Brief Movie of 2016 Pictures

Travel Day

We started the day with clear skies and we got a chance to observe some of the beautiful surroundings in Antigua. After spending a few moments taking in some spectacular views, we had breakfast and rushed off to catch our flights home.

Day of Rest and Relaxation

We slept in for an extra hour before traveling to our hosts home for breakfast.

The day was spent traveling to buy some coffee, view the park near Lake Amatitlan and travel to Antigua. The view was still spectacular over lake towards the Volcano Pacaya, even though we had some cloud cover.

The team got a chance to climb some of the Mayan replica buildings. We viewed a small display of snakes, lizards and spiders of Guatemala. The grounds were full of different trees, plants and flowers from Guatemala.

We traveled to Antigua and checked into our hotel rooms. We then got a quick lunch and then proceeded to the shopping area. We had a little rain along the way to and from the shopping area.

After our shopping event, we had a delicious meal at a steak house











The team enjoyed the day and we had some time to reflect on the trip after our devotional time.
It was a good time of sharing and planning for next year.

Recap of the Ministry

The team worked hard throughout the week with long days. Getting up early and being ready by 7:15AM in the morning for breakfast and not concluding the day until after 10PM.

Each day consisted of getting a delicious home cooked breakfast from our host at his home.

The first two mornings we traveled to Zone 12 in Guatemala City to our ministry site at the Precious Moments School working in our dental ministry. Lunch consisted of getting a quick meal on the run after the dental clinic while traveling to the school in San Jose Pinula. The afternoons were working with the older students at the school on a spiritual based activity and a drug based activity.

In our ministry at Santa Elena Barillas we worked with Casa Loney ministry that helps street children learn basic reading and writing skills. The children are from families that can't afford to send their children to the school. The children go to school for only half of the day.

Lunch was made over the wood stove and consisted of rice or noodles and vegetables. These meals are not the normal for these children. They will normally have 2 meals. Their breakfast is normally a tortilla and refried beans. The families may have eggs, but they will have only a couple to be split among their family. Their dinners will consist of tortilla, beans and maybe a vegetable. So, sharing these meals with them was a special treat.

In the afternoon of the last ministry day in Santa Elena Barillas, more children came after school and we were able to share the gospel with them through stories, puppet shows and crafts. We worked with Luis, who had planned on 200 children for a big event. The rain may have kept some from attending, but we still had well over a hundred children participate in this outreach event.

After our ministry day, we returned to our hosts home for a home cooked Guatemalan dinner. Each day we had an extra activity in the evenings. We would return to the retreat center by 9PM and have devotions and reflect on the day.

Service Day 4

We spent our last service day at Casa Loney. We presented Bibles to the children that we worked with in the mornings.

We also performed a puppet how for these children in, "Becoming a Christian". The story is about a discussion of great news about having forgiveness of their sins. The puppets talk about how Christ paid for the penalty for sins and if we ask him into our lives, we can be forgiven. However, the bad news the puppets realize is that they are puppets and the salvation is for the humans. "lucky humans" is one of the final comments that the puppet makes. After the puppet show, we shared the meaning of the story with the children and then prayed with them.

Again, We had lunch at Casa Loney which consisted of rice with carrots, peppers and hamburger.

After lunch, we had over 100 children. The street was blocked off and Luis shared songs, prizes and a clown act for the children. The team also got up in front of the audience and performed El Sapo and several other songs with Luis.

We also performed 2 puppet shows. "Becoming a Christian" and "A Special Prayer". The special prayer was about one puppet buying a special prayer and being told to pray in a special position in order for the prayer to work. The prayer and advice cost the puppet, $30. and the puppet figured that he could easily earn his money back through this guaranteed method of prayer. However, a much wiser puppet informed him that there was no special prayer that he could buy, nor was their a special position. The puppet learned that he wasted his money and can easily come to God with his prayers anytime and anywhere.

After the clown came to entertain the children, the children were surprised with snacks and treats.

The Casa Loney ministry works with local children and blesses them with sharing the gospel and inviting them to spend time with them. The ministry also makes wooden tables and benches. Our team decided to donate some money to buy a table for a family that needs one and let them have it for their use. The money can be used to both bless the Casa Loney ministry as well as the family that receives the table.

Tomorrow we visit the park and spend the remaining time in Antigua.

Service Day 3

We spent our third service day at Casa Loney.

We spent the morning interacting with about 15 children with face painting, teaching them how to make balloon animals and playing games.

We were waiting for the leader of the VBS. Later in the morning, we had learned that he had car trouble and was not going to be there for the day.















We had lunch at Casa  Loney which was cooked on a wood stove. The lunch consisted of Ramon noodles with carrots, celery and chicken.

After lunch, we had over 30 children color, make bead bracelets and performed a Bible story with the children.

The bead bracelets consisted of 5 beads; black - sin, red - blood of Christ, white - cleansing of our sins, green - growth in Christ and yellow - Heaven.  We performed the story of Moses delivering the Israelite's from the Egyptians. We used members of our team to be the characters; Pharaoh, 2 soldiers, 2 Israelite's and Moses. The children participated unknowingly as being the Red Sea. When the story came to the point of crossing the Red Sea the children in the audience parted in the middle and the Israelite's crossed on dry land. When the Pharaoh and his soldiers started to cross through the sea, the children closed in around them and Pharaoh with his soldiers were lost in the sea of children.

After a homemade pizza for dinner, we went to church to share a sermon and faith story at the Wednesday night service. Linda shared her faith story and I prepared a sermon, shared the Ephesians 5 passage and we did the "field of temptation" activity.

Denice, Danielle and Marie went downstairs and provided a program for them. We prayed over 4 teen age girls as they recommitted their lives to Christ. The pastor spent some time with us after the service to give us a tour of the church.

Service Day 2

Our second service day was supporting the dental clinic and working with our Guatemalan team at a school in San Jose Pinula.

We spent the morning working with the older children and the youngest students in the school. The older children were in 5th and 6th grade. The youngest children were first grade. We used the same Bible story on the tower of babel and the craft. We also taught the older children how to make a balloon sword.. We were able to see some of the children that we have been working with for the past 4 years.



 Marta, (the founder of the school) was again very grateful for us coming to help her provide this dental clinic for the students. The children's families can't afford dental care among many other health related expenses and basic conveniences that we may enjoy. The school was started for families that couldn't afford sending their children to school and they were invited in to Marta's home where she taught them basic education. The basic education included learning about Christ and it began with only a few students about ten years ago. Over the ten years the school has grown to over 160 students and many of the classes meet in hallways, small rooms and have added small additions. The school primarily runs on donations and with the money it pays for material, teachers and building upkeep. It is truly a remarkable story in this very poor neighborhood.


In the afternoon we worked with a high school class and a middle school class. We introduced the children with the teamwork activities, message for staying off of drugs, as well as sharing an activity that we created referencing Ephesians 5.
 


In the Ephesians 5 activity We placed several large 12X12 poster board cards on the ground that had many temptations written on them that are sins. Sin is defined as what separates us from God because of our disobedience to his standards. On these cards were words written like, gossip, murder, robbery, cheating, lies, etc, that are obstacles that we can become disobedient to God. The activity uses these cards spread in random patterns on the floor and the students navigate through the "temptation field" as a threesome. These groups of three consist of a leader and the other two members of the threesome that are wearing blindfolds. These teams of three have to trust their leader and try to avoid these cards on the ground. It was really a wonderful activity from a teamwork perspective, but it is rich with spiritual content. 

We had more students today that made decisions for Christ and some that recommitted their lives.

Tomorrow we leave for the Vacation Bible School in Santa Elena Barrillas. It is about a half hour drive and we should be able to see some better views of the volcano's here in the area.

Everyone on the team has been healthy and we are collecting the last 2 duffle bags currently that arrived a day after our last team members arrival. We will now have the remaining supplies needed for VBS. We were thankful that of the bags that got delayed in coming to Guatemala, it was this bag, as it wasn't really needed until tomorrow.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Dios te Bendiga!
Terry

Service Day 1

 We traveled to the Precious Moments School in the morning to begin the dental clinic with our Guatemalan dental team.

We were warmly greeted by the director of the school. The children came to the dental clinic one classroom at a time. We saw three classrooms of 2nd - 4th grader children today which was around 75 children.

As the children waited we shared a Bible story and a craft on the tower of Babel. The children used their creative skills to make the tower out of construction paper squares on one side of the paper and on the other was 10 different languages of a simple, "Hello" greeting. We will be back to the school tomorrow to work with K-1st and 5th-6th grade children.

 

After we finished up with the school we were able to go to the airport pick up our team member that had flight delays from Sunday.

We got a lunch along the way to the school in San Jose Pinula.

At the school we visited three classrooms of Jr. high students. We were able to engage these students with the teamwork exercises with drug and spiritual content. Both of the activities came with much enthusiasm from the students and they participated in the discussions afterwards. The Guatemalan team leader prayed with each classroom and the students had the opportunity to accept Christ or recommit their life. Each student filled out an information card so the church could reach out to them, so they could become part of their youth program at the church. 2/3 of the students accepted Christ or recommitted their life to Christ. Many of them also wanted to have the church contact them too. We have one more day at this school tomorrow with the high school students.

Travel Day to Guatemala City

Buenas Noches,
 
After a few hours of delays we have arrived in Guatemala City. One of our team members is still on route as they took a different airlines, but we expect to see her tomorrow. Much of the delays and problems with getting on flights was attributed to the east coast having storms and planes just either not available or delayed.

The entry into Guatemala City area was beautiful. Included a picture of the Lake and volcano where we will be serving on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as a picture of the city.

We met with our Guatemalan team at the airport and we headed to the retreat area to get settled before having supper.

After Supper we put together 150 dental kits for the children tomorrow morning at the Precious Moments school. We anticipate that we will interact with the children, as they wait to see the dentist. The clinic is set up only for 1/2 days and we'll have time for face painting, making balloon animals, making a craft on the tower of Babel and share Christs love with them.

The afternoon session is working with Jr and Sr high students on drug educations, teamwork, trust and faith activities. We have a total of three activities with them and we plan on working with 75 students.

Please pray that our last team member arrives safely tomorrow.

Blessings,
Terry

Prayer Service

We were able to get everything packed this evening and we had Tim Brands lead us tonight in prayer. Our ministry has already begun and we start our travel to Guatemala City tomorrow morning at 5:00AM. We expect to arrive in Guatemala City by 1:00 CDT or 12:00 noon Guatemala time.

We do ask for prayer for a few specific areas during our time in Guatemala City.

• Safe Travel - Not only flying, but driving in the city and surrounding areas.
• Good Health - Keep us from having any illnesses from food or injury.
• Effective Ministries - We meet the needs of those we work with physically and spiritually.
• Team Unity - We maintain a strong bond with our team, encouragement and helping each other.
• Spiritual growth for our Guatemalan partners - They would expand their outreach through this ministry.
• Sharing the love of Christ - Language of love, serving and being a good witness to those that we meet.
• Decisions for Christ - Response to the gospel and desire to make a personal commitment to Christ.
• Service  - Our hearts will be open to God's leading at all times.
• Logistics - Flight connections, security, our coworkers/companies won't need us and passports won't be lost.

Thank you for partnering with us in prayer. I will update the blog and I am assured that I will have an internet connection.

Dios te Bendiga!
Terry Dull, Denice Dull, Danielle Dull, Marie McCarthy and Linda Breen

2016 Ministry Plan

  
        San Jose Pinula Hostal for the week

• Sunday - Arrive in Guatemala City and travel outside of the city to San Jose Pinula.
• Monday and Tuesday Mornings - travel to Zona 12 in Guatemala City and set up a dental clinic at Precious Moments School. We will interact with the students through some games and crafts as they wait to see the dentist.
• Monday and Tuesday Afternoons - travel to San Jose Pinula to visit schools and work talk with the students about drugs.
• Wednesday and Thursday - Travel to Santa Elena Barrillas to support the Vacation Bible School (VBS) for morning and afternoon sessions. We will present a puppet show, help with crafts, games and interact with the children. Bibles will be presented to the children at the conclusion of the VBS.
• Friday - Travel to Antigua for our R&R. Visit a coffee plantation, shops and relax.
• Saturday - Return to Minnesota