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.

April 29 El Rosario - A New Beginning

Where there is hope, anything is possible. We had a great finally day with our friends at El Rosario. A new covenant between FVPC and El Rosario was reviewed and signed, forging the way for a new beginning. The hard work began in readying the system for operation. With Linda's leadership, a small leak in the system was repaired by the El Rosario operators (Eli, Omar, and Cesar). The water tank was cleaned and the system purged. It took us all day, with no lunch, but we were drinking clean water and celebrating in the end! Sara led the children in song, and certificates were handed out to the children for completing their health and hygiene training. The operators got their certificates too, and new uniforms (LWW t-shirts and hats!) We felt the commitment from the El Rosario committee, and feel good about the days to come.

Yet our work was not done. On our way back to our retreat at Marco's and Ninnette's, we stoped at a Presbyterian seminary and retreat to investigate another potential LWW site. The administor had left (we were two hours late!), but one of the assistants gave us a tour and showed us the well and water tower, as well as the building that would house the LWW system. We did some prelimiary testing and took a water sample for further lab work. The initial testing looks very promising... now we just need to ensure that we are a good fit with this potential operating partner.

Tomorrow we begin work at El Shaddai, and building the LWW system there. Pray that all goes well. We miss you all.

Through My Eyes - a 2 part series by Linda Williams

Linda Williams had some time on her today, and decided to write. This is the first of a two part series on her experience in Guatemala:

El Viaje a El Rosario (The Trip to El Rosario)

While spending through Guatemala in Pastor Freddy´ s van over what our hotel host and driver calls “ las carrateras malas”(bad roads) I decided to take my mind off the wild traffic and rough conditions and practice my Spanish by reading billboards and signs and observing all that came into my changing windshield view of life in Guatemala, The scenes shifted ´from colorful city streets and market stalls filled with people and three wheeled taxis to stretches of cane field, to pastures filled with Brahma cattle and groves of mangoes almost ready for harvest. We passed precariously close to Bluebird School buses retired from school duty and now serving as brightly repainted public busses which link the rural communities to more urban areas. Modern hotels, modern houses and neighborhoods stood in sharp contrast to squatter´s thatched shelters beside the highway. All along the highway people walked or rode bikes carrying heavy loads of firewood or other material on their heads and backs. Children in school uniforms strolled in groups going to and from school. The only people in a big hurry it seemed are those of us zigging and sagging at high speeds to avoid the holes on the carrateras malas!

I read everything from campaign billboards to advertisements for tire repair stations. I was struck by the number of what appeared to be small storefront churches with the logo “Estoy con tigo!” I am with you! This being a mission trip I thought I knew what I was looking at. I commented to Marco about the great numbers of these churches he looked puzzled and then laughed. He said that these were all advertisements for the telephone company Tigo not the Word of God! I think that it may be both!

Lesson learned. Just because you see something and can read the words beware of being blinded by your own frame of reference. Good advice in general and especially good when encountering another culture anywhere in the world!

April 28 El Rosario

First... Can we tell you how hot it is down here? It so HOT.... Enough about our discomfort. We know you don't care ;-) We won't leave you in suspense... El Rosario is 90% back up and running! After some tense negotiations, Habitat and the Colonia came to an agreement for the Colonia to pay a nominal fee to operate the system until a sale price is reached. Fred, Linda Williams and Sara did a great job helping to reach this agreement (photo of meeting above). We also established electricity back to the water house today, along with replacing the pump to the well. All with great cooperation from the El Rosario Colonia committee. Linda and Gary removed the old filters and cleaned the system. We partially filled the raw water tank and ran water through the system.... Only one small leak near the water meter, but otherwise the system is in great shape! Linda Williams, Sara, and Claudia trained in Health and Hygiene today the committee members (along with some children in picture above). The training went very well. Tomorrow we will return to El Rosario to sign a new covenant, flush out the system, train the operators, restart the system, and drink clean water! Oh.... and CELEBRATE! We'll tell you the story later of how Fred, Linda S, Gary, and Carlos (one of the children) pushed our van to jumpstart it after the battery died!

April 27 Our First Day

Well... It's been a long and tiring day, but as always one of great joy and reuniting! We had an uneventful trip into Guatemala City. No issues with customs. Pastor Fredy, his son Javier, nephew Edgar, and our in country coordinator Claudia were at the airport to great us with open arms. It is very hot here, and we are in for some long days ahead. We are not expecting rain, so that is very positive news!

To the details - we were treated to breakfast at Pollo Campanas when we arrived - the KFC of Guatemala. We ended the meal locked out of the car, but Fred was able to squeeze in the tiny van window and save the day. Then a long hot 4 hour drive to Reu, stopping part way to buy fresh cut pineapple from a roadside stand. We checked into our cozy hotel, had a delicious lunch, a quick rest, and then traveled about 20 minutes to the site at El Shaddai.

There are many exciting changes since our last visit! The water house is ready with the 4x8 plywood board up and ready to mount the system. There is beautiful white tile all around. The new church area now has a thatched roof and is where Linda W and Sara will be teaching.

Pastor Fredy also showed us his radio station, which was a dream and is now up and running with 5,000 listeners. THEN . . . he had us come into the sound room, shut the door and introduced us live!!!!! We all had to speak live (I mean we were priviledged to speak) on Guatemalan radio. That's right, your LWW team are now radio personalities and the name of Fox Valley Presbyterian Church has been broadcast all over Guatemala. All done with no sleep. We were great.

FVPC Mission Team Enroute for Guatemala!

On Wednesday.... the Fox Valley Mission Team (Linda S, Sara V, Linda W, Gary B, and Fred F) leaves for Guatemala to install a LWW system at El Shaddai, and we will hope to restart our existing system in El Rosario.

Keep us in your prayers!