This morning we began what will be a backpack and school supply distribution for the City of Pastores. With the help of Florida Baptist Children's Home the goods are on the way. FBCH President, Jerry Haag, with Pastor Mike Lewis from 1st Baptist Plant City came to kick start the gifts.
There has been a gentleman attending IDC that has a vision for people hearing the word of God in his community. He lives in a remote area of Ciudad Vieja, just outside of Antigua, and has invited his neighborhood to his home and the leadership of IDC to bring the word as well. Two points of interest...
Attic fun - Steve and I were in a "vewy scarwy pwace". Christmas Eve morning was spent in removing pounds of old electrical cable either not connected to anything or badly spliced and running new lines that needed to be replaced.
The new cafe kitchen is in process. Luis is getting the new sink cabinetry started. Yea God!
Christmas Eve at the IDC. This year was really cool. To see the growth that God has brought in the last two years is incredible. About two years ago, I approached a guy who was still dealing with issues in his marriage, he had been clean for several years from cocaine and steroids - but God laid it on my heart to invite him to be part of IDC in leading the Celebrate Recovery Ministry. 
The event included worship, sharing of the Christmas Story, testimonies, celebration of the Lord's supper, candle light and Pónche. This is a typical Guatemalan hot fruit drink for the holidays - best served fresh. If you wait a day or two this stuff will put some hair on your chest.
Saturday, Antonio and I had the privilege to marry a young couple that have been attending IDC. The wedding was in the Guatemala City in zone 21. That means this is a location that you couldn't get to from here...
So we made it to week two. Great day - we had electricity - literally.
Other elements to drive the synergy were children and for us a new prayer space to talk with God. The first for us in the history of this church. Yea God!
We have a counsel member who is a boot maker as well - and that was where we started. A model was sent down in advance and when Bill, Phil, and Gio arrived we picked up the Mayor of Pastores and began to brainstorm. The hopes for the project is to manufacture viable leather baseball products with proceeds returning to ministry in Guatemala. 
This is a fun photo fact - it is intriguing to me and it make's me ask - "What is God up to? This is the second first Sunday photo of a new building that I have posted this year. The first is above...
Yesterday was the first Sunday in the new diggs! God is so good. This photo was 1 hour before services...
Even with all of the things that didn't happen correctly - which included the previous tenants removing all of the light fixtures and damaging power connections in the sanctuary - the new signage showing up late - little things like that...
... communion was wonderful, the praise was unplugged...
... we still had 150 in attendance. This is lower for the average for the year, but 40% larger than the same week a year ago... Yea God!
This past weekend we got some wonderful help in the renovations for the new diggs. April Clark, our worship leader, had a visit from her home church - Valley Fellowship, Hunstville, AL. Their focus was to serve Casa Angelina, a local orphanage, but as their week rolled over a weekend they had some time on their hands. We don't have many photos of the day. But be that as it may, they came and made it happen. This team of 12 put a major dent in the renovation's "gotta get it done first" list - ranging from ceiling work, cutting shrubs, cleaning the gutters in the kids area and pulling even more staples. These guys rock - Yea God! 
This week has been full of pulling more staples from the children's area, replacing sinks, and patching what had fallen from the old adobe walls.
Today we took official occupancy for this section of the new building. This was formally a day care center - "Sesame Mundu". Of course all copyrights have been cleared...
Our children's director Maria Dolores' first comment in the what do you think factor was this - "We will need more volunteers to accomodate all of the children we have space for." Now that's what I call visionary.
There are several challenges for this section including a bad cistern, roofs falling, oil painted murals and the 7 years of staples on all of the walls and ceilings, just to name a few.
This week began the official start of the move to the new diggs. This of course requires the dismantling of the offices, cafe and classrooms. This next month should be very interesting as we live in two homes. The offices will move end of this week. With the cafe closing until the new year on the 14th. The final day of services will be the last Sunday of November - with a moving party to follow. 
This was a great day. I always knew that this garden would be great location to see a wedding. Abner and Katie made it happen. We look forward to their return in the new year as they are planning to work with IDC.
His name is Pedro. He is known by Hermano Pedro. In the 1600 he came to Antigua and began many good social and religious reforms. Because of these he is held in high esteem 'round these parts. He is buried in the Cathedral San Francisco as he was a Franchescan Priest.
In addition, they experienced what looked like a space ship over the volcanoes. I believe this was a natural phenomenon, but it still looks cool.
Of other noteworthy activities for the week, this team did a remodel in the Disetur Police station chapel. They have completed work that began 2 years ago with the help of Valley Grove Baptist and Roberts United Methodist. All of this with a team representing 7 different churches. Thank you team. Yea God!
Of the many requests I receive from the teams that come to visit, this week was very unique. One of the team members from Florida has an affinity for Harleys. She was looking for a Harley Davidson t-shirt from GUA. As we discovered there is just such a store.
Wanting to provide as much as possible for the teams experiences... It was hard, but I forged a visit. Nancy was with me, we found the shirts, and a pretty sweet ride. For those that may be interested, it is a 2008 - Street Bike with only 400 miles and significant customization, that fits me well - for only $16,500. Very fun, if only vicarious.
I have always been fascinated with big dogs. They are always so intimidating. But not so much when they are wet..... Koko wasn't happy. This is just after he was busted for digging in the garden.
Of course now that his hair is all clean, he is shedding like snow.
There are many factors of our lives that we take for granted. Last August I posted a blog of the Family Villalobo. Two months later it came to IDC's attention that while they had received a new house to live in, this family of 5 was still sleeping on the floor. After reviewing the need it was determined that we had at least 4 beds to help the cause.
I hear and read in the news of how desperate the world economy is. I also have several friends describing how hard they have it and how difficult things are becoming in this economy. As we encounter life style situations as this, there is always the debate of why don't they work and earn some money, why don't they just find better living conditions. Regardless of which side of this debate we take, we need only to continue to love and demonstrate, teach and hope.
As a good friend once told me "familiarity rules our lives". Many of our perspectives are relative to where we are in life. This was a moment in time to recognize the blessings that God provides all of us. For this family they are ecstatic to not sleep on the floor regardless of the fact that their house in many parts of the world would be housing tools and lawn mowers. Possibly it is best for us to evaluate just what we consider as familiar and celebrate what we have - at whatever level that may be.
