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!