Colfax Guatemala Trip

We are here!!!! At least 70 of us are… the other 30 arrive on Friday night. God is so good. Not only for His provisions for us but for being a God who always has His interests in mind! As our group becomes more satisfied in God we see God work even more among us for His glory… how rewarding!

Our first day of travel was long. We gathered at the Baptist church at 3:45 and we arrived at the airport around 5:30 our first group of 45 checked in and immediately God worked his first miracle. It was only last Friday and I was in the travel agents office and we called our airlines to find out final costs for luggage, it was going to be $25 per person for the second bag. That means we were to pay approx. $1,500 for just our second bags. When we got to the counter, the airlines decided not to charge us! So we thank our airlines for donating to missions! After we checked the first team in, our second group of 22 checked in as their plane left a little later in the morning. One in Seattle we grabbed some food and had a delay with our flight to Houston… engine trouble. We waited and waited and were about 10 minutes from passing our window to get to our Guatemala connection on time, Continental pulled another plane out and flew us out just in time for us to board in Huston. The pilot was talking to Ken McNaughton and me and said that, if our group was not as big as it had been, they would have just canceled the flight. Coincidence? Doubt it! God knew exactly how many people to load on that plane!

As we arrived in Houston we met up with the Schumacher’s who flew in from DC and Erin Kroll who flew in from Phoenix.

Our flights all day were very smooth. We even were able to watch an amazing lightning storm of to the right of our plane as we flew into Guatemala. It reminded me of one of those electricity balls that you put your hand on them and the light sticks to your fingers. The cloud just continued to flash. Praise God we did not have to go through it.

Once we had landed customs was simple, after we ditched our fruit and jerky. (note to team leaving on Friday, we talked about this in training. Please do not bring any fruit or homemade jerky into Guatemala!) Baggage claim went well, however we lost one bag that was supplies to give away. The great thing is if we had to lose one bag on the entire trip that was the one! It did not have anything in it we needed or was very important. As we left the luggage area they check the bags and make sure you do not have anything illegal or items they want you to charge you duty on. We have a lot of items that could be charged. As our group walked up to the line, the security guard just told us to go to the side of the line and we could leave. No bag check!!!! So we left with not problems at all. Praise God.

When we exited the terminal, Carl Martinsen was waiting for us with the 2 busses and the small u-haul like truck. I took quite a few minutes to load up our luggage for 70 people however, being nighttime the airport was not that busy. The trip to the Seminary was short and we placed our group in their rooms and were off to bed around midnight. Everyone I have talked to today said that as soon as they put their head on the pillow, they were asleep.

Praise God for a day of His might power working and thank Him for His sustaining grace as we traveled.