Handmade Home #5: Coconuts

A couple of days ago we were at José's house and he gave us about a dozen coconuts. There are signs for "coco frios" all along the roads here. They machete them down and then stick a hole in it for you to drink from. I have only ever had lukewarm coconut water in people's homes. I really do not care for it. But 12 coconuts... there was no way we were letting this gift go to waste.

I did not realize that coconut water had recently become popular in the States until I started googling what to make with 12 coconuts. It's some very healthy stuff. Turns out that it tastes a whole lot better when it is cold too.

So Jimmy drained 8+ coconuts with his machete... yeah right, with his drill. We ended up with a gallon of coconut water. It will last about a week in the refrigerator.

So far we have tried pineapple and mango smoothies. Both were delicious, but our favorite was the pineapple. We now plan on planting a coconut tree at our forever house and we probably will start picking up a couple "coco frios" now and then too.

Here is the recipe Jimmy came up with if you have any fresh coconuts:

Coconut Water Pineapple Smoothies

2 cups coconut water

2 cups ice

1 large can of pineapple (juice too)

1 T sugar

Yields 36 oz.

Here are some piggy banks Jimmy found for the boys made out of coconuts. There are some very creative people in this country. The eyes and feet are made out of seeds.

The Topeka Team

You could not ask for a better team than this one. All of them had a great attitude 100% of the time. They were doing hard labor during the hottest time of year here. After they finished all that work, they got to witness us being kicked out of the village... yay. We believe their hard work on that building will pay off though, we just have to be patient.

{Lico & Matt}

Lico (from New Horizon) normally works at our forever house. He is in charge of all of the construction and does an excellent job. While the team was here, Jimmy had him in Santa Rita leading the group. He told Jimmy that he wanted to work those days for free. I was really impressed by that. He believed in what God is doing in Santa Rita so much that it moved him to make a personal sacrifice... a big one I would say. I am challenged almost daily by what I see around me. There are so many people here with so much less, making much more of a sacrifice than I ever have.

{Jacob, Ian, Jordan, & Clint}

{Clint, Jordan, & Jacob}

{Dan}

{Matt & Gordo installing the wood above the doors, they are the doors off the building in New Horizon}

{The finished walls... and Pastor Tim!}

The team stood outside the town hall and sweated listened to the long 2.5 hour meeting. Afterwards we all came down to the building and prayed before we left.

{Last meal with this team at Maya International}

{Jonah with his new buddy Jacob}

This team was so sweet to my boys. Jonah and Silas had so much fun with all of them.

The building has a roof now. We have only been back in once to take this photo. We also talked to Fabio to let him know that we have not forsaken him and to tell him not to lose hope... it ended up being more like him telling us that! He said that things have calmed down a lot in there. We took that as good news... us being old news.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

Some things never change...

{Jonah at 6 days old}

{Jonah at 5 months}

{Jonah at 16 months}

Radio Team

I haven't finished sharing about the Topeka team and we've already had another team come and go. This one was from an organization called Lifeword. We met them through Pastor Andy. We sort of became their middle men to be able to work with the Kekchi nationals here. They are helping the Kekchi radio station "Berea" that the national pastors had started. They provide more equipment, broadcast material, gas money for the missionaries following up on those who call in, and are working on some repeaters since this station does not reach all of Petén yet. We are very thankful for the investment they are making in reaching the Kekchi. This is a video from their first trip down here (when we met them) 2 years ago. I can't wait for Domingo and José to see themselves in this video!

Teaching in Poptún

Since we are presently waiting on the door to reopen in Santa Rita, we wanted to get more involved in the Kekchi church plant in Poptún. By the way, the roof is on the Bible study building now: proof we are not giving up!

Last Sunday we asked pastor Mateo how we could help. He was excited about advertising a childrens' program, he thought that would be a great way for the church to grow. All they had up to this point was an adult service. So we headed down there this past Sunday to kick off a kids' class. There are some teenagers who already attend, who would probably make great teachers, so we are looking at this with the idea of training someone to take our place soon.

We had 12 come for the first week (not counting a cute little pair of twins)! It was like being in a different country compared to where we have worked in the past.

When I passed out the scissors, instead of hearing "No, give me the red one, no... I want blue", I heard "thank you". I had almost forgotten how to say "you're welcome".

When I set the bags of crayons on the table, instead of dumping them all out grabbing a wad and guarding it with their life, they each chose one crayon and when they were finished with that one they put it back in the bag and took out another one.

No one ducked under the table when someone walked passed so they wouldn't be seen with us.

No one dug through my diaper bag and ate the boys' snacks or tossed out all of their toys.

I only had to explain things one time.

It was like we were in a polite parallel universe... weird, but at the same time completely delightful.

I'm not sure what caused this, but there was something about the environment that they grew up in that made them different.

Pastor Mateo did advertise about the kids' class. The lady in the back, Gloria, came for the first time just to bring her son (he is in the white shirt). He can hear, but he cannot speak. He was so sweet. They both seemed to have a good time.

We had so much fun! I cannot wait till next week!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

That morning Jonah didn't want any breakfast, but we thought is was just because we woke him up so early. We arrived in Poptún before everyone else to get setup. We sat for a while talking with pastor Mateo, he was holding Jonah. With no warning at all, Jonah starts vomiting all over him. I was so embarrassed and felt SO bad. Nothing like puking on the pastor... our first week too. He was very nice about it, but you know he smelled vomit for the rest of the day.

What God is Doing in Poptún

Two Sundays ago we took the team to the Sunday morning service at the new Kekchi church plant in Poptún.

Pastor Tim shared with the group why they had come and how they were excited about this new church plant.

Kim shared her testimony. The ladies loved it when she said she was a mom of 5 boys and 1 grandson... they can relate to that!

The team sang a song in English. That is a common request. It's beautiful to hear your God worshiped in a language different from your own.

Teresa, pastor Mateo's wife, served everyone tostadas.

I'm not normally a fan of goat cheese, but with the homemade sauce it was delicious. I would have eaten more if I hadn't been chasing 2 little boys!

The services are held on their patio and the sun was extra bright, so this photo is a little grainy, but it is of the pastor's entire family: Pastor Mateo, Teresa, Gamaliel, Santiago, & Lourdes.

This is a new family that was their that day. They had heard through the radio broadcast about this new church in Kekchi. They accepted Christ and came from an hour away to attend the service. (They were there this Sunday too.)

After the service we all walked down to see the new land that they had just purchased on which to build a permanent building. They along with all the other Kekchi pastors have been raising money for this new church building.

{Jimmy, Mateo, and Jonah}

{Silas, still wearing pastor Tim's hat, with his buddy Jacob}

{I love little girls in the traditional dress... so cute!}

Here are some of the families from the church in front of their newly purchased land. It is very close to the main highway. They are going to put up a large sign that can be easily seen from that road... free advertising! We all prayed together before we walked back, thanking God for the land and asking Him to continue to bless this church so that more Kekchi people will be reached and discipled for Him.

3G and Random Acts of Thoughtfulness

Recently we were given an unexpected gift... Tigo updated their tower in our town (which happens to be on our street) to 3G.

Tigo is our cellphone and internet company. This free upgrade meant 3 very exciting things for our family.

1. A live stream of our home church's services: Live means we get the worship music too. We love it! It makes us feel a part of the service. They have an extra service on Saturday nights, so that works perfect with our schedule.

{We get to listen in our PJ's!}

2. Skyping with the Grandparents from our house:

{Skyping on Christmas morning}

Before we had to drive 40 minutes to be able to do that. This has turned into much more skyping time!

{Stateside View}

The boys recognize their grandparents' voices. When we have our laptops out they run to the screen to see their grandparents. After all that's where everyone's grandparents live... right?!

3. Online Masters Degree: Jimmy has been waiting for this one. With starting the Kekchi pastor's institute he felt like it was an absolute necessity. We thought it wouldn't be possible until we moved to San Pancho, but once he had the capability of downloading all the lectures there was nothing holding him back!

He is currently in Liberty's Masters of Divinity program which is 93 credit hours. By the end of May he will have completed 18. I am so proud of him. He is a much more diligent student now than I remember from college. He always got pretty good grades, but now he is obsessive about it. Once you are in ministry you realize even more how important the prep work is.

The other issue was getting the required books down here. A gringo friend from Guatemala City, whom we have never met in person, offered to bring down some of the books he would be needing right away. It was so nice of him. We know how valuable every pound in your suitcase is! When he returned he shipped them to Petén for us.

When we opened the box of books there was another surprise inside... one for me. A box of Bisquick was laying on top of the books! His wife had heard that I had to throw my Bisquick out because the boxes I purchased in Belize were bad. So thoughtful!!! Acts of kindness like that lift your spirit!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

We were invited to a formal event by a friend. Notice anything strange in this photo?! The man thinks Keens are dress shoes. I wouldn't put them a step above flip flops. *Make a note* check all 3 of my boys before leaving the house. First stop on our next furlough... dress shoes for Jimmy.

They Kicked Us Out

I was trying to wait and post this until I wasn't as sad and we had some type of plan, but I still am and we don't.

The town meeting on Saturday was supposed to be a chance for Jimmy to share and then let everyone vote again. Since there was going to be a new vote we didn't even address the fact that the last meeting was done in secret, based on complete lies and that several of the signatures appear to have been forged.

The lady from the town council in charge of the meeting was one of the 8 that spoke out against us. One of the other 8 was the one choosing who got to speak. After the first several people allowed to speak were found out to be against us, the lady in charge was still saying we were going to vote again.

Then those for us started speaking up. Several people from the community improvement committee spoke up about how we had helped out the village in several ways. They said that they were embarrassed about how we were being treated now. Some spoke out about land rights and how if they were now truly the owners of their property then Fabio has the right to build a Bible study on his. Others spoke up about those who wanted us kicked out and the lies that they were telling. Others pointed out that they don't kick out criminals yet want us to leave and how unjust that was.

Fabio was the only one who mentioned God though. He spoke up boldly. There are many new believers, some who couldn't be there that day, some who spoke up trying to share arguments that would appeal to those against us, some who were too afraid to speak up at all, but more than for anyone else in SR we want to fight this out for Fabio's sake. This 70+ year old man has learned about God and has given all. We saw him being mocked during the meeting and it broke our hearts. We cannot leave him there alone.

When the lady from the town council saw that there were not enough people against us to get a majority (when someone's watching the legitimacy of the signatures) she changed her story and said that the original "act" stands. She refused to hold another vote.

José's wife, the matriarch of the Kekchi, who was against us in the past had a change of heart. We have tried to reach out to her family several times because we really love them. She must have seen that. She let our opposition have it! That was surprising.

Those who actually spoke out against us specifically said all kinds of elaborate lies. Lorena, who we knew was only nice to our face from the beginning, with intentions of hurting our cause ended up describing it beautifully. She said, "Fabio, you speak so much of God now. They (meaning us) don't know how you used to talk before they got here." He has changed. He is a new creature in Christ. That fact right there makes ALL of this worth it.

So tonight was our first Monday night not being in SR. The act only said "Jimmy", so Jimmy tried to get me to go by myself tonight. I'm not 100% sure he was kidding.

What they did is against the laws of Guatemala, but that doesn't mean it would be the best decision right now to continue on like nothing happened. Please pray that God gives us wisdom. When Jesús gets back he could even keep the services going possibly. (He is in Guate working right now.) Jimmy is still talking with our lawyer. The people in SR are very upset about this for many reasons. It is a violation of property rights, so those who don't even care about God are effected by this decision. They might take care of the fight for us.

So we don't know anything other than that we are still in the middle of the story. It feels like Satan has been victorious. We feel like years of work have gone up in smoke. We feel lower right now than at any other time in our ministry, but the Truth is more powerful than our feelings. Our faith is strong and our God is real.

No matter what, people who wouldn't have heard did, many are now new creatures in Christ. We are gone, but the Holy Spirit is still at work in their hearts.

Please keep praying for Santa Rita.