Saturday, March 21, 2015
Bonfire
After a hard week of work it was fun to relax around a bonfire with the girls and some of the missionaries - we enjoyed smores, songs, games and cuddles around the fire.
Friday Night Dinner
One of the highlights of the week is always sharing dinner in the houses with the girls!
Finishing projects
Friday was our last day of work and we were able to finish up all our assigned projects plus a number of additional items on the "to do list" including making a stage, putting a work bench in the bodega, fixing cabinets, painting doors & mending toys!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Future Vision for Zapote
Today, we had a very important meeting to discuss the future of one of the ministries here in Guatemala. The following people were at the meeting:
Tim B. and Pastor Pablo from New Hope Church
Corbey Dukes the field director of Kids Alive Guatemala
Pastor Merari from Galilea church in San Lucas
and the Principal of the school in Zapote ("Source of Hope")
Galilea church in San Lucas planted a church in the remote village of Zapote several years ago, they saw a need for a school and through a partnership with Kids Alive and construction teams from the U.S. built a school that now houses over 200 kids who receive not only an education, but spiritual discipleship, meals and health care!
Two factors are now causing us to consider what the future looks like for this ministry. Firstly, the team rooms at the school are now complete - this will allow short term missions teams to stay out at Zapote in the future (we were hoping to do that this year, but it didn't come together in time). With the majority of construction at the school complete the question is what would these team do? Secondly, the school will be graduating it's first class at the end of this year. The original vision would be that these students would go on to some form of higher education. However, the reality is that there is often neither the financial resources or the desire to continue academic education.
One of the ideas we talked about would involve teams offering clinics in practical skills that would help the kids earn a living to help their family and/or pay for school. Another thing we discussed was the potential for outreach into the community. With the school having such a huge impact, not only on the kids but on the whole village, an active and supportive local church and a very well defined, remote geographical location this makes for a very fertile missions field.
While construction has been an important part of our mission in the past (and will be in the future) our mission as a church is to spread the Gospel and we can see many different ways of doing this in the future in partnership with Kids Alive and Galilea church.
Tim B. and Pastor Pablo from New Hope Church
Corbey Dukes the field director of Kids Alive Guatemala
Pastor Merari from Galilea church in San Lucas
and the Principal of the school in Zapote ("Source of Hope")
Galilea church in San Lucas planted a church in the remote village of Zapote several years ago, they saw a need for a school and through a partnership with Kids Alive and construction teams from the U.S. built a school that now houses over 200 kids who receive not only an education, but spiritual discipleship, meals and health care!
Two factors are now causing us to consider what the future looks like for this ministry. Firstly, the team rooms at the school are now complete - this will allow short term missions teams to stay out at Zapote in the future (we were hoping to do that this year, but it didn't come together in time). With the majority of construction at the school complete the question is what would these team do? Secondly, the school will be graduating it's first class at the end of this year. The original vision would be that these students would go on to some form of higher education. However, the reality is that there is often neither the financial resources or the desire to continue academic education.
One of the ideas we talked about would involve teams offering clinics in practical skills that would help the kids earn a living to help their family and/or pay for school. Another thing we discussed was the potential for outreach into the community. With the school having such a huge impact, not only on the kids but on the whole village, an active and supportive local church and a very well defined, remote geographical location this makes for a very fertile missions field.
While construction has been an important part of our mission in the past (and will be in the future) our mission as a church is to spread the Gospel and we can see many different ways of doing this in the future in partnership with Kids Alive and Galilea church.
Work projects
This week's construction projects have included:
Building cabinets and shelves in numerous offices & houses
Electrical work in a new tech center (to allow girls to learn practical skills)
Painting the main dining room and foyer
Adding a temporary dividing wall in one of the offices
Combining two separate closets into one to allow more room for food storage
Various repairs in the girl's houses
...and an art installation (see separate post)
Most of the work has gone pretty smoothly, of course we have had the usual challenges of searching for the right tool, improvising with whatever materials we can find making do with what we have. We feel like we have already accomplished a lot and are looking forward to finishing our projects up tomorrow.
Building cabinets and shelves in numerous offices & houses
Electrical work in a new tech center (to allow girls to learn practical skills)
Painting the main dining room and foyer
Adding a temporary dividing wall in one of the offices
Combining two separate closets into one to allow more room for food storage
Various repairs in the girl's houses
...and an art installation (see separate post)
Most of the work has gone pretty smoothly, of course we have had the usual challenges of searching for the right tool, improvising with whatever materials we can find making do with what we have. We feel like we have already accomplished a lot and are looking forward to finishing our projects up tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Wednesday night devotions
This evening we were privileged to share in the weekly devotion time with the staff, missionaries, tias and girls. We started with a beautiful time of worship led by the team coordinator Josh and some of the girls. After worship the tias from each house recognized girls in their houses that had been especially well behaved, done well with their schooling, been extra helpful or consistent with their devotions. They also expressed their appreciation to us for the day out they had yesterday - sounds like they had a blast! We were then treated to a short skit performed by the girls. This was something they are preparing to do as an evangelical outreach in the park on Saturday. They performed a wonderful piece of drama completed with full costumes, based on the stories found in Luke 8, and also included a gospel presentation. This is the first time they have done something like this and is just another way we see the girls expanding the kingdom beyond the walls of the Oasis.
Art Installation
Over the last three days some of us have had the fun job of creating an art installation. The piece we created has been installed in the main dinning area and depicts four core values that the girls are being taught:
- Soy Elegida – I am chosen
- Soy Limpia – I am clean
- Soy Hija de Dios – I am a daughter of God
- Soy Poderosa – I am powerful
The art piece was created from old pieces of metal, wood, plastic, broken bike parts, tools, pipe and anything that was useless, discarded and of no purpose to anyone. As we put the piece together we realized that it was a great representation of the girls at the Oasis. Many of them have been told they have no purpose or worth. They have been abused, broken and discarded by society. To be able to create something beautiful out of all those broken pieces really is a picture of how God has taken hold of them and created something beautiful!
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
It's a tough job...
While the "Tias" were away on the outing someone had to look after the babies...
Tia Outing
The girls at the Oasis live in homes with about 10 girls in each house. They are looked after by house parents called "Tias" (aunties) - these ladies are with the girls 24 hours a day - looking after them, helping them with their homework, cleaning and cooking for them. Thanks to generous donations from friends and family we were able to pay for these ladies to go out for they day. They chose to spend the day at the pool relaxing and having fun, and then enjoyed a nice meal on the way home. They were very grateful for this well deserved break!
Monday, March 16, 2015
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