We are home!

After breakfast, our daily morning devotional led by Brittany, and some shopping we headed to the Guatemala City airport.  We got some lunch/dinner at the Houston airport and our flight actually arrived almost one half hour early into Richmond at 10:30pm.

The parents and friends gave us a very joyful welcome home at the church last night.  We plan to communicate our experiences with the congregation in several ways but first we're going to have an awesome picture party.

More from Thursday/Closing Service/Trip back to Guatemala City Friday

Here are some additional photographs from our great day Thursday in Chichel at the waterfall with the youth from the Chajul church.

The closing service at the Chajul church was very special.  We sang Amazing Grace with the youth from Guatemala City in English and Spanish.  One of the youth gathered everyone's special moments and words of thanks, integrated them, and stood up in front of the congregation and delivered them.  We presented the church with an enlarged, framed version of the covenant between the Central Church, WPC, and the Chajul church which they really appreciated.  Special thanks go to Rich and Sudie Watkins for providing the covenants and the frames.

The Chajul youth performed several dances for us to contemporary music which we really enjoyed.  The youth gave each of us a gift from the congregation and Terri accepted a gift for the Presbyterian Women thanking them for their substantial financial support.  There were many smiles and hugs at the end of the service as we said goodbye to our brothers and sisters in Chajul.

We packed up and headed out at about 9:00am on Friday.  Everything was going according to plan until the van starting making some not so good noises about two hours into the trip.  We pulled over to pop the hood and see what might be the problem and then could not get the van restarted.  We were very fortunate that members of the Central church had driven up the night before and were following us in a Land Rover.  They were able to travel to the nearest large town and bring a mechanic back who immediately said the engine had seized-up.  While we were waiting a transportation service drove buy and said they could take us to Guatemala City in their van.  So we piled in and made it to Philip's house at 9:00pm; a very long day!

We had a great dinner at Philip's thanks to his wife Basilia and women from the church.  We presented a framed covenant to elders from the Central Church.  The WPC youth gave gifts to the Guatemala City youth and Terri presented gifts to Pastor Jenner, Pastor Alvaro, Philip and Basilia.  We said goodbye, again with much smiling and hugging, and made it to the hotel around 11:30pm.

 

We stopped in San Juan Cotzal on our way back from the waterfall.  This is the Catholic Church in the center of town.

 

Each cross bears the name of a Catholic church

member who was murdered or disappeared during the civil war in the 1980's and 90's

Central town square in San Juan Cotzal

 

 

Sarah delivering our special memories and thanks to the Chajul church at the closing service

Terri thanking the church women for all their hospitality and providing many great lunches and dinners

Jane and Steve reading the covenant before presenting it to the church

Terri's best impression of Vanna White

Jane reading the covenant in Spanish

Presentation to Miguel, the Chajul church lay pastor

Youth performing at the closing service

Terri accepting a gift for the Presbyterian Women

The church was packed for the closing service

Philip and our dead van

Waiting patiently for a ride to Guatemala City

Terri presenting gifts to Philip and Basilia

One last picture of the youth at Philip's home

 

A great day in Chichel and Cotzal

Another simply beautiful day in Guatemala.  We had great weather all week especially considering it is the rainy season.  We traveled to Chichel with around 60 youth and 20 adults from the Chajul church to see an amazing waterful and have lunch.  The Central Church paid for a bus (that is correct, they got about 80 people on a single bus) and WPC paid the entrance fee to the park with the waterfall.  We went in ou van and that was enough of an adventure.  I could not imagine riding up there with 80 people in what looks like a shool bus.

We spent some time at the falls and played some soccer.  The women of the church carried food and fire wood to the park and cooked us lunch.  We had chicken chow mein with corn tortillas.  We thought they made this especially for us but this is a popular dish in Guatemala.

We have the closing service at 7:00pm this eveining where we will present the church a framed version of the covenant between WPC, the Central Church in Guatemala City, and the church in Chajul.  We will also sing Amazing Grace in English and Spanish and share our reflections on the week.

Everyone is healthy and having a great experience.  We look forward to telling everyone about it when we return.

I was only able to upload three pictures today due to internet cafe issues.  I will post more pictures when we get to Guatemala City tomorrow and have access to a better internet connection.

Wednesday in Chajul

We had another great day at the church worksite and began to see some progress.  We ate lunch at the church and bought some beautiful crafts from the church women.  The cornerstone laying ceremony at the church worksite was truly wonderful.  Everyone got to participate from the men at the site to the WPC and Central Church youth to the children of the church.

After the cornerstone ceremony we traveled to an "indoor" soccer field and played with the Central Church youth and some kids from the town.  The views from the soccer field site were spectacular.  We feel truly blessed for the opportunity to do God's work in the world with our partners from Guatemala City and Chajul.

Second full day in Chajul

We spent the Tuesday morning at the construction site.  Everyone worked very hard again today and also had some fun at the site with the youth from Guatemala City and the children.  We feel blessed that the weather has been excellent while we've been working at the site.  The construction at the site is very traditional for this region using reinforced concrete for the foundation, columns and beams while using rock dug from the construction site and mortar (or their version of mortar) to construct the walls.

We spent the afternoon with the children of the church doing the crafts we brought with us.  The youth from WPC and Guatemala were great with the kids and everyone had great fun.  The language barrier was a challenge but the youth from Guatemala were a big help.  We also planned on handing out the school kits we brought with us and some drinks and snacks we purchased in Chichicastenanga.  Before we realized it the church had filled up with more children than we had snacks for so Philip and I ran from small store to small store in town until we found another 40 drinks and snacks.  In the end we were able to give all the school age children kits and everyone got a drink and a snack.  This is typical of mission trips where things don't always go as planned but, with God's help, we make it all work out.

Jumping for joy in the Chajul Central Square

Silly in Chajul

Catalina and Christina - the WPC Presbyterian Woman are supporting them with scholarships

The rock pile girls showing off their guns

At the construction site on Tuesday

Crafts with the children at the church in Chajul