2010 PAC Guatemala Team

The 2010 PAC Guatemala Team is now in place. It consists of Bruce & Gail Lee, Larry & Shanon Weselake and Therese Etherington. We will be joined by a team of 7 from Alberta. We will be leaving January 30, 2010 to spread the Love of God to the people in Guatemala. For the 2 weeks we are there we will continue the work of the 2009 Team on the Guatemalan National Christian and Missionary Alliance Office and Guest House/Training Center.

Friday, January 30

We finished on the job site at noon today and it was a tearful farewell as we said goodbye to five of the most determined and dedicated men you will meet. These fellows are building 10-12 hours per day, sleeping on cots, cooking over a fire, often not knowing where their next meal will come from. They work in sandals and without gloves or hard hats. They live 4 hours away by bus so they only go home every second weekend as some need to stay back to guard the building site. They work in simple conditions with simple tools but their attitudes are amazing, their laughter is contagious and their love is evident. We were able to leave food, clothing and some cash for them. We had a good chance to pray together and to bless them before we left. But they were more a blessing to us as they model humility and faith and joy that have nothing to do with circumstances.

The president of the CMA Guatemala then took us for lunch to a Latino restuarant which was a thank you from the national office. They food was good and a treat to be in a restaurant frequented by the local people.

Now it is time to pack and get ready for the day of travel tomorrow. We will have memories that will last for years and as we sort them all out and sort out the ramifications of being involved in this project we ask God to guide and direct as to our involvement as a group and as PAC church with International Projects. Opportunities abound and we need His wisdom to proceed from here.

We will all appreciate prayer for the trip home. Shanon is travelling alone again at different times and route than the rest of the group so asks for prayer for that journey!

Thanks for tracking with us these past weeks. Jo and Maryanne will be giving a short report on Sunday morning at PAC and the Lees and Tom and Shanon will give reports on the following Sunday. Thanks to those who supported us through prayer and financial gifts. The project will need continued support until the costs are covered. It is fully tax deductible and can be given at PAC marked "Guatemala" on the envelope. The needs here are great and we are certainly thrilled that your gifts are helping to build a place that will minister to many.

Wednesday, January 28th

Today we went to Antigua to give our tired muscles a rest. We toured a coffee plantation. Antigua has the 3rd best coffee in the world.
We stopped at a monastary that had been destroyed in the 1976 earthquake and has been restored to a 5 star hotel.

Oasis Orphanage

This is a picture of one of the den mother(in the green) and 5 of the 44 girls that live in the orphanage where some of the clothes that we brought to Guatemala will be distributed. It was a very touching experience to be able to see where they live and hear some of their stories. The rest of the clothes will be taken up into the hills to a satelite soup kitchen orphanage. The girls there live in straw huts, caves and carboard boxes.

This is a picture of the homes where the girls live.

After a long day of shopping and siteseeing Tom is trying to help Bruce get the swing of things.

Monday Worksite Pictures

January 25th and 26th

January 25th - Sunday

Up at 6am to begin the 2 hour trip to Taxisco to attend the service at the Alliance Church where Domingo and Edgar, two of our on-site workers go. We discovered that dispite the language barrier during praise and worship we serve the same awesome God. We sang our hearts out in English and they in Spanish when they layed the familiar "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord". Jake, our team leader, with the aid of Jose, our interpreter and driver, preached a sermon from Daniel, Chapter 3. After the service the ladies served us a delicious traditional Mexican lunch. The pastor then suggested that the Pacific Ocean was only 30 minutes away so guess what we did for the afternoon? Roasted in 98 degree weather on the beach!!

In the evening we attended the Chinese New Years Eve celebration with Joseph and Helen, and most of the congregation from the Chinese Alliance Church that is our home away from home. Sun neen fie lok or Happy New Year to each of you back home.

January 26th - Monday

We had thought that we would be constructing the second floor of an Alliance church for the national Guatemalan people. Instead we are building the Guatemala Alliance National Church(GANC) office and guest house, which will touch the lives on many Guatemalan people. The pastors from the various Alliance churches in Guatemala will come here for training and then return to their various villages to spread the gospel. Our driver, Jose, was back teaching school today so we had the privelege of being chaffeured by the President of GANC. You can see in the pictures that we have actually accomplished a fair amount on the building. None of the rebar beams were in place when we arrived and before we leave we should have all of them in place for the second floor.

January 23 - 4th Day on the jobsite

Margeurito cooking his lunch

The five of us spent 2 days cutting and twisting wires used in tying rebar

The locals on their way to work

Guatemala traffic

Where's the safety harness??? Oh that's Marianne's job!!

Marguerito, Gerraldo and Edgar

Our mode of travel for the 14 of us is in a 12 passenger van so we are crowded in like sardines. As we pass the Guatemalan locals they look at us and laugh. Probably they are thinking, "Those crazy gringos!" Yesterday on the way home in busy traffic the back hatch of our van sprung open. Amidst screaching for Jose, our driver, to stop the van, the traffic around us was honking. We are indeed making a great impression on the Guatemalan people. As throughout this whole trip, God has been looking after us - no bags or tools fell out of our super packed van. If it had, by the time we got stopped there is no way the stuff would still be on the road.

On our trip to and from the worksite we see many old, super packed buses, people trying to sell various wares ranging from flowers to phone cards as they walk between the traffic stopped at lights, as well as security guards armed with sawed-off shotguns guarding the various storefronts and vehicle contents.

We are enjoying working with the Guatemalan men on the worksite. It is refreshing to hear the laughter and bantering that goes on between all of us. Although their ways of doing various construction techniques are very different from ours, the outcomes are very similar. They use very basic methods of producing items that we would purchase prebuilt from a local hardware store.

It has been great having Shanon with us the last couple of days. Jake, our team leader, expressed his appreciation of how well our team has melded together and what we have accomplished to date both relationally and project wise.

Tomorrow (Sat) we go to work for a half day and then have the rest of the day to relax and maybe take in an afternoon siesta.

Sunday we will be driving 2 hours south to attend the church of the onsite workers. We are looking forward to seeing the countryside.

January 21 - A Day of Adventure

Today The Breckmans, Jake, Ron and Henry took an active volcano tour. Bruce, Harry, Joy, Anne and Gail went with Helen Lee, the pastors wife shopping to the main Guatemala market. Shanon arrived safely. Hosea, our interpretor/driver took us to an scenic outlook of the city at night.