2 Tickets To the Inner Sanctum

I know why we had twins! Yesterday afternoon we went around Santa Rita inviting some of the women to come to the ladies activity. Jimmy took a couple of people from the team and went one way and I took some and went the other. Someone volunteered to stay at the Bible study building and watch Jonah and Silas, but we both wanted to take one with us... we are proud of our boys! It's a good thing we have two! And they know how to turn it on. They grinned all day flashing their dimples at whoever was talking to them. They are such good little missionary kids! The people here are always happy to see them too and just love on them every chance they get. We are immediately invited into peoples homes now that the boys are with us. Not sure what it is (other than their sheer baby magnetism of course!) Parenthood gives us an instant connection.

The Kekchi people especially, love babies. At two seperate times Jimmy and I have been way back into the Kekchi corner of the village in people's houses that we had never even seen before because we had Jonah or Silas with us. They are our tickets to the Kekchi inner sanctum! I am so thankful that my boys have been welcomed into their community. I know they are going to love growing up here!

The 30 Second Haircut

We cannot remember it ever being this hot here. There is no breeze and the inside of our house hasn't gotten below 85 at anytime day or night in the last month. I was getting tired of my hair always being a sweaty mess, so Monday right before we were going to leave for the Bible study I asked Jimmy to cut it. I never dreamed he would say yes... what husband in their right mind would?! We are clearly delirious from all the heat!

I thought he was bluffing! We went outside on the back patio and chop chop... there went 6+ inches of my hair. I love it! Jimmy's bravery paid off, now he's a hero!

It probably doesn't look short to anyone else, but it feels very different to me. When I have it in a ponytail it is not all stuck to the back of my neck anymore which makes a big difference in this heat.

We had a team arrive Tuesday evening. Among other things they will be teaching a module in the Kekchi Institute. Jimmy has spent hours and hours translating the course materials. They will be teaching two courses, Doctrines I and the book of James. We are very thankful for this team's willingness to make an eternal investment in these hard working Kekchi pastors.

Here they are during our planning meeting Wednesday morning. This is an awesome group! I hope they survive the heat and want to come back again! Please pray for them this week. Thanks!

My Surprise This Morning!

This plant was a gift from a "friend" in New Horizon, one of the first women my age in Petén that I felt a connection with. I thought we were going to have years of friendship ahead of us, trading recipes and of our kids playing together. Just yesterday we were told of something she had been saying about us that wasn't true and was hurtful. I'm not writing her off, it is just a painful season in that part of our ministry right now.

Well she told me this plant has white flowers, but I had never seen them before. They bloomed this morning for the first time! So pretty on our back patio!

A Trip Down the Trail of a Rabbit

So last night 3 of the 4 new teenagers from two weeks ago came back to the adult Bible study in Santa Rita. I am teaching a 5 week series on the 10 commandments and what Jesus had to say about them. Last night was Don't Commit Adultery and Don't Steal.

In the middle of talking about adultery somebody asked me about Hades. This took us on a 15 minute question and answer session about heaven and hell where we talked about everything from "absent from the body is present with the Lord" and the rich man and Lazarus, to the Great White Throne Judgement. It is these rabbit trails where people are most involved in the discussion and seem the most interested. It keeps me on my toes because I don't teach anything that I can't read first to them from the Bible, so I have to know where everything is or not bring it up.

Then Bernabé (a 72 yr old lady who comes every week) asked if you could go to heaven if you had fallen in adultery. This was perfect timing because it was right before I started talking about Jesus and the woman brought to him who had been caught. This was also a good lesson because I got to talk about the guys about not giving inappropriate attention to girls and to the girls about not inviting it.

Last week we were talking about honoring your parents and the promise that goes with that commandment. I wanted to prove a point, so I asked Aaron, an older man, if he had honored his parents. "Well, I'm an orphan and never met my parents," he responded.

"Oh, then Fabio, did you honor your parents?" "My parents died when I was really young so I don't remember anything about them."

"Ok...um... Bernabé, did you honor your parents?" "Well, my parents weren't good examples of parents, especially my father who was involved in really bad things so I ran away when I was young."

I stopped asking at that point and continued on with Don't Kill.

Last night we also started taking suggestions for a name for the Bible Study. Some people started suggesting names from churches they had passed on the road. I won't let anything be considered for the vote though, unless they can explain to me what it means or who they are. Some names that did not make the cut last night: Calvary, Saint Peter, Saint Luke, Saint James... The candiates right now are Hope and New Life. In a couple weeks we'll have a vote and everything will be oficial.

The Best Room in the House

First, what's a room redo without a good BEFORE photo, so here it is:

Our lovely laundry room/closet

We had fun creating a place together for our boys. It is really a sanctuary, free from dirt and lizard poop. We keep the window closed, the window unit on, our shoes off, and the dogs out. It is very different from the rest of our house... by about 20 degrees!

We wanted to incorporate pieces of Guatemala. The textures in the world around us are beautiful! We are lucky because we can think up something in our heads and either find the supplies to make it ourselves or have someone else make it for us for cheap. We tried to choose things for their nursery that could be used in either their room when they get older or in other parts of our house later on. So here it is... finally finished!

Jimmy made the boys two beautiful cribs out of Spanish Plum. They are solid!! I absolutely love them! He also found the fisherman's net in the market one day and surprised me.

We made several attempts at a homemade mobile, and then finally ordered this one. It is balanced (unlike ours which just hung stagnant in the air), so the school of fish are in perpetual motion. They really look like they are swimming! There is a worm on a hook in the middle. The boys are fascinated by it... almost as much as their parents. It sort of hypnotizes ya.

We had a carpenter make the rest of the furniture out of mahogany from drawings we gave him. It's the cheap wood here. He even made the mirror which the boys enjoy making faces in! I made the curtains out of white linen woven here. The bucket hats are courtesy of their Grandma Kiki!

Like most houses here, ours doesn't have closets... or does it?

This is a branch that fell off a tree in our yard. Jimmy chopped it down to size in true Guatemalan fashion with a machete!

Here is where we store their toys:

We found this round rug in Guatemala city. We spend a lot of time on that thing, reading books and playing. It has a high pile, so it's a cozy spot amongst the hard tile.

The little wooden horse is from my childhood.

We love maps, plus they are educational... right?!

We used our projector and sketched the outline on the wall and then hot glued rope over it. There are many plusses to concrete walls! The rope that the boys can reach from their cribs or the floor is in short sections so that if they pull it off the wall somehow (it's stuck on good) it is not long enough to strangle them.

I told Jimmy I wanted a kayak for their nursery... honestly I never thought he'd find one. Well, Jimmy got in touch with the guy who makes them for the hotels on Flores. They use them as planters. He carved one out of a tree just for Jonah and Silas! You know their mama is going to put plants in that one day!

I begged Jimmy to take me to the market in zone 1 when we were in Guatemala City last year. It is full of beautiful things made by the locals. It has a reputation for being a violent place, so Jimmy made me shop fast! I found these baskets that we used for the light fixture and then covered the cords with burlap. I want to go back!!! Jonah and Silas enjoy these as much as their mobile. We lift them up and they smack the lights and make them swing.

Jimmy's parents helped us purchase these chairs... as in they went in over half! They are microfiber (which is good since they are puked on regularly), shipped from the States. These rockers are the glue that hold this circus together! A couple weeks ago when both of us got the flu at the same time we each grabbed a boy and pretty much slept in those things the entire weekend. We also sleep there when the power is off and we can't use our monitor. (Honestly some weeks we sleep in those things more than our bed because we just accidentally fall asleep in them!) Needless to say, we are very thankful for these comfy things. With twins I would highly recommend having family within a thousand miles to help, but if that is not possible, these would be the next best thing!

So thanks for visiting our home! Come over anytime... we will probably be in the nursery!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: This is so common here that it is hard to even notice stuff like this anymore and think "I should take a picture".

There's a Reason...

people behave the way they do, not an excuse, just a reason. Many times I forget that I don't know someone's STORY... everything that has contributed to the way they are behaving in the moment or the kind of person they are every day.

We have been frustrated with Mateo, Gerardo, Marcela, Maruca, and Choki's dad in the past for different things. The main thing is that the times we have hired one of his kids to do something for us, he usually takes their pay and drinks it away. The other day we got to hear some of his STORY... at least through the eyes of one of his sons (Mateo).

(Gerardo with his dad)

During the war Mateo's dad had an 18 acre farm. They lived in a nice house and had plenty of food to eat. One day the guerrillas showed up and explained that it was now going to be Mateo's family's responsibility to feed them. They stole his entire harvest and told him that if he fought with them, then after the war he would be farming again, but this time with tractors. He felt like he had no other option. Now he has 2 acres and not enough room to do crop rotation, so his land produces less and less every year. They live in New Horizon where they are greatly discriminated against because they are Kekchi (even though the guerrillas were supposedly fighting for indigenous rights.) Mateo said, "If it wasn't for us, they (meaning the guerrillas in NH) would have starved, look at how they treat us now." His father lost everything and without the Lord, no wonder he drinks.

Please pray for Mateo's dad. We are no longer "allowed" in New Horizon, but God still is working in there. We have remained very close with this family. Please pray that Mateo's dad will one day come to know the Lord.

Our Trip to Guate With a Couple of 6 Month Olds!

We took the boys to Guatemala City (this time it was an 8 hr drive) last week for their 6M shots... yes, we have 2, 6 month olds... crazy! Even though they entered the world 2 months early, they are catching up fast to the size of a normal 6 month old. I have packed away most of their 0-3 month old clothes already because they are so tall! Since exiting the NICU we have enjoyed 5 months of perfect health... other than pink eye that we keep passing back and forth. We are so blessed!

Silas ready for the jungle:

"Wait a minute... I live where?!"

Jonah in the hammock:

Their doctor wants us to begin introducing solids, but we are not sure. I want their GI tracts to be good and ready (since they are somewhere in between 4 and 6 months developmentally), so we might wait another month. We are having fun planning their first meals. We are going to make all their baby food fresh. Hopefully this will help them grow up being veggie lovers... don't scoff at my optimism! We can't decide if we are going to make our own rice cereal or just start with avocados. It's all an adventure!

I took this photo at our doctor's office. Do you see anything funny about it?

They translated the Spanish name of the movie back to English and then printed it. I don't think this is an official Pixar product! We see stuff like this a lot.

The Boggs happened to be in the city at the same time, so we got to visit with them. Never thought we would live this far away from them (10 hrs).

We got to do several other errands while we were in the city, like grocery shopping and extending our visas.

What do missionaries like us get excited about when going to the "big city"?...

14.5 lbs Bisquik (because it's nice not to have to make everything from scratch once in a while)

12.5 lbs Cascade (same price as 2.5 lbs in Petén)

1008 wipes (1/4 of the price in Petén)

624 diapers (1/2 of the price in Petén, 1/4 of the price in the States... yes, all parents of twins should be missionaries!)

4 6'x4' metal shelves (since we live in a house without closets, not sure why we didn't buy these 2 years ago)

90 pop tarts (guilty pleasure)

24 cans green beans (to hold us over until Jimmy's garden starts producing more... his are better)

15 Bibles (these were double their normal price for some reason... they said that we had been buying them on sale for the past 3 years... it was a little shady)

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: The other morning I left the boys playing in their crib to go put in a load of laundry. When I came back, this is what I found!