Christmas in November?

Christmas comes to Guatemala a little earlier than in the states. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so about the middle of November (the beginning for the very enthusiastic) they all start decorating. I wanted to share a little about our decorating evening.

We don't have that many decorations so it really didn't take that long, and we bought our dinky little fake tree at the Hiper Paiz, with "Wal-mart Guatemala" stamped on the box.

I need to get a Christmas tree scented candle to make me think that my tree is real. BabyM helped daddy spread apart those plastic and metal branches.

















BoyD got the honor of putting the star on the top.















BabyM kept herself busy with her biter biscuit and watched the festivities.

















When we explained to BoyD the diffence between stockings and a bean stalk, he wanted to experince the stockings first hand.

















BoyD got to eat a candy cane off of the tree, and when I told him to "hold up your candy cane" he took me very seriously.


















The almost finished product. (we have since added some shiny globes to fill in the holes so you can't see the metal "innards" of the tree.












After the kids went to bed, Brandon made us a fire and a little pallet on the upstairs balcony in the chiminea. We sat out there and enjoyed the fire and drank some decaf coffee flavored with French vanilla creamer and had a wonderful time. Here are some photos of what we experienced.



















All in all, it was a wonderful, festive, evening.

Woman's Bible Study

Well...we started today. We had our first women's Bible study in our home this afternoon. We had 7 women (myself included) and I think it went wonderfully. We have decided to meet every 2 weeks and we are just reading through Ephesians.

We first had lunch at 1pm, and then by 1:35 or so we just started reading. We discussed and questioned and got through like 6 verses. At 2pm we gave prayer requests and prayed for each other.

I really enjoyed it. I hope they did as well. One woman was very quiet. I am wondering what is going on in her head, as she is a wonderful woman, a christian woman, but doesn't believe in "religion" or "church." When asked for prayer requests, she replied "God knows my requests." She is totally right, I just wonder if she enjoyed it or not. I guess that is really the Lord's business.

It was very good for me to not "teach," and just let the Bible speak for itself. I think we will have at least 2 more next time assuming that all 6 of these women come back. I hope they do. I liked their input. I like them.

Please pray for us. Pray that this will continue to grow and that we will continue to grow. Pray that I can be available and godly, and represent our Christ well. Pray that God will bring in unbelievers and that these women can find their own place to minister.

The women's names are (for those who like to pray for specific people):
Patty, Hortencia, Gladys, Lety, and Edna.

Next time we might have Margarita, Nelly, and 2 Carlas. We'll see.

While I was out.

Ok...I went to the movies this afternoon with a girlfriend and Brandon graciously stayed home to watch the kids. I left while BabyM was still napping. When the movie was over, I called home to let Brandon know and I hear this story.

I am putting the link to a you tube video of the mess that was made, and if you are into that sort of thing, you can click on it to see it, but be warned: It is totally gross.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73D074Vj6DQ

BabyM had apparently taken off her diaper during the nap (we do velcro cloth) and then at some point pooped. We don't know exactly what happened, but the aftermath was poop all over her. On her legs, her hands, her arms, her dress (clean bottom!), her pacifier, her mouth, her face. There was poop prints all over her bed, her bumper pad, and she had practiced standing b/c there was poop prints on the railings of the crib, as well as the ledge and the floor. She even managed to fling a chunk onto the heater that was on the floor next to her crib. Her diaper was dry and clean on the floor next to her crib.

We aren't sure how much poop she ate, but she had it all over her paci and mouth. We'll see how that turns out. Brandon got her all bathed and cleaned up. He gets the dad of the year award! I know of some dad's that shy away from even changing a contained poopy diaper, and Brandon was in the trenches. I am so proud of him. You know you love your baby when...

To end on a cleaner note: Here is a little picture of our little man as we were leaving to go to church. He looked so precious!

And how old do you think this kid looks?


Ok..please pray. I am going to try to start my women's Bible study this week if I can get it all together. Oh, and in a town not far from us, there have been 20 abandoned newborns in the last year. We are trying to get some information about the possibility of fostering one of these babies. Please pray for that as well: That the Lord would go before us and make His plan for these children very clear.

It's been a while!

Well, I've typed two blogs over the last few weeks that never got published. I would save the post in order to add photos from our other computer and then by the time I got to adding them, they were out of date. Oh, well.

The first photo is one of my mom and my daughter, hand in hand. We were driving from Dallas to Lubbock on our last trip back in the states, and BabyM kept reaching up and patting and holding my mom's hand. It was so precious, and I am so glad that we got to take a picture of it.

Well, the orphanage work is going really well. I just feel like there's not enough time to do all that I want to do. I would love to go every day and work with all of the children, but b/c I have other responsibilities right now, (aka boyD and BabyM) and my babysitter (my sweet husband) has another job, I can only go once a week for two hours and can only work with 20-30 kids each week out of 113. Anyone want to come and volunteer? I will write the curriculum for you! :)

Ok...I have to comment on the election: We'll see. That is really all I have to say.

Madeline is "talking" but no words yet. She turns 10 months in 2 days. She is trying to walk. She walks for a bit holding on to one hand, but she really prefers to crawl. She is super fast. AND she has 6 teeth!

We had lunch over at some friends' house for "Dia de los Muertes." Here they serve a typical food called fiambre. It is a salad of sorts with almost every veggie and meat that they have here. It is really red b/c of all the beets that they use. The dressing is just plain vinegar. Here are a few photos:

For dessert, we got squash boiled in it's shell with some ginger and brown sugar. The taste was really similar to pumpkin pie, although the texture was different.

We had a really good time. From there we had a really interesting political discussion. They were of course hoping Obama would win. They are Latinos, and they are coming from an international perspective. It was enlightening.

We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving here with some friends. Our guest list is at 40 so far (including us) so we will be having a pot luck. If we can find the 20 extra seats, it will really be fun!

Well, I have the opportunity to go to bed reasonably early tonight for the first time in many moons. So...good night, and it is good to be back

Wait...If you have the time, please click on the link below to see a really cute video of Deacon singing the story of the three little bears. It is too big to post here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7da9KoxJjik

And then let me know what you think.

A Little Bit of Everything: Long but informative.

Well, I have been crazy busy and so I have a lot to blog about, but no time to do it. Here goes a sort of summary of the last couple of days. (these are carrots that I bought in Zunil, a mountain village on our way home from Fuentes)

BoyD has graduated to a big boy bed! We turned his crib into a toddler bed this last weekend with the fear that we would be up all night putting him back in his bed. Well, we closed his bedroom door, he went to bed just fine, and he woke at 7am and got up and knocked on his door to get out! It went incredibly well. We put him in his bed b/c we are going to be travelling a lot very soon and having to take around 2 pack-n-plays would be much more difficult. Anyway, this morning he woke up at like 6:30 and we weren't ready for him to get up, so we put him back in bed with some books and he was content until 7am when I went to get him up. Hopefully it will stay that way.

BoyD loves his preschool. The first day, he didn't really want to talk about it (he said...Mom, will you not ask me again what we did?) I guess I was nagging. But, the second day he told me all about it and sang me a song in Spanish that he sang at school. Pretty cool.

He didn't go to school this week b/c he has the chicken pox. He was vaccinated so it wasn't very severe, but he has the little blisters that itch and all that, so until they all scab up he can't go to school. Sigh.

We got a package brought to us from the US filled with cloth diapers that I bought used on line for half the price. they are these awesome diapers that work like disposables but you wash them instead, and we are going to save SO MUCH MONEY! This way the pre-school can also do cloth with him. Very cool. And almost all of the diapers are 1 size fits all so I don't have to worry about which diapers are BoyD's and which are BabyM's.

BabyM has started to scoot. She isn't crawling just yet, but she really doesn't need to b/c she can get to wherever she wants to go by rolling, rotating, turning, and scooting. Nothing is really out of her reach anymore. Also her hair is really long.

I am going to start a women's Bible study here in my house pretty soon. Please be praying about this. The women who are interested are Gladys: the woman who works at our house. She is completely uneducated (although she can read) and loves the Lord but is living with her boyfriend. The next woman, Hortencia is a great friend. She also loves the Lord, but doesn't go to church b/c she likes the reverence of the Catholic church but she isn't Catholic. She has serious problems with a church that takes and doesn't give, and she believes demonstrative worship is incorrect and irreverent. (Loud instruments as well). Another lady is Edna, our language teacher who as far as we can believes in Jesus, but claims no religion. Interesting, but her first real encounter with the Bible has been with Brandon during language school. The other woman is Nelly, a CAM missionary (a Guatemalan) who loves Jesus and is in a sense discipling me. Very mature believer. Finally, there is a woman from our church but she might not be living in the country much longer, and she also works during the day. Please pray about timing and interest.

We are going to the city this weekend for a Peacemakers conference with CAM. It will be really good to fellowship with some other CAM missionaries and to get some additional training.

Finally, I went to the orphanage today. I forgot my camera, so I will take it next time to get some photos. It was fun, challenging, strange, a little frustrating, and incredibly sad. We had 22 7-9 year olds, both boys and girls. We played a name game, we read John 3:16, we made those salvation bracelets with the 5 colored beads, we drew, and we gave them a snack (gelatinas...homemade jello in baggies) It was hard b/c I have no authority with these kids. Some of them wanted to please me and so obeyed, while most just didn't care. They only obeyed when it benefited them. They were very easily distracted (2 hours is a long time for a 7 year old to sit still) and I don't think I really communicated anything that I wanted to communicate. By the time we got to explaining the significance of the colors, they were tired and antsy.

One of the little girls is there b/c she had fallen off of a 2nd story landing more than once, and the hospital where she went advised the authorities. They sent her to this orphanage and no one has come to visit her yet and it has been several months. Another little girl is there b/c her father is in prison and her mother is dead.

When it was snack time, a bunch of other kids came into the cafeteria (where we were working) for their snack and they all wanted some of the jello that we brought, but we didn't have enough. It was really sad. They were eating some sort of gelatinous mush in cups. Not even Nelly knew what it was. Anyway, there were quite a few mentally retarded or otherwise disabled kids that were hanging out where we were. They wanted jello, so we snuck a few of the extras to them. They kept hugging us and following us around. There was one little mentally retarded girl in a wheel chair (like 6-8 years old) who kept reaching up for us to hold her, or hug her or something. I just leaned down and hugged and kissed her. I wasn't sure what she wanted. It was so incredibly sad. As we left, we walked by the little ones eating their snack. There were 8 or 9 little kids (1-3 yrs old) sitting on a curb eating their snack. Several were filthy in clothes that were old and didn't fit right. Finally, when we left, one little girl was hanging on Nelly and told the woman who let us out that Nelly was her mommy.

I just kept thinking that all of these little children are alone, without parents. I am not sure which is sadder, that some of them have no family at all, or that they have family, but have been taken away and often times not even visited by what family they do have. The little toddlers not getting read and rocked to sleep. They mentally retarded don't get someone to cherish them and believe in them.

I wept at the sadness the entire way home. I am still crying. 2 hours a week is not enough. I am going to ask you to please pray for more workers. I would be happy to organize curriculum and everything if there were just more people who would be willing to love on these children. My heart breaks as our Lord's heart breaks for these little ones. Please pray that God will bless this work, that we would know how best to minister.

Fuentes de Georgines

This is our trip to Fuentes de Georgines. It is a hot spring about 45 minutes outside of Xela. They have 4 different pools, bungalows for camping, a restaurant, picnic areas, and hiking trails. The water is fed from a volcano and it has a lot of sulfur and other minerals so it has no amoebas or parasites and it needs no chlorine b/c the water is constantly filling and spilling over into the other pools.



It is always foggy up there b/c it is in a cloud forest. It was sort of a mini vacation for us, as it is so incredibly relaxing. Today it was so busy but when we go during the week, there are often times only like 10 people there. The Guatemalans in the photos are our friends Hortencia, her daughter Carla, and Carla's son Alejandro who was born on the same day as BabyM.

Just so you know, if you come to visit us, we will take you here. SO COME TO VISIT! :) It cost about $3.00 to get in, plus another $3 for parking and you can bring in your own food. The water is normally the temperature of a hot bath in the first pool (the other pools are consecutively cooler) but today, we could not even put BabyM down in the water b/c it was too hot. I think they cleaned the spring or something and so more water is coming out making it much hotter. The other pools weren't too hot, but they are much shallower and you can't really swim. Anyway, it is incredibly beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves.

First day of "School"

Well, Deacon started his first day of school today. We are only taking him for 2 days a week, but normally it is 5. This school is really cool to let us bring him 2 days a week for half the price. It is called Colegio El Pilar (Colegio is just a private school) and its Catholic. We can walk to it from our house. Its Catholic, but there are no nuns, priests, religion classes, or anything other than a statue of Mary that would suggest that it is Catholic. Most likely we can't keep him there when he gets older b/c of the ministry that we have with Evangelicals. They don't get along so well. So sad. Anyway, I am attaching some pictures. Like I said, he goes twice a week from 9am to 12:30pm. I am thinking that he will have a lot of fun and for 1 hour every day they do lessons in English. Knowing that at least some of the teachers speak English makes me feel better. Deacon is speaking Spanish like a pro, but we wanted him to learn some more and to have some friends here, and this is the fastest way to accomplish this. Anyway, enjoy the photos!Deacon getting ready for his big day.He likes the way he looks! This is his uniform more or less. He wears jeans, a white collared shirt, and a gray sweater that the school gives him that we don't yet have.Here we are getting ready to walk to school.

This is the outside of the school. It is totally enclosed with a door that is locked from the inside with a key so the kids can't leave with out the guard letting them out. It sounds incredibly harsh, but outside the school is just a street. (And I can go in when every I want, the kids just can't "escape")











This is the inside patio area (directly behind the doors in the previous photos). The ground is all dirt, but they have some good playground equipment and a beautiful garden.
Deacon inside his classroom getting situated and meeting his companeros (friends). When we walked in, he just started walking around the room looking at the toys, etc. All the other little children were seated quietly at their desks. We'll see how that goes. I go to get him at 12:30pm and will post later how everything went. Finally, here is a photo of the walk back from the school to our house. Don't we live in a beautiful country?

This is a video of the kids playing together a little bit. BoyD is enjoying her much more now that she can laugh at him and interact with him. You may think this is boring, but we LOVE it!

The next two photos are of BabyM while we are getting her ready for church. You might be able to see her earrings! Yes, we pierced her ears. It wasn't cruel or awful or torture for her. She cried for all of about 10 seconds, and as soon as they were finished, she was in my arms and happy as a lark. We have gotten a bit of backlash from the american side saying that this was paramount to abuse, and how dare we torture our baby....in parenting 101 it says to NEVER cause your child unneccesary harm....etc, etc. Well, it is what Guatemalans do, and I will post another blog another time explaining exactly why we chose to do it.

Anyway, we put on a little t-shirt underneath her dress b/c when I don't, EVERYONE comments about how cold it is and how she is still so young, and how she really should be wearing a t-shirt under her dress. I was even called a "mala mama" (bad mommy) to my face by a teenager b/c Madi was outside in 65 degree weather with a sweater on but with out a t-shirt under her dress. Sigh. So, we bought these little camisoles for $1 each and we put them on under her dresses when we go out. Being Greek to the Greeks so to speak. It's all Greek to me.

Another look at life here.

Here is a quick video of our pila. (And a photo of someone else's pila!) A pila is like a guatemalan washer and kitchen sink in one. It is concrete (although more recently plastic for those who have their pila on the 2nd floor or higher) and normally painted a bright color. In some communities, there are large fountian looking things that serve as the communal pila. Here in Xela, most everyone has a kitchen sink, but they still use the pila to wash their clothes. You can see in the photo that most pilas have 3 compartments, one for washing dishes (usually flat), one in the middle for holding "clean" water, and a third for washing clothes (usually a washboard style with ridges.) It is important not to contaminate the "clean" water. Even though is is full of bacteria, amoebas and parasites, you are not to get any dirt in the water. You use a little bowl to retrieve water out of the middle to wash and rinse.

You don't have to go very rural to see people use these for their sink. If someone is very poor, they either use the community's pila, or they go down to a stream or river to wash clothes. Some churches in rural areas have a pila like this one for their members to use.

B/c we have a normal kitchen, our pila is just a half pila, for washing clothes. We also have a washer and dryer, but we use the pila for washing out diapers, shoes, and towels and rags that get used everyday. It is THE BEST at getting out stains. Enjoy the little video.

Let the Work Begin!

Well...after over a month of praying, I will be beginning my work with the orphans on August 20th.

The process was a little discouraging, but the Lord is good, and opened the right doors.

When I first decided that I wanted to work with orphans, it seemed easy. I would just call the orphanage (or my language school would b/c they know the number and the appropriate persons) and tell them that I wanted to volunteer, and they would say: "sure! Thanks so much for wanting to help! Come on by whenever you want!" That was a little bit unrealistic.

The school did call on my behalf, and they were told that I could only work/volunteer if I could commit for 2 months of 4 hours a day 5 days a week. If not, then not at all. Well, there is no way that I could do that seeing as I have a full time job with my 2 kids, Spanish school, and now DTS studies. I was so upset, b/c there is only 1 orphanage now in Xela (after the other one closed when the director molested the children.)

I prayed and really struggled with that. I finally determined to go and talk to them face to face. It didn't make sense that I had to work 20hrs a week or none at all!

Well, a fellow CAM missionary (a Guatemalan) said that she would love to accompany me and help me explain my situation. We prayed right before we rang the bell to announce our arrival at the orphanage that God would open appropriate doors if this is what he desired for me to do.

We went in and Nelly did explain that we are missionaries and that I feel that God had led me to work/volunteer with the orphans in the Xela area. The woman who helped us was so encouraging and welcoming. She basically said..."When do you want to work? For how long? With what age group? What do you want to do?" When asked if I could teach about God, and Jesus, the reply was, "Claro que si!" (or well, sure! of course!) Anyway, they want me to present a "plan" of what I am going to do, with what age group, and if I am going to crafts, songs, etc along with what topics that I will cover each week. Basically a mini-curriculum. HOW COOL IS THAT! I will be working on that this week.

Right now the orphanage has 98 children from 0-12 years old. Most of whom are in there on a temporary basis , meaning that they do have families, just not families that can take care of them. Possibly their parents are in prison, or severe alcoholics, or abusive. Possibly they were abandoned. Some of them are just waiting for a judge to tell them who they will live with. There are still many children who are actually orphans and are there on a permanent basis. Those children go to an internal school.

I will begin working with 6-9 year olds and I will do a little class on "Who is Jesus Christ" and we are going to make salvation bracelets. (you know...the leather bracelets with the colored beads signifying the path of salvation) Well, I am so pumped. I am hoping that many of you will be praying for us as we use this time to freely minister to so many children. Can you imagine just having free reign to teach the gospel to 98 children? A captive audience! We are responsible to gather any craft supplies/ideas. If you have any ideas...I would love to hear them. Any good websites that you know of? Maybe a few of you could come for a visit and help me! I will be working basically alone so I can only handle like 20-25 kids at once (fewer for the younger ones) so if you could pray for some fellow workers. I am just going to be helping there every Wednesday for 2 hours. Maybe sometime in the future I can increase that amount.

Anyway, I am just so excited!

Ok....Here is a video of Deacon making tortillas. I hope he learns how to do this as well as Gladys (the woman who works for us) b/c her tortillas are incredible!

The next step!

Well, it is official! I am a Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) student! I found out that I got accepted at the end of last week and we are so pumped.

CAM (our mission) requires that I have 30 hours of Bible training and I have 5 years to complete it. I am not sure what happens if I don't, but that isn't the point. DTS has a Certificate of Graduate Studies program that is entirely on-line, and it is 30 hours! How perfect is that! And if I ever wanted to, I could apply those 30 hours to a degree later! I am so excited and a little nervous. Please pray for me that I can manage 2 kids, ministry, Spanish language school, and now 3 hours of masters level work.

The really cool thing is that it is the same classes that I would take if I were in Dallas, only on-line, so I don't have to miss out on too much. My first class begins at the end of August, and it is Bible Study Methods and Hermeneutics. I audited this class when Brandon was in school and I loved it, so I am looking forward to doing it for real (for credit, that is).

Oh, BabyM and I went to a women's conference at our church last Saturday. It was really cool and I understood most of what was being said. That was a little victory, and I got into a good discussion with a friend of mine who went with me. She doesn't attend my church, but she is a believer. We were discussing the appropriateness of demonstrative worship (raising hands, clapping, swaying while singing, etc). She told me very plainly that God is the author of order, not disorder, and how it is very important to God that we come into His presence with reverence, not like we are listening to the radio. She finds the drums and guitar very distracting and irreverent. It was an interesting discussion. She said "You don't need to clap your hands and move around to show thankfulness and adoration to God". It was a good discussion, no one was angry or frustrated, but I could tell that she felt very strongly about it. We I brought up what David did in 2 Samuel chapter 6 (He danced like crazy, rejoicing at the returning of the Ark, and his wife was appalled at his behavior) He said " I become even more undignified than this"....

she told me that just because he did that, doesn't mean that that is what pleased God, or that he should have done it. Hmmm..It was interesting. I love to hear your thoughts on this.

Then Sunday, we skipped church b/c BoyD had a pretty high fever (104 in the afternoon). Instead we went to the Zoo for a little distraction and some fresh air. There is the photo of BabyM getting ready for her first trip to the Xela Zoo, the next photo below is of Brandon and BoyD looking at some sort of horned animal. The last photo is of a little Mayan girl that was at the zoo. Her clothes are the typical Mayan dress, and you even see babies in this type of clothing. It is very expensive and very pretty. All of it is hand woven. Pretty cool. Anyway, you can see in BoyD's eyes that he really isn't feeling up to par.

Ok, I'll type more later....BabyM is hollering for me in her crib.

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I miss my daddy.

I was getting ready for bed tonight and found a photo of me and my grandfather when I was like 4-5 months old. It is a really great picture and I looked at it with such joy that we got to meet and that I have one or two memories of the man. He was apparently a great man. He died when I was 2, but at least I have pictures.

Then I realized that Madeline will have no photos of her with my dad. Deacon will have very few, but at least my dad got to meet him. I am heartsick that he never got to meet my beautiful daughter. He would have enjoyed her so much. I was his baby girl and a daddy's girl, and he would have just loved to meet his baby girl's baby girl. I am so saddened by this. he didn't get to live to a ripe old age with a full life, knowing all of his grandchildren and even his great grandchildren. I feel like we got cheated. We all got cheated big time. Most of you didn't know my dad, but he was so cool. He was ornery, but super cool.

Madeline never got to sit in his lap, never got to hear his voice, and my dad never got to see his own face and his own curly hair on our little girl. Que tristesa. How incredibly sad.

Sorry to be a little depressing. I am still grieving this. Maybe I will always. This evening was incredible difficult. I know that the Lord is lord of all of this, and that my daddy is with Him right now, but I can't help but feel like he shouldn't be. He should be here, getting to know my children better. He should be here getting photos taken with them. He should get to see Deacon dance on skype like the other grandparents. Madeline should get to ride around on his wheelchair when she gets older. He should have gotten to teach them his funny phrases and silly jokes. But that is gone. At least until Christ brings us all home to be together again. I'm sad. I want my daddy back. I want to pray to God to please turn back the clock a while so that I could take better care of the time that we did have. And it is so frustrating that I can feel it in my bones that I can't have him back again.

I am so tired, so I have to go to sleep, but I hope that I dream of him. Here are a couple of cool pictures of my dad and Deacon. The sad thing is, these two of VERY few photos I have of my dad with my child. Please, all of you that still have parents alive, please take lots of photos.

I like it a lot.

Pure Genius! Watch the attached video to see a really cool Guatemalan thing. This could be in other parts of the world, but I have never seen it in the US. Tell me what you think!

Un Dia con La Familia Lopez

We had lunch today with a Guatemalan family in their home. They are Rene and Nelly, and their three children: Rene, Daniella, and Pablo. They had a very large home that was laid out very interestingly.

We ate a delicious typical Guatemalan meal: Chicken in a sauce of blended tomatillos (little green tomatoes), cilantro, green pepper, and green onion with potatoes and zucchinis with a side of rice cooked with veggies. This along with tomalitos (tamales w/o any meat...so just steamed corn mush). All this took Nelly all day to make for us. She also made us sweet empanadas for dessert. They are little fried bread pouches filled with a homemade fruit jelly, made with papaya, peaches and apples. And to drink, we had atol de fruitas, or fresh squeezed juice of papaya, peaches and apple. Everything was so delicious, and we ate it in the traditional manner of the town of Salcaja (where they live). We sit down at the table, and they serve us bowls of the rice and chicken and soup mixture.

We know them b/c they are working with a CAM missionary couple (the Ekstroms) who have been in Guatemala since 1952 and are currently working in another town about 2 hours away on a project called the mega-voice. It is a little audio device thing that is solar powered, and has the entire Bible on it. There are buttons to go from book to book, buttons to skip chapter by chapter, and buttons for verse by verse. Go to the website for more info...it is super cool and they are working to get the Bible in the native Mayan languages on the cool device.

Anyway, they have become some of our good friends here (the only other Christian couple that we know). Nelly was telling us about the over 1,700 children who live in the communities that they work in. Most of the children are so poor that they can die from a fever b/c they can't afford a dose of Tylenol or Advil or some other medicine to get their fevers down. It is difficult to imagine this kind of intense poverty this close to our home. We see lots of poverty, but there is no one in that community that has any kind of wealth. Everyone is so poor.

They are getting ready in a few months to move to the town that they minister in. Evangelism in Salcaja is so incredibly difficult, b/c it is a relatively wealthy community. Most everyone has work of some kind and so they don't have particularly great needs. Sound familiar?

Brandon gave a little Bible study in Spanish in Psalm 100. They have another machine that has the music for all of the hymns in their hymnal and we sang 3 hymns in Spanish with a digital accompanyment. (Mighty Fortress is Our God, Holy Holy Holy, and some other one that I can't remember.) Then we read the Psalm, made some observations, and did a little interpretation and application. Those of you that were in the college ministry while we were there would have felt rifght at home! It was great

It was a fun day. Don't you just all want to come and join our little adventure? Come on down! We have plenty of fun for everyone.

A Re-Post - Guatemalan Orphan Video

This is the video that I wanted to put on my blog last week. SUCCESS! Watch it and please pray for these little ones. It may take a bit to load, but it is worth it.

A day in Guatemala

Well, we went to church this morning. Acutally just Sunday school b/c Brandon didn't sleep much last night, and he was just to tired to translate a church service in his head. Every Sunday after class, they sell "refracciones" or little snacks for 2 quetzales ($0.25). They are SOOO good. Today it was enchiladas: tostado shells with a tomato salsa on top with minced cooked veggies (carrots, celery, onions, peppers) and a sprinkling of dry white cheese. YUMMY!

When we went to lunch, we went to the famous Pollo Campero (the KFC of Guatemala with the popularity of McDonald's) and this very old lady stopped us to tell us how handsome Deacon is and she said (in Spanish of course) : "Look at my fingernails! Look at my red fingernails! I'm 80!!" It was really funny, and really odd, and Deacon was so sweet to her. He just said "Hola" and smiled as she presented her very long, bright red fingernails to our son. He-He.

Then, tonight as I was nursing Madeline in her room, and right before I put her down, we heard 5 very loud, quick gunshots. It wasn't on our street (we live in a gated condominium with 24 hour guard) but it wasn't far away. This is why we don't go out at night.
Note: Parents, don't get freaked out...we are very safe here, as safe as anyone is in their homes.

All in all, a pretty cool day, some good food, funny ladies, and a little adventure.

James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress...

I have been trying to load this video onto my blog for almost 3 days, and it won't load. Please go to the link and watch it. These are real photos of Guatemalan orphans. The video was made as a petition for prayers for these little ones.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4744696279395710845&hl=en

There was an orphanage here in Xela several months ago that our language school did some work with. The name was Jerusalem. It was run by an evangelical pastor. Our school sent groups there to volunteer and to play with some of the children. Last year we bought some toys to take there for Christmas (we didn't go, just sent the toys).

Anyway, the orphanage has now closed because there was some concern when the boys and girls were heard crying loudly during the nights. At one point, the police went to find out what was going on, and discovered that the pastor has been sexually abusing both the little girls and the little boys. That is raw, and gross, and so incredibly sad. The saddest part is that it is a true story that really happened to real children, just like Deacon, and Madeline. Anyway, I can't go see those exact children, because the orphanage has since closed and the children dispersed among other locations. I just can't help but think about all that those children have gone through without anyone to love them and care for them. Some of them disabled, mentally and physically, some with parents who can't care for them, some without any family at all.

I am going to begin (hopefully this week or next) going to visit an orphanage to love on the children there. I can not let my desire to have routines, be rested, get my to-do list done, have "personal time" get in the way of ministering to these people.

Please pray for them as this video says. Please pray for me that I can be the hands of our Lord in the lives of these children and in the lives of those that work with them.

Great News....and I'm un poco triste.

I wanted to first thank all of you who have been praying for us and the situation with the abandoned baby girl. Something extraordinary happened. Very abnormal.

The baby's mother and family came forward. The mother was underage (probably 14-15) and hid the pregnancy from her family. Somehow the facts came to light and they grandparents of the baby, as well as the baby's uncle want her. That is such incredible news. They only just came forward, but there is significant interest by the family to take care of her. A permanent home is going to be so good for her.

We finally had to go to a lawyer to get the information, and he knew the judge and called him on our behalf to get the whole scoop. I am so glad that the family came forward now instead of months or even years from now.

I have to admit, that although I am extremely relieved that she will be with her family, and also a little bit relieved that I won't be taking care of two tiny babies at the same time (not to mention Deacon and our 1 year old lab) and trying to be in language school, I am a touch sad. We had prepared our hearts to take in this little girl, and in doing so, I had began to imagine what life would be like with her in our lives. I began to love her and I haven't even met her.

All in all, we are so pleased with the results of all of this, and we feel like a little chapter in our lives has closed. We also realized that most likely we will try to adopt some little baby sometime in the future.

Thank you again for all of our prayers. We believe that God answered them faithfully.

An Update

I wanted to post a quick update on the status of the baby girl. We found out that the judge assigned the case typically prefers orphanages to foster homes. Even so much that he has recently removed children from current foster homes and placed them in orphanages. This justs sounds so incredible to us, but it is what we were told by the case work office. The health and human services has an attorney who has gone to the city to plead the case to the adoption agency of Guatemala in order to basically return and convince this judge that foster homes are better places for these children than orphanages.

So...we are supposed to call the case worker Friday to check on the status. PLEASE PRAY! We need the Lord to intervene. He know the best place for this little baby. This judge will get to decide what he wants. I will write more on Friday after we talk to the case worker. Hopefully we will know something by then, as this waiting is very difficult.

Then there is the question of when to potty train Deacon and when to put him in a big boy bed if we are just looking at another major life change coming up with a new baby in the house. I am interested in opinions in this matter!

Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns. It is so encouraging to find out how many people are praying for this situation. The voices of the saints of God do not go unheard!

I am challenged.

We had a missionary couple over for lunch today. They told us they would come early, but we weren't expecting 8am, and I was in my pajamas with a messy house when they called at the entrance to our neighborhood. Um...I got ready pretty quick and things were ordered enough 3 minutes later when they arrived. It was such a blessing to have them here. They have been missionaries here for 57 years. Geez!(This is a photo of the Ekstroms: the couple mentioned above)

Anyway, I have been really challenged over the last month as to what kind of ministry the Lord has for me here. I of course am going to be ministering to my family and children. I wanted to write a bit about some ideas that I have.

1 - I want to get some sort of ministry going with the children in our neighborhood. Most (if not all) of them are Catholic and so we may begin a weekly craft and Bible story hour in our home with them. I will need to talk with their parents first, and I don't even know them all yet.
2 - I want to have a movie night over at our house once or twice a month with some university students. We only know a couple right now, but they have friends, and they might come to watch a movie (we have ton with Spanish sub-titles) and free snacks.
3 - A friend of mine attends a very small church in her community and has asked me to help with a children's program on Sunday mornings. We can't do that, because we want to get involved in a church closer to home on Sunday mornings, but I do want to maybe get some people together and maybe do some kind of training with them so that they can do some of the things that I would do. (I have a million craft ideas, etc)
4 - I met with a Guatemalan couple who live in a little town near us and they are working with CAM churches in the area, especially with young people. We are going to try to get together with them soon to get more information from them on the current needs among these churches. (I want to write more about this later, but I have to go give the kids a bath!)

We have quite a bit more language learning to do before I will start anything that will take up too much of my time, but there are plenty of things that we can do to get more involved in the community without interfering with our language learning.

Please pray for us that we could begin to get involved and have appropriate boundaries, and that the Lord would continue to challenge us!

An abandoned little girl

Well - We were waiting to find out more before we make it totally public. Right now it is looking 95% sure that we will have a new baby girl in our home for a time.

Exactly one week ago a newborn baby girl was abandoned here in Xela. A microbus found her at 5am with hypothermia, ants in her umbilical cord, an infection in her umbilical cord, and her cord had been torn, not cut (so the mother probably birthed alone). After some prayer and some thought, we have decided to be foster parents for this little girl.

When I read about her in the newspaper, I literally cried at the thought of a tiny baby being so alone and scared and sick. My friend was with me and we went to the hospital to get some more information about her. The social work office was closed so we had to go back the next Monday (This last Monday) They directed us to the child services judge and that office directed us to health and human services, but ultimately we found out that she will go to an orphanage. Our hearts can't handle that. We are the only people who have asked about her! After one week, not one person has inquired about taking care of this baby. It has been in the papers almost everyday and still no one is interested!

I am going on Monday to take a copy of my residence status to the office and after that I think we will become foster parents. Now, it still may be several weeks before we actually take her home from the hospital. I am going to try to nurse her, and if she can't latch on then I will pump as much as I can so that she can have breast milk.

there are so many things going through my mind right now. 1st is when am I going to sleep? I am already a little tired most days. 2nd is am I going to be able to make enough milk for both babies? 3rd, we have many things to get before welcoming another baby in our home: clothes, another car seat, maybe a nanny to help me deal with 2 babies...who knows? 4th What happens if we take care of her for a very long time and then some other family adopts her? Can I deal with that loss? 5th Can we travel to and from the states with her? 6th What things might be wrong with her...fetal alcohol syndrome, any number of things that can go wrong with poor prenatal care? 7th WHAT ARE WE GOING TO CALL HER? She doesn't have a name right now.

So many of these things are unknown, but none of the unknowns mean that we can let this little girl go to an orphanage with so many other children and so few laborers. It is not very often in ones life that they get to do something that has such a significance. How blessed we will be to get to sacrifice for the life of a baby.

Please pray for us. Please pray that the Lord leads us as we try to figure out the best things to do. The Lord knows where this baby belongs. We will keep everyone updated.