Guatemala, 2009

In all my excitement of writing the last note, I forgot to say what we actually did. Our actual idea for the trip was to do a "Champions for Christ" sports camp for the kids. I got to teach a bunch of 6-9 year old kids how to play baseball and soccer.

They weren't too thrilled with baseball, but they loved soccer. I'm not sure if we actually taught them anything in that arena actually. Most of these kids grow up with a soccer ball (or futbol) around. So Monday thru Thursday we did the sports camp. We started off around 9am and went until about 1pm. It may not sound like much, but remember, this is under the Guatemalan sun. But the temperatures were about like Charlotte actually. I was just amazed at my energy levels. I was only getting about 5-6 hrs asleep a night for some reason. Usually, after 2 nights of that, I would've been really tired and cranky and no fun to be around. But there was a real grace for it. And thankfully, all the fields were provided due to an anonymous donor. One of our translators and friends, Rolando, had the hook up for that. So, whomever it was, thanks a ton. Through sports, we were able to teach the kids some valuable lessons in life.

I had to keep reminding myself that they children I was dealing with were 6-9 and not youth. So I had to be really careful when addressing wrong attitudes. I didn't want to just snap at them, but I wanted to find out what was going on with them and give them something to look forward towards. All in all, i think the camp went off pretty well.

After the camp ended on Thursday, we headed up the coast to a coffee plantation somewhere in the Guatemalan hills. The place was phenomenal! It had a great view of a nearby river and cities. We ended up taking a small bus load up. Now mind you, the road to get up to this plantation was not flat by any stretch of the imagination. The bus driver literally had to get a running start up the hill or the bus may not have made it. It wasn't nicely paved roads the whole way up. This is Guatemala after all. No, the incline up the hill was pretty steep. It was probably at least a 45% incline. So we went up to the plantation and spent the night there. We also had a small worship time and water baptismals. A number of folks on our team got baptized in water and then a number of the children did as well.

After leaving the plantation, we went back to the children's home, changed clothes and repacked for a quick overnight trip to Antiqua. That was our sightseeing time. What's a missions trip without a sightseeing time? We hit various markets there and toured the Casa de Santo Domingo.

This is a brief synopsis of my trip to Guatemala. Further details available upon request.

Calling all pack rats...

This blog goes out to all those who have ever moved and you've come to realize how much junk you accrue over time. today, i moved out of the Mitchell's house and moved into a house with two young guys. this is going to be another transition. just when you get accustomed to having 3 girls in the house again, you gotta readjust to just three guys. for those who don't know, the dynamics of living with girls is adversely different to that of living with guys.

for one thing, with guys, you actually run the risk of having to call in the haz mat team in from time to time. for guys, a little bit of mold on food usually isn't that big of deal. depending on how big that mold is.

i opened up the door of the fridge in the Pearson's home (where i'm currently living now) and realized that a trip to the store is probably just around the corner. you learn how much you take for granted when you go from living with a married couple with kids to living with just young guys. its like night and day.

in any case, on with the adjusting of life again. i will most certainly miss the Mitchell's and the food and the family like type atmosphere. but this new situation is going to be a good challenge for me and the other guys as well. i've learned over time to deal with these things and learn from mistakes, should they happen (and more than likely, things will come up.) and thats a part of life... yippee..

in other news, my parents are in London, England with my sister and brother in law. i'm jealous... i would love to do some more international travel. but everything has its time and season. and that time and season will come. so until later, everyone out there in blog world, have a great one.