Update!

Hey everybody! It's so hard to keep up with your blogging when you have a two and a half year old! Well, it's been about 5 months and 1 Guatemala trip since we last posted, so we've got some catching up to do! Yes, you read that right. Stacie and I went back to Guatemala! The first week of October we went on a mission trip, and let me tell you how AWESOME it was! We got to build several houses, we did three VBS's, a village ministry, and a dump ministry. To start, the houses that we built are NOTHING like what we have here. These are 10' x 10' one room houses with tin walls, and a concrete floor. But judging by the reaction from the families we built them for, you would think it was Buckingham Palace! They were SO appreciative!

Stacie headed up the VBS days, and I cannot express how proud I was of her! We went in expecting about 100 kids per day... I don't think there was ever less than 200! On the biggest day I think we had a little more than 300 kids! How awesome is that?! Stacie was a bit stressed to say the least, but she handled it like a champ!

The village ministry was probably my favorite part. We set up several tables in the local church and piled up clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, bibles, food, and all sorts of things. Every family got to come around and we gave items to every one! It was so awesome to see each face, and talk to everybody as they came around!

Last, we did what is known as the Dump Ministry. The Guatemala City dump is located right in the middle of the city, and all around the perimeter communities of families live there. They go out into the dump every day to scavenge for food, clothes, or anything else they can find to sell or keep. We took buckets of food to 44 families with enough food in them to last a week.

The week was so crammed with stuff, there's no way I could ever tell you all that God did in Guatemala, but I CAN do the next best thing... Pictures!! I'm also putting up some pictures of us at a pumpkin patch last week so you can see some of Allie! Captions to come later! Enjoy!


The view from our mission house


Chicken Bus!!


Me and Stacie at Lake Atitlan



The first family that we built a house for



The inside of their old house




Stacie hard at work!


Me...not so hard at work!



That takes some serious talent!



Stacie LOVED the kids!



The start of the first day of VBS


They kept on coming...


Until there was this many!!


This is before we started the village ministry. They were peeking at what we were doing!!


Lots of clothes to give away!






Pastor Max telling the waiting families about Jesus!




This little guy had all that he could carry!


This little girl reminded us of our niece


The second day of VBS


Stacie with the pastor of the church


Me and Oscar


Dedicating a finished house!



They have to harvest their crops on STEEP hills!


If you don't like cows...Guatemala is not for you.


Another house dedication! This couple accepted Christ!!





These boys would climb in my lap and call me Papa. Broke my heart.


Silly faces!


I gave this guy my sunglasses, and he was hilarious!


Allie and Mia being silly!







My favorite


Allie loved feeding the goats!


Her pumpkin was so "heaby!"


My girls