From time to time we host missions teams from the US, and this past July we had a team of four men come from Church of the Open Door in York, PA to serve with us for ten days. Mike, Tony, Cameron, and Bryce arrived late Friday night and didn't get much time to rest because early Saturday morning we traveled an hour away to do a special missions project for those affected by the volcanic eruption. From one day to the next they were completely immersed, hearing only Spanish for most of the day, but they served with joy and even discovered that a few of the Guatemalan young adults spoke English. Read more about that awesome day here. Sunday we attended our church and then began planning for the week of VBS ahead.
All that week we led a VBS each morning at a small church that we have been connected with for several years now. We had several Guatemalans from the church help with the music and Michy, a good friend of ours who is great with kids, helped with some of the Bible lessons. In the afternoons we helped with laying concrete for the children's area of the church which was previously just dirt. God was good, and although it is rainy season, we were able to complete the flooring by the end of the week. See the before and after pictures below. One of the "sacrifices" we had the team make was waiting to eat lunch until around 2 PM to get as much done before the daily afternoon rainstorms.
The theme of the week was love, and each day we learned about God's love for us and how He wants us to love others. Some other activities the team led were games, an English lesson, a karate class, and a craft each day (including doing tie die shirts with the kids which was fun and messy). The last day we did a special carnival with the kids with lots of games, balloon animals, piñatas, and a pizza party. Due to a donation from someone who wasn't able to come on the team, we were able to give out soccer balls the last day to those who came at least two days. By the end of the week we had about 30 kids coming and it was a blessing to see them smile and laugh while learning about God.
It was a blessing having this team come and serve with us. They were willing to do whatever was asked of them and worked extremely well together. My favorite part of having teams come down to serve with us is seeing them experience the Guatemalan culture and building relationships with the great people that live here.