8 hours

8 hours and counting...we are excited and preoccupied.  Carli is having such a hard time with us leaving...she has been crying for days.  Please pray for her to be ok and even have fun while we are gone.  Jack went to the Roper's house tonight with excitement!  I got some good hugs and a few tears as Mitch prayed for him over the phone and then he was off like a shot.  He is so excited to hang out with friends all week.  I think that he was getting bored around here.
Thank you so much for your prayers!
love,
caroline

Our team blog is:
 http://www.theshalomfoundation.org/community-development-mission/jul2011team1/

We are ready! ....almost

Why oh why does it take so long to pack for a 9 day trip?  Can anyone help me with this?  It seems to me that you make a list and pack everything and you are done 3-6 hours tops.  wrong.  3-6 DAYS of packing!  You would think that we are leaving for the entire summer.  I think that we will sleep once we get on the plane from "packing exhaustion".  
For those of you who are pray-ers, here are my prayer requests:  
*SAFETY
*Carli and Jack to do well here - especially Carli who has been telling me for days "I can't do        it mom!  9 days is too long!"
*Our team to gel
*Tanner's diabetes to be under control the entire time
*a good visit with my friend, Eva Duarte, a psychiatrist at the cancer hospital
*God's spirit to move in our lives and the lives of those we will serve
*for the women who work at the orphanage
*for the women who attend the Bible Study
*for the rain to stop (it is a muddy pit in the Las Conchas neighborhood right now which means we hoof it in because buses cannot drive in)


Muchas gracias!

PACKING, packing and more packing!

Today we are packing.  Thanks to your generosity we have so many shoes and uniforms to pack that we are overflowing!  THANK YOU!  Courtney and Carli an I are actively packing and weighing the bags so that we are not over the 50lb weight limit.  Last night we went shopping for healthy snacks to hand out to the neighborhood kids.  We also went shopping for items for the family that we sponsor.  We don't know their sizes so we are flying by the seat of our pants!!!! You should have seen me in Target trying on shirts over top of my clothes so that we could estimate whether they would fit Miriam, the mom!  A funny sight, no doubt!.

Counting Down

   So we are on the home stretch of getting ready for our trip which begins on July 1st. We are very excited about the adventure!  Courtney and Tanner are especially excited as they have wanted to go to Guatemala for years, ever since Mitch went the first time in 2006.  Now we are working on packing and packing and more packing.  One family collected 63 pairs of shoes for us to take!!!!!!  Another friend scoured the trash and found all sorts of uniforms that CPA was throwing out and he took them, washed them and then found out we were asking for them....
Thank you, Ben Ellis!  Items we are still collecting are: nail polish, nail files, healthy snacks, small toys, sugarless gum, silly bands, hair brushes and hair bands/ribbons...anything to give out to the women and children.
    On my last visit, I made a friend, Eva Duarte, a psychiatrist at the cancer hospital in Guatemala City.  She is an amazing woman.  She is double board certified and runs the psychiatric program at that hospital on a shoestring budget.  We are hoping to be able to get together and spend some time over dinner with our families.  She also has teenagers!
   Thank you for your continued prayers.  WE NEED THEM.  Please pray for health, safety, good attitudes, patience and flexibility!

Here's the Line-up!

Last night, we had our final team meeting before heading to Guatemala.  
Here are some updates....
     For the two new children at Hope 4 Tomorrow...they not only needed beds, they need a whole room for the children as they have outgrown their space!  The plans for the new room are in progress and we may possibly help with the remaining construction if it in incomplete when we arrive.  Thanks to generous donations several thousand dollars have already been given for the new room!  
     We will build houses in the Las Conchas neighborhood each day.  One family for whom we are building a home is the Coc Cac Family.  Miguel, the father works in security services.  He makes around $240 per year.  (Yes, that is correct!)  Lucia, the mother, makes tortillas to sell.  They have two children: Selvin who is 8 years old and Michel who is 2 years old.  Please pray for this family as we build a home for them.  Their current home is made out of sheets of tin.

     In the afternoons, Crystal and I will have a Bible Study in Spanish for the women and their children.  The Bible Study topics will be the same for the women and the children so that they can have further discussion about it in their homes.  Crystal and I hope to give the women "goodie bags" at the end of the week.  They will each get a Bible and some practical things like toothbrushes and toothpaste, and we hope to put a nail polish or two in each bag for them as they LOVE NAIL POLISH.  When we start painting nails, even the boys line up!!!!!!  If you want to provide any fun things that we can put in their bags, we welcome them!  Right now we have plenty of toothbrushes and toothpaste and Bibles, we can use "pampering" sorts of things like nail polishes, emery boards, lotions....you know "girly" things.  (We need about 20 of each...at least that is our estimate)
     "Al que puede hacer muchisimo mas que todo lo que podamos imaginarnos o pedir, por el poder que obra eficazmente en nosotros, a el sea la gloria en la eglesia y en Cristo Jesus por todas las generaciones, por los siglos de los siglos: Amen"
     TRANSLATION:  "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"  Ephesians 3:10
    

New Kids on the Block

Last night two new children were taken into Hope 4 Tomorrow.  Their story is sad!
The following is a message from Kenneth Sese about them:
"This evening we had the privilege of receiving two young children into our Children’s Home.  The oldest is Katy (7) and her brother’s name is Eddie (4).  They have been in an abusive situation with their mother and the father who would protect them from the mother passed away last year.  It’s hard to tell, but Katy has a black eye.  It’s sad to think that situations like this occur, but we are thankful that we were able to help out.  We trust the Lord will help them to adjust quickly and we’ll be able to bless their lives."
Please pray for these sweet little lives to be loved and cherished like never before at Hope 4 Tomorrow!  
Caroline

Encouraging women

I have several opportunities to work with the women of Guatemala during our visit!  Our friend, Kenneth, who runs the Hope 4 Tomorrow, children's home, has asked me to give a talk to the women who work at the orphanage.  We have decided that focusing on the topic of self-esteem would be beneficial.  Along with the talk, I am going to be offering individual counseling (with a translator!) for any of the women who are interested in it.  Will you please pray?  Pray that God will move in the lives of these women and me!  Pray for my words to refresh them with the truth of the gospel. Pray for the women to be open to hearing and sharing from their own stories.  One of my teammates, Crystal, and I will be leading a Bible study for the women in the Las Conchas neighborhood while our team is building homes.  Living Proof Ministries (Beth Moore) is going to send me copies of their new Looking Up devotional in Spanish if they return from the printer in time.  The goal is to send each woman home with a book for her further growth and encouragement!  Please pray that we get these books before we leave!  Please pray for these women to know how dearly loved and cherished they are by God, Himself!

I used to live in a darkened room
Had a face of stone 
And a heart of gloom
Lost my hope, I was so far gone
Cryin all my tears
With the curtains drawn
I didn't know until my soul broke free
I've got these angels watching over me, yeah


Oh watch me go
I'm a happy girl
Everybody knows
That the sweetest thing that you'll ever see
In the whole wide world
Is a happy girl


By Martina McBride "Happy Girl"