Zeba 2015: Day Four photos, batch 1

Zeba 2015: Day Four, plus more Day 3 pics

Tuesday was our second VBS day and the weather was perfect. Our Ann Arbor youth led another terrific morning for the Zeba children. Afterward we enjoyed a picnic in the park and some time to explore downtown L'Anse before walking to our waterfall hike area. Counselors and youth ventured into the water, working in teams to guide and encourage one another. Today's devotion theme, "Expect the Unexpected," seemed quite fitting! Great fun. After dinner we had a fantastic game of Nine Square and evening songs and sharing. Tomorrow: VBS and Copper Harbor!

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday's mine and beach outing.

Zeba 2015: Day Three - Digging Deep

Monday morning, it was off to our first day of Vacation Bible School at the Zeba campground. What a success it was! Our Ann Arbor youth were enthusiastic, warm, engaged leaders for their new buddies. The music team led the crowd in rousing song, followed by a fun, participatory Elijah story skit by the drama team. Crafts of campfire handprints, funky fridge magnets and more, as well as all kinds of games ranging from sharks and minnows to red light green light, rounded out the great first day. Zeba kids left with smiles on their faces and warmed hearts.

To dig just a little bit deeper, we then headed to the Adventure Mine in Greenland Michigan to learn about our state's early copper mining trade. Our informative and humorous tour guides were great. Back in the vans to Ontonagon for mouth-watering pizza at a Lakeside (Superior) park. Two other youth who had commitments last weekend met us there to be with us for the remainder of the week. Some of us dared into the brisk waters of Lake Superior for a quick dip, others preferred the playground and shoreline swings. Singalong tunes in the vans home made our ride back fly by. Our youth loved their first day and can't wait to make tomorrow even better for the Zeba kids!

Guatemala 2015: Our first work day

Today started out with a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried plantain bananas.  After breakfast, we piled into three vans and headed up (note that "up" is quite literal) to the Mission Guatemala clinic, where our hosts explained to us all of the many projects that they are involved in.  In addition to a doctor's office, a dentist office, and a well stocked pharmacy, they feed children using chickens they raise themselves, host a computer skills classroom for a local middle school, provide space for a preschool, feed school children, supply water filters for individual classrooms, and provide efficient wood stoves for families. Whew.  

It is inspiring to see everything that they do with very limited resources. Truly, God provides.

Today was our first day at the actual worksites.  We divided the group into two work teams.  One team went to the community of Xepec (pronounced "shepek") to work on expanding the kitchen where Mission Guatemala provides after school snacks for hungry kids. Our team worked today on placing cinder blocks to build the walls of the new room. This includes making the mortar from scratch. This site is above 7000 feet elevation and there were several times during the day when clouds (fog) moved through.

The other team drove to the community of Xecotoj (pronounced "shekatoe") to continue work on expanding the elementary school from two classrooms to four.  This community is composed of people who were displaced a few years ago by Hurricane Stan. The government of Guatemala built the houses that you see in the background of one of the pictures, but didn't supply much else.  Our team worked on pouring concrete for the footers that will become the foundation for the new classrooms.  There was a lot of shoveling of gravel, sand, and concrete.

Everyone came home dirty and tired, but enthusiastic about doing work that is really helpful for these communities.

Tomorrow, we will stay after the work day to play games, do crafts, sing songs, and perform dramas with the local children.

Guatemala 2015: Sunday in Chichicastenango

Here are some pictures from our travel day on Saturday.

We flew from Detroit to Houston and then from Houston to Guatemala City.  At the airport, we loaded all our bags and ourselves aboard our "Chicken Bus" for the four hour ride to Panajachel.  The countryside is spectacular and the scenery is very different from Michigan.

We're staying at a fabulous facility called The River House. The accommodations are very nice and the food has been excellent.

On Sunday, we got back in the Chicken Bus and drove an hour and a half north to Chichicastenango.  Along the way, we stopped to see the view of the volcanoes that we missed on the way in because it was getting dark.  We saw some sights and shopped in the massive open air market in Chichi and in the afternoon, we went to worship service at the local United Methodist church. The congregation was very warm and welcoming.

Zeba 2015: Group photo at L'Anse Church

Zeba 2015: Day Two

Sunday morning after breakfast we headed into L'Anse to worship at the United Methodist church. We were warmly welcomed by the congregation who look forward to our return each year. One woman shared during the service how grateful and moved she was that her granddaughters have had the opportunity to participate in our Zeba VBS for many years. After the service we picnicked in the park and returned to HQ to plan our VBS programs among the music, drama, games, and crafts teams. A quick outing to Big Lake allowed for some welcomed outdoor recreation, just in time to return for a great dinner and a preview of our VBS team work for each other. Our youth are noticeably excited to share their talents with their new "buddies" tomorrow!