Greetings and farewell faithfuls

Well here marks the last and final post for you all as we leave for home tomorrow morning dark and early. I would first like to mention that I may have been lying to you in the last post. We visited a 20 yr old girl who had club feet instead of the older no medicine lady. I was informed that Lauren and some others had visited her already last week. She said it quite the experience and depressing. The lady was super skinny and not doing to well. Please continue to pray for her.
Our trip to Huehuetenango was awesome. we visited an old site called the ruins, it was a bunch of old ancient mayan temples and palaces and buildings that are busted up and were re-built in the 50´s sometime. It was pretty cool, and we even met an old mayan priest who was making some candle sacrifices. He was happy to take questions, so we pegged him, and we learnt quite a bit about the mayan religion and some of its practices. there is no more human sacrifices, but we did see a little bowl, up on this temple, that we figured thats where the heads would´ve went.
We continued on the a camp where MVC is doing work. We hiked in and got to suck on some fresh coffee beans of the tree on the way up. Steve showed us the facilites where they are planning to do kids camps soon. We hiked up more and visited some families who lived pretty much on the side of the mountain. a little terrace for their home and some room to dry out coffee beans and a hiking tril down. this is when we met up with the lady who has club feet. She can move pretty good on crutches, and has had 2 of about 8 surgeries down to corrent her feet. She gets kind of sore in her back and her foot that has had some surgeries done already. She doesnt speak spanish, only Maum, which is a mayan dialect that most of the people on the mountain speak. the kids learn spanish at school, but she never got to go to school. it was cool because her brother had been to school and would talk to steve in spanish and to her in maum, and then steve would give us some english translations in there a bit. it was pretty cool. Please pray for this young lady as surgeries arent free around here as far as I know, and for her family as well, her brother packs her in and out on his back from the main trail when she needs to get to town.
Thanks for faithfully praying for us and our encounters and for following our adventures. we will be getting back to Camrose tomorrow at about 5 in the afternoon. We are looking forward to sharing more and to seeing and talking to some of you soon respectively. Adios!

Buenos dias de Guatemala. We have done quite a few things things since the last you were updated. On the weekend we attended and helped out a one day vbs with about 70 kids from an area just on the outskirts of Xela. it was at this mans house, well in his living room, so it was definitely a packed show. The theme was Solomon and which included as short feature film and a crown craft, even though we didnt get subtitles for the big flick this time, but I'm pretty sure we all understood it because its been maybe the 3rd or 4th time we've watched this guy. Its a pretty good movie. Games went well, you can never go wrong with a three legged relay race or freeze tag. The kids love it. I will share a team struggle as well, its hard to do one day/3 hr vbs' because you just meet the kids then adios never too see them again. Maybe they are used to it. Especially after we have done a week of vbs'ing the first week. Just a small struggle.
We did a youth event on Sunday where the pastor there wanted us to teach his youth how to study the bible. So we taught them Lectio Divina(where you read the same passage multiple times) and also the question yourself as you read. The who, what, when, where, why, and how of the passage. And also pray as you read. All through a translator. It went pretty well and it was cool to impart some of the things we learn at bible school to youth from a different country. Virgina did her testimony which went very good. The youth from the church did the worship with full transistions and solos, so when it was our turn to take the stage, we had a group consensus that we wont try to sing our spanish worship songs to them, and went straight to the drime.
We had a day off on monday so we went for a little adventure to a glass blowing factory where they melt down the glass and make all shorts of awesome glasswear.We got to just sit watch them make cups and plates and vases. It was awesome. We continued from there up to a set of hotsprings and just relaxed is some steaming hot water that came trickling down the mountain. It almost burned. But thats just my take. We all enjoyed it. The water tasted like salt water with something else in it, I couldn't quite tell, maybe a hint of sulfur.
We have been helping out a brother Desadarios' church in the constructing of the floor. But guatemalan construction is on a different wave-length down here. Its pretty funny. We where supposed to be pouring the concrete, but of course the floor isnt ready yet to be poured, we need to level and put some sand in, and then pack it. This one guy nailed 2 sticks to a cinder block and was packing it away. The building is on an angle because thats the way it fits in-between the two buildings beside it and its about 3600 sq ft. So a machine packer showed up called the ground pounder, but of course it was hard to start and didnt really work that well at all. So steve went and got a good packer that didnt bounce all over, and we started to pack this floor. We were spraying the floor down with water before because it really helped in the packing, but then of course the water stopped working, so we had to order a water truck to come soak the floor. Its pretty awesome.
We are all in good health, thanks for the prayers, we couldnt do it without them. Lauren had her time of sleeping with a bucket and within a good distince from the toilet. But shes better now and ready to finish strong. Please pray for our trip to Huehuetenango as we are going to visit and pray for a old lady and try to get her to take medicine. She has some interesting beliefs about curses, but isnt doing well and needs medicine. Gracias y Dios te bendiga todos.

Builders, Dealers and more

Hola to all. The last couple days we have been pretty busy doing some pretty random stuff. Steve and Elaine are great at planning our days and making sure we arent left saying 'what did we do again today.' The guys got to do some dabbling with the capentry on thursday and friday. We constructed a couple shoe racks for a shoe ministry downtown Xela. It is run by missionaires who get shoes from the states, shoes that are display models or extras that came with the order. This man gets them sent to Guatemala and sells them real cheap to the widows here who then sell them for profit at the markets and vendors. While we were putting together the racks, the girls were tampering with a life as drug dealers. This ministry also gets medical teams in and shipments of vitamins and certain pills. Upon our arrival the girls were escorted to the back room where they would spend the morning bagging drugs. They counted the baggies and figured they sorted about 16,000 pills. The gangsters better watch out. We got some mean baggers.

And now its time for another adventure story. We have heard a lot about these active volcanos before the trip and a bit while we are here, so it was definitely on the to-do list when we have some rest time. So thursday morning we took off up the mountain somewhere not to sure of where we going, we stopped quite a few times along the way to ask for some directions along the way, and to decide if we want to drive up and get a binocular view of this volcano, or to drive and hike to a spot which would've took more hours and we didn't have lunch. So up we went as the road was getting more and more rough, and less and less pavement. We stopped at this little church and picked up a man who was going to come with us and give us some more directions, so he crammed in the van and off we went. We got some sweet views on the ride up and the road started getting worse/awesome, until all the sudden our back wheel dropped and we arent moving anymore. The road was so narrow we opened the door to a filled out bush, everyone slowly got out and then we proceeded to lift the back end of the van out of the crevice it was in under the command of sargent Josh. So we finally make it to the top of this road and good thing we didnt meet anyone on the way or else I dont know how we would've got out of that one. The volcano looked pretty cool and it was an awesome view. But of course clouds moved back and forth and it was pretty far away. So we venturing around this place mostly looking for a place to go to the bathroom, and we ended up finding a toilet leaning up against a fence. No one used it, but I figured lets try to take the coolest panoramic pics while sitting on the toilet. So we lugged it around to different places took some sweet shots. Then the man who we picked up on the way up, turned out to be the mayor of that little area we stopped at, and I dont know how, but we got a picture of all of us with the mayor finding a comfy seat on the toilet. It was awesome.

(up)-The mayor on the pot-

Narrow is the path that leads to...

THE TOILET

Anyways, the sick bugs are starting to take a hike, and we are heading into a weekend with a VBS on Saturday and a youth event on Sunday, please pray as we prepare to lead them and especially the youth, because the pastor wants us to teach his youth how to study the bible. Thank you again for being faithful in praying. God has truly been working.

feliz compleanos fiesta

So we just have had a good weekend were we got to relax a little bit after a pretty sweet week of vbs’ing with a million little kids. We made a lot of little friends and its awesome to meet them on the street because they just come running and give you the biggest hugs. One of the coolest things happened on Sunday though. We got invited to attend a church service at around 6ish, but it was really a birthday party too at the same time and it was at this ladies house. Her name was Virginia. So we got to experience this birthday party church service and let me tell you how it went. First we are walking down the road to this house and we can hear the music playing, and I just figured it was just some loud stereo of something, but the music is getting louder and we still aren’t there yet. It was an old school Guatemalan band playing with accordion and piano and big drum beat, so we walk through the door/gate, and we are still outside, except there is make-shift roof made out of tarps and a couple light bulbs strung up. And the music is LOUD. Not even kidding, the area were the chairs were set up under the tarp was about maybe 30 feet by 20 feet and they have about 8, 50 inch speakers stacked at the front just pounding. We sit down near the front but you can barely talk, so we moved further back, but it doesn’t make much of a difference. Then the service starts, and it’s all in Spanish, but basically person after person come up and say something or start praying, and down here when someone starts praying, everyone starts praying out loud and some crying and its kind of sounds like a bit of mourning time. But as weird as it was for me, I had a cool realization about that. In Canada, we don’t really know what its like for our primary needs not to be met. We have to ask God to show us how we need him, and we have to ask Him to help us to rely on him. We have all that we need to live, so we have to turn elsewhere to realize our need for God. But some people down here are crying when they pray because they are so grateful because their kids have enough food for the day, or they are crying because they’re asking God to healing because they can’t afford medicine and God is the only way, they have full out reliance because it’s about their primary needs like food, shelter, clothing, and health. It’s just that much more real. Its cool to see. Anyways this service is going on and on, and its been about 3 hours of people getting up and talking and singing, and oh man, they must have had the ol mic on full blast, because this one lady was just like belting it out, and the kids that came and sat on me were plugging their ears. I could barely hear the drums in this place. And the girls had they Sunday dresses on of course so now that the service has hit 3 and a half hours, their legs are freezing and they are wrapped up in some blankets and ears are getting pierced but the music and tamales are supposed to be coming soon so we are getting hungry... it was awesome. It was sweet to be there and experience it, its funny because when something is so bad, it tends to be a really good time and it’s just the way it is. So to top it all off, we are eating our tamales, (corn mush with a hunk of meat and tomato sauce all boiled in a banana leaf) inside the house,(we kind of get special treatment sometimes because of our weak Canadian immune systems) and finishing the delicious tea, our Virginia comments on how she isn’t feeling that well, and she is kinda turning a little pale. So we took outside and yup down she goes, big faint. Josh was helping her outside so he was able to just sit her down and she eventually walked it off and away we went. Just the weirdest night. The last two days we have been working here at the retreat center doing jobs and cleaning up. The girls have taken the bathrooms by storm and painted them nice. Me and Josh were hacking up the backyard with machetes pruning and tending to the yard. Buck and Steve put some sweet finishing touches on some tables that were a little weak and needed some strengthening. On Monday night we got to go play futbol with some guys we met at this church we went to on Sunday morning. They asked to come play so why not. Who cares if they are Guatemalan and have played soccer their whole lives. It was still pretty cool. They have some small soccer fields in Xela with roofs on them. Poor Stace wasn’t feeling so well after tamale night and made sure there was a bathroom close by. But it was just a day and she pretty A OK now. Thank you for all your prayers and please continue to pray for our health and strengthening as there seems to be bugs just jumping around. And pray that God will continue to give a desire and motivation to work hard and to give our best and do some crappy jobs when we don’t really feel like it. Thanks again! Dios te bendiga.

Buenos tardes, hermanos y hermanas en Cristo! Hope you're all doing well back home in Canada. We are all still having an awesome time here in La Esperanza. We finished our first week, bringing the VBS program to a close. I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was exhausting, but such a good time. In the afternoons, we would sing some songs, watch a movie, and then divide the kids up into three groups for crafts, snacks, and games. By the end of the week, we had around 130 kids attending, and we all fell in love with them! The girls were always demanding that the boys lift them on their shoulders and run around. They loved it when Buck would toss them over his shoulder and let them slide down his back. They wouldn't let him quit!

In the evenings we would lead a youth event at a couple churches here in La Esperanza. It was usually an utter gong show, as we never really had a plan for the evening, but everyone had fun. One evening we watched Madagascar. Other times we played some games, shared testimonies, and worshiped together in Spanish and English. It was funny to watch Kyler playing guitar for the Guatemalans. He was at least a head taller than all of them! Thursday evening we had a "bonfire" at one of the churches. Each person that came was supposed to bring a log to burn with a prayer request wrote on it. On Friday evening we had a night of worship and testimonies. It was amazing to see God work through that night. Even though the worship was in Spanish it was awesome to see how we could all worship together. All together we all really enjoyed the youth events!

Friday morning was really nice because we didn't have much to prepare for VBS, so we just hung around at Steve and Elaine's, and played with the children. Lauren, Josh and Kyler helped them wash the truck, which they loved because they got to splash around in warm water. Then the girls had fun braiding Josh's hair. When the boys left, we finally had their attention, and we had a Spanish lesson! Two girls, Keila and Aricely, loved teaching us phrases in Spanish, and then we would tell them how to say it in English. It was amazing, because we acutally communicated for a couple hours, even though we speak different languages. When Keila said "good-bye" in English, the tears almost started flowing already!! (Yes, it's a little pathetic.) So today we are just having a nice, relaxing Sunday, and tomorrow it's back to work, doing some odd-jobs around the retreat center and wherever we're needed. We really appreciate all the prayer so far. We could all use prayer for health, as we're getting run down and a little sick. Thanks so much for the support! Hopefully we'll get another blog up here soon!

Stacey and Virginia

Here we are..

Buenos Dias todos personas! That means good morning everyone. Well you are probably not going to get an excited feeling reading this blog entry because it's Kyler writing it, not one of the girls, so there will be about 90% less exclamation marks. So for all the parents out there and anyone else who may be worried about us, we are here and it's good to be here. The flight went really well, and we even got free meals on each of our flights. It was awesome. Other exciting events that took place on the trip down.. Buck sure was pretty excited to fly for the first time, I'm pretty sure he took about 30 pictures of take-off in Calgary. He was pretty adamant about getting a window seat. Rightfully so. We arrived in Houston and actually met some Canadian missionaries who were on the same flight. They were from the lower mainland in B.C. Oh also in Houston Lauren noticed there was an ipod vending machine in the airport that sold the little guys. I wonder if it took cash.. Steve and Elaine Taylor were patiently waiting for us with a CLBI sign and we loaded up the sweet mission van and prepared for the Guatemalan roads/drivers. I heard a lot about the driving down here from people that have been here, but I never really took it that seriously. I mean how crazy can you get before there are massive accidents? But it was definitely crazy without accidents and kind of cool. I asked Elaine if you needed a license to drive down here, and yes you do, but anyone can just go and buy one. Cars and buses are whizzing around and cudos to Steve our driver who maneuvered in and out of traffic like a pro. It's really funny when you see Western culture trying to work its way in Guatemalan culture or vice versa, but there are Burger Kings and Mcdonalds, and then we noticed a huge sign that reads El Big Mac with a giant picture of it. It was good for a laugh. We stayed at the Mission Ventures house in San Lucas, a suburb just on the outskirts of Guatemala city. It was good to get into bed and fall asleep, as it was a pretty long day. I still think the best feeling in the world goes to getting under the covers no matter how damp they feel and what country you are in. The humidity gets up to 90% at night. The next day we packed up and got ready for the journey to Quetzaltenango (Ketz-al-ten-ang-oh) to the Centro de retiros de Christianos, or the Christian retreat centre, which is home for the next three weeks. We went to church in a fairly touristy town called Antigua. The worship was in Spanish but the preacher preached in english with a spanish translater. He had an intersting message about if we have desires ahead of Christ, it muffles Gods voice in our life. I was very challanging and he had some pretty intense thoughts which got me going a bit. But I wont get into now.. We had lunch at a nice restaurent in Antigua and then got an the road for the 4 hr trip. It was cool to drive through Guatemala during the day and see some of the country side. We took what they call the coastal road, but its a long way from the coast, its just about the same ground level, so it was pretty hot and humid in the van. Sometimes looking out the window it looks and feels like the summer at the coast in B.C. and then you see palms trees. We stopped for some ice cream and Josh said hola to a Guatemalan man in the mall, then the man proceeded to ask him a question, and then its wierd because you just kinda just say nothing back and sort of walk away awkwardly. But thats how its starts, embracing the culture. The coffee is great, and everyone is healthy for the most part and the bowels are doing pretty good amongst the team. No major problems. We just have to get used to putting the toilet paper in the garbage instead of the toilet. Virginia hasn't got mugged yet as our holder of the fundage, so thats good and Stace is feeling a lot better and healthier, it was quite the scare just a couple days before departure, she was bed-written, but now shes drugged up and ready to go. We had a meeting last night with the 4 churches that have come together to welcome us and set a vauge plan for the week as the focus was to unite some of the churches in the area to minister to the kids. There is so much more I could write, but I will leave you with that, and its a sunny monday morning, and we are off to lunch before the VBS start at 2 where we will be helping out with some crafts and games, and after supper a youth event with youth from the churches. Thanks for all the prayer and support, and until next time.. Adios familia y amigos!

Hello welcome to the official TEAM GUATEMALA blog. Our team consists of team leader - Josh Klassen, team nurse - Bucky Schaffrick, - team logistics - Lauren Renner, team chaplin - Stace Hagen, team holder of the treasures - Virginia Wight, and team floater, Kyler Nottveit...

We are leaving Jan. 2 and returning Jan. 26 and will be doing a variety of serving as we work along Steve and Elaine(the missionaries in Guatemala)
Please pray for us as we prepare to embark and this journey.