Monthly Archives: March 2025

Today was full of great joy and sorrow, the last day in Guatemala. We laid off the lessons for today, with Mr. Swift’s science experiment as an exception. He demonstrated a volcano eruption using baking soda and vinegar. Friday is PE day for the students so we joined them and played three different games. The games had elements of balance and multi-tasking at play, it was really fun! Lunch was similar to the other days, the kids playing with train tracks while most of the teenagers played spicy UNO (VERY complicated rules). Afterwards, the class did a butterfly craft, with some joining in on the final chance to make bracelets. It was a somber but sweet time making and receiving bracelets. At the end of the school day everyone circled up, and each student expressed their gratitude for their time with us this past week. I got so many hugs, I felt like crying, but I didn’t want to in front of everyone. Mr. Swift’s suggested that we write down our experiences from the trip, so I took some time to write about our trip knowing I’ll forget the details in the future. We all had the norm for lunch, sandwiches and chips, the pinnacle of all lunches. We then prepared and had the biggest block party I ever went to! It was incredibly fun, there were bounce houses, chalk slapping (if yk yk sadly), and some good carnival food. Everyone played and bonded with the kids, and we all had a blast! We had dinner after the party of course. Now dinner, nothing could best last night’s dinner, but even still, it was amazing. I’m glad I had the amount of money I did to give to the staff love offering. And that’s it, now I’m sitting in the lunch room, typing this out while getting hyped for the movie night (We’re watching Leo by Adam Sandler, great movie). It’s a bit sad that things are coming to an end, but we can be happy that we got to experience any of this in the first place. Buenos dias Lititz Christian familia.

-Phillipe Bonner

Today started out with an early morning debrief of yesterday at 6:30 am. We discussed the field trip to the body museum yesterday, and how we could improve our lessons for today’s time in the classroom. Following our morning meeting, we devoured a delicious and nourishing breakfast of pancakes, mango, pineapple, and bacon. Since the students got home late from the field trip, school started a little bit later than usual. However, our day was still full of productive activities including, a morning devotional about the birth of Jesus, the pronounciation of the English alphabet and vowels, sentence formation, and writing numbers 1-100 in English. The students were also treated to a fun science experiement lead by Mr. Swift. He explained the process of making elephant toothpaste which blew the students mind. After our learning time, we had a lunch break, painted countless pictures, made bracelets, and played some soccer. The rest of the day consisted of the last of our home visits to 7 families, and time to prepare for our last day and relax together.

Our fourth day in Pacaya has definetly been my favorite so far. We started off this morning with breakfast and coffee as normal, and then went straight over to the school. We started the school day with a skit of David and Goliath, which the kids laughed at and really enjoyed (especially since Goliath was played by Emma on top of Sarah). After the skit we started with review and then went into new lessons and did stations with the elementary, middle, and highschool students. Once we finished the lessons we had free time with the kids and chose to color, paint nails or play matado, which is a type of dodgeball game that a lot of the kids love. While some of us seniors were helping in the school, Joni and Milo had the opportunity to join the group from Florida to build stoves in two people’s homes. When they finished the stoves, and we finished the school day we went back to the camp, ate lunch and began planning lessons for tomorrow’s school day. At 1:30 we had the opportunity to go on a field trip with all of the Clubhouse kids to a museum to learn about the human body. The musuem was a blast, but my favorite parts were the bus rides there and back, and taking pictures with the kids at the museum. Overall, today was amazing, and it’s so cool to see God working throughout this week. Thank you for continuing to pray for us as we continue this mission!

-Lauren Hurst

Today started out with an early morning and the breakfast being eggs and toast. Yoniel, Milo, and Mr. Swift joined with the Florida baptist group to install stoves in the houses of two families. The process of installing these stoves included leveling, laying out stone, and installing pipe. They also joined the Florida group in doing some early morning home visits and this allowed us to see how groups who do missions trips for the long term benefits approach each and every individual family. This is different than the way that we approached this since we are only here for a week and we seek to show a good representation of the Clubhouse rather than our individual churches or communities. This morning the skies cleared and we were able to see that Mt. Fuego had officially stopped erupting. Phillipe was a part of the numbers station and they played a game where the kids threw a ball up in the air and had to clap as many times as they stated in english and this helped teach the kids numbers in english. They also were taught how to count up to 20 in english. They also had a craft where they made animal plates where they would draw an animal and put the name in english and in spanish. We played Matado and we were able to see how the kids act in a competitive environment and they had a lot of fun.

From Milo + Yoniel

Today begins the main section of our work at Clubhouse, starting our day off strong with egg casserole and refried beans from Wendy and her mother (our beloved cooks). And a volcano eruption, just 20 miles from Pacaya, Mt. Fuego erupted. We are in no danger here though, as the wind is keeping the ash cloud away and we are not in the debris zone. At 9:00am our much anticipated school week began. The school teachers here have given a few topics to give lessons on Ex. English words, colors, and numbers being a few. The school time started with the story of creation read by Sarah Smith. Afterwards we began a few activities to see what the students knew. Which turned out to be a lot, especially among the older students. Having a range of ages from 7 to 17 made this whole time very interesting and lots of fun. Between the scavanger hunt for letters around the classroom to the hand parrot craft and the wonderful game of soccer after lunch, today’s school day was successful. After the school day, we ran to lunch and then an hour and a half later piled on the bus for five more home visits. Following the visits we met up with on of the other groups here at Clubhouse for the week and played with the kids there. Coming back to camp, we went to the tienda, had supper, had a planning session for tomorrow’s school day, and our devos/reflection time. Thus ends day four of the trip.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support

-Jeremiah Young

Our day today started off with an early breakfast followed by orientation. Then the group split up in to two groups. One group helped to prepare and pack food bags for the families we will be visiting and the other group helped to prepare our school activities. Once we finished that we got onto the bus to head up the mountain to visit a couple of families. We visited six families with pairs from the group leading conversation and prayer.

When we arrived back at the camp the group began helping clean and do chores around camp. The boys helped another group with camp maintence while the girls finished school prep work. After that we attended church where we got to experience worship in both spanish and english. Finally we ended the day with dinner. cleaning and debreif.

Thank you for your prayers and support- Emma Christner

Today started nice and early for most of us, leading to a slow relaxing morning before we headed to the market. While waking up, we enjoyed delicious pastries, coffee, and fresh juice courtiously provided by Mr. Mike Parker and Clubhouse Guatemala. Soon after our breakfast, we headed to the market in Antigua where students got to experience traditional Guatemalan culture while buying souvineers for friends and family. This morning was filled with fellowship, site-seeing, spanish-speaking, and obviously lots of shopping.

After this, we headed over to a Clubhouse and LC favorite for lunch, Ta’cool! This traditional taco restraunt was a huge hit with favorites including the guac, summery drinks, and of course the phenominal tacos! This lunch certainly got us through the rest of the day. Soon after, we loaded up the cars and headed to the coffee plantation, La Azotea. We first toured the coffee museum, then the chocolate museum, and finally got a peak into the traditional and classically Guatemalan proccess of coffee making. After buying a few more souvineers, we once again piled into the cars and headed to Pacaya!

Throughout the day, we stopped at many famous Antigua landmaks, like the Arch (as seen on the back of the senior fundraising t-shirts), many old abandoned churches, and the beautiful central park, with it’s gorgeous fountain.

While there were a few bumps in the roads getting to our home for the week (pun intended), we are now peacefully awaiting our dinner, playing Dutch Blitz, and getting to know lots of new faces! Thanks so much for keeping up with our progress. We are looking forward to an awesome week of service and humility!

Thanks for your prayers and support! – Sarah Smith

After a long day of travel we made it to Guatemala!! The senior class left Lititz Christian at 2:00am for a 6:00am flight out of Baltimore. After a short layover in Atlanta, we arrived in Guatemala City by 12:30pm. We got stuck in some traffic headed to Antigua, enjoyed a delcious lunch at a local Guatemala establishment, and got to experience some local life walking around the main square of Antigua. We are thankful for safe and smooth travels and are excited to serve Club Guatemala this coming week!