New Beginnings

Life is starting to get back to normal after the 3+ months of morning sickness. I am so thankful! We hit the halfway mark in our K-5 homeschool, that means we will be finished in April, before the baby comes. Tomorrow will be a fresh start of the second half. K-4 was a blast and I am so thankful we did it. Jonah and Silas have such a good foundation. We had 2 solid months of K-5 and then I got sick. This year being mostly just a confidence builder has been really helpful or I might have been panicked right now! While I wasn't feeling so well and falling deeper into a pit of mommy guilt I told the boys, "soon everything will be back to normal and we will have our old awesome school days again." Jonah said, "I like THIS school, Mama!" He is always the encourager! 

Homeschool Experiment

A new year at the institute starts on the 11th. This is the 3rd and final year for our first group of students. I don't know how we will let them go, I try not to think about it. We will miss them and their families terribly. This will be our first year of having 3 years of classes happening at the same time. That is 9 hours of material a day being taught, Tuesday through Friday, 12 classes a week! Jimmy is teaching 6 of the classes this semester, Pastor Norberto is teaching 1 (the students are so happy he is returning), Juan is teaching 4, and I am teaching 1. Please pray for Jimmy since there is a lot of material to prepare for along with managing the farm and students and overseeing the church. I often wonder why God didn't send us teammates, but God's plan is better than mine, haha! Eventually some of the graduates will end up teaching, I'm sure. That's better than an import!

The new beautiful stone porch across the front of the academic building.

In typical Kekchi fashion, we have no idea how many new students we will have until they actually show up with their families. Jimmy had one more family house built and is building a house for Juan (dean of students) so that it frees up more single student space. We might be building more houses the first week of classes! One new single student has already moved to the village next door with his family. He will move onto the farm next week. Several single guys and several families have said they were coming, but you just don't know until the last second, that's how this culture works. Please pray as our new semester begins!

Roof going on a new family house.

I have so much about our ministry and family over the last 3 months that I want to post. So much I want to remember and be able to look back on! So... that is what I will be doing over the next couple of weeks, posting everything I missed. Happy New Year!

Not At All What I Pictured

Out of the 4 students at the farm, Ro has the most education. H has the same amount Ro did at his age, but he is younger. Knowing that going in, I probably had the least amount of mercy and the highest expectations for him in my class. He did really well, but I kind of expected it or assumed he really didn't have to try as hard as the others. Maybe I missed an opportunity to celebrate with him on his achievements. His confidence led me to assume lots of things. I pictured his house, his family, his life story...

Well, this past week his family came to visit him. When they arrived, they were so excited to see their son, that they couldn't even speak for the tears. They are very supportive of their son being at the institute. While Ro was in class, his mom and sister went right to cleaning his house and doing his laundry. Moms are the same all over the world! They were here only a couple days, but I was able to learn so much more about Ro.

Neither one of Ro's parents can read. That in and of itself is a very large barrier to overcome. We learn so much as children being read to by our parents, things that lay the foundation for all of our future learning. Illiterate parents tend to either not place as high of a value on higher education, or don't know how to make it available to their kids. How would they provide the support system they need to succeed. How would illiterate parents go about helping their kids with their schoolwork? Illiterate people learn in different ways. They file things away in their minds differently, thus recalling them differently when it is time to relate to something new in order to learn more. I have no idea how Ro got to where he is at other than the sheer determination of his parents. 

Education in Guatemala is free, other than basic school supplies until you finish an equivalent to (in years) Jr High. That is where kids usually get lost. Either they don't see the value to pay to continue their education, they live in such rural areas that there aren't jobs for their parents to get to be able to pay for higher education, or they aren't counseled to choose the right school where there will be a job for them afterwards where they live. 

[Here in Sr High you choose your general field like we would do in college. In our area for $40 a month you can be a teacher, nurse or accountant. Only those three schools are offered. Then if you want to do something else you go to college with that as your foundation- so an accountant would go on to study business or law.]

It is the fathers whose sole income is their corn fields, rather than having an outside stable job that have the hardest time. Again, the ruralness of where people live limits their opportunities to have jobs. Ro's dad works at a palm plantation. That means he travels from his rural home to work in a larger town. He provided the means for Ro to get a higher education and then rallied behind him!

I didn't realize Ro's background before. I pictured him as a privileged city boy (because he is educated) and that wasn't the case at all! With the help of his father he removed obstacles that usually take more than one generation to overcome. I was humbled to see his real story. Because of what his father sacrificed his son will be a very well prepared pastor one day, influencing the next generation for Christ! 

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: Sparky's girlfriend gave birth to 8 piglets this past week at the institute farm! Our herd is growing!

Some Steps to Becoming a Self Sustaining Institute

A couple of weeks ago a missionary friend, Jesse Eggman, brought a visiting missionary team to the institute. 

{Jesse is in yellow}

They bought 254 lime trees and spent the day planting them. 

Silas and Jonah helped too!

 That one day of investment will provide a $2540 a year profit for the institute once they start producing in 4 years. 

Jesse then brought over a visiting family who spent a day painting the trees with lime. This protects against pests, mainly leaf cutter ants. Those ants could consume these little saplings in under an hour. Here is one that was struggling a bit. 

 Most are doing really well. You can see one behind Jonah and Silas in this photo:

{My kids love the bags of water they sell here. Why is water in a bag so fun?!}

This was the field that Samuel and the students spent 3 days clearing and burning, but now it is full of trees!

Pastor Andy is here this week with another one of his sons, Joseph. When Jimmy showed them around the institute I took a couple of photos. 

It's a long hike to see all of the projects. 

 Jimmy leased out our copal trees to a family that harvests the sap. It is like frankincense. 

{The white stuff is the copal}

Several months ago M (a single guy from our church) helped Jimmy start the Guano project.

There are 1900 of them.

These are the leaves used for the thatched roofs. 

We have the only legally registered Guano farm in Petén… I thought that was funny! 

While the Guano project belongs to the institute as a whole, each individual student has their own tomato, bell pepper, and jalapeño plants. As soon as we get a better water source at the farm, we will have more agriculture projects. 

{Tomato plants in between the corn}

The corn in the photo above was ready to eat as corn on the cob the same week the students arrived and now the rest of it that has dried is being used to make cornmeal for tortillas. 

We finally bought a girlfriend for our male pig, Sparky. Jimmy also purchased another female pig that is already pregnant. Hopefully soon we will have lots of little piglets running around. 

Each student built 4 chicken tractors. 

{Chicken tractors in progress}

Two are for raising meat chickens and the other 2 are for hens laying eggs. 

{P & one of his finished tractors}

There are 150 laying hens currently at the institute. Profit from their eggs is currently covering the students' food costs and giving them about $5 a week spending money from each of their earnings. 

At the advice from a farmer from the last team, Jimmy purchased 2 goats for the institute. Samuel and the students are standing in front of the new goat pen. The goats will be raised for milk and meat. 

Atz'i, the farm's ferocious guard dog (a boxer that was made for this job!) has to be introduced to the goats so just in case one got out of their pen, she wouldn't eat them… she really wanted to at first. 

 Eden loved the goats!

 This coming week is finals week at the institute. Please pray for the students, that they will finish up the semester strong! 

The morale seems to be high. They are as excited about each project that gets added as we are. They are living the improvements, doing a lot of the work and reaping the benefits! We hope this will help them believe in these methods enough to employ them once they start their ministries, so that they will be able to support their families with little struggle. Please pray that God will continue to bless and protect the institute and all of the different projects! 

The Water Saga

When we first purchased the institute farm there were plans to connect to the village next door's well (that the government dug for them.) The mayor at the time tried to charge us a connection fee of $6,300, that he would personally pocket and also half of the overall water bill of their village. Over a year ago one of our supporting churches gave money for us to dig our own well. We have contacted people all over Guatemala, even well digging "ministries", but all want to charge an unfair amount of money except for one company that is actually based in Petén. Yes, there are well digging "ministries" here in Guatemala where people in the States have donated all of their equipment and they charge missionaries and villagers alike obscene amounts of money to turn a profit for themselves. Yikes!

 Anyway, so this one company that is fair is getting all the business, so we are way down on the list. So far we have been waiting for over a year. They currently have several government contracts (and governments overpay) so that is clogging things up.  

So what are we doing for water in the meantime? God provided this huge water tank on loan for free from our missionary friend, Jesse. This is such a blessing to KBI. Before Jimmy was hauling water in a cistern in the back of his pickup from our house. This water tank holds about 5 times more than that cistern.   

On top of the students' needs, lots of water is needed at the farm for all the crops and livestock too. God takes good care of us!

There has been another recent turn of events in this water saga. The town next door… you know, the one that poaches our wood, threatens us with guns, beat our old guard, threatened to squat on our land and take it over (that's how they got the land they are on now, they stole it from the guy we bought our land from) and tried to burn the whole farm down (the new guard put the fire out). I'd say they're pretty friendly neighbors as a whole. They got the mayor of San Pancho to fix up the dirt road that leads to the farm and their village… by threatening to kill him and burn the police station down. That benefitted us. See they're team players! 

{Poachers from our favorite village actively stealing from our farm}

Well several families from there have started attending our church (I posted about that before.) Then we found out that the new elected mayor claims to be a Christian. He is applying to study at the institute. (He obviously is far from being approved, since Jimmy hardly knows anything about him yet, but it's still interesting.) Well this new mayor offered to hook the farm up to their well for free and just pay based on how many houses are connected, but pay twice as much per house. That would be about $4 a month per house instead of $2. This would help subsidize their town's cost, which would be an incentive to keep us connected. The pipes that need to be laid for this to happen could later work for the well once it is dug too if we are ever cut off, so that money wouldn't be wasted. So please pray as Jimmy seeks direction and sorts out this possibility. Everything here has to be as complicated as possible! 

Why Start A Pastors Institute?

Yesterday was the Inaugural Service and first day of classes for the Kekchi Bible Institute (KBI)! It was a big day in our ministry and in fulfilling our purpose here. We are so thankful that God brought all of this about and for all the people He used to help us along the way. 

One of the people He sent along to help was a missionary friend of ours named Jesse. He and his family will be in Petén for the next 2 to 3 years. He put together this promo video to help raise funds in his supporting churches to finish some of the agricultural and construction projects that are left. We feel it really articulates why God put it in Jimmy's heart to start this pastors institute and the sustainability aspect of it, so that it will accomplish more than just what a missionary couple could in a lifetime and hopefully outlasts us as well. 

Did you hear the Howler monkeys?! Thanks for keeping up with our family and ministry here! 

The Results of Our Chicken Tractor Trials

Here is our third chicken tractor (pictured above). This might be our best one. 

First I spent $200 on one made of pressure treated lumber with a sheet metal roof. 

The second one was $150 out of PVC pipe, also with a sheet metal roof. It ended up being too light weight for some of the wind here, although Juan did raise and sell 25 of a different breed we were trying called Turkey Chickens. 

This third one cost me $15 worth of chicken wire and the rest of the materials were free from the farm. 

It may not last as long, but it was easy to get materials and cheap to build. Both are important when planning a project for our students!  It will probably be the model the men are the most comfortable with. We have settled on Broilers for the breed of chickens that take the least amount of time and investment for the biggest profit. Those were one of the breeds in the first trial we did. 

The 40 chickens we started in this coop (all Broilers) will be food for our students this January. 

I just vaccinated all of them myself since the batch before this all died after the store said they had vaccinated them and clearly didn't. That will be something else we implement with the students. Behind the chicken tractor (in the first photo) you can see the corn that is growing well - also food. Please keep us in your prayers as we are trying to get everything done and ready for this first group!

KBI Board of Directors Meeting

Today I (Jimmy) met with the other men that make up the Board of Directors for our future Kekchi Bible Institute. 

I have been working on a lot of the paperwork and plans that need to be done before we start classes. The first thing I did was put together a list of what 60 courses the guys would need to learn over the 3 years they are studying. 

{The 60 courses and their descriptions}

Then I had to prioritize those courses into which year they would be taken and then into which of the 5 sessions per year. Once I had that I made a calendar for the next three years including breaks for Christmas, Independence Day and Easter. Our first Graduation will be December 18, 2016 and I can tell you what I'll be teaching on any specific date for the next three years. In a world where having no schedule is a necessity, it is strange to have my weeks planned out this far in advance.

Our first day of class is January 7, 2014. Classes will held from Tuesday through Friday from 1pm-4pm with each day dedicated to only one class. For example, "The History of the Bible" will be taught every Tuesday for 8 weeks and "The Gospels" will be taught every Thursday for 8 weeks. There will be a two week break in between classes and the Students will live full time on campus year round. The two week breaks will be necessary for the students to get extra work done on their agricultural projects and to have time to report in to their home churches. We also hope to use that time to take them on excursions to far away villages where they can be involved in evangelism.

After the calendar was done I made a booklet for us to hand out to the Kekchi churches here with a complete overview of the Institute and its purposes with the course calendar included with our Doctrinal statement and admission requirements.

Here is the translation of our admission requirements:

1. Over 18
2. Able to express a testimony of true faith in Jesus Christ
3. Be called to the ministry of a Pastor
4. Have at least two years of experience working in the ministries of your local church
5. Physically able to work in the agricultural projects of the Institute
6. Able to read and write in Spanish (*this is only for this first group of students)
7. Have a letter of recommendation from your Pastor
8. Complete the admissions form and attach $1.25 application fee
9. Submit your application before October 2, 2013.

Juan helped me greatly by putting together an application for our Students. It is 3 pages and will really help us find the best students for this first round of classes. There are already several who have expressed serious interest in attending.

{Application for Admissions}

I also presented today the financial plan for the Institute over the next three years and what that will look like when we expand to 50 students. We are going to need help during our first year, but after that the Institute should be fully self supporting.

So I showed up with all of my information in an organized, linear fashion ready to talk point by point with the guys, but knowing you can't hold a meeting like that here. So what we really did was contextualize everything and instead of thinking A, B, C we talked about what a day in the life of a student would look like. Then as questions arose I could point the guys to where that information was located in their books. It can be fun to merge cultures this way if you expect it going in. We made several adjustments to my original plan, but overall everything was readily accepted and the guys are really excited.

 We don't announce these plans formally until August 7th when there is already a big pastors meeting planned. I will have the final draft of the books with the changes we made today included with applications for each of the pastors to present to his church. Pray that we will be able to effectively communicate so that God will bring the exact students He wants to attend. Pray for wisdom as we go over the applications and pray that we get the last remaining funds needed to finish the Institute in time for these students.

UPDATE: Our dear friend, pastor Andy, is also on the board of directors. We found out that he had heart surgery yesterday (Wednesday). As far as we know all went well. Please pray for him and his family as he recovers. Thank you!

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: 

The other morning the boys decided that they wanted to go to work with daddy. They came home a little bit after lunch looking like this!

The End of Our 1st Chicken Tractor Trial

So around January 1st the eight week chicken tractor project trial run came to a close. The test was to try several different breeds of chickens with two different tractor designs. Besides analyzing that information, Jimmy also needed to test feed amounts and how much time was required, as well as analyze the profit margins. During the two months Jimmy had limited help, so it was mostly just him every day hauling water and feed and moving the pens. 

We started with 90 chickens and ended up with 72 after some losses. Only 35 of those were of the breed that we found was the easiest to sell at a standard price/lb. for meat. 

Some of the birds weighed 4.5 lbs at only 6 weeks! They were sold for $5-8 with an investment of less than $2 including initial purchase price and feed. The first bird Jimmy took to the agrovet to weigh was such a looker, someone bought it on the spot! Since culturally here people buy the chickens live, there was no need to butcher our own chickens, which is a huge benefit. The profits were enough to pay off the supplies of building the two chicken tractors, so a net gain of 0, but the pens of course can be reused, so not too bad. 

Time involvement was around 30 minutes per day including the 15 minute round trip drive time, so it looks very doable for our students to have enough time to study and still work their chickens.

If we double that and give every student 4 pens with 160 chickens total, their individual profit every two months will be at least $400. That may not sound like too much for somebody in the States, but here that equates to 62.5 quetzales per day. The "going rate" for a day laborer is Q50/day, so for an investment of one hour per day our students (future pastors) will be making 25% more than their neighbors who are working all day mixing concrete. 

Once again the vision and goals for our sustainability projects are working out better than we had planned in real life trials. 

Some of the lessons learned were: rat-proof better, buy smaller chicken wire, install handles on the pens, don't buy brown chickens, or black chickens, or anything called a "patio chicken." 

The leftover chickens are shown below. The white ones were sold the next day. One thing we found was that people usually bought one being skeptical, but then returned two days later to buy 2 more. The feedback from our chicken customers was that they had a better taste and less fat than the farm-raised chickens available, and they were juicier and more tender than the "street chickens".  In our personal taste tests we thought they tasted better too, but we thought we might be a little biased.

{Our Christmas Dinner Taste Test!}

One day Jimmy drove door to door with a plastic laundry hamper in the back of his pickup selling chickens. I would have PAID MONEY to see the looks on peoples faces when they looked out their front doors to find a gringo selling chickens. He only told me about it at the end of the day or I would have pictures! Our friends didn't even believe us when we told them we had chickens to sell. Gringo chicken farmers don't fit into the stereotype! 

All those brown chickens will be producing eggs in a couple more months, so we are copying some designs from Tony Thrasher, a member of one of our supporting churches in SC, for some pens for our laying hens. Until then they are living in this chicken coop next to our new house in San Pancho. The guy we bought our land from is letting us use these coops for free. It won't be long before we move them back out to pasture! 

BIG chickens!

Jonah and Silas love going with Daddy to feed the chickens. On the mornings he has time to drop them back by the house before he leaves, he takes one boy with him to help. They keep good track of whose turn it is!

Silas is great at hauling around gallon jugs of feed and water... not bad for a 3 year old!

These photos are of the second coup. It is made out of 2x2's instead of 2x4's which makes it a little easier to move. Jimmy has plans to try a 3rd coup out of pvc pipe. He wants to make more adjustments on the wood coups as well. Now that the chickens are bigger some can jump out the top when you open it to feed them. The food distracts them enough not to be a big problem, but he still wants to try a couple more designs. These are made out of exactly eight 12' pieces, so no wood is wasted.

This is about the size they started off at. Yesterday Silas came home and told me they weren't baby chickens anymore they were "BIG chickens!"

{Taken yesterday}

 They should be ready to sell just in time for Christmas! There are two types of chickens here according to the salesmen- fattening up chickens and patio chickens. We have 40 fattening up chickens (the white ones) and 40 patio chickens, of which there are around 5 different looking ones. We are hoping a chicken expert can help us out with breed identification. After 8 weeks we will know which are the better ones to have at the Institute and which ones aren't ideal for this project. 

{If you missed our earlier post these are trial chicken tractors that will be one of institute's projects used to help pastors provide for their families while ministering in rural villages.}