The Proclaimers have been ordered.

Earlier this spring our church was involved in a program
called Faith Comes by Hearing which distributes free of charge
CDs of the Bible for listening purposes.

A few week ago I received an email from the organization
(www.faithcomesbyhearing.com) forwarded by our Pastor.
The email contained a link directing me to the Every Church
Every Village program which provides Proclaimers in different
languages including the Mayan dialect of Kachiquel which is
specific to the very village where we will be going, Santa Maria
de Jesus. How awesome is that!

How does the Proclaimer work?

◦An installed microchip contains Scriptures in the heart language; the chip will not erase or wear out from frequent playing.
◦The battery will play for 15 hours and can be recharged enough times to play the entire New Testament more than 1,000 times.
◦The Proclaimer has a built-in generator and solar panel to charge the battery.
◦The solar panel, in addition to charging the battery, will run the Proclaimer even without battery power as long as there is sunlight.
◦The sound is digital quality and loud enough to be heard clearly by groups as large as 300.
The Proclaimer was developed primarily as a playback device for poor and illiterate people who may not have any other source to hear God's Word. Our goal is to use the Proclaimer in the majority of our FCBH programs worldwide.

Ten proclaimers have been shipped to me to take and should here
in 10 days or so.

What a gift to be able to share with the Santa Maria de Jesus
where there are many illiterate people.

The Every Church Every Village program requires listening groups
to be set up and pictures to be taken of the groups using the
Proclaimers.

I cannot wait to share them!

Trees and Such - by Lisa

So, I bought a tree this week. Not a real one, of course, but one of those bulletin board trees that you can punch out and assemble and add stuff to it and make it whatever height you need to. You get the idea. Well, I had the perfect tree in mind. I had one in my classroom that I used in all sorts of ways, and I figured it would be perfect. Then, when I got to the teachers' store, I realized that they not only have my tree, but about 5 other ones to choose from. Decisions, decisions. I guess you should know that I want a tree to go with our VBS theme in Guatemala. Our mission leader sent us a theme that he wanted us to use for our week: We are Sowers. Kind of a good theme, considering most or all of the children we are working with come from farming families. He also provided the stories and bible verses that we were to do each day. He asked us to plan to do lessons on the seeds of kindness, seeds of goodness, seeds of love, and seeds of forgiveness. From those ideas, we got creative license to do whatever crafts, games, and to choose a lesson delivery method. Anyway, we decided to build a tree with the kids, and each day, add the Bible verses to the trunk, and add leaves, fruits, whatnot to make it bigger and better. So back to the store. I began to look through the different styles and patterns of trees, and I began this debate between me and myself about which one to use. I felt bad for the store owner, because she just wanted me to pick one, and I must have spent 15 minutes discussing the pros and cons of each one. I decided on this really cute palm tree, and I got coconuts, bananas, and monkeys to decorate around it. I think with the leaves, and other cutouts, we will have enough for every child to put their name on a part of a tree to help to build it bigger and brighter each day. Now, I just hope we have one good wall to put it on!!

Snacks, snacks, and more snacks

My awesome mother in law and fellow mission team member just returned from a
shopping extravaganza at Sam's Club.

All the snacks for Vacation Bible School have to be purchased here and then taken with us to Guatemala in our suitcases.

Lance crackers, Goldfish, pretzels, and the fixins for PBJ sandwichs for the fiesta
(sans the bread of course) are all stored until we leave.

Now to find a way to pack all this. Hmmm......

Hooray for Sam's!

New Shoes - by Lisa

Well, today, I started my spring cleaning. I know, spring is almost over, so I should call it summer cleaning. Anyway, I started in my hall closet, with the SHOES. In the past, I have sorted closet shoes using the 3-G system: Good for another season, Goodwill Bound, or Garbage. Now, I use the 2-G System: Garbage, or Guatemala. There is no "in-between." It isn't until you have experienced mission work that I think you really understand the value of a pair of shoes. When we first met those beautiful children, we learned how important one pair of shoes can be for their health and well-being. So many children had no shoes. Those who did, sometimes had the ends of the shoes cut off so that toes could grow through. Shoes are important because they help reduce the chances of parasitic infections from the damp ground into their feet.

I began collecting shoes for this year's mission about a week after we returned home last summer. I waited for the seasonal shoes to come on clearance, then I'd buy up all they had on the rack. You get really strange looks when you are checking out with 25 pairs of children's shoes at a time! To one raised eyebrow, I commented, "Yep, I have lots of kids!" All year, I have been cruising the clearance aisles, just waiting for the markdowns. One of our sponsoring churches, St. Peter's UCC in Punxsy, knew how important shoes are. They collected over 75 pairs of flip flops for us to take along. Tonight, we decided to dump all of them out, just to see what these shoes would look like in one big pile. Check it out! 200 new pairs of shoes, just waiting to arrive in Guatemala. Just waiting for a child.

Not that we're counting!

Only 1 month and 1 week until we leave for Guatemala. For some of us it is a return trip, for others,their maiden voyage. Either way, we can't be more excited.

Our mission team will be returning to the village of Santa Maria de Jesus in the mountains of Guatemala where we will be providing Humanitarian Aid to the impoverished people there.
Additionally a medical team will be seeing patients, a Vacation Bible School will be held for nearly 150 children and the construction teams will be installing water filters, ovens, and pouring concrete floors.

Check back often for updates!