Last Day

It is our last day of construction for the two houses. The roof and the floor will be finished today and some other extras that will help make the home a bit easier on the family. Things like stairs made of cinder blocks and a concrete walk way add just an extra bit of convenience for the family and with all our people there to work, it was quick for us to "help" with. I am sure the people from Guatemala that are leading the building project are probably sick of our help since we are very slow and usually don't know what we are doing! We aren't used to carry burlap sacks of dirt...we have wheelbarrels. We don't normally chop cinder blocks in half with macheti's...we cut wood with high powered tools. And we don't barely ever dig up dirt from behind our house to throw on our floors to level it out! But this is what we have been doing because this is how they do it. Really makes us appreciate our "easy ways" back home.

It is our last day of VBS with the kids in Santiago. I know that it will be an emotional day for all of us as we say good-bye to them. After four days of hugs, tickles, tag, and giggles...we will be done at the school and taking each one of them in our hearts forever. We have been so blessed to spend this time with them. What amazing children they are and I know that every one of us is forever changed for having met them.

We took a record amount of pictures yesterday and have uploaded as many as time would allow. Check them out here.

Hugs and Love to all! -Amy B

PS> This picture of Roy cracks me up! The lesson for VBS included combing each others hair and the kids just FLOCKED to him! He has the least amount of hair of all of us but they insisted on combing his....head. Love it!

Day 3

Getting ready to get on the bus and get back to work today! No time to write but wanted to show some pictures to you so you can get a visual! Still working hard on the houses, still playing hard with the kids in the village and still enjoying this time to focus on what God is calling us to do instead of what our normal lives scream at us. Amazing time of growth for us all as we build relationships with these people and just 100% love on them.

You can view the pictures here. I didn't get to add titles to all of them but I hope you at least get an understanding by what is up.

Guatemala in Pictures

After our first day on the job, we were all a little tired last night and didn't manage to get anything written. But we did upload photos from our first two days to share with you all so you can see what we are getting to see down here.

The people are shy but friendly and the temperature is perfect for working and playing...until it started raining. The first half of our morning was dedicated to two teams working in two different areas, building homes. We quickly learned how to mix motar, apply it and lay cinderblocks to add the next couple levels on the walls of their future home. By home, imagine the smallest bedroom in your house, divide it in to two and call that a home. Seriously. Four people living in less than an 8x10 abode. I was very humbled by our first day.

After lunch, we began the first day of VBS with the kids. Over 60 kids between the ages of 4 and 12 showed up and it was total chaos but totally awesome! Endless fits of giggles surrounded us as we taught Bible stories, played games, made small bracelets, and served snacks with the kids. SO much fun! The icing on the cake was getting customary kisses on the cheeks with the "adios" as they left to go home. We were accepted.

Now please..look at the pictures from Day 1 here.

And the first half of Day 2 here.

Lost

Today the team woke up at the Vista Real Hotel. This is one of my favorite places. I love to get up early in the morning and sit under the Statue of Michael the Arch Angel and smell the Jasmine with wafts of car exhaust in the air. As Greg Reed said last summer, “It is a smell that just welcomes you to Guatemala”. It is a smell that you fall in love with. It is a smell that I get lost in. It is a smell that I find myself in too.

After this quiet morning welcome to Guatemala. I head into the restaurant for breakfast.

“Lost! One of our bags is lost! It never came to our room last night.”

This is the first hiccup of the day. Ok let’s go check the bus. Josue has been loading the bags, and the tarps are already on the luggage. I hated doing it, but we needed to find it. Josue counted the bags and thought that we came up with 43 bags, 43 bags? 2checked bags x 13 people + 13 carry-on bags, plus translator bags. The number sounded good, we were going to have to trust God on this. If God wants us to have what is in the bag than it is there, if not, it is not. Throw the tarps back on and let’s get going.

"Lost! I just had my notebook with the budget in it, what did I do with it. I just set it down at the store that we bought school supplies at. And POOF, it’s gone.”

We looked around for a little bit and decide to go. I can figure it out. It was just a book with numbers in it. Nothing actually lost. Let’s go we have a long trip ahead of us.
On the way to Santiago, It rained and the roads were washed out all over the place. Josue was incredible in his driving abilities. We made it safe and on time to Santiago.

We finally make it to Posada de Santiago...“Lost! They booked the room we were going to store our supplies in and have our team meeting. “ The hotel said we could rent the owners house next door to store our supplies and hold our meetings. But the price of$30 dollars a day was pretty steep. We can figure something out. Let’s just get into our rooms and we will be creative.

“Lost! “ Tara comes running up the hill. Amy thinks she left her Passport at the Vista.

We unloaded the bags from the bus. Josue’s count was right. The Missing Larkins bag was found. Josue went to get the school supplies out of his trunk. Look it’s my missing folder. It was in the basket of the shopping cart and Josue saw it and threw it in his trunk.
A call to the Vista Real, housekeeping found the pass port and had turned it in to the office. It will be in there safe until we return.

“Thank you Lord, for this day of lessons.
I remember why I came.
You have found me again Lord, and Now I am lost in you.”

Sometimes we think our mission is the stuff we bring. My focus was wrong in this. What we bring is the LOVE of Jesus. This is all we need. It does not matter what we bring in those bags if we don’t bring the LOVE of Jesus with us. I was lost in the stuff Lord, but you found me and I LOVE you.

Sometimes we as Christians think our mission is about numbers. How many will be saved. How many supplies can we bring? How much money can we donate? How many people we can medically treat? What we really need to focus on is the LOVE of Jesus. How much love is in our heart? How much do we LOVE our neighbor’s? How much do we LOVE our Lord Jesus? How much Love is in you? “Lord I was lost in the number of supplies. Lord I was lost in in “our” budget and you found me. I LOVE you Lord.

Sometimes we as Christians think missions are who we are. “We are Christians and we are bringing the word of God to these poor people.” Or we think we are very good Christians because of how much we are helping these people by building their houses. We even start to address ourselves as “Missionaries”, like it is a title to be worn with pride. We are nothing if we do not have the LOVE of Jesus in us. Everything I have earned is filthy rags next to the LOVE of Jesus. They should now us by our LOVE. Not by who we say we are. Not by what we bring. Not by what we build. BUT by our LOVE they will KNOW we are Christians. By the LOVE that Jesus has washed us with while we were still sinners should overflow and they shall know His LOVE that they see in us and know that we follow you. Lord I was lost in who I was. But you found me and I LOVE you.

Today I needed to refocus on why I was coming here. My Lord Jesus has helped me with this. It does not matter what I bring if I do not LOVE. It does not matter what the numbers are if I do not LOVE. It does not matter who I am If I do not LOVE. Lost supply bags, lost budget numbers, lost passport. We are lost if we do not LOVE Jesus. And if we truly LOVE Jesus we LOVE people. AND If we do not first focus on LOVING these people they may never know the LOVE of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord we LOVE you. We are here because of You. You invited us to be a part of what You have been doing here since You created this world. Thank you for LOVING us.

Written by Barrett Hartmen

We Made It

After an early alarm clock, a car ride, a bus ride, two plan rides, and another shuttle, we are finally here! No problems, total traveling mercy and even some funny stories along the way all kept us all smiling. I wasn't able to get pictures from some of the other team members yet but will tomorrow. These are just a couple I took...of us packing that shuttle FULL of suitcases packed with school supplies, soccer balls and VBS supplies.

Thank you to Spencer and Wendy Finney for allowing us to pack and launch from their home! Some of even got a minute to talk with Keith Havenstrife on skype while he is deployed to Iraq. We even got to stuff our faces with donuts before our departure!

At the packing party, everyone made necklaces with our names on them (which I gather is from a fun tradition started somewhere). Roy wasn't able to go to the packing party so the others took care of making his for him. From now on, he is known as RoyMundo! And it has pink beads...perfection!

Our hotel is amazing...even in the dark! Tomorrow, we head out nice and early to Santiago where we will be getting right to work. Sounds like rain for the week so we will all be stopping to buy some ponchos at the markets. Seriously. None of us planned on rain! We can't get away from it! ;)

Thank you all for your prayers! We made it through customs with NO problems...well...excluding Roy and Barrett and even those were just little hiccups for us to giggle about!

All for tonight! More tomorrow!

$348

Every year we buy school supplies for our kids as they begin the new year. What is it about school supplies that sticks with us? Why can we remember the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, scotch tape and elmer's glue? How much do we love cracking open a new stack of college lined paper just to flip through it and hear the sounds those sheets make before they are placed securely in our three ring binders. What is it about school supplies?

As I roamed the aisles at Target with $500 cash in my grubby little paws, I flashed back to moments from my childhood when we used to shop for new goodies to take to school. I remember overlooking the generic brands because only Crayola would do. Forget that glue with the blue applicator tip, Elmer's is the brand for me. Had to have the brand names. Couldn't have any ol' lame binder...had to be a Trapper Keeper with Kittens on the front.

I felt like I needed a shower. I felt really guilty for my childhood greed. Who cared what the brand was? I was just going to peel the labels off the crayons, glue my hands together for fun and use my ruler as an ax on the edge of my desk...who cared what the brand name was? For some reason, I did.

Not sure if it is parenting, or just plain maturity or if it was this really cool thing God did to remind me of where I came from [choose the latter] but I was suddenly renewed as my kids and I grabbed armful's of stuff and threw it in the cart. It wasn't about the brand names this whole time? I could have had TWICE the fun with my school supply consumer product testing had I known better?! I was just trying so hard to fit in and be normal...I didn't even think about the cost or be thankful that I even GOT supplies. New. Every year. These people on the receiving end, they don't care about the brand. They are just thankful for the goods! Oh Man! I wish I could bottle up that feeling I had right there in that Target aisle and share it with everyone.

Poor Target. Poor Tuesday shoppers of Target. Poor checker that was about to spend 30 minutes ringing us up with no order or quantity option because of how we were throwing and mixing everything together in our excitement. But yeah for filled suitcases. Yeah for big smiles on little faces. Yeah for stocking Guatemala school rooms and maybe having no one see who did it. Yeah.

We got to the register with a TOTALLY full cart, items strewn about behind us with little kids in tow to pick it all up. We grouped as best we could to help sweet Red Shirted Lady get through the mess and we watched as the numbers climbed higher and higher. I was afraid we might have gone over our $500 cash on hand limit. I hadn't been counting. Eek. Sweating.

$348. Seriously? That's all? No. There is too much in this cart for it to be only that?! Seriously? Did you know what $348 can do...school supply wise?! I had no idea! That a lot of generous, donated bills...that made out to be a whole ton of school supplies.

Every aspect of this mission trip has surprised me. I should not be surprised. But I was. Who knew...what $348 could be turned in to.

PS> The remainder of the money was taken back to Target a few days later to fill up another cart. On top of JUST THIS donation, our amazing church family filled FOUR suitcases with school supplies as of last Sunday AND gave $1000 more to purchase whatever else we could. What a blessing you people are. What a change you will make in Guatemala. Please know that. And thank you.

Yard Sale Fundraiser

Twenty five cents here, two dollars there...by the end of the day we were tired, exhausted and just barely dry after our day of fundraising via yard sale. Living in Washington, you know that there is always a chance it will rain but when the forecast predicts it, you better know it's coming!

We planned accordingly and had some awesome family and neighbors that donated tables, HUGE awnings and chairs for our use during the sale! At least 15 families came together and donated their used items for us to sell to help us build up the funds! The sale was on Friday and Saturday and corresponded with the yearly community garage sale event that our neighborhood holds! SUCCESS. There was a steady stream of people ALL day long on BOTH days! As rainy as it was on Friday, that was our greatest turnout! And Saturday, blessing upon blessing poured in as we basked in the sunshine selling our wares and baked goods!

Not only did God open up the hearts of those that were led to give, but he brought the most amazing people to our sale! We had signs everywhere, letting people know that every single dollar was going towards our trip...and I loved the conversations those silly green signs started! We met countless others who had been on mission trips to Guatemala prior and were happy to share their experiences with us! Others came, just to shop but left with big ol smiles as they contemplated coming to our church the following Sunday. Some of our close friends stopped by to give us hugs, donate more stuff or even just give us a handful of cash to add to the pot! *sigh* It was unbelievable!

Now, I really wrestled with whether or not it was appropriate to share the total dollar amount raised on this site. I prayed about it, asked trusted friends and ran it by my lovely family. I still don't know the answer but, I want you to know that...with the money raised from this single two day event, we were able to pay for HALF our trip!!! Can you believe that?! I was in tears when the final total came through. Only God can take those handfuls of change, those wadded up dollar bills and those nickel & dime sales and turn it in to one...BIG...fat...amazing amount of money!

God never fails to amaze me! How we could start the day out with a bunch of old stuff, some baked goods and prayer and end up with such a huge, life changing blessing! How marvelous...