Well. If one word can sum up what has happened here during these past five days, it would be community. Our class has bonded in a way that I never thought possible. When you’ve been together for eleven years, I would say you become fairly familiar with each other. But the formation of cliques is almost inevitable. This missions trip has made those cliques vanish. The grade eleven class has lost it’s sense of individuality and become a team with one goal in mind. Helping one another; and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Our selfish tendencies have gone the way of the Dodo, and the sense of giving has grown exponentially. I have never had to trust my classmates more. Digging a trench three feet deep, and hoping the next swing of the pick axe isn’t in your face, stage fighting in a drama, and singing out loud with the possibility of being ridiculed for your sub par singing voice. I have never felt more vulnerable amidst my peers, and yet, I have never felt more secure with them. The feelings and emotions cannot be explained in text on a website, nor can they be witnessed in a photograph. It seems futile to try, like the events will be diluted. The only way you could truly understand or feel the emotions would be if you came here yourself. You will notice a change in the family member that came down here. A change spiritually, physically (tannned ☺), or mentally. With events like the sinkhole, and morning devotions, one could not comeback unchanged.
I don’t want to tell the stories of what we have done specifically, I think that you should hear what we’ve done for the first time from your children, that way the story is genuine. I can tell you that God is working, and amazing things are happening. Barriers are being broken, and burdens are being lifted. Our class just spiritually grows closer each day we tackle new problems. Fears of Darkness, Bugs, Diseases, Spiritual Journey’s, Public Humiliation are all leaving; and being replaced by the solemn peace of God. This trip has been an amazing life changing event to say the least, and I promise many stories from each individual upon our return.
- ScottBennett
Because today was the 15 year anniversary of the school down the road, we got to witness…you betcha…another parade! This time, 6 other local school s joined in the celebration with loud music & costumed dancers. The full parade took more than 20 minutes to pass by the guest house, but because the two teams were off to different events, we couldn’t stay to watch. We had to wind our way through the parade to get to our vehicles that waited a few streets over. The vehicles couldn’t get to the guest house because of the parade & the accompanying traffic snarl. One doesn’t expect to experience a traffic jam in a city of only 18,000 people. Especially when most of them don’t own vehicles!
Now, at 11:30 at night, we can still hear loud music blaring around Tac Tic. In fact, just down the street by the celebrating school, there is a wedding party going on! The street in front of the guest house is packed with cars for all the party-goers. This is not the quiet city we drove into on Tuesday night!
- D. Werth
We got up early this morning and ate breakfast. The bus ride to the work site was quick and working in the early morning was so much more pleasant then baking in the hot sun at the last work site. The goal was to start digging out a hill for a new school. Some of us had to take wheel barrels full of heavy gravel up a fifteen-foot hill. The hill was covered with large pieces of gravel making it extremely difficult to get a wheel barrel up the hill. After the gravel was hauled up the hill. Eric told us that we all had to start digging out the hillside. Half of the structure is present and the other half s going to be where we are digging. The progress we made was quite remarkable. In twenty-seven degree weather for three hours we used pickaxes and shovels to tear up the hill. Mr. Werth had to entice us to work with the offer of some milkshakes. After three hours we returned to the bus to travel to Les’ house for lunch. After lunch Les drove us to get our milk shakes or smoothies. While we went to collect on Mr. Werth’ promise the Werth’ separated off to go see their third sponsor child. Les drove us to meet the Werth’ and to drive up the mountain to see this remote village. The drive was a tedious one and Les’ van does not have the most comfortable ride. Those of us in the back of the van were bouncing back and forth. The curving roads did not do justice to some of the girl’s stomachs. At the top of this mountain the small village was supposed to have a fantastic view of an active volcano over Antigua. When we arrived at the top of the mountain a dense fog had covered the other mountains obstructing our view of the volcano. The pastor of this town had no idea we were coming yet he invited us into his home. Greatly honored he prayed for us and we laid hands on him praying for him and his fifteen year old son who went to Guatemala city for work so he could help support the family. When we were leaving the kids of the village started throwing mud balls at Jason and our van. Many of these balls had rocks in them and really hurt. In the van we literally retreated to Les’ house. Our debrief was an emotional experience for many of us. People were stepping out of their comfort zone and making the decision to live whole-heartedly for God. It was a long night and many of us were looking forward to bed.
- Chris Horback
DAILY ADVENTURES AND REFLECTIONS OF THE GRADE ELEVEN MISSION TEAM
