The dental team served at Proximos Pasos and Escuela Vida y Esperanza throughout the week.They provided free dental care to students, staff, and some kids from the villages.

Photos of Construction Team from GCCC in NJ

I cannot say enough how hard this construction team is working. The above images are from today's work at the school.

Needle in a haystack...on a volcano in Guatemala!

I want to share the story of a 15 year old boy from the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, a town of 25,000 indigenous Mayan Indians. He came in to the dental clinic on Saturday held at our girls school, Proximos Pasos with an impacted wisdom tooth. Dr Todd, a dentist from NJ who was a part of the team from my sister's home church, worked on his tooth and gave him antibiotics for his severe infection, but he didn’t have everything he needed such as a scalpel to finish. We returned on Wednesday to do the lice wash with the girls at the school. Dr Todd and Pastor Gary ended up joining us even though it wasn’t on the schedule. Dr. Todd wanted to look for the boy who God had put on his heart and finish his dental work now that he had the all important scalpel. The only problem was that we had no idea where he lived, or what his name was. Did I mention that each little house in Santa Maria basically looks the same with a mixture of corrugated metal and corn stalks for walls. We decided to pray for this boy and ask God to lead us to him where he may be. Now I know Bill has made mention of my direct line to God here in Guatemala, and I’ll tell you that the reason I believe things happen when I pray is because I know that my only option is trusting my heavenly father to take care of me and lead me each day. We came together in faith asking God for a miracle. 10 minutes after we prayed, out of “no where” one of the girls at school tugged on my shirt and told me that her brother didn’t go and work in the fields planting corn today because he had a hole in his mouth. I felt God prompting me to pursue this and asked if the girl could take me to her house. I called for Dr. Todd and Pastor Gary to join me. I asked them if they were ready to see a miracle. The little girl led us on a winding adventure down narrow village roads with more twists and turns than I imagined possible. She led us to her front door and prayed in my head once more that this would be the boy’s house. A weary Mayan woman came to the door and eyed us with caution. I told her we were from Proximos Pasos school and that we were looking for a boy….”It’s HIM…It’s really HIM!!!!” Dr Todd yelled as soon as he saw a young man’s head peer out from behind his mother. His mouth was extremely swollen and he looked miserable but a twinkle in his eye said he was glad to see us. His mother invited us into the one room house with the smoke of an open fire swirling throughout the room and only one bed for her and her 11 children. The mother began to cry as she told us that she and her sister had been praying all weekend that God would send the Dentist back to their village to help her son and that God would take care of them. After hearing of her faith, Todd, Gary and I were all wiping away tears as we witnessed this miracle in the making. God heard the cry of a faithful woman and orchestrated an answer by moving each one of us to action. We all joined hands and prayed for the family while thanking God for leading us right to their humble front door. We took the boy, who we found out was named Rolando and his little brother back to the school with us. Dr Todd preformed a surgery right on the third floor patio of the school relieving a lot of pain and eliminating the buildup of infection that was present. Without an X-Ray to make sure that the entire tooth had been removed, Dr Todd had to use his judgment and do the best he could with such limited resources. God had yet another miracle in store for us. He led us to a local dental technicians’ office where they let us use additional anesthesia and suction to make sure the surgery was complete. Dr. Todd offered to pay the man for the use of his office but he would not accept money since we had come to help the people of his village. Our buddy Rolando will be sore for the next few days, but he will good as new after a week’s rest. I saw firsthand the way God cares for his children on that day. In a village of 25,000 people, God led a dentist to the exact house of a family praying for dental care. What a mighty God we serve!e

Guest Post by Bill Hughes (Lauren's equally funny brother in law)

Note From Lauren:
This week my sister Jaci, her husband Bill, and her three kids-Noah 8, Reagan 4, and Jackson 2, are in Guatemala. Bill's keeping his blog updated throughout the week and so I've asked him to do some guest posting on mine. He's a hoot so I know you like reading it!








So, you might be intrigued by the title. In the photo of me above, I am holding a pack of "Jamones Perry" or "Perry Ham." Jamones Perry is a big brand of ham down here that boasts its ham has 98% flavor and 2% fat. I find that funny. Whenever you boast that your product doesn't even muster 100% flavor, there's got to be a problem. They also have a sausage line that boasts being "More Guatemalan Than You." I'm not sure how that translates into a winning marketing strategy by trading on long-held animosities between different people groups in this country that fueled civil war for some 36 years and that only ended in 1994, but hey, go for it. It is my fervent hope to have a Jamones Perry tee-shirt one day. I hope I find one down here.

So, we didn't do much yesterday. It was a day of spending time with Aunt Lauren, food shopping, and giving little kids who traveled for 14 hours nap times. We were able, however, to take a few pictures of the kids at Aunt Lauren's house.

We also went into Guatemala City to a shopping mall for dinner. Pizza Hut. That's right, we had Pizza Hut in Guatemala on a missions trip!

The kids enjoyed playing in a inside park area with a giant tree with a slide on it and various bears, or osos, lying around it. Jackson, as usual was his crazy self and he was chasing a number of the kids there. He did his usual "fight face" by making angry eyes at them and then charging them while pretending to be a monster.

One of the Guatemalan girls was overheard referring to Jackson's "ojos enojados" or in English, his "angry eyes!"

Not exactly the best way to improve American-Guatemalan relations.

Reagan has been a bit of a challenge. Very sleepy. Very cranky. Pray for Princess that this little turtle will get the rest that she needs to be her usual pleasant self.

Noah threw his most beloved brand new Bakugan toy into the neighbor's yard. No word yet on whether the toy is still alive. We have to stop over and chat with the neighbors when they get home to see if we can go into their yard to get his toy. Some of you may remember, of course, that it was only about a week ago that Noah nearly lost another beloved Bakugan toy while on a family walk at home. After stopping at the park to let the kids play, Noah decided to bury his toy in the sand of the volleyball field. We spent a good 30 minutes looking for it, as he forgot where he buried it. Ah, a boy and his toys!

Today we will be meeting with the Director of Mission Impact, Jeff, to discuss the team's schedule and agenda, and then heading to lunch with Gerber's family (one of our highlights from last year!) His family is a wonderful down-to-earth Christian family serving the Lord among some of the poorest folks down here.

Then we will be going out to dinner perhaps in Antigua later tonight. A post to follow.

Cookies, Crocs and....i can't think of anything else that starts with "C"

July is almost over. so let's take a quick look back.

We made cookies with the girls at Proximos Pasos to share with their fathers for father's day. It was a great success. and by success Imean the girls had lots of fun and the cookies turned out like flat pancakes. The experience of it all was well worth it though. It's always fun to see the girls outside of the classroom.

We received a really great donation of 120 pairs of Crocs from a church in South Carolina. Those funny looking but super comfy plasticy rubbery way to colorful shoes. The girls had
never seen this type of shoe before and we so excited to find
their size and a color that matched their traditional Guatemalan
clothing. Many of the parents can not afford to buy shoes for
their children and the girls were often embarrassed that they
were unable to participate in Gym class. Now they love Gym class with their new shoes.

June

First question I have- Does anyone really read this blog? I hope so. If you do, leave me a note/comment/prayer request. It does my heart good to read those. I also would love to pray for you! I'm always asking people to pray for me, so I'd like to return the favor!

Below is a picture of me with the Servant Team from Delaware. What a great week. We started out as strangers and ended the week having shared our hearts and some unforgetable experiences. They shared a daily Bible story, song and craft project with the kids in k-6th grade. It was nice to be back in the classroom since I'm not teaching anymore. I don't however miss the lesson plans, grading papers, and parent teacher meetings. ha ha.

Does anyone have any musical instruments that could dontae to our Worship group? The group consists of around 15 of our students and their goal is to share the love of Jesus Christ with their community, country and beyond. Maybe you took flute lessons in middle school but now it just sits in the back of your closet. We can use your old instruments for God's glory here in Guatemala! I have a few teams coming from NJ this summer who could bring them down. The kids really want to learn the violin and saxaphone.

The picture below is Edgar who teaches 4th grade with two of his students

Is it ok to have a favorite student? Maybe not, but this is Gloriangel and she's everyone's favorite. ha ha. Without fail, she finds me and hugs me each time I see her. It's a sweet reminder of God's unconditional love for me.

Below is a picture I took when I peeked in the english classroom where I used to teach.

The last picture is Joselino, the music teacher, leading the Bible verse activity at the public school outreach we did two weeks ago. It was a great success! I believe God was glorified through games, music and drama-and all in a public school!

Hope you enjoy seeing these pictures! Hope to hear from you today!

-Lauren

"Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us." -- Keith Wright

Summer Update and Prayer Requests!

"Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.”
Isaiah 26:4

The summer is upon us, which means lots and lots of short term mission teams joining us in Guatemala. This week a team of 8 from Avenue United Methodist Church in Delaware are working with us at Escuela Vida y Esperanza (The School of Life and Hope.) They are working in the classrooms assisting teachers and also each day sharing a Bible story, songs and crafts with the kindergarten through fifth grade students. On Friday, we are doing a special outreach at a public school we're well be presenting a lesson on obedience through songs, dramas, music and we even have a chance to share the Gospel. Pray that the children's hearts are open to hear about Jesus!

I wanted to give a small update on my trip to Ixcan with the dental team. Thank you to everyone who lifted me up in prayer during that week. It was an amazing time of growth for me. We saw nearly 160 dental patients a day. I assisted the doctors with translation and also cleaning children's teeth. The conditions were more rugged than anything I deal with on a daily basis but God gave me the grace to be joyful in the midst of it all. I am thankful for the chance to see a whole other side of Guatemala I had only heard about. I now know how to pray more specificly for the ministry of Acts 2:8 that works there throughout the year.

Giving a dental cleaning to one of the young teenagers in Ixcan

The latrine. You don't want to know too much about this. Trust me. Ha.

We found 16 scorpians while painting the kitchen at a local church.