Team Visit - Pine Grove...

Once again blessed, we welcomed Pine Grove Baptist - College age group to GUA. The Pastor for this ministry Emanuel Harris called looking for an alternate solution for his team. Due to recent outbreaks of a variety of factors, Mexico was no longer a viable option for this group. To our benefit this team came and got it done. They were willing to be our test pilots for functioning with multiple teams. Their work included house building, baby holding, mountain climbing, VBS, etc. Pine Grove, thank you for your hearts and service for doing work for God!

Team Visit - Pathways G21...

This past week we had a visit from the Women's Ministries of Pathways Community Church. They came, they saw, they got it done - making it happen with Children's Ministries, The Malnutrition Center and helping us begin a new ministry relationship with a local girl's home here in Antigua.

Great job ladies!

Dia de Padres...

As the Guatemalan holidays are somewhat different from those in the USA, fathers day gets a double bonus. Here in GUA the date is a constant. So every June 17th is celebrated as father's day regardless of the day actual.

For the officers there was a play day -which tranlsates directly into fútbal. These guys got together for a game and then grilled meat, frioles, salsa and tortijas. Since there was a portable grill, this constituted as a cookout. During this time it was my pleasure to meet with Comisario Utulan the lead man for all of the department of Sacatepéquez and also his boss Martinez Aguilar - who manages five departments. (Not seen in this photo are the additional 30 men that showed up late...)

This year we were able to be a part of a great event for the guys in the National Police. The day included two events. The first of which was for the officers in Sacatepéquez and the other for the agents. All of whom were dads.

Later in the evening we had a time of worship and study with the agents and also food for the body - a lot of pizza. Yea God!

Dulces Party...

So I was invited to attend the b-day party for Dulce Maria. Quite the fun. This was Dulces 5th. She was quite the star for the day. She had the typical clowns and piñata and of course chuchitos and cake. Life is good.

Pastores' Finest...

This weekend Antonio and I were blessed to see the tail end of a graduation ceremony for the Civil Police of Pastores. We have been a part of their trining with weekly studies similar to what we have with the National Police of Guatemala.

It was rather humorous - The Tuesday before the event we were given personal invitations for the graduation that showed that I had a part in the ceremonies. The Chief of Police insisted that I be at this event as it was very important - I was on the list...

We saw the time had been changed for the event to start at 9am. When we first talked it was a 12pm startup with a parade and festivities to be followed by formal presentations closer to 1pm. That didn't work for Pastores and as a result, they wanted us to change our schedule. the only difficulty for us would have been that this was on a Sunday Morning right in the middle of our church service. I explained we could not arrive any sooner than 12:45pm. They said, "Okay".

As is turned out sure enough we arrived right at 12:45pm. The officers saw us and ushered us into a room full of energy, sound, excitement. With a total of 7 in our party, plates of food were immediatey rushed over to our table and we were treated as the guest of the hour.

But as we completed the meal I noticed that the food line had diminished as did the crowd eating. At first chance I spoke with the Chief of Police and asked what was next? Where was the presentation? He replied, "Sorry we stalled as long as possible, but two other guest on the list to present were not able to come at the last minute. So we wrapped things up and started lunch. But thanks for coming for lunch."

Wouldn't you know it, when most of life happens minimum of an hour late in GUA, these guys were right on time. We were late to our own party. HA,HA.

Be that as it may, this team of men are now trained and serving in their community. And they plan to continue with their training in Biblical values.