Friday, January 25, 2008

New Kiddos!

Today we received an email letting us know about 4 new siblings that were received into the children's home. You can go to the blog of our friends Daniel & Kara to see pictures.

Monday, January 21, 2008

8 weeks remaining - of language school, that is. Both of us have just about covered all of the grammar. We're looking forward to having several weeks to reinforce grammar rules that we did not learn very well the first time through, learning local slang words and expressions.

Today was the first day for us to spend with our new teachers. It's like a breath of fresh air to change teachers - it always gives us a new energy. Also, because each teacher teaches differently, it seems like each teacher brings something new to the table. Staci will for sure change again in 4 weeks because her current teacher has been reserved by a future student. Lee has the opportunity to change as well, but the teacher that Lee has now is spoken of as being one of the best, so he may choose to stay with him.

Anthony, the spring intern at the children's home has been studying in Antigua for 2 weeks - and will be here another 2 or 3 weeks before moving to the home. We've enjoyed getting to know him, and sharing meals together on Sundays.

We'd ask you to join with us for praying for our perseverance through language school. We're both begining to feel a little burned out.

Friday, January 11, 2008

The last time we wrote we were awaiting the arrival of Lee's mom and cousin. The did indeed arrive, we had a great time with them, and they have made it home safely.

We spent frist day and a half of their visit at the children's home. We wanted them to see where we will spend our next year and a half. Then on Sunday we left Villa Nueva for Antigua. Lee and I started classes on Wednesday so that we could spend Monday and Tuesday with Lee's mom and cousin, Cheri & Johny. On Monday we hiked Volcano Pacaya - this is an active volcano that we can see smoke during the day and the glow of red lava at night from the children's home. It was such a neat experience - one that we'd like to repeat someday. Tuesday we spent the morning at a coffee farm - Lee and I have been there before, however, it is coffee harvesting season - so it was a treat to get to see the havest in full swing. During the afternoons we walked around the city, looked at ruins, shopped a bit, a talked a lot. We were so thankful to see faces that we knew.

Wednesday we began our classes again - we're more than halfway through our projected time in language studies, and much more than halfway through the grammar. We'd ask for your prayers for our last stretch of school that will last until mid-March.

Here are a few pics from our time with Cheri & Johny:


This is Lee on the side of Volcano Pacaya - this is the highest point they'd let us go because of the volcanos activity. If you look closely you can see the glow of lava behind his left shoulder and above his head.


Just behind us and to the left looks like there is a ledge of sorts on the volcano - this is the highest point they let us go, and this is a vent that we can see glow red from the children's home each night.


All harvesting is done by hand at the coffee farm that we visited. Cheri, Johny and Lee pitched in and helped a bit with the harvesting.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Candle Light Dinner...

Happy Friday afternoon to you all.

We'd first like to say thanks for praying for Kara, she is feeling better. We'd ask you to pray for a full return of health to her body and that she'd be free from sickness.

We're having wind here that could rival a West Texas wind in the spring time. It's even dusty - a little taste of home, I suppose. On Wednesday night just before supper the electricity went out, we heard because of the strong winds this happened. So, we got candles out and had a candle light supper. The littlest guys thought it was way fun - even the older ones liked the change in pace. The electricity returned about 3 and a half hours later - after they were already in bed.

Yesterday we picked up a group from Pennsylvania from the airport. It was great to see those guys, the kids were super excited for their arrival as well. A funny little story of our trip to the airport... Two vehicles had to go because of the size of the group so we followed Daniel. Daniel was so kind to keep us in his sights as we don't know the roads yet. At one point a bus was in the lane to the left of us and we were in the far right lane. He decided it was his turn to be where we were, so he came over before we could get well enough out of his way we had a slight meeting of vehicles - the side of his bus to the driver's side mirror. Praise the Lord there is no damage, of course he didn't stop. We didn't stop either being able to see that nothing big happened.

That pretty much covers the happenings of the past few days...we're anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lee's mom and a cousin tonight - we just looked at the website and they look to be ontime right now.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year!!

We hope that you have enjoyed the holidays with your family and that you are looking foward to a great 2008.

The past few days have continued to be really enjoyable here at the home. We've had lots of time to play with the kiddos, playing soccer and knockout have been some of their favorites. They are also enjoying playing with the new puppy.

For New Year's Eve we watched movies and ate cookies with the kids. Much like Christmas Eve at midnight the skies lit up with fireworks for a good 20 minutes. A small church meets next door and they were up until atleast 2:15 this morning.

For New Years we had a special lunch of turkey, rice, green beans and brownies. We were especially grateful to a few people who attend the same church as we do here that donated turkeys and cokes for lunch today.

We are very much looking foward to the arrival of Lee's mom and cousin and also a mission team from Pennsylvania. The group from Pennsylvania comes twice each year - the kids (and us) are looking foward to spending time with them.

We'd ask you all to join in praying for healing for our friend and co-worker, Kara, who is dealing with pneumonia for the second time in 3 months.

We are grateful to each of you that continue support and pray for us.