Monjas, Saturday, August 9, 2008

Sorry that I have not posted. It is more difficult than I had thought. I have to have access to the Administration building, but we work each evening until about 5:00 and then go right to dinner, so I have trouble sending.

It is Saturday morning. We have nearly completed the closets in one side of the duplex. Hopefully we will finish the other this week. We will be leaving on Thursday about noon, traveling to Chiquimulilla for two nights. We have been having a great time! Food is different, and the other four have had a bit of tourista, but I have not had it.

It has been quite hot and very humid. Last night we had a torrential rainstorm. It lasted for about 20-30 minutes and you could hardly see across the street it was raining so hard. Lightning and thunder to accompany it.

Today we are having lunch at a restaurant where there is a swimming pool for us to sit around. It is supposed to be a very nice place, so it will be fun.

We have made it to the market each day, but Tuesday was the fun day. It is the big market day, and vendors come from all around.

I will try to add so photos now and write more later.

Monjas, Guatemala

It is Tuesday, August 5, 2008 and it is warm and humid in Monjas, Guatemala.

We arose this morning about 6:00 am, showered, fixed our “continental breakfast” which consisted of Corn Flakes with bananas, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and coffee.

After breakfast we went to the market. Today is the main market day and Brendan wanted to find a hat so he wouldn’t get so sunburned. There were a lot of people and stalls at the market, but we did not find a hat he wanted, so we will have to check again.

I tried the ATM, but it wouldn’t give me any money, so we had Cyndi Cope, the director for the mission teams, exchange money for us.

We got to the home about 9:00 am. We thought the lumber would not be there, so we had taken our time. However, this am they were early, and the materials were awaiting us to build the storage cabinets in the closets of the new home.

Brendan Giese and Bethany Moore cut pipe to be used in constructing a temporary meeting place for special events at the home, and then they used the router to round off the corners of the materials we would be using for the closets.

After a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, broccoli soup and cookies Brendan and Bethany went to the school to do some art work with the kids. Bethany was a state winner in charcoal drawings, so the school students are learning to do charcoal drawings. Ron and Richard returned to the home to work on the closets. I went to the school to take pictures then to write this and get it on the internet.

I am including the pictures below. If you would like to become a part of the support for this wonderful work of the Lord’s you can. Tomorrow I will post an address and how you can become involved.

Sorry I didn't get this posted last night. I got it all set and told it to upload, and the blogspot was down for repair.

Try as I can, I can't seem to get photos to upload this morning. I will try again tomorrow

Sombra de Sus Alas

Here we are in Monjas, Guatemala. We had great flights. Continental was not only on time, but early. They fed us well.

We arrived in the City about 11:30 and by 3:00 pm we were in Monjas.

The past hour we have been having dinner with the girls. We had refried beans with cream, fresh fruit bowl, corn tortillas, and fried bananas.

I got to be in the home with Itzel who is 15 and a special young lady to me, plus Kayla who is 12 and so smart!

It looks as if it is going to rain. But, then this is the rainy season, so a thunder storm and rain in a possibility.

Tomorrow I will post pictures. We begin in the morning building closets for the new home.

It is warm and humid, but especially green, as they have had much rain this year. More tomorrow.

Guatemala here I come!

My wife and I left Madras this morning about 9:00 a.m. and traveled to Portland. We left early because our transmission would not shift into overdrive for some reason. Melva will take it into AAMCO tomorrow to have them fix it before she goes home.

I am presently in the Portland, Oregon airport awaiting 12:30 a.m. when our Continental flight 208 departs for Guatemala City.

We will leave the City about noon tomorrow and travel to Monjas in the south east section of Guatemala. The community is Monjas. You can google it and find the orphanage south of town. We will be there for 10 days working on the orphanage during the day and having fun with the girls during the evenings. We will stay in the village.

Each day I will try to post while I am there, posting faces of the little girls. If you are a prayer, pray for this orphanage. There are about 60 girls and they are WONDERFUL!

We will then travel to Chiquimulilla in the state of Santa Rosa, near the south west corner of the country. There we will be visiting a Christian school and lots of children who mean so much to me. I took a group of high school students here about four years ago. We worked with the children for a week, and it was one of the high points of my life. There is a 21 year old young lady here that I led to Jesus. Her name is Ruby. She calls me Papa #2. I will see her. I will also be visiting with Gaby and Luisa. They are two 14 year old young ladies who write to me, once in a while. I led Luisa to the Lord when she was 10. We will also be visiting with the principal, Anibal Westendorf and his wife, what wonderful people.

Then we will go to Antigua for two nights. This is the ancient capitol of Guatemala and has many wonderful sights to observe.

Traveling with me are: Ron, my cousin, Richard one of his co-w0rkers, Brendan Ron's grandson, and Bethany who is a relative of the family Ron's wife works for. This will be a wonderful two weeks for each of us. Stop by from time to time. We will return the 18th of August.

Until tomorrow (or whenever I can post next).