Our Mission Begins...

Hola, from Guatemala. Today we began our service with Groundwork Guatemala, after arriving on Thursday. Groundwork hosts mission teams every other week, throughout the year, but this year scheduled us directly after a team from Wisconsin because of the increased desire by churches around the country to serve with them. Groundwork picked up our supplies at the airport on Thursday, and we the went on to the colonial capital of Guatemala, Antigua, until we could rejoin them today. As the team from Wisconsin returned home this morning, we followed them into the mission house in Guatemala City this afternoon, but not before attending church at La Merced in Antigua, built in the 1700's with 5 foot thick walls to withstand the siesmic activity in Guatemala. We thought we were early for church; it turned out we were late...but we made it in time for communion, the passing of the peace, and the offering...all easily understood in Spanish or any other language.

The past few days have been a opportunity for new team members to experience Guatemala for the first time and adjust to it, including showers with electric coils that sometimes heat the water, brushing teeth with a water bottle in one hand to prevent that hand from turning on a faucet of unsafe water, declaring war on mosquitoes, a remnant of Tropical Storm Agatha, as well as taking in the great physical beauty of Guatemala, its volcanoes, its vegetation, its Mayan heritage, and its warm people.

We just completed our first meeting with Ginny and Kevin Holmes tonight to review our activities for tomorrow. We unpacked and sorted the supplies from home and discussed our trip tomorrow to the Guatemala City dump, the cemetary that overlooks the dump, and home visits in La Libertad, the shanty town that sits directly across from the Guatemala City dump. Although it is only 9:30 P.M., everyone has headed to bed; Guatemala gets up early and goes to bed early, in part because the sun rises and sets very early here, but also because electric lighting is prohibitvely expensive.

We are excited to be here to serve, blessed to have this opportunity, and profoundly grateful for your support and prayers. Tomorrow we will attempt to send pictures to share the experience. Families of team members, thank you again.

Blessings,
Your Guatemala Mission Team
Ali Corace, Kayla Napier, Nicole Paquette, Anna Page, Emily Racey, Jenna Thompson, Alyssa Voiland, and Sally Buss

P.S. Forgive any spelling mistakes on the blog today. The computer is spell checking in Spanish so all bets are off!