I love a parade!

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1
This week is our town's annual fair. Today started with a children's parade. There are other parades scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday as well. Today, though, was for all the children. Most of them marched in groups with their schools. They were dressed in many different types of clothing. Some wore western wear, some sport themes, some formal wear, some wore their school uniform, and even some wore their traditional indigenous dress. It was very cute!

Regina's tutor had grandchildren in the parade. When she came to tutor this morning, they decided to walk uptown and watch the parade together. Mrs. Jane went with them.
Here are a few photos:

Here are a few of the videos I took:

The little boy in the video below was soo cute. Once he got going, he did not know how to stop

More dancing kids

Adjusting to change

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you." Psalm 142: 8
Today started with our K'ekchi' class. We pretty much spent the whole time reviewing. We have a worksheet for homework that has 129 questions to translate and answer. Only 129!! That has been what we have done with the rest of our day.

We had our weekly Wednesday afternoon prayer time. It was our first one without the McGriff's. They left on Monday for their year long stateside assignment. We sure missed them being there.
They were not able to take their dog with them. He has been looking pretty sad already. It is going to be a long year for him as well.

As you can tell from this photo, it rained today. We are in the rainy season and rain is pretty common this time of year. Although, where we live, in Coban, it is common to get rain all year long. It also turned cool. We had to put on long sleeves this afternoon. Because it turned cool today we decided to eat soup for dinner. We thought about the heat that many of you are having in the States right now. We joked about the fact that it's July and we have on jackets and are eating soup. After dinner, we went uptown and got ice cream. It was a great treat. Jackets, soup, and ice cream- now that's a combination.

Another delivery service we enjoy

"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7
Because it is unsanitary, we do not use tap water here for drinking or cooking. We have to buy bottled water. We love the system we have here to obtain it. Every Tuesday and Saturday there are guys who go door to door delivering it in our part of town. We buy it in 5 gallon bottles. You have to turn in an empty bottle in order to purchase a new one. The price of the 5 gallon bottles are Q14. This is less than $2.00. Pretty cheap, huh, and for delivery. They will even carry it into your house and set it up for you. That's NICE!


This is a photo we took today of our guy delivering our water. After we pay him we always give him a snack. He grins real big and it seems to make him pretty happy.

We have our bottle sitting on a table in our kitchen. When we first arrived it was hard to remember to use it instead of the tap. This took some getting used to.

This is our battery operated pump. We love this thing. At first we had a pump that was hand operated. A team left us this one and we like it a lot.



The name of the water company is Salvavidas. This means life. We know that water is vital for life. We are thankful that we have such great access to drinking water. So many of the K'ekchi' have to walk far distances just to get enough water to get through the day.

Ye cui' chic cue chi timil

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1
This title means "tell me again slowly". We sure said this phrase a lot today. We returned to K'ekchi' class this morning after being out for 7 weeks. We were pretty rusty getting back into it but were glad to be back. When all possible we try to meet on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's. You can pray for us on these days from 9-11 because that is when we will be studying. Or, more importantly, pray for Ms. Fran as she patiently tries to teach us. ha We study at her house which is across town. There is another couple, James and Delrae, who study with us. It has been fun getting to know them and having them here to fellowship with us.

A typical class would start with reviewing and taking questions from our homework. This would be the first hour. We then take a coffee break. We take turns bringing snack. Today Delrae brought some homemade zucchini bread that was yummy! The second hour is spent on a new lesson. It seems as though the longer we study, the longer our classes are getting. Today we did not finish until 12:15!



Since our next team is a medical team, Ms. Fran gave us a five page handout today that has all medical terminology on it. We spent a good bit of time translating it and discussing it. The good thing is that it will help us some in the clinic but the bad thing is Ms. Fran will think we should be fluent with it now since we "discussed it in class".

Although we look tired here, this is actually a before class photo. We joked that we should have taken an after photo to show you the difference. We were give out by the time we left. We are just trusting that with a lot of faith and prayer one day we will get it!

Danger Ahead

"for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills." Psalm 50:10

This is a site we encountered today as we rounded a curve on our way home from the city. It is common to see this on the "off roads", but not too common on the main highway. Usually when there is an accident or a danger ahead someone will cut a tree branch and place it in the road to let cars know to slow down and take caution. This has been very helpful to us in our travels. Today though there was no warning as to what was up ahead. We had no choice but to hit the breaks and pass very slowly. Life's highway seems to be the same way. Sometimes we see things coming and sometimes they sneak up on us all of a sudden. It is good to know that we serve a God who is all-knowing. Nothing catches him by surprise and he is never caught off-guard. He knows what we are facing even before we do. For that we are thankful.

We returned home safe and sound. We finished our fifth trip to the city this month. We will be happy to see July pass by. It has been quite busy for us. We have two weeks before our next team arrives. We hope to squeeze in some R&R during that time.

Children of Guatemala

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14
We just finished a new video highlighting some of the children we have met this past year. Check it out.

Not lacking for fast food

"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:25
One of the things we like about Guatemala City is the variety of food options we have. You can find just about any type of food that you desire to eat. Since we eat a good bit of typical food while out doing our work we like to eat American style when visiting the city. There are a number of American fast food restaurants here. We have McDonald's, Burger King, a brand new Wendy's, Subway, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Applebee's, & Friday's. A few months ago they built a Taco Bell close to the mission house. We ate there for lunch today. One of the things we love there is papas supreme. This is french fries covered with all of the normal nacho toppings. They are yummy! Most of these places serve the same things as in the states. Each of them will have a few items that would be considered more typical to Guatemala. For instance, the McDonald's here serves fried chicken, and McPatatas. These are steak fries, or as we call them around our home- tater logs. They also serve a typical breakfast platter. This would be scrambled eggs, refried beans, platanos, cheese, and tortillas. Now, if they would just build a Krystal and a Sonic........

Our Trustee Visit Update

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." 2 Thes. 2: 16-17

Thanks for your prayers. We returned safely to Guatemala City this afternoon. We had a wonderful time showing the trustees our work. We were able to make several visits while we were out. They visited the K'ekchi' Baptist Association office and bookstore, a radio station, a study center, 2 missions, and 4 churches. It was a fun and enjoyable time for all. They were a great group to host and they encouraged us more than we ever could have imagined. Pray for their safe return home on Saturday. Here are a few photos of our trip:

Our Trustee Visit

"Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." Galatians 6:10

This week we are having the privilege of hosting two IMB trustees. They are here to visit and learn about the K'ekchi' work. We have Sharon, along with her husband Joe, and Kathy. They arrived yesterday. Today we will be heading out to one of our regions (Chisec) and making several visits. We will be trying to squeeze in as much about the work as we can in one day. We will be joined by one of our K'ekchi' missionaries, Bro. Federico. We will be returning to Coban and then on to Guatemala City on Friday. Please pray for our travels.

A Recent Find

"But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful." Psalm 68:3

One of the things we miss here is Dr. Pepper. You can buy several Pepsi products but Dr. Pepper is a rare find. There is a warehouse store in Guatemala City called PriceSmart that sells it. This store is similar to a Sam's Club. They sell a lot of American products. The bad thing is the price is almost $12.00 for a 12 pack! We have purchased this once since arriving. It was for Regina's birthday this year (she loved her present).

There are several gas stations between Guatemala City and Coban. We recently stopped at one that's about half way between the two cities. We were very happy to see that they sold Dr. Pepper. The price there is Q9.50. That's about $1.25 a can. That's pricey but it's a special treat we buy only when we go into the city and stop at that store. It sure makes those 4 hour trips not so bad when you can enjoy something you like along the way.

A chicken with its feather's ruffled

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

We have often heard the phrases, "he/she got their feather's ruffled" and "I'm having a bad hair day". Well this chicken meets both of those labels. We encountered it and a few others like it Sunday on our hike. We have never seen one quite like it before. It was a funny site.

It seems everyone has days where you just don't seem to be at your best. It's in those moments that scriptures such as the one above and just basking in the fact that you are a child of the King bring you the most encouragement. Sometimes it's good to be reminded that it's the inside that counts. Their chickens may be ugly, but they sure are good.

We are about to make our fourth trip into Guatemala City this month. We will return tomorrow afternoon with a group of trustees who are coming to see the K'ekchi' work. Please pray for our travels.

They give what they have

"God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7
A couple of times I have written about the different offerings people give here during services. Some give money, some give food, and some give animals. We would say the most common animal given is a chicken. Yesterday there were two animals given. There was a chicken and a duck tied to the table upfront. It did not take us long to notice it and get tickled. The duck sat real still through the whole service but the chicken (as usual) moved around and tried his best to get loose. I took photos of both but I had to zoom in and turn off my flash. They are not very good quality pictures.

Almost a typical Sunday

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, "The Lord reigns." 1 Chronicles 16:31
We say almost because it is normal for us to drive long distances each Sunday to visit one of our congregations. Today though was an exceptionally LONG day! We left home at 5:30 A.M. and did not return until 5:45 P.M.!!! That is a little over 12 hours of travel. Round trip we spent 7.5 hours driving/riding, 2+ hours in the service, 50+ min. hiking, and 1 1/2 hours eating lunch with the pastor. It was a great service though, and the people were really appreciative that we came. The highlight of the day was getting to see a young couple make a profession of faith. After that we had a dedication service for their baby. Please pray for them, Manuel & Maria, as they begin their new life in Christ. Here are a few photos from our day.