GuatemalaN CONSTRUCTION Mission
March 19-27, 2011!!!

 

     Our bags are packed, we’ve had our vaccinations, our passports are ready and we are off to Chichicastenango, Guatemala in just over 2 weeks. Your support to get us to this point has been terrific and in the coming weeks, we ask for your prayers as we travel and work with our brothers and sisters in Western Guatemala. The congregation at San Juan Apostal will be waiting for us on Sunday, the 20th of March and we will share in Holy Eucharist with them that afternoon.

     For the remainder of our week, the majority of our group will work with the parishioners of San Juan to complete the paving project of a well-drained patio. This project will allow the church to have services and other activities even in the rainy season, where they had previously been faced with a frequently flooded sanctuary. A small group of us will leave Chichicastenango every day to visit with the smaller, poorer Episcopal churches in the Diocese. We will be taking T-shirts, shoes, toothbrushes, reading glasses, coloring books and other small items to those locations. In fact, we anticipate that most of Western Guatemalan children will be clothed in Toad Suck T-shirts by the time we leave.

     Additionally, we are taking a large amount of baseball equipment which has been graciously gathered by Jeanne Stroth and her family. The Bishop of the Diocese hopes to sponsor regular games as a means of gathering in his young people to have fun and fellowship. Bob Essert will spend his time in Chichicastenango constructing a “rocket” stove on the grounds of the church. He has seen this stove be a source of both income and sustenance in other countries where he has been, and we hope that it will provide the same to the congregation at San Juan.

     If you still have items to donate for our trip, please get them to the church no later than March 12th, so that we can include them in the final packing. We hope that you will be in our Sunday services at 10:30A on the 13th, as well, to bless us as we go.

     None of this work would be possible without each of you who have supported us with your prayers and your gifts. You will all be traveling with us in our hearts and we know that your prayers will protect us and bring us safely home.