We have been home now for about two weeks. We are slowly getting back to "normal". We are reflecting back on our awesome trip and more than one of us has uttered the words "I sure miss Guatemala"! It does have a way of getting under your skin! This year we worked on two projects while in Guatemala. We thought you might be interested in learning a little more about our projects and how our money was spent for these projects.
The first project was to assist in building a Retreat Center in Rio Dulce, which is a community about 5 hours to the north of Guatemala City and CCCG. This center is needed to house the US Teams that come to work with CCCG as well as the teams from the church who travel every week to the Rio Dulce area to work with a number of villages there. Every Friday, teams from the church leave and make the 5 hour drive to Rio Dulce. There, they go to various villages and spend Friday nights on the concrete floor of the churches and schools of the villages. Then on Saturday morning, they rise very early, feed the kids of the village a big breakfast, then conduct classes in Bible, hygiene, leadership, English and sometimes computer. When US teams are there, they assist the church with these Saturday morning activities. The church puts the US teams up in hotels, while they sleep on the floor in the villages. Here is a picture of us helping with the feeding program during our Saturday morning in the villages.
The church is building the Retreat Center so that all the teams will have a place to stay that is more economical than staying in hotels. It will also house a pastor who will live there full time and oversee all the villages in the area. The Retreat Center will be used for a training facility for the church, as they work with local pastors of villages. It will also house children from all over the country for various overnight camps put on by the church.
PTCUMC provided $5000 towards the building of this facility. In addition, our team provided some of the labor for completing rebar and construction of a fence. Here are some pictures of the Retreat Center as it looks today. We look forward to showing you the finished project!
Our second project was to deliver baby chicks and solar lights to families in three villages. It was a privilege for us to visit these families and give them these items. The people were very happy to have them. We were able to add this project of giving away chicks and solar lights because of your Faith Promise funds. Thank you PTCUMC for your generous outpouring during our recent GIC which made this possible!
Karin DeGroot
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