people who are being very considerate of this non Latino.....however it is not improving my Spanish all that much.

Many people here are very under resourced. It is different to be in a village rather than a city in a developing country as you see the contrast to the way we live so much more.

I wish you were all here to experience this country and it's people.

Will try to update again later in the week.

God bless!

This is one of the very narrow streets in Tactic
women working at the market
the dogs know where the meat is!
to market, to market to buy a fat pig...or at least it's head
don't see this at home much

fine young gentleman "Heber" pronounced "ever" who drives me around. He lives with the Director of the mission's family. His mom works at this small shop.
City square in Tactic
Municipal building

The lady who cooks for the family and all the visitors
Les and Rita Peters, directors of IMpact Ministries...they were given a baby six months ago which they will adopt...growing their family from two grown and married children with 5 grandkids, three adopted Haitan teenagers and now a little Guatemalan boy.
I spent the morning with the teachers and will again tomorrow. They are from the six different schools that have been established here in Tactic by the Impact Ministries - Rita overseas all of these.
This room was an outdoor basketball court but was closed in with metal walls on three sides and a roof to be used as a church, gym and general purpose area. Spacious, cold and damp.


Les and Rita's daughter is married to a Guatemalan gentleman and lives nearby. She was my translator today.




The following pictures are from the presidential building in Guatemala City