Sunday 3/15/2009 10:33 PM
Russ Ewing
We are here safe and sound. All our bagage got here. It is 10;30 and we have been up since 2 something this morning. So we are a little tired. We are all looking forward to tomorrow and what God has in store for us.
Monday 3/16/2009 11:04 PM
Jaci Davidson
We had an awesome day. The weather was perfect and the people friendly.
The construction got the windows and doors in the school. Tomorrow they will put the panes in and lighting. I think they are having a good time working together. They are going to join the GO team tomorrow evening for the youth event. I think they just want the hot dogs we are serving. We had three GO teams today. We went out and shared the gospel with members of the community. Members of the church along with interpreters made up our teams. We visited 40 homes and shared with people passing by. Some of the homes were way up hills and we thought we must be getting near heaven. ´We could have used some of our chariot drivers! The best part of the day was that we now have 6 new brothers and sisters in Christ. Tomorrow we begin the children´s program. The girls had a good time tonight getting the materials together. And the construction team had fun putting some lights together, no Home Depot here. We feel God´s presence and we are anxious to see what God has in store for us tomorrow. All is well.
Tuesday 3/17/2009 11:37 PM
Jaci Davidson
Today was a blessed day. The weather was again perfect. The guys finished the doors and the lighti ng. Dan installed the lighting and we are pleased to report that he is a Master, licensed electrician.......in Guatemala! They finished the ground work for pouring the concrete tomorrow. The village is very interested in their work. They do first class work as always!
We visited 15 homes and there are 5 more members of God´s Kingdom. Praise God!!! We did our first VBS today and had 52 young children attend. They did crafts and heard an excellent story of Daniel illustrated with a flannel graft and even acted out by ou fine cast of thespians( Ryan, Tarah, and Glenna). Speaking of Tarah, her spanglish is improving???? She has gone from "me likey, don´t take my cold coke light away" to ordering her own dinner. " I want the moo tacos instead of the cluck, cluck tacos. " Needless to say there was lots of laughter at dinner tonight.
The youth at the village met together tonight for a time of fellowship and teaching led by Roger Grossman, our missionary.
Please excuse any typos. It takes two of us a couple of hours to complete this on the hotel equipement. God is really at work here and we are blessed to be able to join Him. All is well!
Thursday 3/19/2009 10:10 PM
Elizabeth Henke
I apologize for not being able to write last night. Russ, Jaci and I tried for a couple of hours and finally gave up around 11:30. We have had a great couple of days. Again great weather and we will all be disappointed if it is not warm when we get home. The construction guys finished there work today. The windows in and glazed, the doors hung and the concrete poured. Other than a minor cut, there are all safe and healthy. Tim does have a good tan so we wondered what he had been doing all day. I am sure that Daniel kept everyone on their toes since he is such a hustler.
We did our last children's program today. Yesterday we had 75 children of all ages, even as young as 18 months. They all had such a good time. It was so heart warming to see them wearing the bracelets that they had made the previous two days. (Courage, and Jesus loves me). They loved Tarah and her stories and always wanted more. Today we had over 90 and shared the gospel through faith beads. The smiles of so many precious children made it worth all our effort.
I want to tell you about one very special young man. He is such an example of the members of the church. He is only fifteen but on fire for the Lord. He was always a part of the witnessing and led one young woman to Christ by himself.
The family event last night has 20 families; almost most of them new to the church. Wednesday we visited 25 homes and had 5 decisions for Christ. Today we visited 17 homes and had 4 decisions for Christ. It was a glorious day. It was very difficult leaving our new friends at the sister church. There were many hugs and tears.
We are tired and miss our families and we are ready to come home. We thank you for all your prayers. There are leaving without me so I must go!
Friday 3/20/2009 9:36 PM
Russ Ewing
The team has safely arrived back in Guatemala City. We had a good day of relaxing, shopping, and sightseeing. Everyone on the team is doing fine. We get picked up early in the morning for our 7:15 am flight -- we will go through DFW on the way back to St. Louis (Tim will go back to Phoenix) -- we will arrive at the St. Louis airport at 5.30 pm and should be back at the church around 6:30 pm.
We have had a wonderful trip. Thank you for letting your family members, relatives, and friends go on this trip with us. Everyone on the team has contributed significantly to the team effort.
Friday 4/1/2009 9:36 AM
Russ Ewing
On this mission trip, our team was divided into a construction team and Gospel Outreach (GO) teams. Our construction team completed a building by installing windows, doors, and concrete floor. We had a dedication service for the building one evening. Our GO teams visited 97 homes sharing the gospel using the EvangeCube, held a 3-day children’s program for 93 children, had approximately 100 teenagers in a youth event one night, and introduced some new families to the New Covenant Church during our family night. During the week, we witnessed 23 decisions for Christ.
