Day 5 at Casa Angelina/Home

Well we have officially made it home from our trip. Sorry I didn't get the update out last night, but we didn't get to the hotel until later in the evening and had to be on a 4AM shuttle to the airport this morning. With that being said, we did have a great week of work that the orphanage and got a lot of work accomplished. I will keep this one short and sweet and let the pictures do the talking on this post.

Thank you to everyone for the prayers while we were gone, as well as taking the time to follow us on our journey. Hopefully someday, we will get to see you down in Guatemala as well! Signing out this time around, but will hopefully be on another trip here in the near future.

 Kelsey working on hard on the rebar project in the school.

 Others working on the rebar project.

 Jared working on getting the ceiling boards cut and installed.

 Matt and Preston working hard getting the ceiling installed.

 Chad is making sure everything is running smoothly!

 Staining the doors of the homes.

 Ella doing a little touch up work.

 Working on getting the bridge repaired and working again.

 Working on getting the bed rails installed.

 The painting crew working hard and got 7 of the 8 homes painted this week!

 Serena taking a much needed break after climbing the ladder 100s of times.

 Chad and Jordan putting the final touches on Leah's House.

 Joel and Renee cleaning up and getting ready to play with the kids after a long hard days work.

 A "rare" photo of Chad working. Almost as rare as Chad's photo of Houdini locking his keys in his car!

 Widows house before...

 Widows house before....

 Leonza and her family standing in their new kitchen!

 Leonza and her family, Floyd, and Genia in one of the two new bedrooms.

 The group praying for Leonza and her family.

 Floyd and Leonza share a hug after the house dedication.

 Floyd explaining his motivation behind doing God's work and building homes.

 The new kitchen equipped with wood burning stove, table and chairs, and a dinning hutch.

The house from afar.

The final "see you later" to Lydia, Jorge, and their wonderful staff at Hostal Doña Isabel. There was a lot of dust in the air that morning causing eyes to water.

Day 3/4 at Casa Angelina

First off I want to apologize for not posting last night. We had a late night of great conversations, and didn't want to stay up later than I needed. We have been making great progress on all of the projects and will hopefully be finishing most of them up tomorrow. It is hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day at the orphanage, it feels like we just got here a few days ago.

The biggest blessing of this trip so far has been the widows home that we have been working on. The house has been ahead of schedule all week and should be finished up tomorrow morning and be dedicated in the afternoon.

A lot of great work is happening at the orphanage, and I haven't been able to get around to take pictures due to being at the widows home. However, our entire group will be sharing photos and I will post more once we have all the photos shared with each other. We have had a few health issues this trip so continued prayer for our team would be wonderful. We would also ask that you pray for blessings for the Tait family, Carlos and his family, Alejandro, as well as Oscar and Phibee. These trips would not be possible without these amazing people!

Day 2 at Casa Angelina

Today we got to start work on all of the projects out at the orphanage! There is a lot going on, and I am going to apologize up front about not getting many pictures today. I was helping with the widows house out in the village while all the other projects were happening within the walls of Casa Angelina. I will hopefully get around tomorrow to get pictures of all of the projects and give updates of what is going on. With that being said, here is what we are working on this week at the orphanage:

1. Today we had a group of 5 of us go to the widows house that we are building this trip and paint the interior of the house. We were expecting to have to do demolition, but it turns out the house structure is up and we just have to put the finishing touches on the home. The group will be painting the exterior tomorrow, and installing the doors and windows following the painting.
2. We have a couple of our members that are giving eye exams to all of the kids out at the orphanage. I believe they said they got through about 60 kids exams today and will continue to work on finishing those up tomorrow.
3. We also have Liz working with all of the kids giving them dental checkups and exams. It sounds like the new dental equipment has been a huge blessing and allowed them to work more efficiently and effectively. I believe the final number I heard for dental exams was around 12.
4. We finished laying block on the retaining wall that was started yesterday. The crew is now painting the wall and should be finishing up with that project tomorrow at some point.
5. We are also working on repainting two exterior walls on all of the homes. Over the year, the sun beats down and fades and cracks the paint. They have already finished 2 homes and are well on the way to finishing their 3rd tomorrow.
6. Along with the painting of the homes, we also have a couple of awesome ladies working on sanding down all of the front doors so they can be restained!
7. We also have a group that is working on sealing and staining the wood beams that will be used for the ceiling in the Sewall House. 
8. We have a group of team members that is working on prepping the 2nd floor rebar so the floor can be poured by the March group. This process helps make the building earthquake proof as well as gives the building a solid foundation for the gym that will one day be on the 2nd floor of the school house.
9. Our last team is working on building safety rails for all of the bunk beds so the kids will not roll out of bed during the evenings. Today they got all of the wood pieces cut and will be assembling the rails tomorrow and staining them on Thursday. It will be awesome to see the finished product.

As you can see, we have a ton of projects going on this week at the orphanage. We are hoping to finish all of them this week, and with God's help we will finish them all in perfect timing. As always, please keep all of our team members in your prayers and let me know if you have any questions.

 Today we were greeted with a nice surprise when we woke up. Fuego decided to spit out some smoke to greet us during breakfast.

 We got to listen to Brother Ivan talk this morning at the orphanage for devotional time. Always a very engaging and passionate speaker.

 This hill we got to climb down and up to get to and from the widows house.

Floyd, doing his best Guatemala carrying imitation, carrying his collected donations down the previously pictured hill. This was no small hill, just so you are aware.

Day 1 at Casa Angelina

Today we headed out to the orphanage for our first day! Day 1 typically is an orientation day for all new team members as well as the ability for those that have been in the past to see all of the great changes that have taken place at Casa Angelina. Today many of us were able to tour the orphanage with Andrew Fraiser and Kimberly Tate as our trusty guides. So much has changed in the 5 years that I have been away. It is very apparent that God is on the move in Guatemala. After an amazing meal that was prepared for us, we had the opportunity to visit several of the widows that have had homes built for them through What Matters Ministry and Missions. Many of them are will into there 80's or 90's and love God with all their hearts. I have a few photos below that show the widows and their homes.

We also had a team that worked on constructing a wall and staining while the others were out on the tour. I didn't get over to see the progress that was made, but I am sure that it was amazing work being done. Tomorrow we will be starting to build another widows home as well as a few other various projects. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know! God bless everyone and thank you for your continued prayers for our group.

 Kimberly is explaining the smiles incentive system used within the school to encourage the kids to be nice to one another.

 One of the widows standing in the doorway of her house.

 A view of the orphanage from the nearby village.

 At the end of the day we had the opportunity to spend some time with the kids. This was a large game of tag that seemed to be a crowd favorite.

 These 6 swings always seem to have kids in them waiting for a push.

 A view of the orphanage from the front gate.

 The new chruch being constructed that will be used to minister to the children at Casa Angelina as well as to the people of the nearby villages.

 The view you have standing in front of the church.

 The living room area of the newly completed Ministry House. This will be used for visiting pastors, speakers, and guests.

 The aquaponics system that the orphanage uses to home grow vegetables as well as fish to help offset the cost of the food budget.

 The first widow that was blessed through What Matters Ministry and Missions. She is now around 94 years old and told us she is ready for her Father to come and take her whenever He is ready. She also blessed us while we were visiting her.

The kids enjoying their free time with the team!

Sunday Fun Day in Antigua

Today we had the day off to tour and take in the sights Guatemala has to offer. We got the chance to attend a church service, tour Antigua, visited and toured Jaun Carlos's coffee farm, as well as the market and a jade shop. We were all in need a bit of a "relaxing" day, despite us still working at the coffee farm, and hiking the mountain to get to there. We are all excited to get out to the orphanage on Monday and bless and love on the kids at Casa Angelina. Not a whole lot to update on today, but I do have a few pictures to share. We will be updating daily with what we are working on at the orphanage as well as Land of Hope. As always, if you have any questions or comments please let me know!

 This was our surprise from the volcano this morning. It has been puffing smoke most of the day today.

 Taking in the sermon at our morning church service.

 Juan Carlos and his son hosting us in his home. He was explaining the process and life of a coffee farmer in Guatemala. This experience brings a whole new meaning to how you get to enjoying your favorite cup of coffee in the morning!

The shelling machine in Juan Carlos's home that helps him quickly defruit the coffee beans. Yes, coffee beans do come covered in a fruit.

Building Guate/Land of Hope Day

Sorry I didn't get the chance to update everyone last night, but after a long day of travel everyone was ready for bed when we arrived. We had the wonderful and difficult opportunity to go out to The Land of Hope today, which is a dump ministry that is headed up by Oscar and his nonprofit Building Guate. Words cannot express the experience that we all were a part of today. It definitely gives a lot of prospective to those of us who wish we had more. The people that have been saved from living in the dump ground by Building Guate, now have their own homes and a new community that they are part of. The only thing is, there community is built less than 100 yards from the city dump of Escuintla. I will post a few picture from that day down below with some descriptions of what you are looking at.

Today our group toured the Land of Hope and the school that has been built to help educate the kids that are living in the dump. We also helped host a Vacation Bible School program for the kids, hosted a women's Bible study group were 11 of the attendees accepted Jesus for the first time in their life. Praise God!! We also helped out with a digging project for the new birthing center that they are hoping to add to the facilities. It is amazing to see what God is doing through this ministry and the doors that he is opening for Oscar and his organization.

This was a very great but difficult day. It is hard to see people living amongst all the trash and having to dig through for food to live. If any of you ever get the chance to experience this ministry, I would highly encourage it! Well I am going to sign off for tonight. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see more!

 Water treatment system that is used to get pure drinking water to the village as well as those living in the dump.

 Main "front yard" to all the home, also doubles as a group gathering area. The tree also provides amazing shade for tire, hot Americas!

 A few of the homes that have been built by Building Guate.

A few more of the houses on the right, on the left is the clinic that was built to help with minor medical needs. In the background is the dump ground. As you can see, there is smoke everywhere and there are constant fires burning in the dump.

Orphanage Day 5

Today was the final day at the orphanage. We didn't end up getting any of our projects completely done, but we made a lot of progress in our time here. Ivan and Kimberly were very impressed by the work and work ethic of this group. They blessed everyone today with a picture magnet of everyone at the orphanage.

It has been an amazing trip and I can't wait until I can get back down here.

Tomorrow we will be touring Antigua and be driving into Guatemala City to fly out on Sunday. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers for everyone who came in this trip. We really appreciate all you do for us and for allowing us the opportunity to get to come back.