By day 6 on a trip to Guate, you wake up somewhat used to the routine, relatively unaffected by the heat, sure that the bathroom will be part of your day, and ready to work still in need of rest. All of this and you can still smile because the missionaries have gone from pleasant acquaintances to dear brothers and sisters. Some struggle with how they could be so far from home and yet be right at home. That is why today is difficult for the group. Today, we work and sweat alongside of Will and Brittany for the last time this trip. They are only here for a week and must return to the USA on Sunday. They will spend Saturday in Antigua with Kristina and the kids before going to the airport Sunday morning.

Today work continues extremely well although the "sickness" has spread through several more of the team. Carter seems most affected by the illness. Although he hasn't felt well, he has been right in and among the work. Seeing his sister "work for Jesus" as she says, he wanted to be a part too. However, by early after lunch, Carter had it so I (Cody) gave Kristina a break and let her continue to work and I took Carter to the cabin for some rest. During this time I finished preparation for the message I would preach on Sunday.

For days, Kristina had been the object of quite a bit of teasing from the boys. "La Laguna..." they would chant day and night when they would see her indicating they wanted to throw her in the lake. She would smile and simply say "Try and you will be hurt." They'd often ask me what to expect (I simply responded "Pain"). However, up until today, Friday, it seemed that the boys had a fear of Kristina.

According to eyewitness accounts, Kristina was grouting the kitchen floor with the kitchen team. As she got up to leave the kitchen, William grabbed her arms from behind and said "La Laguna!" Like a pack of wolves, the guys pounced (Chris and Dale wisely away from flying arms and legs until she was secured.

"Ouch SHE BIT ME!" one guy said.

"That hurt" someone else moaned.

Yet they moved quickly from the cafeteria to the lake. Without hesitation, that swung her out over the water and let go. Just then...allegedly...Jose pushed a bunch of the boys in (replay says differently). Kristina was in the lake after almost a week in Guatemala. Now admittedly she was one of many thrown in but it seemed to satisfy most everyone's funny bone. Mia even laughed a whole lot!

More water madness followed as the pool played host to "King of the Tube." A whole host of the guys lunged for 3 innertubes tied together. The fight lasted for what felt like hours. It was fun and exhausting.

By days end, the girls cabins had been finished, varnishing was down to the final two buildings, and the kitchen actually looked as though it might be completed by Tuesday of the next week! What tremendous progress! Tonight at council, Will Sanders and Pam Mason took the worker honors. We also had a moment to recognize the significant impact Will and Brittany had on our team over this short but awesome week.

So many titles for a day so filled with...stuff. By Thursday (7/24/08), Carter (age 2) had the sickness of the belly. Others in the group were experiencing similar symptoms as well. There hadn't been rain for days which made our days seem longer and hotter as we eagerly anticipated an afternoon downpour to divide our day.

Matthew rode into town with the "appointed" delegation today. The task was simply to pick up some supplies and come back. The task is never quite as simple as it is deemed. Walking through Chiquimulilla gives the visitor a better sense of small town...real life Guatemala than walking through Antigua or Panajachel. We visited a hardware store, a pharmacy, the market, the grocery store, an ice store, a mechanics shop. It was pretty cool. I'd love to hear Matthew's point of view from his unique visit to Chiqui!

After lunch, work began on the rest of the tile in the kitchen. Someone joined the work crew for the first time and man was she excited. Mia (age 4) wanted so badly to serve while in Guatemala. Sometimes, there is opportunity and sometimes there isn't any. Today as the girls began painting the shelves from the storage room, she found her place. Along with painting, she was elected to retrieve the spacers from the tile as we were running short on them and the guys had left them as they moved on. To say she took this job seriously would definitely be an understatement. She LOVED serving at the camp this year. She also loved being covered in paint too!

The painting crew made great strides toward the goal of completing the girls cabins today as well. Climbing behind the cabins against the steep grade of the hill was, to say the least, muddy and full of mosquitoes. However, the team mounted shaky ladders and trudged through the mud to complete the task.

Late afternoon found several of us exploring several areas of the camp. I (Cody) decided to take the kayak across the lake for some quiet time and to photograph the camp from the lake. However, a couple minutes into my trip, I turned to see a silly group of 3 coming into the lake after me in the canoe...yes one with a hole in it. Needless to say, my trip was altered a bit. Just watch if you don't already know...



Tonight at the Council of the Yellow Card, the team was given the AMAZING news that Brittany and Will would not make the trip to Antigua alone on Saturday. In fact the entire team would spend the majority of the day in Antigua with them before returning to the camp. We would also bring the missionaries with us and treat them to lunch on the town. It was because of the hard work and some schedule shifts in the week that this opportunity was made available. Those who earned trophies tonight were Eeeeeeerin Nichols and Brooks Kimsey.

You wouldn't believe how hard these people worked! It wasn't hard to pick someone who worked hard...in fact all of them deserved the award every night!

By the beginning of day 4, work was in full swing. With the events of the day before, we knew that completing everything would be no easy task. Still everyone seemed determined to do what was necessary to get it done. There was definitely a case of fatigue setting in on the crew and a few of us were feeling a little ill. The next 24 hours were critical to the team coming together and lifting each other up in our times of need.

With the mammoth oven out of the way, the kitchen crew went into full gear mixing cement on the ground outside of the building. The cement mixer seen just beside the truck in the pictures can only make ½ bag of cement at a time. Mixing it the old fashioned way on the ground allowed us to make 4 bags of cement at a time. It was a little more effort but a major time saver! It was our hopes to be done with the cooking area and the storage room before days end and maybe more.

The varnish crew had moved from their first building into others. The routine they had mastered was allowing them to complete buildings very quickly with the exception of the high rafters. Only a few could be up high reaching those areas. It was not an easy task. In fact, our friend Eliud who was leading the crew injured his neck by maintaining the varnish position so long. It kept him out of commission over a day. Even with all of this, it was obvious that this team was already closing in on their goal!

Pam and Helen, seeing that the work with varnishing was moving swiftly, took initiative to take on another task. Each of the cabins was due to be repainted. With a split crew, the ladies began to work on the girls cabins. Brittany, preparing to leave for home at the end of the week, made it her goal to have all of the girls cabins painted by end of week.

This day was filled with many different suprises that we come to expect in Guatemala. Not much had been seen of scorpions on this trip but day 4 found an encounter with a small boa near the kitchen. John had also seen several of the “Jesus” lizards and caught pictures of them too. While wheeling sand down from the top of the hill, several eggs were found. It was like being on National Geographic.

By the time we had finished the cement for the kitchen floor, all of the team was just about wiped out. It wasn’t hard to imagine what their response would be when we cut the work day a bit short and gave the crew pool time for their hard work.

Group time tonight was special. Devo’s in our handbook started today and it was our time to break into groups and discuss what we had studied in our quiet times. Some were more comfortable than others but the whole group had opportunity to share with one another how God was teaching them on this trip. Then the council reconvened following devo time and announced the second hard days work winners. Day 3 had been a unanimous Matthew Morrissey and Brittany Nicolaysen. Day 4 was a no brainer as well. Maggie Bozovich and Chris Siler took the awards hands down (though Siler City earned a Red Card on the way up).

If team members read this, try and remember these days…look at your books, and share some of your thoughts or some of what you were doing/facing these days. I don’t have down when everyone got sick, hit their head, or ate coconuts.

Routine had already begun to set in as we approached the Alvarez house ready for breakfast. With the kitchen floor completely chipped away, all of the guys prepared to move over to working with the varnish team. Only Brooks, Dale and possibly Chris would stay behind to begin the tile work in the kitchen. The varnish team had themselves progressed rapidly so that they would be moving to a different building today. Most likely they would take on the cafeteria.

To varnish a building's rafters and support beams, each post must first be cleaned. Therefore the work was somewhat doubled as a team had to go through with a brush and clean years of dust and spiderwebs from posts 25ft off of the ground. With all hands on deck however, things were moving quite nicely.

The team had also removed all of the stoves from the kitchen as well as the sink. The only appliance left somewhat in place was the pizza oven that seemed to weigh 50 tons when we picked it up. Someone came up with the genius plan to tile underneath one side while supporting the legs. Then when the tile was ready, set it down and life the other side to tile the rest. Seemed like a much better option than moving that thing outside! During the morning hours, Dale and his crew tiled most of the cooking area of the kitchen. Moving at this rate, it seemed that we could finish the tile in the kitchen by Friday.

Then lunch came...

Apparently after re-evaluating the floor, the concrete workers assessed that the concrete in the kitchen was too uneven to lay the tile anymore. All the tile would need to be removed and a new concrete floor put down before we could tile. John, Chris, and Kristina went over to break the news to Dale... (personally I love the response! Let's just do it!) Check out the video of the newsbreak!



So now everything had to be re-evaluated. The entire kitchen had to be refloored. This would take more manpower, the kitchen would take more time which would mean less people on other tasks. Wow... and now the big mammoth stove would have to leave the kitchen no doubt.

It took every man we had on site to grab a rope and lift the stove up and out of the kitchen. Tight squeezes, rope burns, and almost crushed toes were the theme of the afternoon but sure enough, our team moved the stove out of the kitchen to make way for the concrete. Immediately the concrete workers began finding level all around the kitchen and concrete began to be poured throughout the kitchen.

By 4pm however, it was evident that a heavy Guatemalan rainstorm was approaching. With thunder shaking the earth, we gathered under the roof of the cafeteria and watched as the storm began to define for us what a hard rain actually looked like! By the end of the rainstorm, the guys were playing soccer with our hosts down on the court and the girls were scattered about including a few nutty ones in the pool.

The day definitely did not go as planned. In fact it was this day that guaranteed that the trip would not go completely as planned. However, the team came together and with Christlike attitudes put their hearts and strength into doing what needed to be done. We will still make our deadline and it will be better than imagined!

Tonight was the initial meeting convened by the "Council of the Yellow Card." We'll give you a whole post on that itself. Just to give you insight on it, Kristina renamed the group "The Dum Dum Council." Lots of fun!

Morning came very quickly for many as sleep only began a few hours before dawn. So we opted for a later breakfast rather than forcing everyone into a early morning smog of tiredness, heat, and sweat. By 9am everyone was in the comidor eating and preparing for a day of who knows what. One thing we did know, the heat was settling in. Sweat was beginning to show on the brows of the team and all we were doing was lifting fork to mouth.

Shortly after we broke from breakfast, the teams broke into two camps. The guys met in the kitchen and the girls followed Eliud to the first building needing varnish. The work was finally beginning. More than just assessing the work, there were high hopes of moving far in the work today in order to have the entire team knock out the varnishing by the end of our trip.

As the leaders assessed the kitchen floor, it was obvious that the entire floor would have to be chipped away. The concrete was covered with a plaster that would not readily accept the tile concrete. So with picks, hammers, chisels, and most anything that would break floor apart, the guys jumped into work banging away at the floor.

Meanwhile, the girls took on the painstaking task of dusting and cleaning the posts in the first rancho next to the auditorium. Up wooden and aluminum ladders they climbed reaching to the extent their arms would take them with brooms and brushes cleaning the posts. Some of the girls pushed their limits with heights and fears. Early on it was apparent that the joys of being out of the sun were paid for with the price of exhausted arms and necks reaching for the posts in the ceiling.

Back in the kitchen, the guys had worked out a system for getting the work done quickly...rhythm. Straight out of the heart of what Brookwood's Rhythm of Worship camp would teach, the rhythm of picks and hammers pounded out a song of worship sprinkled with sweat and even blood of service to Jesus Christ. Check out a snippet of the music made here this day.

Just before lunch, outside of the kitchen, a group of border patrol officers approached a couple of the missionaries. The senior officer is a friend of Duglas (Camp Overseer). The boys enjoyed meeting the officers from El Salvador and Guatemala. Even more, they found it cool to see the M16's they carried with them. After talking a while with the officers, we asked for a photo before they left. They wanted them as well as they thought it was cool to see these gringo's working so hard for the people of Guatemala.

The afternoon progressed slowly as the intense heat pierced every one of our pores and even our fingernails seemed to sweat. However, there was so much work being done in so little time. It seemed that the kitchen would be ready by first thing in the morning for Dale and Brooks to lay tile. The closer we got toward evening, the harder everyone seemed to be working. There was determination to have the entire floor ready by nightfall. In the rancho, worked had been getting progressively faster as routines were found. Not only were the posts clean, all but the highest of rafters were already varnished.

The moment we called it a day, the pool was filled with hot and tired laborers. Their fun and play was well earned. Had Marcelo been on campus, he probably would have called the work day and hour or so earlier. However, with the immense task on hand, the crew saw the need to work later and embraced it without complaint. Excellent first day...

The first evening we were treated with an amazing meal of spaghetti and other side items. Of course most memorable was probably Erin's addition of Whipped Cream to the spaghetti...nice. We ate in the home of Becky and Duglas because of the work being done to the kitchen. What an incredible act of hospitality on their part. Not only was it the 23 of us but at least 10-12 of the missionaries ate in their as well. It was tight but so much fun to be together.

Following dinner, we had our debrief for the day in Duglas' house. We determined it best to move it to the auditorium the following night to give our hosts room and time to clean up.

The day was incredibly normal considering 23 of us were headed on an international trip for 2 weeks. There were a few who were meeting the team for the first time as a whole. However, most of the team was familiar with one another and everyone was excited to get on the road. There were a larger number of first timers on the trip and a couple who had never flown before. We had to make sure that this was a memorable flight for them. ;-)

Check in at Raleigh/Durham was very fast and efficient thanks to technology and American Airlines tremendous staff who were very helpful to us. The tremendous line in front and behind us evaporated and we were on through security and to the gate. The flight was great though we were separated throughout the cabin. The pilot even gave us a little recognition along with the planned love for the airplane rookies...check it out.



Miami was fun even with a long layover. Between Phase 10, some game with pigs, and Kristina, Dale, and Kris trying to best each other throwing a paper ball into the trash, time seemed to move fairly quickly. Our flight was delayed an hour on the way down which was kind of a downer but everyone still looked forward to what was to come.

We had a much larger plane from Miami to Guatemala which was nice. We were still spread all over the place but within sight distance of each other. The journey over the gulf was fairly eventless and actually pretty boring which is all you can ask. They showed the "Spiderwyck Chronicles" which was interesting but definitely not for Mia(4) and Carter(2) who drew away in their travel books.

Upon landing in Guatemala, it was evident that it had been raining for sometime (it was rainy season you know). We didn't think too much about it as we left the plane and headed for immigration. Again everything was virtually painless as we proceeded to get our stamps and our bags. We were in and out in virtually no time. La Aurora Airport has made impressive strides in becoming a modern airport.

We boarded the bus and headed for the office in San Cristobal which is near Mixco just outside the city to the west. There we had a great meal of chicken and rice. A welcome addition to the stomach after a day in airports and airplanes. We only stayed for a bit as we had quite a drive ahead of us to the camp. It was well after 9pm local time and 11pm according to our body clocks. The temperature bordered on cold as we began the descent from Guatemala City which sits a mile high in elevation. Several drifted off to sleep as we progressed toward the Pacific plains past Escuintla. The weather went from cold and drizzly to muggy, hot, and a downpour. Every crack of the bus that opened to the outside leaked water through it.

We arrived at the camp in the middle of the night...far to late to recount much except that the luggage had to come off of the bus in the middle of the rain. The missionaries pulled the Toyota flatbed in the soft mud next to the bus and the boys began unloading and stacking luggage onto the truck. From there we moved the stuff to the auditorium down the cobblestone road. It was wet, hot, uncomfortable, and very heavy at times. When it was done...it was time for bed.

Day 1 of travel complete and it was a blast! We didn't all wear the typical T-shirts down, we wore uniform shirts from Army-Navy. Some of us wore the "typical shirt" underneath. Everyone got a kick out of it but it also set the tone for what we came to do. Work...

The first remark given to me in regards to Team:Guate '08 was "hard workers." Without a doubt we accomplished FAR more than we had set out to do.

• Varnished posts and rafters in 4 regular buildings and the Cafeteria which is like 3 buildings in 1!
• Chipped away plaster floor in kitchen
• Concreted the entire kitchen to level
• Tiled the entire kitchen and storage area
• Degreased, scraped, cleaned, and repainted kitchen appliances
• Repainted all boys and girls cabins
• Removed old broken dock and built a new one

Here are just a few of the submitted photo of our work projects