Groups of Blessings, WIND teams descend upon the Guatemala Highlands

Several WIND teams have descended upon Guatemala these last two months.

The first was a team from Selah Covenant Church.  WIND partnered with Food for the Hungry which provides nutritional and health education to many villages in the Ixil area.  A breastfeeding class was provided to the moms of Colegio HOREB and to the woman leaders in the small village of Cajixay.  The team also built a kindergarten classroom at HOREB and helped dig a latrine in the village of Cajixay.  We also visited a few houses and discovered a little girl named Elsa who has a problem with one of her eyes, we hope to get her seen by a doctor from HELPS International.  This was a special team for Maria and I because my Aunts and Uncles came for the first time.  It was fun to show them what I’ve been doing these last few years.

Selah Covenant team in Cajixay

The second team was a team of dental professionals from Medical Teams International.  They saw over 500 patients during the week.  We had an advance team screen the patients that were to be seen at the clinic.  A lot of sickness struck this group, but they were a resilient bunch and somehow still met their goals.  On the last afternoon, we went to visit Cajixay, and a woman who was seen shared that she had dealt with pain for two years before coming to the clinic.  She was only one story among a sea of stories and the work this group  did blessed a lot of people.

Bryan and Lauri Olson from MTI treat a patient at the dental clinic

The third team was a high school team from Westminster Chapel in Bellevue.  They worked for a week at the school, putting on a soccer clinic for the kids.  They brought a lot of energy and the children absolutely adored them. After each class finished, a member of the team shared a personal testimony about how God had changed their life.  The last day was spent in the park playing and it felt like one big diverse family.  The Westminster kids and the kids at HOREB really have a special attachment and I love watching and being a part of it.  Each afternoon, we also went into the homes to build new stoves, 15 in all.  Traditionally the people cook inside the homes with open fires, so these new stoves bring huge health benefits as all the smoke now leaves the home.  It also much more efficient, needing less wood.

The team with the children and teachers of Colegio HOREB, after playing at the park

 

It was an honor to be a part of all these groups, God has certainly used them to bring much blessing to the Ixil people.  

Update on the Rices

 Here are a few updates about us and our work:

Teaching at Love Guatemala

Maria recently had the opportunity to teach a business class at the organization Love Guatemala for one week.  She had about 20 students and the class seemed to help immensely.  One of the women, who sells cakes, said she realized through taking the class that she sold her products for less than what it costs to make!  

Scholarship Program

This is the first year of a WIND scholarship program.  I spent most of my time in my trip to Cotzal in January preparing for the initiation of this program.  We have four students (3 of whom are HOREB graduates) attending the 7th grade at the middle school founded by Agros.  They have classes for 5 hours in the morning, followed by a 2 hour workshop after lunch.  We are excited about the opportunity these kids are receiving.  

HOREB

The Christian elementary school that WIND supports, Colegio HOREB, has ballooned to 149 students for 2015. They began Kindergarten last year with under 20 students, but this year they have all three levels with a total of 47 students.  This year HOREB, which currently rents a facility, is hoping to buy land to build their own school.    

Team Preparation

We have three teams coming in these next few months that we have been preparing for.  

Selah Covenant church will be coming in 2 weeks.  They will be doing nutrition workshops for the mothers of children at HOREB, helping with construction at the school, and also doing community projects in the village of Cajixay.

A team of dentists from Medical Teams International will be coming in March, giving some much needed dental work to villagers around the Ixil area.

Also, a high school team from Westminster Chapel will be coming in April to serve at the HOREB school, supporting the teachers in the classrooms and installing stoves in homes in the afternoons.

Immigration

We are currently in the process of immigrating to the U.S. and we hope to move in June.  Thank you to all that have supported and continue to support our work here.  Please keep that transition in your prayers.  We will continue to serve here until the process is finished and are excited for what God has in store for us in the future.

Family Trip to Cotzal

After the wedding, Maria and I traveled with my family up to Cotzal.  My mom, dad, sister, nephew, uncle, aunt, and two cousins traveled with us as well as Pastor Ralph with his son and daughter in law.  It was the first time some of them were able to see the school where I have spent so much time working.

 My family has been such a huge support for me in prayer these last couple of years and it was cool to watch them in the community for the first time.  The first day they went to the school where my nephew Micah was a huge hit with the children at HOREB.

Two teachers came with us: my sister Amanda and Ralph's daugther in law, Lorien.  They are part of WIND's teacher to teacher program which pairs teachers from the U.S. with teachers at Colegio HOREB in order to exchange ideas.  They were able to observe the teachers in the classroom and also participated with them in a teacher workshop put on by the Nicolas Fund of Education (NFE).

Through a donation from WIND, we also were able to present HOREB for the first time with textbooks for all the students.  It was an emotional time for the teachers because they had prayed for this kind of help.

 I was also able to bring some of the group into a few homes where we prayed and visited.  It was a short trip but it was a special relationship building time as my friends in Cotzal got to know more of my family.  As my family left on a plane to return home, Maria and I spent our honeymoon on Lake Atitlan, the start of a new life together.

Westminster High School Team

This past month has included two WIND teams, last minute wedding planning, a wedding, a family trip to Cotzal, a brief honeymoon, and then we moved the whole family to a new house! Now we are finally settling in and getting organized and finally I have time to take a few breaths and write. This week I plan to write each day to catch you up on all that happened in the month of July.  At the beginning of the month, while Maria was preparing for our wedding, I helped to guide the Westminster High School team.

It was the largest team WIND had ever brought down, with 25 people, 18 of which were high school students. We had some apprehensions about the size of the team, but we saw God really work in the lives of the students while they served in Cotzal. A couple of them spoke about feeling God calling them to be missionaries. Others were clearly touched by the people of Cotzal and more specifically the children at Colegio HOREB. In the mornings we taught at the school, starting each day performing a skit and lesson for the whole school about the story of Joseph. We broke into smaller groups after that, teaching Geography, English, Health, Science, and Art, while reinforcing the message we learned in the big group time.

In the afternoons we installed stoves in homes. The kids worked hard, stepping right in and serving in whatever way they could. By the end of the week, we met our goal of installing 21 stoves to families who were cooking over open fires inside their homes. These stoves are such a blessing because they take much less wood and instead of the family inhaling all the smoke, it now safely leaves the homes.

On the last day, we took all the children to the park where a good time was had by all!

Personally, it was a time of growth as I was utilized more as a translator with our main translator out sick for a part of the time. For two days I translated the lesson to the school and it surprised me how the words would come to me in the moment. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but the children understood the message that was trying to be conveyed. God was surely helping me. 

That was a stressful time with the wedding details and future living situation still uncertain. We are happy to have that time behind us as we settle into our new life together. I hope to write about the wedding tomorrow.  :)

One Amazing Group Leaves While Another Arrives

I had a wonderful time this last week with some wonderful people.  The seminary group from Seattle Pacific University has just finished their time here in Guatemala.  It was an honor to be able to guide them and translate a little during their journey.  It was a cross cultural immersion course that they needed to take to complete their masters degree.  They were greatly affected by the people living in the Ixil triangle.  They heard the stories of how God worked to build the Jorai Bible Institute and Colegio HOREB.  They heard horrible stories about the civil war that ravaged the area, with the people getting caught in the middle between the guerillas and the army.  What left perhaps the greatest impact was visiting homes.  One student wrote about a home visit:

Thank you for introducing us to M's family.  I think that was the coolest part of the trip to me.  I'm not sure I've ever felt moments of desolation and consolation paired so vividly than in that moment.  To see God in the darkness and pain, and also in the joy and the playfulness, was very powerful for me.

We also split into groups and visited with local pastors for a full day, in their homes and churches.  One pastor shared about a time when he wasn't a Christian, was badly injured, and almost lost his leg.  He received a visit from an angel who healed his leg.  Afterward he became a Christian and today walks hours everyday to preach the Gospel.

The group leaves carrying the stories of the people of Guatemala with them, seeing more completely the body of Christ, and with much to process as they continue in or begin their various ministries.

A high school group consisting of 25 people from Westminster Chapel in Bellevue will be traveling to the Ixil triangle tomorrow.  We will be teaching at HOREB as well as installing stoves into families' homes.  This will be the first time in Guatemala for most of them.  Pray that their hearts would be opened as well as the people we will serve, so God will produce much fruit from this visit.  Also pray for my dad, our translator Nancy, and I, that God would give us the stamina as we dive right into guiding another group.

Thank you!

Preparation Week and a Team of Future Pastors

Maria and I have been moving a lot since I arrived to Guatemala last week.  We have had a full plate as we try to figure out wedding details, our living situation, and how we are going to have enough money to live. There are a lot of important decisions that we need to make.  We have had intense spiritual battles descend on us in the midst of all this stress.  We began to put the things of this world ahead of God and the mission that He has called us to.  The devil is crafty and he is a liar, distracting us with unimportant things and giving us undue stress.  When we come back to Jesus as the center of our lives, everything begins to make sense again.  Light dispels darkness and we see clearly, waking up from the fog that previously surrounded us.

How amazing is God, who through all the problems and struggles in our minds, is still able to show us how silly and small those things really are.  How amazing is it that when we start placing our attention on the light, no matter how small, that light grows and grows, until once again our hearts feel light and unburdened.

I will leave on Friday with a team of seminary students from Seattle Pacific Univeristy, serving as a translator and helping in whatever way I can.  We will learn from the pastors there, following them around to learn about their churches and their lives.  That team has already had quite an adventure without me, visiting a mega church in Guatemala City and then the organization Safe Passage, which is a ministry working at the Guatemala City garbage dump.  My dad, who is the team leader, writes:

What an emotional day today. The dump is so sad. We were able to stand above it in a cemetery and watch the trucks come in - dump - and then watch the people start to dig through the garbage. As the trucks arrive and start to back in, the dump people lay a hand on the truck which gives them dibs on the contents. Maybe 40 people on the trucks from the wealthier zones of the city. But then to understand how much better it is today compared to before, it is great to see. The school for the kids of the dump workers is great. What a contrast to the mega church yesterday which wreaked of money to the dump ministry that wreaks of garbage and sludge. It can not help but have an impact on the students. 

Your prayers are much appreciated during this time.  Please pray for the SPU team, that God would give them an amazing learning experience that will help to shape their future ministries, and for us as we continue to make our living preparations here in Guatemala.  Thank you all for your love and prayers!