Saturday - rest / reflection / prayer

The team traveled to the pacific coast for a day of rest, reflection and prayer. What a week we’ve had… This time was quite welcomed by all. We gathered several times during the day as a team to reflect and share about our time in here in Guatemala. Such a sweet time recalling the many special times with the girls, a meal in their homes, soccer games, playing catch or just talking. It was great remembering how God is using the Oasis for His good work. Our construction work almost seems to pale in comparison to these times. We had much to praise God for and to pray for, as each of us had unique experiences to share.

Doug

Friday - Our last day :( what an AMAZING week

Great verse for the day: Verse Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and acknowledge Him and he will direct your path. We started our day as we watched the volcano Fuego puff up a cloud of ash as it does so regularly and with many morning greetings as the girls pass by. Devos were sweet as we embraced our last work day. 

The week started with many projects we were going to do and were wondering if we could get to them them all. Each of us desired to get as much done as we could prior to cleaning up all the tools and materials that were around each of the work areas. The painting and sheet rocking at the Bethany house or multi-purpose building needed a lot of cleaning following the wall building and painting. The Bodega was full of wood dust and material scraps from the many cabinets that were built. Every tool and leftover material needed to be brought back to the Bodega. The day was a bit of a fever pitch as we wrapped up. God has been gracious to us and we have completed many of these projects.   

Construction wise we completed four new offices, finished sanding and painting several other offices, built custom storage benches for each, built a large new work surface / storage table and especially spent precious with the girls. There were as every day, sweet interactions with the girls as they went about their days. Hugs were frequent and brief conversations with our struggling Spanish as we talked with them and greeted many throughout the day. Looking back over the week we played soccer with the girls, just simple hola’s and lots of high fives. These were our favorite times…  Friday evening we got a chance to reflect on the week to share with each other on our time there and the interactions / God sightings and special moments. It’s been an amazing week…

Dan

Saludos desde Guatemala (Hello from Guatemala)

Hi everyone, today is our sixth day in Guatemala and like all the other days we have seen God at work in not only our lives but the lives of the girls here at the Oasis. Every morning we meet in the team room with everyone having breakfast. I would like to point out that Cory has been a blessing to the team by making eggs for whoever wants some. Thank you Cory! We started off with our team devotion reading Matthew 6:25-34 with God’s Word reminding us not to be anxious. Not to be anxious about whatever we may be going thru, about our families back home, about the girls here at the Oasis or the boys and girls in Zapote. We are to come to God first, trust Him and live by faith. After devotions it’s off to work we go. I’ve had the privilege of working with Dan every day. He is a great leader and an expert at what he does. The Missionaries office needed a table with storage space on the bottom so today we worked on creating storage cabinets. Our goal is to finish and install them tomorrow morning. Others from the team worked on painting the therapy rooms for the girls while others are finishing up more offices. We took our lunch break at 1:45pm. We look forward to having lunch every day because we get to spend time with the girls, laughing with them and getting to know them a little more. The fact that I speak Spanish has been such a blessing. The girls love joking with me and ask me how to say things in English. It was such a surprise to them to know that I speak both English and Spanish. One of them said to me that she’d like to be able to speak both languages one day. After lunch the girls get to go on their walk around the campus and we all get to go back to work. We finished working at 5pm and some of us went for a walk to Chicamen while the other stayed behind and played soccer with the girls. The visit to Chicamen is a yearly tradition. Tim loves taking pictures of children and families in the community and every year he brings them the photo he took of them the past year. The families are so thankful and enjoy seeing how much their kids have grown. A sweet 3 year old named Hugo came running as we left and gave me a beautiful red flower. What a cutie <3. It’s so neat to see how the community is so welcoming and loving despite of the language barrier and different race. The people that live around Oasis are very poor economically but rich in hospitality. After our walk the team had a short time to rest and mingle. The guys were playing with a walking stick insect. It was neat to see it but of course from far. We met for dinner and Randy shared a devotional with the team that left us with the questions that Jesus asked Simon Peter; “Do you love me?” Jn. 21:15. We pray that our answer will always be, “Yes Lord, I love you”. We finished of our day by  having brownies with vanilla ice cream on top. Thank you Tim for being such a great baker, it was yummy! I hope this gives you a glimpse of our day. Please continue to pray for us as we finish the physical work here at Oasis and the spiritual work with the girls. Please pray that God continue to shine His love on the girls and that we as a team won’t miss those divine appointments He has prepared for us to share with them. 

Thank you for you prayers.

Xochitl.

Wednesday... What a day!

Today half our team went to the remote village of Zapote while the other half remained at the Oasis. The Oasis team continued on with the tasks of hanging drywall, taping and mudding, as well as applying additional coats of paint.  The primary focus of the Zapote team was to tackle small maintenance projects, and the major task of getting photographs of all 220 kids at the KAG Source of Hope school. All the photos were taken by Tim with the help of Dennis, Xochitl, and Pam as crowd control.  The photos are used by Kids Alive for sponsorship of the kids in Zapote. Meaghen De Aku (Burge) is the KAG missionary located in Zapote and she gave the team a tour and update of the school as well as around the village.  She introduced us to Jorge, who was a student of the first class to graduate from the school and is first generation in his family to pursue higher education.  He received his degree in Physical Education and is now the PE coach at the school. 

After finishing the tasks at the school, the team made their way through the village to the church Iglesia Galilea (which is a church plant from the one in San Lucas by the same name). This was the location of the school prior to the completion of the new site around 2010.  We spoke with pastor and he shared the amazing Church growth that continues to take place in spite of the pagan influence in the village.  He also showed us their a new food initiative that helps to grow fresh vegetables and tilapia for the community. 

Tim was able to distribute pictures to families whom he took pictures of in previous years.  The joy and smiles on their faces for this seemingly simple gesture helps one understand what true gratitude is.  One family that received these pictures includes a boy that has been featured in a previous KAG video. His name is Elmer and on top of all the other maladies shared amongst the children of Zapote he suffers from epilepsy.  His mother informed us that he ran out of the little medication that the government provides them and has been going without for quite some time.  Any commotion by his surroundings has the potential to set off his life threatening seizures.  Thankfully God provides and a medical team will be visiting in a few weeks on their six month rotation and hopefully they will be able to provide him with a six month or more supply of his medication.  There are many kids in Zepote that need sponsorship, so if you feel lead, please visit the Kids Alive Guatemala homepage. 

At the end of the day the New Hope Church team was able to attend group devotions and service with the girls of the Oasis and their house moms.  The service included a departure of one of the house moms, which always leaves many feeling a little melancholy. Sharing in praise songs lead by the girls was also very encouraging because we were able to the passion they have for God and their faith.  Some of the girls shared how they recognized the values they are all being taught in there housemates this week.  Korby, the KAG site lead, facilitated the devotions afterword reinforcing those values.

It was a good day! 

~Caleb

Tuesday

1 Peter 4:10,  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Colossians 4:5-6, Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

The words that come to mind as I think back on this day are Service and Presence (in the moment).

The girls we interact with at the Oasis have experienced what no child should ever experience. Their stories of neglect and abuse are unimaginable to most of us. Interactions with mothers as young as eleven or twelve years old are confounding to the mind. Yet the Lord’s presence here is palpable. He is at work. He is evident. He is present. You can feel and experience the Lord’s presence and action here at the Oasis like nowhere else in life. It is a blessing to be able to come here and serve. This place has a way of distilling what is important and focusing you in the moment. This is the day that the Lord has made…and this is a place where you can focus on his creation. It is also a place where you can use whatever gifts we have received to truly serve others.

This morning started out with huge cinnamon rolls brought by one of the missionaries…and if that isn’t a great way to start a day, I don’t know what is!

It was a day of continued work in the Bethany Center; painting walls, building the walls for four new offices, building benches, sanding, mudding and taping. But the greatest work was done in the middle of the day, sharing an hour of lunch with the girls. Hearing them laugh, making them laugh, hugging them, high-fiving them, listening to them and generally trying to help them to understand that they matter to us. That they are important. That they are worthy of the time and the attention. That we are present here with them because they deserve our presence.

After the regular day of work at The Oasis was completed, we were blessed with the opportunity to serve one of the husband-and-wife missionary teams. On Monday we found out that the couple had rented a new home and that they were going to be moving this week. It was really a joy to be able to surprise them with the offer of moving them. To the best of my knowledge, “Two Men and a Truck” doesn’t operate in Guatemala…but thirteen missionaries and three trucks can get a couple people moved very quickly! It was really fun to see them into their new home and it was heartwarming to hear their sincere thanks for the effort. The work these folks do in Guatemala day-in, day-out week-in, week-out, all year around is amazing. To be able to assist them in a small way was a blessing to us.

With the moving, dinner came a little later than normal and was accompanied by Doug Johnson giving us his testimony about a life in missions, topped off with the last sixteen years serving at Kids Alive Guatemala. Truly an inspiring story from a Man of God.

Great end to another great day here in Guatemala.

Chris

Great day of work and more...

The first day of official work began today. We talked through details with Brian, the new construction coordinator, last night so we had an idea of what jobs they were hoping to have us accomplish. As we walked outside this morning, we were greeted by the crisp morning air, bright blue skies and the much-anticipated poof from the Fuego volcano. Our old friend, Doug Johnson, was with us this morning at the bodega as we gathered our supplies and headed out in our teams to approach our tasks. Brian and Doug have asked us to focus a lot of our efforts in the Bethany Center, the large place we used to call the multi-purpose building. This is where our team began our work 14 years ago by pouring the footings. Over the years this facility has served many purposes and is consistently evolving in its functions. Yet again, there is a need for more space to be met so we’ve been asked to adjust the rooms to make them more effective. The main office area needs to be divided into additional administrative spaces, so the team is building walls there. Two of the classrooms upstairs needed to be turned into four therapy rooms. They have been sheet rocked and needed to be sanded and painted. In addition, the halls upstairs needed to be painted…again. Back at the bodega, more cabinets were being constructed and stained for upstairs offices and bench storage, doors and trim were being painted and the gardens cleaned up. These are the simple facts of what we “did”. We are grateful for the strength and abilities and supplies to accomplish these tasks. But, there is so much going on beyond these accomplishments…a special moment shared with one girl, a soccer game with a whole gang, enjoying lunch with a room full of giggling girls, digging in the garden with an old friend (an 18-year-old girl we’ve known for years), great conversations and many hugs. These are invaluable kingdom experiences that are a privilege for us to be a part of. We may never know what impact our presence or work really make. We do know that our obedience to God’s call is important and that this kingdom work brings us great joy and we pray, glorifies Him.

Sandy

Sunday update

We woke to a beautiful morning, greeted by sunshine, rooster crowing and little girl’s voices that make this trip what it is. We had our breakfast and devotions by Chris and headed off to church.  We fellowshiped with the local Galilea Church in San Lucas, the church we have attended here for a number years now and really enjoy the worship and teaching. They have chosen to work with us and the Kids Alive ministry, including the Source of Hope school in Zapote where we have worked in past years. Many of the Oasis staff attend here as do many of our girls and families that no longer live at the Oasis. The church is in the construction process of a new building that contains a new and larger sanctuary. We experienced great singing this morning, a baby dedication and a solid message by Pastor Merari, translated by Renee who is from Minnesota and a key missionary here at the Oasis. Pastor Merari shared a personal testimony of how God has maintained him thru a serious concern of a possible brain tumor. Please pray for Pastor Merari. He has survived for over 15 years since his original treatment and encouraged us that God is able and willing to carry us thru all that life may bring our way. Today's message was from Matthew 12:22-30. A solid challenge to us that God knows our thoughts and that we need to be with Him and think of Him in all things so that He can be with us.  When we do not hold tight to Him, vs 30 warns of us that we need the fellowship of Him and the body. 

After the service we were able to meet with a number of “past” students and families that attend the church and some that do not.  We saw Jocelyn, Carmelina, Jeffery, Doris, Sindy, Jenny and a few others. What a joy that we hear and see that these girls are now on their own and having families, attending church, holding down jobs and most important – seeking their Savior Jesus Christ. What a joy to see the work that the Oasis has invested in these girl’s lives, and is now multiplying itself outside the walls of the Oasis. So glad to hear of these wonderful souls now finding a life in Christ after the abuse they have faced. Grace and forgiveness are words they live and understand far more than I. 

Thanks for covering us and them in your prayers and please continue to bend your knees for these young girls as they face the giants in their lives.  

Randy