Salon in progress...

Since the internet is so slow today, I will just post a few pictures to give you an idea of what is happening. As you can see, the roof over the salon is half on, with First Bible of Decatur, Alabama, coming next week to complete it. Noe is putting a stucco finish on the inside walls and we bought some beautiful floor tile yesterday. Also, when all is completed, we had a generous gift of cash to buy the tables, chairs, whiteboard, etc, from Wisconsin and a gift of a projector from California! I can't wait to show you the completed room!
Some of you worked on the lower level last year. Finally, we are getting the wall tile up and will soon have the toilets and showers in. By the end of the summer, we hope all of this will be in use!

Kiki and Miguel have been working hard to get this completed!

Thank you to all of you that have worked on these projects, assisted with the building financially and prayed for these projects and their eventual use. May God bless you all.

Slow...

Tried to post some pictures tonight of the work that was done last week. Sorry...after 4 years without, it has been great to have internet...even if it is slower than dial-up! Not fast enough to load the pictures but I'll try again tomorrow. Until then, Dios te bendiga!

More on California/Ohio

Making friends
My personal gardener!

Smiles cross all barriers

Time out for games

Doesn't taste bad...once you get past the legs!

Visalia, California + Painesville, Ohio

Over the next few days, I will post pictures of our week with the Visalia team. (We had one join us from Painesville, OH, also.) In the meantime, I will be collecting pictures for the upcoming team!

When they send the wrong block, you make it work!

It's just like icing a cake...

But play nice!

There's always wire to bend.

We loved playing games after work! But you had to watch Alex...he was quiet but deadly!

The Second Floor is started...

As Summer 2009 begins, our first teams arrive. This summer's project is to put the second floor on the building that was started last year. It will be a meeting room that will hold about 50 people and an office on one end. The team from Visalia, California (and one from Ohio) got the walls up...

and now we are waiting for Pewaukee, Wisconsin to put on the roof! We are still finishing the bathrooms (the first floor) but most of that is tile work and hooking up toilets and sinks. This will be a fruitful summer in the work at Centennial Camp! May it all be used to the Glory of God!

Mexican Train/Chicken Foot

Learned some new games...and new rules to old games! This group must not be working hard enough; they stay up late each night and play games. And they are cutthroat! Pictures of their work coming soon!

I like my chairs!

When you are an intern, you get to do lots of things! I had bought the material for these chairs and had not had time to cover them. Krystal offered to do them and they look great! Thanks, Krystal!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It may look like a new toy, but Johnny and Samuel had great fun using the new lawnmower and I loved having my grass cut! You can see how tall the grass was...and it was even worse in the back yard! Then it was the basketball court and the lower picnic area. You should have seen him zoom up the hill when the rain started!

Fun!

This is representative of all last week! This week too...lots of cooking. We have a great group from California starting the second floor of the bathhouse building. Wisconsin, better hope they get all of the block laid! We have other plans for you! And FBC to follow! Can't wait!

Even though it is the rainy season, we have had almost a week of very little to no rain. It really was kind of nice, I worked in my garden several days. But today we returned from the capital to a torrential downpour. But Krystal was happy...she finally got to wear the rain boots she brought!

Krystal Holst

Meet Krystal Holst. She came to Centennial Camp last summer with her church group and contacted us about being an intern this summer. She is from Wisconsin and attends Grace College in Indiana. Last week we stayed in Panajachel because she was working at a school, attached to one of our churches, in San Andreas. They had her teaching English to middle school aged kids each afternoon. Krystal was very creative and played games with them to increase their vocabulary, such as Pictionary in the photo below.

Here, she is working with a group of young ladies putting a puzzle together by matching English words with their Spanish counterparts. As I said, she is very creative! She was such a success that the school (and the kids) wanted her to come back next week. So next week she will teach elementary school kids (English again) in the mornings at a public school in Argueta, then afternoon classes with the San Andreas school. Oh, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays, she is working with kids at a nearby church. Such is the busy life of the intern!

My Day

Sorry that I haven't "spoken" in awhile. Some people have asked what a typical day is like for us. I thought I would give a glimpse...

After returning from Panajachel at 7:00PM last night, Krystal (our intern) and I waited for Johnny to get back from the capital. He arrived about 11:00PM, exhausted, so it was bed for all of us. This morning I was up at 7:00AM, fixed breakfast and put in a load of laundry. Johnny headed up the mountain looking like a Guatemalan with his azadon (hoe), machete, botas (rubber boots) and mochila (backpack) carrying his lunch. He is working up on the mountain with a group of brothers from a village across the lake. Then, I washed the breakfast dishes, got a shower, entertained a family that came by to visit and sold a tarea of wood (about a cord, more or less). But since it was a truck load of women and a young boy, I also loaded the wood onto the pickup. And all of this is before 11:00AM! Now I need another shower, do some more laundry and sweep and clean the house before taking Krystal to her teaching duties at a nearby church this afternoon. While she is teaching, I will meet with a young lady that is working on her English for a couple of hours. Then home, fix supper and clean up before bed. Then it starts all over again tomorrow!

You come down and I will find work for you!

Rainy season is upon us

Last week, the rain started in our area of Guatemala. Now we have to remember to take umbrellas with us everywhere. Harking back to the days of our mothers, I have to remember if I have clothes on the line! But it is settling the dust and bringing out the flowers. Because it is cooler in the afternoons/evenings, jackets are usually needed and we have fires in the fireplace often!

What do you do...?

What do you do when four people show up at your house for a "lunch meeting" at 1:00 PM...a week early?

You feed them tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!

Such is life!

2009 Guatemala Field Conference

La Mision, in San Lucas, was the site of CAM's annual Guatemala Field Conference. It was a time of relaxation and renewing of the body and spirit in a beautiful setting!


Our speaker for the weekend was Roger Raymer, pastor of Lakeridge Bible Church in Mesquite, TX. He did a wonderful study on faith and how that relates to us, using Hebrews 11. As much as we enjoyed his time with us, we won't let him come back without his lovely wife Judy!

The only drawback to the location of the conference was the pig farm next door. We prayed often that the "Swine #9" would blow the other direction! And those of us that stayed overnights at the mission house got serenaded each morning by excited pigs...sounded like at least a thousand...at feeding time (5:00 AM). It gave a whole new meaning to "squeal like a pig"!

Cutting trees

Finally, we are beginning to cut the trees on the mountain. This must be done before we can build more around the existing cabins, as much to raise money for the Camp as to clear areas for building. Oxen are used to move the logs from where they are cut to the side of the road so the truck can pick them up. I was surprised at how trained the oxen were! With just a couple of hand signs, the young man could make them go forward, back up and step over the log so they could pull it. It was pretty amazing!

Semana Santa

Semana Santa - Holy Week - is a week-long celebration in Latin American countries like Guatemala. Many people are off from work, the banks only work half-days, the schools are out and everybody that can comes to Antigua! Although Antigua is famous all over the world for its celebrations of Semana Santa, on a much smaller scale you can find the same type of celebrations in almost every town.

Depending on the time of the processional, as much as 12 hours before begins the making of the alfombra. The alfombra, (carpet or rug) is elaborately made from such diverse items as flowers, vegetables, plastic or paper mache figures, colored sand or colored sawdust.

As much as a year before, the artisians decide on a pattern. These can be bought in the stores or handmade and be original designs. Because they are large, boards are placed across the design for the artists to use.

As I mentioned, the designs are elaborate and take many hours to complete. Usually whole households work on them together, placing them in front of their home or place of business. We watched this particular one being made, started before dawn and finished minutes before the processional passed over it.

Many people watch the alfombras being made, but the processionals themselves draw hugh crowds. Each Catholic church has its own processional and route. In Antigua, there are many processionals, each being done by a different Catholic church. All of the surrounding villages have one, so there are several each day, starting on Monday of Holy Week until the Sunday of Easter.

The members of the processionals are usually male, although we have seen a couple with women. The men are in either costume or robes and are carrying the "float" from their church. These men represent the Roman soliders that arrested and crucified Christ. They are proceeded by men in robes carrying burning incense, which is very strong and distinctive.

The "floats" are massive, weighing hundreds of pounds. This one pictures Jesus carrying His cross to Calvary. The women we saw carried a "float" of the Virgin Mary and was maybe half this size.

There are approximately 40 men carrying this "float". It is carried very slowly and with a side-to-side motion. As they walk over the alfombra, it is destroyed. All of that work is demolished in minutes!

Occasionally you will see an alfombra that celebrates the resurrection of Christ. And on Resurrection Sunday (Pascua), many of the evangelical churches have sunrise services. Pray that more people will focus on the Resurrection and the payment that was made for us. Pray we have wisdom in presenting this Good News to all of Guatemala!

Tortillar

Did you know there is a verb "to make tortillas"? We can't find it in any dictionary, but the ladies in Patzun said there was!Here we are making tortillas for the team I helped with in Patzun. The big, round griddle, a comal, is heated by propane gas in this case. In many homes, they are a piece of sheet metal over a fire!

Our group had trouble with their flights, so the young ladies from the earliest arrival got to help and received a cultural lesson!

I did better this time around! Two years ago, these same ladies tried to teach me how to make tortillas and I caused quite a bit of amusement!

Andrea and Katherine found out that if you don't keep your hands wet enough, you tear up the tortilla! On the other hand, if they are too wet, it tears up also! Since the Guatemalan women begin learning as early as age 4 how to do this, we were a little behind in the process!

Country Cousins

Meet the "Country Cousins"! We are a team of CAM missionaries here in Guatemala mainly located in the Lake Atitlan/Quetzaltenango/Huehuetenango areas. Last week we met together as a team for the first time and had a great time! Even though we are 2 and 3 hours from each other, we are the closest CAM missionaries to each other. We are also the only group of CAM missionaries not living around Guatemala City. So we have each others' backs.

L-R standing: Steve and Elise Sywulka (team leader), Danny and Daphne Foote, holding Naomi with Isaac, Chloe Ann and Titus kneeling in front (Santiago, across the Lake), Niel and Diana Thomas (LBN), Brandon Scott holding Deacon with wife, Jenny, and Madeline in front (Quetzaltenango), and Johnny and Maria Coker (Centennial Camp). Not shown are Dave and Helen Ekstrom (Huehuetenango) who were in the capital for Dave's back surgery. Pray for these folks because they are our "family" here and we need each other.

James 5 :16

Jornada Medica

As you read this, I will be working with a group out of Texas for the next three days. My primary function, along with two other nurses, is to run a medical clinic in each of three villages around the Lake: San Pablo (Monday), San Juan (Tuesday) and San Marcos (Wednesday). Other people in the group will be involved with local churches and teaching children. Pray for our time working, that in all we do, Christ's light will shine through us and it all be to God's glory! I will post pictures at the end of the week.