Curitiba GMP Trip June 2013

This was Walt's 9th GMP trip and Nancy's 7th. Curitiba is special since this is where, in 2004 on his first Brazil trip, God originally touched Walt's heart about going to a foreign country someday and three years later we ended up where God wants us to be in Mexico and serving Him. This trip was a little different in that rather than performances at churches and masters classes in these churches, we were part of a program called Life and Music Space (LMS). This program began in Primeira Igreja Batista de Curitiba (PIB), the church we were working with. The program is designed to teach music to young people with the thought that focusing on music will help them take their focus off harmful distractions. The program was begun three or four years ago in the church and has since progressed to at least five schools with more to come. An important thing about the schools that are being contacted is that they are in the poorer parts of Curitiba, or the favelas. Currently there are approximately 500 students in the program. The sad part is that there are more students than instruments so the only opportunity they have to play is during lessons with no practice time at home. Our group, especially those from the US, were able to bring a large number of instruments and paraphernalia that was left behind for the program. We performed 13 concerts with six in church and the rest in the schools and locations associated with the program. Additionally about five masters classes were conducted where members of our team would work with instrumentalists in the various schools and at PIB.

There were a total of 21 of us in the group. Two were from Nairobi, Kenya, the two of us from Mexico and the rest from different states in the US. As usual, we all met for the first time when we got to Curitiba, had a two hour rehearsal and then off to the races. Here are some photos of our team.

To get a feel for PIB, the church we joined forces with, here are photos of the church. It is not only the size that impresses us but the fact that the building of the church is not complete, yet they worship and serve faithfully each and every day. They are so busy on a daily basis that there is someone at the front desk all the time and many people are continually coming and going. There seems to be something going on all the time, regardless of day or time of day that we were there.

In working with the people from PIB we made some new friends and renewed previous acquaintances in Brazil. Here are some photos of our Brazilian friends.

In support of the LMS program concerts were given at a number of the schools, some of which were already in the program and others that are interested in being part of it. The schools generally are in the poorer areas in Curitiba. All in all there was a large number of students and teachers, in some cases more than 200. In some of the schools that were in the program, the students gave us a sampling of what they had accomplished, which was very impressive. In each school we were very warmly welcomed. Here are some photos at some of the schools. 

We also gave concerts at PIB and at a Seventh Day Adventist Church. The concerts at PIB can be found here and the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is a very large, are here. The orchestra at PIB easily consisted of 200 members or more making it a very enjoyable experience.

Again, the major reason we were in Curitiba was to support the LMS program. To give a glimpse of the program here are photos of working at the various schools with students participating in LMS. From these photos it can be seen that the students demonstrated what they have learned, we gave them concerts and worked with them as they gave public concerts. As part of the LMS program our group was involved in providing music instruction for the various instruments the students were working with. Here are photos of the Masters Classes and here is a video showing Masters Classes in session. 

A special treat for part of our group was to work with a local Christian jazz band. This band is the result of GMP Jazz Band trips to Curitiba in the past. So it was a great feeling to see something like this continuing. The band consisted of 13 saxophones, 10 trumpets, 8 trumpets and rhythm. Our brass and saxophone folks loved it because they could play for the whole concert. Since there is only one drummer, bassist and keyboard, the rhythm section had to trade off. Here are photos of the band and here is a video of the band playing. The trombone soloist was part of our GMP group.  Walt is not in the video since he was shooting it, but he did get to play some of the songs. With that many instruments, the sound level was measured at 102 db. However, needless to say it was an unforgettable experience. For musicians, note that the Doxology goes from a brass chorale sound to a pegleg waltz - cool. 

In spite of the busy schedule, we did manage to get around to see some of the sites in Curitiba. For Nancy it was great that she could now also see some of the sites that Walt saw nine years ago on his first GMP trip. Here are some photos of parts of Curitiba. 

Something that has intrigued us every time we have been to Brazil is the graffiti, it really is art rather than the type of graffiti we are accustomed to. Curitiba did not let us down and here are some of the graffiti that we saw. 

And, of course, one of the key things of a GMP trip is experiencing the food in various countries. Brazil is especially noted for this. We ate at several Pizza Rodizio restaurants. This type of service is where they continually bring on slices of various types of pizza until you say "enough". Then they bring on the dessert pizza. Needless to say you are satisfied at that point. The best known Rodizio type of Brazilian restaurant is the Churrascaria, where it is various cuts of meat that are brought to the table. They also have a tremendous salad and dessert bar. Here are some photos of us eating.

Thailand Trip 2013

This photo is the reason we spend the first month of each year in Thailand.  This is our family over there.  From left to right in the back row are Pan, Sarah, Cindy, Josiah and Adam.  In the front, from left to right, are Sam, Lutiya (Sam is on Lutiya's lap), Isaac, Joel, Anica (in Cindy's lap) Nathan and Asia (in Adam's lap).  Pan is a second year college student in education, Lutiya, Sarah, Sam and Joel are in school and the other five are still at home during the day.  It is getting quieter each year.  (A relative term with 10 children) Next year only the two little girls will be at home during the day. With Cindy teaching at the kid's school, and more next year, plus homeschooling and teaching dance classes, and Adam working almost full time writing and working on a computer game with former coworkers from the US, we are so glad that they have a helper every weekday! As for our trip this year we took a large number of photos, since Walt has a new DSLR camera, but only show a subset in the album that can be found here.

Early Christmas at Hope House

Just before leaving CA for Mexico we helped plant a new church in Mountain View, CA. As founders of that church it was our dream that they would join us in the work God has provided for us. As we became more deeply involved in Hope House we kept up contact with our CA church, Grace Bible Fellowship (GBF). Last summer they sent a team down when they conducted a sports camp for the boys. After returning to CA they were so enthused a decision was made to make Hope House there first and main mission outreach. To kick start this goal they decided to provide presents for all the boys at Christmas. This resulted in 25 large boxes filled by various members of the church. The challenge now was one of delivering the packages. With shipping costs to Mexico being high and getting through customs, it was decided that the most efficient and cost savings way was for one of the church members to fly with the boxes as additional luggage. All of this to say that this was a real learning experience for all of us and there are several things that we will now do to improve future generous donations of this sort. This past Tuesday evening, Bob Douglas, the assistant pastor, flew down. As we waited for Bob at customs, we could see him slowly move towards the final doors. Then the doors remained closed for almost an hour and we never saw Bob that whole time and we became quite concerned. Clearly one passenger with 25 extra pieces of luggage raised a few customs officials eyebrows. Bob eventually did come out but it was too late to deliver the packages and we decided to do it Wednesday evening. Wednesday morning we all met for breakfast with Rodney and Kina because of GBF’s desire to know how better they can help not only Hope House but the staff and especially Rodney and Kina. Breakfast lasted four hours during which a wide variety of constructive suggestions arose. As a result we are looking forward to a great relationship between Hope House and GBF. Already on the books is a return visit in July to conduct another sports camp. God is indeed more than good, in fact, He is awesome and we are so thankful that we can serve in the capacity He has so generously provided for us. The blessing for us is to see God at work. For Bob, the blessing was to see the look on the boy’s faces as they carried their individual boxes into the house. Now comes the anxious waiting for Christmas to open the boxes. Here are photos of this event.

Israel October 2012 GMP trip

This was our third GMP trip to Israel. This posting will primarily consist of a photo album with appropriate captions and a few videos. The album is presented in chronological order of the places we visited this time. The blog on our first trip can be found here and our second trip blog can be found here.

The photo album for this trip can be found here. We were given a demonstration of how they fished on the Sea of Galilee in Jesus' time. The video of that is here. The interior front of the Church of the Nativity is quite ornate. Here is a video that shows the altar area of the Church. We were treated to two excellent views of Jerusalem, one was from the Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem and the second from Herodion. Here is the view from the Shepherd's Field and here is the video taken from Herodion. While we were in Old Jerusalem some people were celebrating a Bar Mitzvah. It was rather loud but interesting. It is a special honor for a boy to have his Bar Mitxvah in the Holy City (and expensive). The video for this Bar Mitzvah is here. We managed to take our harpist's harp in the Garden of the tomb. Just before having communion we had the luxury of hearing her play "In the Garden" and a few other numbers. Here is the video of "In the Garden".

Second Aquaponics System

Our first aquaponics system, described in our posting at this location, has been a resounding success. After completion of the system described in that post, we planted a variety of plants: lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini and even a papaya tree, and added fish to the fish tanks. All plants are flourishing and the fish continue to grow so the system is beautifully balanced. Since we had a small amount of funds left over we decided to build a second system much like the first. This brings Hope House closer to the point of being self-sustaining. We also have approximately 50 lettuce seedlings that need a place to grow as our first grow boxes are full. So it made sense to move forward with a new build. The one ingredient missing this time was volunteer labor to help in the construction. We put a call out to our sons in CA to see if they would be interested in coming down to help. We received a resounding "yes".  The visit was made even more attractive by scheduling the time for construction around "Dia de Independencia" celebrations in September, especially the "Regata de Globos" which is a fiesta of hot air balloons made out of tissue paper and the heat source being a cloth ring soaked in kerosene and then lit. You can get some of the flavor of that at this posting.

Our sons Andrew and Eric and friends of Eric's, Lexi and Tyler, arrived during the night prior to the regata. So we started off with a big bang. Sunday we toured Tlaquepaque in Guadalajara with them and then put them to work on Monday. Lexi and Tyler were able to work Monday through Wednesday and Andrew and Eric continued the remainder of the week. In anticipation of their arrival, we decided to have much of the basic construction completed so that they could finish the project in the week that they were here. Their labors were also supplemented by a local friend of ours, Charles.  After much mixing and carrying of cement the Mexican way, shown in this video, we did get the project complete except for a few odds and ends, like the sidewalks around the beds and the plumbing. We anticipate the second system to operational by the end of September. Here are photos of the construction of the second aquaponics system and the current status. However, we have to hold off on finishing the area around the new system and construction of the sunshade over the system. Once we get sufficient funds again, we will complete the second system to be on a par with the first system. By the way, this is the Mexican way of construction, when funds are available - build, if no funds are available - stop building. Until we get the funds, we already have 50 lettuce plants ready to transplant into the new system since the first system is already full. Fortunately we believe it is sufficiently cool at this time of year so the plants should be fine.

We kept the kids busy with the construction but they also had time to play an aggressive game of Ultimate Frisbee with the boys. Our sons' comment by Thursday was that as much as they were glad to spend time with us, they were looking forward to getting back to CA and recovering. Mixing and carrying cement by hand is hard work! Here are photos of the ultimate Frisbee game as well as the boys that played, which is not all the boys in Hope House since some were in school, and a photo of our youngest little two year old. When you see him, your heart melts.  

GBF Visits the Heines in Mexico

After five years of waiting we finally had the privilege of having our church from CA, Grace Bible Fellowship (GBF), visit us on a missions trip. It was with great anticipation that we waited for them. Their trip began with the whole group attending our little Spanish church, which has grown to approximately 150 adults from 60 when we first arrived. God stepped in again so that Nancy happened to be leading worship that Sunday, in Spanish of course. This was special since Nancy was the first worship leader at GBF. The team appeared to enjoy the service, although by US standards it is very long, and they got to meet a lot of people including connecting with the pastor. Some of the team members plan to keep in contact with our pastor as an encouragement to him. This is one of the many benefits that we appreciate resulting from a team visit of this nature. 

The overall trip was short and the team only had two and a half days to spend in a sports camp with the boys. The activities included basketball, ultimate Frisbee, and hockey. Yes, hockey in Mexico, although it was regulation hockey but on concrete. The boys were excited when they heard it would be a sports camp. This enthusiasm carried over to their involvement in the sports activities. The team members also had the opportunity to conduct Bible lessons with groups of the boys as well as special one-on-one times. When saying goodbye to the boys, clearly the boys would have liked to have more and took more time then scheduled to say goodbye. One of their questions, "are you coming back next year?" We definitely hope a team from GBF will be returning next year with an even much larger team and staying for a longer period of time. Here are photos of the basketball camp. Here is a video of the basketball portion of the camp. 

The last night in Mexico was dinner at our house followed by a summary discussion of their visit. Here are photos of the visit. We could see that even after three days, the boys really touched the team members. A trip like this will do that to you. Several of the team also became quite attached to our church and our pastor. This really touched us. As some of the team's family members had been concerned, one of the questions we asked was "Did you feel in any danger while you were here?" The answers from essentially everyone were very enlightening and interesting. Answers like: 

- "Although coming from broken and abusive homes, all the boys were cheerful and real gentlemen and we never felt any danger being alone with them whatsoever. "

- "Each evening at 9 or 10 pm we would walk down to the Ixtlahuacan plaza to get street tacos. Not only were they excellent but we survived the tacos and the walk." 

- "Rodney and Kina, the local missionaries, have four little girls and they live in the center of the village and feel totally safe." 

- "Another intern missionary has a little girl and they feel no danger." 

- "Contrary to what some people thought, the bottled water was just fine." 

Hopefully and prayerfully the team coming down and experiencing our little part of the world first hand will allay any fears for future teams. So now we are prayerfully anticipating a much larger team for a longer period of time next year.

Guatemala - July 2012

We joined Global Missions Project on another missions trip, this time to Guatemala.  This likely has been one of the best we have been on.  We had approximately 14 concerts and 6 workshops in the 8 days we were there.  Fortunately Guatemala is a Spanish country so we could conduct the rhythm workshops in Spanish without a translator.  One of those 8 days was committed to touring Antigua, Guatemala.  Because there was so much activity this blog will be organized by day and events for each day.

To begin with, here are photos of the group of 20 that met in Guatemala for this adventure. Our orchestra was supplemented with local musicians and the largest combined orchestra was 40 people.  So it was exciting. Before getting into the individual events there are some generic photos. These photos are of Casa Emaús, the guest house that we stayed at.   Here are photos of typical street scenes of Guatemala City and surroundings. One of the things we have always been intrigued by in each country we visit  is graffiti, shown here. In Guatemala it is very reminiscent of Brazil. The first few are just a series of graffiti but the last group is a mural of people holding hands and rolling a ball along. Another thing we noticed was the variety of buses. Besides the standard tour buses, there appeared to be two types, dull red old Bluebirds or Mercedes Benz, and very colorful. The dull red ones seemed to concentrate within the city and the fancy ones for intercity travel. In fact, these colorful ones always had the luggage loaded on top. Here are representative photos. We called the fancy ones "parties on wheels".

Of special interest were the volcanoes around Guatemala. Typically they are covered with clouds but we did get some good views as these photos show.

The highlight of any trip of this nature is eating, generally local food.  However, we ate a lot of fast food on this trip because we were always on the run and this was the easiest.  We are not used to that much fast food, and half way through the week we got tired of pizza.  Here are number of "eating" photos.

The rest of the blog will be by day and then location during that day.

Friday 13 July

Our first and ONLY rehearsal at Union Church.  This included some Guatemalan musicians.  Photos of this rehearsal are shown here.  We then went to the National Conservatory to conduct workshops and then give a concert but ended up hearing a Marimba concert and then giving ours as seen here.  A video of the Marimba concert is at this YouTube site.  We then visited Coro Filarmónico, which was very interesting.  Two Guatemalan brothers, Pedro and Manuel, felt called to reach out in a poor community to try to bring kids off the street through music.  They have been successful because they simply trust God to provide and He always has.  Here are videos of the choir singing alone,  the boys playing the piano, all of them playing hand bells and all singing with the piano. Understand that these people live in a bad environment and come from abusive homes and found Coro Filarmónico to be a place of refuge.  Many notes on the piano no longer worked so our group decided to help out.  Here are a couple of photos of the choir, a welcome sign and Manuel and Pedro after receiving the gift from our orchestra, which was almost enough for a new piano.

Saturday 14 July

We began the day by giving a concert at Universidad de Valle.  However, we did not get any photos as we rushed in and out.  After lunch we went to Centro Cultural Cristiano. Their website is at http://cccguatemala.com/. Apparently the leader of this organization felt led to go to an extremely poor and violent part of Guatemala City to reach the youth.  According to their website they are working with upwards of 1,200 young people.  What caught our attention was that they have an auto mechanics workshop, a metal workshop, art studio and English classes to provide centers of life skill training.  We then noticed a Rotary Club symbol and asked about it.  60% of the funding for the workshops comes from local Rotary Clubs who are in contact with a large number of clubs in the US and Canada.  Since we are Rotarians in our local club, this was of special interest.  His next project is a carpentry shop!! At this location we put on a concert on the street.  The local police blocked off the streets for us.   Here are photos of this opportunity. That evening we ended up giving a concert at Bethania Baptist church. Three photos of this concert are shown here.

Sunday 15 July

On Sunday we gave two concerts at Union Church.  These were our only English language concerts. Here are four photos of our time at this Church.  That afternoon we held workshops and gave a concert at Vida Nueva Church. We didn't get photos of the workshop as we were busy instructing the rhythm section in Spanish.  We rotated instrumentalists on each instrument to give them all a chance.  At the end of the class, with Nancy singing, we had a "near" perfect worship band.  As instructors this was extremely gratifying.  We did get pictures of the concert, which can be seen here.

Monday 16 July

This was our one tour day and so we went to Antigua, a historic city in Guatemala.  Here are photos of this adventure.

Tuesday 17 July

In the morning we headed off to the Alfredo Colom Music School to conduct workshops and give a concert.  Here are the photos of this opportunity.  In the afternoon we went to the Universidad Galileo.  This is one of the most prestigious universities in Guatemala.  Students are not allowed to work and so their parents have to  provide total support.  Cost is approximately $1,000 USD per month so by Guatemalan standards very expensive.  But it is an extremely beautiful campus.  All students have to take English and those in medical and dental school have to add at least one indigenous Mayan dialect because they are expected to work in the outlying communities.  Our director, Camp Kirkland, gave a lecture on music composition followed by Nancy lecturing on Sound Tech. These lectures were followed by a concert.  Here are the photos of the time at this university including the lectures and concert.  Here is a video of Camp and Nancy lecturing, at least small parts. Nancy found out just prior to the lecture that half the audience knew nothing about sound, so she started with the basics.

Wednesday 18 July


The whole day was spent at a very interesting orphanage, Camp Bernabé.  This orphanage has about 150 orphans on a well maintained and beautiful campus.  They have their own school, several houses with from 10 to 15 children in each with house parents, a garden, a carpenter shop and a well organized structure.  We met several short term interns and some folks that are there for a longer period of time.  This orphanage is part of a larger international organization Friends of Children Everywhere (FOCE).  It is not government supported so relies totally on private donations.  However, it is one of the best if not the best orphanage in Guatemala.  In fact, it has a waiting list of 1,000 children.  So there is a real need.  We did workshops and held a concert here.  However, there were no rhythm instruments so no rhythm workshop. So Walt found a guy named Tony who essentially does exactly what we do at Hope House so Walt had to compare notes.  Tony's next project is an aquaponics system!!  Just what we are trying to do in Mexico, Tony is trying to get Camp Bernabé to be self sustaining.  Here are pictures of Camp Bernabé.  One of our gals, Barbara, put a whole program together for us to interact with the kids.  So you will see photos of that.

Thursday 19 July


Thursday began with a ministry that really touched everyone.  It was in a place called Potter's House.  Their website is at http://www.pottershouse.org.gt/. Apparently 11,000 people scavenge the Guatemala City garbage dump to make a meager living.  This has been going on for generations. It is not just the poverty that is an issue, it is that they are considered second class citizens so they have no apparent hope.  Potter's House has been working to change that for the last 25 years and have been quite successful.  We went to listen to an orientation briefing and to give a concert.  Here are photos of this opportunity.  Later that day we were joined by a choral group, Virginia Voices International, who joined us for the last two days.  Our first combined concert was at Jesús El Buen Pastor church.  Here are photos of the concert.

Friday 20 July


This fantastic trip ended with workshops and a concert at Seminario Teológico Centroamerica (SETECA).  The concert was on live radio and the very large church was packed with a very enthusiastic crowd.  It was an excellent way to end this incredible trip. Here are a few photos of the workshop and concert.

Future


We are signed up to go to Israel in October of this year and to Curitiba, Brazil in June of next year.  If you would like to help us out on these ministry opportunities God has given us, you can do so by going to https://www.globalmissionsproject.com/givetoparticipant.php and supporting either one of us for Projects GMP-190 and/or GMP-200.  Although they can be quite exhausting they are extremely rewarding and we are convinced this is a ministry God wants us involved with. Any support would definitely help us in serving where God is leading us.