Sharing Our Story

Back in March I blogged about our visit from the IMB media team.  They came down to do a story on the Chorti work and our partnership with the Agriculture Center in Honduras.   This week the articles and video that they produced from that visit were made public.  We pray that God would use these media projects to raise prayer support for our area and that we would begin to see great fruit among the people that we are sharing the Gospel with here in Eastern Guatemala.

Would you join us in praying?  Check out the links below and pray as the Lord leads you.  

Here is an article about our work in the village of Lagunetas:  Small Gains

Here is an article about the Ag Center work in Honduras:  Strong Partners 

 Here is an infographic about the Chorti people group:  Another Chance

To learn more about how you can go, give, and pray visit:  www.imb.org.

Things Are Bumping Along Nicely

Well TGIF!  I, for one, am glad to see the weekend arrive.  It's been a great week, but a busy one.  I'm ready to sit down and catch my breath.

Monday was spent catching up on laundry and things around the house.  David had a lot of errands to do in town so he was out and about most of the day. 

We headed up the mountain on Tuesday morning to the village of Lagunetas with plans to make a home visit.  But, as we were driving up the mountain we encountered the family we were going to see walking into town.  So instead we ended up just visiting in the road and then traveled on.  We cut through the back side of the mountain and came out in the village of Chanco.  There we were able to make three good visits and remind the ones we saw along the way about our upcoming team who will be working there.  We were gone the whole morning and returned to town just in time to pick Cruz up from school at 12:30.  I did not take a single photo all morning.  ugh.

We got another early start on Wednesday morning when we traveled up the mountain to help with the Bible classes in the village of Tunuco Arriba.  We picked Mrs. Diana up in Camotan along the way.

Here is Mrs. Diana singing "This is the Day" in Chorti with the children.  The ones you see standing off in the background were several mothers.  They giggled and chatted with each other all the while listening to every word Mrs. Diana said.  It was great to see them also learning even though they don't realize it.  I hope we have lots of mothers come each week and hang out.  Maybe one day we can start a separate class just for them.

 

here's a short video of the singing

Bible story time with the K- 1st graders

Mrs. Diana with a few of the precious little girls

handing out color sheets to the 2nd - 6th graders

me and Mrs. Diana

While we are in the school David takes the boys off to play.  This week they passed a lot of time playing on this huge rock.  They go on little hikes, play in the dirt, climb up and down hills, etc.  It's just a fun outdoor morning for the boys and they love it.

It was in the high 90's when we returned home and we were all hot, tired, and thirsty.  We had stopped on the way home and bought some bananas from a street vendor.  I took a few bananas and added some ice cream, ice cubes, and a little milk to the blender and made us some smoothies.  They were a great afternoon treat.

our yummy smoothies

We had just enough time to catch our breath before we headed out again to take Cruz to soccer lessons.  He took lessons back in 2013 up until we left for our Stateside Assignment.  He has asked numerous times since we have returned when he can go again.  We waited until we moved and got settled for him to start again.  His first day back was Wednesday.  I love that we are now less than a five minute drive away!  That is going to be nice.

Cruz at soccer (I let him dress himself).

He has two boys from his class at school on his team.  He was thrilled when he saw them there.

Here's a short video of them warming up.

And here's little brother having fun on the swings while Cruz was practicing.   At first he got a little mad because he couldn't play with them.  Next year we hope to have them both on the field.

I mentioned in my last post that Cruz had two class presentations due this week at school.  Here he is with his hygiene poster.  We rehearsed those three lines over and over and over.  I think he ended up doing pretty well presenting it to his class on Thursday morning.

Cruz ready for his class presentation and P.E. day on Thursday.

That afternoon we traveled back up the mountain to lead Bible study in the village of Muyurco. 

Here are the boys trying to chase off a few cows that were hanging out near where we leave our car.

hiking the trail to Bible study

our family in Muyurco

(for whatever reason Cruz was pretending to be a bear)

Our study times went really well.  David taught the adults and I taught the children.  We also got to love on that precious newborn that we drove home from the hospital a few weeks ago.  We learned that they named him David.  He's precious and I hope to get a photo of him soon.

After we finished we hung out a while visiting and enjoying some homemade orange drink the lady made us.  I looked out at one point and saw the boys had gathered some pieces of wood and made their own see-saw.  They were playing so well together.  It made me smile.  It ended soon though when I noticed Cruz had Ben standing on one end while he began pouncing on the other because he wanted to "send his brother flying into the air".   ha The joys of boys!

playing on their homemade see-saw

Here's a short video of them playing

It was dark before we got back into town.  We stopped for pizza before returning home.  We gave new meaning to the phrase "falling into bed".  We were all tired.  Three days in a row of mountain roads had my "getting old" body feeling the pain.  We had spent several hours this week beating and bumping ourselves around but what a privilege.  I love what we do and getting to do it as a family brings me much joy.  

We got a note when we picked Cruz up from school on Thursday saying classes for today had been cancelled.  So I'm spending the morning doing some homework with him and getting ready for a visit from our Ag partners Dan and Noe.  They are traveling over from Honduras this morning to meet with us.  We anticipate a great time together.    I'm not sure what all the weekend holds but I plan to spend some of it with my feet propped up, ha.  David will have Bible study in Nearar on Sunday morning.  We would appreciate your prayers for his time there.  I'll see you back on Monday with a little weekend update.  Hope you have a fun one!

New Beginnings, Old Friends, and A Little Silliness To Top It All Off

Our week got started with a Monday morning trip into town to run some errands.  We spent over an hour in the bank.  Well, David spent over an hour in the bank and I spent over an hour in the car trying to entertain two restless boys.  Not fun- not fun at all!  We've been asking around for a while about schools in Chiquimula and everyone we have asked (Americans and Guatemalans) have recommended one particular school.  It's good to know that our search got narrowed down really quickly and it kept us from running all over town trying to investigate ourselves.  We made a visit to that school and from just looking at the facilities I was very impressed.  We picked up the registration information, asked a few questions, and left to think over our decision.  It is a bilingual school and we are certain that we will start Cruz there to try it out.  The only problem is the class schedules.  The hours for Cruz's class will be 7:15 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.  The hours for Ben's class will be 8:00 until 11:15.  There is no way I can be running back and forth taking them and picking them up so I think at this time we are only going to register Cruz.  We hope to do that next week.  We picked up a few grocery items, grabbed a pizza for lunch, and returned home.

On Tuesday David led his first Bible study in the village of Muyurco.  A visitor to his Bible study in Nearar invited him to come and have a service in his home.  It went very well and we feel certain that it could turn into an ongoing regular Bible study time.  Would you pray for this new village we will begin targeting?  Pray for this family that has opened their home to us and the other two families that are interested in studying with them.

some of the sweet smiling faces from the village of Muyurco

This is the man that invited David to his home.  Would you pray specifically for him?

His finger was cut off with a machete so he uses a PVC pipe to play the guitar.  That's cool. ha  He played a few songs before David taught.

 

On Wednesday morning we had a visit from one of the Honduran Ag workers, Noe, and his wife Blanca.  He came to discuss the work with us and we made plans to visit several Guatemala villages together during the month of February. 

David, me, Blanca, and Noe

 

That evening we attended a birthday party in Jocotan for two of Cruz's former classmates at El Olam.  Carlos and Diana are brother and sister who will be turning 6 and 5 this month.  They had a joint party that was Spiderman and Disney princess themed.  It was a really nice party and my boys had a blast!

some of the decorations

my boys playing with Carlos and Diana

They had a clown there that did a wonderful program for the kids (and adults).  Before he got started he made balloon swords for all the boys and balloon poodles for all the girls.  My boys loved sword fighting with all the other kids.

The clown did several games.  Here he called up three boys for a competition.  Cruz eagerly jumped up and was the first one in line.  He ended up winning and we were very proud of him.

Here's the birthday boy and girl with one of the pinatas- a spiderman.   The other one was Snow White for the girls.

My boys love birthday parties because they know they are going to get lots of candy and cake.

On Thursday morning David needed to make a visit to the village of Chanco to make sure everything was still lined up for our upcoming medical team.  Before he left Ben asked him, "can I go to work with you Daddy?".  So he took Ben with him to the village. 

Ben and David

 

That evening we made a last minute decision to go eat supper at a local restaurant in Jocotan.  It's kind of a rural place so it's never crowded and the food is cheap and delicious.  I always get a grilled beef plate and the boys eat typical egg plates.  We like it, a lot. 

me and my boys at Casa Enoya in Jocotan 

 

As I am sure most toddlers and preschoolers do, my boys got restless while waiting on the food so David had the bright idea to take pictures while making funny faces.  It was a brilliant idea and we all laughed until we cried looking at each other on the camera.  These days you do what you gotta do to keep some sanity in your life even if that means acting silly and crazy at mealtime, ha.

me and my silly boys

As you can see David really got into it and the boys loved it!

 

Hooray for Friday!  Anybody else excited about the weekend?  I am not quite sure what all we will end up getting ourselves into but whatever it is I hope we have fun doing it.  We have Bible study in Nearar on Sunday morning and would appreciate your prayers for that.  It's our last weekend at our house before we start to move.  I am a little sad about that but excited about the future at the same time.  I'm certain my weekend will include a little more packing.  ugh.  Have a great one everyone! 

Ag Institute Graduation Service

The training at the Ag Center in Honduras went very well. Many of you had been praying for it and we say a big "Thank You". David had driven back and forth many nights over the two weeks to teach the nightly Bible study and that went very well also. Almost each of the students during their time of sharing talked about the Bible study time and how much they enjoyed it and thanked David for teaching them. That made all of those trips worth it. We pray that God will use those Bible stories to soften their hearts and open their eyes to a relationship with Him.

We arrived in time to fellowship some before supper was served. Afterwards we all gathered around and had a small graduation service.

the students getting seated for the program

Dan started us off with prayer and a greeting and then each student was given a time to share what the training meant to them.  Afterwards the other Ag Center workers were given a time to share.  Below is Mr. Harold sharing with the students and Dan is translating for him.  Both are very passionate about the work there!

Mr. Harold Watson and Dan Watson

I love to see this father and son working together.  It blesses my heart.  I can only pray that as our boys  grow older they will still have a heart to minister with us wherever that may be.

Each student was then called up one at a time and presented with a graduation certificate.  Dan did the presentation.  Below are two collages showing each of the eleven students receiving theirs.

a group photo of the students and Dan

Dr. Jimmy Stewart, Mr. Harold Watson, Dan Watson, me, and David

Jimmy, Mr. Harold, and Mr. Perry (pictured in an earlier post) all live in Mississippi close to our home.  We are looking forward to seeing them while we are there.

We all enjoyed some cake before saying our goodbye's.  The students returned home on Friday.  Please pray for the follow-up that will begin soon in each of their homes and villages.

This was our last Institute Training to be a part of before our Stateside Assignment but we will be looking forward to getting back involved with it as soon as we return to Guatemala.  It has been a great partnership for us and we look forward to seeing how God is going to use us and the training in the years to come.

Our Weekend in Honduras

On Friday afternoon when the kids got up from their naps we drove over to Copan, Honduras for the weekend. The kids and I wanted to visit the Ag Institute and be there for some of the training. Instead of driving back and forth we just stayed the weekend. It was a lot of fun and here are some photos of our time there.

The training in Honduras is going well.  They ended up with 11 students.  Here is a photo of most of them.  They were getting ready to eat supper and then have their Bible study time with David on Friday night.  Noe is the young guy on the far left.  He works at the Center and helps take care of the students while they are there.  The Center has bunk rooms and the students live there during the two week training time.

The boys loved running and playing there.  Here's Cruz playing soccer on Friday night.

The boys always love looking at the animals.  Here they are checking out the chickens.  They love chickens!

I love this sweet picture of them.  They were heading up the hill to go see the goats and rabbits.

Speaking of rabbits, that is what was on the menu for supper Friday night at the Center.  I was thankful that I had made the boys and I some PBJ's.  We sat outside and had a little picnic by ourselves.

Here is David teaching on Friday night.  He shared the story of the flood and when he asked the students if they had heard that story before none of them raised their hands.   It made me sad and also thankful for the many years of Sunday School I attended in the States.

This picture makes me smile because at one point during the teaching Ben walked up to the front, sat in this chair, and turned to listen to his daddy share.  It was really sweet and blessed my heart.

Me and my boys having some fun with a flashlight on a dark Friday night in Honduras

Saturday morning began with a big, delicious breakfast.  Here is David's plate.  He had scrambled eggs, black beans, plantains, cheese, a mini tamale, tortillas, fruit, orange juice, and coffee (lots of coffee).  I ordered the Desayuno Americano (American breakfast) which included scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, fruit, toast, and jelly. 

Cruz and Ben both enjoyed watching this turtle swim in the fountain.

What travel trip would not be complete without a family photo so we took this one on Saturday morning at a lookout near Copan.

And just in case you are wondering how I got Cruz to smile so big, I promised him if he would smile I would let him take a picture when we finished.  He smiled and then wanted to take a picture of me and David.  He loves getting my camera and taking pictures.  I think this is probably one of the very few pictures I have of just David and I since we had kids. 

We spent some time in town that day looking around before we went back out to the Ag Center for Bible study.  We were eager to get there to see Mr. Harold and Mr. Perry who had arrived in town on Friday.  Mr. Harold is a retired IMB missionary to the Philippines and also Dan's dad.  Both of these men serve on the Board of Directors for the Baptist Rural Life Ministries which is part of the Ag work in Honduras. We always enjoy getting to visit and be around them.  After the study we all met up for supper and enjoyed some fellowship time.  I wish our boys would have allowed us more freedom to sit and chat but when you have small kids a sit down meal with anyone is almost impossible.  In spite of that we were just glad to be in their company.

Mr. Perry, Dan, Mr. Harold, Cruz, me, David, and Ben

Sunday morning after breakfast Cruz sweetly asked me "may I go play in the grass?"  We do not have any grass at our house so I was excited to see him run, play, and roll in the grass there.

As you can see from this picture he had himself a ball!

Afterwards we went for a nature trail walk.  It was very shady and breezy and just a good time to be out enjoying the outdoors.

Cruz and me on the nature trail

While out walking we came across one of the Mayan Ruin sites.  Most of it was still being excavated.  This site was called "El Cerro Del Puma Precioso" (Hill of the Precious Puma).  Thankfully we didn't see any pumas although Cruz was certain that at any moment either a bear or a crocodile was going to come out of the woods and eat us.  I think he was nervous the whole time we were gone, ha.

I'd say he had fun there, what about you?

After a few minutes to catch our breath in the a/c and a lot of water we loaded our car for the trip back home to Guatemala.  David was not scheduled to teach on Sunday night so we were able to head back home.  We stopped for an early lunch/ snack before leaving town.  We wanted to return to the coffee shop we discovered on our last trip to Honduras.  We remembered the delicious waffles we had read about on their menu and wanted to give them a try.  I was glad we did!

Casa Ixchel coffee shop/ restaurant in Copan, Honduras- a great place to visit if you are in town.

I ordered the Caramel waffle and David tried the Bananaberry.   Both consisted of a waffle covered with strawberries and bananas, whip cream, and ice cream.  Mine had caramel sauce over the top.  David's had a strawberry jelly/ syrup drizzled over the top.  Both were very delicious and very filling!

To wash it down I had a frozen caramel frappe and the boys shared a pineapple coconut banana smoothie.  Both of these were yummy delicious also.  David had bottled water which is what we were all wanting after the sugar overload from our meal.  ha

We returned home to unpack, wash clothes, nap, do Cruz's homework, cook supper, etc.   It was a great weekend but we were all tired and ready to get to bed early. David will continue teaching at the Center this week and we will all look forward to attending the small graduation service when the training is over.  One week down, one week to go.