Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

Welcome to Guatemala!
Dear friends and family,
Our team (and all of our bags!) has safely arrived in Guatemala City! A big thanks to Pastor Leininger and Corey Miller for driving us all to the airport. We are so thankful to have sailed through check-in, security and both flights without any glitches. After a quick layover in Dallas, we set off into the sunset and were all excited and ready to be on our final leg of this day's journey.
For several of our team members this was their first time traveling to a foreign country; for one of our members, this was even her first flight! There is always so much to learn traveling internationally; from landing cards to passport control, carrying extra documents or having nothing to declare. All of this eventually brought us into the loving and welcoming arms of Ginny, Kevin, Cesar, Sandra, and Manuel! We had a special surprise when Ginny told us that Sandra and Cesar get to spend the whole week with us overnight!!
They are a little nervous to be surrounded by energetic gringos all week, but I know it will be a fantastic time building lots of great relationships. Guatemala is such a beautiful place, but the most beautiful thing about it is the people. In the next week our team will meet several more Guatemalan missionaries, not to mention nearly 700 children and youth and hundreds of adults. There are so many beautiful people to meet and share with just a glimpse of their life. We are so grateful for this opportunity to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ in this part of the world!
Once we packed our van and truck with people and luggage, many of our team got to experience the wonderfulness that is Guatemalan traffic. If you have ever experienced Chicago traffic and think it is rough, you haven't seen anything (and this is coming from the girl who has road-rage from living in Chicago!). Never fear though; Manuel and Kevin are pros at this delicate art of vehicle maneuvering!
Upon arrival at the house, we unloaded the vehicles and got the grand tour of our three-story dwellings for the next week including the kitchen, dining room, guys and girls rooms, and the upstairs lounge and walkout rooftop.
We all learned the most important rules for the evening: #1 Don't drink the water unless it comes out of an approved bottle and water source. #2 Don't flush the toilet paper. If you break rule #1 you have a greater chance of breaking rule #2 due to the increased number of visits to the baño :(

Otherwise, the ladies have learned how to use the hot water in our shower. Everyone has had a gourmet dinner of cookies and PB&J. I managed to score a bottom bunk (perks of being in charge)! Ginny and Kevin (smartly) have retired for the evening even in the midst of chatting, laughing and general good times hanging out downstairs.
Tomorrow Ginny has promised breakfast "as you like it" before church. If you have been to Groundwork Guatemala before, you know that this means, "don't be late".
Each day of our trip we will be taking turns writing about our day from a different perspective. Before I sign off, I want to say a big thank you to all of our team supporters. All of the donations we brought with us will be a great use to the ministry here, so thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you also to family and friends who have perhaps nervously sent their loved ones on this trip. We covet your prayers and look forward to being with you again to tell you about our firsthand experiences of the wonderfulness that is Guatemala. The Lord has blessed us in so many different ways and knew what He was doing when He brought this group of people together at this place and time. We pray for His blessings and care each and every day of our life.

This is Deaconess Betsy saying "Buenas Noches!" and "Dios le bendiga"!