Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Guatemala! Our next trip to serve, run and experience culture!
You can join us in Guatemala in May of 2012! We are coordinating an adventure, service and culture experience centered around the Lake Altitlan marathon. www.alitlanmarathon.com ADVENTURE, CULTURE, SERVICE
Start small, dream big, change the world.
This is the first of several ‘fact sheets’ about our up coming trip to Guatemala.
We will enjoy the festivities coordinated around the Lake Atitlan marathon.
Then go to Chichicastenango where we will provide a number of services. These could include: building a widows home (or two) providing a external vented cooking and heating stove to needy families, a sports camp for the village children, medical clinic.
This is being coordinated by Don and Lisa Buxman through their non profit AID IN ACTION. Check out the marathon website at www.atitlanmarthon.com and www.hotelchinimaya.com where we will be staying while at the lake.
Approximate expenses are as follows. Flight from Denver to Guatemala City on May 24 or 25 (depending on how many will be running the half marathon on the 26th) $700. Room in Antigua with breakfast $25.00.(one night) Rooms at the lake $30.00 per person, 3 nights. Four more nights in Chichi with food 40.00 per person. Just about $1000. Plus food at the lake, other outings, like the zip line, sight seeing, volcano trek and shopping at the famous market in Chichi.
We would like to have our first planning meeting the first part of January. So if you are even just a little bit interested let us know and we will make sure to let you know about the meeting!
Contact us at bux8@aol.com
970 396 3822 (lisa)
Check out our blog at: www.aidinaction.blogspot.com
Start small, dream big, change the world.
This is the first of several ‘fact sheets’ about our up coming trip to Guatemala.
We will enjoy the festivities coordinated around the Lake Atitlan marathon.
Then go to Chichicastenango where we will provide a number of services. These could include: building a widows home (or two) providing a external vented cooking and heating stove to needy families, a sports camp for the village children, medical clinic.
This is being coordinated by Don and Lisa Buxman through their non profit AID IN ACTION. Check out the marathon website at www.atitlanmarthon.com and www.hotelchinimaya.com where we will be staying while at the lake.
Approximate expenses are as follows. Flight from Denver to Guatemala City on May 24 or 25 (depending on how many will be running the half marathon on the 26th) $700. Room in Antigua with breakfast $25.00.(one night) Rooms at the lake $30.00 per person, 3 nights. Four more nights in Chichi with food 40.00 per person. Just about $1000. Plus food at the lake, other outings, like the zip line, sight seeing, volcano trek and shopping at the famous market in Chichi.
We would like to have our first planning meeting the first part of January. So if you are even just a little bit interested let us know and we will make sure to let you know about the meeting!
Contact us at bux8@aol.com
970 396 3822 (lisa)
Check out our blog at: www.aidinaction.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 13, 2011
November 2011
We have had a very busy summer and fall and now is the time get back on track with keeping this site more current. I (Don) made a trip to Haiti last week to take care of the business of Aid In Action and was very pleased with what is going on with the church, children's programs and the school.
The Churches:
Pastor Exil and the church are doing well. The church is used every day of the week for some sort of pray or worship time. Currently they are having revival meetings each night with great attendance and impact in the community. We purchased a small generator to power the church as the electric supply is untimely with the hours that it is available and weak current when it is on. We also purchased an electric guitar for them to use in services.
I was there on November 1 which is "Day of the Dead" in many cultures, Halloween was not observed. In Haiti there were two extremes that I witnessed. One was groups of people at the cemeteries in dressed up in witches outfits or face paints and dancing and doing things that I did not understand. I was told that most of the activity is based from their VooDoo practices and goes on for two days.
The other group that I noticed were that every church that I passed that day had services going on. Day of the Dead is a national holiday there so most business were closed as well as the government. It was great to walk through the tent city and the town and here the singing going on.
Children's Bible Study Program:
The two Children's Bible Study groups are still going well with about 125 children presently attending once a week. Oriol continues to take care of this and enjoys serving his community and God.
The School:
We are not fully funded to run the school with all the teachers that we need to be open every day but there are about 160 elementary children that come at least two or three days a week to school. Our desire is to pay for the teachers and the children be able to attend school for free. We would require them to pay for their school uniform to have some ownership in their education. Approximately $900 more per month commitment from us would take this to fruition.
Jean Dube who is a Haitian/American living in Port Au Prince will be helping us with oversight on these programs and improving our communication from Haiti to here. He will also help with the groundwork of teams and projects that we will want to do.
February trip:
I am planning a short term mission trip in February or early March to build a new church for the Citi Soley church that Pastor Exil preaches at and one of the Children's Bible Programs is located. Right now it is a rusty tin roof with stick poles holding it together with very little protection from the sun, wind and rain. I plan to have the foundation poured before we arrive and then a team of 6 - 10 can build the rest in less than a week.
If you would have any interest in going on this trip please let us know. Individual cost would be around $1500 and include travel, food and lodging. We need to raise some extra money to pay for materials.
Above is a picture of the Citi Soley Church with Pastor Exil standing in front of it and the picture below is in the Simon/Pele Church with the new generator that we purchased.
The Churches:
Pastor Exil and the church are doing well. The church is used every day of the week for some sort of pray or worship time. Currently they are having revival meetings each night with great attendance and impact in the community. We purchased a small generator to power the church as the electric supply is untimely with the hours that it is available and weak current when it is on. We also purchased an electric guitar for them to use in services.
I was there on November 1 which is "Day of the Dead" in many cultures, Halloween was not observed. In Haiti there were two extremes that I witnessed. One was groups of people at the cemeteries in dressed up in witches outfits or face paints and dancing and doing things that I did not understand. I was told that most of the activity is based from their VooDoo practices and goes on for two days.
The other group that I noticed were that every church that I passed that day had services going on. Day of the Dead is a national holiday there so most business were closed as well as the government. It was great to walk through the tent city and the town and here the singing going on.
Children's Bible Study Program:
The two Children's Bible Study groups are still going well with about 125 children presently attending once a week. Oriol continues to take care of this and enjoys serving his community and God.
The School:
We are not fully funded to run the school with all the teachers that we need to be open every day but there are about 160 elementary children that come at least two or three days a week to school. Our desire is to pay for the teachers and the children be able to attend school for free. We would require them to pay for their school uniform to have some ownership in their education. Approximately $900 more per month commitment from us would take this to fruition.
Jean Dube who is a Haitian/American living in Port Au Prince will be helping us with oversight on these programs and improving our communication from Haiti to here. He will also help with the groundwork of teams and projects that we will want to do.
February trip:
I am planning a short term mission trip in February or early March to build a new church for the Citi Soley church that Pastor Exil preaches at and one of the Children's Bible Programs is located. Right now it is a rusty tin roof with stick poles holding it together with very little protection from the sun, wind and rain. I plan to have the foundation poured before we arrive and then a team of 6 - 10 can build the rest in less than a week.
If you would have any interest in going on this trip please let us know. Individual cost would be around $1500 and include travel, food and lodging. We need to raise some extra money to pay for materials.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
School in Simone/Pele
Here is a list of the projects that Aid In Action is doing on an ongoing basis.
We financially support Pastor Exil monthly--
financially support the children' program with teachers and food, about 75 kids in program--
purchased music instruments, speakers and key board for church--
and just started another children's program in Citi Soley with about 52 kids right now, this area is poorer than where Pastor Exil is now--
paid to rebuild Pastor Farem's home--
assisted in finishing Oriol and Ruth's home, Oriol is the leader for the children's programs and they just got married in February 2011--
and brought medical supplies to Maranatha Children's Home and Brothers of Charity Hospital.
While the new school that the Japanese NGO built is a blessing to the community, it is rarely being used. Families do not have the money to pay for the children to go to school or for school supplies. We can help by paying the teachers and purchasing pencils, paper and supplies. We need 7 teachers and they will have a salary of $90/month. All the children in the community can go to the school for free and it is open to all of them. We expect that there will be around 300+ elementary age children at the school.
Please consider supporting this program by monthly sponsoring a teacher or giving toward school supplies. As soon as we have enough commitments we will open the school for all the community. Basic education is a great way to help an under developed, struggling nation to improve its prospects.
Also consider supporting the Brothers of Charity Hospital in Simon/Pele by being a supporter of Lisa's marathon fundraiser.
We financially support Pastor Exil monthly--
financially support the children' program with teachers and food, about 75 kids in program--
purchased music instruments, speakers and key board for church--
and just started another children's program in Citi Soley with about 52 kids right now, this area is poorer than where Pastor Exil is now--
paid to rebuild Pastor Farem's home--
assisted in finishing Oriol and Ruth's home, Oriol is the leader for the children's programs and they just got married in February 2011--
and brought medical supplies to Maranatha Children's Home and Brothers of Charity Hospital.
While the new school that the Japanese NGO built is a blessing to the community, it is rarely being used. Families do not have the money to pay for the children to go to school or for school supplies. We can help by paying the teachers and purchasing pencils, paper and supplies. We need 7 teachers and they will have a salary of $90/month. All the children in the community can go to the school for free and it is open to all of them. We expect that there will be around 300+ elementary age children at the school.
Please consider supporting this program by monthly sponsoring a teacher or giving toward school supplies. As soon as we have enough commitments we will open the school for all the community. Basic education is a great way to help an under developed, struggling nation to improve its prospects.
Also consider supporting the Brothers of Charity Hospital in Simon/Pele by being a supporter of Lisa's marathon fundraiser.
April update
We are beginning to see some progress in housing in Haiti since I was there in January as more homes are being built outside the city and people are leaving the tent cities to live out there. Although there are many still living in the tent cities there is a great deal of plots of land being sold or given to families if they would move out of the tents.
We got to be a small part of the rebuilding in March when a team of 5 went down from Colorado and built Pastor Exil's home. He now has the nicest home in the community. His home was part church, school and their personal home too and it collapsed in the earthquake. We finally got the lot cleared of the rubble this last January and built a kit home from an organization that provides work for the Haitians at their factory in Port Au Prince. The house cost less than $5000 to build with the additional concrete work needed and paint.
In February a Japanese non-governmental organization (NGO) was able to negotiate with the land owner that the tarp covered church sits on and was able to put up a more permanent structure with plywood walls and tin roof. They also built a 4 room school near the church with school desks and black boards. We had tried to get the landowner to let us do something more permanent than tarps, but they would not let us.
We are so grateful for all of you that helped make this reality for Pastor, thank you so very much. Also thanks to Jack and Sarah Krider, Steve Wilcox and Eli Willcox for coming down and sharing their lives on this trip.
We got to be a small part of the rebuilding in March when a team of 5 went down from Colorado and built Pastor Exil's home. He now has the nicest home in the community. His home was part church, school and their personal home too and it collapsed in the earthquake. We finally got the lot cleared of the rubble this last January and built a kit home from an organization that provides work for the Haitians at their factory in Port Au Prince. The house cost less than $5000 to build with the additional concrete work needed and paint.
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| Jack and Sarah cleaning up the lot. |
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| Sarah attracting lots of friends. |
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| The lady in the middle was one of our patients and came by to see us. She had a severely broken ankle that required surgery and pins. |
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| Pastor Exil always had a great big smile on his face. |
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The roof trusses going up. |
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| This is Kenny, Pastor Exil's father. He is 78 and had to have a part in the construction. He climbed around the roof like a youngster. |
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| There was always a group of onlookers. |
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| Inside the new church, doing our Saturday kids program. The benches we built in July 2010. |
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| Each week the kids get a meal before they leave, in many cases it is the best meal all week. |
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| This is what the finished house could look like when it is painted. |
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View of neighborhood from Pastor's new house. |
In February a Japanese non-governmental organization (NGO) was able to negotiate with the land owner that the tarp covered church sits on and was able to put up a more permanent structure with plywood walls and tin roof. They also built a 4 room school near the church with school desks and black boards. We had tried to get the landowner to let us do something more permanent than tarps, but they would not let us.
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