Thursday, November 10

We are at the school in San Andres at the water system and it is running well. They have made 21,220 gallons of clean water in the last 12 months. It is making a big health impact. They have also put 1,770Q in the bank for future supplies.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

We arrived safe on Sunday to Jacaltenango after a long 10 hour beautiful bus ride up the mountainside. From our hotel we can see the first ridge of the mountains of Mexico. We began teaching and installing on Monday at Esucala Regional Mixta with the assistance of Claudia from Living Waters, Kristin from Peace Core and Juan, our Translator. The Rojas Family has been feeding us well!! We have also had great assistance from Eddy, 14 going on 35. We began with 10 Teachers, one child from the school, and 3 Installers. Day 2 the numbers grew to 13 adults and several children in the classroom and 4 Installers. We have learned the reason the school was chosen is because it has the best building and serves as a community center where many activities take place. Upon completion of the Installation, the school will complete one of the final steps to a Healthy School Certification.

By Tuesday afternoon our system is making pure water and the teachers are well equiped with new lessons for the classroom. Everyone is healthy and enjoying the beauty of Guatemala. We are sharing the hotel with Bay Presbytery. Linda, the Bay Presbytery Team, a Luthern who tell you we would be nothing with out Luther, is here for her 26th year. The Bay Presbytery Team went from roughly 6 in their classroom Day to 80 on Day 2! Both teams are enjoying morning and evening devotionals and connections as we listen for Gods will.

Tracy teaches Nancy, Loy and Dave about the filtration system before leaving for Guatemala.

Living Waters Team November 2011 Commissioning

The Team was commissioned to go to Jacaltenango, Guatemala November 5-12, 2011. The team leader is Tracy Wolf and team members are Kayla Wolf, Nancy Beardsley, Mary Cwiklinski and Loy Williams.

May 2 Update

Well... breakfast is running long and we found pictures of the presentation of the prayer shawl and the quilt... thought you'd enjoy seeing them! We will probably not be posting any after today, but will be thinking of you all back home. We miss you, and can't wait to see you!

May El Shaddai Celebrates!

It was a long, long day, but we have clean water flowing at El Shaddai! Only two small leaks in the system that were quickly fixed. Truly a team effort between Fox Valley and El Shaddai. We finished at about 5pm, and quickly rushed to church services which began at 5pm! So that meant quick showers and final preparations for the celebration. Church services run about 2 hours at El Shaddai, so we got there during communion. The celebration was wonderful! Our gifts of the prayer shawl and the quilt were warmly recieved (that is a complete understatement, but words cannot describe the joy and appreciation and the LOVE). We have some great pictures and video that will hopefully convey the feeling better.... and we'll share many stories as well, when we return. We also recieved gifts. A strong bond has formed not only with Pastors Fredy and Isabel, but the entire congregation. We wish you you all could have experienced this "God Sighting!" We now head to Lake Atitlan with Pastor Fredy as a generous gift from him on our way to Antigua for some much needed rest before heading home on Tuesday. Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers.

April 30 El Shaddai Installation

Today a new adventure with our friends in El Shaddai. We arrived to see a beautiful, almost finished water house. White tile floor, tile on the walls, and best of all the water system board on the wall and painted. It was extreemly hot in the system room, no windows - but not to long after we arrived the new air-conditioning was turned on. What a blessing. We began by glueing elbows - you can see Pastor Fredy working on them in the yard between the school and the water house. Linda W spent the day with a lovely group of adults and children working thru the education curriclum that she and Sara had prepared. This included having the children make hand prints and sing songs. That happy sound was heard all the way up on the water house roof where Gary and one of our partners, Edgar, spent hours working on the clean water tank. Fred and Linda worked with the future operator, Henry, and others putting the sytem up on the board. As always Claudia translated, taught, worked on the system and encouraged us. She is truely a God send to us, and to this mission.