Guatemala packing party (and team bonding time)

Our Guatemala Mission team from top left: Pastor Jon Schmick, Brian Dirks, Larry Schmick, Rueben Weeks and Maxx Snyder. At bottom is Steve Drury and Doug Devries.

Everybody had to bring an old bag to the party tonight, and that is NOT intended to be a mean reflection on our loving spouses (and a girlfriend) in attendance. We were instructed to scour our attics, our closets, our garages, or, if necessary, go to a thrift store to find some extra large suitcase or duffel that we can take to Guatemala and just leave there to avoid paying for extra luggage on the way back.

I climbed the guerilla racks in my garage and found two abandoned duffels that our boys had used in Little Leaague, never to seen again. Doug, our team leader whose house we met at tonight, found a baby blue colored beauty at the Goodwill, which he proudly displayed in his garage with its $5.99 yellow sticker still intact. Jon, Rueben, Maxx, Larry and Steve brought their finds too.

Tonight was our packing party, the time when we would gather to cram tools, kids packs, Bibles and toiletries in any way we could into the eight extra bags allowed. Steve Drury, a veteran of many past trips, knew to bring a scale where we carefully weighed each bag to make sure it did not exceed the 50 pound weight limit, or 48.5 just to be safe.

Pastor Jon loads bags Bibles.

Like any real men's gathering, we cajoled each other a bit, examining all that we had before us and trying to decide if and how it would all fit. I think it was Steve who suggested that we leave some of the adult Bibles behind, rationalizing that it was better to make sure there is a Bible in the hands of every child and the adults would be more apt to share.

While the men worked in the garage, the ladies were put to work in the living room inserting the final items in the kids packs.

Bill Baird, still on crutches, found
a replacement in his son-in-law John.

Rueban and Maxx join Bill in talking to new team member John
Kirk in Oregon via Skype

In between packing, we were ushered individually from the garage at the urging of our erstwhile team member Bill Baird, now on crutches, to meet his replacement via video conference on the laptop he brought. His son-in-law, John Kirk, is his sudden replacement but being in Oregon was not able to make the long trip up for tonight's event. I think it was in fact very important that we all got a chance to talk with John and see his smiling face. Seems like a very friendly guy, a strong Christian and, perhaps most important to for the purposes of our trip, says he is very handy and, big bonus, actually knows Spanish! Since none of the rest of us do that will come in handy.

Ladies assist. From left: Vicky Drury, who has been on the mission in the past, Laura,
Nancy Bair, Shirley Schmick and Dee Dirks. Not pictured is Carol Devries. 

Typing about tech, I was able to bring a phone along tonight, donated to the church now by my friend Dan with AT&T who just happens to have a stash in his desk for charitable donation purposes. Jon Schmick and I both have a strong desire to keep in touch from our little village of Xoxlac and it looks like AT&T has the best mix of services and GMS signals available to do that. (After much research and some false starts I've kind of given up on my carrier, Verizon). Jon is going to do some follow-up research the local store and see if it's not too cost prohibitive to hook us up. We both use "smart phones" of a different make,, but neither one of us know much about the Blackberry 9300. We turned it on okay but I even had to send a text to my daughter in Connecticut who has one just to learn how to turn it off!

Anyway, after the bags were loaded we returned to the kitchen of Doug and Carol Devries and helped ourselves to the communal meal: tacos, salads and an especially good mix of potatoes prepared by Vicky Drury, Steve's wife. Maxx and Rueben, I believe, brought the ice cream for dessert. Larry Schmick, John's brother, brought a delicious batch of mushrooms and deviled eggs for appetizers. Even as the good Presbyterians we are, some of us consumed mild amounts of wine and beer to celebrate our adventure ahead.  A firm team rule: no alcohol in Guatemala.

We meet at the airport Thursday night around 9:30 p.m. and catch a red-eye to Houston and from there to Guatemala City. By this time a week from now, we shall have concluded our 14-hour bus trip to the northern town of Barillas and be fast asleep in the Hands for Peacemaking mission house there.

Steve, Rueben and Larry contemplate the order of things