Greetings from Guatemala: The Weekend

Monday, January 20, 2014

The Weekend

Our weekend began with a Saturday morning birthday party for a little boy in Cruz's preschool class. It was held at the Jump-n-Jive here in Brookhaven. It's pretty much a large building filled with several jump houses. It's a really full place for kids but quite noisy and busy for the adults (or at least it was for me). Cruz was so excited about going to the "playland". In fact when we pulled into the parking lot he told me, "mama, I am SUPER excited!". I think he's heard me say that a time or two, ha. We left David and Ben at home.

I could have guessed that when my child realized there was a game room inside he would lose all interest in jumping and playing. He spent a lot of time here pretending to play all the games. He was not alone. Several of the little boys hung out in the arcade with him.

After an hour of playing they all went into the party room for the party. It was a Ninja Turtle themed party. Cruz loved this mask and of course sat at a chair that had a red one.

all of the kids finding a seat

enjoying his cake and ice cream

This is the only picture I got of the birthday boy. I tried to get him and Cruz to stand beside each other but they were both way too busy for that.

When we got home from the party Cruz shared some of his candy with Ben. As you can see he enjoyed himself a blue sucker.

On Saturday night we drove down to McComb to see David's dad and stepmother. We spent some time visiting and watching the kids play and then ordered some Chinese take-out and ate together at their home. As always we had a great time being with them. On the down side I didn't take a single picture the whole night. (bummer)

Here are a few photos of the boys in their scrubs playing soccer on Sunday afternoon.

It looks like they were about to have a "knock down drag out" but they were actually playing together really well. We got them that inflatable goal and ball for Christmas and just opened it up on Sunday. We've been trying to spread out some of their gifts so they don't get so tired of everything at once. On another note they love playing doctor! Cruz likes to say that he is the doctor and Ben is his nurse, ha.

gooooooaaaaaallllllllll!

On Sunday afternoon we had a real treat. Back before we left the mission field to begin our time in the States we booked a Sunday to speak at Easthaven Baptist Church here in Brookhaven. Since then they have been planning for our time there. We have attended there a few times since being here and each time they have been telling us about their plans for our night. They seemed real excited about it and we for sure were. We did a short Lottie Moon promotion back in December but this was more of a time to give a presentation on our work and life in Guatemala. They called it a Fiesta de Guatemala. It was a really fun night.

We took this family photo before we left.

The program took place in their Fellowship Hall. They had all the tables decorated with flowers and Mexican hats. They also had one of these place cards on each table. We could also see posters all over the church property promoting the night. It just made us smile.

some of the promotional posters

The Women On Mission did a fantastic job with the food. They had a local Mexican lady make tamales and also fresh flour tortillas for the tacos. Our meal consisted of the tamales, tacos, nachos, and drinks. It was just a fun, festive time. Here are Cruz and I about to go through the serving line. The ladies in the background were a big part of getting the night together and preparing the meal.

our delicious food

getting ready to eat

We spoke there on our last Stateside Assignment back in 2010. We have since kept in touch with their Missions Pastor, Bro. Phil. He is so faithful to write and encourage us. He is the one who had the night lined up and we are thankful for him and his crew who worked hard to make the night a success. I missed getting his photo, but I know we'll see him again there soon.