Estimated Arrival Time

Arrival time

Both teams have landed and are about to board the bus at 11:50PM in Boston.

The estimated time of arrival at All Souls is between 4 and 4:15AM.

Travel update / delay as of 8:15

The Guatemala Team's plane left Miami at 8:15, with an estimated time of arrival in Boston of 11:08 PM.  The American Airlines site still has the AZ team's plane on time at 9:29 PM.  

Once they arrive, deplane, grab luggage and find / load the bus they will call and let us know the estimated time of arrival in Bangor.

I am guessing it will not be before 4:30 AM.---That is a guess, though.

Check the blog, email and texts for the final update.

Whew!

Travel update as of 6:40 PM

Hello.

The flight from AZ looks like it is on time and due to land in Boston around 9:40.

The flight from Miami to Boston is delayed---Now taking off at 7:30, due to get in to Boston at 10:30.  Apparently there are Air Traffic Control issues due to weather in Boston.

We (and the travelers) are to stay patient and flexible.  

(That's not quite as easy as it sounds, is it?!)

They are in good spirits and have gotten something to eat.

I will keep you posted.

:-)

Carol

Return Travel Information

RETURN TRAVEL INFORMATION

GUATEMALA TEAM

Sunday June 28:

                           American Airlines #2359  leaves Guatemala City 11:27AM

                                                                      arrives in Miami 4:15PM

                           American Airlines #2440 leaves Miami 6:20PM

                                                                      arrives in Boston 9:37 PM

ARIZONA TEAM

Sunday June 28:

                            American Airlines #507 leaves Phoenix 1:30PM

                                                                    arrives in Boston 9:27PM

THEN the teams will Rendezvous with each other and take a Cyr Bus back to Bangor (?3:30AM)

There will be a blog post / email / text sent out as soon as we are informed of the teams leaving Boston.

Pray for safe travels!

More news from AZ 6/27/15

 We were lucky to receive the information and pictures from the Arizona team, but the technology connection was a true struggle.  Here is more news from Carol Sherman:

Now that I have better internet connection (but still only my phone keyboard for writing), I'll report more about the close of our week of service. The brothers for whom Team Hogan (pronounced Hoe-gone) did ceiling repair were grateful they no longer had to worry about leaks and/or pieces of sheetrock falling on them while they ate their meals. We hope next week's Experience Mission teams will prime the ceiling and maybe even paint it.

As I think I mentioned, Team Al's House didn't get to complete the block-laying due to other priorities that came up for JR and Kyler, but we helped Emily (EM's staff) with food prep and cleaning --we thought about introducing the concept of Swallow Teams to her!  Pastor JR arrived early on Friday to see off the Florida crew who had early breakfast on Friday and headed out at 7 and then our team.  

We have shared service and good fellowship with these new friends this week and are grateful to have ties now with these brothers and sisters in Christ.

  We ate, finished packing, put the sanctuary back in order and cleaned up after ourselves. Al and 5 year old Promise wheeled 18 month old Talon over in the stroller at 8 to say good-bye and to thank us for the hard work we had done to move his project forward. Al is a full-time dad now, ever since Talon had liver failure almost a year ago and underwent a transplant down in Phoenix. Talon has been on immuno-suppressants ever since and looks strong now, but needs close care and isn't out of danger yet.   Al is well-educated, quiet and soft-spoken and he told us he had come home to the Reservation to be able to focus on what is important: his sons. We invited him and Emily to join us for our closing worship out under our shade tree and they did. The theme of the observations and scripture for the day was miracles, Jesus's healings, and the importance of faith. Given all that Al and Talon had been through in the previous year with illness and evidence of healing, it was clearly providential that   Al (who is caught somewhere in the middle between Native religion and Christianity)  be with us for this particular morning worship.  He was very teary as he listened and joined in the readings. We pray our ministry of service and relationship has helped his faith to grow.
   The week has been a blessing in so many ways!!

 We had two different hiking groups and both enjoyed their excursions. Drove back to Phoenix by way of Sedona and saw the beautiful red rock formations for which they are famous. A long traffic delay there and another hour long back-up on I-17 made for a late arrival at our motel. But we hope to get to the airport without traffic problems on  a Sunday morning and then....home, sweet home. It's been a very good trip, but we're ready to come back to Maine! 

Guatemala Day 6

The early morning traffic jam was a great way to start our last work day!  







Houses were completed and the teams were quite tired.  Our farewells to Home Site 1 and Home Site 2 were very touching.  Many tears were shed by the family and by our team members.  They are grateful for the home and they asked God to bless us on our travels and for the rest of our lives.  Home Site 3 had a delightful send-off with a very extended family present.  The beautiful prayer of blessing by the grandmother for all the team members was quite moving.  With many hugs and final pictures we said our "good-byes".  

I don't have the pics from Site 3...I'll post those tomorrow.

Children's Bible School was held twice in one day.  The first was at San Lorenzo in the plaza.  Our team was fresh and ready to engage the children.  Becka had some great projects that transported well.  In the afternoon the Children's Bible School moved to The Central Park in Ciudad Vieja...Matthew Williamson met the challenge of telling a Bible story all in Spanish to the gathered children.  

The staff at the Kairos School has been most helpful and they are hoping to see us all back again in two years!

Arizona Team travel pictures

Florida and Maine groups met Wednesday evening at the edge of the Mesa for a campfire and evening meeting.

We decided to go see Monument Valley, UT, which was only an hour out of our way. Very impressive!

Monument Valley, UT

At a restaurant at Monument Valley, UT.  We had a pretty fine view for lunch, PLUS flush toilets!  A double treat!

We arrived at the South Rim right at sunset and we're all looking forward to hot showers and real beds. It's been a day packed with great sights. It went up to 105 and we were ok with the work week being over.   Some will hike into the canyon tomorrow while others rest. We hope Team Guatemala has a great sight-seeing day tomorrow!

Guatemala Day 5

We are nearing the completion of all three houses.  The teams have done so well...everyone is tired, but the spirits are high judging from the laughter and conversation outside in the courtyard.  Tonight we are sending some pictures from work site 3 which was amazingly cramped.  Because we have not included any pics from their site this week, this post will be dedicated to them.

So many blessings!
We are so proud of our mission teams and thank God for all.

Arizona update 6-25-15.

The Arizona Team's time in Black Mesa is coming to a close.

Here are some pictures of their work there:

Maddie conquers another rock!

At the revival!

Here is an update from Carol Sherman:

We've just had Navajo tacos for dinner at the Revival tent and we're heading back to Black Mesa. 

The team working on the hogan finished dry-walling and mudding the complicated ceiling and feel pretty good about what they accomplished. They're worn out, but in good spirits.

Team 2 had Kids Club duty this morning, and there was a low turn-out due to a funeral in this close-knit community.

 We helped clean at the church since our masonry chiefs were otherwise occupied. It was ok not to be working in the 104 degree sun. 

We will have breakfast at 7 tomorrow and then we head out. 

It has been a very good week!

 Travel Information Reminder:

                                              Team Arizona

 will be leaving Black Mesa Friday June 26th in the AM and will drive to Grand Canyon Village.

The group will then drive to Phoenix on Saturday June 27th, stay overnight 

and then 

fly to Boston via American Airlines Flight #307, 

departing Phoenix at 1:30PM Sunday 6/28/15.

They will rendezvous with the Guatemala Team and drive back to Bangor, arriving at All Souls at 3:30AM 6/29/15.

We are so thankful to God for the opportunities and blessings the teams have experienced.

Pray for safe travel!

Day 4 in Guatemala

The day dawned overcast and we feared there might be rain...but no...we had a beautiful day for house construction, food distribution, Bible school and Women's health class.  

The food distribution team is getting a workout carrying several heavy bags of food and cleaning supplies up and 

down some very steep hills.  

Today's deliveries were right in the city limits of Ciudad Vieja.  Again stories of 8 to 12 people sharing rental space the size of Room C (if that big) at All Souls...One family recycles paper for some of its income.  One quickly realizes that the paper is collected from the streets and anywhere else it can be scavenged.  Another family recycles bottles which gives them more money than paper.  It isn't much. 

When we asked what we might pray for after we distributed the food gifts, one woman asked for prayers to endure the troubles her family is going through right now.  She did not elaborate, but seeing her surroundings, one could fill in the blanks.  

 Each time we delivered the

supplies we invited the women and children to come to the Bible School and the Women's Health class.  What was particularly striking was seeing how the ragged and dirty kids were transformed into clean, and cleanly clothed children to attend the afternoon event. The mothers expressed their thanks and prayed for God to bless us.  

We delivered food to 6 homes today.  Even the Guatemalan children we have met are well-schooled in gracious behavior.  At the Bible school we saw children sharing crayons without prompting, looking out for siblings without prompting and all of them said, "Thank you"...again without prompting. At the work sites siblings shared paint brushes and helped one another repeatedly even as they contributed to the construction of their new home.

All of us are learning the 5 Spanish Bible School songs very, very, very well...but we have discovered that our translators are now joining in and singing with us too.  Most of them said, "We can't get the songs out of our heads! "

The construction has been moving along very quickly.  Today all three home sites got the walls studded out and all the panels to be installed, painted.  How these teams manage to play hard with the kids at the work sites and accomplish so much really quite astounding.  Even the roof trusses are installed so we are thinking that we might be wrapping up some of our construction work tomorrow...time will tell.

   The team is doing very well and evening worship, conversation and just plain fun round out our days. 

.

 We keep you in our prayers....God bless us everyone!