Fox Valley Mission Team - Postlude: We are Home!

Two Words... "HUGE SUCCESS!" Sorry we have not kept in touch on this trip. We moved locations after our first day, and did not have internet access. We returned home safely early Thursday morning. The trip couldn't have gone any better, and far exceeded our expectations.

On Sunday, we met with Pastor Fredy and his family at the El Shaddai school to tour the site where the LWW system would be installed... This included the grounds where Pastor's vision is to build a retirement home, medical clinic, and a new church. His vision is BIG! Our meeting to review the covenant took several hours, and ended with the formal signing (see second picture above). Afterwards, we freshed up, and headed off to worship services.

On Monday, we dealt with El Rosario. We made tremendous progress, and we are well on the road to getting our system up and running. Prior to driving out to El Rosario, we spent some time at the Habitat office in Reu to essentially get on the same page with Habitat. We drove out to El Rosario joined by Paulino and Louis from Habitat. On the way, we stopped to see Pastor Fredy at a second site in El Rosario (not far from our first site), and took water samples. This site would serve as a clean water production and distribution point for the area. We then continued on to El Rosario Colonia.

We met with the committee in El Rosario. This committee is extremely committed. They had an advanced copy of the covenant, and were prepared to discuss options. After getting everyone finally on the same page, the committee agreed to work with Habitat in purchasing the water house. The committee also agreed to work with Fox Valley Church in operation of the LWW system (see first picture above). Habitat will be assisting the Colonia to become a legal association, and sign a covenant with the Colonia for repayment of the water house. Once this is completed, we will return to formally sign the LWW covenant, and retrain the Colonia operators and hygiene teachers.

Plans are in the works for a return trip in mid-April to install the system at El Shaddai, and hopefully restart the system in El Rosario... with signing of the covenant. We will also hope to move forward with the second site in El Rosario... giving us 4 active projects in Guatemala! We are making our presence felt... and we are making a difference... with your help, support, and prayers! Clean water is, and will be flowing for many years to come!

We have many stories to tell, great memories, and new friends have been made. Stop Gary, Linda or Fred at church, or call us any time. We are happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have. A presentation to the congregation will be coming in short order... Please come.

Day 1 Retalhuleu, Guatemala

We made it! Our first day in Guatemala has been both exciting and tiring. All has gone well so far. We landed in Guatemala City on time and our driver and Claudia were waiting for us at the airport. After about a 4 hour drive through the countryside, past smoking volcanos, sugar cane fields, and across washed out roads/bridges (from the tremendous rains this past season), we arrived in Reu.

We were greated by Pastor Fredy Monzon and his nephew Edgar as we arrived into town, and escorted to our hotel. Pastor and his wife, Isabel, are treating us like royalty! We were feed lunch, and allowed to rest from our journey. We were then taken to a nearby amusement park, Los Hostales del IRTRA (Guatemala's version of Disney World!). We took in a dance/magic show, followed by a wonderful dinner as guests of Pastor Fredy, Isabel, and their nephew Edgar. Edgar speaks fluent English, and has been a great help in translating. After dinner we walked through the park, and enjoyed some wonderful Guatemalan dessert ... Fried plantains stuffed with chocolate!

Tomorrow morning we will visit the installation site near a school run by the El Shaddai Church. We will meet with about 7 school committee members, review, and sign the Covenant. Later in the evening (around 5pm) we will worship at El Shaddai Church. Pastor asked Linda, Gary, and I to preach! Scott, we need you here!!

On Monday, we will go to El Rosario and meet with the committee members as well as Habitat Guatemala. Keep us in your prayers as we work to get our existing system operational. Claudia feels that we have better commitment from the committee at El Rosario. Later in the day, we will look at a third site in this area associated with the El Shaddai Church.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We are all very optomistic about the future, and our mission here. Gary is like a kid in a candy store.... Let's just say we won't have to twist his arm to come back!!

PS: Wish we could send up some sunny, 80 degree weather to help melt the snow!

Another Team Departs on Friday, January 14, 2011

Fred Filiaggi, Linda Strong and Gary Blauser will be leaving for El Rosario, Guatemala on Friday to check on an existing system and look into installing another water filtration system. Please keep them in your prayers that they have a safe journey.