What We'll Do When We Get Back Home

The last 2 days that the Yoders were here, Domingo and his wife also came to Guate from Petén to visit with us. Actually, they left the night before and rode a bus all night long with their 7 month old daughter. It was really nice to have time to just sit and talk. Usually Domingo and I are so busy with activities that we don't have too much time to do that. Our longest talks are on walks to villages, but usually we are both so out of breath we keep our talks short.

Domingo was able to share a lot of his personal struggles with me and hopefully we can come up with a solution for some of them. One problem is that he spends almost all of his salary every month on gas money getting to the villages. He is the only national missionary with his own truck, and for that reason travels the farthest to unreached villages. After traveling so much, there is not much left every month to support his family. Besides feeding his wife and 5 kids, his oldest girls are in high school, which is another high expense. Because of the family pressures, he has been considering taking a few years off as a missionary. If that happens, the Kekchi missionary work will be set back by just as many years. As a comparison- the other 5 Kekchi missionaries each visit around 2 unreached villages per month. Domingo visits 14.

{James asking Domingo some Kekchi language questions}

To help him out, Shelley came up with the suggestion of starting our Institute projects at his house first. That is the whole point of the Institute anyways, to give national pastors a way to do ministry and still provide for their families. Domingo is currently marking off an area close to his house where we will dig the fish pond and build the turkey house. I will go help him get set up when we get back to Petén and we'll build a couple chicken tractors and get started on his compost bins.

Also, we talked about time management. The men here are like many pastors in the States- they can get so caught up in ministry that they neglect to spend time with their families. The Kekchi pastors have requested that our next KBI module be focused on time-management and boundaries in ministry. Anybody out there want to teach this because I don't think I'm qualified...

{Sharing a meal together}

We were also able to discuss more problems affecting the Institute land. The villagers next door have been causing more problems. 5 families came over to the guard shack and wanted to beat the guard for helping us. There was also a secret meeting to recruit families to come and squat on our land and dare us to kick them off. James Yoder was able to explain to us that in the Kekchi culture, whoever clears the land owns the land. He recommended that we hire people to quickly clear the land for us. This week, several families are clearing all the land 50 meters in from our border with this village. It is a total of 14 acres. We'll plant corn there for now and leave all of the large trees until we are ready to further develop it. This should provide a large buffer zone to prevent people from sneaking over.

And for those of you who are worried, we do have the land titled and possess the deed. The taxes have been paid and nobody can actually take the land. Even if the villagers come over and squat on the land, we have full legal authority to bring in the military and police and evict them. We are just trying to take other easier, less forceful means of prevention.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: During our first day of clearing the land for the Institute, we found out that a family of howler monkeys (mom, dad and new baby) live on our property. Now Shelley has made me promise that we will leave a corner of our property completely uncleared so that this family doesn't lose their trees. I'm sure we'll probably end up feeding these monkeys too and they'll eventually become official mascots of the Pastor's Institute. We saw footprints the other day of wild boar, but those will not be given the same special treatment and will soon become the official lunch of the Pastors' Institute. Monkeys are lucky that they don't taste very good.

No Eden Yet, But Kiki Is Here!

Grandma Kiki has been here a week today. I have been trying to update the blog, but my laptop internet has not been working. We were worried that Eden would come before Grandma got here, but once Kiki showed up, Eden decided to calm down. Before I could do nothing and have as many contractions as when the boys came. Now I can go up 3 flights of stairs and not feel a thing.

I had been asking the boys who was going to come see them and they would yell, "Kiki!" Finally after their nap on Tuesday, when they came out of their rooms, there she was!

It really blew their minds when we skyped with Papa on Wednesday and Kiki was with them instead of on the computer screen. The boys decided to start praying for Papa ever night on their own since he is without his Kiki... super cute!

Ever since football season the boys have been into wrestling. Jonah is constantly asking Silas to tackle him. He plays really rough and never cries. I'm glad he is tough, but he can scare me sometimes.

Kiki jumped right in!

I think it is time for this Grandma to get a granddaughter!

Jonah and Silas are loving their time with their Kiki!

One of their favorite things right now is for us to video them and then let them watch it over and over and OVER again!

They think they are hilarious!

They love singing with Kiki too.

{Silas singing the "Wise Man" song}

{Jonah singing "Jesus Loves Me"}

I did get a little one-on-one time with my mom. We went to a crochet class together. I have been trying to teach myself through tutorials online, but I'm having a hard time. Now I can crochet in Spanish haha! I have no earthly idea what the stitches we learned are called in English, but we ended up with pretty flowers for Eden!

And I went home and made more... I can't stop! Eden needs one in every color! They are really neat because you can button on a different flower for whatever color you want and then use them on larger hats as she grows too.

Kiki has plans to stay a month, so that's good since Eden is taking her dear sweet time. I am glad the boys will have Kiki while we are at the hospital. I don't think they will even notice their mommy is gone for a couple days. This morning Silas wandered sleepily into our room and said, "Kiki?" Well Good mornging to you too!

Family Traditions #10 : Valentine's Day 2012

"Family traditions give identity and belonging to each member." - James Dobson

This was our first holiday of the year. My goal last year was to just lay a foundation for our family traditions and build upon them each year. As far as decorations go, I wanted a wreath on the door and bunting over our table for each holiday that we wanted to celebrate together.

1. Decorations up by Feb 1st: My heart wreath from last year was too big for our storage boxes and that last rat that wouldn't die and tormented me for months did unspeakable things to it. So I had to make another one this year. My sweet friend Sandra bought me a wreath form (she knows me well) to have fun with, so I used it for Valentine's Day.

The best part about our original apartment here in the city was that it was red... perfect for Valentine's Day! (Jimmy was sweet and let me bring all my decorations with me.)

To build upon my decorations, this year I wanted to make pillow cases for each holiday for our living room. I made 4 pillow forms, but only got around to 2 cases, so that may be a more reasonable goal with all the baby projects going on this year.

They are burlap with red ribbon woven through them. Jimmy thinks burlap is about the dumbest thing to make a pillow out of and he is probably right, but I like them because they match the bunting.

We told the boys what the initials stood for, so they liked pointing at the letters and saying, "Mama... Dada!"

2. Valentines for Their Grandmas: This year the boys sent hugs! It's a Pinterest idea. They laid on top of my fabric cutting board and I traced around the top half of them with their arms spread out. Silas loved it, Jonah thought I was nuts. Now they both like tracing around their hands and Silas flops down on my cutting board each time I have it out.

They colored them...

wrote a little note and mailed them to their grandmas.

Then they got to skype with their grandmas once they had them. They actually got to see their Grandma KS open hers. I think they are catching on!

3.Valentine's Mistletoe: We hung our smooch sign this year in the hallway between our bedrooms.

We
had
fun!

4. Heart-Shaped Chocolate Chip Pancakes for Breakfast:

Silas applauded just like last year!

5. A Chocolate Chip Valentine Cookie: This is Jimmy's Grandma's recipe.

I just found a heart shape baking dish in the city for next year!

I brought a tube of icing from the States to make it easy. I told them what their cookies said and they kept pointing at it as I would say it! Then they would say "Daddy?..." and I would say, "No, they are from Mommy!" Daddy wasn't there that day... haha! We had these cookies the day after Valentine's Day because Jimmy had so many things planned for us (Mommy and Daddy) the day before.

When Daddy got home I think he was a little jealous that he didn't get one, so next year I will have to make him one too!

6. Hidden Messages: When the boys got older, on separate pieces of paper we will all write down one thing that we love about each person in our family, nothing long, just one liners. Then we hide everyone's notes in places we know they will go during the day. For now, just Jimmy and I do it. Ours are more than one liners though...

This was waiting for me in the dining room (there is a message written on the mirror if you can't see it... hopefully you can't read it!) Glad our boys can't read yet... it was racy! Jimmy got a hidden note too. The Calla Lily is from Jonah!

7. Evaluate our Mommy/Daddy Time: Last year we decided that we wanted to start doing a Bible study together. Before we had just shared things with each other from our personal studies, but we wanted to try going through some devotionals together at night after we put the boys down. We weren't sure if we would like it that much, but it turned into something we really looked forward to. We started reading out loud Night Lights by James Dobson. This was perfect because there are questions to ask each other at the end of most of them. The next couples' devo book we found we ended up not really liking... they can be sort of cheesy sometimes, so we decided to try something different. Now we have been going through John Phillips' Commentaries.

I would highly recommend them. Genesis is probably the best one, right now we are in Daniel. I know "commentary" sound dull, but these are written in a way where you can just read through them like a regular book and really enjoy it. I love the dialogue it has started between us throughout the day.

Other Goodies from our Day:

Among other things Jimmy got me all kind of yummies covered in dark chocolate. A couple weeks ago he brought me home flowers. Ever since then Jonah and Silas think that is what God put flowers on this earth for, to take to Mommy!

If they see flowers, they pick one to bring to Mommy... melt my heart cute!

So Jimmy got them flowers to give me that I can plant at our forever house. Jonah gave me the Calla Lily pictured above

and Silas gave me daisies. They were really proud!

Both Grandmas sent Valentines for the boys too!

These monkey and doggie boxes of cookies came from Kiki!

This is Silas saying "thank you" in sign language.

Grandma KS sent a puzzle that makes animal sounds

and magnetic books. One was trains and one was bugs, so...

Silas had to go get his shoes to kill the bugs of course!

We really had a wonderful day together on Valentine's Day. Because we are in the city, Jimmy was able to set aside the whole day for us to just all be together. I love quality time with my family!!!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day as well!

Our Friend Tutor #4

We met Tutor #4 one year ago when Domingo and José introduced us to him as a Kekchi pastor who let them sleep on his couch when they didn't have anywhere else to stay. We found out he lived only 30 minutes away from us and we discussed then the possibility of him teaching us Kekchi.

Tutor #4 was made by his father to drop out of school after the 3rd grade so that he could work in the fields. As a young man he surrendered to preach. Soon after getting married and taking his first church, he went back to school (starting with the 4th grade) and completed everything necessary to become an elementary teacher in the public schools here. That is an amazing accomplishment.

After pastoring a Kekchi church for 7 years, he was asked to take a failing Spanish speaking church in the town of Dolores. He was asked to do this because the church could not support a pastor and he was receiving a salary as a teacher. He had a big learning curve to change to the Spanish culture, but the church grew and he then turned it over to a local pastor. He was then asked by another church in the same town but on the other side to be their pastor, and after 2 years this church was also large enough to turn over to a local pastor. When we met he was just attending this church and waiting for God to open a new ministry opportunity.

Through our classes we became good friends with him and his family. We began the discussion of starting a Kekchi church in San Pancho and the possibility of Tutor #4 and his family helping us start that church. We did not know that at this same time he was being offered a job to go and work for a new Christian radio station that wanted to start having some Kekchi aspects, and he was also approved for a work visa to go to the States for 10 months.

He was at a crossroad in his life not knowing what God wanted him to do. Also, agreeing to go to San Pancho meant he would have to go through a lot of red tape to have his teaching job transferred. Basically he would have to find a teacher in San Pancho to switch jobs with him in Dolores (almost an hour away).

After praying with his family he knew God was leading him to go to San Pancho with us and start a church there. Last november within a week of telling us, he decided to move. The school year was out, but he had not been approved for the transfer yet. He knew God would take care of it.

He had to do a lot of running around, but the very first thing God had taken care of was that there was a teacher in San Pancho who wanted to move to Dolores to be close to his ailing parents. Just so you know, NOBODY wants to move to Dolores, so this was in itself a miracle and reaffirmation. (Dolores literally means "pains"... haha!)

The whole transfer process was not resolved until the day before classes started. Once it was finally resolved however, he found out that the Minister of Education in San Pancho was looking for somebody to teach Kekchi in all three schools in San Pancho. This would mean that Tutor #4 could teach what he loved to teach, and he would also meet all of the families from all parts of San Pancho. This has proven to be extremely valuable as we begin a Kekchi speaking church.

Tutor #4 has been a good friend to us and a hard working blessing to our ministry. Not only is he helping us start the church in San Pancho, he has identified several other villages in the areas that he would also like to start churches with us at the same time. 

Oh, and those other options? He later found out that the radio station ran out of money and closed down, and the job in the States would have kept him from his family for 10 months, and after taxes and US living expenses, he would have made the same amount of money as his teaching job. I love the times you get to look back and see how specifically God led you through things.

Roosters, Grammar, & Yummy Food

Our new place is beautiful! It has just as many non-functional issues as the other, but I think it is better since it is cheaper, there is a lot more room for all of us, and tons of spots for my boys to run around in.

{Silas & Jonah our first morning there, on the porch outside of our rooms.}

The house comes with a pet rooster! Jonah and Silas noticed him right away!

We have a couple staying with us right now. The Yoders, James and Marietta, called us up several months ago and offered to come down for a couple weeks when we had time to tutor us in Kekchi. Why? Because they love Kekchi people. They were missionaries in Belize for many years and actually lived in a Kekchi village. James has been down here before to teach a KBI module. The Kekchi pastors still go on and on about how good Brother James' Kekchi is and how it is pure Kekchi and even better than theirs since he doesn't mix in any Spanish words.

Their offer to come help us learn this language is a wonderful gift! We were very excited to hear about their willingness to do this. We feel like there have been so many setbacks, especially trying to find accurate grammar books and dictionaries that use the new alphabet. The more books we find and people we ask questions, the more different answers we get. I feel like we are constantly learning and then relearning things that were written down incorrectly.

Yesterday we all went to the country's headquarters for indigenous languages. They are supposed to have all of the textbooks that are used in the schools. It was kind of disorganized.

We had to rummage through piles of books in all the Mayan languages to find Kekchi textbooks. We bought 2 of everything they had that included the Spanish in it.

{Some of the books we found}

Once we got home we were pretty disappointed. It looks like they must have started with a Spanish textbook and then had that one translated to all the Mayan languages to use as a grammar book for those languages whether the languages were similar or not. Lots of words don't exist I guess in all of the languages or the thoughts weren't clear to the ones translating, because the books are kind of a mess. The sentences don't even make sense. The charts are off. I feel bad for the Kekchi children who are using these textbooks to learn how to write their own tongue. They have a beautiful language, but these books might make them doubt that.

So our plan now is to continue with James over skype and Tutor #4 in person, writing down as much as we can get and organizing it in a usable fashion. Please pray for us, we need this language to move on with our Kekchi work.

Beyond the language, the Yoders know so much about Kekchi culture. We are constantly learning valuable things from them just in casual conversation. Jimmy has already made several adjustments to the seminary just from discussions with James. Beyond language and culture, we really enjoy their friendship. We come from such different backgrounds, but there is just such good fellowship there. They have had so many experiences, and we get to reap wisdom from all of them.

They are great with our boys. Jonah and Silas are fascinated with James' iPad, so he won them over quick!

Marietta is a great cook, so I have really enjoyed being around her in the kitchen. I am writing down all kinds of new recipes.

We are having the best time with them!

Marietta took pregnancy photos for us yesterday, so I will try and post them soon. Eden is staying put for now. Jimmy went out and bought newborn diapers today and a pack n play, so I'd say we are officially ready... as ready as you can be! I probably should pack a hospital bag I guess.