Snapshots of our Beautiful Town

I love walking!  It is one thing I was looking forward to getting back to doing when we returned to Guatemala.  We live in the "Land of Eternal Spring" so our weather for outdoor walking and activities is perfect.  Several days a week I walk with a friend.  On the other days I walk by myself in town.  It's fun having a walking buddy, but I also enjoy walking alone listening to praise music.  

Our town is beautiful!  The views never get old to me.  Many times I stop along the way to take photos.  Here are some random photos of our town that I took on recent walks.

 

My walking buddy, Betsy, ordered us these matching hats.  She knows I love purple. 

 

I especially love the gates and doors in our town.  Many are colorful and unique. This blue gate with the pop of color from the flowers always makes me smile. Another great thing about where we live is that flowers bloom here all year round.

 

Many people have flowers in their windows. 

 

We have beautiful ruins all over town. 

 

street view 

 

I love this purple!  I have some of it at my house.  I think it looks like grapes when it's blooming.

 

As I was crossing a street, I looked up and noticed that you could see the cross from where I was. The cross is a famous overlook in our town.  The views from up above are fabulous. 

 

 

On the path that I walk with Betsy, we pass by a coffee farm.  Lately, the beans have been bright red and ready for picking.   It's harvest season for the coffee growers.  

 

 

 

 

The purple Jacarandas are in bloom all over town. They are my absolute favorite!

 

Bougainvillea

 

Our town is colorful as you can see from these buildings. 

 

Inside view of one of the ruins. 

 

a local fruit market 

 

 

The entrance to a hotel.  How unique to use chairs for decorations. 

 

This made me chuckle. 

 

Another hotel entrance.  

Most everything here is open air.  I love that about where we live! 

 

That yellow building was once our language school. We spent six months there back in 2007 studying Spanish. Every day at break we’d sit in that park and eat our snack. We rarely talked because our brains were too tired . It’s now a hostel, but I will always smile and reminisce when I pass by it. 

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse of our town.

Welcoming our 2023 Summer Sojourner Students

On Friday, May 26, we welcomed ten Summer Sojourner students to Guatemala.  They arrived for a three week term of service.  Seven of them would be working with us and three were heading to Quetzaltenango to work with our IMB teammates the Stones.  

 

Welcome to Guatemala

Our Summer Sojourner 2023 students

 

We all stayed the night at our mission house in Guatemala City.  After getting unloaded and settled in, we had a time of introduction and sharing before heading out for supper.

 

 

We ate at Panda Express.

 

It was actually Cruz's birthday night.  What a fun group to spend your birthday with!  If you would like to read about the rest of his day, visit- Cruz Turns 13.

 

 

 

 

We returned back to our mission house for more fellowship time. At one point the students all shared encouraging words with Cruz on his birthday.  We then enjoyed birthday cake together as our dessert.

 

 

A group photo to celebrate Cruz

 

The next morning we walked to Burger King for breakfast.  

 

We then all headed out.  We were going to Chiquimula for the week and the Stones were heading back to Xela.  Here is our group before making the four hour drive East.

 

We stopped for lunch at Pollo Campero in El Rancho.

 

Next we grabbed coffee from Cafe Barista

 

We made it to Chiquimula late that afternoon and got settled into the hotel.  Everyone enjoyed a nice swim before supper.  My next several posts will be about our time with these amazing students.  They really have been a dream team!!!

37th Annual Assembly of the Kekchi Baptist in Coban

 

We recently made a trip to Coban, Guatemala to attend the 37th Annual Assembly of the Kekchi Baptists.  It was a six hour drive from our home in Antigua. Our first five years on the mission field were spent with this people group. This area and these people will always be near and dear to our hearts.  It was a blessing to return and spend some time with them.

 

 

We attended  two evening services. There were 472 in attendance the first night and even more on the second night.

 

With the exception of the sermons, the services were all in Kekchi. We loved getting to hear their language again and especially getting to worship with them.

 

 

Can you spot us in the crowd? 

 

The Kekchi still use a Baptist hymnal for their worship.  We loved hearing the hymns sung. It was comforting to our souls.  Cruz recorded some of the singing.

 

 

 

David with the Coban Kekchi President German Contreras.

 

The boys were a highlight.  After the services everyone lined up to take a photo with them.  It was fun to see the people be so excited about the boys. 

 

During the day David attended the morning and afternoon sessions.

 

David and Sergio

He was our helper and David's Kekchi tutor when we lived in Coban.  He is now the director of the Kekchi Bible Institute in Coban.  We are very proud of him!

 

David and Armando

For many years he ran the Kekchi Baptist office in Coban.  Now he writes and translates many of their study materials.

 

 

While David was in the day sessions, the boys and I did school back at the hotel.  We had a beautiful garden setting as our classroom.

 

 

 

 

  

 

There is a new mall that opened up in the center of town.  It was within walking distance from our hotel.  We ate a few meals there at the food court.  The boys especially loved this wall mural there of different cereal boxes.  I wish we could get all of these options here!  As you can see, their favorite is Reece's Puffs.

 

They also had a virtual reality game that the boys got to play.  

 

 

 

 

 

One afternoon while they did another round of virtual reality, I sat and enjoyed an iced coffee. I also wrote out my greeting for that evening service.  At any Kekchi service or event you attend they are going to call on you to give greetings.  We shared at both evening services.  I tried to incorporate as many Kekchi words and phrases as I could remember into mine.  They love for you to speak their language.

 

Another highlight was getting to have a meal with our friends the Rozycki family.  We first met them back in 2018 when we moved to Antigua.  Now they are living and serving in Coban.  Their friendship is a blessing to our family!

 

We left Coban early in the morning.  We were at McDonald's at 6:00 a.m. waiting on them to open so that we could pick up some coffee and breakfast to have on the road.   It made us think of Ms. Fran Eachus, our Kekchi language teacher.  Almost every day for years she was at McDonald's waiting on them to open.  We miss her and many others who served in the Kekchi area over the years. 

 

Getting to return brought back many fond memories of our time there and a heart of gratitude for those who mentored us and helped us during those years.  They would be very proud to see how the work is advancing and to know that all of their years of labor is still bearing fruit.

 

Pray for the Kekchi Baptist work.  Pray that God would continue to use them to evangelize, disciple, and plant churches.  Pray that God would give them a passion to serve cross-culturally and that He would call out Kekchi believers to help reach the nations.