Mission Blog

July 6-10

I arrived in Guatemala on Saturday totally exhausted. The last couple of months have been brutally busy. The one and only purpose for this trip is to finally get this land gig squared away. Doctor Kenny called me last week and told me all the papers were ready and there would be no issued this time. So I scrambled to get a ticket and headed south. We have a scheduled appointment on Monday at 10:00 AM to sign papers for the land purchase. I chilled today and caught up on some much needed rest. I got up Sunday morning and went to church with Doc Kenny and Maco. After church we did a little driving around towards Antigua to look at some potential places for teams to stay in the future. On Monday we all meet at the  Puertas’s house with the lawyer, the land owner and proceeded to chicken scratch signatures. Six months of trying to put all this together and it took like 5 minutes to ink the deal. The next two days I stayed with the Puertas’s (this is the rancher dude I meet on the plane).There is know way we could have done this without their help. They have spent their personal money on so many little fees so the deal could keep moving. As Victor says, this is out contribution to the project. They are 100% behind this housing project. He will also be very beneficial on the amenities to the land. He has many high profile Guatemalans friends whom he says will help keep some of the cost down. Without this Guatemalan team that I have been blessed to assemble, this project would have at least been twice as much. It was great hanging with the family and getting to know each other better. They have been so good to me. Now the real work starts. We have a lady who is involved with the Fuego refugees doing social work who has volunteered to do the case work and interviews on the families to be candidates for re location to new homes. We actually have 7 homes committed to be built. That leaves 3 homes left to complete our goal of 10 homes. So, what are you waiting for. Dig deep and let’s get this $15000.00 raised and get er done. Three homes for 15 grand is a deal anywhere. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

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April 28-29

Here we go again. Headed south down to Guatemala. The goal is to finalize the  land purchase and move forward for the refugees of this area in Escuintla.

It has been a crazy process so far and I’m not real optimistic that all’s going to be in order. But as my Haitian pastor says “God knows.” I am sure in my heart of hearts that my motives are true and correct and that this is a project that will affect many lives.

I arrived safely and as usual Dr. Kenny and Macco where there to swoop me up and get on down the road. They took me to Antigua, a cool trendy hipster town that used to be the capital years back before an earthquake destroyed it. There is a huge European influence along with expats trying dissolve from life. Hmmmmm, I personally dig the country side of Guatemalan life but it’s a cool place to visit and there is lots of history around. After the Antigua stop they took me to my hotel for some  much needed rest. Got up early and hit the road for Escuintla in hopes of getting started on the land purchase.

This is the holiday season with Holy Week and other celebrations. Today is no exception. Today is their Labor Day which means only restaurants and bars are open. All municipalities are locked up tight. Doc Kenny took me to a huge lake called Lago de Atitlan. We took a boat across the lake to some small Mayan villages that are very traditional. These are areas where the do medical missions with medical teams. It was a huge treat to see this and you can see the need.

After today we should be rolling again. I have several lawyer meetings in the city to work on legal documents for the land purchase. This has been a very different process and prayers are welcomed. Tomorrow is a new day. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

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This is from a Christmas party that we sponsored for one of the refugee camps in Guatemala. We partnered with BMDMI (Baptist Medical Dental Mission International) and provided the resources, they provided the local knowledge on how to make this happen in the best way. See details in the report below.

We sponsored a similar Christmas celebration in Haiti, will post info soon!

This is the last day and I have a few loose ends to tie up. We are organizing a day of Christmas celebration in the refugee camp at Alotenango. We are partnering with BMDMI ( Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International) and a Guatemalan grassroots organization called VOLUNCA which is an acronym for volunteers at work. It’s made up of Guatemalan psychologists who have been working with the post traumatic refugees due to the eruption. Makko works for BMDMI and the land owner we met, well his wife is with VOLUNCA. This plan was providentially made before my arrival. Makko will set up activities with the children and youth . Monica and VOLUNCA will be there to help with the mental needs. This is gonna be so cool. I wish we could be here for this. They will send me a report with pics when they are finished. Awesome! Victor and Monica invited me to there farm so we went and spent several hours with them before heading to the city. He wanted me to see the cabinas on his property that he built for some of the workers. He felt this would be helpful and he was 100% correct. The design is simple but very acceptable and good. Gosh these guys are so cool. My head swims with ideas. I have never felt so sure about a project in my life. HIS hands are surly on this and the orchestration laid out ahead of time has been perfect. Now it’s our turn to start making it come to be. Much work has to be done and with your prayers and financial gifts we can make a new start for 10 families. We now await for the new survey and then we can start getting this thing going. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny

The last 5 days have been filled with absolute non stop go cat go. Not today though. I am taking what Jim calls a culture day which is something I never do. We are a little over an hour away from the Pacific so I am taking culture in my world of culture. I’m checking the surf. Guatemala is not a surf destination, but are you kidding me, it’s on the Pacific coast. I started looking on goggle at the coastline and realized where we are located is close to the best possible area for waves. If there’s surf I can sniff it out. So Makko and I headed out on safari. What I found was a diamond in the rough. If you think I’m gonna expose this spot you are absolutely crazy. The surf world is getting smaller and when you find good waves off the beaten track it’s best to keep it to yourself and let the others find it he way you did. I was not able to surf but the waves were good. I talked to Peruvian surfer at a surf hostel and he really shared with me some of his secrets. All he asked was please don’t share. He was the first to surf this area 13 years ago and never went back home and Peru has some of the best point breaks in the world. No one had ever surfed before in this area and he has cultivated a peaceful tranquil surf culture here. The dude is living my dream but at least he invited me to join the dream. It was a great day of decompression and recharge. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

On my flight over I met this very interesting man. He is a second generation farmer. We spoke briefly and I shared my vision of the relocation project that we were pursuing. He told me “ I’m not trying to get into your business but the land your looking at seems to high price. If you’d like another option I may can help”. He gave me his number and vanished. Doc Kenny made contact with him and he invited us to lunch. We had lunch with him on Friday and scheduled a Sunday drive to go look at some property. He and his wife picked us up this morning at the guest house and we took off towards Taxisco a small town 40 minutes away. The property is much bigger with less work and is beautiful. Very tranquil. We walked the property and thought about so many possibilities. The land is owned by a lady who works for him. I asked how much and he replied “ let’s not worry about that yet, they’ve had this land for over 30 years and it will never be used. Let me see if we can come up with the original survey”. Before days end they had already sent Doctor Kenny the legal docs. From the land we drove less than 10 minutes to Taxisco. A small but very clean and safe town. Un like Escuintla, you can walk the streets at night with no worries. We drove over to the coast via ferry through a national protected estuary. Beautiful beyond any expectations. We had a wonderful meal and chatted for hours until it was time to retrace our steps back to Casa de Paz guest house. This has been one of the best days in Guatemala that I’ve experienced. These people seem eager to help us with our vision and have truly opened their hearts to us. He has already given me some great ideas for the homes. He has built homes for his workers on his land and shared a pretty cool house plan with me. Less expensive than what we were considering and equally as good. Wow, what a day. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny

Today is the day that I’ve been waiting for. I finally get to go and actually walk the the piece of property that we are considering purchasing for our relocation project. I first met with the surveyor at Doc Kenny’s clinic and we discussed the survey and the real measurements and boundaries. The surveyor, Willy, has walked all over the property and is very familiar with the terrain. This land is about 20 minutes out of Escuintla and meets our social/economic criteria. There is a school, major road, accessible power, small stores, and a clinic all close by. We will have to dig a well for water but the surveyor says the water table is very close to the surface. The terrain is very uneven and there will have to be a lot of work to grade the land to fill in some very low areas. We were told that the property was 2.5 acres. After the survey was done we found out it was only 1.5 acres. After our discussion with Willy, the three of us headed to the property.
We toured the land, talked about some potential water run off problems and what it may take to grade the land. This took most of the day. I do like this land and its location but it will take a lot of work before we can even begin thinking about construction. This is the first time we have ever considered purchasing property and I think he is asking a little to much considering the real acreage. This is where I’ll have to have my game face on and start negotiations. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny

Today was set up with meetings. First I went to the new compound site for Mana de Vida to tour the construction progress. This has nothing to do with us but it’s a relationship that I made last time down and we may be working jointly on some in country stuff with these folks. After the site tour I meet with Marlon the director of Mana de Vida. We talked about our progress with the land and how we may continue to be a partner with them. These two things took all morning till about 1:00 in the afternoon. After the meetings we had lunch with a guy I met that may have a better deal on property. We will take a look at his property on Sunday. This guy has several large farms here and deals in rubber trees, sugar cane and cattle. Great guy and we plan to get with him on Sunday morning to drive out of town to see what he may have. We now have two options for our relocation plans. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny