Thank God for Good Friends and His goodness!

Last night a friend of ours emailed us to let us know we had a few bills that have been finalized and payment was due. We knew that a few bills would not be ready for payment before we left and this was not a surprise to us. This did cause us to go into our bank account to make the payments. While looking in our bank account I made a few calculations in my head to see how much we could do with the money we brought. I wasn't worried but it did cause me to think. I thought of different ways to make money here in Guatemala or maybe I could go to Mexico or the States. I even thought about returning to Canada if I needed to. All these different thoughts and they all had to do with ME providing the funds. I know that God is our ultimate provider but I must say I like to help Him along. As I went on thinking about money I did grow a bit concerned because my family and I want to serve God as Missionaries indefinitely.

I needed to give it to God but I didn't.

I woke up this morning to a great email from our friends Tyler and Karen. The email went something like this:

Our friend Karen and her husband Tyler heard from God and are going to hold a fundraiser for us in the month of November.

Karen is a professional photographer and she is donating her time by taking Christmas photos for a nominal fee and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to us! Karen and Tyler are awesome. They heard from God and they are obeying Him. I forgot to mention. Tyler is unemployed right now and this is a huge sacrifice for them. I am so happy, not only because they are helping us out but I am more happy at the blessing they are going to receive.

If you live in the Vancouver area please contact Karen for your session (info below). If you are not able to book a session or live too far away please pray for Karen and her business. I would love to see her prosper in a huge way.

Thank you God for gently reminding me that this is your mission and not just ours. We are not alone in this. We are you hands and feet but ultimately you are in control. We will do our part and do all we can, but it is comforting to know that You are in control.

Karen Dyke Photography
http://www.karendykephotography.com/
Coquitlam BC 604.464.8490

PS all the pics I take are because of the generosity of Karen and Tyler. They donated a camera to our missionary cause.

Thanks again Karen and Tyler for you have done and all you continue to do.

the virags

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

it's dangerous in Guatemala..only when your doing construction at home

So the kids and I had a few building projects to do today. Each room needed shelves so we could put our clothes on them. We decided to have a quick lesson on wood cutting, proper use and safety of air tools, how to use a square and general clean up. As you can see from the pictures the safety part of the class was ignored. If you look close at the picture of Shawn's finger the nail went all the way through. The picture of Carsten's leg shows what happens if you stand in front of a table saw when the blade kicks back the wood. All three shelves were built for $58 (labour was free). Even though we had a few minor injuries the class was good.

If anyone is interested in custom built books shelves we are all for hire

Rates

Shawn - $35/hr shelves are guaranteed to be straight, square, sanded and paint of your choice
Addison - will work for video games or a used t.v., work will be ok, reasonably straight, not square at all, sanded but not painted
Carsten - will work for bread, he loves the pan (bread) in Guatemala, work will be done
Emmas - will work for Q8 ($1 US dollar) she still doesn't know the money thing yet

Up and running.

Here is the latest update...

We are settling down in Guatemala. We found a nice little 3 bedroom apt. with 2 baths within the first 24hrs of being here. Chantelle and I love the market. It is so cheap and the people are interesting to watch and speak to. We finally have our internet. It wasn't easy getting internet because we had to go to the store ourselves and speak our broken Spanish. Shawn will be preaching at a men's conference in 2 weeks(keep him in your prayers please). Our friends left today and Chantelle cried with Oriana. We bought a stove today, it has no oven and it can fit in a suitcase. It reminds me of a camping stove with the external propane tank. We don't have a fridge yet so we still have our cooler going but we think it's leaking. We are all really missing our friends back at home but we will be ok. This is when all the fun starts...no one to translate, no one to drive us around and no one to help. But God is always with us.. He promises to never leave us and He knows Spanish, and His way around Guatemala. We are the Virag's and we are missionaries.

Thanks for all you prayers and support.

The Virag's

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

We are at the border of Guatemala

So we made it through MEXICO, yeah. It wasnt easy but we did it. We had to endure 7 police stops just because we are white, most asked for money, and one told me he had a pistol. We drove over 7100kms, had over 23 gas stops, tons and tons of topes(speed bumps that just killed the bottom of my van), multiple military stops, a few stops by people who told us they were police, only 3 or 4 unexpected stops for peeing, one emergency stop to a mechanic to fix my lights because the bumps were so big they ripped all my wiring off and my head lights didn't work either. Its very hot here and I sweat 24 hrs a day.

I took my first shower from a garbage can the first night we got here. You fill up a clean garbage can with cold water, use a small bucket and dump the water over your head, wash and repeat as necessary. I haven't seen a house with hot water yet but because its so hot here we don't mind the cold water. Can't drink the water of course so all of our drinking water is bottled.

We have been invited to stay with Mario Alonzo for as long as we are in Mexico...his family is very nice and we are blessed to know them. Mario has an office that is not finished yet so it is our new temporary house. The office has no lights, shower, hot water or toilet seats but we are missionaries so we don't mind.

We visited the local churches and communities to check out the conditions. Our friends in Mexico are praying that we stay here to do our missionary work. Some of the conditions are terrible here. We met many locals and all of them were so nice. It's amazing to me when we asked them how they were doing most of them said good or very good, but all of them had nothing. In these areas people have little or no food. We met a family of 7 that had one potato, 5 tomatos, 1 onion, 1 chayote, tortillas, sugar, and coffee and nothing else. It was heart breaking. To watch them interact as a family and see them love each other, laugh and have a good time was great. We who live in Canada and the US have got it so good. These people didn't even own shoes.

I was presented with a great local dish and would have been offensive if I said no. It had everything in the bowl that I swore I would never eat, a dead fish with head and lips included, and shrimp with head and tenacles as well. My wife was so proud of me because I ate alot of the food. Thank God for helping on this one.

The hardest thing that we saw to date was a blind pastor. We were able to see his house and talk to his family. It is customary when people come over that you prepare food and drink for them but this man had nothing. I mean nothing. When we were introduced to the pastor he told us that he had no gold or silver and nothing to offer us except the power of God. He prayed a blessing over us. It was too much for me (Shawn) to handle and I broke down and cried. It was overwhelming to see such generousity and love encased in poverty. Addison mentioned that our dogs live in better conditions than some of these people.

The children are loving it here and would be happy to live here. They are enjoying Miguel's family as well as Alonzo's. They are trying hard to learn the language. We are so proud of their attitudes.

I have much more to share but we have to leave and eat with some more people.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.


the virags

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

What a Day in Mexico!!!

Pastor Brad, you were right, we haven't a clue what we are getting into!

So, we made it to the border today but not without incidents. Took us 6 hours to get the papers we needed to enter and cross through Mexico. This process in Canada or the USA would have taken approx. 10 minutes. However, the people at the first port of entry told us they couldn't give us the necessary papers and we would have to wait until tomorrow. The other option that the nice Government man gave us was to give him approx $300US and he would make it happen. We opted out of his options and we went to the other port of entry.

Two minutes into our travels in Mexico we met our first police man who said we were speeding (but we weren't). He asked us to follow him to the police station to pay a big fine. He also had a second option which was to pay him directly and avoid all the trouble. Our great new best friend Mario Alonzo helped us out of the 2 expensive situations and at that point we had spent no money on bribes. We don't see how we would have been able to do this without Mario Alonzo.

After finally arriving at the next port of entry we were not able to be helped again, but wait, it gets better.

We then went to the third port of entry and there the fun began. We spent a long time there, approximately 4 hours and this is what happened:

-Mario did all the speaking (thank GOD)
-he spoke to 2 people
-first guy said things looked good, second guy wanted $100-$150 to make it happen
-our options were to go back to USA, get another hotel and hire a lawyer, then come back to Mexico and pay a ton of fees (much more than necessary)
-after speaking with Miguel, we decided it was cheaper to pay the cash to the Government man. We would not go higher than $100US.
-he charged Mario Alonzo $100US but after hearing about us being missionaries and God not being happy with him the man gave $40 back and must have thought that God would be happier with him for not taking as much.
-it wasn't over yet
-we then went to the other nice people in the office and paid the regular fees
-then we went outside...talked to more nice people who asked us to empty the trailer. I was not happy, but I did it.
-after the nice lady looked in the almost empty trailer she asked us for more money
-Mario Alonzo explained to the lady we were missionaries and we were going to help people, and told her that God would not be happy with her either. Not only did she not charge us any "extra" amounts she actually reduced the allowable charges by 85% due to the number of people in the van
-cost us a bit
-saved a ton
-God is awesome!!!
-5 minutess after we left the border...you guessed it... we were pulled over again
-police asked for the proper papers which we showed them...this police sent us on our way without any requests for money. We were relieved.
-had to stop at a check point approx. 1 hour away... yep they asked for money too... unbelievable..Mario got us out of this one too.

We have never prayed so much in one day in all of our lives.

Sounds exciting doesn't it?

Well, we made it to the hotel and we are going to have a well deserved rest now.

Thanks for your prayers and support. Please cover us with prayer. We will be with Miguel and Oriana in two days. We can't wait.

Goodnight all,

The Virags

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.


-

A Scary Moment Looking for Documents

So today was our last day to drive in the states. We ended up in McAllen, Texas around 6pm to check into our hotel.

We were able to celebrate Emma's birthday today in the van and dessert at Burger King. Happy 12th birthday to my little girl who is growing up fast(love dad).

It was cool to drive along the Mexican border, you can see it while driving in Texas. The drive was no problem. We had a great hot breakfast before we left.

I laughed at my wife so hard today. It was getting hotter and hotter as we got more south. In order to keep our van from overheating we don't run the A.C. I didn't find it that hot but apparently my wife did. She had Addison get her a cup of ice and water. Chantelle took the ice and water and rubbed it on her head, arms, legs, back, and where ever else she could get it. I found it so humorous and laughed at her hysterically. Chantelle told me she was so hot that she couldn't continue in the van anymore. I'm not sure if she realizes that it will continue to get hotter and we still have 3 days of driving in Mexico. lol She will be fine. It was a momentary unrest.

We almost forgot to tell you that we dodged a dead skunk on the road. As we heard a loud thud we realized that we centered the trailer over the skunk and bashed it instead of dodging it. We also hit a bird and numerous butterflies. Hours later at a gas station Chantelle noticed that the skunk took out our wiring harness and the paved road ground it away to nearly nothing. There happened to be a marine store across the road where we bought the replacement. I'll have to put that on in the morning. The strangest road kill I have seen was still the flattened rabbit blowing upright in the wind. This trip has been full of laughs. The kids are up beat and loving the ride.

We have friends who are currently living in Mexico named Miguel and Oriana. Many of you know them. They have a friend who flew to Texas to conduct some business and offered to drive with us the 3 days through Mexico. This will be a big help to us since we will be in Mexico with a Mexican.

Our new passenger doesn't know it yet, but he will have the privilege of driving with a husband, a wife, 3 children, and 2 dogs in a van with no A.C. pulling a trailer which prevents the vehicle from going any faster than 100km/hr. He doesn't know this because he speaks little English and we are not at all able to translate the above sentence in Spanish. If I were him I would have taken a plane home. haha He is a kind man.

Now for the scary document part. We have a book that we call "The Guatemala Book" which contains all of our important immigration information, canine documents for entry into Guatemala, notes from our Pastors', Guatemalan contacts, etc. It is our life line and, well, you guessed it... we lost it. Chantelle and the kids tore apart the van and I looked through the first half of the trailer and we found nothing. Chantelle insisted that it was in the trailer. Right when I had given up looking she persisted and climbed in the trailer. Chantelle found it safely inside the back pack she forgot that she had placed it in. She was thrilled and our van is organized and ready to go for tomorrow.

Well, that is all for now. The next time we write we will be in Mexico. Thank you so much for your prayers for our safety. We need you.

Thank you,

The Virags

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

somewhere in texas

So we made it to our last state, Texas. It's a cool state, and the drive has been good. A quick praise report... our friends prayed for us before they left and they prayed for great gas mileage and no problems with the van... since then we have gotten over an extra 100 km's per tank, our van hasn't overheated and our tranny is not making any noises.. how great is our God!

We will be meeting Mario later tonight. Mario is a friend of Miguel's who was nice enough to offer to drive through Mexico with us. This is a big deal and could help us out a lot. We will be seeing Miguel and Oriana in a few days.

Please continue to pray for us.

We will be getting ready to start working on our construction projects soon as well we are wanting to do a soccer ball drive. A soccer ball will cost approx $10 US and we are hoping to get 50 balls to donate to the local children
If you are interested in helping us minister in Guatemala
Make cheques payable to:

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R8X8

When making cheques, please make sure you do not put our names on the cheque. Just drop a quick note in the envelope. Please indicate what amount is for soccer balls.

thank you,

the virags

Saw the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon

We are now back on the road. We dropped our friends, TJ and Lin, off at the airport today and said good bye to Chantelle's sister and brother-in-law. It was a great visit with them.

It was a quiet day for the most part. We took an unexpected stop at the Hoover Dam. That thing is really cool. I can appreciate it from both the engineering and construction fields. We didn't plan on stopping but after driving over it, we just had to stop for a few pics.

We then drove to the Grand Canyon . As we were driving down the 22 mile gravel road we decided to drop the trailer off and stop for a quick pee. Chantelle and the kids had to go so I was standing at the road when I heard screams from Chantelle and then the kids. Their feet and shoes were full of thorns from all the cacti trees. It was one of the most painful stops so far, lol. The thorns pierced through Chantelle's flip flops and got stuck in the runners and Crocks. It was fun and worth the adventure.

The Grand canyon is amazing, colourful, and massive. God is so creative. We have a ton of pics. THERE ARE NO RAILINGS AT THE EDGES!!! That was mind boggling to us. We threw rocks over the edge for Tyler and yelled for Karen, they wanted us to do both for them. The kids loved that.

It was a good day. We took longer than we expected today so we didn't make it into Texas, should be there tomorrow.

Just wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and financial support. As asked we have included the address for tax deductible donations:

Make cheques payable to:

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

Hope you enjoy the pics from today and feel free to leave comments. We would love to hear from you all.

the virags