Good Afternoon! I just got home from a 9 day trip to Guatemala on December 12th and wow was it AMAZING??!! God is GOOD! We had a small but mighty mission team of 14 but i have to say, this group was one of my FAVORITES! Its amazing what a small group can do to serve SO MANY when there is a mission to serve others, especially disadvantaged children & families.
Myself, a few board members and close friends flew in a few days early so we could have a bit of time in Antigua before the whole team came in. Once we landed we stopped by Claudia's house ( FTLOM's In-country assistant) so we could have lunch with her and also go through the boxes of donations i had shipped to her back in September. Unfortunately only one made it there for us to sort through but by the time i got back home, i got notice that 4 others boxes had arrived in Guatemala and needed to be scheduled for delivery to her house.
Mailing boxes to Guatemala ahead of time helps me alot as I am limited on how much I can actually bring to Guatemala with me in my bags when i travel on the mission trips. With these boxes we ship, we are able to fill them super full ( sometimes around 500lbs worth of donations) and it costs about $400 or so a box. Doug and I moved to a smaller home so we dont have as much room to store donations as we used to at the farm, so mailing donations throughout the year to Guatemala has been a HUGE help for us!
Our mission trip officially started on December 6th and that is always our Welcome Dinner & Sorting Night. I was BLOWN AWAY by the incredible amount of donations our team members brought with them to distribute to the various projects we served while we were there. We collected over 100 backpacks that we were able to fill with school supplies to give to Esperanza Juvenil ( a home and boarding school for disadvantaged children in their program starting in 3rd grade and staying through university) and also to children apart of an outreach program organized by Sin Limites ( a community outreach organization in Guatemala started by a friend of mine who serves disadvantaged families.)
Our first full day of serving was o December 7th and we spent it in San Antonio painting a home that was donated by Connie and Carlee Fenton ( an adoptive mother and he daughter who traveled back to Guatemala for the first time after her adoption years ago) in honor or Connie's parents who both passed away in 2020. The family receiving the home were so moved and were just precious. Nothing feels better than the feeling you feel when you do something for someone who can never repay you. Along with the home build, the family received a new bunk bed with bedding and pillows that has built in drawers for storage, a water filter, a stove and a tub filled with supplies for their new home. Connie and Carlee also brought lots of personalized goodies for the children and parents as well! FTLOM sends the money over to Guatemala once the funds for the home are donated to us, and then they start building the two bedroom & 1 bathroom/shower home. The homes are completed by the time our mission team comes and so our mission team will paint the homes while we are there which typically takes a few hours.
We delivered two new stoves to other families in need of safe stoves for their families and these were also donated by Connie and Carlee Fenton. We were also able to donate 4 water filters to families in need of clean water, of which two of those were donated by a team member, Andrea Matecki. We were able to meet two of the families receiving the filters and the others were being picked up by the families later during the week.
After presenting the family their home we went to visit Tino & Lesbi who started Ninos Con Bendicion, an afterschool program in San Antonio. Lesbi prepared an AMAZING lunch for our team and then we got to spend time with the kids in the program as they did some traditional Guatemalan dances for us in outfits that represented the villages they were from.
For the Love of Mateo has now officially paid to have 42 homes in San Antonio built for disadvantaged but deserving families who needed a hand-up. In addition we have built 4 homes in Yalu, a home in Haiti, provided the funds to build a school & community center in San Bartolome, & paid to have two classrooms built for an English Immersion School in Yalu. ( one of those classrooms were paid for through The TJ Braden Legacy Fund.)
On December 8th we drive to Quiche which driving there ended up being quite the adventure there and back! LOL. We ended up arriving about 2.5 hours late due to wrong directions given to our driver, etc... ALTHOUGH, when we arrived there were about 500 community members- families, children & community leaders lined up with signs and balloons to greet us! FTLOM partnered with School of the World to donate funds to have a playground build in this community! They received a 4 piece playground set and a basketball court and all of this was donated by FTLOM & one of our very generous team members, board members and FTLOM supporters Cathy Williams and her family. We decided to donate the playground in honor of Bernardo, who is the husband of Claudia and who passed away recently. She had no idea we did this and was completely surprised. Bernardo helped Claudia so much throughout the year with grocery deliveries to families and visits to the various projects we support throughout the year.
Cathy Williams and I actually flew to Guatemala in September to attend Bernardo's funeral and be with Claudia and our FTLOM family of supporters were able to raise quite a bit of funds to give to Claudia to help cover expenses and help her get back on her feet.
We are TRULY so grateful for each and every person who donated money to Claudia, i know it meant so much to her and she felt the love from our FTLOM family!
On December 9th we spent the morning with about 65 kids served through Sin Limites & dispersed backpacks, school supplies, soccer shirts, socks, coloring books and goodie bags. We had multiple Christmas crafts for them to create and a had a bead/bracelet making station that each of the kids got to alternate through. We also had a pinata for them which THEY LOVED and provided all of the kids and staff with a lunch that we had made the night before.
After leaving the children at the Sin Limites project, we were able to drop off donations to the nursing home in Antigua we support throughout the year and got to spend some time with some of our FAVORITE residents ! Andrea , one of our team members is an AMAZING dancer and had her own little dance going with one of the precious women living there. It was so beautiful to see! My daughter Adyson bonded with Moses years ago and so i was able to FT her so she could talk with Moses. He always tells me he wants to leave with me and fly home with me. LOL. ( I wish i could, we just love him!)
After the nursing home visit, we went to visit a new orphanage we wanted to check out in Antigua and one we were all BLOWN AWAY by! We got to spend time playing with the kids, making crafts and of course making bracelets. We had donations to give them as well as each child receiving a bag full of clothings, personal care and gifts. We all look forward to getting more involved in what they do and cant wait to get back to see them!
We were also able to drop off donations to the nursing home in Antigua we support and got to spend some time with
On December 10th we drove to Guatemala City to spend the day with the kids at Esperanza Juvenil ( a home and boarding school for about 200 kids.) We had about 60 or so kids spend time with us where we had our Christmas Craft Station. a bead making station, a yoga/dance session, and a soccer game set up for them to all rotate through. Afterwards we served them all pizza for lunch and handed out backpacks with school supplies to each child. Oh and we also had a pinata for the kids too! They always love those!
I have been sponsoring 6 kids at Esperanza since they were in 3rd grade and 4 of my 6 graduated high school last month and will be going onto University. Its been such a blessings to get to see them grow up and bond with them on each of my trips throughout the years. One of my 6 went home for a break earlier this year and her family didnt want her to go back and said she had enough school. She was so disappointed as she was only a year away from graduating. I think the family wanted her home to work, that part is heart-breaking. I have one of my kids left that will graduate next year!
On December 11th our mission team decided to spend their free day at Lake Atitlan! They go to visit two villages; a weaving village and a pottery village. The beauty you get to see all around you there is breathtaking!
When we got back that night we had our Farwell dinner with our team and then flew home the next morning.
In 2025, FTLOM has 5 weeks of mission trips scheduled! I will be leading three of those; in July, August and December. The other two will be happening in June and led by two of FTLOMs team leaders who have traveled to Guatemala on mission trips with FTLOM many times. If you are interested in going on a mission trip with us, check out our website link with all of our mission trip dates and then reach out to me to let me know which one you would like to join! We would LOVE to have you come with us! These trips are so humbling and always come at the PERFECT time.
Thank you to everyone who supported FTLOM in 2024 and for allowing us to continue doing all that we are able to do! None of it is possible without the support we receive from all of you!
Our FTLOM family wishes you a healthy, happy & prosperous 2025!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!xoxo, Val Edwards
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