Only the twin peaks of the volcano are visible from the mission house at 6:30 this morning. As the day progresses, the clouds cover the top of the volcano.

The group has been divided into four work teams. We are anxious to begin building tomorrow. We will be building in two villages. Today was a free day as we got to know each other, relax at the mission house, explore the grounds and venture out to Antigua.



In addition to working together at a build site, each of the four teams has a task each day - Packing the tool boxes & loading the vans, Unloading the vans and cleaning the tools, Dinner clean up, Updating the blog. Today, the Troutman team (Jeff Troutman, Jim George, Sean Grzeck, Mark Hamlet, Martin Hamlet, Jayne Davis, Annie Davis, and Mary Avery) is responsible for the blog post.



From Team Troutman:


This morning, we started the day with a healthy dose of Twig's pancakes, afterwhich the group sorted the extra clothes that were carried by the team to Guatemala to give out to the Mayan families (about 10 black garbage bags full!). We will do the clothing distribution on Tuesday afternoon when we give out the food baskets that our children raised money to buy as a part of their mission projects during Crosspoint. Jeff Tanner modeled a leopard print outfit for the group while Maryolyn Schauss modeled the latest headgear.


We were all glad to find out that the pops we heard in the middle of the night and earlier today were not gunfire... just firecrackers being set off at the base of the mountain. Apparently it's a popular way to celebrate and, interestingly enough, it is also a way they let the people know that worship at the local church is about to start. We are going to bring up that idea with the worship team when we get back to Wilmington.



We traveled to Antigua for lunch, site seeing and a little shopping at the market. We were lucky to get there because the drivers here are VERY aggressive. Sometimes all you can do is just close your eyes & step on the gas. (That line was typed by one of our drivers, which really worries those of us who are passengers). Actually our drivers are doing an awesome job in very challenging conditions. We only got stopped on the road once today by police. Turns out it was just to let a bicycle race come up the mountain.

When we got to Antigua, many enjoyed negotiating with the vendors for souveniers.


This afternoon, several toured the 300 acre plantation, where the mission house is located, and saw several ancient Mayan pyramids, the coffee trees, 20' high banana trees and other fruit trees and the many flowers. As we walked all the vegetation was so vibrant in color. There are many different wild, native flowers with an array of colors. Banana trees were everywhere with bunches of little green bananas on the trees. Too bad they are not ready to eat!






Later in the afternoon, one of the volcanos, which is visible from the mission house, did a little "hiccup" and erupted, letting out a small puff of smoke that several in the group saw. Paul, the caretaker, told us we might see an eruption this week! Of course he also told us we might have an earthquake. They had a 4.6 quake 3 days ago and a 6.8 earthquake a few months ago. Let's hope Paul isn't always right! Fortunately for us, the mission house has been built to withstand a quake in the 8.0 range. We'd prefer not to test that theory.


The Mission House









Sean was a BIG hit at the market!















We ended the day with a great meal together, devotions, communion and a game of spoons. Communion posed a small challenge for us as there were no fresh loaves of bread at the market. We got corn tostadas (hard shell) thinking that could be a cool alternative... until we consider having to dip the salty, crunchy pieces in the grape juice. Gary Harris suggested substituting salsa for the grape juice, but... Gary makes a lot of suggestions that we choose to pass on. In the end we opted for soft flour tortillas. They're pretty close to bread and seemed to work fine. But after dipping them in the grape juice, many had an unusual craving for peanut butter.

In the end, worship tonight was a great time for sharing our thoughts about being on mission and leaving with God our anxieties for what we might face, how we might be challenged, and opening ourselves to letting him work through us and use us in ways we might never think ourselves capable of. With God all things are possible.

All are looking forward to building houses tomorrow and meeting the families who will be receiving them.