The 2025 Guatemala mission team has arrived safely in Guatemala along with all 23 pieces of our luggage. We appreciate all of your prayers!

This year we are traveling to Coban. We will be installing a Living Waters for the World water purification system at Iglesia La Garcia. We will also install stoves in homes San Lorenzo Sepoc, San Pedro Cacha, Alta Verapaz.the first post from our trip last year goes into details about our two projects.

Iglesia La Gracia (https://www.amicoban.com) is an outreach ministry of Acts Ministry International (AMI). AMI is a group of churches located around the world who share a vision of being the type of church described in Acts 2. La Gracia is a compound with a church and a school. They do a lot of programs in the community and they also have multiple teams of missionaries come to do a variety of projects. Purified water is available but expensive. The system will allow them to produce water for all of their needs. They can also provide low cost water for the community. We are excited to work with them.

We are working with Helps International (helps intl.org) again to install stoves. This is a great group with a lot of community development projects. They help select and educate families and deliver the stoves. We are also partnering with International Caring Ministries (caring min.com) a group which is very loosely connected to AMI here in Coban. They go into villages and spend 5-6 months there teaching skills which will help families be self supporting. They have been working in the area where we will install stoves.

We got our luggage all loaded and stopped at Pollo Campero where we got boxes of chicken to go.

At first traffic moved well but in true Guatemala fashion it was not long before things came to a standstill.

There were people selling fruit and snacks from baskets on their heads

This fellow was seeking fans and phone holder. You can do an entire shopping while stuck in traffic

Soon after we came to our favorite stop and one of the highlights of the day.

They have amazing ice cream. I don’t know if it is their recipe or ingredients or location but it was a great break!

Then back in the vans for more hours of travel. The scenery was lovely but it got darker and darker. We drove through lots of small villages with speed bumps

We finally arrived in Coban after 8:30 local time (9:30 by the time we got up). We visited a grocery store for supplies for our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We had a great meal at the Duesseldorf Cafe.

We are all very thankful to finally be here and excited about tomorrow!

Today was an incredibly wonderful day!! I wish I had a better way of sharing the beauty and wonder of this place. Pictures can’t show the sounds and smells, the joys and the laughter of the day.

We became with breakfast at 7. Some of us were dragging a little bit coffee did wonders. We shared a great meal with our partners from Living Waters and Helps. Then we packed gifts for the families where we are installing stoves and toys for the children (no candy) and set off for the day.

The water team had a 10 minute drive to La Gracia. When they arrived they found that the water room was not quite ready (no real surprise- I don’t think a water room has ever been ready when we got there). In spite of of this and a 10 minute run to the hardware store that turned into 2 hours thanks to traffic, they were able to accomplish a lot by the end of the day (which was 4:30 for them).

Meanwhile, stove teams had an hour and a half drive, most of which was on a rocky, narrow, curvy steep road up a mountain. But the views were incredible and we had time for great conversations

Finally we arrived at the village

We divided into 4 teams of 2-3 team members and 2 Helps staff

By late afternoon each team had installed 4 stoves. Team 1 had been dropped off a long way from the meeting point. We looked for our driver and the van but they were nowhere to be found. None of us had cell service. We did not think they would leave us – would they?

We walked up the mountain and finally had a few bars of service. We called our driver and our pastor and our friends but no one answered. We texted a general SOS to the whole team- still no response! We did what we had to do – we took a Tuk Tuk. Many went past us with passengers but finally one stopped

We made it back to Teams 2 and 3 but still had to get to Tean 4. We had an 11 person van and 15 people. Team 4 had the truck but none of us had cell service. We finally got together and started the long trip back to Coban. it was great to hear everybody’s stories from the day. The van was full of laughter, joy, and gratitude.

We had dinner and devotions and we were all ready for bed.

We can’t wait to find out what adventures are in store for tomorrow

Today was another incredible day. I had low expectations for our water project this year. When we visited La Gracia in February they were not prepared for our visit and several people were out of town. The people we met did not know much about living Waters. We had a zoom call later with the head pastor but we did not have as much pre-trip communication as usual. I was not sure if I would have any educators to train and we weren’t sure what type of support we would have.

The installation has been our smoothest installation yet. The complex has trained plumbers and electricians and by the end of day 2 the system is almost ready to go.

The water room is great and we feel this system will be used well and will certainly be sustainable.

I had an amazing team of educators. First I met Kat.

She is one of the pastors in charge of short term mission teams. Kat is one of those people with the skills and talents to make big money with an international company. She has amazing organizational skills and was one of the founders of ICM (International caring ministries), an incredible NGO making a real difference in small villages of Guatemala. ICM goes into a 15 villages every 4 months. They work intensively with 36 families in each village to teach life skills including values, health, education, and self sustainability. Kat set all of that up but recently got married and now she works for AMI at La Gracia. Omar, who I also met. took her place at AMI. It was this connection that led us to install stoves here.

Kat is discipling a small group of young women who will be working with ICM in their community. She is hoping that they will become leaders and they certainly demonstrated leadership skills today.

We spent the morning learning how to teach the lessons about how and when to use purified water and how and when to wash hands. The lessons are simple but fun – there is some drama and some movement and some art and some games. Then they had some time to plan the lessons they would teach women from the community in the afternoon.

We had a simple lunch of peanut butter and jelly. Then Kat and I had a chance to visit and to enjoy the beauty of the place.

The young ladies who were educators were nervous to be teaching older women but they did an amazing job. Some of the ladies from the community spoke only K’echi and one of the educators did translation. They spoke with confidence and demonstrated true mastery of the material. My heart was so full as I watched them.

These young ladies can really change their communities

The water team headed back to the hotel about 4

Meanwhile, stove teams were busy! Several teams installed 5 stoves instead of 4.

Stove teams finally got back to Coban about 7. We met at San Martin which is a chain and has good and safe food

Tomorrow is Sunday. We plan to go to church at La Gracia. Then some people will install more stoves while others explore Coban.

We have been blessed with incredible weather. The highs have been in the mid 70s with a breeze. Lows are in the 60s. We have had a few brief showers here and there. The hotel is ok. No A/C but there is hot water. Tonight there is a party going on but they usually stop by 10.

In case you were wondering just how classy this hotel is – note the towel butterfly:

Today we all got to sleep in a little bit. We did not have breakfast until 8:15. We had a great breakfast then took some time for sharing and devotions. Then we got ready for church.

We went to church at La Gracia where we are installing the water system. We were greeted by some of the people we have been working with this week. We were some of the first to arrive so we took a few minutes to check out the new water system.

The system is simpler than last year because we were able to install a UV system instead of an ozone system. The UV system does not need the churn which is all the back and forth PVC pipe.

Worship started with a praise band and singing. We enjoyed the music. The whole sanctuary gradually filled up.

The sermon was given by Reverend Moon, the head pastor of the complex

The English speaking visitors were all given headphones and we were able to listen to a translator simultaneously. The translator was very talented. Our team was recognized and the congregation was excited about the new water system.

Johnny took a picture of all of us in the water room

He is a man of many talents but I don’t think he will make a living from photography.

The plan was to go immediately back to the in hotel, have a sandwich and leave to go to the village to do stoves. However things around here have a way of working on their own time. In Guatemala we learn flexibility and patience. By the time we got back to the hotel it was after 1 (the people at La Gracia seemed to have no fears that the Baptists would beat them to their favorite lunch spot)

We had our favorite mission team lunch at the hotel – peanut butter and jelly

Our partners from Helps had gone ahead to the village. I think they realized we would be late

They started installing some stoves. By the time we were ready to leave Coban they had already installed several stoves and we were looking at 3 hours of driving with a high chance of heavy rain on that narrow curvy bumpy road to install one stove for each team. After much discussion we decided to let the Helps team install the stoves without us and we stayed in Coban. We worked on organizing the gifts for families that receive stoves and the gifts for the children.

Then we spent some time exploring Coban.

Coban is a dirty gritty city but parts of it are beautiful. We looked at the old church on the square.

Then we came back to the hotel and spent some time relaxing

Dinner was great. We had good discussion about how Jesus did evangelism using the story of the woman at the well from John 4 as an example

We were all thankful for a day to catch up and we are looking forward to a great day tomorrow!

Today was another fantastic work day for both water and stove teams. We had our usual delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon and black beans and fried plantains and cheese. I’m going to miss that when I get home.

We made our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Then the stove teams made their way up the mountain.

The water team made a quick stop at the hardware store and then went to La Gracia.

I had the same awesome young ladies. Nataly, Jazmin, Silvia, Sindy, and Heidy are true leaders. They all pitched in to do whatever was necessary. They enjoyed the songs and the drama and the games and we shared a lot of laughter.

We also did the Woman at the Well and talked about how Jesus spread the good news

We visited the water room. Carl and Denise finished in the water room and they explained the system to the students

We did more lessons and then they had some time to plan what they would teach in the afternoon.

We ordered pizza for lunch and they colored while we were waiting for the pizza

That was one of their favorite activities and we had to take lots of pictures of their pages

After lunch the community ladies arrived. The educators did an awesome job teaching again.

The water team got back to the hotel before five and the stove teams arrived soon after with lots of stories

We had a little while to rest and clean up, then we had dinner

Billy shared a map of all the homes where we installed homes. We installed 58 stoves during this trip in a very underserved area.

Tomorrow we will dedicate the water system and then pack up and go to Lake Atitlan.

Today we finished our work in Coban. We had breakfast at 7 and then finished our packing and loaded our bags.

We tried to visit the Presbyterian Complex where we worked years ago but the road was blocked by roadwork and we were not able to get through. Here is a picture from our visit in February.

We went to La Gracia for the dedication program for the new water system

This was the best group of students I have ever had. They were enthusiastic and excited about what we were learning.

We closed with prayer, then Reverend Moon offered a tour of the facility.

AMI started a school here 7 years ago. They started with a preschool of 20 children and have grown to 150 students

They add a grade a year – this fall they will add 7th grade

AMI is a beautiful facility with an amazing vision. Their goal is to train future leaders of Coban and to serve the community.

Finally we said goodbye to our new friends with hopes of partnering with them again in the future.

Then we climbed in vans for a long road trip. In a perfect world it would take 6-7 hours to get from Coban to Panajachel but that does not account for traffic. We could not make the trip from Coban to the airport in a day due to the uncertainty of traffic. Lake Atitlan will be much closer to the airport for our flight out.

It took us 10 hours and 47 minutes to make the 6-7 hour drive from Coban to Panajachel, the town on Lake Atitlan where we are staying. The hotel is lovely and we are looking forward to a boat ride on Lake Atitlan tomorrow.

Today we finally got our first glimpse of Lake Atitlan and it did not disappoint.

Lake Atitlan is a huge, ancient volcano crater surrounded by green mountains and volcanoes. We stayed in Panajachel, the largest and most developed town on the lake.

We had a great breakfast in the restaurant with views of the lake. Then we did a tour of the lake by boat with stops at several of the villages.

Our first stop was San Juan La Laguna

They carry the statue of the Virgin Mary around the lake and visit each village with processions and fireworks.

We started by touring a honey store where we learned about different types of bees and honeys. They have some very tiny bees there that produce a thin honey that is used for medicinal purposes and cooking.

Then we sampled wine made from honey

Then we had a little while to explore the town

Then we climbed back in the boat and went to San Pedro

Several of us took a Tuk-Tuk tour of the village

Then we visited our 3rd village, Santiago Atitlan

The we got back on the boat for a very short ride to a restaurant for lunch.

The service was slow but the setting was lovely and the food was fantastic

On the way back we had to wear life preservers

We got back to Panajachel in time to explore and shop for souvenirs

We finished our day with devotions. This has been a fantastic week. We say it every year but this year was the best trip ever! We had an awesome team and we were able to accomplish all of our goals. We had a fun and relaxing day today and now we are preparing to return to our regular lives.

The Presbytery of South Alabama 2024 Guatemala team will be in Guatemala July 11-18. We have 14 team members, some experienced and some new. We have some great projects this year. We will be installing a water purification system through Living Waters for the World at Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Roca Eterna. We plan to install 48 ONIL type stoves in homes in the area. We are also bringing baby blankets, baby clothes and hygeine kits thanks to some generous donors.

We take for granted that we can turn on our faucet any time and have access to clean, safe, pure water. This is not true in many parts of the world. In Guatemala most municipal water systems lack any sort of water treatment. Supply is often intermittent and unpredictable.

Living Waters for the World (LWW) is an organization whose goal is providing access to purified water all over the world. LWW developed a simple water purification system about 20 years ago and they have improved on it with time. LWW trains and supports volunteer teams so that volunteers do the installation. Over 1000 systems have been installed and over 80% are still functioning. LWW volunteers train at Clean Water U (a week long camp). There are 3 tracks:

101 – Administators – coordinate all aspects of the installation. Most of their work occurs before the trip and we like to give them a hard time about not working as much during the trip.

102 – Educators – train local people to be community educators and teach the community about how and when to use purified water and how and when to wash their hands.

103 – Operators – install the system

Currently, purified water is available in San Antonio but is often expensive and difficult for people to access. A small group of us came down in February to evaluate the site and to meet with our potential partners. We have been very impressed with Pastor Cesar, the pastor of the church. He has been very proactive with getting the water room ready and recruiting people to be part of the water team. We have been communicating frequently since that visit. He is committed to improving the health of people in his community.

We will spend the next week installing the system and working with the newly formed water board. We will also train a group of educators so that they can teach people in the community some basics about germs and hygiene such as how and when to use purified water and how and when to wash hands. We will use a variety of games, crafts, stories, songs, drama and activities to reinforce these lessons. Then we leave material so that they can teach these lessons to people in the community. Finally, we will a group of operators about how to run and maintain and trouble shoot the system and how to run a business to make sure the system is sustainable.

Our other main project is installing stoves in homes in the villages around San Antonio. We work with a great organization called Helps International.When I first heard about installing stoves, I was not ever interested in the project. I thought there would be more pressing needs. But the more I learned the more excited I became. In Guatemala, millions of families still cook the way their ancestors have for centuries – on an open fire in the middle of their shelter. 

As you can imagine this causes a lot of problems. Constant exposure to smoke is not just unpleasant, it is harmful to everyone – especially to developing lungs. 

In Guatemala, 1 child in 5 dies before reaching their 5^th birthday. The leading cause of death is acute respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia which are directly linked to smoke inhalation. This is followed closely by diarrheal diseases caused by drinking contaminated water. 

The open flames are a huge safety concern. Children can crawl or trip into flames. Women’s clothing or hair can catch fire and serious burns are common.

There are also economic issues. Because open flames are so inefficient, families need about 50# of fuel each day. Fuel gathering requires a lot of time for women and children each day, limiting other productive activities (that can generate income) and taking children away from school. 

Finally, there are environmental issues The high demand for wood contributes to deforestation.  The fires also produce a lot of greenhouse gasses which speeds up climate change and global warming.

ONIL stoves are a simple and elegant solution to these issues. These stoves save lives – they are raised, enclosed and vented to the outside, solving many of the health and safety issues. The are much more efficient – families use 70% less fuel. This frees women and children to pursue other activities such as school, gardening, or learning a trade like weaving. Stoves save trees each stove saves 1 tree a month and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. A stove will easily pay for itself in a year, but most families could never afford to buy one. The local Helps coordinator selects families to receive stoves and arranges delivery or materials.

In addition to our core projects, we have some additional projects this year.

Megan Montegue from First Presbyterian Church in Foley made these beautiful baby blankets. These will be distributed to families during our visit to San Antonio. Thank you Megan for sharing your talents and for spreading love to these families.

Thank you also to Edna Watts and the ladies of Fort Valley Presbyterian Church. They have been making beautiful children’s clothes and we are privileged to be able to transport them to Guatemala to distribute to families. I will post pictures of children modeling the clothes later but here is a picture of some of the clothes

We are also excited about the hygiene kits that Trinity Presbyterian’s sewing group, Stitch’n with a Mission, made. We hope to visit a school to talk to young girls and give out these kits. What an awesome way of empowering and supporting women.

When Pastor Cesar found out that we have some medical professionals on the trip he became very excited. He immediately pulled out pictures of projects that his church has been doing with children. He asked if we would consider having a medical clinic while we are there. Thanks to an amazing group called Blessings International we are going to be able to do some medical work this year. Blessings international was fantastic to work with. I was able to purchase vitamins and medication for parasites and a few other items for significantly less than the usual US cost. Their website is blessing.org and I would encourage you to visit the site and see the work they are doing.

Our team got up early this morning to start the trip. We met at Trinity at 6:30.

We had a 5 hour lay over in Miami

We had an uneventful flight from Miami to Guatemala which is great. The next challenge was getting luggage. Incredibly all 26 pieces of luggage made it! We have to bring all of the parts of the water system and all the educational supplies. Thankfully we don’t have to transport stove parts!

The next challenge is fitting all of the people and luggage into 2 vans – one of which is already full of pvc and a large barrel

And the answer is there is no way it is going to fit. Our transportation people have to go and get another van because there is no way to make this work. Did our transportation people know how many people and how much luggage to expect? Yes. After waiting a few hours we decided to get a hotel near the airport and start fresh tomorrow. The other option had us arriving in Mazatenango at 3 am (4 am Cental time). Will this delay us tomorrow? Yes – but we have extra time built into our schedule because we know to expect challenges. Trying to keep a good attitude and stay positive. We are tired but we found rooms near here. We are all ready for a good nights rest!

We felt much more refreshed this morning after a good nights rest. It has been a fantastic day!

We started with a delicious breakfast. The hotel had a great buffet

Then we loaded vans for the trip to San Antonio Sucuitepequez. It was about a 4 1/2 hour drive. First we went to the stove factory which happens to be in San Antonio. We were escorted in by a guard carrying a machine gun. The stove people got to tour the factory. Meanwhile the water group headed to the church to unload supplies.

Helps International has a beautiful, clean facility. Here are some pictures of the process of making stove parts.

Then the stove team had lunch

Jelly sandwiches because the water team did not share the peanut butter!

Then the stove teams visited families and installed stoves

Meanwhile the water team went to the church and unloaded. We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for about 20 people (that second jar of peanut butter came in handy)!

Then we had an educational session with the water board, educators and operators. We got to know each other and learned about germs and played some games.

The rest of the water team unloaded all the supplies, organized and started installing.

The system is starting to take shape

The educators talked about our families. We attempted to sing some songs. And we began our training

And God said: Eso es bueno

Our main lesson for today was all about germs

Where they are and where they are not

In the middle of the afternoon we had a hug storm with thunder and lightning l, heavy rains and blowing winds. We lost power off and on and had to work in the dark.

We had a wonderful day and can’t wait to do this again tomorrow!

We all met back at the hotel about 7, tired and hungry but all excited about our projects

We had a great dinner and meaningful team time. I think everyone will sleep well tonight!

Today was a long and full day. We got up early and had breakfast at 7.

Water team took one van and went to a store for more bread and peanut butter and jelly. Then they went to the church. Stove team also went to the store and got peanut butter for their sandwiches. Most of them reported that they enjoyed their enhanced sandwiches although Pam said that half of hers was stolen by a chicken

I don’t have many pictures from the water team today. Pablo had class so we borrowed Linda from the stove team. We could not have had a successful day without her.

After the morning session the educators planned their afternoon session. They were responsible for teaching a group from the community in the afternoon.

We shared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with everyone on site and Noemí share some wonderful corn with us.

In the afternoon a group of about 25 people from the community came.

Our teachers did an amazing job of teaching. They were very enthusiastic and did a better job of the lessons than we did

The 103s said they made good progress in the water room but they had to stop earlier than expected because they need a part. They expect to get it tomorrow so it should not delay final installation

Water team got back to the hotel around 5 and had time to relax before dinner

Stove team had a long day. Without Linda they had only 8 people but they still managed to install 16 stoves. One group installed 6 stoves today. Here are some pictures from the stove team

Stove team did not get back to the hotel until after 7

We had dinner – they have these smoothies with fresh fruit that are wonderful.

Then we had team time and devotional time. Everyone was ready for bed. Tomorrow is church and medical clinic!