Busy Season

So this has been a pretty busy season in our life, somewhere right behind the first couple months with preemie twins. 

 We celebrated several milestones this month, like 10 years of marriage and 8 years in Guatemala. We had lots of visitors and our church and youth group is growing, along with projects at the institute! The best news though is those two precious twins put their faith in Jesus this month! (Post coming soon.)

 We made new missionary friends this past month or so too. It is really great for missionary kids to get to be around other missionary kids once in a while!  

{Celebrating July 4th}

 We also had interns with us for 3 weeks, 

followed by an awesome youth team... the next day, haha! 

 

Then after that team flew out we had a sweet family fly in that will be staying with us for about a week and a half. 

{Working on hymnals}

We are really blessed to have so many people wanting to make an investment into the work here in Guatemala!

So there are lost of stories and victories to share. And since my power just came back on, also lots of laundry to do! 

There have been some sad moments too. We said goodbye to my beautiful Labrador, Fijese, who has been with us since we got here. An irreplaceable, gift from God. Jimmy already picked us out another puppy, guard dog in the making... I think he was sad too. I really want to dislike her, but she's ok, no Fije, but ok.

{Skyping with Kiki and Papa right after she was delivered.}

 ITEM OF THE DAY: 

Another milestone - 

Our garage door that has been broken for the past 14 months finally got fixed! I can't open it myself when the opener is broken, so it is a big deal for me and the kiddos getting around. Jimmy called the welder several times a week for the last year... that's just how things work somtimes. He is a really good welder!

All That the Team Did Part 1

Two weeks ago we had an awesome missions team here from Victory Chapel Baptist Church in SC. This is their second trip down here. If ever there was a church with a heart for missions it is this place. They aren't in it for the fuzzy feeling, they really make a difference in the places they choose to invest their time and energy. 

They affected so many parts of our life while they were here.  

Our kids fell in love with them.

Jonah and Silas kept talking about how sad they were after they left. 

They were supposed to be just a work team for KBI which is lot, but they kept looking for more things to do!

Pastor Rick, the missions pastor, changed out all the locks at our new church building so all the doors use the same key! 

The ladies wanted to work too so they painted the outside wall of our property. This is a NASTY job because it had been painted with chalk before, so you have to scrape it off with a wire brush. 

It gets all in your eyeballs and lungs. The fresh white wall makes our church look so nice! I will share a better pic soon once we have our new metal sign up. It is already made, just needs to be concreted in!

 They also painted the kitchen, which we use for our ladies ministry, and the kids classroom. 

I was really surprised about how much they got done. Jimmy spent a lot of time painting the sanctuary, so these ladies knocking out these other 3 large jobs is super helpful.

I can't wait to finish getting everything on the walls to show a true "after" photo. I have lots of church activity photos to hang in the kitchen. The kids classroom already has stuff up, but I'm finishing a timeline for that class where we will hang something each week to remember what we have studied. 

They helped out in our services while they were here too. 

 We had a ladies meeting which Barb taught and a mens meeting where Pastor Rick taught. 

 We had about half the amount of ladies we usually have, but they had a great time! Sometimes with a smaller group you end up getting to talk more with certain ones that you would've been able to other wise. 

This was the service that a lady from the first guerrilla community we worked in came for the first time in 5 years. She was VERY against us before. She did everything she could to destroy our work there. I have no idea what changed, but she has been back 3 times more since that service. I pray that she keeps coming. She's not quiet either. We talk a lot each time and I really enjoy her being there. Please pray for this lady. We will call her Lady M... Jimmy and I refer to her as the last person on earth that would ever come to our church, haha! So thankful. Only God could work in that heart. 

Pastor Rick had a good group of men. I wished I had taken a photo of their class. He taught about being a leader in the home.

The team also shared some testimonies and songs. They would sing a verse in English and then we would sing one in Spanish! 

 That is Dr. Bob in the photo above. He is the one that taught a KBI module with Jimmy this week too, which I posted about here. 

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY:

The days teams get here are always full ones. Jimmy had about 15 minutes once he showered before he had to leave for the airport that evening. This is how he spent those 15 min!

This is how Eden spent the next 15 after her Daddy left!

Construction at the Pastor's Institute

A team from First Baptist Church in Clearwater, KS arrived on Tuesday. This was our first team to fly into Belize and drive across the boarder. (Luis picked them up if you're picturing a group of gringos trying to rent a car and navigate their way here, haha!) It saved them money, so this might be an option for some of our teams in the future. 

{Dinner at La Luna their first night here}

We visited their church on Mother's Day 2 years ago. Later they called us up and said they wanted to put together a construction/evangelistic team. They told us that they would be bringing down about $3,000 for the student housing they would be building, but they showed up with $9,000! All of this will go towards KBI. God took Jimmy's 10 year plan and turned it into a 2 year one!

We are planning on 50 student houses. These will be for families since most students will already be married when they come. These are the first 2 to go up. The boards are from the land cut out with a chain saw.

{Mixing cement for the floor}

It is as hot as it gets here and these guys have been feeling it! 

{Boarding up the walls & prepping the floor}

The houses will have thatched roofs. This is much cooler than metal. Each house will require 1,200 to 1,400 leaves. These leaves are not from our land, but we have seedlings started to become one of the institute's projects. These leaves can be sold very easily all over Petén.

Jimmy started a Facebook page for KBI where he posts regular updates about the different projects and all of the construction.

We are so thankful for this team and all of their hard work. They have been so kind to us. Today is their second day out in villages doing evangelistic work. I will post about that soon. Please pray for them!

Equipping Nationals

49 national Kekchi pastors came to the January module of KBI.

Jimmy taught on Spiritual Gifts. Beyond being helpful in a practical sense, it helped them be able to defend their faith. When men from their churches travel to the city they hear about the emotional experiences that some churches there are marketing rather than theology. They return to their village with questions that these pastors are unable to answer. They have been asking for a course that covered this for some time, so Jimmy was able to go into preparing for this class already knowing some of the issues these pastors were dealing with.

James taught on the book of Ruth. He taught it all in Kekchi, so all we know is that the men liked it!

The second day the pastors had the idea of recording his class so that they could air it over the radio since it was in Kekchi, so thousands got to enjoy it!

We are so thankful that James was willing to come down and teach. He loves Kekchi people. We saw it, the pastors saw it, and that was a blessing to us and our ministry.

Some of the wives always come too. Here is Mateo, the pastor in Poptún, with his wife; Domingo and his wife Candelaria, missionary to the unreached East half of Petén; and Oscar and his wife who translated for Jimmy's class.

Since so many Kekchi people attend our Bible study in Santa Rita we had him share his testimony and sing in Kekchi. We love to watch their reactions as the gringo opens his mouth and their heart language comes out! They just can't believe it!

Something really special happened during this session of KBI. We will share more about it later in the week, but we believe it was a turning point for our ministry with the Kekchi here.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: This was taken on a main street in Santa Elena. This is one of our new lights, set on a timer that you can see counting down = recipe for collisions. If you turn right at this intersection you are on the causeway to get onto the island of Flores. Do you see the sparks?

There was a man on the sign above welding with sparks falling down on all of the traffic below.

Special Service in Se Tul

Another KBI module starts tomorrow! This past summer we met a family who was traveling through Petén. They didn't speak much Spanish, but they were fluent in Kekchi... who would have thought! James Yoder and his wife Marietta were missionaries with the Kekchi in Belize 18 years ago. We stayed in touch with him and James agreed to come back down to teach a module for KBI.

Saturday Jimmy and James were invited to a special event in Se Tul. This is the village on the complete other side of Petén (about 3 hours of highway driving time) where the Kekchi radio station is based. There were two special events: one the inauguration of a new parsonage

{The man in the center left is the pastor of this church.}

and two the 20th anniversary of the church.

{Berea Baptist Church}

They got there early and got a tour of the village.

In the center of the village are hand dug wells. That is where everyone comes to draw water.

We haven't been there in almost 3 years, since we went with Pastor Andy to see the radio firsthand.

(Andy, the air conditioner is still there and they were quick to point it out as the one you bought for them to keep their machines cool.)

It is a very large church and out of 260 families in the village, 80 are members of the Baptist church.

{ribbon cutting ceremony}
{time of prayer & dedication}

After a special prayer and dedication of the new parsonage, they had a big meal for everybody.

The meal was caldo which is what they basically call anything that is in liquid. I wasn't there this time, but I have never eaten caldo in a Kekchi village when it was not delicious and Jimmy confirmed this time that it was!

{Jimmy with Domingo, grabbing a tortilla haha}

A couple hours later the service started. This was such a big event that both the Catholic church and the Spanish speaking church in the village attended.

{a special processional to start the service}

{a very giving people}

Both James and Jimmy gave a testimony. I don't have a picture of James giving his because I forgot to give Jimmy our camera before he left. So thank you to James for all of these photos!

James was a big hit! He speaks perfect Kekchi after working for so many years in Belize, and as teenagers would walk by him having a conversation with one of the other pastors (many attended to show their support) they would stop in their tracks, turn around and just listen to the white guy speaking Kekchi. Hopefully we are not too far away from this.

It was a great time of fellowship with the pastors and all are excited about attending the Institute this week. Please be in prayer for that!