Roofing fun

We got almost completed with the church today. We got the middle section of the church completed and the roof completed. We got one of the bathroom walls almost to the roof and the other to 9 courses high.

We will finish tomorrow at about noon. We will then come back, clean up and go to Antigua for the afternoon. We will then go to the evangelistic meetings in the evening.

We had a couple of sick team members today. Danielle Wolff, our job site medic, was very sick last night throwing up. She did not go to the job site today and neither did Michelle Bobbitt. Michelle wasn't feeling well and she wanted to take care of Danielle.

Our medical mission was completed yesterday. All of the medicine was dispensed so they did not hold the clinic today. So the medical team members staying with us-Andrea and Jean-that weren't ill went to work at the job site. We were very glad for their help today.

We talked with the pastor today at the job site. We wanted to finalize our plans for our worship service on Sabbath. We typically have worship in the completed church and that is what we were planning on doing. The pastor and elder were concerned about the bathroom situation and wanted to have church again at the hotel. We convinced them to worship at the church and that we would rent a porta-john for the day. The team was extremely glad because the worship service at the completed church is the highlight of the week. We hope all will work out ok.

Guy wanted me to let his family know that he is doing well and misses everyone. Guy is a great member of the team and is by far our best blocklayer.

Since the majority of our team happens to vegetarian, we are having vegetarian food prepared for our meals. Some of the team are not and have been craving meat. Bobby, Diego and John went into town today for lunch and had a steak lunch! Bobby came back very happy. He said that he had been going into "meat withdrawal" this week and that now he was in good shape for the next few days!

We had our worship and are now playing a game of Uno. It seems to be the game of choice for our group. We have so many people playing that we have two games going of 8 people each.

They are typically pretty vocal games with a lot of trash talking and fun. I have been on a losing streak-i have been in second to last place in every game. Bobby hasn't been doing well either-his luck seemed to have to changed since he ate meat-so maybe we have an experiment in the works. He ended up winning the game tonight!

More tomorrow.

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End walls finished

We got the end walls completed, the middle wall to 13 courses and one bathroom wall up to 7 courses.

A good day in spite of two incidents-one of our crew had to go back early because she was sick. One of the Maranatha crew members was cutting some metal (without safety goggles) and got some metal in his eye as we we're cleaning up. We have nurses on site (Danielle Wolff) and she washed out his eye. One of the church elders is a doctor and happened to be there. He was able to remove the metal piece. The worker-Frankie-went right back to work.

We visited with the owner of the hotel. His wife isn't an Adventist and he wanted us to invite her to the evangelistic series the pastor is conducting. We are very excited that she accepted. The woman who is the manager for the hotel (who is also the cook) is also going to go with us on Friday night. She has been wonderful to us this entire trip.

That is all for today.
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Side walls finished

Well, another productive day at the job site. We got both side walls completed and concrete poured. We got to the 17th course on the front and the 14th course on the back.

As a followup to yesterday, we bought a padlock for the concrete mixer yesterday. We had no problems with the mixer today.

Our grout crew did a great job today. Today is their hardest day because the have to grout around the entire wall and fill around and between the metal supports. Diego, Bobby, Gracie and Carolina are the main grout crew we have working. They had a lot of help today from other teams because it is such a constant flow all day.

We will definetely be finished by Friday. We are moving quickly, but we have more to do than normal- we didn't have any of the bapsistry laid up at all. Normally, the bapistry has block up to seven levels or courses high. We had none, so one of our block crews had to lay all of that block- it has taken them till today to get to that point because it is difficult work.

We really have a great team. We were considering going into Antigua tomorrow night. We are hoping to get done on thursday with the church and have friday off. We found out the option for going into town tomorrow night and the team decided that they would rather work late tomorrow and thursday to get done early on Friday to make sure we get the church done and go to Antigua. So, they decided the church comes first rather than their pleasure.

The hotel/camp we are staying at has a campfire area. We had the hotl folks get some wood for us and we had a fire tonight. Everyone came down after worship and Claudell led us in a game around the fire.

Ray has been leading team building exercises after worship. We paired off and each pair had two minutes to learn about each other. They will then tell the group about the other person throughout the week. It is a great idea and helps to get to know everyone.

More to come tomorrow.
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Sabotage part two

I hit the send button by accident again!

Anyways, after trying to fix the motor, they had to take the engine out of the mixer and take it apart. We all had prayer over the mixer. After a while, they were able to get it working. After a prayer of thanks, we were able to get to work.

We had a great work day in spite of this setback. We were able to get the 11th course completed and half of the 12th course. We only have one and a half courses left to get the side walls completed. We will be completed with the side walls tomorrow.

End of day church picture

Rachael had a small incident today. She got her thumb pinched in between two boards and her thumbnail almost came off. It is very swollen. We had the doctor take a look at it. It is very sore, but she will be ok

Later in the day, we were working on the front door with the header. We had a few blocks on there and we we're adjusting it. Something shifted and it fell over. Bobby and I were underneath and were able to get out of the way. I got hit on the forearm with a block and only got a welt and a scrape. Later on, we had a good discussion about safety so we don't have further incident.

The medical team saw 255 patients (well 256 if you include Rachael!).

We had a great worship tonight and finished our Uno tournament. Once again, the Wolff family reigned supreme- Danielle won in the winnerw bracket from last night and Rachel won in the loser bracket. Raymond was the big loser in the winner bracket and Bobby Battistone lost in the losers bracket.

Overall, another great day. We will pray for another sucessful day with no further incidents-only blessings.

One final note-i am not able to post pictures at this point. I will try to post pictures after the fact when we get back to Texas.

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Sabotage, smashed fingers and close calls

Today was a very eventful day. To start out the day, the mixer wasn't working when we got there. They couldn't pull the starter on the motor. They figured out that fluid was in the cylinder and when they drained the oil pan, gasoline came out. We can only figure that someone came at night and put gas in the oil filter.

The reason that we fear sabotage is that the Evangelical church is on the radio promoting their own evangelistic series and saying bad things about the Adventist Church and that they shouldn't go to our church. All this started when the local pastor started his evangelstic series.
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First full work day

We had our first full work day. Everyone was up and at breakfast on time (shock). Gino even made it to the bus on time!

The construction crew had a GREAT day! We are only four block short of completing eight courses on all of the outer walls-we are ahead of schedule. If we hadn't run out of mud, Guy would have been able to lay the last four.

End of day church picture

The construction team worked really well together. For having so many first time crew members, they jelled extremely well.

The medical team had a good day as well-they treated close to 300 patients!!!! We will a more detailed report later.

As is typical on these trips, the team spends a lot of quality time in the evening after worship and announcements. Typically, we play card games. This team is fixated on Uno. The first two nights have been won by the Wolff family-first Gino and then Rachel. We are switching the seating tonight to put more agressive players next to them so they don't repeat.

More to come later.

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First Sabbath

We had a great Sabbath here in Guatamala. We had a wonderful breakfast and then had Sabbath School here at the hotel. The entire Santiago Sacatepequez church congregation came here and worshipped with us. Their members led Sabbath School and church.

The pastor of the church, Pastor Carlos Pereza, pastors five congregations. He preached a great sermon-very passionate. It was very moving and well spoken.

Pastor and translator

One of the members was really pulling double duty today-he sang four songs AND did translation duties for most of the speakers. He did a great job!

After church, everyone relaxed and talked and rested. Some of the group helped organize all of the medical and donated materials to give away during the week.

We had a great worship tonight with the church members and then reviewed the construction and medical plans. We are set for sunday and getting a lot of work done.

Evening worship

We are playing games tonight and getting to know each other. We have a great crew and should have a great trip!

More tomorrow after our first day with a full crew.
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First work day (part two)

The first post for today was sent before it was ready (I hit send rather than save-user error)

church as it was at the start

First block laid

Anyways, the Maranatha crew is great and since we had a small crew, they helped us lay block. We got three and a half courses laid today-which is more than we had planned. It was a great work day. No one was hurt and we made new friends with the Maranatha crew.

end of day one

The church is the same size and configuration as last year, but we do have more to build. We have to build the entire bapistry, so that will be a new challenge.

We had a great dinner tonight and a great worship. We are going to the airport later to get the rest of the group.

More to come tomorrow.

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First work day

The team worked at the job site today. After a wonderful breakfast made by the manager Marguerita, we had a few transportation challenges getting to the job.

Once we got there, the Maranatha crew was there to greet us and they are a great crew.
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Safe arrival

Well, we arrived safely, albeit over an hour late. Once we got to the airport, we had no problem with the bags and finding the transportation.

The weather is great here-about 80 degrees. We are on our way to the hotel

Gino and the rest of the group from Atlanta had to wait for an hour for us. They didn't have any trouble either.

More information later!

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First post: delayed

Well, we have been on the runway for over one hour and haven't taken off yet. The winds shifted in Houston and everyone has to taxi to a different runway. There are thirty planes in front of us and we have the engines shut off (wouldn't be a good thing to run out of fuel!)

Hopefully the next entry is from Guatemala City!

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Santiago Sacatepeque, Guatemala Mission Trip information

From March 9-21, we will have 32 persons traveling to Santiago Sacatepeque, Guatemala to build a church and conduct a medical mission. The building program is conducted with Maranatha Volunteers International (see their website at http://www.maranatha.org for more information).

The group is comprised of construction and medical volunteers. Most of the team is from the West Houston Seventh-day Adventist church in Houston Texas. However, we have a "extended" church family that is going as well from many other states. They are either family members or have gone on previous trips. I have listed all the members below:

Jonathan Armstrong Houston
Robert Battistone Houston
Michelle Bobbitt North Carolina
Magda Chavez Houston
Arlene Grant Sequim, Washington
Walter Grant Sequim, Washington
Joanna Grimaldo Houston
Josue Guevara Houston
Tamara Guevara Houston
Greg Hatch Houston
Rachael Hatch Houston
Jean Henry Houston
Linval Henry Houston
Andrew Hinds Atlanta
Carolina Hironymous Houston
Andrea James Houston
Guy Legan Delavan, Wisconsin
Geneva McCallum Clearfield, Pennsylvania
Diego Montoya Houston
Esther Murray Houston
Mark Murray Houston
Mellow Del Ombiga Houston
Gricelda Ramia Houston
David White Houston
LeeAnn White Houston
Cherrell Wilson Boston
Cheryl Wilson Boston
Claudell Wilson Atlanta
Danielle Wolff Houston
Gino Wolff Atlanta
Rachel Wolff North Carolina
Raymond Wolff Houston


Our itinerary is as follows:

Thursday, Mar 9 Advance team arrives

Friday, Mar 10 Advance team gets site and other information set up
Medical team sets up for mission and procures medicines
Main team leaves Houston at 7:10 PM and arrives in Guatemala City at 9:59 PM

Saturday, Mar 11 Attend church and get to know each other and the church members
Orientation for job site the next day in the evening

Sunday, Mar 12 Team begins work at the job site constructing the church
Medical team begins setup / work for medical mission

Monday, Mar 13 - Friday March 17 Team continues work at the job site constructing the church
Medical team continues work.

Saturday, Mar 18 Worship service conducted in newly finished church
Eat lunch at restaurant
Bus takes group to Lake and hotel

Sunday, Mar 19 Vacation for majority of group.
Group travels back to Guatemala City

Monday, Mar 20 Excursions

Tuesday Mar 21 Main group flight back to the US. Depart Guatemala City at 1:15 PM, arrive in Houston at 4:09 PM


The job site and medical team facilities are shown below:

West Houston SDA Church Preparations

We are getting ready for our upcoming Maranatha mission trip to Guatemala. Our team will be constructing a church and conducting a medical mission in Santiago Sacatepeque, Guatemala from March 9-21.

Our advance team arrives on March 9th and the remainder will arrive on March 10th. We will start construction on that Sunday the 12th and complete the church by Friday the 17th. We will worship with the members on Sabbath to dedicate the church and then spend the next three days relaxing and seeing sights in Guatemala.

We will do our best to post daily to the Blog to keep you informed as to our progress. Keep checking for more updates!