Seven men left the heat of the Kansas countryside and put their hands to hard work in the mountains of Chichicastenango for a week in July.

This group of guys from Faith Church in Garland, Kansas, kicked off their time ministering to a group of missionaries who meet together weekly and then toured the famous Chichicastenango market. They visited the homes of five families to encourage them, pray with them, and learn first-hand what it was like to live in rural Guatemala.

On Monday the team headed out to their main work site where they built a cement block house for a widow and her three children.

Angelica, the widow, who lost her husband 10 years ago, jumped in to help with the project and her three teenage children helped too. 

As the walls grew with each layer of block, the excitement for Angelica grew. On the final day of construction, she arrived to give the team a snack and some bottles of pop. When she got out of the mototaxi that brought her to the house site, she burst into tears of excitement at seeing her new home.

Just a few days after finishing the project, Angelica had already planted flowers in front of the house that is now her home.

The team also spent a day renovating a garage where children now meet for a local weekly Bible study held at a missionary home.

The team took time with the ASELSI staff and shared at the staff devotional before heading back down the mountain for some sightseeing and their flight back to the USA.

Here at ASELSI we are grateful for the care and effort this team put into their time here. This is the sixth house that the Faith Church team has built for needy families during their annual mission trip to Guatemala.