What a team!

What a special group of people I had the honor to take to Guatemala last week!  God pulls together each team and I get the pleasure to watch what he does with them.  It was great to see how God used each person to minister to the children at the New Life Children's Home.  We have great memories and I look forward to serving with them again.  

Last week in Villa Nueva, Guatemala, God won and the Devil lost.

Well done my good and faithful servants!

Goofin'

It wouldn't a Servants' mission trip without some fun time!

 Do the locomotion!  Emphasis on Loco!

 Paul posing... I hope, on Michelle's toilet.

 Um... not sure what to say about this.

 Dylan and I sharing a little coke float tim ein the back of the pickup on the way to town.

 I wish I had never shown them that Candy Mountain video.  

 Pretty little princess Dylan

 We took Paul into the hospital for a little kidney discomfort and they accidentally amputated his legs!

 Guard dogs!  Really?

 Break time!

 Miguel Jordan!

 I think they were dancing!

 Wayne!  No he isn't goofing it was really hurt.  Something new every day for Wayne!

Mike posing on the wall overlooking Antigua!

Antigua

We spent our last day in Antigua getting a taste of the culture and resting up for our trip back home.

Some of the team outside our Hotel

The little Hyundai that took us to the coffee plantation.  In theory you could squeeze in 11 people.  We decided to go with 16 adults! 

 With his sprained Achilles, Wayne decided the hike up to the Cerro de la Cruz wasn't a good idea.  He took the taxi back to the hotel.

 Hiking up the path to the Cross

 a great shot of the cross

 The team at the foot of the cross... where we should always be!

 After that hike we decided to follow Wayne's lead and take the taxi back to the hotel.  Really made for two but we were in Guatemala so we went with 3!

 Panoramic shot of the Market

 Mariachi band in the park at night.

 The beautiful Antigua Arch

Karate

York Christian Church has a really cool Karate ministry that helps teach kids discipline and self esteem as well as self defense.  It is a great thing to share at the children's home because it helps us build relationships with the kids so we can better share our faith with them.

 Getting ready for the demonstration

 Mike and Joe

 Mike working with Ramsis

 David

 Watch out Mike!  It is the little ones you have to watch out for!

Mike teaching the foot stomp technique to Jans.  I think he learned it a little too well!

Linda Vista

Linda Vista is a community near the children's home that started about 12 years ago as an empty hillside.  It now is home to about 250,000 people and is considered the largest squatter village in Central America.  Part of the team went up to Linda Vista to do some work at the school that is providing education for the children with very limited resources.

 The team

 A classroom in the large open building

 Installing a wall to enclose a classroom.

 Breaking our the rest of some broken windows

a bucket of glass

a beautiful view

Concrete = Hard work

The Home took full advantage of having a concrete expert on site.  Joe and his minions mixed and poured lots of concrete.

 Sam working on mixing a solo batch!

 Olivia got to wheel it around.

 Dylan smoothing a pour

 Joe providing the expert finishing touch.

 Mixing by hand.  

 Where is a cement truck when you need one?

 Joe teach Darryl some tricks of the trade.

 Then Sam

The completed job... for the day

Michelle's Bathroom

Michelle is a very special girl at the New Life Children's Home.  God made her just a little smaller than the other kids.  She will be 4 years old in May and weighs in at 11 pounds and can still walk under tables without ducking.  But that doesn't slow her down.  She is very smart and has a bilingual vocabulary.  We feel that God has big plans for the little girl!! One of the special projects we got to work on was plumbing out her new bathroom in the new house on the property.

 Assistant plumber Wayne with Michelle's new toilet before the installation.

 Wayne working on the install.

 Michelle lending a little perspective.  Notice that the sink comes up to her knee cap!

The plumbing crew, David, Wayne, & Kathy with the finished product!