Muchas Gracias? - by Robin and Lisa

Where do we begin? We are already into our work week, and so much has happened, and we have so much to share. It is hard to know where to start. These past few days have been filled with so many wonderful events. When we arrived at the village, there was a huge celebration planned for us. They decorated the community center, applauded us when we get off of the bus (before we have even done a thing!) and danced and gave prayers on our behalf. Our afternoon was spent getting trainings and organized for the work projects for the week. But the high points were certainly seeing old friends, and getting many many hugs from many new friends as well.

The stove teams are busy at work, and cranking out stoves at a wonderful rate. Floor team is doing great, too. The medical clinic is booming, and Robin is updating photos for the child sponsorship program, along with organizing the pharmacy at the clinic.

I think that one of the most touching moments of our week was seeing sponsors meet their children. I can't quite describe how excited we were to meet them, and then multiply that by about 10X excitement for the child to meet their American sponsors, whom they call "godparents." I am sure we will never really understand the depth of their gratitide. But the love, and thanks that we are shown brings tears to our eyes.

Sent With Love -- by Lisa

I think it is official. We are packed and ready to load the car. We have spent the greater part of this week packing, repacking, arranging, and rearranging the donations we have collected and stuffed into our suitcases. Just when we think we are finished, we realize that we either forgot something, or someone else calls and asks if it is too late to send things. When I open the suitcases, I get a glimpse of so many wonderful, heartfelt gifts that we have the privilege of delivering to the children and their families in just a few days. This year we are blessed to have some very special gifts among all of the much-needed supplies of clothing, shoes, vitamins, socks and underwear. I want to tell you about a few of them….

“With Love From Rosanne” – our dear friend Rosanne Fillman has been hard at work with her crafting. She made the most beautiful little animals to give to the children: chicks, frogs, hedgehogs, owls, so many cute little critters in that bag. I cannot wait to see the look on their faces when I get to give them to the kids. Each one, made with much love from an American friend whom they cannot meet in person, but who loves these children and their families beyond belief!

“Jesus Te Ama” – A few years ago, a group of folks from the Brookville UM church sent some beautiful hand-made quilts with us to Guatemala. Earlier this spring, I got a phone call from their group, and they asked if we would like more quilts to take along this year. These quilts are amazing. They are made from jeans, sewn with a flannel back, and some of the most beautiful color patterns and designs I have ever seen. Each one unique, and made just for kids. About a month ago, I got a call that they were ready to be picked up, along with several bags of other donated items, namely socks, shoes, undies, and small stuffed animals. We couldn’t wait to go pick them up! Imagine our surprise, however, when we decided to take a peek inside the bag to see the quilts. Each one was as beautiful as we expected, but also had a little something special added to it… they wrote “Jesus Te Ama” on every single quilt. Translation… Jesus Loves You. How wonderful is that? Wrapped in warmth, and the love of our Savior!

“With Love From Your Sponsor” – As you have read, there is a wonderful opportunity to help the children in this village through a child sponsorship program. This year, we are able to deliver gifts from American sponsors to their Guatemalan families while we are in Guatemala. Our mission group from PA has decided to stay an extra day on the mission in order to travel to the village, and meet with the children and their families. Robin is the lucky holder of most of the gifts from the sponsors. However, I got lucky enough to get a peek at just one of the gifts that were prepared for a child in Santa Maria de Jesus. Our friend Brenda Weber dropped off a beautiful hand-made bag for her child, Maria. It was filled with all sorts of goodies: crayons, a coloring book, hair ties, a notebook, and lots of other simple gifts that will mean the world to one little girl and her family. I can’t wait to give Maria her gift, and to help deliver all of the gifts to the village for their American families. More importantly, I cannot wait to hug those kids, and tell them how much they are loved by folks who genuinely care about them and their families, even though they are thousands of miles apart.

And so tomorrow we load the car to head to Pittsburgh. In just a short time, these gifts will make their long journey into the mountains of Guatemala, every single item ... Sent With Love

Loaves, Fishes, and 9-1-1 (by Lisa)

Well, we were packing. Again. It is such a long, and sometimes tiring project. We decided to try to gather the boxes and bags of donations, and try to put some sort of order and organization to them today. We met in Robin’s church basement because it is a pretty central location to everyone, plus it has lots of great space to work in. When I arrived at the church, with my car packed to the roof with donations, I almost fell over. I had only seen the mountains of donations in my house. Now multiply that mountain by 5. Or maybe 6. We had so many donations it looked like a store. Robin was already on the ball, having begun to sort and band together clothes of similar sizes. Shoe sorting was well underway. I hardly knew where to begin. I decided to start helping with shoes. I bet we had 1,000 pairs of shoes. Our first task was to take all of the flip flips and put them into large suction bags. We found out if you line them all up in the bag, and then suck the air out, you can fit at least 40 pairs in each bag. We filled bag after bag after bag. Just when we thought we got them whittled down, we would find another bag or box of shoes to deal with. Finally, after packing the last of what seemed to be the last of all of the shoes, I said something like, “Yeah, we think we are done, and then we will see that one box of shoes that we didn’t see before.” No sooner than I said that, then I walked across the room to gather a pile of sweatshirts that needed to be packed. I lifted them, and guess what was hiding under the sweatshirts. Another box of shoes. 50 pair. God was certainly keeping the steady supply coming.

We packed for hours. Crayons, pencils, chalk, snacks for VBS, socks, undies, clothes, toys, stuffed animals, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo. It seemed endless. As we were filling suitcases, Mattie and Laura took the job of weighing each one carefully. We have to be so careful to stay under 50 pounds, because anything over that will be a huge problem at the airport. We finally got to the point where all of the tables were cleared, and we realized we still had room to spare. Imagine that! Thousands of pounds of donations, and still room for more. Just as we were cleaning up, we noticed two suitcases that had been donated to our team to use if needed. Because we didn’t think we needed them, we hadn’t even moved them an inch. As soon as I picked up the largest suitcase to put it in my car, I thought, “This is a really heavy suitcase. Too heavy to be empty.” Bingo. Filled with clothes. A huge bundle of clothes. And the smaller one, filled with clothes. Isn’t it just like God to provide more than you think you might have?

By now, you kind of get the “Loaves and Fishes” theme. But 9-1-1? Well, one of the things that I did not tell you about Robin’s church is that it has an elevator. Extremely helpful for getting large suitcases into the basement! Mattie and Laura had loaded up the elevator with suitcases to take to the car. One of the suitcases tipped over, and pushed the emergency button on the side of the elevator. There is a big sign in the elevator by the emergency button that states something like this: “Warning! Pushing this button immediately places a call to 9-1-1 emergency services.” So, within seconds 9-1-1 was called and we were listening to the operator asking, “What is your emergency?” Unfortunately, we did not read the “How to talk to 9-1-1 in the elevator” instructions, and we lost connection. We all know what happens when someone calls 9-1-1 and then doesn’t talk. An entire stream of emergency personnel rushing to the location, right? Luckily, Robin called again via the elevator button, and canceled the emergency call. Whew! Sound crazy? Not to us – just a typical event for the Guatemala Crew!

Congratulations! It's a Boy! - by Lisa

Well, that certainly will catch your attention! We all know that additions to the family are some of the happiest times in our lives. And that’s why we are so excited to share with you the addition to our family, a young man named Kevin Estuardo. Kevin happens to live in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, the village that we have been working in and will return to in just a few weeks. He is just one of the several hundred children who is enrolled in the GIFTS program, a child sponsorship program organized and run by one of our own mission team members, Robin McMillen. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Five years ago, during our first mission to Guatemala, we were experiencing what so many people experience during short-term mission work. We were struggling with our emotions as we were preparing to leave these beautiful people, and attempting to return to our “normal” lives. News Flash – our lives would NEVER be normal again. We were torn with the thoughts of returning home, to our ever-comfortable lifestyles, into our safe, warm homes and communities. We wanted to be able to give more and help more, even when we were not in Guatemala. It was during that week that we decided to sponsor a beautiful young lady from the school in which we had worked. Last summer, we learned that Bernarda was no longer able to attend school due to her mother’s failing health, and we were asked to select a different child for sponsorship. Because we had spent so much time in Santa Maria de Jesus, we decided to select a child from that village to invite into our lives. That was a very hard decision to make. We looked at the hundreds and hundreds of photos of children. Did we want to sponsor a boy or a girl? What age should we pick? How can I choose one child from all of those beautiful faces? And then, it hit me. I remembered that my sponsorship enables me to have a personal connection with one child in the village, but my donation actually benefits every single child in the program. From nutritious meals, to health care, to school tuition, and school supplies, I cannot even begin to explain all of the benefits of sponsoring just one child from the village.

Someone commented, “It’s kind of expensive.” Well, I can understand how the thought of $360 a year seems expensive in one payment. But it is $1/day. That’s one can of soda from the pop machine at work. And I am the soda machine’s best customer. One dinner out for our family… that’s entire month’s sponsorship for a child. Remember: food, medicine, school tuition, school supplies. It seems like such a win-win situation. But, the hard part wasn’t deciding whether to sponsor, but just picking the child.

It took weeks. We would look, and remember certain kids we met from the village. Then we would search through the photos, looking for that child. No matter how many times we scrolled through the photos, we kept coming back to the photo of Kevin. He seemed a little older than some of the other kids. I ended up calling Robin to find out a little more about Kevin. He is 14 years old, and from what we can tell, he has one brother, and they live with their mother. There was no information about Kevin’s father, so we can guess that he probably does not have one. If he is the “man” of the house, it would be easy for him to drop out of school and go to work. We hope and pray that our sponsorship will enable him to continue his education, and provide enough help for his family so that they can begin to break the cycle of poverty.

So, in three weeks, we will meet each other. I can hardly wait. We hope that he is as excited to meet his American family as we are to meet our Guatemalan family, too! Interested in adding onto your family? Check out these beautiful children at http://giftsprogram.org/. Warning: #133 Cristian Israel will steal your heart! See for yourself!

What Can I Do? - by Laura

I am Laura and I am 11 years old. Lots of people ask me that when they see me helping out with our fundraisers for Guatemala. Then lots of people ask, “Do you go on the mission trip?” When I tell them, “Yes,” they look surprised. Then, I tell them this will be my 5th year going to Guatemala. Then they REALLY look surprised. I started going when I was 7 years old. I usually get asked lots of questions about if I work on the mission, and what I can do, because I am a lot younger than most of the other people that go on these types of trips. SO… I thought you’d like to know what I have done during mission work.

My first year in Guatemala, I helped build a roof on a school in the village of Santiago Zamora. It was really hard work, but I helped fill buckets of concrete to hand to the people who were on the roof. I also learned how to mix cement, and lay a brick wall at Hogar Miguel. We also sorted through mountains of clothes that were donated to the orphanage. The next year, when I was 8, I helped to build a playground, too. I painted concrete slides and monkey bars, and made a garden at the school too. I went with my Dad and we delivered and planted fruit trees to a bunch of homes in the village. I was also on a concrete floor crew one year. That was REALLY hard work, but I loved mixing the cement with the giant shovels. I jumped into the messy concrete before anyone else could get there. I loved splitting open the bag of concrete to pour in. Last summer, I learned how to build stoves for homes in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus. We could usually get a stove done in less than 2 hours. Then I helped to cook hotdogs for the family to celebrate their new stove. Hot dogs were a special treat, kind of like cake and ice cream for us. Every year, I help with Vacation Bible School, too. I help sing songs in Spanish. Every day we make a craft, and we try to play games with the kids. They like hula hoops and Frisbees, bubbles and sidewalk chalk. They love having a kid just their size to play with.

Well, now you know what I do on the mission trips. I think you can see, you are never too young to be able to do God’s work.

Ready, Set, VBS! - by Lisa

Getting ready for Guatemala VBS is a lot like getting ready for an impending blizzard. You do everything possible to get yourself braced, and ready to weather the storm, and then sit back, and hope and pray for the best. Having been a part of VBS programs for countless years here at church, I know how much hard work and preparation a good program requires. Having had the privilege of being a part, and leader, of Mission Bible School, I can honestly say that nothing, absolutely nothing, in my experiences here prepared me for the wonderful chaos of Guatemalan VBS.
First of all, we have to prepare most everything we need for crafts and snacks here in America before we ever arrive. Anything that we can cut out, assemble, or package, we will do before we get to Guatemala. We will have relatively no planning time each day, and we need to reserve our crew meeting times each night to deal with last minute problems, changes of plans, and shortages of materials as they occur. Even general supplies must be taken along, for things as simple as masking tape, scissors, and hole punchers are nearly impossible to be found in foreign countries. And so we plan, we make lists, we plan some more, and make even more lists. Lists of general supplies, of craft supplies, of snack supplies. Lists of materials we can take in case we can do recreation outside. Lists of materials we can take in case we do recreation inside. Lists of songs we can sing in Spanish, and songs we can teach them in English. Then, of course, we will have a master list of all of the lists that we need to take!

Last year, I was told to plan for 100-150 children. We had around 200 children each day, with one day topping 300. Because I tend to “overplan” things, we were lucky to only run out of supplies once that week. This year, we were told to plan for 200. I can’t help think…. Will this 200 turn into 400 at our peak? We can only hope! I guess at this point you may wonder about the size of the building that will accommodate 300+ children. Well, sometimes we don’t have a building. Sometimes we work outside (praying all the while for good weather), and sometimes we luck into an area under-roof. Last year, we used a beautiful little church in the village – but LITTLE was the word. Building capacity, maybe 75. So, imagine 300 kids and 10 adults?

But, nobody seems to mind whatsoever. The kids come early and stay late. They love to sing, dance, and make a little something to take home that day. And, as a team, we work hard to provide the best program possible for everyone there, no matter what. We have learned some “tricks of the trade” along the way!
1. The kids know the sounds of our vans, and when the vans arrive at the church, Bible School begins even if it’s not 2:00 yet.
2. If you want your crayons back to use the next day, you have to get the kids to exchange them for a snack.
3. Kids try to get in the snack line many times, so you have to come up with a clever way to know if they have already gotten snack.
4. As per #3, stickers don’t work. Stamp pads, with different colors do work, but some kids try to lick off the stamp before you catch them.
5. Some kids will bring back their craft, their coloring pages, or even their take home verses every single day, just to show you that they still have them.
6. Bubbles, stickers, and balloon animals are WAY BEYOND exciting!

Regardless, there is nothing that compares to the love and joy that fills your heart when you are lucky enough to be part of Guatemalan VBS.

You're Buying How Many?? - by Lisa

Over the past few weeks, I have made some rather unusual purchases, all of which I have been “over-the-top” excited about. I sometimes wonder about the cashier who is “lucky” enough to get me for a customer. I also wonder about the person who happens to be standing in line behind me. I imagine their thoughts about my cart. It has to be something that goes like this: My word, how many pairs of flip flops does that lady have? There have to be…one, two, three, four…… nineteen, twenty…. I bet she’s one of those hoarders that I see on the A&E network. Yesterday I bought VBS snacks for about 200 kids. That amounts to something like this: 7 huge bags of animal crackers, 7 large boxes of goldfish crackers, 3 large boxes of cheerios, and 200 packets of Austin’s cheese crackers. Oh, and 400 zippy bags. I could hardly wait to get the stuff home, and to practice packing it in some suitcases. There is some strategy for figuring out which things should go in the same bag and which should be separated. Animal crackers take up lots of space, but are light-weight. Not easy to pack. Cheese crackers: super heavy, but easy to pack. Today, we shopped at Ollie’s. We checked out with three 20X25 foot tarps to take to the community center in Santa Maria de Jesus. The folks there like to cover part of the entry-way area, which will serve as a waiting room for the medical clinic. The tarps serve as shelter from the pouring rain, and also the baking sun, which can both be expected on a daily basis. Last year, they attempted to rent tarps, which were already dilapidated before they even hung them. This year, we plan to surprise the village with three brand new tarps, free from tears and holes, and theirs to keep. But, while I was there, I bought the best thing ever: a Spanish Family Bible, which I intend to give to the family of the child we sponsor through the GIFTS program. I tried to share this excitement with the check-out lady, but she just gave me this blank stare. Anyway, I cannot wait to see their faces when we give it to them. In a place where hope and faith in God are essential for everyday life, giving them the Word of God seems like such an appropriate gift for their entire family. It is our hope and prayer that this gift will strengthen their faith for the difficult times that lay ahead.

Let the packing begin!

Already? Absolutely. 38 days seems like such a long time to pack but it is a work in progress.

Brennan, my middle daughter, and I made some lists this morning: what to pack, what we need to buy, and what needs done. This I hope will give us some direction and help to reduce last minute frenzy.

Each person is permitted to take 2-50# suitcases of donations and personal belongings we need for the week go in our carry on bag. My family alone will be taking 400# of donations.

Folks have been donating items over the past few months including much needed shoes. My family alone has nearly 200 pairs of flip flops in addition probably 10 pairs of gently used little girls shoes. Why all the shoes? Most of the children in Santa Maria de Jesus are infected with hookworms, an intestinal parasite lives in the soil.
Without shoes on their feet they are constantly being reinfected.

Vitamins, vitamins, and more vitamins. Having been part of the medical team each year I see the importance of vitamins. The medical team distributes vitamins to each child and pregnant woman that come to the clinic. Such a simple thing can have a profound difference.

Since Lisa Keller is also the vacation Bible School crew leader and part of our local team, we also take ALL the supplies needed to have a great Bible school for over 200 children! ALL supplies means everything from snacks to scotch tape and everything in between! I am sure she will post soon to share the uniqueness of preparing for Mission Bible school.

Pray for our ability to take everything we need to and some extra space for the things we want to take for them

Only 39 days

Until we return to Guatemala. For my family of 4 it is a return and for the other 8 members of the Pennsylvania crew it is a new experience in the making.

July 17 we will be flying in to Guatemala City, Guatemala, riding a chicken bus (Guatemalan equivalent to school bus) to Antiqua, our home base for the mission. It is an approx. 1 hour bus ride out of the city, and winding up and down the mountains before the cobblestone streets signal we have arrived in Antiqua. The work starts immediately upon our arrival as all the tons of suitcases filled with donations need to be sorted for transport to Santa Maria on Monday morning, then let the games begin!

My family is so looking forward to sharing this mission experience with our friends who are able to join us. It is our hope that they will be blessed by the incredible people of Santa Maria as much as our family has been.