Pictures are up!

Good news! we have some pics up from the past few days! But with limited internet i hope they worked!

Enjoy!

Thursday Team Post am

Good morning to all. I am sorry I have not been able to post yet as we have had internet problems and last night also had the power go out until just now. It was an awesome day yesterday as the team worked extremely hard and did an awesome job. One of the small groups will be posting about the details of the day so you can hear more about the experiences we are having.
We again are preparing to go work on the homes and continue to build more connections with the families and the Kids in the village we are working in. This team is doing an amazing job at loving on the kids and they are responding. Many moments I have witnessed the kids working right along side team members and hanging on and around them.
Our devotions this week are focused around the idea of giving our heart completely to God. Last night we spent time talking about the things that are most important to us. Things like money, career, school, sports, friends, success, nice clothes, nice cares, nice homes and being able to enjoy life. These things pale to the importance of people and their relationship to God. It is easy to see the people here who have very little are actually not lacking because of the poor state they are in.
Pray for the team as we continue to strive to find the joy one can only find in relationship with Christ and in dependence on him. Pray for health and endurance as we have much to accomplish this week. Pray for continued team unity and encouragement.
I am sorry that we have not been able to get on the internet like we had hoped to –we will keep trying to keep you connected. We should have pictures coming today as well.
Thanks for your prayers and support –time to get ready to load up for the day!
In His Grip,
Kevin Van Wyhe

Hola a todos!

This blog comes to you from the designated group for the night: group 1, which consists of Olivia Stegeman, Megan Fryling, Julie Gortsema, Katelyn Roskamp, Graham Vanderheide, Rebecca Schichtel, and Michael Kunnen. Just a sidenote…. This blog will be an overview of “our” day. This blog will obviously not be able to explain to you everything that happened today, or even what each group experienced as each person had different houses, different situations, and different interactions. We arrived last night, had some team time, and were all finally asleep around midnight. Our wakeup call came at 5:30 am, after enjoying a great Guatemalan breakfast, and doing some personal devotions we hopped in the vans and were off to the “semi-coast”. Our trip was about an hour and 15 minutes. We arrived to a village that at first seemed almost empty. Over time more and more people came out of the woodwork, and began coming around to check out what all of these crazy gringos [us] were doing. We began working fairly soon after arriving [arrival was around 8:15am]. We began cutting and putting together pieces of sheet metal, following that we began adding dry wall, and cement boards on the outside. It is definitely a process, but each team worked together wonderfully and at lunch we had made quite some progress! To paint you a mental picture, if you can’t see by the *hopefully* real pictures you can see… [we are also in the process of getting pictures uploaded]. We have four houses very close together, it’s almost as if they are each down a few steps from each other. We have one house that is a bit on the other side of the village, maybe 100 yards away or so. After a lunch of rice and beans, we were back to work. We worked hard as torrential downpours soon began. We all ran inside of our houses doing work inside that we could hoping the rain would hault for some time, in order to get to a certain point by the end of today, what a blessing, it stopped. The rain stopped for about an hour and we scurried to finish drilling, caulking, and getting our inside and outside walls on our houses, and the rain began again. This is the time in which we jumped in the vans and headed for the base, wet, smelly and all. We got back about 5:30 showered, ate dinner, and are all hanging out now waiting for team time later, and then off for a good nights rest. As for a few specifics about our team, we know a bit about the family we are building for, as the mom Saeda [that’s a guess on the spelling] was one of the first people I [Katelyn] and some of the rest of the team members met when we first entered the village. She is a sweet, sweet woman, 25 years old and married to Juan and they have two children Juan Gillermo and Maria del Carmen. We are excited to get to know them more, Saeda spent some time with our group today, watching us work, doing anything she could to help, and just providing a sweet smile for a woman who has so little. Our group got lots of help from the wonderful Hermano Jesus [the pastor down here] and Nazario, a man Dan hires to help us out! They are wonderful guys and we had a lot of fun building together [and probably wouldn’t have gotten near as far without their help!]. God has great things in store, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the week will bring. Thanks for reading and please, please, please keep us, “our” families [who we’re building for], Dan&Heidi, Hermano Jesus, and all of the other missionaries down here, in your prayers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
And doug we are trying to reach you! But the internet is down. Please write on julieswall
-Group 1 Julie, Katelyn, Olivia, Michael, Rebecca, Megan and Graham

We are here!

Hello,
We are here! Today we have a long day of travel ahead of us! We will be building by the coast so it will be very hot! Pray for health, and safety on the roads and the open hearts of the Guatemalan people. We will post pictures and more updates tonight!

Keep the prayers coming + note from Dan Smith!

They are in the air! 🙂 They finally left at 2:35 pm and will be arriving in Dallas at 4:05 pm (CST). Pray for them as their connection in Dallas is short, they leave for Guatemala at 4:40 pm (CST). Pray that it goes smoothly.

They were able to get everyone to the airport by taking half-at-a-time. God is so good! Had the bus broken down further away from the airport they would have had a very difficult time making it.

A great big thank you to Mike Door for volunteering to drive next week tuesday to retrieve the team. It looks like they will drive two vehicles with the trailer, and the seats that were removed from one of the vans to make room for the luggage. When they get to the airport the seats will be put back in the van, luggage in the trailer and all will be good!

I just received the following email from Dan Smith, our missionary in Guatemala with some important reminders on prayer and what the team will be doing.

Please continue to surround this team in your prayers!
In His Grip,
Kristy Van Wyhe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Intercessors,

Yesterday we said our goodbyes to Team Fremont after an incredible week of ministry! We hope to have the Team Fremont report out to you next week declaring all our Lord accomplished through them. Today we welcome Team Ivanrest Youth coming into Guatemala carrying much needed meds and supplies at 8:50pm EST. Please be in prayer for this team of 33 as they work their way through Guatemala customs and then on to our mission base tonight!

Team Ivanrest will start their week building 5 homes in La Reina with dedication scheduled for Friday afternoon. Saturday and Sunday this team will conduct their two Mobile Medical Clinic/Outreaches. Sunday night especially, please be in prayer for us as we descend to a very remote village that will be difficult to get out of if it rains. This village Sunday is very secluded and still fearful of strangers they also speak almost 100% Mayan Dialect (rather than Spanish) and thus the clinic and preaching will be difficult without our Lord intervening through your prayers and the power of the Holy Spirit for these precious ones to understand in their hearts our Lord’s love and desire for them!

Please keep up with Team Ivanrest through their blog at: https://ivanrestimpactguatemala2011.wordpress.com/

HIS servants,
dan & heidi
http://www.paradisebound.org
http://www.facebook.com/paradisebound
dan@paradisebound.org

Bus troubles …

Please pray for the team as they deal with a broken down bus. They ended up leaving the bus behind and shuttling with the vans everyone to the airport. The entire team is now at the airport. Please pray for patience and peace as they regroup and get checked in for their flights.

They are off!!

What a glorious morning to send the team off amidst prayers, hugs, tears and laughter!  The team is now driving to Detroit where they will board American Flight#1317 at 2 pm EST with arrival at Dallas/Ft Worth at 3:50 pm CST (4:50 pm EST.)  Please pray for them as they have a very short layover and will have to hustle to board the plane at 4:40 on flight #2195 with arrival at 6:50 pm (4:50 pm EST).  Please pray them through customs as they have much needed medicines that Dan needs for the clinics!!

We will probably not hear from them until tomorrow night…but no news is GOOD NEWS! 🙂  They will update this site as soon as possible!  Thank you for your continued prayers, the work they do in Guatemala is only made possible through the prayers of everyone here!

In His Grip,

Kristy Van Wyhe

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Team Ivanrest First Entry

TEAM IVANREST FIRST ENTRY

Tuesday, June 14
–  12:05 AM

The bags are packed and we are literally just hours from starting this journey that God has placed before us.  I along with 32 other amazing people from the Grandville area are just about ready to take a leap of faith as we step into vans, busses and planes to make our way to the ripe fields of Guatemala.   On the outside, this trip may seem like a great humanitarian venture with homes to build, medicines to be distributed, and much needed items to give away that will improve the life for so many in Guatemala.   On the outside it may seem
like the main goal is to offer assistance to people who are poor and struggling.  This could not be farther from the truth…

As we leave Ivanrest Church tomorrow at 8:00 AM we are stepping into a spiritual battle over lost souls and people who are starving for spiritual food that will truly satisfy and thirsty for living water that will not run dry.  Of all the items in our 65 bags filled to capacity, there are none more important than the 450 Bibles that carry with them the power to change eternity.  I made sure that the first item that was put into any of the bags we packed on Sunday night was a box of Bibles.  I wanted to do this to remind me that this is the reason we are going.

Over this next week as we build homes, create relationships, talk with lonely mothers, play games with kids, hold babies, eat beans- rice and tortillas, sweat in the heat and humidity, set up medical clinics, show the
Jesus Film, sing songs, share our hearts, pray over people who are accepting Christ, drive vans through long, remote, difficult and bumpy roads, put band-aids on scrapes and cuts, find ourselves exhausted from little sleep and long hard days of work  -there is but one simple thing that needs to drive us and needs to remain in the forefront of all that we do and say.  It is not something that you can pack into a suitcase or purchase with thousands of dollars.  This small but all powerful word is what Christ calls us to carry to the ends of the earth.  It is within this single word that God changes hearts and tips the scale of eternity.
The word is LOVE.

That is what we are all about.  We carry with us the message of a love that has been freely given to us and a love that we can freely share with others.

I invite you to take a journey with us over the next 8 days as we take this leap of faith and face the enemy head on.   We need you and we count on you to be our back bone of strength as your prayers are what will carry us, sustain us and direct us in the paths that God has placed before us.

Please pray hard this week for each person on this team.  I believe that we are heading into a challenging week that I know will not go unnoticed by the one who will try to stop us.  I have seen him already at work
trying to destroy and weaken this team before we even leave.  But we serve a God who has told us that in
this world we will face many troubles,  but do not be afraid for I have overcome the World.

We hope to be able to share with you many stories and pictures on this blog as the week progresses.
Sometimes it is difficult to get things out to you because of the business that lies ahead and sometimes the internet is not always our friend.  We will do our best to keep you informed and give you a snap shot of what God is doing through us and your prayers in the country of Guatemala.  If there are times you are suddenly feeling you need to pray for us, please do so as this is surely the Holy Spirit prompting you to intercede on our behalf in that very moment.

I am excited to see, hear, taste, smell and feel what God has in store for us.  Thank you for sharing this journey with us.  Hasta Luego!  Again we covet your prayers and support!

In His Grip,

Kevin Van Wyhe

Leaving in just 8 days!

Team Ivanrest is getting really excited about our upcoming trip to Guatemala.

We will be leaving Ivanrest Church in the early morning hours of June the 14th [next Tuesday].

Last night we had our final team building where we brushed up on our house building skills and got to know each other a bit more.

God is so good, and he has blessed each and every one of us with distinct gifts and abilities. It’s so exciting to think about all of the different people going on this trip. God is going to use each of us in special ways, whether our distinct gifts are building, bonding with children, speaking Spanish, or sharing the gospel.

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. [I Corinthians 12:12 & 13]

These verses very accurately reflect our team. We are all different parts, but together we are going to form one body!

Please keep our team in your prayers as there is much packing and preparation that will be done this next week.

 

Thank you for partnering in this trip with us, feel free to check back often for updates!