Thank you for partnering with us by praying for us. We felt Lord's hand of protection and saw definite answers to prayer. You will hear more Sunday night during the power point presentation and testimony time.

We arrived at Lake Hills at approx. 7:30 pm tonight (Tuesday). I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we had/have mixed feelings about coming home. Of course, we are extremely thankful to be back with our loved ones that we have missed so much. And we are happy to be back on US soil...

During the course of this past week, we all really got to know the other members of the team; we became a family. We laughed, cried, prayed, shared emotions, played games, discussed our various medical problems openly, and did all the things a normal family does. In short, we were united in purpose and spirit. It was difficult to have this experience end.

DFG - Don't Forget Guatemala

There will be a Guatemala Team Mission service this Sunday night at Lake Hills Baptist Church. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

See you all soon...

Today we (all - Cindy and Debbie felt well enough to travel a little) went to Antigua for some site-seeing and shopping. We met some of the Victor, Fredy, and Walter (some of the local pastors) and the Lotts at one of the ancient ruins. Originally Antigua was the capital of Guatemala until it was destroyed by an earthquake - a second time, and it was then moved to Guatemala City.
The old world Spanish architecture and market atmosphere make it one of the premier tourist spots in Guatemala...

We ate McDonalds for supper - just to prime our stomachs for American food. Our flight leaves at 7:15 am, so the bugle/alarm will sound early in the morning.

Beverly Pyle is our team photographer. She has been doing a fantastic job...

Just a quick update - we just arrived back after visiting the small mountain church. These people can sing. They really put us to shame... The pastor, Walter and his wife invited us in for a after church meal (see pictures). The church continually faces persecutation from the catholic priest/church in town.

Cindy and Debbie seem to be feeling a little better. We will know for sure tomorrow morning.

Several members of the team became ill last night - Cindy, Debbie, and Sarah. Sarah was able to make it to church today while Debbie and Cindy stayed "home".

Cindy is running a fever, among other things, and they both are still in bed... Please pray for them.

We attended church at Mt. Gerizim (inner city church) this morning. We had an exciting time in children's church. After Linda's story and invitation, six children around the ages of 8 - 11 were saved; thank you for praying...

This evening we will be attending a church about a hour away from here in San Antonio (songs, testimonies, offertory, etc...) This is a smaller mountain town church with a sort of western flavor to it. Even the part of Guatemala where the church is located is more arid/dry - similar to parts of our west. Some of the locals still use horses for transportation.

Today was another long day, but it was a good long...

The ladies met us at a church here in Guatemala City and we all left for dinner with the Lotts (missionary family to Guatemela). They were extremely gracious in opening up their beautiful home for us to relax, eat, and fellowship. We had apple pie for dessert.

We left there at 12:30 and drove to a small Mayan church in Sumpango where we again had a women's meeting (singing, testimonies, hand spa, and Sarah speaking). Buddy was there again and was a huge hit with the children (about 27 kids). Buddy is Cindy's puppet dog - very cute. They gave us a traditional Mayan drink made out of corn, cinammon, and some kind of sweetener. That was an interesting drink...

From there we went to the home of the father of our guide and all around helper - Esteban. His father is also the pastor of the church where we had the pastor's meeting Saturday morning, and where we will be on Sunday morning. They fed us a Mayan potato/chicken/pepper mixture on banana leaves (made by the pastor's wife at the church where we ministered this afternoon). We did top it off with ice cream.

When we arrived back at the seminary, there was a lightening storm off in the distance so we had apple pie, ice cream and fire works here in Guatemala on July forth...

Thank you for praying for us. Some of the pics are from yesterday...

I am not going to post any pics today - long day today and again tomorrow...

We left for Panajachel early this morning, ate lunch at a indigenious Mayan restaurant, and arrived at the orphanage at approx. 12:30 pm. We spent about 2 hours loving some of the most beautiful children I have ever seen ranging in age from 8 months to 9 years of age. It didn't take long for the children to walk up to us, hold up their arms, and gather themselves into our hearts... Buddy made some fast friends and we had hundreds of bubbles flying through the air for the children to pop.

Many of us had two children at one time sitting on our laps just wanting some attention. There were two 4 year old twin sisters who were were losing their older sister to adoption (her future adopted parents didn't want the sisters.

The orphanage was located on the top of a mountain with a breathtaking view of Lake Atitlan overlooked by three volcanoes, but as we left, we were silent, thinking of the children, and wishing we could take them with us.

We stopped in the marketplace, shopped, ate supper, and drove home through some of the thickest fog I have seen. If you were praying for us at around 8 or 9 pm our time, you were instrumental in keeping us safe from a near accident in the fog.

Thank your for your prayers and keep praying.

Tomorrow, Pastor Phil and I have a pastor's meeting at 7:00 am.
Everyone else will meet us there and we will all go for lunch at the Lott's home, and proceed to another womens meeting at a small Mayan Indian village church.

We will show many more pictures at the missions team service on July 12th.

We are getting ready to leave for Panajachel - three hour drive...

Short and sweet today:

• breakfast at 8:00 am
• group devotions
• grocery store trip for all - passed out literature here in Guatemala City
• lunch here at Casa Semilla

On the way to the women's meeting we passed by the Guatemala City dump. Thousands of people make their living off the dump - recycling, reselling, and re-eating whatever they can find. As I mentioned before, many live in the dump itself, with their families.

We could only get a glimpse of the inside but the van was silent as our hearts were heavy for the lost souls in the dump and for our ungratefullness for blessings we take for granted every day...

We continued to Villa Nueva where our conference was held. There were over 200 women present, not counting children... After the ladies sang and Linda Brumbaugh gave her testimony, Sarah spoke. The hand of Satan was present as a heavy rain began to fall as soon as Sarah began speaking. The rain on the tin roof of the church made it almost impossible to hear. We began praying for the rain to stop and for the Holy Spirit to give Sarah victory over Satan's attack. The rain did slow down enough for me to hear her all the way in the back of the church. Two seconds after Sarah was finished speaking, the rain started again so heavy that it was impossible to hear what the person next to me was saying... God does answer prayer!

The hand spa with all the women went extremely well - I believe that all who attended were ministered to; both spiritually and physically.

The team ate supper afterwards at a traditional Guatemala restaurant - we probably will all gain a couple of pounds by the time we return.

A young man, 18 years of age, named Estevan, has been assisting the team since our arrival. He has a true servant's spirit and has been a tremendous help to all of us. He practices his English on us and we practice our Spanish on him - sometimes we all can't help but laugh at ourselves. Please pray for him as he continues to willingly serve the Lord...

I forgot to mention - last night for a snack, we had coffee and an assortment of Guatemalan sweet breads. As poor as some of these people are, they will always do everything they can to be hospitable and offer this traditional fare...

By the way, we have fresh pineapple every morning for breakfast - you can´t get any fresher than this.

Personal notes:
Debbie says ¨thanks MOM for holding down the fort while I am gone¨.

This morning we had a time of spiritual challenge and orientation. Afterwards, Pastor Phil and I exchanged money. Pastor Phil was patted down - he did look kind of suspicious, after which we went shopping at a huge superstore for essentials while everyone else placed tracts in the literature.

After lunch, we drove to Lake Amatitlan, a city surrounded by mountains (two volcanoes). The city is known for its hot spas naturally heated by the underground volcanic action. We did some site-seeing driving through the city just in awe at the abject poverty. A large population of the city lives in tin huts on narrow dirt/cobblestone streets. The children were extremely curious and approached us looking for food.


After splitting into teams, we passed out literature and invited people to the evening service at Maranatha Baptist Church. The ladies sang two songs in Spanish, London and Jayne shared their testimonies -translated by Pastor Phil. While Pastor preached, Cindy, Sarah, Alicia, Beverly, Debbie, Linda, London (and Buddy) conducted children´s church. The people were extremely warm and friendly - we felt at home with our Christian brothers and sisters...

Good morning all. The sun and the birds woke us up today - I´m glad we don´t have whatever bird was making all that noise in Indiana...

The seminary is beautiful, wide open ( to the outdoors) spaces and lush greenery. We are staying on the forth floor and have a scenic view of the city from our rooms and a rooftop patio. The weather right now is mostly sunny and about 75 degrees.

Today is orientation, money exchange, and later after lunch, literature distribution.