Last Full Day

Day Eight in the Land of Guatemala!
The Day started early once again. Do you ever have that feeling that you are in the movie “Groundhog Day”, only this time we are glad to be doing the same thing again. Once again we were up at 6am to hit the road at 7am. We know that what we were about to do will affect so many (and us as well). We also know the area quite well, and to those we will be ministering to. The Mary Magdalene House in downtown Guatemala is a place we have visited many times before. We were just there on Saturday for the concert and we were ready to go there for a worship and clinic.
Even though we were excited about this mission we are starting to feel the toll of a weeklong mission trip. Many are tired and a few are possibly feeling the beginnings of an illness. We will have to keep an eye on them. We were also supposed to wait and eat breakfast when we finished worship at the Mary Magdalene House. This, of course, did not do well for our energy level. The trip in was quiet and several fell back asleep. We could see a clear view of several volcanoes. Agua and Fuego were amazing to see. Fuego even had smoke coming out of it. From our elevation you are above the clouds so you get to see the volcano from a unique perspective. The volcanoes with all the clouds around them appear to be floating.
When we arrived at the Mary Magdalene House we were surprised to find only a few waiting, but once we set up the sound system and the breakfast was cooking, the crowd started to show up in huge numbers. The house was packed and the music really got them jumping. After worship with one of the local musicians and our own praise band again we were the servers for breakfast. They get so little but they are so appreciative. The amount of food we were able to hand out was like feeding the 5,000. It always surprising how many they are to feed with the resources we bring.
After breakfast and worship we finished setting up for the clinic. One of the bonuses for this clinic is that we had shoes that were donated by students in Thomas’ Spanish class. We were able to set up our own shoe store and hand out shoes to those who first came through the clinic to see the doctors. We had another great turnout and we stayed busy until after 5pm. It didn’t matter how many started off in line at the clinic, they kept showing up just when we thought we might finish early. I think the word got out again and so that really increased our numbers.
To close out our final night in Guatemala we always have a Fiesta to celebrate another successful mission. This year instead of having the fiesta at the mission house we were given an extra surprise. Tom arranged the party outside Guatemala city at a banquet hall. They brought in the Mariachi band “Pearls of Christ”, had a wonderful dinner, and then had some crazy dancing. Some of the boys had a contest where they put surgical gloves on their head and blew them up like a balloon (Howie Mandel anyone). Alex won popping his balloon just before time expired. We’ll have to post that one on You Tube.
Tom had some wonderful words to say about the team and then he presented us with a special surprise…the banner from the concert. We will be hanging that somewhere in the youth center! We also had a birthday to celebrate with Charlie turning 62 during the trip. All in All it was a full day and many memories were made.
Although it is sad to know we will be leaving tomorrow, we are excited to be coming home to see all of you! We want to give a special thanks to everyone on the Costa Rica and Guatemala Prayer Board who spent the whole week praying for us and keeping us safe. I know the prayers from those faithful and the many of our friends and family members kept us going.
For the last time this mission trip…God bless and Goodnight from Guatemala!
The Guatemala Mission team!