As I was looking through our latest pictures and reviewing our most recent blog, I realized that we didn't quite do justice to the Lipscomb Spring Break team that visited us last month. Here are a few pics to tell the story of how they lifted our spirits and contributed to our work here.
Almost every morning, the team woke up around 5 AM to be greeted by a gorgeous sunrise... a GREAT way to start the day!
Kirsten, Jamin, and Phillip were very generous in helping us count, collect, and organize materials that had been left over from water projects in other communities.
I was blessed specifically to have one of my former teaching buddies Abigail come along with this team. She also was a huge help to the McKinney family by serving a homeschool teacher for the kids several days so that Katy and Mark could go out with the team or get things packed up.
As you can see, the team didn't enjoy the McKinney kids at all. Really... how can you say no to those faces?!
Luke Burris has been a regular here in the Valley for several years. He was very helpful with this team in bringing and helping to interpret the design for the bridge that will be built in May. He and several others served as "overseers" as the concrete foundations were poured during their week here.
John and Kirsten (and all of the team, in fact) enjoyed making friends with the kids of the Valley.
And finally, we offered them a special treat on their last day by taking them to Semuc Champey. It was a gorgeous day, and we were even lucky enough to get in for free!
Just last week, we hosted a team from the NGO Engineers Without Borders. They brought with them 8 professional engineers, a geologist, and a foreign travel coordinator for UT, including 6 women and 3 men. This team was obviously very unique, but they came with a very focused objective, and they were extremely helpful in adding to our data collection possibilities for the Valley through the utilization of GIS, specifically for the community of Sejabal..
I included the picture above because we were very thankful to be able to invite our good friend Cata along as a Spanish-English translator for this team. As you might assume, she really hated having the help of this good-looking, single gentleman (hope we don't make you blush, Ralph!) as she took a picture of the team.
(We only got a copy of one person's pics from the week and did not actually get a picture of the whole team... so our pictures are fairly sparse and don't represent the activity of the whole team... sorry!)
In order to make this team's work possible, we employed the help of several of our local health promoters as Spanish-Q'eqchi' translators. They were a very valuable resource and it was a really neat experience for this team to partner with and empower the locals.
One huge benefit for this team was they they spent a majority of their time in the homes of the Sejabal community. After taking GPS points of the house and latrines, they did a short family survey with the head of each household, and then they were thereafter served countless cups of coffee, tortillas, beans, eggs, caldo, yuca, malanga, etc.... it was a true Valley experience!
Thankfully, this team enjoyed beautiful weather all week long, and of course, they were able to see God's majesty as he painted this sunset one evening.
We were so happy to hear that our good friend Mallory would be returning to the Valley once again with this team. She was a very strong leader for this team, a great hiker, and her fluency in Spanish was such a big help, as well. We hope that she will find other opportunities to serve the people of the Valley even after we are gone.
So, I had been in on it for several months, but Kris was COMPLETELY surprised when several of our good friends from Lipscomb- Mark Jent, Steve Sherman, and Paul and Rachael Stevens- showed up on our doorstep Friday afternoon. We were extremely blessed to have this community eat with us, pray with us, and see our work here in the Valley over the weekend.
Even though Mark is apparently not a soup eater, he not only tried but also thoroughly enjoyed the famous Guatemalan dish (and Kris's favorite) Cocido. But, then again, anything cooked by Nina is always delicious!
Other than napping both afternoons, our other activities of the weekend included hiking down to the Saquiquib bridge sites and visiting the community of Don Bosco Setex to see their water system and join in the morning worship at Julio's church.
From all of these events of the past month or so, we can summarize by saying that we have been immensely blessed by all of the friends and strangers who have supported us and partnered with us in God's work here in the Valley. We will forever be changed by our experience of living, working, worshipping, and serving here.
