We're writing from the children's home. We've written from here a few times over the past few months, but each of those times were only visits. Tomorrow we're not going back to Antigua, tomorrow we will not be attending language school because we finished!
This past Thursday we finished language school. Friday through today we attended a conference for missionaries in Guatemala. When the conference ended today we packed up, said adios to our host family and came to Villa Nueva.
We're super excited to be in our apartment. We still have a few things that we need to do to really live in the apartment,like getting dishes to eat off of and cups to drink out of. Those are minor details though.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
4 more days!
4 more days of school is all we lack! You haven´t misread any of our previous posts. We had indeed planned on staying for 2 more weeks, however, we have decided to change our plans a bit. This Friday we will not attend school so that we can attend a conference with other missionaries. Both of us have been taught all of the spanish grammar, and at this point another week of school wouldn´t be that advantageous. By no means does that mean we are speaking great spanish, we speak decently, and using it more will help to better it. Thanks for praying for us as we´ve journied through language school. We´d ask you to pray for our last week of school and for us as we begin living at the children´s home.
Living in a different culture has provided many funny situations for us. The most recent of which was when we took Harvey, Lee´s current teacher and Staci´s former teacher out to lunch as a way of saying thanks for his help with our language skills. The food arrived to the table, and Harvey asked Lee if he´d like to pray. Lee begins the prayer by saying ¨Dios gracias para este dia¨ As soon as Lee said that Harvey interjects and says ¨por¨ meaning Lee should have said ¨Dios gracias por este dia¨ Harvey...always a teacher had to make sure that Lee´s prayer was gramatically perfect. For those of you who don´t know spanish both ¨por¨and ¨para¨translate to ¨for¨. There are specific reasons and situations for using one or the other. I don´t think either of us with misuse ¨por¨ in this situation again.
Living in a different culture has provided many funny situations for us. The most recent of which was when we took Harvey, Lee´s current teacher and Staci´s former teacher out to lunch as a way of saying thanks for his help with our language skills. The food arrived to the table, and Harvey asked Lee if he´d like to pray. Lee begins the prayer by saying ¨Dios gracias para este dia¨ As soon as Lee said that Harvey interjects and says ¨por¨ meaning Lee should have said ¨Dios gracias por este dia¨ Harvey...always a teacher had to make sure that Lee´s prayer was gramatically perfect. For those of you who don´t know spanish both ¨por¨and ¨para¨translate to ¨for¨. There are specific reasons and situations for using one or the other. I don´t think either of us with misuse ¨por¨ in this situation again.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Becoming home...
This weekend we are spending a 4 day weekend at the children's home working our our apartment so that when we move here (in 3 weeks!) we will be able to move right into our apartment.
On Friday we headed out with Kendon and Wendy who graciously drove us around the city and lent us great wisdom and advice along the way. Before 2pm we had purchased a bed, a couch, loveseat and chair set, and a small dining room table that is now our coffee table. (Right now, Don, a retired high school shop teacher is here, he chopped the legs right off of that table and it now sits in between our living room furniture.) Daniel & Kara met us for a late lunch and then took us to Pricemart (much like a Sam's) where we picked up a few more things.
Saturday morning Lee left with Elmer, an employee here and Pablo a teenager who lives here to retrieve our furniture. A couple hours later they returned with all of the living room furniture in tow. They were also gracias to help Lee get it all up into our 3rd story apartment.
After the furniture was in place, we were able to borrow a vehicle and made our way to Hiper Paiz (much like a Wal-Mart) and found things like shower curtains, silverware, cleaning supplies, and a few kitchen essentials. There are still a few things that we need to get like plates, cups and a microwave - that will happen with time. It is such a good feeling to have accomplished all we did this weekend.
The Lord was really gracious to give us time with people who could haul us around and who knew what they were doing. We believe that we got great deals on the stuff that we purchased, and even have money left within our budget to purchase things that we still need.
Right now we're in the dry season which means a lot of dust, add that to the construction dust (we're the first people to live in our apartment) and you get one dusty place. Thanks to the use of Daniel & Kara's vacuum cleaner and several passes with the mop we're mostly dust free. We had time today to put stuff into cabinets - in short, we're excited to be here in 3 weeks.
This morning at church they celebrated their 29th anniversary. Upwards of 15,000 people joined together to celebrate such an event. They invited Marcos Witt, a big name in Latin countries to lead worship and preach. Afterwards we went to celebrate Esdras' birthday and enjoyed a yummy meal from Taco Bell.
So, tomorrow we leave to go back to Antigua and will finish out our last 3 weeks of school.
On Friday we headed out with Kendon and Wendy who graciously drove us around the city and lent us great wisdom and advice along the way. Before 2pm we had purchased a bed, a couch, loveseat and chair set, and a small dining room table that is now our coffee table. (Right now, Don, a retired high school shop teacher is here, he chopped the legs right off of that table and it now sits in between our living room furniture.) Daniel & Kara met us for a late lunch and then took us to Pricemart (much like a Sam's) where we picked up a few more things.
Saturday morning Lee left with Elmer, an employee here and Pablo a teenager who lives here to retrieve our furniture. A couple hours later they returned with all of the living room furniture in tow. They were also gracias to help Lee get it all up into our 3rd story apartment.
After the furniture was in place, we were able to borrow a vehicle and made our way to Hiper Paiz (much like a Wal-Mart) and found things like shower curtains, silverware, cleaning supplies, and a few kitchen essentials. There are still a few things that we need to get like plates, cups and a microwave - that will happen with time. It is such a good feeling to have accomplished all we did this weekend.
The Lord was really gracious to give us time with people who could haul us around and who knew what they were doing. We believe that we got great deals on the stuff that we purchased, and even have money left within our budget to purchase things that we still need.
Right now we're in the dry season which means a lot of dust, add that to the construction dust (we're the first people to live in our apartment) and you get one dusty place. Thanks to the use of Daniel & Kara's vacuum cleaner and several passes with the mop we're mostly dust free. We had time today to put stuff into cabinets - in short, we're excited to be here in 3 weeks.
This morning at church they celebrated their 29th anniversary. Upwards of 15,000 people joined together to celebrate such an event. They invited Marcos Witt, a big name in Latin countries to lead worship and preach. Afterwards we went to celebrate Esdras' birthday and enjoyed a yummy meal from Taco Bell.
So, tomorrow we leave to go back to Antigua and will finish out our last 3 weeks of school.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sunday evening...
Thanks for the comment, Mital, we did have a fun little excursion this weekend!
This morning we met up with our friends Pat & Bill who are serving with an organization called Youth With a Mission (YWAM) for a couple of years. They live just a bit outside of Antigua and attend a small church about 2 kilometers from Antigua.
Now before you all laugh at the less than a mile a way adventure, let me just say that people around here consider 2 kilometers quite a distance. We've had several conversations with our host family about this topic - there kids attend a school that is between 1 and 2 kilometers away. When the new school year started a few weeks ago there was much discussion in the house about the bus routes and how one of the kids had to get up an extra 30 minutes early to catch the bus to take him 1 kilometer. We've tried to explain how we west Texans would drive 4 hours for a drink of water. We realize that is stretching it a bit as well, but our concept of distance and time is much different than ours. One night I told them that on several occasions my sister and I would each drive about an hour so that we could meet for dinner. They couldn't imagine doing that - both my sister and I just considered it a treat.
Ok, back to the days activities - we met up with Pat & Bill and had planned on taking a 5 minute bus ride to the church. There is a lot of construction going on right now, so we ended up walking to the church. It was a great walk, and nice to see new things. The church was small, and we'd describe the service as typical Guatemalan. Pat & Bill took us to see the YWAM base that we had heard about for sometime and then we came back and ate some delicious italian food for lunch.
We are looking forward to our last 4 weeks of school - it's hard to believe that we only have 4 weeks left! This Thursday we are planning on going back to the home and making a few purchases this weekend that will begin to make the apartment that we will live in our home. We'd ask you to pray for wisdom about our purchases, and that we could simply attain the things that we need.
This morning we met up with our friends Pat & Bill who are serving with an organization called Youth With a Mission (YWAM) for a couple of years. They live just a bit outside of Antigua and attend a small church about 2 kilometers from Antigua.
Now before you all laugh at the less than a mile a way adventure, let me just say that people around here consider 2 kilometers quite a distance. We've had several conversations with our host family about this topic - there kids attend a school that is between 1 and 2 kilometers away. When the new school year started a few weeks ago there was much discussion in the house about the bus routes and how one of the kids had to get up an extra 30 minutes early to catch the bus to take him 1 kilometer. We've tried to explain how we west Texans would drive 4 hours for a drink of water. We realize that is stretching it a bit as well, but our concept of distance and time is much different than ours. One night I told them that on several occasions my sister and I would each drive about an hour so that we could meet for dinner. They couldn't imagine doing that - both my sister and I just considered it a treat.
Ok, back to the days activities - we met up with Pat & Bill and had planned on taking a 5 minute bus ride to the church. There is a lot of construction going on right now, so we ended up walking to the church. It was a great walk, and nice to see new things. The church was small, and we'd describe the service as typical Guatemalan. Pat & Bill took us to see the YWAM base that we had heard about for sometime and then we came back and ate some delicious italian food for lunch.
We are looking forward to our last 4 weeks of school - it's hard to believe that we only have 4 weeks left! This Thursday we are planning on going back to the home and making a few purchases this weekend that will begin to make the apartment that we will live in our home. We'd ask you to pray for wisdom about our purchases, and that we could simply attain the things that we need.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Sorry in the delay of post in recent days, however, after many weeks of language school there just aren't too many new things to report on.
A week and a half ago we spent the weekend in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. It was a nice break from Antigua. We had heard weather reports that said we should have had a cold and dreary weekend - instead, we got sunburns! There isn't too much to do in Panajachel. We enjoyed walking around the small town and along the shoreline of the lake. It was a great time away from the norm.
For sometime Lee has been wanting to climb Volcano Agua - a volcano that is just south of Antigua. Many travel agencies offer this trip, for a price of course, however, one day the local gym announced they would be taking a trip for about the half the cost so Lee signed up. This past Saturday morning Lee left the house at 6am part of a group of 36 people from various countries. After climbing to the top, the group cooked lunch in the crater, spent a few hours in the crater and then returned. He got back to the house about 7pm. Lee said that there wasn't anything quite like sharing your testimony in the crater of a volcano. He had a great day.
Staci spent the day hanging out with a couple of girls from the language school - and enjoyed a more low key day.
Thank you for continuing to pray with us and for us - we'd ask you to pray for those who we still have a chance to witness to in Antigua during our last few weeks of language school.
A week and a half ago we spent the weekend in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. It was a nice break from Antigua. We had heard weather reports that said we should have had a cold and dreary weekend - instead, we got sunburns! There isn't too much to do in Panajachel. We enjoyed walking around the small town and along the shoreline of the lake. It was a great time away from the norm.
For sometime Lee has been wanting to climb Volcano Agua - a volcano that is just south of Antigua. Many travel agencies offer this trip, for a price of course, however, one day the local gym announced they would be taking a trip for about the half the cost so Lee signed up. This past Saturday morning Lee left the house at 6am part of a group of 36 people from various countries. After climbing to the top, the group cooked lunch in the crater, spent a few hours in the crater and then returned. He got back to the house about 7pm. Lee said that there wasn't anything quite like sharing your testimony in the crater of a volcano. He had a great day.
Staci spent the day hanging out with a couple of girls from the language school - and enjoyed a more low key day.
Thank you for continuing to pray with us and for us - we'd ask you to pray for those who we still have a chance to witness to in Antigua during our last few weeks of language school.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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