Monday, February 23, 2009

One Room Down

We are still painting in Santa Rita. We went Friday and we will probably go most everyday this week to finish up the other 5 classrooms. Quincho has been helping us. It is fun. People come by to talk, it has been a great way to get to know people. This has really been a great outreach!
Before
After

The wife of one of the team members sent down 3 suitcases worth of supplies for the teachers. We sorted everything out by grade and presented it to them today. It was fun to see them go through their boxes of goodies. The third grade teacher said, “The fence, the paint, the flowers, what more could we ask for!” We are so thankful for our teams they make so much more possible! One said that we had done more to help the school than the minister of education. We always tell them it is all from Christians in the States. This has really communicated God’s love.

Ana, Carlos, & Marcos received Bibles last night. Marcos and Carlos just moved to New Horizon for school. They are Kekchi. They have not accepted Christ yet, but haven’t missed a week. Ana is the daughter of the old president in Santa Rita. Please pray for all of them to come to know the Lord soon.
Ana
Carlos
Marcos

Please pray for the kids time in NH. The Catholic church is causing problems again. I only had 4 yesterday. They keep changing their time to conflict with ours and then harassing people who come to ours. Everyone is so afraid. We are going to hold the kids time in the morning next week to throw them off. Religion is sending so many people to Hell.
The boy in the above picture is Alex. His stepdad is Quincho’s uncle. He is in the running to be the next president of New Horizon. We are friends, but we are trying to keep that a secret, so he will still get elected! His name is Parvil. Please pray for this upcoming election. He told us he thinks things are going to be much easier for us in the village soon. We are not sure what he meant by that, but it was encouraging none the less. He spoke to Jimmy a couple months ago about Quincho’s attitude. He knew that Quincho really respected Jimmy and thought maybe he could encourage him to be more respectful and helpful to his mom. Sunday Jimmy ran into Parvil and he told him that Quincho had stopped by his house the other day. Parvil said his demeanor had completely change.d Quincho even told him that he had accepted Christ. He said that he saw a big difference in him. We are so proud of him!!!
Parvil

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: Anytime we are away from home. Quincho sleeps on a hammock on our back porch, guards our house, and feeds our dogs. The team brought down beef jerky for Jimmy and he has made such a stink about it, that we all know that he doesn’t want to share any of it. Well Quincho called us to ask about the Chicken jerky that had been left on our porch. He knew if it was Jimmy’s he wouldn’t have left it there, so he wanted to know what was going on. We told him it was for the dogs. Since it wasn’t Jimmy’s he decided to try some. He called us back to say it wasn’t very good. Then he asked what the dirt was for. We didn’t understand that part until we got back. He had never seen one of those little pouches that comes inside food sometimes to absorb moisture and preserve freshness. He thought it had to be a seasoning. Since the first slice of chicken wasn’t good he thought maybe he was supposed to use the “seasoning” packet. So he ate another one with “seasoning” on top. He said, “It tasted like dirt!”

Sunday, February 22, 2009

New Supplies!

We hired Lesbia’s son out of respect for her to work on our building. You have to keep an eye on him to make sure he is working. He started late in the week working on our building. We told him Friday we wanted to use our building Saturday, but he started late in the day Saturday putting the smooth coat on our floor anyway. We had to have our kids study outside.
We bought 10 new tables for Santa Rita while we were in Guate. They fold up and have a handle. They are going to be wonderful for medical teams. Jimmy also found 50 chairs all the same color in Santa Elena! Thank you to everyone who gave money towards SR.
While we were in Guate we also picked up 50 more Bibles and a magnetic white board. It was nice to have a truck to fill up!
Yonder
Aaron
Ana
Rosalino
Jesús
Erlinda
Alejandro
Heriberto
Jimmy held his study in our storage room. It was almost dry. We have a good group attending. Please pray they will soon come to know the Lord.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: For the last month there has been about a hundred people camped out along the side of the highway right next to the military base outside of Santa Elena. This group of people have decided that they want the land the military base is on and they want the government to give it to them. They are just going to camp out there and block most of the road (at night it is really dangerous) until they get their way. Everyone hates the military, but they are the only ones we trust.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Dengue + Dentist = Lovely Birthday

Jimmy turned 26 today! We flew to Guate Tuesday to pick up my truck, so today we drove home. We will have to celebrate more tomorrow. On top of Dengue Fever and driving 6 hours home with no air conditioner, he had to go back to the dentist before we left and it was horrible... poor guy! Besides that we really have had a good time together and filled our truck full of supplies for the drive home. We love home and are thankful we don’t live in the big city... TGI Friday’s and all!
This is what too much Loratab will do to you!
We stayed at a different place this time, Hostal Villa Toscana. It was much cheaper and full of charm!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: Jimmy found a dental tourism place in Guatemala City online. The top of one of Jimmy’s teeth had chipped off and he needed to get it fixed. Last time he was in Guate the dentist tried to fix it, but his filling he was trying to use kept breaking, so he made a mold and sent it off to have a porcelain piece made. That experience was horrible, but Jimmy had already paid, so he went back this time to have the piece put in. Today the “custom made” piece didn’t fit, so they had to shave it down to fit in the tooth. When they took off the temporary filling Jimmy realized that last time they had shaved off most of his tooth down to the root. So without any Novocain they put the glue in and just let it dry a little while to get good and gummy... that’s cool air on bare root. After it was glued on Jimmy couldn’t bite down all the way because it was taller than all his other teeth. So about 20 more times of shaving, biting down, shaving and biting down, Jimmy left never to return again.

Monday, February 16, 2009

A Wonderful Weekend

We held our Bible studies in Santa Rita in our new meeting place this Saturday. We are so thankful for this house. God worked a miracle. We had a great turnout!
As soon as we pulled into the village the kids started running out with their new Bibles. All had completed their devo sheets. 3 more kids received Bibles this week.
With this open area many people can stand close and listen. One dad came for awhile and thanked Jimmy for what we were doing with his kids.
Marco Tulio

We learned about being Fishers of Men.
Jesus with his 12 disciples in a fishing boat.

The adults were as excited as the kids to have their own place to meet. We are located in the Kekchi part of the village, so we had a couple new Kekchi people.
Lesbia (we are meeting in her house) was in Santa Rita for a town meeting, so she came to the Bible study too with her sister that lives in SR.

On our way home we saw some lights in our town. There was a small fair. So for Valentine’s Day we stopped and road a ride. Jimmy tested positive for Dengue again, so it was really sweet of him to be willing to go. I like the rides that spin fast and upside down!
A nice sweaty Valentine’s Day picture!
My beautiful gift from Jimmy!

Sunday in New Horizon was just as good!
Araselin & Oshi
Darwin, Alex, & Alfredo
Gregory & Quincho

Lico was back for a week before he leaves again for work. Giovani and his girlfriend came with their son. He should have received a Bible but we are all out. Please pray for Giovani. He is very interested. He and JImmy have become friends and we do believe that soon he will accept Christ. Gregory has become friends with Quincho. Both of them are Christians and it would be wonderful if they could encourage each other. Gregory is going to start going to SR with us. These two could really be great leaders. We are a little concerned about Gregory. Now is a time where he has to start choosing what is more important to him. Please pray for both of them. Two Kekchi guys have been coming faithfully, Carlos and Marcos. Neither one are Christians, but they have been doing their devo sheets. Zacarias needs to get saved too. Please keep praying for the Bible study in NH. This week was so encouraging to us!

Please pray for Jimmy. He does have Dengue Fever again. He has been taking an equivalent to Loratab for the joint pain. It seems not to be as bad as last time, but I think it is because he just hasn’t had the option to feel bad... he’s just been too busy!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

They're Finished!

This team worked so hard and did a great job! Juan Carlos, the mayor and person in charge of the elementary school was very happy to see the finished job today. We are so thankful for these guys coming down here. We got to work with a lot of other men in the community and spend time with so many people in SR. This was a great relationship builder. I posted the rest of the pictures from this team and all their hard work on in an album.
This is our new meeting place. We hired Lesbia’s son and he has been working on it all week. He extended the roof for us to meet under. Next week he will be pouring a floor and putting up a bamboo 3/4 wall. We will meet there this evening!
Our Bamboo!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Team Photo Album

I am posting all the photos from this team in an album on our photos page. We are all working hard and still have a lot to do before they leave this Saturday. Several of us are sick, we are sharing some bug. Please pray for our health. This team has been all work and no play (we do have fun while we are working), so we stopped a little early yesterday and went over to enjoy the lake in San Andres. We are very thankful for this team. They came at the perfect time!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

It Was His Decision


It seems there has already been several times since we have been in this country where we have to go to a meeting to find out our fate. We started working in the school this morning at 8 in Santa Rita. We had a meeting with the newly elected town council at 5. We showed up nice and sweaty. I had blue paint all over me. We had to wait outside the office for about 30 minutes while they finished dealing with some other issue. We knew in a couple minutes we would find out if we could leave or could stay, if we could have our own meeting place or have to keep using the salon. We had to cancel our adult Bible study last Saturday because they were using the salon for a dance. Anyway, it was all up to God. We honestly love Santa Rita and have bonded with many of the people, we didn’t want to leave. I was planning on what we would do instead, trying to prepare myself... just in case. These guerrillas can wear you out, so I was thinking “more time to learn Kekchi”. But then Jimmy was saying how there were no other works in Santa Rita. They have no Gospel. I really do not see how anyone could reach them without a work inside their village.

The meeting started off with Jimmy going over again why we were in the village. Churches are prohibited, so he explained that we did not want to start a church, just hold Bible studies. He then asked if anyone had any questions for us. The one lady who is against us (she is the town nurse) spoke up and said that the old town council had only given us permission to host the Weekend for Everyone and not to host our Bible studies every Saturday. (That was not true) She then labeled us evangelical and said they are divisive. She accused us again of starting a church and then said that we should have to go before the entire assembly and be voted on. This was not a good start! Jimmy addressed all of her accusations again and then asked if we could store our stuff in and meet in Lesbia’s house since she had offered it to us. There was silence for a while. Finally Rosa, the very first lady we met in Santa Rita spoke. She said that since it is was private property and the owner gave us permission, she didn’t think there should be any problem with us using her house to store tables and chairs in. After a little discussion everybody agreed.

Then came the hard discussion. Where we would meet. Some thought we should stay in the town hall. Jimmy explained that if we stayed there, and they planned a meeting or a dance or some other kind of activity, we would lose our gas money we spent that night, and all of the people who come to the Bible Study wouldn’t know about it. Eventually, nobody thought that would be a good idea. They started looking at other solutions, that ended up not being one. Finally Jimmy said, “Well, we could always just meet in the Catholic Church since it’s not used on Saturday nights!” That about knocked me out of my chair, but it made sense. The nurse knew she wasn’t going to win the battle to get us kicked out (especially because our team spent $5000 fixing up their school this week) but her worst nightmare would have been for us to actually get to meet inside her church! Fairly quickly it was decided that the best option for everybody would be to just let us meet in Lesbia’s house.

They only thing they asked for to make it official is a letter from Lesbia saying she is loaning us her house to meet in. Once we hand that in we can start meeting there with no problem at all.

The final thing the new president had to say was how happy he was that we are here teaching people the Bible. He said his daughter really likes it and she was very glad when she received her Bible last week. He thinks it is wonderful what we are doing and that the people that come get to have their own Bible they can read for themselves.

Thank you all so much for praying for this. It was a stressful time not knowing, but God has kept the door open and blessed above that. Thank you also to all of you who gave sacrificially to buy Bibles and tables and chairs for this work. It has also been neat to see how God worked out this team to be here at the perfect time so that our meeting with the new town council corresponded with the massive renovation going on at the school.

Ok, we’re pooped and going to bed now...

Monday, February 9, 2009

Quick Prayer Request

The mayor of Santa Rita wants us to meet with the town council tomorrow to ask permission to use Lesbia’s house for our new meeting place. There is one person on the new council that is against us. They think meeting in a place of our own would make it seem more like a church, and she is against that. We want for things to stay peaceful in SR. We have never been given an opportunity to address issues like this in New Horizon, so we are thankful to get to speak for ourselves. Please pray for this meeting. It will be tomorrow around 5pm.

We have loads of work left to do this week while the team is here. Please pray that a miracle takes place and it all gets done!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Work Day 1

The community had already dug the 150 post holes for the fence when we got there!
Our supplies were late, so the team got busy on refinishing the desks.!
Before picture of the desks. This was one of the nicer ones. Half had holes in the tops.
The teachers had glued all of their charts and children’s papers to the walls, so prepping the walls for paint takes a little while!
Quincho went with us to help!
Jesús & Rosalino helped all day too!
The supplies finally arrived about 2.5 hours late and with the wrong 45 gallons of paint... that is to be expected in Guatemala.
The team got all the pipe cut for the fence. The men from the community are coming today to help mix the cement to start putting up the posts.
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