We Are Here! We Are Alive! God Has Amplified!

Hey All!

My apologies for not sending out word sooner regarding our safe arrival into Guatemala, but all has been well, maybe not without some scheduling mishaps, but God is good. The events leading up to my writing have been incredibly fast paced, positive, fun, and amazingly God inspired.  I'll try to recap:

We began the trip Wednesday morning, some as early as 6:00am others may not have slept at all because of the flurry to get everything packed.  Nonetheless, everyone was present at the Spokane airport at around 10:15am and we began ticketing.  The poor ticket counter had no idea what they were getting into checking in 56 people with nearly 91 bags.  Two and a half hours later, after the wonderfully personal security screening, we all boarded the plane and flew out of Spokane at around 1:05pm.  The three flights proved bearable as most the participants were falling over in exhaustion already, and a little sitting time provided some much needed, neck-cramping, sleep.

The sunrise view of Guatemala greeted us as we glided in to the capital city airport at around 6:00am Thursday morning.  We immediately began going through customs, and soon realized none of our bags where checked in under the proper participants names.  Rather, the Delta counter in Spokane simply assigned a bag to any random person in the group. Unfortunately two of the group's check through bags had been misplaced and we had to begin the laborious task of matching each check through bag receipt with it's corresponding bag tag, in order to find the remaining two receipts and bag numbers.  We found the culprits and got the baggage situation under control, boarded the two buses (including the school bus we drove down over Christmas) and fled the capital to San Luis, where our mission post resided.

Nearly two hours into our drive we came to a stop on the road.  Cars were backed up for miles due to an apparent sort of political rally protesting the building of some dam in the next town.  Needless to say, this put a long halt on our trip. We managed to finally arrive at our destination in San Luis at 9:00pm, despite much waiting around.  Our six hour trip turned into one nearly fourteen hours long.  The group was in incredibly high spirits though - we had made it!  

The following day, Friday,  consisted of getting orientated to our surroundings and much more importantly, our group.  We spent the morning having worship, playing group games and getting organized.  The afternoon began with a trip out to the church site to look it over and get things started.  We ended the evening going to bed early...ish so we could all wake up and get to church.

Sabbath morning we had the opportunity to spread ourselves out over the five other churches the past UCC Mission Trips built.  Two churches let us preach, opening up the opportunity for translators to step forward, as well as special musics and even participate in a baptism out at ICAP, the Adventist Academy in the area.  Testimonies flowed from the mornings happenings, and God showed himself in some powerful ways.  We spent the afternoon at the ICAP campus, touring the school facility my grandpa started back in 1972.  Ending the tour with a quick trip to the river on the backside of the campus seemed only the most logical thing to do, and provided the group with a great natural look into Guatemala's ecosystem (sounds so educational, haha).   Sabbath ended with us reflecting on the wonderful experiences God has provided each of us.

Sunday became our first full work day.  Though it took a good while to get things started (or go 5th gear as our work site boss, Shane Anderson, would say). We didn't get quite the amount of work done we wanted, but a couple oiled gears, and greased joints later and the working machine that is our group started gaining some momentum.

Today, Monday March 21, has begun just like Sunday, however, the group is getting into the groove and work is getting done, praise God!

I'll try to keep you updated in the following days, however, the internet dongle is being borrowed and time is scarce!

Your prayers are appreciated!  Wish you all the best!  Blessings!

Bryson Bechtel
UCC Assistant Youth Director, Taskforce


Shoutouts:
Eric Stentzel Says Hi!