The 2019 KBI Graduation

At the end of the year we had our 3rd graduation at Kekchi Bible Institute!

Mari, Rodrigo, Henry, Gerson, Angelina, Giovani

I wanted to share a little bit about each graduate's plans. Mari and Rodrigo each completed the full 3 year program of 60 courses. In mid December they moved to the unreached village of Agua Chiquita. They have a son whom Titus will miss very much.

Jackson and Titus

Giovani came to the farm as a single student, met the cook and got married! He completed the 3 year program and Angelina didn't begin studying until later, but completed the certificate program of 20 classes (she actually completed 35 classes). They also moved in December to the unreached village of Se Pur. They have one son as well. Since moving they have already faced some opposition among the village leadership but God cleared the way for them to remain in the village. 

Graduates with all of the men and women who teach at the institute. (Oscar's face is behind Eulalia, but we really appreciate him too.)

Henry was in the first group of students to ever come to the farm. Besides Elias, Jimmy has probably spent the most time with and feels the closest to Henry. When he left 3 years ago, with one semester to go, that was a very low point for us personally. He returned this past year, with his wife Ana. She is still completing the program, so he will stay here for a while. He will be teaching some first year classes at the institute and is our translator for all of our materials that we want to be put into Kekchi. He is a gifted teacher and translator, so we wouldn't mind if God's plan for him was to partner with us long-term, but God will reveal that in His own time. When I try to predict things like this, I'm always wrong!

There are a couple missing from this photo, but these are the other men beginning their 2nd and 3rd year at the institute, plus Gerson and his brother.

 Gerson is the first student to graduate single. Like Jimmy said in the graduation video he made for the students, it isn't for lack of options, haha! Gerson is waiting for a girl that wants to serve God along side him. He lives the farthest away out of anyone and is one of the only students who had a dad that truly supported him studying at the institute. His dad is a pastor in the department south of here and Gerson returned to his church to take over the youth ministry he start during breaks at the institute. He spoke of coming back once he is married to partner with our association to begin a church plant in Petén. (It is just an association to be legal in Guatemala, each mission once it becomes a self supporting church will file paperwork to become it's own association.) Can't wait to see what God has for him!

 Each year we learn so much about how to better prepare each student. We adjust and readjust constantly. This is the first year we worked outside the umbrella of an existing association for the church plants. These 2 families are pioneers. If they persevere and are successful, this will serve as proof of concept for other graduates who want to be autonomous. Please pray for them!

Another adjustment for the upcoming year is we have learned that many students (not all) move out of their parents' or inlaws' house to move onto the farm property. That means that when they leave the institute, it is their first time truly outside of a big family situation (We consider the farm community a big family!) where they are setting up their own house and won't have someone around to help them all the time. It can be overwhelming. Day one at the institute will be different for new families. It's hard because you want to fix everyone's problem immediately if you can but in some cases that will stifle their future. Please pray for our upcoming year!

This upcoming year will be our first where the ladies have a uniform too. We were all pretty excited about it!

It is such an honor to share 3 years with these individuals who sacrifice so much to follow God's call. The farm is such a unique environment. Everyone is there to grow, us included!

Where the Battle Lies

     The purpose of our Bible Institute isn’t just to have people who know more about their Bible, it is to have people trained to teach the Bible to others. The 3 families that have graduated so far, are in full time ministry. 2 are pastoring new missions, and one is our dean of students. Their experiences so far are helping us learn how to better aid our students as they graduate and then transition into ministry. There are 4 couples and a single guy scheduled to graduate this year. One couple is staying and in charge of translation work and teacher training in existing churches.

   It’s a tricky situation because legally you have to join a pastors association to form a church, but these pastor associations have become political machines that tax churches rather than helping them. They are also full of syncretism and idolatry where half the pastors are also the village witch doctor. There is a significant lack of biblical training. Not all of the churches involved are corrupt though. Many are sincerely searching for truth and know the current system is failing them. Many call into the Institute desiring a pastor who can lead them to the Truth. In one such church, La Balza, Jimmy and Elias were able to lead them to Independence. They legally formed an independent association just for their church. This allows them to pick their own pastor and also frees up their money to be used to reach the unreached villages around them. 

Taking 1st Semester Finals

   La Balza has relationships in 7 of these unreached villages, and have 1-3 people in each village who have accepted Christ because of their witness and radio station. This became an obvious partnership, to have our 3rd year students begin formal works in these villages. As each church is formed, each will create their own independent association.

   The 3rd year students are visiting their assigned village once a month during their final year at the institute. They spend Saturday traveling, Sunday preaching in the village, and Monday traveling back to the Institute. Our prayer is that their hearts will be tied to these people and their need and that they will leave straight from graduation to pastor in these villages. 

   The village of Purulá has 30 families and only one Christian. It is hard to get to (hour and a half walk from the road) and even harder to live there. During the dry season, the people get all of their water from a cave. They have to walk down 36 meters of steps to get to the water. The people take turns, 4 families at a time, carrying down their laundry, washing their clothes and then coming back up to switch with four other families who take their turn.

   Henry and Teodora visited this village this month. They just got married in December, so since they don’t have to carry kids with them, we thought the young couple could handle the hardship of travel and carrying their water. It was a hard first weekend. The Christian family was open, but didn’t want to take them anywhere else because the people in the village can be hard and closed. We thought they would be discouraged so after the visit we talked with them alone. Teodora said, “I knew who I was marrying and the call he has. If this is where God wants us to go, I’ll go there with my husband.” Henry said, “Yes it’s hard. But how are they going to hear about God if I don’t go? I’m motivated by how lost they are, not discouraged about how hard it is.”

   The village of Ak’ Tela’ has 400 families. It’s more of a town than a village, even though it’s 3 hours from the highway. There are 3 Christians in the village, so we sent Giovani, his wife Angelina with their 9 month old Joel, and our only single 3rd year student, Gerson, to this village. Gerson is one of the vocalists in our church, so the Christians asked him to sing a Christian song. They didn’t know any. He sang two and they asked for more until he ended up singing our entire songbook to them. Then he taught the kids while Giovani taught about the Bible. The Christians there were very happy about what they learned that day. They said that no one had ever opened up the Bible to them like that. 

Mari y Jackson

Rodrigo and Mari went with their 2 year old Jackson to La Balza, the mother church of all of these missions. The pastor of La Balza took Rodrigo to the village of Joventé on his motorcycle. It has 50 families and 2 Christians. There is some dispute about the land that was bought for a church building, so we are not sure if they will continue there or not, mainly because La Balza is putting a lot of pressure on Rodrigo to visit them every month rather than Joventé because they want more Bible training. Unless he becomes their pastor, we don’t want to continue down that road, because without the authority that comes with being the pastor, you can’t change much in an existing church. Please pray that God gives wisdom in the situation.  

    This is a fluid situation, depending how a village responds and how God leads each student. I listed all of their names so that you could pray for them specifically. Satanic attacks are common, he wants to keep these villages as captives in the kingdom of darkness, so please lift them and this work up in prayer! Thanks!

A New Name

Before Rigo came to the institute he had been a Christian for a total of 3 months. He was 21 and up to that point had come to be known as a drunk. Being a talented mason he used the money he earned to buy alcohol. He grew up without a father, but had a loving mother. She taught him about Jesus, only he rejected it.

He got a job working on a church building. While he was there he was contemplating suicide because he knew his life was missing something and everything he was trying to fill it with was just making it worse. He began to remember the things he heard growing up. He realized at that point, that God was drawing him into a personal relationship with Him. He put his faith in Christ that day leaning over a barrel of water used to mix concrete at the job site. I think it is beautiful the way that God so clearly drew Him to Himself.

Rigo introducing himself the first day of classes.

 A lot of people didn't believe that Rigo could change, but after that day his entire life was different. He never drank again. When he heard about the Institute from a national pastor, he contacted Jimmy about coming to learn more about God. Jimmy asked him, "How do you know you are called to be a pastor, when you've only been saved for about a month?" Rigo responded, "I have a burning inside me to tell others what I know." Jimmy approved his application and he became one of our first students. 

The first group of students who came. I'm pretty sure Rigo's shirt was soaking wet in this picture because he had just washed it and we did not plan on taking this photo that day, haha! (He is the 1st one on the left.)

Despite never finishing the 3rd grade, Rigo dedicated himself to not falling behind and thus never failed a single class. Beyond his studies, he memorized Bible verses on his own time in both Spanish and Kekchi. That is what I always think of when someone mentions Rigo, that he knows a LOT of scripture. His passion for the Bible also led him to be a successful evangelist, winning several families to Christ in the village neighboring the farm.

After studying for 3 years at the institute and leading Juana to Christ, who would later become his wife, he began his new life of ministry in the village of Agua Negra this past June. He had shared with Jimmy his concerns about not having enough food to eat. He had been serving in his home church for a while doing mason jobs during the week to save up money for his first work. Even up to the last week before he was scheduled to move to Agua Negra he was thinking about postponing it two more weeks to have time for one more job, just in case they needed money. Well he decided to go.

I'm so glad that he did because the church had been preparing for their arrival. They had been calling Jimmy for months asking for someone who knew the Bible to come teach them. Rigo and Juana were greeted with so much love! The church had a big celebration. They had a special handing over of the keys to the church ceremony. They signed an official creed to make him pastor, Juana signed it too because she is very much part of the ministry, they are serving God together.  

Parsonage

And as far as them having food to eat, the members had gathered 12 sacks of corn and had them waiting for them in the kitchen along with a financial gift. Here they are praying a prayer of dedication in their new home. You can see some of the sacks behind them.

The people were so grateful that a trained pastor chose to move to their village (There is a huge need here!) that they all brought fresh fruit and vegetables to show how dedicated they were to treating their pastor well! This is when Juana started to tear up.

I am so thankful that God brought such a great couple and a village hungry to learn more about Him together. As passionate as these members are to know God, Rigo and Juana are just as dedicated to faithfully completing the task God has for them! 

A couple weeks later Rigo called and said that he had 7 chickens that members had given him to eat and that he felt bad for having such an abundance. Haha! I wonder if God is laughing too. He takes such good care of those who are serving Him. 

God has greatly blessed him, but more importantly He has given Rigo a new name. Before he was known as a drunk but now he goes by Pastor!

We'll Find Out When We Get There...

That's what Gerson told his friend Alfonso on their long trip to the institute to come study last year. Alfonso wanted to know exactly what they would be studying. Gerson's dad, who is a pastor, wanted him to come so Gerson invited Alfonso to come too. That's how he ended up here. 

Night church services are tough because people have to walk so far and thieves break into their houses if they know they left for church, but we really wanted our church family (Iglesia Bautista Ak' Yuam) to have fellowship with each other during the week, something besides just Sunday morning. We have a youth service on Wednesday but we wanted something family oriented. So, this past Thursday was the first house church services. We had 5 families volunteer to host in the 2 villages next to the farm. 5 second year students will rotate to a different house each Thursday to facilitate a service.

Friday during class I asked the students how it went as I knew they had put a lot of work into it. They immediately lit up! (As soon as new "first year" students arrive the now "second year" students gain much more confidence and get a whole lot more talkative, haha!) Alfonso started sharing about his house church experience. One of the men who attended his service had not ever been to our church. He put his faith in Christ that night. The man said, "I have never heard this message before!" 

This is exactly a year after Alfonso himself put his faith in Christ during his first week of classes at the institute. He was right where God wanted him to be! He finished his first year with the highest grades overall. He has also killed more snakes on the property than any other student! (if you don't count the 15 baby pit vipers Gerson killed in one day...)

 I wish you both spoke the same language and he could tell you himself because this is his story and he was super excited! This is the whole purpose of the institute. I am so grateful to God for bringing Alfonso to the institute to hear and then for putting in him the desire to tell others!

The Most Difficult Part

This time of year is the hardest for me in the area of faith. I feel like we have so much control over other things... things once students arrive and even a little bit once they graduate. Jimmy and I both like having control, it makes us feel safe. Let's say it's an area where we are growing! But the temporary confidence we have from feeling in-control is not as durable as the peace that comes because of faith. What is obvious that we have zero control over is bringing student to the institute. That is all 100% a work the Holy Spirit does in the hearts of the ones He has chosen to use to reach the rest of Petén. 

First day of the last semester of the year

 The existing students have done an excellent job sharing about the institute. A current Kekchi student's personal experience goes much further than a foreigner's word. They have done lots of live announcements in Petén and Alta Verapaz and then recorded radio announcements for stations that reach different places around both departments. 

Celebrating the cook's (who's also our friend;) birthday

 Our goal, which we feel we can handle well as teachers is 15 new students each year. Several men have called in and Jimmy has been able to talk to 13 men personally that have reserved their spot. 3 of them have families with kids. The semester starts in January and we have seen in the past as soon as someone says they are moving their entire family to go study at the farm they start being attacked. Anything the devil will do to discourage, bring doubt, or distract, he will do.

Celebrating October birthdays

 I wanted to share some of the conversations Jimmy has had with these future students:

One asked several times exactly what he would be learning at the institute. Jimmy said that after he finished he would know how to study the Bible for himself to be able to find the answers to any of his questions. He replied, "Good, because I don't understand the Bible and I want to be able to read a Bible verse and know what it means for myself."

Another said today after calling again to confirm, "I want you to know this isn't a decision my wife and I made today based on a radio announcement, it was born in our hearts 8 months ago to be a pastor."

God laughs at our radio announcements! We have no control. This isn't our institute. We didn't come up with it, it was God. We didn't provide for it or protect it... all God. It's His possession. Please pray for these 13 men, the 3 wives, 4 children (under age 4) and any others He is calling. We'll be here waiting!

Rodrigo sharing his testimony

Rodrigo, a first year student spoke for the first time in youth group 2 weeks ago. He shared his personal testimony. He said, "I was so glad when I came here and learned that Salvation is for everyone and that it's for forever."

Our Jun kab’al

We are constantly learning more and more about Kekchi culture. I think we will always be learning. One of the reasons is, it is difficult to recognize and articulate your own culture because you don’t know anything different. How do you describe normal until you aren’t in your normal anymore. So, it isn’t as though you can go up and ask someone to describe what it is to be Kekchi exactly.

Part of being a female for me is a strong God-given desire to create a sense of community, community that gives identity and a sense of belonging. I try to do that in our home, in our church, and at the institute. That’s my circle of ministry. Being a part of a community allows you to share common values and offers a support system that can’t be duplicated by anyone outside of that community. That sums up family to me. That’s why we refer to our community at the institute/farm as our “farm family”.

What’s really neat is that we recently found out about the kekchi word "Jun kab’al". The literal translation is close to “one house.” In Kekchi world your Jun kab’al doesn’t have to be blood related. It isn’t only for privileges but it carries responsibilities. You can belong to more than one at the same time, but it is based on shared experiences and shared responsibilities.

Your school isn’t normally considered to be one of your Jun kab’als, but ours can be. This means that they aren’t just here for 3 years and then leave. They become part of our family and we are all part of this farm family from now on.

Balloon foosball

We do many things to build this sense of family so I thought I would share these a little at a time. One is celebrating life events. Each month we have a big birthday party to celebrate everyone’s birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in your Jun kab’al. If there is a party, it’s huge and everyone is invited. It’s impossible to crash a party in Kekchi world because no one would ever not be expected to come. It’s kind of funny to me what a big deal the celebrating is because the age and the actual date of birth are usually forgotten. I regularly have to check people’s legal paperwork and remind them of their day.

Celebrating Jimmy, Paul, Mari, and Gerson's birthday last month

The first year it started off as just cake. Now, we have a whole game night. Here are some photos from the first 2 months of this school year:

New Students at the Institute

My husband gave me a laptop makeover yesterday. I have been battling storage space and a non functioning iPhoto for about 2 years. He emptied all of the photos from my laptop and put them on some hard drives. Then I emptied the 2,000+ photos on my phone to be able to start fresh organizing them all on my laptop that now has over 300 GB of free space. I'm sooo thankful! 

So... what do I catch up on first?! Let's talk about new students! 

First, starting a new school year in January is fiscally nuts. We only usually get about half of our monthly support in December due to work days being off at churches, at our agency, and at banks because of the holidays, and don't get the rest of that regular support until the end of January. So paying for graduation, helping students move, our kids' Christmas, church Christmas outreaches, our kids starting school, and then new student housing and materials on the farm, seems overwhelming at times. And no one believes that the gringo could ever be short on funds... ever.

But, God provides, ALWAYS. 

The number of students "coming" for the new school year is very fluid. This is for me personally one of my biggest struggles in the area of faith. We can work really hard, but only the Holy Spirit can call and compel men to prepare for ministry. During this time of year I find myself thinking, "What are we doing? Is this all for nothing?" There is lots of trust involved in this part.

 Jimmy had spent a lot of time and resources on traveling to do recruitment this year. He had 20 applications. Some even paid their application fee (Q500). Still, of the 10 new students we had, only 4 were in that 20, lol! That's the way it works here. Jimmy will call them on the phone, if there is reception in their village, and they will say "Yes, I am coming", then the next day, "No... I'm not coming." Then they will show up at the farm 2 days later! How are control freaks supposed to plan?!!! 

So here are the 8 men and 2 wives that took the step of faith, moved onto the farm, and started studying this year. 

Rodrigo:

 

Mari: 

They have a beautiful little 3 month old named Jackson. From what I have heard, I think he sleeps as well as Titus at night;) I wish I could convey culturally what it means to move to an unknown place, several hours away from your family, with your first child, who is only 3 months old. I have so much respect for them and this testimony of faith. 

Raul:

 Belén:

 Belén came seeking God. She put her faith in Christ at the end of the first week of classes. She gave birth to her son the next day... because we like to have as many life events as possible all at the same time!!! It really was a beautiful time for this family! She is doing very well, a lot better than I ever did after childbirth. Her mother AND her mother-in-law are staying in her house most days helping her. What man wouldn't want to live in that his first couple weeks at a new place?! Raul and Belén seem to have a close bond, I have seen Raul helping Belén around the farm since the birth. It is so sweet!

Here is baby Carlos with his dad:

I spend lots more time with the ladies so I can't speak much about these men, but I am so grateful for Mari and Belén's sweet spirit. They fit in great here. This is a gift! We have been around toxic situations before and I just see them thriving in ministry and setting a loving atmosphere for their churches. One gossiping lady can poison any group, a gracious one, creates a sense of community! 

The others are single men.

 Henry:

 He has started playing the keyboard in church with us!

Byron:

 He plays the drums!

Mauricio:

He is kind of quiet. He gets up super early to go work before classes.

Eric:

Erick did a couple of semesters last year, but he struggled because of his Spanish. Jimmy said it would be best for him to withdraw and go study Spanish a little more and then return. He did. Either he learned more, gained confidence, or is simply working harder, but he is doing so much better!

 Gerson:

 Gerson is a pastor's kid and brought his friend, Alfonso. Alfonso wasn't a Christian. At the end of the second week he put his faith in Christ! Both of these guys are super nice!

Alfonso:

So if you are keeping track, 20% of our students weren't even Christians when they came! What a great first step to being discipled though! If there wasn't a need, and already mature Christians who sat in churches with pastors who knew their Bibles, where they had the opportunity to grow. Why would we be doing this?

Please pray for these students as they prepare for ministry!

An Empty Building and a Long Walk that Ended With an Open Door

This map is the top 1/3 of Guatemala, know as the department of Petén. We live in and our institute/farm is locate in the dark blue region in Petén. It is called San Fransisco.

Source

We often talked about reaching Petén, but our focus is unreached Kekchi villages, so if any of those fall outside of the boundaries of Petén, that's ok too. Pastor Eli, the dean of students, heard about a village named Santa Maria. It is in the department of El Quiché. If you are keeping track, that is actually 2 departments below the Petén.

 Well Jimmy is really practical, so the thought of spending resources to travel that far drives him nuts. He'd rather have infrastructure and branch out over time. He knows though that the Holy Spirit doesn't always work in geographical order.

It's hard for me to know exactly how long it takes to travel to this village. In the States people describe distances by minutes or miles. Here it is by price in a microbus. I think it takes about 10 hours in a micro and then a 2 hour walk after that.

 A family member of someone from this village told Pastor Eli about it. He said that there was a man in the village that wants a church so bad that he built a building next to his house, but no one will come and start one. He and his sons go in the building once a week and pray. It's a hard place to get to. You could build a church there, but it isn't going to be a big fancy concrete one like the ones you see on the side of the main road. This pastor would be making a sacrifice. But there are at least 35 other villages after that 2 hour walk, just like this one, with no work at all in them.

About where it is on google maps

  This past Tuesday, since it was during our 2 week break in between semesters, Pastor Eli, Pedro (3rd year student), and Mateo (2nd year student) went to check it out. They had a guide that met them once they got off the micro. He walked with them half way but then got scared. It is dangerous to just show up in a closed Kekchi village without being invited. This guy wasn't from there, plus he was taking strangers there. He made up a story about hurting his knee so that he could turn turn around and go back. Later we found out that after he turned around he ended up really hurting his knee. He was in so much pain that he had to pay for an injection at a nearby clinic and then he ran out of money to be able to get back home... poor guy!

Mateo & Pastor Eli

On the way there, they would pass people along the road. When they would find out where they were going, they would tell them, "Make sure you take all your food and water with you, because that village isn't going to give you anything!" So I guess this village has a reputation. The 3 men were so muddy from the long walk, that when they got close, they bathed in the river and changed clothes to clean themselves up before arriving.

Once they arrived in the village, it was pretty late. The first house they came to, was Augustine's house, the man who had built the building for a church. Well we all know that was God! He gave them coffee. Everyone came out to see who they were and why they were there. There was a big town meeting with everyone and the town council. The people were very cautious because they had been exploited by different groups beforehand who were trying to steal land from them or promised them social projects and then never returned. They had a long meeting and asked lots of questions. Pastor Eli focused on the fact that they were not there to ask for anything or bring them anything other than the message of the Gospel. Pastor Eli told them about the institute. Thankfully he even had a business card stating he was the dean of Students at IBQ (KBI) to make his story sound more legit. (Business cards and ID cards are very important here.) The village decided together that it was ok and that they could come back and teach them more about God. (I would like to interject here that none of the angry meetings Jimmy and I have ever been in, ended with, you can come back, lol!)

          The next morning they went around to every single house and filled out a survey. It basically asks them what they believe about God. There are 80 families in the village and through the survey they found out that the only Christians in the village are Augustine's family.

  So basically there is a man in the middle of nowhere, seeking God and God is sending Him someone to help disciple him. The students have done survey trips before, but there was something different about this one. Jimmy spoke with Mateo to see if he wanted to go back and if he could see himself working there after he graduated. Mateo said, "It's definitely worth it because there are so many other villages around there too." Jimmy also asked if the people were really interested in knowing more about God or trying to get something from the farm. Mateo said, "No, there are people there who really want to learn more about God!" Mateo wanted to be the guy heading up the outreach into this village. It is neat to see God match up personalities and gifts the students have with the villages that He leads them to. He seems like a great fit. In some of these more closed villages it might be that someone like Mateo goes in, starts a work and then one of the young guys from that work comes to the institute for 3 years and returns to their own village and then Mateo can move on down the road. That way their pastor is eventually an insider. 

Some more good news is that they found out there is a new road into the village that they had not known about before and one truck leaves from there at 3AM every morning. It's going to cost us $200 a month for passage for two guys to go every 2 weeks. They will get there late on Saturday nights, teach all day on Sunday, leave at 3AM on Monday to get back for school on Tuesday at the Institute.

Please pray for the village of Santa Maria!

The New Dean of Students at the Instittute!

I just want to share with everyone the big blessing that God sent our ministry and family! We have been praying for some nationals to come along side and help at the institute. No one knows the culture and language like another Kekchi. I didn't understand how this would be possible since we really wanted someone who had a strong Biblical education. Obviously that is a need in our area or else Jimmy wouldn't have started the institute. 

Well God sent a wonderful couple! Pastor Ely decided when he was 10 that he wanted to learn to read. He didn't speak any Spanish. He started just hanging out in the back of a school classroom (Spanish speaking), helping with chores, like hauling water. Soon the teacher asked if he wanted to study and let him join their class. When he was almost 20 he decided he wanted to prepare for ministry and traveled to Guatemala City and studied in a Nazarene seminary. He lived on campus and studied for 3 years (kind of like the institute here;).

At that seminary he met his Spanish speaking wife, Cristy. They were married and later returned to Petén with a heart to reach his own people. Once someone works their way to Guatemala City they rarely do not return to rural Petén. He has a visa and has traveled to the States for pastor's conferences and even was offered a full time pastorate position in Missouri. He turned it down because his burden for his own people is so strong.

{Pastor Ely traveling with some of the students}

We haven't ever met a couple like Pastor Ely and Cristy. We love them dearly and are so thankful that they have accepted the position as Dean of students at the farm. They live on campus now and he teaches several of the classes. They just recently turned over a Kekchi church that they planted to another national, so they know about church planting!

This is a huge blessing to the farm and the men there, being trained for ministry! Please pray for Pastor Ely and Cristy as they are transitioning to the farm and their new job. They have a newborn too, name Moises.

That's Spanish, for Moses, for those of you who remember that I wanted to name Titus that! God brought us a Moses after all, he will probably be Titus' best friend one day!

God is so good to our family and ministry. He ALWAYS provides. Today is our 10 year anniversary in Guatemala. I am so thankful for all that God has taught us through this journey of Who He is, His power, and how much He loves us! I pray that He allows us to spend the rest of our lives here, finishing the job that He gave us to do!

Washing Off the Ugly

For a couple years, while the main construction was happening at the institute and the infrastructure was being planned and built, I made fun of how UGLY it was. It was functional for quite a while, while maintaining this sad case of the "uglies". It went from being something we joked about to where I was really concerned that 10 years from now this farm was going to still be an eyesore. I kept asking Jimmy if we could do something about it, but when you feel like there are a million things more practical in line to get on the budget before aesthetics, it just isn't possible. It seemed like as fast as we cleaned something up, some other construction project ruined it.  

My main argument was that aesthetics would lift morale and really encourage everyone to take care of things and have some respect for the facilities. Still Jimmy is one of the most practical persons you could meet, and I was wasting my breath. Then all of a sudden Jimmy came home one day and said he contracted a flagstone guy to build a porch on the front of the classrooms building. I couldn't believe it! (You can see them working on it in the photo above.) 

 

Here it is finished before the roof was installed. One of the students was drying their corn in the parking lot... it is so normal here to block roads to dry your corn. That made us laugh. Just another cultural difference, nothing wrong with that!  

 

Jimmy welded the beams for the roof on the regular classrooms and then our missionary pilot friend, Paul helped engineer and build the beams on the large room (salón) on the end. 

 

Now all the rooms have a roof and doors. All that's left are some bars on some windows and one room still doesn't have a floor. We use it for storage right now. 

The students cut log planters out of the jungle and found these beautiful vines to replant in front of the posts. 

Filling all the log planters was a lot of fun!

We hung a couple plants too.   

The students also cut some boards from the jungle for me to make signs for the doors.

 

I think these are super cute and rustic. We also bought some brass numbers for the doors... gettin' fancy!

 

I love it! It is so homey now and has a beautiful, charmingly rustic ambiance to it.    

 

Jimmy made some lovely key chains to hang in the office, with my grandfather's wood burning tool. They correspond to the brass numbers. Now we aren't constantly looking for someone with a key.  

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 Jimmy also ordered a time card machine that came down with his parents on their last trip. This is super helpful. It stopped some of the arguments between guys on who worked when and also I think Jimmy is getting more real quality work hours out of them since there is a more definite start and stop time with this.

 

We were laughing because the tallest person at the farm hung it on the wall and they didn't want any kids messing with it, but none of the rest of us could reach it without a stool! It has since been fixed. 

 Jimmy also asked the students to build some students mail boxes. This has saved some time as well.

 We are getting so efficient, haha! Little by little this place is turning into a well oiled machine!

 I will have to remember to take more pictures to show the other things that have been done to spruce up the place and help it run more efficient. It's a fun process, now that it isn't just flat out ugly anymore. The farm is really beautiful now! I'm so thankful!