“When I pray, coincidences happen, when I don’t, they don’t,” is what William Temple, an Anglican bishop, wrote years ago. The truth of that statement repeats itself often in my life and it happened again in Guatemala this past week. Sadly, we were unable to return to the neighborhood where we have previously built homes. Consequently we could not visit with the families we’d made connections with on previous trips. In the mission field, one accepts the constraints of schedul

Arrived at All Souls around 5:10 to the sight of many cars and families. Home to beds... Praising God for it all!

Everyone reconvened at Hotel del Marques by 6:00 and Sergio closed out  our week with a stellar meal. Our hostess gave each of us farewell remembrances and we had evening worship and a closing circle, All Souls style. We had senior blessings for Cat and Will Strauch (who were away on Senior Sunday).   Several long time mission veterans expressed their deep appreciation for Renee's leadership of ASSIST-JC and many joined in. And now we've mostly packed our bags for morning. Br

https://www.facebook.com/carol.j.sherman/posts/10155368593072567 Again, these posted to Carol's FB page

As you can see from the photos on FB, it's been a truly wonderful day. It's the first truly hot morning we've had--and it was  steamy. The low clouds and relatively light rains that inconvenienced us all week (and we learned they greatly need the rain) actually kept working conditions more tolerable than if we'd had a week of this morning's heat .  But as it has all week long,  showers arrived  around 11:30. Our house dedications were moving and tearful for each team has made

Good morning, friends and family😊 So far, so good this morning! Our work site teams had their debriefing sessions last night and later the "After Hours Mens Crafters Group of All Souls" (meets every two years in Guatemala; open to new members!) helped the Bible School team de-sticker the dishes we had brought from home as house gifts for the families. This morning we'll return to Ciudad Vieja for the house dedications.  We'll take the mile and a half hike for the last  time

No more quaking ground beneath oir feet after the 6:30ish (am) "tremblar". Those of us at the market had a clear view of how Fuego reacted to the quake, and folks still waking up back at the hotel were a bit rattled. But by 7 when Sergio and his crew brought breakfast out, we were all moving on with the workday. We had good weather til about 11:30 again and made great progress installing walls and painting the rest of the wall panals. As you can see in the photos, every team

https://www.facebook.com/carol.j.sherman/posts/10155362068582567

About 20 of us got up early to see the mind-boggling market this morning. We had the unexpected memorable experience of a "trembler" (spanish for earthquake) and seeing Fuego's belch if smoke and lava. Because we know it might be mentioned in the news, we want you to know we're all just fine! More photos later. (See photos on FB. Blog isn't uploading them.)