Wellshire SHY Guatemala Mission Trip Post 5: Bonds and memories formed over cement and cinder blocks last a lifetime

We have had two incredible days in Salama, Guatemala. I apologize for not updating the blog sooner, but we have been so busy and having so much fun! Despite a lack of OSHA standards on our worksites, our kids have been really good about watching out for themselves, and the Habitat folks have been taking great care of us. No major injuries, and apart from a little dehydration and a few travel bugs, our team continues to be happy, healthy and safe.

We spent the last two days working on our Habitat worksites. Below I will feature our four work teams that have not been in the blog yet. As I write this blog post on Friday morning, we are getting ready to eat breakfast, pack up, and leave our newly adopted home of Salama. It is a bittersweet departure for all of us. We will load up our buses and go to a nature reserve where we will see some flora and fauna that is indigenous to Guatemala. We will also have the opportunity to swim in some mountain streams under waterfalls. Then we have a marathon bus trip to Antigua, it will take us about 5 hours. When we get into Antigua this evening we will be having a fun dinner at a restaurant called Mono Loco (the crazy monkey.)

But enough about what we are GOING to do, let me share with you what we have been doing for the past two days. This blog post will be light on text and heavy on photos.

At the end of our work day on Wednesday, our van driver offered to take us up to an overlook to get a view of the whole valley. The road was one of the more interesting mountain road I have been on, enjoy the photos!

The driver and I joking and cheering as we make it down the road.

How could this view not bring to mind Isiah 40:31? But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

When we finally made it to the top of the hill there was a cross and a small overlook area. We stopped and enjoyed the view.

And what a view it was!

What a great view and a great looking group of kids!

This is the workgroup that was led by Terri and Brian. They had an incredible time building at their site and getting to know the family they were building with.

Michael became the stone mason's helper, laying block and filling in the grout. Ususally the stone masons do not let us help with this skilled, detailed labor. But this mason was really impressed with our team's work ethic and attention to detail!

There was also time to build relationships with the locals as you can see here.

Jennifer hauling a bucketful of cement. What a hard worker!

Big smiles, big hearts, and lifelong memories.

Andrew Mixing concrete. We all did a lot of this throughout the week. A LOT!

One of the many beautiful churches around Salama. This one has 120 steps you have to go up to reach it.

Another one of our great work teams, this one led by Brian and Rachel. Here you see the manly men, showing off their muscles.

The lovely ladies of the group

A group photo with the the group, the stone masons and the Habitat affiliate staff.

This was the stone mason for the group. He did and incredible job of keeping the group busy!

Rachel and Keri taking a water break. Because of the heat and humidity we took a lot of water breaks!

Cinder blocks in Guatemala have to be chiseled to fit over the rebar. Notice the safety goggles, SAFETY FIRST!

We had some helpers on our work site too. One look at this kiddo's smile, and we knew why we were here and what we were doing.

This is the team from the worksite led by Sue and me. Our sand pile (for mixing cement) was a little distance from where we actually mixed the cement, so we spent a lot of time shoveling sand into wheelbarrows and moving it across the worksite.

This is the work team, our stone mason and the Habitat staff. You can probably tell that our worksite was a little bit wet and swampy. I think the lot where we were building used to be wetlands. On Monday morning when the team arrived it had rained the night before. The trenches that had been dug for the foundation were filled with a foot of water. Our team built a drainage channel and dug a 4 foot deep hole. We drained off over 50 gallons of water with our little engineering project so that we could start pouring the foundation.

Despite our best attempts to drain some of the water off the worksite, it was a muddy, sloppy mess. All of our work pants looked like this at the end of the day and our work shoes were caked in mud.

We had a great shade tree on our worksite that made for a good place to take our breaks.

We also had a mascot on our site. The family we were building for had a 6 pound dog named "Osito" (Little bear.) He was very friendly. Any time any of us took a break, Osito was there to get some attention.

We usually had an audience wherever we went as a group. Here is an indigenous girl who really got a kick out of watching all the crazy gringos build a house in her country. She is standing outside her house made of mud and thatch.

I had to leave my wife and 6 month old daughter in the United States to lead this trip, so any time I saw a young child, I had to get my "baby fix." Most kids ended up crying when I talked with them or held them, but this little girl let me hold her for 10 minutes and it melted my heart. She is actually going to be living in one of the houses that our work teams were building. Her mother is a recipient of a Habitat house.

This is the group led by Graham and Laurie. Here you have the "manly men."

And here are the lovely ladies of the group. They were all hard workers and the locals commented on how tough and hard working our girls were!

This is the whole group with their stone mason and the Habitat staff. You can see the mountain behind them with lush vegitation. There was a road cut into the mountainside that looked like the fabled road to "El Dorado" so this group gave themselves the nickname of "El Dorado."

Their worksite had some visitors and playmates as well. This little guy loved climbing up and down the dirt piles.

Each one of our worksites was in a different location with a different feel. This team's worksite was almost a half mile from any paved road in a very rural, agricultural area. So each morning the team would have to hike into their worksite across a bridge and up a pretty steep trail.

Sam making rebar columns to help reinforce the structure of the house we were building. He is working side-by-side with one of the Guatemalan Habitat employees.

One of our fearless leaders, Graham. Graham also led our worship team each night. He provided a great example of Christian love and leadership on this trip.

All in all we had an incredible four days on our Habitat build sites. We built houses, but we also built relationships, which is just as important. Our youth are truly shining the love and light of Christ through their time here in Guatemala. They are all taking in the experiences, learning, laughing and loving.

We did a closing ceremony with each Habitat family on Thursday afternoon. The families thanked our group for being there and helping, and our kids all thanked the families for the opportunity to be there. A lot of us cried, tears of both happiness and saddness. I am amazed at the bonds that can be formed over cement and cinder blocks in four short days.

Thank you all for continuing to read the blog and for your continued prayers. As we prepare to load the buses to head out to Antigua, we can feel the power of those prayers surrounding us.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-Prayers of thanksgiving for an incredible 4 days in Salama, for us staying safe on our worksites

-Please pray for health from stomach bugs

-Pray for safe travels as we cross the country today

-Pray for a continued spirit of service and Christ's love in each particpants heart

Wellshire SHY Guatemala Mission Trip Post 4: Work Hard, Play Hard!

We awoke to another beautiful morning. We continue to be having a great experience. A few youth and adults have gotten a little dehydrated or caught a little travelers' bug, but nothing major. Most of them just took it easy today, drank lots of water, and were feeling better by dinnertime.

We continue to approach each day with a servant's heart, ready to work side by side with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters. Our team was up and at breakfast by 5:45am, ready to start another work day. They served us "el desayuno tipico" (A typical Guatemalan breakfast) of eggs, black beans, bread and orange juice. The food is really good and helps sustain us through our long work days on the Habitat build sites.
Above you can see a photo of our breakfast. Below is the group eating breakfast with the morning sun breaking through.

We loaded into our vans and were all at the worksites by 7am, helping to move cinder blocks, mix cement, wire together rebar and clamps, and build relationships within our group and with the Guatemalan people we have the privilege of working with.

One team arrived at their site and were greeted by a new companion, you can see the photo below. Most of our teams have had some "close encounters" with livestock including the horse that grazes in our hotel parking lot, chickens and roosters, cows, and our newest friend who we named "tocino." (Which is Spanish for bacon.)

Below are photos from the worksite for the team that is being led by Jenni and Ashley. They are having an amazing building experience. Their homesite is in a more rural area and a river runs right by it. They are working hard and the house is going up quickly!

They paused from their work day for a moment to take a group picture. What a great work team!

Holly and Allie bending rebar for the next layer of cinder block

During their lunch break the team got to sit down by the river. God has blessed us with some beautiful places in this world, and even as we are serving Him, He is taking care of us too!

The team hard at work on their work site. They were able to get 3 new layers of block laid in one day!

Lauren hard at work. Sorry that the photo is not rotated, but you can turn your head to see her!

There are sweeping views of the pastoral valley and the mountains surrounding us. The views never get old and our youth are amazed by how lush and green everything is, especially compared to our mission trip three years ago, building houses in Juarez that was very dry and dusty.

There are some beautiful plants all around us. We are trying to make time to stop and smell the flowers in between our busy work days!

Once our work days were over, the youth all changed into their soccer clothes for a "Guatemalan cultural experience." We played soccer for two hours with the local Habitat staff, some of the stone masons' families, our van drivers, and our youth. It was a blast!

Notice the day-glow t-shirts! Since all the youth were wearing the same t-shirts, it was hard to figure out who was on each team. The people you see not in bright yellow shirts are local Guatemalans who came and played soccer with us.

Miles is a great soccer player and taught most of the youth a few tricks. Although he had some stiff competition with our Guatemalan friends who joined us.

Megan blew away the Guatemalans. It is not typical for women to play soccer down here, so the Guatemalans were not expecting to get schooled by a female soccer player. She sure showed them! It was great fun and we ended the day laughing. Despite the language barrier, the international language of sport and competition facilitated communication.

It was especially fun for us to be playing soccer this week because the World Cup soccer tournament is going on while we are here. At many of our worksites the neighbors have their televisions or radios tuned into the World Cup games and you hear cheers go up each time one of their favorite teams scores a goal. Today it was Brazil.

One of our Guatemalan friends that joined us for the soccer game. He is the son of one of the stone masons who is building the house with us.

Below is our group photo. We had a phenomenal time and the youth are really making the most of their experience here in Guatemala.

Thank you for reading the blog and keeping up with our trip. Thank you also for your continued prayers and support.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-Continued prayers of thanksgiving for our safety

-Prayers for the health of our group

-Prayers that we can continue to communicate God's love while we are here

Wellshire SHY Guatemala Mission Trip Post 3: Cinder Blocks and Smiles!

Monday was our first full work day at the Habitat sites. We woke up to God's blessing of a beautiful sunrise. The sunrise from our hotel

Our wake up call came a little bit early at 5:30am, with breakfast at 5:45. But we are here to work, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and the kids were surprisingly pleasant and energetic, even at the early hour. After breakfast, right before loading our buses, we took a group picture in front of the hotel. What a great looking group of God's servants!

We fanned out across the state of Baja Verapaz to work on six different Habitat homes. Each night I will post pictures of different work teams and different work sites.

This Monday set of pictures is of the group led by Brian and Angela Duggan. They are having an amazing building experience. Their team arrived at the worksite and discovered that the forms for the foundation had been set, but it had not been poured yet. That means a LOT of concrete mixing, all with a smiling face.
The brackets that hold the rebar together in the foundation are all cut and bent by hand. Here you see Caitlin and Laura making rebar clamps.

Here you can see an enormous stack of cinder blocks, over 1200 of them to build the house. And our youth will touch and lift almost every one of them!

Miles and Connor are amazing cement mixers! They probably mixed a few thousand pounds of cement today.

Natalie plays with one of the children who will be living in the house they are building.

What a great team! They took a short break and decided to take a quick group photo in front of this brightly painted teal wall.

There is nothing more refreshing than a Coke on a hot and humid day after some cinder block house building!

This is the "stone mason" who has been hired by Habitat for Humanity to build the house. Our team provides the "manual labor" and he provides the "skilled labor." The team has built a great working relationship with him.

This is a panoramic view of the front of our hotel and the parking area. The wandering horse that was grazing in the parking area had temoporarily left for the photo. Perhaps he was camera shy?

This is the large covered gazebo space at the hotel where we are eating all of our meals, doing all of our worship and having all of our meetings. The hotel staff has been great and very accomodating.

This is the swimming pool area with our very own water slide. After a long, humid, hot day of building a cinder block house, the pool is quite refreshing!

This is the vespers band leading our group in worship. They have been doing an amazing job bringing their musical talents and energies to lead our group of 61 in worship.

We had a few members of our group who had to arrive late. They all arrived safely this afternoon and now are group is complete.

It has been an incredible trip so far. Our first day on the worksites was eye-opening and fulfilling for our youth and adults. Thank you for your continued prayers, below are a few prayer requests:

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-Prayers of thanksgiving that the rest of our group arrived safely

-Prayers of thanksgiving for an incredible first day of work on the Habitat homes

-Prayers for continued open minds and hearts for our youth, that they feel God's love in this experience and embody that love in their interactions with the Guatemalans and the rest of our group

-Prayers for health and safety for the rest of the week