CANT EXPLAIN

What a week. It was a Monday for sure after being gone for a week. Tried to go in late but all I wanted to do was tell someone about the trip(Like Drew mentioned earlier). It was hard to focus. I will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever forget this trip(that was for you G and Jeff). If you ever see me stop and ask me about it, I will be glad to TRY to explain how great it was.

I was so nervous because I was out of town the week before so I could not go to the meeting and I really did not know anyone except Wayne and John Hill, whom have had a special place in my heart for sometime(Wayne was my Sunday school teacher). But as soon as I arrived Sunday morning at 445 AM I knew God put me there for a reason. It was awesome everyone was so excited and ready to "WALK WORTHY".

The week started kinda tough. Huge hills, heavy tools, tough breathing, but once we got to the first sight we knew what we where there for. Man it was awesome. The trails got easier as the week passed. The children made the work worth it. The feeling you get from a childs laughter is unforgettable.

I am not very good at this so what I really want to say is thank you to everyone on the trip. You guys will always be in my heart and my stories. I hope to spend more time with you all in the future showing everyone how awesome God is and what he can do in your life.

All day i have been singing Mighty To Save in my mind

So take me as you find me...

All my fears and failures

Fill my life again

I give my life to follow...

Everything I believe in

Now I surrender

I will never forget this week, ever.

Lets keep in touch and WALK WORTHY in everything we do.

GOD BLESS!!!!!

What did Twig do???

Well.....

I was back at the house all day working on my tan with the sun that is suppose to burn you 27 times faster than at sea level....

No, not really. My Job is the Chief Cook, Bottle Washer, Driver, Care Taker of the sick and Logistics Specialist.... ( I fetch batteries, lotion, boot laces, etc) whatever DON VIGUS or the team needs or may have forgotten to bring to make GOD'S Objective possible. It was a great week of fun and GOD'S work. A Few FACTS....

Ms. Marie will kill me for not having all my receipts and ones I do have are in Spanish.

38 Avocados for Guat Dip

15 Pounds of Tomatoes for Salsa

5 Pineapples for Pineapple Salsa 5 others for dipping and eating

10 Gallons of Ice Cream for Smoothies and Milk Shakes

32 Pounds of Beef for meals

11 Jars of Peanut butter

8 Pounds of Onions

10 Pounds of Flour

12 Dozen Eggs

150 Bananas

20 Pounds of Strawberries

So what did we eat with all this????

Meat Loaf
Butter Noodles
Corn Confetti
Baked Spaghetti
Garlic Bread
Toss Salad
Cookies
Strawberry Short Cake
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries and Bananas
Guat Dip
Ceviche
Salsa
Pineapple Salsa
Beef Stew and Rice
Green Beans
Cheese Potatoes
Steak
Broccoli
Fajitas’ Chicken and Beef
Tacos
Pancakes
French Toast
Homemade Biscuits and Gravy
Cinnamon Rolls
Yogurt
Fruit Dip
Fresh Fruit
Cereal
Ham sandwiches
Cookies
Chips
Tuna Fish Sandwiches
Meat Loaf Sandwiches

ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE????

The TEAM got FATTER and over course more SASSY.

It was a great week and I did my best to feed them well. I take very seriously in feeding the team. I wanted to create an experience, for the first timers and the returning folks that after a long days work by the team that I had something very special waiting for a snack and for dinner every evening to make their experience more meaningful. I could not have done it without the Help of a BEAUTIFUL Lady named Louisa. She is "OLD SOUL" type of women who works behind the scenes for Grace Ministries. She Cleans every day like for a Military Inspection!!! She went with me to the market and translated for me. She washed GARY'S only Pair of Underwear.... Often LOL and did many other things. This lady is the servant, we should all strive to be!!!!! Taking no credit, just every day doing the behind the scenes work/support to make GOD'S Plan work for our Team.

I can't wait to return in October and Room with WES DAVIS!!!! He is a Good roommate when he sleeps... but then he has night mares that wake the rest of us up every night.

First Day Back

I know I am supposed to be working and trying to catch up today but after uploading all my photos from the trip it is hard to concentrate. I have looked at them 3 times now and everyone I run into I want to tell them everything about this trip. This was my first trip to Guatemala but I can garauntee it will not be the last! What a wonderful group we had, what wonderful people we helped and helped us but most of all what a wonderful God that called on us all to "Walk Worthy" for this cause. I am sad to know that it will be another year before I can go back to help but filled with emotions and experiences that will last me forever! Thank you to everyone that made this trip possible and I can't wait to see you all very soon!

Drew

Not to mention having to use a ladder on the work site more this year.

My room really missed Sean G. this year.
We had to climb up on the bed every time we wanted to cut on the ceiling fan.

You might know this......

...... you might not.
Click on the pictures in the blog and they get bigger.
Hope that helps, especially with the map.
That's all.

Good night.

g

This is the sight that awaited us at the top. Lava. Molten rock. MAGMA.
8,373 feet above sea level. Last eruption 2008.
The temperature of the lava was approximately 2500 degrees celsius (4500 farenheit) For a comparison, pizza ovens operate between 500 - 600 degrees farenheit. The surface of the sun is 9950 degrees farenheit. ( We had to look that up. We have never been to the sun.)

This is the path that leads to the top. It was at least a 30 minute walk.

After an hour and a half horse ride,we turned a corner to find this view of Volcano Pacaya!!!!!

Dulas was one of the kids at the worksite on Wednesday.



DeWayne Malpass throws a stick into the lava.

The Horse Adventure down the Volcano

Our chef: Twig Rollins
Former President: George Bush Senior

Jon Hill making fire.

The End of The Beginning.

It is the last night at the mission house and I have mixed emotions about leaving. On the one hand there is still so much left to do. The country of Guatemala still has tremendous basic needs: physical needs and emotional needs. It is hard to leave a place that you have invested in; a place you have poured your heart into. However, our lives are not in Guatemala. God has placed us in Wilmington, Rosmond, Atlanta, and Athens for a reason. We are called to serve others and love others in our daily lives. My prayer for myself and the members of this team is that we would continue what we started here in Guatemala. I pray our lives reflect the love of Jesus everyday, that we love the poor in spirit, that we have compassion on the suffering, and that we constantly seek out opportunities to serve others.

What a privilege to serve the God of the Universe, the creator of all. May the passion he has instilled in me to love his children continue to burn in my heart until the day I reside with him in heaven.

Love,
McCall

This is a picture of my with a little baby that was laying on a rock crying while her mother was washing clothes in a stream. I had to pick her up, it was impossible to leave her there crying. When I picked her up she stopped crying, but then I had to put her back down...

VALCANO!!

Most of the group rode horses up and down a mountain to get to Volcan Pacaya. We left our horses below the volcano and climb the steep, steep, steep side of the volcano, which was tough! When we made it to the lava flow we got as close as possible, stuck sticks in the lava, and I roasted a marshmellow over the molten lava. IT WAS AMAZING!

After the volcano adventure, we went to Antigua to shop the markets. We bought a lot of authentic Guatemalan stuff!!

This has been a great week and we head home tomorrow!

This is my favorite "Chicken Bus"-

ESMERELDA.

They are brightly decorated on the outside while still spartan on the inside. They're called Chicken Buses because you can bring animals on, the most popular being a chicken. It's common to see someone on top adjusting luggage while it goes down the road.

They fly down the road. Because of their size and prevalence, they pretty much rule the road.

Here's a map of Guatemala. This might help you understand where we are. Mexico borders on the west and you can see the other countries on the east.
Find Guatemala City........go west(left) until you see Chimaltenango. It's the first labeled city directly east. That's where we stay.

We're at 6,000 feet at the house and closer to 7,000 for the work sites.

We were told that you sunburn 27 times faster here than in the states because of closeness to the Equator and the elevation.
I find that hard to believe.
( Ex. If you sunburn in 3 hours, twice as fast would be 1 1/2 hours, 4 times faster would be 45 minutes, 8 times would be 22 1/2 minutes, 16 times faster would be 11 and 1/4 minutes, making 27 times faster roughly 8 minutes.
I didn't get burned in 8 minutes. It might be quicker here, but not 27 times quicker, sorry.)

Guate has 53 volcanoes
and 5 of them active. Seeing one spew twice yesterday was wild.

Driving anywhere involves lots of long steep hills and driving at high rpm"s in low gear. Pray the clutch on the van lasts until we get to the aeroporto.

Driving to the work sites takes us through, and to, incredibly lush and fertile countryside. Everyday we see them harvesting and bagging carrots as big as my forearm. I'm not exaggerating. Big as my forearm. Personally, I have no use for baby carrots, so carrots that big are just overkill.

They farm on incredibly steep hillsides. I'll try to find some pictures and post. It's unreal.

The indigenous people we are building houses for are very small. It's funny because we build the houses with doors and windows and hardly any of them are tall enough to look out the window.

Saw some pretty sweet boots yesterday with lightning bolts on the front, but not in my size so I didn't get them.

Driving is an adventure just about everywhere we go. People pass on curves, uphills, downhills, traffic coming, traffic stopped...... it doesn't matter.
Chimaltenango doesn't have any signal lights for traffic. Not one. You pullout when you can and just understand that people will pull out in front of you and expect you to slow down and let them in.

There's a cool looking town square that's lit up and busy at night with lots of vendors and activity, but we were told it was not safe for North Americans to go there at night. We'd stick out like sore thumbs and be targets for theft and violence. I was bummed about that. It looked fun.

Go to Wikipedia and check out "Chicken Buses". They're everywhere down here. My favorite is "ESMERALDA". They fly everywhere they go - in town, outside town..doesn't matter. And if you're directly behind one when they shift gears, it's Black Lung for everybody riding with you.

Ask Wes Davis what his definition of a fever is when you see him at church.

I'm out.

The kid's shoes aren't jusy worn out. The toes were cut out so he could keep wearing them after he outgrew them.

How would you like to step out the door and see that every evening?

Abbey and Lilia. Lilia was a favorite of everybody on the site.

Don't have to speak the same language to kick a soccer ball around.

Having fun with the family.

The Volcano Erupting.

Abbey, McCall, and Jane browse for handmade boots.

Jeff and Gary killed a python on the work site and skinned it. Real men know how to kill a deadly snake with their bare hands.

(Wes Davis is afraid to even touch the skin of the dead python)

Random stuff until Don finishes the pictures for me to post.

Abbey Lewis has caught "Blog Fever".


Don Vigus has mispronounced "volcano" every time he's said it. Seriously.
"Val-cano". Every time.

Jim Morgan was quoted once in "Good Housekeeping" magazine.

We have yet to play a single game of cards at night. Not Golf, or Spades, or Murder. Not even a game of Farkle. I must be slipping.

We have, however, played games every night as a group for those who wanted to.
We've taught them Signs, Zen Clap, The Scissors game and 3 Things in a Hat.
It's been a hoot every time. There are some very fun people in this group.

Saw one of the volcanoes erupt a couple of times today. Not "big lava" erupt but "ash and smoke way up in the air" erupt. Way cool. One of the locals told us that the volcano is in a state of constant eruption and it does it regularly.

This is my first mission trip and I am wondering "where in the world is Wes Davis????"

What a great week God has provided for us and for the families we have been able to help.  

Well, by now you have read most of the blogs and you know about all the wonderful work we have been doing here.  It has all been such an amazing experience that words can not truly express how meaningful this trip has been.

From the smiling faces of the children, the tearful eyes of the parents, the gratitude of the communities and villages, the hugs of the disabled orphans, and the support of our team--  God has truly been present everyday.

Two memories that I will hold in my heart always are:  An elderly gentleman at the food distribution stopped to hug me and then sang "The Old Rugged Cross" in Spanish.  The message was the same--no matter the language---the song is always powerful.  

The other memory:  As we were walking down the steep hill from our last dedication today, two young girls were calling after me, "Gingy, Gingy."  At first, I did not turn around as I had become accustomed to the kids saying my name as they giggled, but I yelled salutations as I kept walking.  When the "Gingy" continued, I stopped and looked back to see two beautiful smiling girls running toward me with a small pottery vase that they wanted to gift me.  Even now, the graciousness and gratitude in that simple act causes emotions to well up in me.   I hope to never ever forget it.

Now in closing, I have to give so much credit to FBC and the youth department.  Don Vigus and his staff have truly served your youth well.  We have some young adults (or older youth :-) ) on this trip that have grown up or spent several years under the guidance and support of FBC Youth Dept.  These individuals have been such a blessing, encouragement, and inspiration to me on this trip.  Their compassion and love shines through in their joyful smiles and laughter, bright smiling eyes, and endless acts of love towards all.  

ginger

next-to-last day

Two years ago I got sick and missed the activities for the last two days. This year, thankfully, I was able to experience the food distribution and the visit to the orphanage. With each day our experience seems to go to a newer and deeper level. I grateful for this experience. Our team has become tighter with each day. Looking forward to coming home but also the next mission trip.

A great week in Guatemala!

WOW! Our God is an awesome God!

11 houses built and dedicated to the Lord
100 bags of food distributed
12 special needs orphans fed and loved
200 pieces of candy thrown from the window of the van to excited Guatemalan children
16 pairs of boots bought for cheap cheap cheap
1 volcano eruption


This week has been absolutely amazing. It has been great to see God throughout our trip.
God was present while we built homes for deserving Guatemalan families.
God was present in the smiles of joy from the kids when we gave them a few pieces of candy, a sandwich, chips and cookies.
God was present in the tears that flowed from the mothers and fathers who finally held the keys to a new home and a basket of toys, soap, cleaning supplies, and food etc.
God was present as we prayed for each home dedicating them to God, especially when one of the Guatemalan women prayed a prayer that gave chills, caused tears, and inspired our own prayers.
God was present in our fellowship at the work sites, on the long, bumpy van rides, around the dinner table, playing games late at night, and in our time of nightly worship and discussion.
God was present in every hola and adios.
God was present in the line for the food distributions as we filled bags, passed out shoes and clothes.
God was present in the thank you's and God bless you's said by the people receiving the food, houses, clothes, shoes.
God was present in the bubbles, the high fives, the "cool dude's" and "yummy yummy's" (phrases I taught to several of the Guatemalan children at our work sites)
God was present throughout this trip. AMEN and AMEN

It has been an amazing summer, and I am thankful to FBC Wilmington for allowing me to intern with THE Don Vigus and the rest of the youth leaders. I was able to go to beach camp, Puerto Rico, Journey On to Tennessee, and Guatemala. I have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know the youth of FBC.

Our theme for the summer was WALK WORTHY. Our shirts for this trip say "ANDE DIGNO" which is a translation of walk worthy in Spanish.

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to WALK WORTHY of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and on God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.
Ephesians 4:1-6


It was so amazing to watch each individual on this trip WALK WORTHY this week.

Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be the glory)
Will Deal

Jeff and Will

Wally and Drew passing out food.

Abbey, Ginger, Ashley, and McCall passing out shoes .

Group Picture at the church

Here we are trekking to one of the work sites. Why were we walking through a cornfield? Because we built the house in the middle of it, on the side of the mountain!

Boots, boots and more boots!

Well Twig was right when he said we would find some nice cowboy boots, handmade for cheap! 28 to 40 dollars, depending on how good you could negotiate with a translator, got you a nice pair of whatever you wanted! It was a great reward for a some hard work but nothing compares to the reward we were given this morning and yesterday afternoon. To see these faces light up with gratitude and bliss from what they are receiving is indescribable! To think about how they are feeling today with their new homes, food, shoes and toys is so fulfilling! Up next is a good old steak dinner from master chef and a good night sleep before we head to the top of the volCAno (Don V. translation)! Thank you for all your prayers! We'll see you soon!

Drew

Went 3 for 3 yesterday

House dedication, Food distribution, Special needs orphanage.
Teared up at each one of them.
Thank God for sunglasses.

Friday Morning......

........MORE PICTURES!

Dewayne Malpass showing you the best part of the work site-the kids. Aren't they beautiful? The kids, not Dewayne!
This is the last house we built. Notice the expert craftsmanship by Team Awesome. There's a door there, it's just open.That's a window on the right side

This a house dedication. The basket in front of the family has food, toys and housewares for their new house. The Guatemalan on the far right is Freddy, our translator.





This is Wally McCall hammering with Dewayne in the background.

That's Max, our supervisor in the bottom left.

Got 3 new blog converts! McCall and Abbey are picking up the slack in a big way, and Jim Morgan has done one he will post tomorrow. Drew Pittman set his up tonight and will post tomorrow. Jeff Tanner promised me he would post tomorrow also.

Gonna try something new. We've got pictures......now we're gonna try VIDEO!

Jeff got some video of a house dedication and the prayer. the Guatemalans pray out loud along with whoever is praying. It's really cool and this one lady prays like a champ!
Click and give it a try.

g

Our day today was anything but boring...

We began with a regular schedule. Breakfast at 7am. Leave at 8. On the work site and building by 930...well, give or take some minutes due to hikes and crazy hills! We finished our LAST TWO HOUSES of the trip! This work site was amazing for our team. We were building a home for a Mom, Dad, and their 4 children...one 15 yr old girl, a 6 yr old girl (who had down syndrome) and a 1 yr old baby boy. When we arrived to the site, the first thing we saw was the 15 yr old and the 6 yr old girls beginning to pile up all the concrete for their father and the other workers who were there to help so they could begin to mix it as soon as we were ready. Lilia (the 6 yr old girl) had the biggest smile on her face the minute we walked up to the site. That smile stayed on her face the entire time we were with her. She helped us drill a door and window together, she followed us all around the site, and most of all, kept a smile on everyones face throughout the morning. To see her smile, and laugh, and be so incredibly happy to just be around everyone was so sweet.

The baby boy was named Danny. Oh my goodness he was PRECIOUS. He was a little shy and not so sure about letting me hold him at first...but don't worry, he warmed up to me and I was finally able to hold him and play with him (Jeff on the other hand...wasn't so lucky)! Seeing the moms faces while we were playing with the children was great. They lit up and were smiling from ear to ear seeing their kids laughing and messing around with us. We had a BLAST :)

After we finished the last two houses, the dedicating began. We started dedicating at the sites we had just finished, then went on to the 4 houses we did on Tuesday. What an amazing experience. These families are SO grateful. At dedication we give them the lock to the outside of the house, as well as a basket full of household needs such as rice, beans, sugar, salt, dish washing soap, toys, wash cloths, etc. To see these families faces when they open up the baskets is the greatest thing in the world! It was incredible to hear them pray and give glory to God for all that he has done! Although we couldn't understand all of the words, the spirit of the Lord was all around, and you could feel it...how amazing is that!?

After dedicating, it was time to go do food distributions. 100 tickets were given out to families, and they each received one bag for everything to go in. We had shoes, clothes, food, and some other smaller things. Gary told us tonight in the discussion that one lady came up to get her bag, and had folded her ticket up as small as she could, had put it into a zip lock plastic bag, and did NOT wanna give it up. This gave me an idea of how important this was to all of those families and children. We gave them a supply of food for a month...just a month, I mean, how many times a month do we go to the grocery store and fill up our carts of food? I'm thinking much more than once a month. It was an incredible experience to give these families a months worth of food, and shoes to put on their feet.

From there we went to a special needs orphanage, where we ate pizza and ice cream with about 12 special need kids. They were some of the happiest kids I have ever seen! We were welcomed by one of the boys who gave us all a few high fives and a huge smile. They were all laughing, smiling, screaming, and clapping as we all kept walking towards the backyard for dinner. We all ate dinner and had ice cream together, while loving on these kids at the same time.

After the orphanage, we came back to have a discussion at the house and then played some really fun and easyyyy games. Just ask Dewayne, hes really good at all of them.

Needless to say it was a long, but great day! Hope everyone is doing great in Wilmington/wherever you are! Talk to you guys soon! Miss you all! :)

hasta manana... :)

Abbey Lew

...if Wally McCall showed up at FBC one day. I hope he does.

McCall and Abbey have done a great job letting you know how great our day was.

I have a different agenda.

We have 18 folks on this trip.

17 are from First Baptist Wilmington. You either know them or hopefully will have the chance to meet them at some point in the future.

Walter (Wally) McCall is a 62 yr. old gentleman from the mountains of NC. That's him on the ladder in the picture.
He doesn't attend FBC, so you might not ever get the chance to meet him.

That's too bad.

Wally heard about our trip through the church in Alabama that sponsors the house we're staying in. He asked about going on a mission trip to Guatemala with them but they weren't doing any more this year, so they told him about ours. He saw we were from NC and said what the heck. Called up, signed up, and met up with us in Ft. Lauderdale. It was the first time any of us had ever laid eyes on him.

The man is funny. Sneaky funny. Funny like half of it is what he says and the other half is how he says it.

At breakfast yesterday, out of the blue. He says "I had a dream last night I was eating pancakes. ..........I woke up and I couldn't find my blanket."

In the van he said he was somewhere one time where it was so cold instead of milk the cows were giving ice cream.

On a trip some things you learn about people very quickly. We found out he's funny, friendly, helpful.

Hard worker, too. Very good to have on the work site.

And these are all good things, but there's more to him than just that. There are things you wouldn't know unless they share it with you.

I was talking to him yesterday about mission trips and he matter of factly mentioned he'd been to 20 different countries on mission trips since 1984. Several more than once. He told me he'd been to every country in Central America except Guatemala and when he saw info on our trip he signed up.

He came to me before devotion tonight and said he had a story he wanted to tell afterwards to the group if we had time. He said he'd been thinking about it after our conversation yesterday and he wanted to share it. I said sure.

What he told us, in very plain and often hilarious language was the story of how God led him to the mission field. I wish you could've heard it. I wish I could recount it word for word, but it's late. A summary won't do it full justice, but I'll try.

As a little boy he learned about the Amazon river and was fascinated by it, always hoping to go one day.He ran a service station and retired. He said he retired early in case he died early. He ran out of money and opened another service station. He heard about a mission trip to Brazil. He asked his wife if he could go. She said you don't have any money and no one to work the station for you. He said if I solve those two problems, can I go? She said yes.

A guy called him up and said I heard you want to go on a mission trip. I'll work two weeks for for free.

He went to his wife and said Honey I'm halfway to Brazil!

Then a guy called him up and asked him if he wanted to sell apiece of land that he owned. Wally came up with a figure that paid off the land and included the price of the mission trip. The guy said OK.

Wally went to his wife and said Honey I'm going to Brazil!

The next year he wanted to go on another and she said he couldn't afford it.

He said " Well, I have a wife I can't afford, 4 kids I can't afford, and a service station I can't afford. What's the difference?"

He went to the bank, borrowed the money , went on the trip and paid $125 a month to the bank for a year.

Then did it the same way the next year.

And the next.

Then the bank just gave him a credit card and told him to do it that way.

Borrowed money from the bank to go on a mission trip.

He learned Spanish for a trip to Colombia, S.A. only to have it cancelled due to political unrest. They asked him if he would go to France instead. He said "Do they speak Spanish there?"

And went.

That's just part of it. We really do find something deeper and more Godly about him every day.

I said earlier you'll probably never get the chance to meet him. I take that back. He gets around. It would not surprise me......

P.S. McCall purposefully left out the details of my "night in jail". It wasn't anything criminal. Ask me and I'll be glad to tell you about it.

Nice try, McCall.

Hidden Secrets

Here is our group dedicating the land the house will be built on.


We played one of my favorite games tonight: write down one thing about yourself that no one else in the group knows, put them in a hat, Gary reads them out loud, and we try to guess who said what. Here are a few surprises:

-Don: Hand painted his car and upholstered the seats with snake skin for his senior prom date
-Drew: Can tie a cherry stem with his tongue
-Jim: Was quoted in Good Housekeeping magazine
-Gary: Spent the night in jail
-Jon Hill: Ran a cop off the road

...you can ask them to tell you the various stories

Tonight we prepared big laundry baskets for all the houses we build. They are full of really great things like clothes pins, coloring books, beans, soap, cooking utensils, and a lot of other great things! We are excited to pass those out tomorrow and Friday!

Pray for us as we dedicate the houses the next two days. This will be the last time we can leave an impact on the people we build houses for. God is great and he provides, we want everyone here to know that too.

Also, thanks for reading these blogs...it is encouraging to all of us to know that so many of you back home are thinking about us!

Gracias por tu amor,
McCall

Today was a great day! We only had 2 houses to build..and only have 2 more to build tomorrow :) The worksite wasnt a hike at all...and we were lucky enough to have both work teams close together! As for Mccall, Ashley, and I....we are the custom door and window builders, who only make mistakes when Don Vigus rolls around. Not only do we build, we hang, and we install all the parts. We are your ONE STOP door and window installers.

As for the mistakes go, we were almost through building the house we were assigned to for the day, and Don decides he is going to measure and cut a piece of siding without asking anyone if it's the right piece to cut to fit across our door...that was a minor technicality as Don calls it. We then had to cut 3 more pieces of lumber to put above the door in order for the siding to fit. BUT, the house looks great and we got it done!

We finished early and had a picnic lunch down at the bottom of the worksite all together. As we were about to leave, Mccall and Will saw a group of kids and their families down the street so some of us walked down to give them candy and a few toys. The children were so thankful, and so blessed to have been given something as simple, and small as a few pieces of candy and chalk for the street. It made me realize how lucky and fortuante we all are. The kids had the biggest smile on their face and it was the greatest thing ever to see how God uses us to spread his love!

From then on, we drove back to the house, and have just been chillaxinnnn. Fellowship is such a wonderful thing! :)


Hey mom, i know your reading this! :) and Hey to everyone else! Talk to you all soon! :)

WE GOT PICTURES......

.....more coming tomorrow.

Tuesday - Construction Day 2

Good day, good day.

Built 4 houses today. That brings the total to 7. Our goal is 11. As long as it doesn't rain, we're looking pretty good. The plan is 2 tomorrow and then come back to let people take a shopping trip nearby or just relax.

Today we didn't have nearly as tough a time getting in and out of sites. Heck, we even drove up and parked beside our last one. NICE!

Jeff feels better about himself today because when we left the work site, he turned around in the small truck with a three point turn. I, on the other hand, in a bigger, longer van filled with 12 people , took about 9 points. Small victories for small people,

Here's something many of you do not know. Jim Morgan is a very, very good guitar player. He has mentioned this to me in the past, but I'd never seen it until this week. he has played before worship both nights. Not that "Sweet home Alabama" stuff , either. Fancy stuff.

The kids keep coming out every where we work. We saw some today from yesterday's work sites, and they're not real close. We talked about that tonight as a group. Part of why they would come back might be the candy, but a large part of it is the attention they get and the love they feel. Their parents live hard lives and spend most of their day doing stuff to survive. Cutting the fool and making kids laugh is probably not something they have the luxury of doing very often. I can do that and work at the same time,so.....

We have a super group of people here this week. We haven't had to assign any duties around the house because everyone has just stepped up or chipped in. One of the real drags is loading the truck in the morning and unloading it when we get home. Haven't had to ask anyone to do it yet, because they go back and do it on their own.

Thursday night is when we will do food distribution. It has been my favorite part of the past two trips and I'm excited about it this year. I can't wait. The local church goes into a community and passes out approx. 200 tickets, 1 per family. Thursday night they show up with their ticket and go down the line with a bag and we fill it with a predetermined amount of food items. The majority of people are little old ladies and single moms with a ton of kids in tow. The feeling you get when you see their excitement and the looks of gratitude is something I have trouble describing. It hits you deep and stays with you.

The first year we did it, we really had no idea how it would shape up. We walked into a room with a thousand people in it, that had been waiting two hours for us. It gave me chills. I still remember passing out stuff with Christian Davis and doing stupid magic tricks for the people who sat near our spot in the line. He and I got someone to teach us how to say "God Bless You" in their dialect. We butchered it every time, but they smiled when we said it and that was good enough for us.

I don't know if you know who's here, so let me tell you
WILL DEAL/ JANE DODD/ McCALL DUDECK/ JON HILL/ WAYNE HILL/ ASHLEY JOHNSON/ ABBEY LEWIS/ DEWAYNE MALPASS/ JOHN MARCUCCI/ WALTER McCALL/ JIM MORGAN/ DREW PITTMAN/ TWIG ROLLINS/ KELLY SOFFE/ JEFF TANNER/ GINGER TAYLOR/ DON VIGUS/ NOT WES DAVIS(The daily Wes Davis HAMMER TIME #3) and me.

We're here and things are great but continue to pray for us. We need it and desire it. There are still great things to be done here and prayer is how it will be accomplished.
Thanks.

g

P.S. Check out McCall"s post. Without any prompting, she hammers Wes too. Gotta love that. g

I'll try my hand at this...

So today was another long day, but a great day! Our group built four houses today and that was sweet because my group built one and a half! Apparently I am not on team All-star, but don't get me wrong, I am on team Awesome! Two major differences between yesterday and today: no rain, and less of a climb. These were both huge blessings!

On my work site we ran into a minor problem...on top of the mountain we ran into the Nile River. Maybe not, but it was an unpleasant surprise to hit water so early in the digging process. However, nothing can stop Team Awesome or Jeff the resident engineer, so we just made concrete! What ingenuity!

Enough about the building...the best part of the trip are the Guatemalan children. Don't tell my parents, but I really want to bring one home! Today John got a soccer ball out or futbol as they call it and we played in the street. Did you know we are in the mountains? Yeah...that means the ball gets through the kids and it rolls and rolls and rolls. No worries. Fatigue is not a factor when I spend time with these kids. God grants energy and joy even in my moments of exhaustion. I really loved playing with them and watching the joy they received from a simple game of soccer or a piece of candy. It is amazing when you watch any member of our team play with the kids because they all reflect the love of Jesus. I absolutely love seeing God work through others so naturally!

At our last site today we encountered our first taste of Guatemalan animals other than dogs and cats. We got up-close and personal with pigs, cows, goats, and sheep. Ashley, Abbey, and I wanted to take a picture with the cow but we were afraid. The result: we stood within 5 yards of the cow and cheesed. Then, we saw a pig and decided it was less threatening...still not an easy picture. It was tied to a stake and we tried to pull it closer and made him mad. A girl tried to calm him down and before we knew it the pig took off! At that point we all looked the other way and prayed we hadn't just freed their dinner...oh well! We got to hold a baby goat which was fun, but all the girls did load up with hand sanitizer after the animal episode...safety first...well maybe I'll just do what everyone else does. I am not a clean freak, but you know it can't hurt to keep your hands clean in this environment. Speaking of clean...my luggage arrived yesterday and that was a huge blessing!

okay so it is time to go because now Gary is reading over my shoulder and putting the pressure on me to be a pro blogger...not everyone can be as cool as him. Maybe I won't go to bed super early because we only have to build two houses tomorrow!! However, team awesome likes to take their time so it could still be a long day. To be honest, long days aren't bad at all when you are serving the Lord and hanging out with some really wonderful people!

Love to all,
McCall
(take the time to note the rhyme)


P.S. I don't know Wes Davis, but according to Gary and Jeff I am pretty sure he would have cried because we worked until 6 o'clock for the second day in a row.

Monday- First Construction Day.

Today was .......tough.

The first year was a fairly easy once we got to the place we were building. It was in a paved village and we parked outside of our work sites.

Last year we had to get out and carry our tools but it wasn't that bad.

Today we drove an hour and 20 minutes to get to the site. Then we had to get out and carry everything up Mt. Dadgum Everest.
Not really, but we did climb a very steep and long hill, steep and long being the key words. Everybody was huffing and puffing at the end. We probably went up 150 ft. in elevation, steeply.
We built our first house there as one big group, so everyone could see it start to finish. After we built that, we split into two groups and one group climbed up and the other group went down some and then back up higher to build at different sites. That way we met our goal of three houses today.

Have I mentioned it's the rainy season?
Yeah...........

As we were finishing and getting ready to load up and carry everything down the long, steep and up to this point, dusty hill, it started to rain. Big honkin', cold rain.
Getting down the hill was very tough. Wes Davis would still be up there.(Daily Wes Davis HammerTime #2) Basically it was just one long slide down. There were 2 sketchy bridges we had to cross, too.
There was a kinda fun element to it, but at the end, it was just.."Finally!"

But God is Good. We did it with His strength and for His glory. 3 families got houses today. We managed to play with a slew of kids at each spot. Nobody got hurt.

Twig had Baked Spaghetti and a Salad Bar for us at Supper tonight. Everybody is whipped, but it's that good type of whipped.

After worship, some went to bed and some stayed up and played 3 THINGS IN A HAT. After that everybody pretty much turned in.

Hope everything's good back home with y'all.

See ya tomorrow.

In case you're wondering.....

....unlike last year, This is not going to be a repeat of "8 days, 7 Nights, 1 pair of underwear".

They were the first things I packed this year.

Wes Davis is not on the trip this year..............

so that means he'll do as many dishes this week as he did last year in kitchen duty.

Check back here every day for more Hammer Time on Wes Davis.

......What else could we want?

We're here.......too bad McCall Dudeck's luggage isn't.

The flights were good and we got to the Guat about 20 minutes early.
We got out of the airport and on the road about 1:30 Guatemala time, which meant 3:30 stomach time. So when you're in a foreign country with Don Vigus, guess where your first lunch stop is gonna be?
Say it with me........McDONALDS!

After a quick rundown on the whole 8 quetzcal"s equal one dollar setup, we ordered lunch. I got a numero uno combo(grande!) and was in business. It was alot of fun because all the employees were smiling and happy, which isn't really the vibe at get at MickeyD's USA too often.

They run a serious ketchup operation. When you walk up to the ketchup stand, one of the McDonalds employees was there to pump it for you. Every time. Without fail. I know because me, Jeff and Jim sat on the other side of it and watched "Kandy" do it.

Then it was back on the road and headed to Chimaltenango. Our vehicle arrangement is one small 4-door truck and a Nissan "Urvan", which is a Guatemalan 15 passenger van. That means it's half the size of an American 15 passenger van. Fun.

I'm the driver so I've always got a decent seat.

When we got to the house , it was basically relax and take it easy. We went and checked the tools and toolboxes to get ready for tomorrow. We'll have a worship session tonight after supper, which is going to be Guatemalan meatloaf, Guatemalan buttered noodles and Guatemalan Chocolate cake.

All in all, it's shaping up really good. I know most of the people, but some I didn't know at all, which is cool. Two years ago, I had never laid eyes on Candace, Eric, or Mary Dyer. Since that trip though, I've done tons of stuff with them and they've been a huge help on Tuesday nights.

Plus, Jim Morgan is here.........