A Month of Service

 Visits with "amigos" in Guatemala have truly been a joy!  This family was at one time our pastor's family in Panajachel.  They are now pastoring a church across the lake at San Juan a laguna, which means San Juan on the lake. Here is only one of their four children, as the rest were in morning school the day we visited.

 We were fortunate to come to Guatemala at the right time to attend the wedding of another one of our good friends here,  Rosalia with her new husband, Jonatan.  This was a huge wedding, with about 300 guests!

 Another pleasant surprise was a visit from the family of one of our good friends in our church in Taylors. The family of Nohemi.  All her sisters resemble her and miss her tremendously.  They all live in Guatemala City and came to Panajachel to meet us and show the family the lake.                                   Also, the family of our pastor in the states came to Panajachel to visit with us as well.  What a blessing to see the Godly heritage in these families!

 Our first meeting with teachers for the school program, "Moral Values Based on the Bible", which was begun last year.  The school year starts in January here until October, so they are revving up to go into 2 public schools to teach Bible lessons one day a week in each class from first grade to sixth.  We are excited to have a new director this year and have great expectations that the Lord will mightily bless this ministry as it affects more than 500 children with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

 Another day this week, we are reminded of just how blessed we are and how there are many peoples in the world who suffer from the lack of basic needs like food,water, shelter, clothes, etc.  We visited this Kiche refugee camp up the mountain from us.  They were moved here when their village about 4 kilometers from here was totally destroyed two years ago during a mudslide.  This is a temporary village for them, but "temporary" could mean several years.  The govt. provided tents, then the people put up sheet metal panels around the tents to guard against the cold.

There are 22 families with 45 children.  They have 3 outside "pilas" or sinks for the total population to use for dish washing, clothes washing and hair washing.  They use one tent for body washing where they keep a fire burning so it won't be too cold and of course, outside toilets to share.  We are planning to take the Mitchell Road mission team up there one day to have a day long Bible School.  So, 2 American friends helped me to measure feet so the team could bring shoes for everyone!  We were pleasantly surprised when they all kindly waited their turn and then showed us cage after cage of rabbits!  We are so blessed to have the opportunity to take part in so many ways God is at work in Guatemala and be able to share it with all of you.

Catching Up!

 We are playing "catch up" with our blog.  Last April, we left our ministry in Guatemala to begin anew back in the states.  Greenville, South Carolina, where our son, Aaron and Ruth and their two children, Peter and Marijane , live, as well as our daughter, Sarah.  The focus of our ministry in these months has been with the family - the first time since the kids have grown that we have all lived in one place!  Also, the Lord has introduced us to a small spanish speaking congregation, where we hope to be able to be an encouragement.

This is Mari Jane, now 14 months old.  She is running everywhere, starting to talk a lot, and loves music.  She has more dance moves than anyone we have ever seen!

 This is Peter, now 4 1/2 years old.  He is very active, loves being outside , especially in our 1 1/2 acre lot, where he rides his car and picks up sticks!
He is in a half day program at the same school where his daddy teaches the Bible to 7th and 8th graders.  He likes to find the eggs that our 6 chickens lay in the hen house.








Our big news is that Sarah is getting married to Will Dehart the end of February!  We are very happy to include Will in our family, especially since God included him in His family about a year ago!  They will make their home in Greenville, about 15 minutes from our house.

Easter, 2012

 Right now we find ourselves once again in Guatemala, for one month, to check on friends, ministries and projects that were started while we were here.  In a future blog, we will tell all about our time here.
But for now, please pray for the school project that allowed Bible teachers to enter public schools last year. We are in the midst of finding a new director, more teachers, open schools for this year.