Olive Branch Church

At the beginning of December Olive Branch came and served with Porch de Salomon for a week.  We’ve been busy but I wanted to post some photos of their week.  Olive Branch and their support of our ministry has been one of the encouragements we have received this year.They spent the week helping us build a bedroom and bathroom for Albino and his mother Cruz.  Albino had a terrible accident while selling on the chicken buses.  He was run over by not one but two vehicles which left him handicapped after several surgeries. This is Cruz and how she had to wash laundry before we got her a new Pila (Guatemalan sink).The crew worked hard all week.  They did some shoveling and leveling of dirt the first day but the major work they accomplished was carrying the house up the giant hill one concrete block at a time.
One day found us carrying block in rain and fog.  It was cold, wet, and slippery but no one really complained.
Of course the girls got to tie rebar with Lonnie as well.  

Katie on the last day of work helped add a special touch to Albino’s existing house by decorating for Christmas!

Kyle looking full of energy after helping dig the septic tank for the house.  I really enjoyed getting to know Kyle better this week!

Not a bad view everyday on the way to the job site.

The last day we got to do some very special events.  We first stopped in Concepcion to visit Santos and Maria who Olive Branch helped construct this house for last year.Then they participated in a dedicated the new community center Porch built this year in Chauxic!  After spending all year at this job site it was great to see it finally finished!  And you could tell the community was really excited.

They brought out the marimba guys for the occasion!

The whole community came out and celebrated with fireworks, ice-cream and lots of speeches:)!  I even got to say some words on behalf of Porch de Salomon.  And Katie from Olive Branch talked about the importance of the day and how important education is for girls.  Often little girls in Guatemala only get to have a 3rd grade education.  They then have to begin working in the house full-time.  Hopefully this community center will help give a better education for the little girls in this community.Joe entertained the crowd with some of his magic tricks!Noe did a great job working on this community center all year.  This center was one of his visions.I got to hand over the keys to the center and Brook cut the ribbon.The last day Amber cooked breakfast for the team at our house.  Amber is an amazing cook and does a great job with the breakfasts she cooks for the groups.

Probably the kids favorite person ever is Katie!  She has come down 2 years in a row and this year even had a sleep over with our kids.  We had a great week with Olive Branch!  And we can’t wait until they come down again this February.  Here is a video the church made of their trip!