Guatemala Bound in 2014

     We are heading back to Guatemala tomorrow morning! It has been a busy 6 months of team meetings, fund raisers and planning.  This is the 4th year that Tabernacle has sent a team to love on the children and staff at the Little House of Refuge.  Our team members are Angie Pearson, Ally Pananas, Maria Allen, Joshua Allen, Dan and Amanda Blevins, Taylor Sayre, Riley Gildea, Garrett and Joanna Nichlos, David Porterfield and Kristi Pananas. I am so excited to see the children and to see what God will do on this trip!

Good morning today is Friday June 21.

     We are packed up and ready to head back to Guatemala City for our flight tomorrow.   I am writing to tell about our experience yesterday day at Little House of Refuge.  We had a productive, joyful, sad and hopeful day.
     It was a productive day for the entire team.  We did many tasks such as whitewashing a chicken coop,  teaching, cooking, cleaning windows, changing light bulbs, putting on new shower heads, painting,  and Randy was even an auto mechanic.
     It was definitely joyful in many ways.  The team put on a carnival for the children with games, prizes, and popcorn.  The children really enjoyed this special treat.  After the carnival the children put on a special program for the team.  This program included Guatemala attire, music and dancing.  The children made gifts for us (this was such a heart felt gesture and meant a lot to us).
     This was such a sad day too.  Realty set in that we were going to have to say our good byes.  This was the hardest part of the trip.  It took around an hour to say good bye.  There hugs, notes from children and many tears.
     Hopeful.  We are all hopeful for next year that we may return to see our new found friends and friends that some of us have known for years.

In Christ
Garrett

Letters to the children

As we finished up our meeting in the evening, we were given the opportunity to write letters to a few of the kids each.  Though it took extra time that Wednesday night, the fruits were quite enjoyed the throughout the following day.  Though some of the children had received letters from their sponsors, many hadn't yet.  The kids were very happy to receive their letters as we distributed them to the kids we had chosen to write for. Though many were in English and needed translating, either there or beforehand, they were immediately enjoyed and became a source of pride for the children, eagerly displaying them to any passerby.  I personally was very gratified seeing the happy reactions from Gabby and Patricia as they read (or were read) their letters that I had written.  As we set out on the bus towards Guatemala City today, we'll remember this great chance we had to more personally connect with the kids.

Josh

Una Dia Buena

(I hope that's how you say it...)  What a wonderful, busy day we had today!  As soon as we arrived we got busy painting and touching up paint on the outside walls of two of the buildings with bright green and yellow paint.  Before lunch, that painting project was completed.  Darlene, Maria and I cooked lunch for the 37 children, some workers who are laying paving stones on the driveway, the caretakers, and the team.  We made tuna noodle casserole on the stove top and served fruit cocktail and horchata (a traditional Guatemalan drink) with it.  During the morning Kristi, Ally, Marty and Kara were teaching in the school.  It went very well in spite of the language barrier, and they said that the children were very eager to learn and delightful to work with.
After lunch there was some time of just playing with the children doing puzzles, listening to them read, playing board games, etc. which was relaxing and fun.  I enjoyed doing puzzles and playing Strawberry Shortcake Memory with Rosio and Sylvia.  Then, we sang with the children and then divided up for doing crafts with some of the older ones and playing games with the younger ones.  From the sound of the children on their playground coming in to where we were painting, they must have been having a really great time!  Marc, Angie, Randy and I were painting in the hallway entrance to the school building and got that section almost completed.  Many of the children are very good at jumping rope, so we had a great time doing that with them.  The boys enjoyed playing four-square with Ian and Mary. 
The best part of it all is of course the time we get to spend with the children.  Sometimes the interactions are very brief, maybe a smile or an "hola," and other times we can have conversations or play games or work together with them (in the kitchen).  I treasure the moments when some of the girls and I have "connected" either by teaching each other Spanish or English or by laughing about something or just by understanding what the other meant.
All of us are so thankful to be here.  It is such a blessing to be able to spend time with the children and to help improve their lives in little ways at Little House of Refuge.  We are all hoping for a restful night and looking forward to more tomorrow!
We are so thankful too for your prayers for us as we come to be present here.  God is faithful, and we are amazed and glorify Him for how He is providing for and caring for His children here on this one mountainside in Guatemala.

Lynn

Loving the kids in Guatemala

   We made it to the Little House of Refuge!  Some of the kids met us at the entrance and it was so exciting to see their smiling faces.  We toured the orphange and have seen all the new improvements. We met some new children and we can't believe how much they had all grown.  It seemed just like yesterday that I was there.  It is so difficult to describe how special and precious these children are, my words will not be able to do it justice.  I gave the two ladies who run the orphange a preview of what we will be teaching and they were pleased.  Tomorrow Ally, Kara, Marty and I begin teaching English, science and geography.  We are super excited. The team will start painting, washing clothes, preparing meals, making crafts, building some doors and playing games tomorrow too. 
    It was so wonderful to visit again with Maria the little girl that we sponsor. I can't believe that so many children rember us but that is one of the greatest blessings about establishing a relationship with Little House. We get to stay connected with the children and ladies.
    We have a very busy day tomorrow so please pray for energy and good rest tonight so that all can be accomplished.  We are all tired but full of excitement, I hope we will be giving more details in the next few days!  Thanks for the prayers, Kristi
  

God created the World and loves the children of Guatemala

Praise God, the lesson plans and teaching materials, including 55 page notebooks have been completed for each child in the classes we plan to teach at Little House. In addition to the English classes, numerous subjects were suggested to us.  After prayer for the children and our endeavors, the teaching team; Kara, Kristi, Ally and Marty chose the human body for science and Central America for geography and social studies. One reason we chose Central America is that we wanted to learn more about it ourselves. We have prepared numerous hands on activities as well as reading material, maps and work sheets.

We hope that the study of the world,  Central America and the individual countries,  and lessons about the human body will help the children understand more about God's creation.

This Guatemala page above, is one of the individual country maps we put together.  Our team will be flying into Guatemala City. We will then have a 4-5 hour van ride west to Quetzaltenango in the cool mountain highlands. Little House of Refuge is in the countryside about fifteen minutes outside of the city. For short, we call the city by its nickname, Xela (Shay-la).

          ~Marty/Martha 

Bound for Guatemala and the Little House of Refuge

A new team of 16 will leave Virginia bound for Guatemala on June 15th. We have been commissioned, granted authority, by our church to go forth to serve the world as those who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many of the children at the orphanage have parents, but those parents failed to love, to nourish, to bless, and to provide refuge. Instead, the children have been given pain, abuse and hardship. But these children are in a "Little House of Refuge", a place where King Jesus reigns, a place where it is evident that Jesus is reversing the curse, advancing His Kingdom, and bringing life, love and blessing. We have been charged with the mission to be the hands and feet of Jesus; to show God's love profoundly as we love each other;and to be image bearers of the Most High God.(borrowed from D.Sawyer at our commissioning). We will be going with paint brushes in hand, teaching lessons on English, science and geography planned, games ready to be played, ornaments(crafts) ready to be made, planes and cars ready to build, menus ready to be cooked and a carnival ready for fun. We hope to bless and love the precious children and caregivers at Little House of Refuge. Please pray that all that we do and say will be honoring and bring God glory. In His grip, Kristi Pananas