Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.    ~James 1:27

I have been turning this passage of scripture over in my head the past couple of weeks.  James encourages us to religiously take care of the widows and orphans in their distress.  Religion has got a bad reputation as of late.  Recently I have heard many folks say, “Christianity is not a religion its a relationship”.  I understand their sentiments and why they say this.  Christians can get caught up in meaningless rituals and ceremonies which bring no pleasure to God.  Read Isaiah 1:11, and you see God fed up with people offering meaningless sacrifices to appease God when all he really wants is people’s hearts.  But there is religion which is pure and undefiled, and we should not stop doing this.  Porch de Salomon continues to religiously take care of the widow, the orphan and those in distress.  It was interesting the past few weeks to contrast this religion with the pomp and circumstance of the Semana Santa activities held in town.

Part of the team with Silveria a widow

Alex tying steel

Ted and Danette serving

Dr. Phil working hard

Anna and Alex working together

Linda deconstructing

Ralph working hard

The alley to Isabel/Mauricio’s house

We had a group working with us from Gainesville, Florida.  They helped us build a home for Silveria, a widow and her family in a rural village called Xiquel.  They also split their group up and helped us begin work on Isabel and Mauricio’s house.  Mauricio is a young man with kidney failure.  The porch is helping him pay for his treatment until he can get a replacement but Isabel and Mauricio also needed a better place to live and some relief from their distress.  What a great opportunity for us to practice some religion!

mixing concrete at Silveria’s

taking a break at Isabel’s house

Taking out a beam from the old house

digging the septic tank at Silveria’s

Hauling concrete

Another special event happened this week.  Juana, Silveria’s daughter had her baby boy!  The team got to see the baby and congratulate Juana with some much-needed gifts of clothes and food.

Juana with baby boy.

He doesn’t have a name yet. Guatemalans wait a bit before giving names

This team also participated in dedicating a finished house for another widow named Juana Sajvin.  She lives up in Santa Catarina.  Her house is way up the mountain.  And if you remember from a earlier post called beasts of burden quite a bit of heavy labor was involved getting material up to this job site.

Juana now has a house big enough for her daughter and family to move in with her

Juana with her new stove

The view from Juana’s house is incredible

Tamales helped us celebrate!

Phil enjoying his tamale

Linda helping serve tamales

Dave and Jeremy enjoying the meal

Juana’s grace and patience had us all smiling a the dedication

The next week was “Holy Week” in Guatemala.  The week leading up to the celebration of Easter.  Panajachel gets pretty crazy during this week.  The town fills with tons of people and there are many “religious ceremonies” happening throughout the week.  On Good Friday they make alfrombras or carpets for the parade route that carries a float of Jesus and Mary to walk over.  It is a symbolic ceremony held all over the world.

Amber and kids in front of the Catholic church in Panajachel

in front of the carpets on Santander

Abra pointing out something on the carpets

Bra brought along her paper to draw what she saw

Loving Abra’s toothless grin right now

fruit carpet

funny pineapple art

Fruit and vegetable Mary

looking at carpets

Salem

The resurrection and life

The procession from up high

The band follows the procession

Again I think on the passage of scripture from James and wonder if this is the type of religion that pleases God?  I do see beauty in the processions and the ceremony and our family enjoyed looking at the carpets.  I suppose the real question is, where is my heart?  Because I can religiously do many things in the name of God and it is nothing but a clang of a symbol or a noisy gong without love.

Working with Porch de Salomon provides us with plenty of stories to tell.  We never have an issue with not having information to share with you about what God is doing.  The hard part is trying to choose which stories and information to share and what to not to.  The past 3 weeks have provided us with lots of material to share with you all.  Through construction, multiple medical clinics, and even an audiology clinic we have seen God do some amazing things.

It started with a team from Kansas!  They split up each day.  Some doing construction and others doing medical clinics.

Peter hauling dirt

Sam hauling dirt

“Deacon” taking in the view

Doug bending steel

Peter mixing concrete

Penny and Harish tying steel

The construction team worked on Silveria’s house in Chiquel moving dirt and mixing concrete.  The Medical portion of the group worked the first two days in clinics and then joined the construction crew later in the week.

Jayne Mittan also joined with this group. She is the Porch’s medical expert

Dr. Harish checking out a skin rash

On the way to the medical clinic one day the Porch van was approached by some locals who flagged us down.  Little did we know what God had in store that day.  We ended up seeing a mentally disturbed man whose family had chained him up for the past 6 years because they didn’t know how to handle him.  For me I immediately thought of the scriptures where Jesus cast a demon out of a man whose family had him in chains.  The team cut his hair, washed his body, prayed for him and gave him some medicine.  We didn’t physically see any demons come out of the man.  I personally believe the care he received and is receiving will set him free from his current bondage.  It was an unbelievable experience and situation.

Heritage UMC from Olathe, Kansas

We really had a great week with this group from Kansas!  Amber and I lived in Kansas for 4 years so this group always brings back some great memories for us.

The next week found us working with Florida State’s Audiology program.  They brought down a group of students who helped us give hearing tests and they also brought $64,000 worth of hearing aids valued at $1600 for each one down with them.  These hearing aids gave people the gift of hearing!  One little girl pictured below was able to hear for the first time in her life!  Wow, what a gift!

Administering the hearing test

This little girl hearing for the first time!

Checking for hearing blockage

Dr. Snowden working with a child

The FSU group at the job site

Northstar came down the next week to help us with construction on Moises and Melchora’s house and do Medical clinics.

Northstar Construction crew with Melchora at her house

Kina carrying a bag of cement

passing buckets

Jordan passing bucket with Maria

Simon and Kinan digging

Alonzo pouring the floors

Albert the vet!

Simon

Unloading medicine and supplies for clinic

Tina checking in a patient

Robin checking in patients

giving out medicine

praying over each patient

Mike with a cute kid at medical clinic

Justus performed surgery on this growth

working in the pharmacy

A long line forms for the day

The Northstar group also helped us dedicate the Library Porch de Salomon has been working on this past year in Xecotoq.  The community children put on a great presentation of dancing and a play, The 3 little pigs, for us.  Afterwards we shared in a meal of Polick(Guatemalan stew) served for special occasions.

a traditional mayan dance

The 2 little pigs

Some sweet girls welcomed us

The big bad wolves

tossing the pigskin with a boy

Speaking at the dedication

Eating a meal

Polick and tamales

My band has been busy playing every week on Tuesdays at the Porch as well has playing for the porch worship gathering on Sundays.  We also got to play recently at a local Mardi Gras party/school fundraiser. You can check out the video below of an original song I wrote called, “Resurrect Me”.

Leading musical worship at Solomon’s on Sunday

Playing on Tuesday nights at Solomon’s

It’s one of those months where so much is happening its hard to compress it all down into a single blog post.  So this post is a catch-all from the month of February and I will do some other team posts in a couple of days.  Where to begin?

One of our many family Tuk Tuk rides

I would like to begin by saying thank you.  From the beginning of our time here until now, you all have followed, prayed, partnered with us financially and given us the support we have needed to do what we do.  We have our ups and downs here.  Some days it feels great living and working in Guatemala and other days we long for the comforts and ease of good ol’ Indiana living.

At the beginning of the month I went to the airport to pick up Brook Sarver and Kyle Schnitz from Olive Branch Church.  They came down and helped us record some video projects for Porch de Salomon.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out.  As we drove back from the airport Volcan Fuego near Antigua, Guatemala was erupting.  We were driving past when it happened but didn’t even notice from the highway.  These are photos I found of the eruption on Facebook.

Volcán Fuego near Antigua, Guatemala

View from the sky of Volcan, Fuego

It was a great week with these guys recording some amazing stories for Porch de Salomon.

We interviewed one of Porch de Salomon’s scholarship students

Kyle showing off his pro camera skills

Believe it or not I helped translate for this interview

Brook was the man in charge of getting the footage

Thanks to Guatemala Joe for giving us a surprise drop off:) Our kiddos have learned how to raise two baby chicks.  It has been a good learning experience for them.  However, sadly, Ezra carried one around by the neck a little too rough and we lost one.  Eventually we will give the other to a needy family in our area.

Ezra building a house for chicks

Abra with chick

2 chicks

On fat Tuesday February 17th we went to a Mardi Gras party to help raise money for a local school in town called PCI.  My band, “The Dirty Deeds Band” played a set to open up the night.  Yes I know my shirt is pretty awesome.

Amber, Salem, and I at the Mardi Gras party

Some of the Porch crew at the party

My band played at the beginning of the night

We started work on Silveria’s house this month.  She is a mother of 8 children providing for them on her own because her husband is an alcoholic and ran off to Chimaltenango. Her oldest daughter has one child of her own and another one on the way (a boy! We were able to get her an ultrasound recently).

Team Gina from California helped us start work on Silveria’s house along with a group from China

Silveria

Silveria’s oldest daughter is pregnant with her second child

We always love it when “Team Gina” from California comes to serve with Porch de Salomon.  They along with a team from China helped us dig out the side of the mountain to prevent flooding at Silveria’s house.

Tim and Glen help dig out the side of the hill

Jeremy pushing the wheelbarrow is a recent addition to our Porch team.

See how small the vans look. The trail to the house is a hike

Two 6 year old twin brothers came down and helped out.

Gina doing her “Cross fit Guatemala”

Laura our good friend from Fort Wayne came down last year about this time to serve for a couple of weeks with Porch de Salomon.  Little did we know a year later she would be getting engaged to Guatemala Joe!

Joe and Laura after Joe’s proposal

We took a spur of the moment trip to the Pacific ocean with our good friends the McMullen’s this past weekend.  We had so much fun with them.  And despite having some motion sickness on the way there we had a perfect weekend at the beach.  Our kids had never been to the beach except Abra when she was too young to remember.  I enjoyed watching them playing.  It was a quick 24 hour trip but it was fun!

John and I carrying Ezra and Jabez down Santander

The whole group

Kids eating breakfast together

Ezra loving the pool

Ezra liked playing in the sand more than anything else

Abra lost a tooth on our trip.

Beautiful weekend with the McMullens

I like the kids expressions hugging each other in the background

Salem’s and Ezra’s first time to the Ocean.

The McMullen’s are moving back to the States soon.  We are going to miss them a ton!  One sad part about being a missionary is having to say goodbye to people all the time.  But we must look on the bright side. The good news is they are having another child and this is why they are moving back.  They also gifted us with their vehicle!  They have generously given us their 2001 Lincoln Navigator.  The only issue? It has some engine trouble and needs about $1500 worth of work.  We aren’t sure what to do yet but are praying someone might feel led to help us with this cost.

Our new vehicle!

Interested in helping us fix our vehicle?  It will be extremely useful for us.  You can donate at porchdesalomon.org and make sure you designate to Will and Amber Deeds.

Donate to help us fix the Navigator!