Frank and Frankie's Blog

Sunday - We arrived at the church this morning around 9:30. The students went inside and practiced with the kids for their performance during the worship service. Frank & I attended the adult class outside under the shed. There were about 10 of us. Da-vid (the pastor) explained the Roman Road. He would ask us questions and had us ask him questions. Of course, the scripture and discussion was all in Spanish. We did have David (the missionary) interpreting for the two of us. Frank closed the class in prayer (in English). The church service started around 10:30 (means somewhere around that time). The youth and kids performed their VBS songs and the kids read scripture and presented posters showing the 5 days of creation. Then Da-vid led us in spanish worship music which was enjoyable even though some of us didn't know what we were singing. Missionary David then preached (in Spanish). SS and church seemed a little chaotic to us with the children running around, the dogs running through the church, a futbol tournament going on across the road, but we still felt the presence of God there. David (the missionary) said we should feel honored because they had never had that many children at church service before. We finished up around 12:00, but it took about 45 minutes before the children finally left and only then because they closed the church doors. The kids (and all of us) were very sad to see the time end. We then enjoyed a delicious Guatemalan meal cooked by several ladies of the church. We were told this was a big honor because this is something they do not normally do. It was called pepeon (which is chicken with all kind of vegetables over rice.
We then took a 2 hour ride to see some Myan Ruins. We had 30 minutes to look around and then the 2 hour ride home.
We have been real impressed with our youth. We have had it easy. We just do what they tell us to do, mostly coloring, putting puzzles together, or pouring cups of water for the children. They have done all the work. They have been a wonderful group to work with. The church should be very proud of our students.
Tomorrow we travel to Antigua for a day of shopping and actually eating at a Guatemalan restaurant.

The Hard Times of Kasey y Terry!

Hola! Como estas?(How are you?) Somos bien!(We are good.) Unlike previous blogs, we have to start by telling you what happened last night before bedtime. Before resting our little heads last night, 7 of us stayed up and had bedtime stories. Kasey entertained with his crazy and very peculiar family mishaps. Not to mention his extremely bad, bad luck. Wil and Terry were in tears and Ken said Kasey should write a book. He is comtemplating stand up comedy. Today was a wonderful day in the neighborhood. We started out as a usual morning, waking up to a complete breakfast. Then an Hour and half ride to Palin with a crazy driver. Being that it was Saturday, we had kids all day going in and out of the church. We played a lot of Futbol(soccer). The first group was in the morning and it consisted of several little children and they were bonita(beautiful). Then the guys played soccer with the older kids and after we all came in and colored. Dalton almost died, but he is O.K. We(Kasey and Terry) are rock stars among all the children, because we were signing autographs all day. The ladies love us(Kasey), because three girls have never been there all week and they show up today just to see and meet Kasey. Terry and others were left in the dust. Maritiza and Marlen gave Kasey their bracelets and Kasey gave Maritiza his. The second group came in today around two and the girls stayed to play, color, crafts, and play more kid games. The guys on the other hand, went and played soccer with the older youth that were there. We played a game America vs. Guatemala. We held our own against them, which was impressive.Before we started playing, we used our competitiveness to minister and share the word of Jesus Christ to the youth. Also, at the time we started sharing a monsoon blew up. It was raining like it does near the eye of a hurricane. The devil tried to stop our witness, but he failed because we all played in the rain. We played a whole game and a half, which was our way of celebrating his Love and Care for all of mankind. Afterwards, we went to the shelter on the side of church to give each youth a Spanish English Bible. Each individual of our youth gave a Bible and prayed over each of the Guatemala youth. It was an awesome moment for all of us to grow and it was Amazing to see the kids faces to find out why we there hanging out all week. After we prayed, we all went inside to color some more and start the music session. We sang and dance with kids and THEY LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After all was said and done, everyone knew it was our last day (except church in the morning), so we ended up staying longer than usual and take multiple pictures with the kids and sign the frisbees we handed out today. Then all packed in the van and headed back to the house to eat and fellowship among ourselves! Not much of hard times, but they are Awesome Times that will never be forgotten!

Dalton, Meredith, and Allyson's blog

El cuatro dia (day 4) of our voyage. We started our morning off with oatmeal, eggs, and fresh fruit. After breakfast, Kasey told Wil and Mary that it was impossible to swallow a spoon full of cinnamon, being the daredevils they are they took on the challange. A big powder of cinnamon puffed out of their mouths! We then began our travel to Palin. The kids arrived an hour or two late because the World Cup began today and in Guatemala, thats a very big deal! So our morning was very slow. But, after lunch, we made up for it. Dalton and Terry went to the Guatemalan store to get some water. We are suppose to drink a bottle of water every hour to keep us hydrated. We knew Mary was hydrated because she made 11 journeys to el bano (potty). Pastor David began to laugh everytime she asked for the keys to his house. After lunch, the kids came in massive multitudes. We colored and painted pictures and then Wil told the bible story in spanish for the day. Once this was finished, we drew on the pavement with sidewalk chalk, the guys played soccer, and some of the others sang and did an interpretive movement. We finished the day with the children by playing "wheels on the bus" in the middle of the street. The kids were so fascinated they could play for hours! We then loaded the 15 passenger bus with 21 of us, and headed to downtown Palin. We got to experience first hand the Guatemalan culture. We saw the state tree, and walked around the market. While outside the market, we saw a man carrying a big slab of raw meat on his back. David gave us a quick tour around the main street and hurried us back out of the town. The bus ride home was entertaining filled with interesting conversations! We came home to a Guatemalan meal which consisted of rice, beans, beef and tortillas. The dessert was the BEST part! Today was an exhausting day and we need to rest because we will have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Please continue to pray for our team as we plant seeds in the lives of the Guatemalan people. Goodnight!

Day 3: Zach and Mary!

Hey yall! It's Mary and Zach here with todays blog. We began the day bright and early. For some of us (Mary and Mrs. Frankie) it began at around 540, when the sun rose! We ate a traditional Guatemalan breakfast which included beans and plaintains (YUMMM!). On the way to Palin (where our ministry is), we were stuck in traffic because of many landslides that occured during the night (because of the great amount of rain). Once in Palin, we began vacation bible school for the children that do not attend school. We were so surprised that the children were able to remember the music/dances. We were also shocked that the number of children DOUBLED!!!! We then took a break for lunch and to play futbol with the children. The school girls came out to talk to the "gringo" girls, which means North Americans. At 1, we held vacation bible school for the other children. We had around 200 show up! They all loved the bible school music and were sad to leave! We assured them "Hasta Tarde" (see you tomorrow afternoon). During our debriefing, Pastor David informed us that while we were teaching the children, he had the opportunity to share the gospel with many mothers who are not Christ followers. Well, we have Ken reading over our shoulder now so we feel its time to close this blog! :) We love you all and miss yall! Parents, we would love some comments on here! thanks!

The Adventures of Jamie and Wil

hola. se llama es jamie y wil. for you all Grengos, that means hello. our names are Jamie and Wil. So, our day started off with everyone setting their alarms wrong, and waking up two hours early thanks to time change. After everyone was up except Jamie and Zach who slept until the last minute, we were served pancakes... very yummy!! with fruits and whipped cream. We all finished eating and loaded up in our vehicles to Palin. Once we arrived, we were expecting loads of children. However, we ended up with none.... :( so we ended up playing soccer by ourselves, which was later ended after Jamie kicked the ball over the wall with barbwire at the top. So we went back to the church and Mrs. Jo suggested that we go on a prayer walk to the poorer side of the village. On our walk, we saw where a mudslide had demolished a street leaving nothing behind but a creek. The houses were covered all the way to the ceilings to the point where you can no longer get into the houses. Also on the poorer side of this village there were pink and purple dyed chickens! Also when we arrived there was a horse in our parking spot which brought back bad memories for Kasey and Dalton. Once we returned from our prayer walk there were six children in the church waiting on us. We helped them color, while some of us colored with them (wil and Allyson), before we moved on to the story (told by Dalton) about the day God created the oceans. After the story we taught them the motions to two of the songs. (Rickshaw Rally & the ABC song) When the little kids left, we ate lunch and fellowshipped amongst ourselves. Once we finished... THAT'S WHEN THE FUN STARTED... We got another soccer ball (futbol) and played with some of the local kids. Slowly but surely, the kids started piling in. While we were playing not only did Zach score his first goal on Terry, but he also had a little accident. When Zach went to control a bouncing ball, it just so happened to pop up and catch him in the privates and removed himself from the game. In the meantime, Dalton was getting shown up by our new friends Milo and Christopher. We ended our game and called them in to begin our bible study, we had about 90-100 kids for the entire day. The rain couldn't stop us from doing our ministry, even though it tried. We even brought aboard our handy dandy babysitter better known as Meredith. Everyone had their turn to hold baby Marco while we were waiting on our bus driver Luis to arrive. We made it back to the house, had a great meal. We are about to meet in our small group, then head to bed looking torwards a great day tomorrow!

Wil & Jamie out!
peace... love y'all!

Day One: Arrival

FROM: Lindsay, Niki, & Team
WE MADE IT! After getting up at 6 o'clock this morning and Niki leaving her pillow in the hotel room, we made it to Guatemala around 1:37 PM your time. Lindsay, Jamie, and Frank had an interesting plane ride including a small Hispanic boy constantly screaming and making faces at them. Niki and Terry enjoyed the in-flight movie, Valentine's Day, while everyone else slept. When we landed, we got to enjoy McDonald's and we even got fast AND friendly service! They literally ran to get our food ready and make sure everything was right! McDonald's even had High School Musical playing over the radio, IN ENGLISH! Boy, was it a shock when we got down here and EVERYTHING was in Spanish! They had Burger Kings, Wendy's, and even Taco Bell! Needless to say, we were excited. Gas prices were 26.49 a gallon! (Don't worry, it was in their currency.) We dropped our stuff off at the bed and breakfast, then visited the village will be working in for the next week. We got to see their church and meet the local pastor. The church was only one small room with an outside annex shelter! There was nothing in the room and we had to pull up lawn chairs to sit down while we were discussing upcoming activities. We took a tour of the village and we saw a cat and a chicken on the roofs of the houses! CRAZY! Dalton attempted to play soccer with some of the locals, but he was rejected! (They were only playing 5 on 5.) On the way back to the bed and breakfast, Kasey slept while everyone else enjoyed the scenery. Ken and Zach were fascinated by the landslides that were on every mountain. Everyone was amazed by the crops on the side of steep mountains! Ken was so fascinated with a security guard picking his nose that he decided to take a picture of it. We witnessed unsanitary habits in the streets. Like it was promised, it started raining when we got to the house. We enjoyed a spaghetti supper with cake and ice-cream for dessert! We had a debriefing session, and now we're all just chilling until we're ready for bed which will not be long! Can't wait to start VBS tomorrow! Love and miss you all :)

Go Time!

We are leaving for Guatemala on Monday, June 7th at 3:00 PM.