First off, yes we're still alive. Yes, we are healthy. Yes, we still live in Guatemala. Yes, we'd still love for you to read our blog. And yes, after 2 months, here is a blog from us!
We'll start with a bulleted summary of what life has consisted of for us since we last posted:
-On July 2nd Staci's parents came and stayed with us for 10 days. We really enjoyed having them here. We especially are grateful for the work her dad did by beginning the framework for an extended roof on our maintenance shop. Staci's mom spent most of her days in our apartment sewing curtains. We love that our neighbors can no longer see in! Also, while they were here we spent a couple of nights away seeing new things for all of us. We went to Tikal in northern Guatemala. Tikal was once a large city that geologists believe people lived in until 860AD. It was then rediscovered by some Guatemalans in 1848. The University of Pennsylvania took it as a major project in the 70's and today about 20% is uncovered.
-From July 10 through the 19th we had a group from Red Lion, Pennsylvania. These guys come down twice a year each year and our kiddos love them. They're much like family around here, and we enjoyed working with them so much. They worked in our medical clinic, helping to get the facilities up to code, as well as, they also worked on our phone system.
-July 23rd-25 we were in Panajachel with our summer interns. This summer we had 5 super great interns. They did a variety of things throughout the summer. Some of the things that they did were working with our doctor in the clinic, helping a teacher in our school, helping to prepare meals for our kiddos in the kitchen, after school tutoring, weekly devotional groups, and countless hours of playing games. Our time in Panajachel was an end of the summer retreat. We listened to each of them about challenged, stretched and encouraged them and then we had specific prayer with each of them. We also enjoyed 2 nights of sitting by the fire telling stories and hanging out.
-July 26-Aug2 we welcomed Highland Baptist Church from Waco, TX. Neither of us had met anyone on this team before, but after spending a week with them we have several new friends. They connected with our kiddos quickly and were such hard workers. They did so many things - the biggest of which was helping us to get so much closer to getting our boys new home unit complete.
-July 30 we celebrated Lee's 30th birthday - it was a great day!
-Aug 4 most of our summer interns returned to their homes in the states. Most are getting ready to start another college semester. A couple of them are looking for jobs to start soon.
-Aug 5-8 we went with Kendon, Wendy, their son Ian and his friend Nicco toward the coast to get away for a few days before school started for Ian and Nicco.
-Aug 9-16 we had a group from First Baptist Church in Shallowater, TX here with us. Again, we didn't know anyone on the team beforehand, but enjoyed them so much. They worked on a roof extension, repaired a multitude of things, and cut up tons of tree branches. We recently had a problem with tree roots getting into our plumbing, so we had to cut down several of our trees.
Today is August 21. For all practical purposes we're finished with what we call "team season". Life will switch gears a bit as our kiddos are about to end their school year (they go from mid January to mid October). We will begin having small discipleship groups in our apartment 2 nights each week for our older kiddos. We would ask you to join with us in prayer as we are planning these groups.
Thanks for hanging with us through these last few weeks of no blogs! We're blessed to have such faithful friends and supporters.
Lee & Staci
