Fun and Fellowship

We have had a good week.  We had several opportunities for fellowship and fun.  We had good Bible studies in the villages and visits as well.  Here is a look at our lives over the past several days.

At the beginning of the month I started a reading incentive for the boys.  They have been reading all summer but I wanted a good push before the new school year began.  We came up with a good prize system and they have been doing well so far.   We begin every morning by reading.  I plan to keep it going until the end of the month.  Not much excites me more these days than seeing my boys with a book in their hands.

 Cruz reading a book by Clyde Robert Bulla.  He is one of my favorites.

On Monday evening we met our friend Miguel at a local restaurant for a pizza supper.  He has some nieces and a nephew down visiting from the States.  Not only did we get to see Miguel but also his sister, her kids, and the kids from the States.  Our boys have enjoyed getting to play with them while they are here.  We had a fun evening together.

On Tuesday morning we made a few visits in the mountains. Our first stop was to see Dionicia in Lagunetas.  A few weeks ago she fell and hurt her ankle.  Thankfully nothing is broken, but she has had a hard time recovering.  We spent some time visiting with her and then was able to pray for her before we left.  Join us in praying that she will heal quickly.  They have not given us permission to return and teach there in quite some time.  Pray that our visits would show them God's love.

Next we made a visit in Churischan to check on our contact family there.  We love to just sit on their porch and talk with them.  They are believers so our conversations there are different than most stops. 

On this particular visit I got to have a lot of one on one time with this sweet lady while David was sharing with her husband.  She is having some health issues so please pray for her.  We are going to try to visit them again next week with our team. 

Our boys love when we visit there because they get to climb trees while we are sitting and talking. 

my little monkeys

a beautiful mountain view as we drove back down to town

That evening we joined a mission team for supper at the hotel next door.  They are from FBC Lake Wales, FL.  They have been coming down to this area for around ten years  now working with another group.  We enjoy getting to visit with them when we can. We are also able to share with them what we do, and thank them for their support to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.  Here we are with the team leader and his sweet wife. 

On Wednesday afternoon we had Bible study in Nearar.  There is a group of young boys who hang out and play soccer every week while we are there.  They are the same group who just a few months ago were throwing rocks at the church every time we met.  Since the land was cleared off and they have no where to hide the rock throwing has almost ceased.  Anyway, the ball they use was in terrible shape.  They have been asking us for a new ball for a while.  This past week we took them one.  They were thrilled.  During the service Ben looked back and noticed that two of them had slipped into the back of the church.  They were sitting down and listening.  That made us happy.  I also see them peeking over the tin wall almost every Sunday morning now listening in to my kid's class.  Pray for the hearts of this young group of boys.  Pray for us as we try to point them to Christ.

That evening when we returned to town we met Miguel's crew at the mall playland.  As we walked inside we noticed Batman and Spiderman standing there handing out sale ads for one of the mall stores.  Of course we had to take a picture with them.

Miguel had a meeting to attend so we agreed to watch all the kids for him while he was gone.  It was seven in all including ours.  We let them have some time in the ball pit.  They loved it!  This crew has had a lot of fun together this week.

On Thursday afternoon we had Bible study in Muyurco.  Here is my class making funny faces at the end of our lesson.  I love spending Thursday afternoons with them.

I loved this t-shirt that one of the boys was wearing.  It says "Eat Krispy Kreme Doughnuts". It sure made me want to. 

That night we stopped by a new taco stand in town to check it out.  The boys and I had quesadillas and David tried the tacos al pastor.  They have a trampoline, a swing set, and a large area to run and play.  The boys made a few new friends there and we stayed extra long just to let them play.  I am sure we will be back soon.

We were getting in the car on Friday to go buy our team supplies and noticed this flying object in the sky.  Turns out it was three hang gliders coming in to land on the hotel property behind us.  The boys loved seeing them and wanted to know if it was something new that the hotel was offering.  I doubt it, but it sure was fun to watch.

Friday night we had our weekly pizza, popcorn, and movie night.  This week we watched The Little Rascals.  Afterwards we made a few laps around the block before calling it a night.  Friday night is probably our favorite of the week.  We love family movie night!

Our team arrives tonight from Texas.  David and Cruz will be picking them up.  We are excited about spending the next week with them.  We have three couples coming.  One of those couples is Mark and Debby Fricke.  They are retired IMB missionaries who served many years here in Guatemala.  We are especially excited about our time with the two of them.  We anticipate a great week ahead.  Pray God's blessings over all we say and do. 

Life Lately

It has been three weeks since we left the States and returned to Guatemala.  It feels like much longer than that.  I look at friends posts on facebook and ask myself "were we really just there?"  It seems so weird.  On the other hand it sure does not feel like we were gone from here for almost eight months.    Things feel so normal that it's like we never left.  That is only something God can do and a big answer to prayer.

We have not slowed down much since we got back.  This post will be a catch up from the past few weeks.  Not having internet service for a while kept me from blogging.  It also showed me that you can get a lot more accomplished when you do not have internet service and television.

We found this happy little note taped by our door when we returned home to Chiquimula.  What a sweet way to be welcomed back.  It says Welcome Family (Matthew 28:19)


The interior of our house needed to be repainted before we left for Stateside but we waited until we returned to do it.  I am glad we did.  Getting a fresh coat of paint on everything helped greatly.  David has been busy in his spare time getting one room after the other painted.  As of now we only lack the boys room and the school room.  It is looking great.  We no longer have those golden yellow walls that our landlord  painted right before we moved in.  Now everything is a nice, pretty bone white.  The boys have loved getting to help paint.  David has not always enjoyed their help as much but he is enduring it.

sprucing the place up

All of our bike tires needed to be repaired when we returned so we dropped them off to get worked on.  We were all glad when they were ready and we could ride again.  One of our favorite things is afternoon and evening bike rides around the neighborhood.  I love that we live in a secure place where we can do that.

We have been enjoying some of our favorite foods also.  The boys were most excited when I cooked a pot of beans one night and served them over rice with tortillas.  They would eat beans everyday if I cooked them.

One of the things I really missed while in the States was my kitchen and all of my cooking gadgets.  It has been so good to get back to baking again.  The first thing I made was a few loaves of banana bread.  Our family loves it.

 We have been busy with school these days.  School keeps us in a good routine so I worked hard to get us right back in it.  The boys are both doing great in their studies.  I miss posting about our school activities and hope I can get back on track with that soon.  One of their favorite subjects has always been Science.  The only photos I have taken of them lately is doing experiments.

During our study of solids, liquids, and gases we made carbon dioxide gas.  The gas filled up a balloon.  We did it by mixing vinegar and baking soda. 

I love Ben's face here.  He was fascinated!  It was such a fun experiment.

This was an experiment on liquids.

This was an experiment we also did last year when studying hot and cold.  You move the balloon back and forth from the hot and cold water.  The hot water makes the balloon expand and the cold makes it shrink down into the bottle.  The boys love this one.

As part of his Sonlight reading curriculum Cruz has been reading through The Beginner's Bible this school year.  He recently finished it and he was very proud of himself.  I was proud of him too.

Before leaving the States we decided to ship a package of our things to Guatemala.  We have never done that before and based on the recommendation of some other local missionaries we decided to try it.  I was very skeptical of it and did not really know if it would ever make it here or not. 

Well, a little over two weeks after we dropped it off to ship it arrived at our door.  I was speechless!  I might have even shed a few tears of joy. I was very pleased with the company and the service they provided.  We used Zuleta Express and I would definitely recommend them to any other local missionaries.  I plan to use them again in the future.

Two happy little boys!

We had the Lubecks coming over for supper that night and I did not want the house in a mess so we did not open the box until the next day after school.  The anticipation almost drove the boys crazy (and their constant asking when we were going to open it almost drove us crazy!)

When they finally got to open it they said it felt like Christmas Day.  It should have.  Most of the stuff in there was Christmas gifts they had received from family this past Christmas season.

"Mama, can you believe our box made it?"  asked Cruz.  We had prayed many times for that box since we dropped it off and they said that God had answered our prayers. 

They enjoyed a visit to the mall food court recently to play on the playland.  They especially enjoyed this new ball pit area that was added while we were gone.  David and I enjoyed getting to sit in the a/c and use the WI-FI since we did not have home internet service at the time.  It's the little things that keep us all so happy.

Cruz started back to piano lessons last week.  He has a new teacher because his old teacher did not have an opening on the day we needed to go.  We love the music school here in town and are glad to be back involved in it. 

Cruz practicing one evening and showing Ben a few things.  This made me smile.  We plan to start Ben in first grade. 

brothers

Just yesterday Ben had his first lesson with a Spanish tutor.  It went very well for him.  We had been praying that God would provide someone to work with him when we got back here.  We were excited when one of the teachers at the music school offered to tutor him.  She was free during the same hour that Cruz takes piano so they will both be going at the same time.  That is so convenient and a great answer to prayer.  Pray for him as he learns and continues to get more comfortable in the language. 

I will end with a few ministry pictures.  Here we are loaded up for our first worship service in the mountains after returning. We were headed to the village of Nearar.  We were all excited.

A view as we were driving up the mountain.  You can see the road to the Honduras border down below.

This is a photo of the inside of the new church building in Nearar.  They did a great job on the construction while we were gone.  It looks great!

David and the boys before our first worship service in Nearar.

This past Saturday morning we made a few visits in the mountains.  The boys have missed riding the mountain roads. 

More beautiful views from the road to Lagunetas.

Those little white dots in the center is a town down below.  We travel up pretty high to get to Lagunetas.

The boys climbing their favorite tree in Churischan while we visited with the family.

hiking in Churischan

This past Sunday we were back in Nearar for worship.  This week David preached and did a great job.  We were happy to have Miguel go with us.  He is our ministry partner and we are so thankful for him.  He is a blessing to many.

We plan to be in Nearar later today for a women's Bible study/ mid-week service.  This coming Sunday we plan to be in Muyurco for a worship service.  Please pray for both of these study times.

Thank you for keeping up with our family and especially for praying for us.  I know we say it often but we really do appreciate it!