Well so far our trip has been filled with a lot of different, and for me new Guatemalan experiences. As Meagan and Sterling talked about already, so far we have worked at Kairos Christian School, visited an orphanage, gone to Hermano Pedro - a hospital/orphanage mostly for special needs kids and adults and also visited and brought supplies to 3 different families who have kids which attend Kairos Christian School. They were all unique experiences but it is neat to see how God is working in different and creative ways all around Guatemala, making Himself known and restoring lives.

So far, my favorite part has been visiting the Casa Bernabe Orphanage (http://www.foce.org/). As many of you know, I have an adopted 3 year old son from Guatemala. Since we finished our adoption in late 2008, there have virtually been no additional international adoptions in Guatemala. Guatemala was previously 2nd to only China for the number of international adoptions to the USA. As you can imagine, this has created a very difficult situation for orphans in Guatemala.

As I heard first hand experiences about the current state of orphans and adoption in Guatemala - it is as bad or worse than I thought, which really breaks my heart. Then, we went down to see the kid's homes and play with the kids. As our guide was talking, I saw a group of little boys and girls come out of their house who looked to be about the same age as my son, Samuel. They immediately caught my attention so I just went over and started interacting with them, There were 15 4/5 year old girls and boys living in the same house with 3 young house moms, either my age or younger. Very quickly, many of the little girls gravitated to me and just latched on. As you can imagine, most of these little girls rarely interact with men, so I and many other guys from our group became their caballos (horses) for the rest of the visit. My little girl, Margarite, basically had a death grip on my neck riding on my shoulders. Seeing those boys and girls Sam's age without families and no current hope for future families outside of the orphanage was pretty heartbreaking for me. Thank God for places like Casa Bernabe and others like it. As passages like James 1:27 make clear, God's heart is to take care of orphans and even compares salvation to being adopted. My hope and prayer is that God clears the way for future adoptions in Guatemala.

One thing Meagan and Sterling didn't mention was about the home visits. For those of you familiar with our time at the city dump last year, it was a similiar experience, but not quite as severe. We visited with 3 different families who have children which attend Kairos - each home were pretty rough living environments. The 3rd home we visited was about a 1-2 mile walk from Kairos. It is the Day of the Dead today so there were a lot of people out near the cemetary celebrating, drinking and flying kites, some as large 6 feet wide and long - it was quite a sight. As Mayra explained the story of the family, we learned this family was where the whole feeding program and then Kairos started. Mayra's mom used to visit this family and feed/take care of the kids who were left alone in the house all day. You could see the excitment in Mayra's eyes as she talked about the birth place of Kairos. The amount of progress Kairos has made since this time last year is pretty amazing. When I walked into the school the first day, I literally didn't recognize it and thought I was in the wrong place...they have made a ton of progress on the school construction. It was encouraging to realize that last year they had 40-50 kids and now have 70+ kids. Also, when we were doing construction on Sunday, a few families came by expecting to attend church...which I know has been a struggle in years past and seems to be growing, which is the end goal of Kairos - to make Jesus known in their community. She and her family clearly have a huge heart for their community and God is blessing their efforts. It is a privledge to be a small part of it.

That's all from me for now....

Jimmy Armstrong