Summer 2012 Mission Trip!!!!

Courtney and Tanner with friends

As Summer 2012 approaches, we are all planning...planning for what the summer will hold, for ourselves, for our kids, for our vacations.  The Cone family is planning on returning to Guatemala to continue the relationships that we have made there. Guatemala has been a challenging place for our family. We have struggled with our ideas of God and how he operates in the world after witnessing so many things. We have seen such poverty! We have seen the sparkle of hope in the eyes of fellow believers who quite literally pray for daily bread, or in this case tortillas.  We have seen children abused and abandoned.  We have seen joy, unmistakable joy, in the faces of those who are so grateful for the blessings of a 300 sq. ft home.  We have struggled with having so much, yet wanting more and then feeling guilty for having so much. To be honest, our struggle continues to this day.  It is an awesome thing to stand in the presence of God and ask, "Lord, what do you want for my life?  Where would you have me go and what would you have me do?"  Our friends in Guatemala are asking those same questions from different circumstances.  

This summer as Carli comes with us for the first time, (Jack will be staying in Michigan with Caroline's parents) she will join us as we struggle with these questions. We will be:   *making repairs to Hope for Tomorrow and taking the children from the orphanage on a field trip  *offering support and encouragement to the staff who care for the children at the orphanage.  *working at Las Conchas School to build a garden which the school can use in feeding the children  *painting and repairing houses that previous Shalom mission trips have built  *working with the women of the Las Conchas neighborhood.   

      We invite you to join us!  Come and be part of our trip. Work beside us. Pray with us for our hearts, our bodies and those we will serve.  Give your time and money to support those who will go and the work we will do http://TheShalomFoundation.donorpages.com/cpa2012/CarolineCone 

     THANK YOU so much for all of your support and encouragement to us, it really means a lot to us that you are so interested in what God is doing in this small part of Guatemala!       

     Caroline