Ready, Set, Wait

I play basketball at the YMCA. In basketball, even Y Basketball, defense is not allowed to call time out when the ball is in play. This prevents a coach or player from interrupting a fastbreak or other play when the offense is about to score. I feel like someone keeps calling a time out on our trip to Chiapas.

I am ready to go. I have been thinking about this trip for a year now. We have our team assembled. Now it is time to go. However . . .

Just because I am ready, that does not mean that I have everything ready. We still have team members who are waiting on their passport. We still need to register with the State Department. We still need to take care of details. I still need to prepare some sermons in case I am invited to preach.

Ten days to get it all done and get on the plane.

TIME OUT!

I'm not ready yet.

Heading to Chiapas

In two weeks we will be on our way to Chiapas.

We are taking a great group of young adults to Chiapas to work in with Seminary students from Mayan Intercultural Seminary (SIM) in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas and to work in the small village of Chacacal in the municipality of Simojovel, Chiapas. We will be working with Doris and Ricardo Mayol, ABC-IM missionaries to Chiapas.The group participants are
• Dulce Garcia, FBC Colorado Springs
• Rich Blanchette, Highland Park, Colorado Springs
• Quincy Shannon, New Hope, Denver
• Michael Capshaw, FBC Colorado Springs
• Mike Oldham, ABCRM staff

The village of Chacacal is one of the poorest in the province of Simojovel. Two seminary students, Eleazar and Mario, are working on sustainable development projects in this village. They are also working to improve the living standards of the people. We will be building two houses from adobe and working on a fish pond. Below, you can follow the link to Chacacal and see a video of the community and the digging of the fish pond.

Tentative Schedule for the trip:
• Saturday, March 24: Fly to Tuxtla Gutierrez and then drive to San Cristóbal
• Sunday, March 25: Worship, orientation, introduction to Seminary students, and travel to Chacacal
• Monday through Wednesday: Work in Chacacal. We will be building two houses and working on a fish pond for sustainable agriculture
• Thursday, March 29: Debrief and travel back to San Cristóbal de Las Casas
• Friday, March 30: Celebration with students at SIM and youth from neighboring churches
• Saturday, March 31: Tour of Tonina ruins
• Sunday, April 1: Return to Denver (Arrive at about 9:00 p.m.)


Helpful links:

• San Cristobal de Las Casas
• Simojovel

Project in Chacacal:

• Information about Chacacal 
•  YouTube Video of the project

Doris and Ricardo Mayol:

• IM Link 
• Ricardo Mayol on YouTube 
• Mayol's Website 

Information about Chamula and the ruins at Tonina

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/8

Greetings from Haiti! The team is alive and well and we appreciate everyone;s prayers. We have been working hard - really hard and having a good time. We are staying at a great guest house and have flush toilets and plenty of food. the first couple of days because of the threat of heavy rains we didn't work on the rubble houses but at the Conservative Baptist Fellowship school project. We built desks, twisted rebar, dug foundation and moved a lot of rocks. We are physically tired at the end of the day but it is good to return to the guest house for a cold shower, filling meal and evening devotion.

Saturday another team arrived - a college group from North Carolina and 3 from Canada. Sunday, we went to church (over 3 hours all in Kreole) and then spent the afternoon at the beach. We enjoyed spending lots of time in the ocean and it was great to give our bodies a chance to recover. Today we moved 7 truck loads of rubble (picked it up from large piles that are on the streets with buckets and shovels into the back of a truck). It takes about 3 truck loads to build one house so we felt great that we gathered more thatn enough material for two houses.

Today was Becky Whitaker's birthday. We sang Happy birthday numerous times and even had cake - in fact we had four cakes so everyone could have some.

Please continue to pray for the team. We have one more work day then we travel home on Wednesday. Also prayer for Don & Lynn's daughter who is 17 and the person who was staying with her had to go to the hospital.

Blessings-
the ABCRM Haiti Mission Team

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/4

We had a great day today. Tiga, our team coordinator was afraid that the Storm was going to pass through Grand Goave around 10 am so we didn't work on the rubble houses. Instead we helped another American Baptist mission team from Washington State build benches for a school. Along with an equal number of Haitians, a group measured lumber, cut the boards, assembled the legs, then screwed the benches together. the project started slow but once we saw the first one completed we kicked it into high gear. Plus, Emily stalled out before reaching Haiti and our temperature was milder than normal (another blessing).

Everyone is finding ways to serve. Robert uses his French, Lynn's Kreole is wonderful for recuiting workers and explaining things, Catey pitches in with any task, Haley has a great skill relating with the Haitians,and Becky works hard on individual projects or with a group.

The lodging and food has been great. Plus, we are inspired by all amazing people serving here.

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/3 #2

Greetings from Haiti!

The team arrived this morning around 9:30am. After 2 -3 hours of sleep, the group took a shuttle to the Ft. Lauderdale airport for our 7:30am flight. God was with us because there were extra seats in first class and five of us got bumped up. God is Good! The skies were clear and we enjoyed looking out over the Bahamas and Turks and Kakos on our way to Haiti. We arrived but our luggaged didn't; the bags are due in at 1pm. Tiga, our boss for the week, and a driver were at the airport to pick us up. Tiga suggested we go to an air conditioned fast food restaurant where we can hang out for a few hours instead of waiting at the hot airport.

And in the same building as the restaurant is a small internet cafe. I handed them $5 US, they gave me 160 Gourdes Goud back and let me use a very old computer.The space bar only works if you hit it twice but I am thankful for the opportunity to email you on behalf of the team.

Flying into Port Au Prince you can see beaches, low tin buildings and areas of tent homes. Lots of traffic, horns honking and much activity. The team is engaged in soaking it all in and Robert and Lynn are using their language skills to learm more about the people.

Thanks for your prayers. We heard Emily will arrive tonight. We will be gratefully to have our rain gear which most of us packed in our delayed suitcases.

Blessings-

Karen Van
ABCRM Haiti Mission Team

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/3

It has been a hard day of travel for the Haiti team. Our flight out of Denver was delayed about 1 1/2 hours (late arrival then mechanical problems)so we missed our connecting flight in Dallas. There wasn't another flight to Ft. Lauderdale that night so they rerouted us through Miami. That flight also left late and we arrived in Miami about 1 am and then had to take a shuttle to Ft. Lauderdale. We hope to get about three hours of sleep then catch the hotel shuttle to the airport at 5:30 am to get our 7:30 am flight to Port Au Prince. Our luggage is still in Dallas and won't make it to Ft Lauderdale until after our flight leaves for Haiti.

Please pray for the team
* Safe travels
* our luggage catches up with us soon
* The tropical storm Emily doesn't effect our work in Grand Groave
* that we will be a blessing to the people we encounter during this adventure.
blessings to all-

Karen, Becky, Lynn, Catey, Haley, Robert and Don

THAILAND MEMORIES

There are so many things that made this trip memorable. There are smells that will forever be associated with Thailand—garlic cooking in the street vendors booths for example; there are sounds that will forever
remind me of Chang Rai—roosters crowing at 3 a.m., dogs barking, lots of traffic sounds; the traffic in Bangkok that was scary because it was so heavy and so intense; the beauty of the temples and the Grand Palace of the King; the taste of marvelous Thai food that we experienced in so many ways. Mary Tellis, Karen VanValkenburgh and I were blessed with a great camaraderie and a chance to see mission up close and personal.

The missionaries that we met challenged us every step. The Dieselbergs in Bangkok met with us and gave us a tour of Nightlight Ministries. We had a chance to worship with them and meet the women who work at Nightlight (making beautiful jewelry). Karen Smith gave us a tour of New Life Center in Chang Mai and introduced us to the young ladies and their handcrafts. We worshiped at the Chang Mai Community Church and were truly blessed. Becky Mann showed us the Lanna Café and the coffee distributing business. The Akha ministry of Chang Rai was highlighted by Chuck and Ruth Fox. We were asked to help with a project at the Family Learning Center (the school where Ruth is principal). The library had compiled a database of their book holdings but needed some additional help with the input of grade levels. So we, Karen, Mary and I, helped with that project.

Karen also helped with the financial piece they are completing. The school will become an international school in the fall in the new building being completed as I write this. Chuck assists the Akha with water projects and also works with people with drug addictions. We visited the village of Sansouk to see the dormitories and food service areas where ABCRM is funding necessary improvements. Chuck and Ruth Fox took us to spend the night in Sukasem, another Akha village, to worship with them on the final weekend we were in Thailand. It was an awesome experience, with the young people leading the service. We sang familiar hymns and the love of God was expressed to all of us through our worship together.

The trip included some wonderful sightseeing. Bangkok is a beautiful city with the longest official city name in the world. (Don’t ask me to pronounce it or spell it!) There are huge shopping malls, but narrow streets and wide boulevards, beautiful homes next to small houses or huts, a huge river with city on both sides of it with a canal through the “new” Bangkok (started in the middle 1800s). The elephant camp outside Chang Mai was amazing and showed us what a marvelous animal it is. We visited the King’s mother’s flower gardens at Doi Tung, which were beautiful and so peaceful! The night markets were an experience!

How does one express all the emotions experienced during this kind of trip? How can one share the lessons learned, how people we worked with touched us? Each day was full of new experiences and we praised the Lord for each one and for each person we met, for the challenges offered. It is an experience that has changed my life and I know will continue to bless me, Mary and Karen. I challenge others to take a mission trip because each one will forever be changed and blessed.

Deanna Dyer

Thailand 2011

We are very excited to be able to help Sansuk. ABCRM transferred $1,000 US into the Foxes' account to be split between the Sansuk project and the Ahka Craft program. We are a the school his week working on the library/book order project and I spent yesterday working with their accounting staff to help with their conversion to QuickBooks. Friday Chuck will drive the group to Sansuk so we can visit the area where the improvements will be made.

We are having a great time-

Karen Van

The next six pictures are of the Sansuk kitchen and dorm that needs help. They are requesting a new refrigerator, cabinet, and stuff for the kids. They are also requesting funds for a new roof on the girls dorm which is quite expensive.













Chiang Rai


Chiang Rai


ABCRM gifts presented to the Family Learning Center where Ruth Fox is principal.


Ruth Fox


The gifts from ABCRM


Bus station in Chiang Mai


On a bus... luxury.


The new site of the Family Learning Center




Deanna and Mary doing English practice with a student from Korea

The Fair Trade Akha Craft Store (another Ruth Fox project)




Downtown Chiang Rai