Another Peek At Our Baby

We made another trip to Guate last week for another appointment. It is a long winding 7.5 hour trip, but the boys are very sweet. They love their VeggieTale sing-a-longs and we pack all kinds of fun snacks. There aren't any good places to stop and eat, so we always have PB&J sandwiches for lunch.

By the time we get to the hotel, it's dark and we are all ready for something more substantial to eat. Jimmy drops us off at the hotel. Two sleepy boys suddenly become wide awake when presented with a new hotel room to play in. They love the radio and I unplug the phone for them to talk on. They are very serious about their phone calls. They raid all the little complimentary toiletries too. Jimmy takes a taxi to either Chili's or Applebee's which is close to our hotel and brings us back something warm and yummy and we have a picnic on the bed!

Our second appointment went great. Our little baby looks beautiful! You can see their eyes in the image below.

11w2d

He/She had their hands in front of their face for awhile, so we had to wait to get this view. 11 weeks is very early, too early really, to find out the sex, but Dr. Najarro volunteered that he thinks it's another boy. I took that as we still don't know yet, but Jimmy has declared it a boy. I'm happy either way, but Jimmy would be happy about not having to buy any more baby stuff since we have so many boy things. We don't know anything about little girls, so that territory is a little scary too.

I posted part of our ultrasound for the grandparents. At the end was when he was telling us he thought it was a boy... but it still could be a girl! I love how that in Guatemala you get to see your baby at every visit and your doctor is the one giving you the ultrasound and talks you all the way through it. I missed that when we went to the States to have the twins. I didn't realize how spoiled I was!

I am in my 13th week now and am still nauseous all day. Please pray that it leaves soon. Jimmy has been on double duty the last 8 weeks taking care of all 3 of us. I feel bad for him and want things to get back to normal soon.

We almost always go to Pricemart which is similar to a Sam's in the States. They have 2 seater carts there which the boys get a kick out of... hugs!

We found out that Silas is a big fan of Chili's chips and salsa... like his mommy! He thinks everything needs to be dipped in something before you eat it, so that makes sense.

We usually make one stop going and coming to stretch the boys' legs. This time we bought some cold drinks. Jonah was determined to carry them himself!

On the way home we also passed a military check point where they had just made a big Zeta bust on the side of the road. You can read about it here in the paper. They found lots of grenades, ammunition, anti aircraft weapons and other lovelies.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: When we eat at restaurants now Jimmy usually leaves a larger tip than when it was just the 2 of us. These boys can be sort of messy, not ridiculous, but it looks like 2 little boys ate at our table. At this point we had not even gotten food yet. We were just trying to keep crayons and straw papers off the floor when we notice the waiter had already put up a caution sign warning people about our table!

Alleluias Rose From the Banks

If you don't know Lico's story, it is here. Since New Horizon would not allow baptisms or for us to be called a church, not to mention kicking us out, we weren't sure how Lico would ever be baptized. He has been meeting with Jimmy every Saturday for months now for their discipleship class.

He has a strong desire for his new relationship with God to grow. We mentioned that when we got back from furlough we found out that he and his family had been walking 45 minutes to a church in the next town down from New Horizon. There aren't many churches around here with the truth, but we really liked this one. A couple weeks ago the pastor of that church contacted us and said that Lico wanted to be baptized and wanted Jimmy to be the one to do it. So he invited us to attend the baptismal service this past Sunday.

{Jimmy & Lico with his pastor}

So early Sunday morning we met them for a worship service on the banks of a river. We had been out late the night before in a Kekchi village, so our boys were exhausted!

This is the group who had put their faith in Christ and were desiring to take this first step of obedience.

Jimmy prayed with Lico first before he baptized him.

Here is a video too if you want to watch. I was standing on the edge of a 3 foot drop off into the river, holding one boy, trying to keep the other one from falling in the river, and taking photos and video. Everyone was asking me for photos. And we're keeping it real because half way through Jonah starts to cry. Poor little missionary boys, we had worn them out.

This is Lico with his wife Elda, daughter Paula, and son Luis.

Please pray for Lico as he continues to grow in Christ and lead his family. We are so thankful for this opportunity. God opened a path for obedience. He made a way! We are so thankful for this day and everything it means to Lico and our family! It was Jimmy's first baptism in Guatemala and it just so happened to be our first convert from over 3 years ago.

An Irresistible Invitation

Radio Berea received a call from a new village the other day. By new I mean it is only 3 months old. 140 Kekchi families found some land to rent and started the village of La Bendición. A handful of them are Christians, and since there are no churches or works of any kind in this village yet, they called the Baptist radio station and asked them to send someone to start one! Who would turn that down?! Last week we and Domingo went for the very first outreach.

The village was pretty easy to find, but then we had to find who had invited us. This little girl jumped into the back of Domingo's pickup and led the way.

She ended up staying for the film!

This is the home where we showed the film, "Hope".

Before we did though, another family invited us for lunch.

Silas LOVES corn tortillas dipped in Kekchi caldo. He will eat 3 or 4 of them. The Kekchi people think it's a hoot to see a little gringo scarfing down their food.

He's our little Chapin. Jonah looks at us like we're crazy when we hand him a corn tortilla. He'd rather chase the chickens roaming inside the house than eat.

I have always been a little worried about how Jonah would do in these settings when we go to new places because he is shy.

Our boys get a lot of attention, and Jonah doesn't really like people looking at him.

Silly Mommy, he found a new friend right away.

They played up and down this bench while Daddy was setting up the film.

People from all over the village started showing up!

We ended up having a great turnout!

There were no more seats inside, so people listened from outside.

It was really hot. You can probably see that in my little boys' red faces. Since there weren't any seats left and I was nauseous thanks to our new little Dinsmore, I took the boys down to the quaint pavilion we had parked by.

It had stumps to sit on and was full of dirt to play in!

We had 2 gardening shovels in the car, so that entertained the boys for the next hour!

I felt bad for leaving and then a couple minutes later Jimmy and Domingo showed up to wait in the shade with us too... ha!

Please pray for the village of La Bendición. Please pray as we work with Domingo to try and start a church there. Pray that it will reach out to the other people in this new village who have not yet heard about Jesus Christ.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: To get to the village we had to cross the ferry in Sayaxché. Sadly I had to witness one of my biggest fears... the ferry had sunk. Thankfully no one was hurt... and we weren't on it! If we are traveling with a team we usually make them get out of the car when we are crossing, just to be safe. If it's just us, we roll the windows down and talk about which boy each is responsible for grabbing. It would be horrible to lose a vehicle this way.

Our friends the Whites are currently living in Sayaxché, you should check out their post here for much better photos and the whole story. Thankfully they had brought in a smaller ferry from somewhere else for everyone to use while they were working on getting the big ferry and a tanker truck out of the river.

An Arm for Marcelino

Marcelino is a Kekchi national missionary. We have known him for a while, but since he works on the other side of Petén and in the northern part of Alta Verapaz, we have never worked with him before.

{He is on the left talking with Pastor Mateo (from La Ceiba) and Domingo}

Jimmy knows him from the KBI modules and pastors' meetings. He has been a missionary for 11 years and before that he was a pastor for 17 years. He accepted Christ in '72 and was ordained in '86. He has 3 kids and 8 grandkids. In '97 he was traveling in a vehicle and had his right arm hanging out the window when the driver side-swiped another truck. This caused him to lose his right arm from his shoulder down. He was 50 years old when this happened.

{Marcelino is on the far right pictured with Pastor Grover for a KBI module back in '09}

A few months back Pastor Mateo (pictured above), the current legal representative of the pastors' association, asked Jimmy if he knew of a way they could get Marcelino an arm. Marcelino doesn't speak much Spanish and didn't have a way to find out about a prosthetic arm when it happened 14 years ago. He and his family were also very scared that it would involve another painful surgery and that he would lose more bone. There aren't any doctors who work in prosthetics around Petén, but through some other missionaries Jimmy was able to get in contact with a doctor in Guatemala City who would provide a prosthetic arm at cost. Still we had to get Marcelino to go to Guatemala City. Guatemala City is a scary sounding place to people who don't live there. It is spoken of around here like you are really taking your life in your hands by going to that violent place! I understand... I prefer Petén too!

Well it worked out that we were due to go back this past week for another appointment to check on our baby. Marcelino's kids did not want him traveling there by himself, so one of his brothers traveled with him. They both rode a bus and met us there.

Jimmy got an appointment for him on Wednesday. Anything Marcelino didn't understand from the doctor's Spanish he would tell Jimmy, "Just make the decision, I trust you." I thought that was really sweet. I cannot imagine all that was going through Marcelino's mind. His last experience with doctors had to have been very traumatic and painful, so he must have been experiencing a lot of anxiety walking into this office.

The doctor was very nice. He explained everything and even showed Marcelino a video of how his new arm would work. Marcelino was relieved that it would just strap on rather than involve another surgery.

The doctor measured Marcelino for an arm and took a mold of his shoulder. The arm will be made specifically for him.

This is what it will look like:

It will also have a glove that fits over the hand piece that will look like an actual hand. Among other things, he will be able to open and close the hand in order to pick things up using different movements from his other shoulder. It will take some time to get used to, but it will change his life.

Marcelino seemed very surprised after the whole experience. I think the prosthetic offers him much more than what he was expecting. Jimmy said he walked out of the office and thanked him with tears in his eyes.

The new arm at the doctor's cost is $3,000. Jimmy will be presenting this need at the Kekchi pastor's meeting this Wednesday to see if their churches can help raise part of the money. If any of you would like to give money towards Marcelino's new arm, we have set up this Paypal account specifically for this need. Just click on the link below. (Note: This donation is not tax deductible, but ALL of the money we receive will go directly to pay for Marcelino's arm.)

Update: As of Monday the 6th, 20% of the $3,000 has been raised.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: The other day Silas had done something super naughty and messy. He knew he was in trouble. I had left their room to start cleaning it up. He knew he was going to get in trouble when I got back. We are at a point now where he thinks he can charm his way out of anything. It doesn't work, but he always tries it... he's good at it too. This is how I found him when I came back in. He was sitting real still...

He knew he wasn't completely hidden, but he knew he was cute! He is a little bit rotten.

Goodies From Guate

First, thank you to everyone who prayed for Candelaria's finger. It has finally started to improve!

We will have to make periodic trips to the capital from now until our baby comes for my doctors appointments. It is a 7 hour drive, so normally we don't go very often. It is perfect timing though now as we are finishing up our forever house. By "finishing up" I mean coming down to the last couple months. If we come across something we need, we can have a much better quality selection in Guate.

Another serious plus is that in Guatemala City there are restaurants full of my pregnancy cravings!

This past trip we had a couple things on our list. The main one for me was my kitchen sink. I have put off purchasing one because I had my heart set on a farmhouse apron front sink. Unfortunately I did not realize how crazy expensive those things are. Beyond that, they do not even exist in this country... I have searched high and low. This is probably a blessing because we ended up finding a metal sink much cheaper. My second choice was a stainless steel deep symmetrical double bowl under mount. We came pretty close! I am very thankful for it. When you make 3 meals a day, your kitchen sink is a big deal. I didn't take a photo in the store and ours is all wrapped up, but it looks sort of like the the photo below. The right side is shallow and smaller than the left. That probably will end up saving us water, which we seem to always be short of.

{Photo found on CSN stores website}

The boys' birthday is coming up, so we wanted to look for their presents. Unless it is Christmas time, there aren't many good/safe toys in Petén, so it's best to plan ahead. In one hardware store we came across a bright yellow slide and some swings. Immediately Jimmy decided he wanted to build the boys a swing set at our forever house. It will look something like this:

Hope he has time to get it done by the middle of October!

I made a joke about Jimmy going to the market in zone 1 for me. He wouldn't ever let us all go because it is dangerous for foreigners. I have only ever been once and that was for only a couple of minutes. I hear it is full of beautiful inexpensive handmade things that aren't sold in the typical tourist areas. Well Jimmy did it! These are the goodies he picked out all by himself to bring back for me!

These are handmade planters. The terra-cotta one is for hanging.

The other items are all light fixtures. We still have lots of naked bulbs hanging from our ceiling since we hadn't found any fixtures we liked. I don't think we will have that problem in our forever house.

{This is a pile of 3}
These are baskets, but I think we will use them as lights.
These are my favorite. They were $5. This is definitely a perk of living here.