Shouts of Joy!

Last Post

2009-08-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

I know this is very slow in coming! I really meant to finish off this blog on our last night in Cubulco. We had a busy day packing and I finally had all the tired, super excited kids tucked in bed, when the power went out! Sadly it never came on before we left the next morning. We flew home the next day and ever since then I have been meaning to post...but time keeps slipping away from me!

It was very strange to pull up this blog again. In many ways the past year seems like a blur and we have slipped back into life here. Wilf is busy working with the migrant workers, something he has done every summer for the past six years. Some of the kids have grown up a bit, but most faces look wonderfully the same. We are happy to be home again, but we thank the Lord so much for the opportunity we had to live in Cubulco. The Lord was, and continues to be very good!

Wilf has been in contact with some of the church members in Cubulco recently and they are pressing on. There is a possibility they may get a pastor in a couple of months. We pray that the Lord will provide for them.

We are thankful for the way the Lord continues to provide for us. We were able to rent this beautiful home from my aunt and uncle for the coming year. Wilf will continue working with the migrant workers-not only Mexicans, but more and more Guatemalans as well. One farm in the area employs 100 Guatemalans on two year contracts!
Thanks for joining us on our Guatemalan journey! We are so thankful for those who remembered our family in prayer. Our journey continues and we ask you to continue to pray for us! Last night we had a great service with about 60 men attending (and a few women!). The plan is to continue the work throughout the coming year-something new for the people here and for us! Please pray for strength and wisdom and the Lord's blessing on this great opportunity.
May the Lord bless you as you serve Him!

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless before the presence of His
glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen."
Jude 25

Father's Day...and the week before!

2009-06-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Sunday

Happy Father's Day!!

We are very thankful for the Dad in our home. The kids worked hard to make booklets for Wilf.

(We do have five children! Lauren was in her highchair eating her breakfast already :))

After church, we had Odilia and her two daughters over for dinner as well as two little girls that came to visit Kristen. Everyone enjoys looking at the slide shows Wilf has put together.

Saturday

Every Saturday morning, the kids and I walk to the market. The kids like to come along because I always buy them a 1 Q popsicle (less then $0.20), and they also like to ride home in a tuktuk. A tuktuk is a small, red, three wheeled vehicle that taxis people around town. It is great fun to ride in! Our tuktuk driver this past Saturday was very friendly so I dared to ask him if we could take a picture!

We were very thankful this week that we could buy a watermelon! It is very surprising, but it is often difficult to get fruit here. Cubulco does not have a lot of locally grown fruit and because the town is small and at the end of the road, not many people come to sell here. Last Saturday we didn't get any fruit, so we were pretty excited about our watermelon this week!

Lauren loves fruit! Usually I cut it into pieces for her, but this time I thought I would see how she did with a whole piece. She got very messy, but she had a marvelous time with it!

The boys found this creative way to avoid spilling on themselves :).

The kids and I had a quiet week. As I mentioned in my last post, the schools are all cancelled. We were thankful that we were permitted to have services today at least.

After all the excitement of having friends at school every day and then at home too, it is good for our own kids to learn to play together again. I'm also thankful for the opportunity to finish off our homeschooling!

Kristen had a wonderful time playing that Lauren was her "baby". She dressed her up, did her hair, got all her accessories and played with her outside. It was fun until Lauren refused to co-operate. A doll is a little more obedient!

Tuesday-Thursday

Our week seemed extra quiet because Wilf and Nate were gone from early Tuesday morning until Thursday noon. They went and visited three of the five aldean churches. Nate was excited to go along becuase he has now been to all five churches!

Just outside of the one village is this beautiful swimming hole. It gets pretty hot hiking in the mountains, so the water feels great!

One of the obreros, Juan, with his wife and kids. Their church building is right behind them.

Tomorrow we head into our last week here! It seems amazing that we are almost finished, and yet home and family seem very far away. Wilf is headed out to visit the other two aldean churches this week, accompanied by Nate and Kris. It is difficult for Wilf to say good-bye to the people he has come to know and appreciate, and it is sad for them to see him go!

We pray that they will continue faithfully in the work of the Lord.

This and That

2009-06-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Los Encuentros

There are a lot of villages up in the mountains around Cubulco. Some are quite small and I suppose can hardly be called a village! Los Encuentros is one such village. Three brothers and their families who live close together on a mountainside, recently approached Ken about getting a teacher for their community. Their children normally had to hike a few kilometres to the nearest school, however, during the rainy months of the year the size of a large river between them and the school makes the trip impossible. Ken hired this young man to teach the kids! He spends four days of the week there.

The trip to the village is beautiful, but rugged. After an hour in the car, it is a two hour hike, crossing several rivers. The river nearest to the village is the largest and the people have built a raft out of gourds to ferry people across. Wilf choose to swim :)

At first, the school met in one of the houses. When the rains came, members of Los Encuentros, as well as members of some of the other churches, put together their money and built this building. The government donated some desks, and they were all set!
(keep in mind that all the desks, wood, sheet metal etc. had to be carried the two hours to the village!)

The students!

Cheese Making

A few days ago, Wilf and I went over to Odilia's house (a lady in our church) to make mountain cheese. Mountain cheese is really delicious with tortillas! Wilf and I are hoping to buy some of the enzyme tablets needed to make it and try our hand at it when we get home!

In the picture above, Wilf and Odilia are warming the cheese with their hands to consolidate it.

Squeezing out the whey.

Kneading in the salt! Wilf is now an expert :)

Ryan came along and played with Odilia's granddaughter.

Odilia and her family are fairly well off (compared to most people here). However, her husband drinks a lot and her children don't show much interest in church.

Centro de Educacion

Another project Ken started is the after-school Bible program-or Centro de Educacion, as it is called here. Our kids have been going three three days a week since the beginning of June. They really loved it! For three hours, they would do singing, crafts, and games.

Unfortunately, all schools and educational programs have been cancelled until July 1st becuase of the influenza pandemic! We are so disappointed. It means that our last two weeks here will be pretty quiet!

Kristen's friend from school also came to the Bible program!

Ken hired three teachers to run the program. Vilma (pictured above with Kris) is the "lady in charge"...I'm not sure what her official title is :)

We were very sad that the schools were cancelled because it meant the kids had no playmates for the next two weeks! So far though, Kris's friends have been dropping by almost every day and a large group of Nate's classmates stopped by yesterday as well. I suspect our trampoline is a BIG draw....

Although she isn't fluent, Kris manages to get by quite well with these girls! Nate and Brad rarely speak Spanish and seem to know only words used during a soccer game! :) We suspect they know more than they let on!

Pool time

The pool is very warm right now and we make it over there almost every afternoon to cool off before dinner. The kids can stay in for hours! It is great to see them improving so much.

Ryan loves his waterwings and I love to watch him swim!

Above he is preparing for a dive....

And away he goes!

And so the days fill up and pass by! We are thankful to the Lord as well for the class Wilf taught the obreros over the past three days. It was a really great opportunity to talk about the future of their churches and their plans to continue on and further their work. Wilf has plans to visit all the aldeas once more in the next two weeks and the kids and I plan to finish up our school!

Please continue to pray for our family and the work here!

Good-bye Nico and Lia!

2009-06-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

After living and working here for almost ten years, Nico and Lia have moved back to Canada. The last few weeks have been very busy for them! They've had many visits from people very sad to see them leave. They were so busy that I don't even have a chance to take a good picture of Nico and Lia together! However, the kids are also very important, and we did get some pictures of them :). The church organized a good-bye service for Nico and Lia. Of course they served tamales!

Early Saturday morning, the ladies meet at Froilan and Rosa's house (a wonderful couple! Froilan is an obrero for the church), and got to work. They made 400 tamales!!

I don't know the whole process, but I know it takes a LOT of time. I asked one of the ladies if she enjoyed making them and she said that she doesn't usually, but she made these joyfully, from her heart, for Nico and Lia.

After they wrapped the cornflour and chicken mixture in the banana leaves, they are ready to cook them!

They carefully stack this large pot full, add a bit of water, and let it cook for hours.

Nate loves to help out in this part of the process!

Froilan and Rosa invited the missionary families to join them all for lunch. It was really delicious, and very kind of them when they were all so busy! Rosa and her daughter working in their kitchen. Both are very godly ladies and we are so thankful for their faithful service in the church.

Lia's mom has spent a lot of time with Lia and Nico in Cubulco. In fact, we think, that with all her visits over the years (some visits were rather lengthy), she may have spent more time here then I have! As a result, she is well know and loved by many people in town as well!

Maria came from her new job in the city to say good-bye.

My only contribution to all the work the ladies were doing was to help with the dishes. They have a very different method of doing dishes though and I suspect that Maria was laughing at me the whole time....

That evening, the church was full! Many people came from the aldeas, as well as from town.

Nico and Lia have worked faithfully here for almost ten years, and it is difficult and sad for people to see them leave.

Monday evening, they left for the city and today they flew home!

We also, were sad to see them go, but thankful for the year that we could work here together. May God bless them as they continue to serve Him!

A Look at Our Week

2009-05-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to believe another week is finished! Here's some pictures to give you an idea of what we did this week :)

Kristen and Ellen are continually "moving" around the yard. They make new houses every day. Here they are enjoying afternoon tea.
Lauren is sometimes allowed to play as well....if she behaves :)

Ryan loves the sandbox!

Monday morning we went to the city. We had driven about an hour when the traffic came to a dead stop. A large truck had rolled over and caught fire about three miles up the road. The fellow in front of us estimated it would take several hours before traffic would move again. Once, in the the fall, Wilf had taken an alternate route into the city with Nico. We decided to try it! We had to backtrack about fifteen minutes, then we had an adventure! Most of the road was paved (sort of!), but other parts were pretty rough. Thankfully we drive a 4x4 truck!

We saw this dead python along the road. Pretty exciting stuff for the kids!

The scenery was very beautiful and it was really neat to see some new mountains for a change. Even though it took us longer to get to the city, we all agreed we were thankful for the opportunity to see new things!

We arrived at Seteca (the seminary we stay at while in the city) just as they were starting up a soccer game. It was really fun to watch!

The next day we went to the zoo...again! It is very inexpensive to get into the zoo and it is a lovely park. We don't know of any other park land in the city! We brought along a picnic lunch and enjoyed the morning.

We don't have any photos of the dentist visits, multiple shopping trips or other errands we did in the city! Wednesday, we went to a restaurant that has an awesome aquarium in it. God has certainly made a lot of beautiful underwater creatures.

It ws really neat because they had a tube where you can stand and see the fish all around you!

Ryan's all ready to go swimming with the fish!

Wednesday afternoon we headed home! It was a really nice drive home too-even though we lost the cooler lid somewhere along the way. Thankfully it didn't rain (which is does almost every afternoon!), and thankfully the kids didn't get car sick (which they do almost every trip!).

The last hour of the drive is especially twisty. We make our way up one mountain range and down the other side. The road is paved (which we are very thankful for!), but the drop off is rather close. I tried my best to give you an idea....

The Lord willing, that is our last trip to the city until we fly home! Seems hard to believe in some ways. We thank the Lord for safety once again and pray for God's grace to finish our time here well!

Sunday Service

2009-05-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was a special day for our church. We had a Presbyterian pastor come and preach for us! This is the first time the church has had a pastor preach for over a year.

We had a special service including profession of faith, a baptism and celebration of the Lord's supper!
Wilf has been teaching a profession of faith class to these three ladies for most of our time here. It has been a great blessing for the ladies and for Wilf! He had the privilege of being a part of their public profession of faith. The two ladies standing are sisters and the elderly lady is their mother. Please keep these ladies in your prayers. The mother is a widow, but the two younger ladies both have very dificult marriages.

These ladies (along with another sister, who is already a member of our church) have asked Wilf if they could continue meeting, but use the time now to go and speak with their neighbours about Christ. Of course Wilf was only too happy to accompany them!

The Pastor speaking about baptism before he baptizes the little girl.

To celebrate the Lord's supper, everyone makes a circle around the table.

After the service, we had lunch together. Some ladies from the church had gotten up at six in the morning to prepare the soup. Of course we had it with tortillas!

Marcella was one of those helpful ladies. I thought this was a great picture of her because the people here rarely smile for the camera. She liked it too and asked for a copy :)

It was a real blessing to have the Pastor with us for the day. There is a possibility that he will be returning here in the fall to be the pastor of this church for a couple of years. We are excited about this and are praying for the Lord's leading.

Dia de Madre

2009-05-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day is a big holiday here. My kids made it pretty special for me! The week before Mother's Day, Nate and Kris spent a lot of time in the closet making me cards and presents. Nathan made me this beautiful card and even wrote me a poem.

Just after six o'clock Sunday morning, I heard someone banging the pans in the kitchen. I quickly realized what was going on and gently encouraged Wilf to go out and tell Kris it was too early to begin making breakfast! She managed to wait until seven o'clock, then she brought me a meal that she had made totally on her own. It was wonderful!

Kids on a low budget have to be creative! I was really impressed with the things the kids made for me. I was especially thankful to see them do all these things without any prompting from me or Dad. A friend wrote me to me recently expressing how thankful she was to be a mother and the joy she had in raising her children and supporting her husband. And although most days run very far from smoothly, I would whole heartedly agree! This year in Guat. has given me time to think about my task as a wife and mother. I have not been able to be very involved in the work here because of the language barrier. But I can find a lot of joy and fulfillment by supporting and encouraging Wilf in his work and by being a "joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!"

On Monday, the village of Pichal had a big celebration for Dia de Madre. Wilf headed out first thing in the morning with Nico, little Nico, Ellen, Nate, Kris and Brad. This was Brad's first big hike and he did great!! The hike only takes about an hour, but some parts of it are pretty steep!

The arrival of the rainy season makes the hiking a lot messier, but it also makes it a lot more beautiful.
A big part of the celebration was a soccer tournament!

The soccer field is a bit challenging. I suppose they are happy that the majority of the field is flat-considering all the mountains surrounding them! After the soccer tournament, a lunch was served up the moutain side at the village school. Our group left shortly after the lunch but the festivies continued for the rest of the day.
The kids crossing the bridge on the way back home. It is interesting because we just started the rainy season so the river is still really low. The fertile river bank is all planted with corn. The river looks totally different from when I saw it last!
It has been good to experience the different holidays and how they are celebrated in another country. I think Father's Day is the only one left....:)

Excerpts from the kids journals

2009-05-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

It hasn't been too diffiuclt to think of journal topics this year!

As part of their school work, Nate and Kris write in a journal a couple times a week.

I thought I would include a few of their writings (with their permission) to let you have a peek into our life here!

Kris writing about one of the hikes she's gone on with Wilf:

Wed. Sept 24, 2008

"On Tuesday, me and my Dad and Nate went on a hike to a house far up in the mountains. Uncle Nico and Uncle Ken came with us. It took an hour to get to the house. There were only two dogs. That's a little unusual for a house here. But there were lots of chickens and roosters walking around. It was a dirty house. While we were hiking we saw a beautiful house. It was swept and they had a cage for the chickens. I thought it was quite a nice house."

One of Nate's experiences:

Oct. 29, 2008

"We went to a village called Pichal the other day. Me, little Nico, Kristen and Ellen booked it. Well, actually Kristen and Ellen fell behind to where the slow poke Dads were. When we first got there, we couldn't find any thing to do, But later we found a place where there was a straight log that we tried to cross. Every time we fell, everyone laughed. I never fell, only Ellen, Nico and Kristen fell. Soon it was lunch time. They gave us soup with chicken in it. After lunch, me and Nico played we were enemies and we had to try to fight eachother with sticks. It was soon time for the party to begin. It was so packed that we had to sit on the floor. After a long service and some loud music, it was over and we had to eat tamales, except me and Kristen didn't have to eat any. By the time we reached home it was 12:00, so we went right to bed."

Note: the people here have services for all sorts of occasions-new house being built, renovations done, first birthdays... Wilf is going to a service tomorrow to thank the Lord that a lady's husband has been released from jail in the states!

Nate writing about a typical day for him (before they went to school for most of the morning!):

Nov. 14,2008

"I get up at 6:00 every morning. It depends on the weather-if the weather is cold I lay in bed and read. But if it is a warm morning, I get out of bed and start my school. At 7:00 we eat breakfast. It takes us a half an hour to eat and another half an hour to clean up before school starts. After school, Mom starts to make lunch. While Mom is making lunch all the kids play outside-rain or shine. When lunch is over we go outside to play. After an hour of playing, I come inside and have my computer time, grab an apple, and go outside again. Soon Mom calls us in for supper. For supper we have bread or leftovers from lunch. and for dessert we have yogurt. After supper my Dad reads us a story. Then we go to bed."

Kris's description of Cubulco:

Wed. Oct. 22, 2008

"The city that we live in is called Cubulco. We have mountains surrounding us. We have an ice cream store close by us. And instead of grocery stores, we have a market. There are lots of dogs in the market. There are lots of dogs on the streets. People don't have cars so they ride horses. And when we go some where, then people always hop in the back of the truck. We bring them to town, that's why they jump in the back. We have a bread store close to us. We also have a pool close by us. I really like it because I love to swim."

Nate writing about some of our activities here:

March 31, 2009

"Over the week-end our family did some visiting. On Saturday, Kristen, Dad and I went and talked to people. Frist Dad asks if they go to church. If they do, Dad asks them what church they go to and how often they go. We visited 7 houses. Out of those seven houses, 1 person did not go to church and all the rest went to church! On Sunday the whole family went to see Celestino's new house. Dad and Mom talked and read the Bible with them. When we were done, we went to our maid's house becuase my mom had locked us out of our house!! We stayed there for a long time talking and reading the Bible with them. Her house is very small. They have one room where they all sleep, they have a main room and they have a kitchen. We can learn from these visits that we are very blessed."

Kristen writing about Wilf's work here:

Fri. Oct. 10, 1008

"My Dad has lots of jobs here. He has to go on hikes with Uncle Nico and Uncle Ken. Some times, if me or Nate or someone else in our family is lucky, they get to go with him on his hikes. he goes on hikes because he has to preach to people and tell them about Jesus. He also preaches in the church here too. He teaches Sunday school at church to the young people. He makes lots of trips to places to teach people. He goes to the city to buy food and to go to the doctor and other things. I'm happy to have a Dad who likes to preach the gospel."

Nate on the same subject:

March 17, 2008

"My Dad's work here is very interesting. My Dad's job is to preach and he also visits people in the mountains. Somes times I get to go with him. On Saturdays my Dad has a class with some of the ladies from our church. In the church, Dad plays the piano and he sings at the same time. On Dad's visits, he encourages people to come to church and those that do go to church he kind of gives them a Bible study. My Mom does not do as much as my Dad but what she does is still important."

I hope you enjoyed "seeing" our life here through the eyes of our two oldest kids!

Nate (10 years old) and Kris (8 years old) on their way to school. They have to be out of the house before 7:30 every morning! Thankfully they are always eager to go and don't need any nagging :)

Effects of the Landslide

2009-05-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

Back in January, I wrote a post about a giant landslide that occured not too far from us. Sadly, many men were buried alive when a huge part of the mountian came down on them.

These men were all from small villages in the mountains, and they were making their way to the coast to work. I also mentioned one family in particular and the opportunity Wilf had to visit with them.

This is Agupito and his wife. They live in one of the villages where we have a small church, although he and his family are not Christians. Agupito had polio as a child and the disease left him quite crippled. He has difficulty supporting his family as the only real employment for men in these villages is farming.

Agupito and his wife have seven children. Wilf is uncertain of how many people live in the family home. Unlike many, even in this remote village, this house is not made of adobe brick, but sticks.

Imagine living in this stick house with many other people-especially in the rainy season we are in now!

Agupito's eldest son, with his wife and children, live right beside the parents and he has always been a big help to his father. Two of Agupito's daughters are married as well but still live with their parents--with their children as well.

Sadly, Agupito's oldest son, as well as his two sons-in-law were all buried in the landslide back in January. Miraculously, his son survived but was very badly injured. Wilf visited the family earlier this week and he was happy to see that the son is able to hobble around a bit now. It is still uncertain how much of a recovery he will make. He was able to stand with his wife and two daughters for the picture!

This woman and her sister below, are left as widows and now dependent on their crippled father for support.

Agupito appealed to the obrero in his village for some help! We had a food collection for the family in our church in town and in the other village churches as well.
Also, the school where Wilf used to teach (BCS) is having a fund raiser to help buy new clothes for the entire family!

Juan, the obrero in the village, came into town and purchased the new clothes. He had quite a heavy load (he did have some help carrying it the 2 and a half hours back to the village!)

We are thankful that we could help this family out in a very small way. We are also thankful for the opportunities Wilf has had to read and pray with them.
It is a sober reminder once again of the power of God, and His awesome goodness and grace to us!

Epic Mountain Adventure

2009-04-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

Early Monday morning, Nate and Wilf headed out for what turned out to be an unforgettable experience. Some parts of the adventure they will never forget. Some parts of the adventure they will wish they could forget :) Part of the problem was that Nate and Wilf were both still recovering from some stomach sickness which just didn't seem to want to go away...!

[The village is in the background of this picture!]

After a 3 hour hike from the bridge to the village of Patuy, they met up with the lay-pastor from that village, as well as several men and boys who were going to accompany them on their big trip!

[Loading up the mules!]

The plan was to hike up Ximiagua, one of the tallest mountains in Guatemala! After a brief rest in Patuy, they began their ascent. Thankfully, once in Patuy, they were able to load up some mules with the backpacks. The packs were especially heavy because of the need to carry food and water, along with sleeping bags and everything else!

[Poor Nate didn't have a lot of energy after several upset stomach sessions! But it did mean he got to ride a lot of the way up!]

They hiked for four hours straight up the mountain. (Emphasis on the up...and up...and up!) But there was lots of encouragement for the trip...incredible views, beautiful pine forests, and especially the abundant blackberries! And the higher they got, the nicer the weather became. In fact, it was downright cold at the top!

[Here's Nate with some blackberry stains around his mouth!]

One of the worries was about having enough liquid along for the trip. They were assured that there was an ample water supply near the top of the mountain -- which was true -- in part! The locals filled their water bottles in the horses watering hole. Wilf and Nate just couldn't bring themselves to do that...especially with the quantity of manure that filled the watering hole!

They settled down for the night, only to be awakened at midnight by the beginning of the rainy season! That meant packing up, and hiking till almost 4 AM, getting lost in the fog and rain...and eventually making it back to the village of Patuy where the hard wooden church benches seemed like Hilton's finest beds! (They were also very thankful to have an outhouse again for the rumbly tummies!)

Overall, though, they were very thankful for this unforgettable trip...and for the great time out with the guys from the church in Patuy!

Panajachel

2009-04-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

Last Monday morning we headed out to the city! It seemed hard to believe that ten weeks had gone by since the kids and I had left town at all! We were all looking foward to a mini vacation.

After some running around in the city on Monday, Tuesday morning we drove three hours to Panajachel. Panajachel is a town located on a beautiful lake surrounded by three large volcanoes. It was really exciting to see some new areas of Guat.

We were very thankful to see that the place we had booked on-line was so beautiful! It was very Guatemalan (which we like-when we are in Guatemala!). We had a two bedroom cottage with a lovely front porch.

Our room didn't have a kitchen, but a delcious breakfast was included and served in this cute restaurant.

It was not very busy here so we had the place pretty much to ourselves! It was perfect for a family with five little kids. Although the temperature is quite a bit cooler than at our home, we still enjoyed the pool.

Even though Panajachel is located in such a beautiful spot, it is not a fancy resort town. The town dumps their sewage directly into the lake so swimming is not really...attractive. Most of the hotels (ours included) are located several streets up from the lake.

Many local Guatemalans make a living by taking tourists out on the lake. I think our boat trip was a highlight for all of us!

The one big disappointment was that all of Guat. is living under kind of a haze right now. They are burning all the sugar cane fields and as a result the view was not very clear! We took these pictures off the internet to show the three large volcanoes a bit clearer than we were able to see them.

This shows you how hazy it was for us! Disappointing, but still beautiful.

The kids loved being in the boat! Mainly we boated along the shore-just a short distance around the lake. There are some really large places-owned by either Americans or rich Guatemalans.

Panajachel from the water.

An evangelical church having a baptismal service in the lake.

After two restful nights in Panajachel, we went back to the city. In a much earlier post, I posted some pictures of the seminary we usually stay at while doing business in the city. When that seminary is full, we stay in another seminary. This seminary is very nice as well although much smaller and not as good for kids. Still we are very thankful for both of these places!

The apartment we stayed in is just to the left of Nate.

Saturday morning we packed up the truck and headed home!

We are so thankful that the Lord kept and protected us.

We arrived home Saturday afternoon and the kids were joyfully meet by all the other little blondies :)
Thank-you for your prayers!

Easter Week-end

2009-04-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

Easter week-end is quite different here than back at home. There are no chocolate bunnies in the stores, colouring contests or Easter egg hunts. Instead, the entire week before Easter is a holiday and there are lots of parades, parties and loud music!
While the parades look very "religious" with statues of Jesus, various saints, and of course Mary, most people view the holiday as a chance to have a good time.

Daily these parades marched by our house or on the other main roads. On Good Friday, people spent all day making a long "rug" down the main road in town. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but it was a real work of art! The rug ran down the middle of the street for a long way, and it was made out of coloured sawdust and pineneedles. Using forms or large stencils, they would make designs or pictures using the coloured sawdust.
After all their hard work, a large procession came marching through with lots of candles and various statues. Sadly, the statues of Jesus are always of His death. There was never any parade to celebrate the wonderful resurrection of Christ.
Wilf spoke this morning on Colossians 3:1-
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."
How we pray that people will know the joy of being rasied with Christ!

In contrast to all the visiting and partying going on around us, our Easter week-end was quite quiet. The kids have some new favorite activities!
Playing the game of "war" :) with Nico and Ellen up in the mango tree!

One of the "fads" that Nate picked up at school was playing with a trompo or top.

The boys at school can do all sorts of neat tricks with these things and Brad and Nate have spent hours trying to master it. The first trick is getting it to spin at all! Then you can work up to having it spin on your hand.

Another "fad" the kids picked up at school is playing with little round trading cards. You can collect these cards from little chip bags, winning them from a friend, or scrounging for them around town!

The boys have had a lot of fun playing with these! The tramp seems to be a favorite spot to play.

Kristen is not into trompos or trading cards. The other Sunday we went to visit a family from church in their new home. The eldest daughter was doing the family washing in the pila (or sink) that everyone has here. She was so fascinated by the process, that she convinced Ellen it would be fun to do some laundry in our pila!

She had a great time, but I think in the end she is pretty thankful for our washing machine.

And Ryan will play with anything! He spent a long time playing with this small, green orange that had fallen off of one of our trees. Who needs expensive toys?? :)

Early tomorrow morning we are heading to the city. We need to do some paper work, Wilf has to visit the dentist again, and our cupboards here are a bit bare! We also hope to take a two night vacation to see a little bit more of this country we are living in.

Please pray for us as the violence in the city has really increased. A lady we know in the city was recently threatened with some extortion death threats, and had to move out of her home. Lia and Nico had their tire slashed (as a robbery set-up), and saw a shootout between the police and a gang. The Pastor of the Presbyterian church was held up at gun point while paying a bill at his bank.

While all these events do worry us, we are learning that trusting Christ for "all things" includes trusting Him in these matters as well.

Turning up the heat!

2009-04-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

For the past five months we have enjoyed fairly cool, beautiful weather. Well, over the past two weeks, things have really warmed up!

And while all our friends up north are looking for ways to enjoy the warmth, we are looking for ways to escape the heat!

I know I have mentioned it before, but I'll say it again, I am SO thankful for this pool. For the past five months, we really didn't use it very often. The pools are not heated and we never really felt hot enough to go in. Now that the heat is back, the kids are begging to go every day.

I can't say that I mind! We all love the opportunity to get off the compound for a while and there is something for all the different ages to enjoy. With very little else to do in town, we are very thankful!Ryan loves this heart shaped kids pool! There is a bench all the way around that is a perfect height for Lauren to walk on, so she loves it now too. She used to be content to sit in her stroller and watch us all swim, but those days are over now!
Just recently, the owners added this great new waterslide. It has really made a trip to the pool exciting :)

Unlike at home, there is no lifegaurd for this water slide. The kids have a blast doing all sorts of things on it!

Having fun with Ellen and Nico! Brad will go down the slide if Wilf or I catch him at the bottom. He is not quite ready to be part of a train though....

Until you live here, it is difficult to explain how good it is, not only to cool off once in a while, but to be out from the four walls that we live behind. Many times I have felt very...refreshed (in more ways than one!) after a trip to the pool.

The kids and I don't have opportunity to travel around with Wilf very often. I have not been out of this little town for the past two months-if you can believe that!

All this to say, that God is very good, to give this recreation and "outing" for us!

Happy Birthday to Our Baby Girl!

2009-03-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Lauren had her first birthday. She celebrated it by learning to walk!!

She had been taking steps for a few weeks, but finally decided to quit crawling and we now have a toddler. It is such a delight to see her roaming around the house :)

We celebrated the event by having lunch at the pool. There is a little restaurant there that we enjoy for most of our special occasions. Cubulco has only two restaurants we feel are safe to eat at so there isn't a lot of choice. :)

Afterward, we had cake and just a very small party.

It was a cold day, at the end of Wilf's March break last year, when Lauren was born. We were so thankful to the Lord for the safe arrival of another precious, healthy baby.

During this past year, she has meant so much to us and brought us so much joy.

Lauren loves to stand by the door and see all the kids outside. Although she can walk now, she is not quite ready for the great outdoors :) It's a bit of a jungle out in our yard!

I would love to keep this baby as my baby for many years yet, but the days march on, don't they? We will just enjoy each day, and thank the Lord for His wonderful gifts to us!

"There is only one person like you, in all of this great big world,

and you are just who God made you to be, whether a boy or a girl.

Whether you are black or white, or some beautiful color inbetween.

No matter your shape or size, you're as perfect as anything I've ever seen.

Your Mom and your Dad, they are so glad, you are a part of their family.

There is only one, who loves you more, He is your Father in heaven.

He is the Lord."

by Twila Paris

School

2009-03-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

For many months, Wilf and I had been praying about opportunities for the kids to be able to get off of the compound a bit more. There are no organized sports in town and the kids rarely had a chance to leave the compound. We had really hoped that they would learn Spanish during our time here, but they just were not hearing it often enough to learn much at all. When we returned from Mexico, Wilf went to talk to the principal of the Christian school just around the corner from our house. We wanted the kids to only attend part time because it was important that they keep up with their homeschooling as well.

Praise God, the school has been very kind and accomodating!! The normal school day for grade school children here is from 7:30 to 12:30. Our kids join the classes from 7:30 to 10:30, every day. The teachers even changed their schedules around!
The school is only a block away and when the kids come home, we do our homeschooling.

I think on the first day, only Brad and I were really nervous! Nate and Kris were so excited about the opportunity and they loved it right away.
Brad took only a few hours longer :)

Brad's teacher is very kind and so good about the language barrier. She is very patient with him...and with me :Z
He loves going now!

The kids are there for recess and of course that is the highlight! Nate plays soccer every day. Most often they play in the court yard inside the school. The class rooms are all around the outside.

During recess, ladies come in and sell snacks to the kids. It is truely amazing that these people who are really quite poor, give their kids so much money every day to buy snacks! Our kids are the odd ones who bring their snacks every day except for one (for a treat!).

A popular snack is fruit on a stick, covered with chocolate. Kristen bought this choco-mango and loved it!

The kids are definitely picking up more Spanish, although they are not fluent yet! We hope that they will learn a lot more in our remaining months here. It is amazing though, how they make friends without being able to say much! Kristen has a lot of friends and plays "house" even during recess.

Isn't God good?

He provided this opportunity both for language training and recreation for our kids in a wonderful way.

How we praise and thank Him!

Visiting Maria

2009-03-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Maria (on the right in the family picture) is the wonderful girl who works for Lia and Nico. Last Saturday she invited us all to her home to help celebrate her sister's 15th birthday.

Getting there was a bit of a challenge! After a bumpy trip on the "main" road, we had to turn down a lane way that was really narrow. It would have been alright except that both sides were lined with barbed wire fencing! We were just able to squeeze through with our pickup, but taking the corners was quite interesting.

Maria lives with her Mom and Dad (who sadly drinks a lot), her three younger siblings (only two in this photo) and the seven children of her older sister. Sadly, just over a year ago, Maria's sister was brutally murdered by her own husband. It has been a very difficult year for Maria and her family.

Five of the older sisters children. The baby was just over a year old when her mother was killed.

Maria's brother and her Dad (when he is sober) are in the middle of building an "addition" to their house. The boys are standing in Maria's parents new bedroom.

All the kids love Maria. She is very cheerful and has a beautiful smile.

Maria's family had a very small piece of property. However, thanks to some help from friends in Canada, and Lia and Nico, they were able to buy the lot next to them. Now they have more room for the kids to play as well as room to plant a garden.

Today may be the last day we see Maria! She has an opportunity to get a good job working for a family in the city. Sadly (for all of us-especially for Nico and Lia since she has been like part of their family for many years now) she has to start her new job on Saturday. It is a difficult move for Maria because her mother depends on her very much, and yet it is difficult to get a good job in town here and Maria helps to support the family.

How we pray for Maria as we go our separate ways! Please, let us all pray that she will continue to seek the Lord.

More Visitors

2009-03-05T06:37:00.000-08:00

For the past week, we have had some visitors from the mission board. It was a real blessing and encouragement to have them and we were sad to see them go!All the men: Ken, Wilf, Pastor Bergsma, Mike, Eric and Nico
Most of their week here was full of meetings and visits.

Enjoying a delicious lunch (made by Lia) with the obreros.

On the week-end, the other two families headed to Antigua for an intermissions conference. That meant the men were left with only us! We had a bit more of a relaxed pace and showed them some of the sights around town.

Saturday morning, they came to the market with me. It is difficult to describe the market here. It is open all week long, but there are really only people selling fruits and vegetables on Thursdays and Saturdays. On Saturdays especially, a lot of ladies come in from the mountians and sit with their big baskets (which they carried on their heads into town-often a long distance). Most of the mountain ladies are selling tomatoes, potatoes, chickens or turkeys-live ones! It is a very crowded, dirty and not-so-nice smelling place. It is certainly vastly different then getting everything you need at NoFrills or Fortinos!

Most visitors find it fascinating. I must admit that the fascination has run out a bit for me and the kids :)

I buy most of my produce from this friendly lady. She is very kind and gracious with my fumblings in the language.

Outside the main market building, venders line the streets as well.

Our church has a small bookstore where we sell Bibles in Spanish and the New Testament in the local dialect, Achi.

In the afternoon, it was warm enough to take them to the only tourist spot in town :). We all enjoyed the pool, both for swimming and a taco supper.

We are thankful to these men for coming! Wilf and I were very encouraged and the kids loved having guests as well.

All the men left for the city yesterday to do some sightseeing and to have some more meetings. Tomorrow morning the men fly home and "our" men will make the drive back here. We pray that the visit will spur us all on to "abound in the work of the Lord"!

Reasons to Give Thanks on My Birthday

2009-02-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

I can think of a multitude of things to be thankful for on my birthday this year. Here are just a few:

I can't thank the Lord enough for Wilf and the kids. I am so thankful for the joy they bring to my life. And I am very mindful of that especially this year.

I also thank the Lord for the playmates the kids have here. They have some great times together!

A very special gift for me on my birthday, was the opportunity to see Nate with his new classmates. His class at school wanted to have a party for him to welcome him. So they came over on the afternoon of my birthday and it was such a joy for me to see him playing and interacting with some kids his own age!Playing link tag...
His class brought a cake and drinks and when they discovered it was my birthday, it became a birthday party as well! (yes, those are some sort of pickle on the cake!)

I thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him here for this year. Having a birthday in Guatemala is not something everyone can "brag" about :).

So even though I missed my family and friends, I thank so many of you for your calls, e-mails and facebook messages (I joined facebook just in time!).

And above all, I thank the Lord for His love and grace and mercy to me.

Ladies Bible Study again and the Obreros Visit to the City

2009-02-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

Again this week we took the ladies Bible study group on the road. We had a smaller goup this week so I was able to ride in the cab of the truck this time. I wasn't necessarily more comfortable since I was sharing the back seat with three other people, but at least it was cleaner!

This week we visited a family who live a good hour's drive from town. We traveled on very rough road way up into the mountains.

Pedro and Rosa (there are a lot of Rosas here!) live right off the "main" (only) road so we didn't need to hike at all.
Kris is standing in the family's front yard. The family has a one room, adobe brick house with a kitchen attached. The little wooden building behind Kris is for storing corn.

This is the kitchen. I tried to take a picture of the inside, but it was too dark. There was a huge pile of corn in there as well as an open fire.

Pedro and Rosa have three children, but I wasn't sure which children were theirs! There were quite a few kids around, nieces and nephews or more distant relatives.
There isn't much in the way of entertainment for the kids-at least not the kind of entertainment that we are used to. They have no electricity, no games, I didn't see any paper, pencils or coloring books. There certainly wasn't any lego, dolls or anything like that! These girls were content to watch the cows being herded down the road.

As honored guests, we were invited to sit inside the house. The entire family sleeps in the one room, and there was only one bed (don't picture the bed looking anything like your bed at home!!) so the children would sleep on the floor, or the benches we were sitting on.

Above our heads, the corn was hung to dry.

Once again it was a great opportunity to visit people in their homes.

Wednesday, Wilf and Nico headed to the city with the Obreros (the Bible teachers). Since our family and the K's will be leaving in June, the church needs a pastor. We had suggested to the Obreros that they join the Presbyterian denomination. The denomination is fairly large here and not only would they have fellowship with other believers, but they have hopes of getting a Guat. pastor as well. Wilf and Nico went with the obreros to the city to meet with some members of the Presbyterian church.

There is one paved road from Cub. to the city. As the crow flies, we are pretty close to the city. Of course all the mountains make it difficult to actually get there!! We always take the paved road, however now that it is the dry season, this other route is faster. Wilf said that the road is rough, but the scenery is beautiful. Apparently you can see the two volcanoes that surround the city as soon as you get out of our valley!

Before the meeting with the Pres., they took the Obreros to visit the zoo! They hadn't been to a zoo before, and many of them didn't even know the names of some of the animals.

Here are the Obreros! Two of the men are involved in the church in town (one preaches on the radio each day), and each of the others has the responsibility of the church in their village. Please pray for them, as Satan is never content to leave church leadership alone! Pray that they will be bold and wise as they seek to work the truths of Jesus's teaching into the lives of many here in Guatemala.

Landslide Update

2009-02-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

We thought we'd give an update on the landslide that happened at the beginning of January.
On the first Sunday in January, over 140 people (mostly men) from the villages that Wilf frequently hikes to were making their way through this mountain range to catch some busses that would take them to the coast to pick coffee. At that exact moment, the whole side of the mountain gave way, sending most of them to their deaths.

That Sunday evening, several people from one of the villages came to our home and asked if we could help them find 3 of their family members whom they knew had likely been caught up in the landslide.

At three the next morning, Nico, Ken, and Wilf left to make the drive out to the landslide area, arriving there at dawn. Many other people were also beginning to arrive, anxiously looking for their loved ones. The army had the area blocked off, as sections of the mountain continued to fall. As bodies were found, we were told that they would be brought out to us. Eventually we were told that bodies would be brought either to a hospital morgue, or to the local cemetery. We did a lot of running around, looking through survivor lists (which were mostly wrong), and searching through hospitals and morgues.

Eventually, we were able to identify two bodies of the three missing relatives. We brought the bodies back with us. (Getting back home about 24 hours after we left!) The third body was never found.

This week Wilf had the opportunity to go back to one of the villages that was affected by the landslide. Twelve men from the community had set out. Only one young man returned. He was (and continues to be) badly injured, because he was buried chest deep as rocks and debris continued to fall. Wilf had the opportunity to meet with him and his extended family. It was a good visit, but sad in many ways. The young man's father suffered from polio as a child, and both of his legs are quite affected. Two of the young man's sisters lost their husbands in the landslide. He himself has two little children. Wilf was thankful for the opportunity to pray with this family, read scripture with them, and share the hope that we have in Christ...that no matter if our bodies give out at a young age, or an old age, our souls are eternal, and that we can be sure of our eternal destiny because of the life and death of Jesus. The truth of the Hope of the gospel is even more precious when explained in such difficult circumstances.

Pray for this family, and for all affected by this tragedy, that Christ would use this sad event to bring many to Him.

It has also been a real reminder for us of how quickly this life is over...and of our need to use every opportunity for God's kingdom.

Ladies Bible Study

2009-02-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Our ladies Bible study group usually meets in different church member's homes around town every week. This week was different as we took the group on the road and into the mountains!We started off by car and I had my first opportunity to ride in the back of the pick-up. It was quite the experience! The road is not paved and is badly in need of a grading job. We were not only jerked around terribly, but every time another vehicle passed us, we would be covered in a cloud of dust! But the scenery was beautiful and this is the way that almost everyone travels here as vehicles are very scare.

After about 20 minutes on the road, we pulled off to the side and found the trail we needed to take. I wish I could describe for you what the trail was really like! It is impossible to see in the pictures, but we were bascially hiking straight down the mountian side for about 30 minutes. We had traveled pretty high out of town and now we needed to hike down to Miguel and Rosa's house. I don't think I have ever climbed so steeply before!

Kris and Nate are wonderful hikers and led the group both there and back! I think Nate could have done the whole hike over again. We were all dressed in our good hiking shoes, but the ladies here just wear flimsy little sandals and yet they never slipped on the steep and rocky terrain! In fact, on the way back up, one of the ladies even carried Ellen on her back for part of the way!

At last we could see the house in the distance. The approach to the house is beautiful. The family was out watching for our arrival. You can just see the house in the distance in the picture below. I still had to climb down one last time and then up again to reach the house. Taking this picture, I could already see Nate snaking his way up to the house on the other side.
We were warmly welcomed by the whole family. Miguel and his wife Rosa live here with their older married daughter (her husband is working at the coast). Miguel and Rosa have six children and most of them are still quite young. The married daughter has five of her own children already! They are all boys except for one girl who is about 13. There certainly were a lot of boys around and it was impossible to tell who were Rosa's sons and who were her grandsons!

The house is very simply, but very neat. The yard is full of all sorts of animals. Cats and dogs of course, but also turkeys, chickens, pigs and more.

The ladies served a mountain coffee, which is a popular beverage here.

Above is a picture of Lia with her house helper, Maria (sitting besides her). The other lady in the picture is Marcella. Marcella helps us in our house three times a week. It is really wonderful to have her! She is a faithful member in our church along with her three children (sitting beside her is her youngest daughter). Sadly, she has been a widow for many years. Her husband was killed in a bus accident when her youngest daughter was just a baby.

Our hostesses with some of their children. I have a new appreciation for these ladies! They faithfully come to church on Sunday and that is no small undertaking-as I now experienced first hand! The daughter must carry her adorable, but very heavy baby on her back as well. It is so difficult for us to imagine what life is like for these people. Becuase of where we were born (by God's perfect plan), we enjoy so many privileges and blessings!

Have you ever read Country magazine? They always have a section entitled "View from our House". Well, this is the view from Miguel and Rosa's house. Sitting on a piece of board on their front "porch" (just hard packed dirt), they look out at this breathtaking scene.

It is a reminder that God is an awesome Creator, who is in control of all things. In an earlier post, I wrote about a terrible landslide that happened not too far from here. In the center of the picture above, on the furthest mountainside, we can see the spot where many people were killed.

I love Isaiah 40 and I was reminded again yesterday not only of the goodness and greatness of the Lord, but also His might and power and justice.

"Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor

is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall,

but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength:

They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint."

Isaiah 40 :28-31

We're Back!

2009-02-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

We started off our trip by spending Sunday in the city (our plane left early on Monday morning). Sunday morning we went to a large Presbyterian church. Some of the youth from this church, as well as the Pastor's wife (in the picture above, along with her husband and son), came to help us with our vacation Bible school back in December. It was a real blessing and encouragement for us to worship there!
Monday morning we flew to Mexico and were met at the airport by Wilf's parents, who had arrived in Mexico themselves just a few days earlier! We spent the first night near the airport, then we headed out on a road trip!!
We had a wonderful time and thankfully everything went very smoothly. The kids were great for all the driving we did! It was a great adventure for all of us as well as a opportunity to meet up with some of the Mexican migrant workers and meet their families

We visited quite a few different places where Wilf and his family had spent time in the past. In one city, we meet up with an old family friend and had a great visit with her.

Friday evening we arrived at the mission. Wilf's parents have a cozy apartment above the mission and it was wonderful for us to be there again! Wilf and I spent quite a bit of time in Mexico during the summers during our first years of marriage. We were in Mexico the summer Wilf's parents moved into this apartment. But we hadn't been for over six years, so it was great to see it all again!

Close to the mission are several large and beautiful parks. That is something we really miss in G.! We sure enjoyed strolling through the parks. :)

Another highlight of our trip was worshipping with the Christians in Tepic. There are some people we knew from six years back, but many new people to meet as well. Sunday they had a potluck lunch after the service and it was a great time of fellowship!
We were really encouraged and rejoiced to see the Lord's work in the believers there.

Last but not least, we were greatly blessed to spend time with Wilf's brother Rich, his wife Ange and their family. Rich and Ange have been working in Mexico for over nine years and have five beautiful children. Their children happen to be all the same ages as ours, so the kids had a marvelous time together! How I loved to see them playing together!

Rich and Ange were wonderful hosts and we were greatly blessed and encouraged as we spent many days in their lovely home.

This past Wednesday morning we headed home. It was a long and very tiring day. We left Rich and Ange's at 6 in the morning and arrived in G.C. after ten that night. With five young kids it was quite the day!!

Our adventure wasn't over when we reached the city. On Friday (after two cancelled appointments the day before :Z), Kristen finally got her cast off, and Wilf had dental surgery for a tooth infection. We finally made it home Saturday afternoon! We thank the Lord for His goodness to us! He protected and cared for us. He encouraged and strengthened our hearts.

Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray as we take up the work again.

"O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!"

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Just like on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve the sky was bright with fireworks at midnight.
Some people with sparklers.

A few days before the New Year, Kristen fell off the trampoline and broke her arm. Wilf took her to the hospital in Salama (a town an hour away from here). The hospital in Salama is a bit sketchy-to say the least. While they were waiting in the waiting room, the man beside them was trying desperately to stop the bleeding on his finger, which was missing it's top! The hospital staff gave him nothing for pain and nothing to help stop the bleeding. Another man was brought in with very serious injuries and the care he recieved was really appalling. Wilf wasn't sure that he was alive when they left, the poor man was still lying on a stretcher in the hallway.

Kristen came home that night with a HUGE cast on her arm and a very sad, shocked look on her face. The doctor wanted to keep her overnight and possibly operate in the morning! Wilf took her home and the next morning they headed to the private hospital in the city. They had excellent care there and Kris returned home this time with a small, sporty cast and a big smile on her face-and lots of stories to share. Through this experience we really had an opportunity to see how the health care is for a lot of the world. A reminder once again of how blessed we are!

We made ollie bollen with Jen and it was really delicious!
The kids enjoyed it too :)

This picture really belongs with the Christmas pictures. I wanted to thank my wonderful Oma for remembering not only our children, but also the other MK's here. My Oma has over 80 great-grandchildren, and every year she makes these boxes out of old cards and fills them with candy for every child. This year, she sent them along with my parents and for the other kids as well. Isn't she wonderful!? Thanks Oma!

And now we are in 2009 and the days are already marching by! Yesterday Wilf spent most of the day in a town near the huge land slide that some of you have seen on the news. Many people from the village churches have lost loved ones, mostly fathers and brothers who were on their way to the coast to work in the coffee plantations. As around 140 of them were walking to the busses that would take them to the coast, a huge section of the mountain gave way, killing many of them. Wilf helped take some people from the villages to the site, where they visited morgues, hospitals, and cemeteries, trying to locate and identify family members. They were able to find 2 members of one family, and brought the bodies back to town in the back of the pickup. Unfortunately that family has been so far unable to find one other family member. It has been a tremendous reminder of how short life is, and how much we need to use our time for the Lord!

On Monday we are leaving to go to Mexico for two weeks to renew our tourist papers as well as visit with Wilf's parents and Rich and Ange (Wilf's brother and his wife who are missionaries in Mexico).

We also plan to take a road trip and visit with 5 or 6 of the Mexican migrant workers that invited us to come and meet their families.

Please pray for us in the many miles that will be traveled.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T16:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!

This year we had the opportunity to see how Christ's birth is celebrated in a foreign country.

It certainly was very different than what we are used to at home!

We usually associate Christmas with snow, cold weather, cozy times with family and friends and lots of busy-ness! This year we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day with just our own family.

Some of the people here put up a tree and lights, but they don't exchange gifts. Mainly they celebrate the day with fireworks! At midnight on Christmas Eve, the sky was aglow with fireworks all over town. We put the kids to bed but got them up at midnight to see the display. It was really exciting-especially because Uncle Nico had his own fireworks for us to enjoy!

Christmas Eve, Wilf and I put together a schedule of events for our family for the next day. After the kids took a few small gifts out of their stockings, we had an M&M hunt, made cookies, played games and read and sang together.

I think we all agreed that for this year, we really enjoyed the warm weather and the quietness of the day! We especially enjoyed being together as a family.

The church had a Christmas Eve service. After the service, we had the favorite festive food....tamales!! Wilf, Nate and Kris had already eaten quite a few tamales that week in the different villages, so they weren't especially thrilled :), but this was my first tamale since we have lived in G. Last time I wrote about tamales, several people asked what a tamale was! So I took a picture to show you.
A tamale is wrapped in banana leaves and you have to unwrap it before you eat it (sort of like a present-maybe that is why they eat it at all celebrations :)).
Inside the banana leaves is a chicken mixture wrapped in cornmeal. The ladies of the church made these tamales and I enjoyed them! Wilf said they they were some of the best that he has had here.

This coming week, we are having a New Year's Eve service. Please remember to pray for the small group here. Christmas seemed to be a discouraging time for many of them as they remembered the church being much larger in years past. We are praying that the service will bring new HOPE and VISION for the people as we begin a new year.

Kris's Overnight Hike with Dad

2008-12-19T16:25:00.000-08:00

This past week, Kristen and Wilf took a three hour hike to visit one of the aldeas. Kristen was really excited to be going along with her Dad!
A big highlight for Kristen and Wilf (who are both avid swimmers) is where the creek makes beautiful swimming holes.

After a long hike, these clear, cool pools are lovely for swimming in.

The pools are right below the church building. Wilf and Kristen slept in the church for the night and they said that they can hear the waterfalls as they drift off to sleep! It sounds very beautiful.

That afternoon, there was a service in the church and Wilf had an opportunity to speak. They also had a great chance to visit with the Bible teacher from this aldea and his family.

It has been pretty dry here for over a month now so the river is quite low. The walk Wilf and Kristen took follows the river for a long ways. During the dry season, people take the opportunity to plant crops on the sand bars. In the picture above, some men are burning debris in preparation for planting.

The river is completely covered with algea and the water hyacinth. The hyacinth has a lovely blue flower on it and Wilf said it looks very beautiful. It almost looks like you can walk across it!

What a special time this was for Kris and Wilf. I am thankful for the time the kids can spend with their Dad as well as having the opportunity to see different places, people and creatures :) (as pictured above).

Wilf will be heading out to the different villages fairly often in the next week for

Christmas celebrations.

Please continue to pray for the spread of the gospel in these rural villages!

Vacation Bible School

2008-12-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

This past week, we held a vacation Bible school at our church for three days. Tuesday afternoon we had our opening ceremonies-complete with the flags being brought in and the national anthem played! The young people from our church did a good job of decorating the church for the event.
Jen and Lia did a little skit to get the kids excited about vacation Bible school and to introduce our theme for the week-the fruits of the Spirit.

In addition to the young people from our church, we also had a team of six people come from a large Presbyterian church in the capital to help out. Wilf and Nico taught the oldest class-13 and up. All the other classes were taught by the young people.

Each day, they began with singing. Action songs are always popular. The young people all stood in front of the kids to make sure they could all see how to do the actions!

The team from the capital slept at the mission office, but they joined us for all the meals. Lia, Jen and I took turns cooking for them. In the mornings and the evenings they did some different activities. The first evening, we had all the young people here and after Wilf did a devotional, he organized a rousing game of "perro ama al gato", or "cat loves dog". It was a great hit!! Thankfully we had a large group come from our own church-many who we haven't seen in a long time. Wednesday morning, they all headed out to hike to a woman's house from our church.

Nate, Kris and Brad went to VBS every afternoon, but they love to be included in all the events!

Thursday afternoon, we had a short program that we invited all the parents to. Each of the classes performed something they had learned. Unfortunately, our camera doesn't take great indoor pictures, so the pictures aren't great. But they give you a bit of an idea anyways!

Above is Brad's class singing a song they learned.

Kristen was the only white kid in her class. She really loved going every afternoon, even though she can't communicate very much.

Nathan was part of a skit his class put on about the Good Samaratan.

There were a lot of people at the final program! We had at least a hundred kids at the VBS and quite a few parents came as well.

After the closing, the young people all came back here for a campfire and hotdog roast. Again, we had a large group and Wilf had a wonderful opportunity to really challenge them to live for the Lord.

We had a great week and we thank the Lord for this new opportunity. We pray for the young people in our church, that they will continue to have a zeal for good things. And we pray for the kids and their parents who heard the Word of God this week.

Vistors-Part 2

2008-12-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

We made a trip out to the bridge with the plan of visiting one of the aldeas. We certainly got a good idea of what it is like for Wilf to hike to these villages!! We chose to hike to the closest village-a hike that takes Wilf about 45 minutes. We started off wonderfully....after we crossed the bridge that is! I think Mom and I were the most nervous :)
I had Lauren on my back and I was pretty nervous that she would jump out somehow!

It was a beautiful hike, but of course a lot of climbing! We started out under a cloudy sky, but when the sun came out, it sure got hot! And this is the coldest time of year. Most often when Wilf hikes, it is REALLY hot and a lot of the hiking is in the bright sun.

This is a look back at the bridge. You can see the road we came in on on the left. The bridge is over the river, which is a bit difficult to see because it is totally green! The river looks almost solid on the surface because of algae and a water hyacinth.

After an hour of hiking, we were only halfway, so we elected to have a picnic lunch on a hill top and head back. Not a bad place for a picnic hey?

I took this picture and the one following, to try to show the trails that Wilf takes to visit some of the other aldeas. It was amazing to get an idea of how far they travel! It is difficult to see when the pictures are this small, but you can see the trails leading through the hills if you enlarge the pictures!
It is just amazing that people live in such remote places.

Nate having a little snack :)

This was my first time hiking with Wilf and it was exciting for me. I would like to go with him more often, but it is diffiuclt with little ones. Wilf carried Ryan on his back and marched along, while the rest of us struggled behind him :) Actually, I should say that Nate and Kris are marvelous hikers and easily beat us all back to the truck!

Mom and Dad made it!

Monday morning we headed back to the city to show Mom and Dad a few last sights before they headed home on Wednesday. We went to Antigua on Monday afternoon.

In the artisan market. I think I took this picture four times and every time one of the kids was doing something funny. This one was the best of the lot :)

This place was a highlight for the kids. This is the ruins of an cathedral and monastery. They were destroyed by an earthquake years ago. It was a marvelous place to run around and explore!

It is pretty awesome to see how the Lord can shake the earth!

Although she is still a Mommy's girl, Lauren did love her Oma as well!

And her big sister!

Tuesday we went to the zoo. The kids were so excited to show everything to Oma and Opa. It was so special for us all to have them here!

These hippos were fascinating and an awesome reminder of a wonderful creator.

We finished off with a little train ride through the zoo. Afterward we headed back to the seminary we were staying at for a farewell dinner.

A special thank-you to my parents for making the trip down. And for the help around the house, cozy coffee times, words of encouragement, and endless games, love and attention to our children. It was such a blessing and encouragement for us to have you here!

Any other visitors are welcome :)

Visitors!

2008-11-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

My Mom and Dad have come to visit us! They have been here for a week already and we are having a wonderful time with them. Some people have mentioned that they would like to see what we are busy with here, so here is my mid-visit post :)
Yesterday a huge palm frond fell off one of palm trees. The artistic eye of my father made it into a costume for the kids!

The kids are all really enjoying having Opa and Oma here. My handy Dad has been fixing things in the house and making games for the kids.

Sunday afternoon we took a walk around town.

A nice piece of road! Right at the bottom of the hill, the road is dirt-very dusty and bumpy!

This is a very common sight. The ladies here have amazing balance!

This is another common sight! Bringing his prize pig to the market.

Another day we took a VERY bumpy drive into the mountains to see some of the places that Wilf visits. This horse was grazing along the road and his rope was blocking our way! My Dad had to help us out.

We drove high into the mountains and reached a small village located on a ridge between two valleys. On the one side of the mountain, it was sunny. There was a terrific wind blowing clouds up the other side of the mountain. We were standing in the clouds!! It was pretty wild.

Since we were so high, the wind was pretty cold.These pictures are going backward in time :) We were really spoiled with gifts and cards from friends and family at home! Thank-you so much to those who sent things for us. Ryan was thrilled with his presents. He promptly put on the clothes from Auntie Christy, the great backpack from Uncle Jeremy and Auntie Maria, the too-big-slippers from Oma, and his "smarts" from Jordan.

There was great cheering with the opening of each new package.

Thank you so much!

A Wonderful Gift

2008-11-15T17:55:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, Pastor Ken Herfst (the former pastor of this church who now works in another area of G.) came to visit and brought with him five boxes of kids books! Pastor Ken and his wife have only one daughter still living with them so they generously passed on this wonderful gift for the missionaries here to enjoy. Since we have older kids and lots of empty bookshelves, we have the books in our home.
Nathan had just finished reading all the books we had brought along from home (we didn't bring many) and I was wondering what we would do for more reading material. Isn't God good to provide for us? Nathan has been reading up a storm ever since. He had difficulty choosing a book for his picture, so I let him have two :)
In the first picture, he is holding a book from a series published by Focus on the Family. There are also alot of educational books-great for homeschooling and fun for the kids to read and learn.
I loved the "Grandma's Attic" books as a girl and now Kris is enjoying them as well.

Brad had just about finished the ABeka readers I had brought for him. Now we have all the ABeka readers-plenty for the whole year!

There are also a lot of books for little kids-Magic School Bus, Franklin, Winnie the Pooh and many others. Ryan didn't always like to be read to, but he is enjoying it now!
Our special thanks to the Herfst's for this wonderful gift.

And this precious "Gift" isn't interested in books yet-except to maybe chew on them! Lauren is almost eight months old and has six teeth already :) She isn't crawling yet, but she does get up on her hands and knees, pull herself to standing in her crib and wave bye-bye.

"Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever."

Psalm 106

Horseback Riding

2008-11-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

Some young ladies that come to our church have a beautiful property just outside of town. They invited us to come over on Saturday afternoon and ride one of their horses.

None of the kids had ever ridden a horse so it was very exciting for them!

The horse we rode was a very gentle mare-perfect for kids to ride. She was seven months pregnant. Her one year old followed faithfully behind where ever she went.

I got so carried away taking pictures of Nate and Kris, and I didn't realize the camera battery was very low. So I didn't get any pictures of Brad or Ryan on the horse! Brad was very nervous (which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows him :)), but the horse was so gentle that he ended up enjoying it. I went on with Ryan and he told me enthusiastically that he loved it!

Nate rode the horse without anyone leading him!

Day of the Dead

2008-11-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

Instead of Halloween, G. celebrates the Day of the Dead on November 1st. In the town we are living in, they stretched the event over two days since they have two cemeteries.

Saturday evening, we walked down to the first cemetery to see what it was all about. The cemetery was further away then we thought, so we arrived in the dark. The streets were packed with people! A lot of people were selling food, some with a proper food stand, and others with a fire right on the street with a huge pot of tamales on it.
The people believe that the spirits of their dead relatives are very near on this day. They paint the large tombstones, and decorate them with lots of flowers, evergreen branches and candles. When we approached the cemetery in the dark, it looked really neat with hundreds of candles burning. Although you would assume it would be a sad occasion for the people, it actually is very festive and people sit eating and drinking on the tombstones. Some people even hire musicians to come and play by the graveside.
November 2nd the same event happened at the cemetery on the other side of town.
In the foreground of the picture above, is the local laundry mat. Water is continually running into the basins and people come to do their laundry there.

There is a Catholic chapel on a small hill right across the street from the cemetery. I climbed the stairs a bit to get a better view of the event. As you can see in the picture above, the tombstones are very large and colourful.
Although it was interesting to see, it is a very sad reminder once again, of the emptiness of life without Christ. Drinking is very common here, but events like this only bring it out more. Just taking a brief walk through the tents, I felt very sad. Unfortunately, the 2nd was also a Sunday and church attendance was definitely lower.

Later in the week, we hiked up the hillside to visit a man who was in a car accident 5 years ago. He broke his back and is confined to a wheel chair. Wilf has visited with him on several occasions, but we all went along this time. He lives with his wife and 8 children in a house overlooking town. They have a great view! But they are very poor and of course it is very difficult for him to get around. The road doesn't look too bad in this picture, but it is really very rough in spots.

Here is the view from their house. The large white building is the Catholic church. Our house would be over to the left (you can't see it on this picture).

Happy Birthday Nate and Brad!!

2008-10-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

We've been celebrating birthdays here for the last few days!
Brad turned 5 on Saturday...

and Nate turned 10 yesterday!

We had a birthday party for both boys on Saturday.

We started off the celebration by playing musical chairs. Even Ryan played although I don't think he had any idea what he was supposed to do :)

Next we bobbed for apples (Nate wanted to do this! I had some difficulty finding nice apples and I had to filter all the water in case the kids drank some of it.) Only Nate and Kris had ever tried it before, but all the kids succeeded in getting an apple using only their teeth....actually, I notice that Ryan is in the picture and, although he did try it, he never got an apple :) He likes to be a part of everything!

Nate easily got his apple on the first try!

Then we divided into two teams and did an obstacle course-all with some of Wilf's clothes on!! It was very cute to see the little guys with the large clothes on.

Conner trying to pop a balloon.

The birthday boy with his spoon of beans, racing to the finish line!

Finally it was time for cake!
It was quite funny because, without realizing it, I had bought candles that keep relighting!! The boys had a very difficult time blowing them out...and getting them to stay out!

And of course we had to have a pinata. Nate picked out this huge dog pinata and the kids all had a great time wacking at it.

We are so thankful to the Lord for our children and we are reminded of that again as we celebrate these milestones with them. We are really enjoying the extra time we have to spend with the kids this year. It is exciting for us to celebrate birthdays in G. this year and think about where we may be for these events next year.... :)

Antigua

2008-10-19T13:23:00.001-07:00

Last week we had to return to the city to renew our visas. On Tuesday we went to the nearby city of Antigua. It is about an hour drive from the city. The drive is very beautiful, and the city is really colonial. It was built in the 1500's and originally it was the capital city of the country.
Unlike the town where we live, the central park is very pretty!
The city is in a valley surrounded by mountains as well as three volcanoes. The pictures above and below show two of the three. There is smoke coming out of the volcano on the left.

There are a lot of old buildings in the city. My Dad would like this city and the old architecture :)(we hope to visit Antigua again with my Mom and Dad when they come to visit).

Above is the remains of an old Catholic church and monestery. Below is the "newer" Catholic church that is still in use.

All of the streets in the city are cobblestone-a bit of a rough ride for Lauren. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind :) Other than the old buildings, a major tourist attraction are the artisan shops. There are a lot of them in Antigua! It was fun to look at all the beautiful and very colorful things they make.

We had a great family outing, and we thank the Lord for this opportunity to see new places!

Pressing On

2008-10-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

We were not sure how many people would come to church this Sunday after the difficulties of last week. The above picture is our walk to church. We live very close by and can easily walk over for the services. The church is the pale yellow building. (another time I will post of pictures of the front of the church.)
The group for Sunday school this morning was definitely much smaller then usual, but we were very thankful for those who came. We adjusted the Sunday school classes a bit, then immediately following Sunday school, we had a mainly Spanish worship service, with a translation of the message in Achi. The encouraging part was that everyone stayed for the worship service! In the past, all of the young people and a lot of the town people would go home because the morning service was only in Achi. Sunday evening there is a service in Spanish, but very few people attend it.

And so, with strength and wisdom from the Lord, we press on in the work before us. Thank you to those who are praying for the church here.

Recent Events

2008-10-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I would start off this post with this beautiful rose! It is blooming right outside our front door. Often I miss beauty like this because it was the only bloom on a large bush. But isn't it awesome how God made so many beautiful things for us to enjoy....when we take the time to look?
This bunch of bananas had fallen from the banana tree in our yard. We have them hanging by our front door now until they are ready to be eaten.

Last Thursday, the Regional Committee met in our yard. The Regional Committee is made up of the obreros (Bible teachers) as well as a few others. Nico is sitting at the end of the table and the man in the center is Pastor Ken. Pastor Ken was the pastor of the church here for about ten years. He is now working in a seminary about an eight hour drive from here. He came to help out with a difficult situation in the church. After lengthy disscussion (they met all day long!), the committee wrote a letter to an elder in the church stating that he was no longer qualified to teach in the church or lead as an elder.
It was a very tiring day for everyone. The letter was delivered and we are very sad to report that it is most likely that the church will have a split. We are not sure how many people will leave, but it was a painful day here for many.

After the morning church service, some members of the church met in our yard to pray together. We ask for your prayers as we continue to work through these difficult days and begin to rebuild the church. We praise God for the confidence that we have knowing that He directs even these things.

"The Lord is my Light and my Salvation,

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life,

of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27:1

Day Trip

2008-09-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

Wilf, Nico, Ken, Nate, and Kris hiked out to a village Wednesday afternoon to participate in a service. There is no church in the town, so the service was held in the house of a Christian family. The above picture shows the road that we take to get to the bridge and then you see the bridge itself. After the hour's drive to the bridge, they hiked another hour to reach the town.
Here is the view as they approach the house. The roof is just visible in the trees.

Wilf took quite a few pictures of the inside of the house to give an idea of what the majority of people live in around here. The bench was set up for the church service. Notice the corn grinder above Kris's head (used to grind the corn for tortillas), and the fish! In a gully beside the house, the family has a small fish pond.

This is a picture of some of the family who had opened their home for the service.
The man of the house was also there. He has spent the past years studying on the week-ends to get his teachers certificate. They have six children. One of the younger ones is almost blind due to a childhood illness.

This woman is the wife's mother, who lives with them. One of her legs is paralyzed after she suffered a stroke several years ago.

Welcome to the kitchen corner of the house! This kitchen actually has an adobe brick stove. Most homes just have an open fire with a piece of metal on top to cook on.

This picture was taken during the service.

Wilf, Ken, and Nico on the hike back.

Kris and Nate really enjoy going along with Wilf when the opportunity arises. Last week Nate went with the men on his first over night hike.

It is a great oppotunity for the kids to get some exercise, spend time with Dad and be involved in the work here. Thankfully, they had beautiful weather for the hike. Once again the scenery looks beautiful!

Independence Day

2008-09-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Monday was Independence Day here and for the occasion all the schools in town participated in a parade. The parade went right by our front door so we had a great view! A lot of the schools wore beautiful costumes-some were more modern than others! I only took pictures of the more traditional costumes....

It was amazing to us how many young people live in town! I understand that some of them are from surrounding villages, but there are a lot of youth! How we pray for opportunities to reach them with the gospel. Sadly, there is a lot of drinking and immorality and the temptations are very strong.

There really was a great diversity of costumes! The girls below are wearing the native dress which most of the ladies wear all the time.

There is a Christian grade school in town (I think it is associated with the Assembly of God church) and they participated as well. On the front of the truck is a banner with their logo on it

The New Family is Here!

2008-09-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

Wilf and Nico went to the city last Wednesday to pick up the new family coming to work with us. After a day of shopping in the city, Ken and Jen and their three kids, arrived at their new home. They will be living in the third house on the compound. So for a while (until Lia and Nico leave in December), we have six adults, four girls and seven boys! It is a pretty busy place :)
Ken is a teacher and he will be looking into the possibility of starting a school in town here. They plan to stay for a few years, so they had a lot of luggage! Once again, Nico's packing skills came in handy.

Unloading the truck by their backdoor.....

...and Wilf unloading the other vehicle by the front door!

Lia and I were happy to see them all! We enjoyed a nice lunch together after their arrival.

Visit to the City

2008-09-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

Early Monday morning we headed out to G.C. for a few days. We were very thankful to the Lord that all the kids were well again. Lauren and Ryan had both been quite sick on the week-end. We meet up with Nico and Lia in the city and headed over to a seminary (different then the one we stayed at when we first arrived) where we spent two nights. This seminary is quite large and has a lot of property. We stayed in Casa Grande-and it is quite "grande"-four bedrooms and two bathrooms as well as a large living area and a kitchen.
We enjoyed staying at this seminary quite a bit more than at the other one because there is a lot more room for the kids to run around and play. Wilf and Nico usually spend quite a bit of time running around the city getting things that we need for the mission. The kids and I stay at the seminary since running errands with five kids is not fun!! Nate loved it the first day we were there because a large group of men were playing soccer and they invited him to play and even gave him a team shirt. There is also a playground for the smaller ones.

We stayed for two nights and then headed home again-with lots of groceries and other supplies. Nico is a master at packing things into the vehicles! We were all glad to be home again, although the change of scenery was nice for a few days.

Kids Stuff

2008-08-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

The kids and I spend most of our time at home. We don't venture into town very often becuase the sun is very hot during the day and there are not a lot of places to walk to! I am thankful that the kids have entertained themselves well, so far. Nate and Kris have been able to accompany Wilf on some of his trips and that has been really interesting for them.

We did bring along our K'nex and the lego and that keeps them occupied often. Nate made this great windmill a few weeks ago. He is also working on landing his front flip on the tampoline and enjoys playing soccer with Uncle Nico, who is a great soccer player!

We also thank the Lord for the provision of the pool just down the road. The owners let us pay a "membership" for the year and we head over there often to cool off. All of the kids have improved in their swimming! It is a great source of recreation for us and a way to get out of the four walls once in a while :)

This is the rainy season so most days, later in the afternoon, the skies cloud over. We may get a lot of rain, or just a quick shower. The kids love going out in the rain and jumping on the trampoline. It is a great way to cool off!

Kristen is the best "player" in our family! She is continually thinking up fun things to do with either Ellen or Brad. These pictures are of her and Ellen's Tortilleria. This shop was open for quite a few days!

Pretty creative hey?

The K's have these great trikes for their twins. Brad loves to peddle around the yard!

Our kids get along great with the kids next door and we are thankful for that. Nico and Lia have been away this past week and we will be thankful to see them again tomorrow.

. On September 10th, we will be adding 3 more kids to the mix when the V's arrive! It will be a busy place, but we are thankful for the company.

Our kids would love to have some friends from the town. However, the language is a barrier as well as lack of oppotunity. There are some kids in our church but they only come for Sunday school Sunday mornings and there isn't much time for socializing. Hopefully, opportunities will arise for them to make some new friends!

This Weeks Hike

2008-08-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning, bright and early, Wilf and Nico headed out to the mountains again. This week they did the longest hike yet. After the hour's drive to the bridge, they hiked for four hours before reaching the first village. Tuesday afternoon they held a service in the first village and they spent the night in the church. Wednesday morning they hiked down a valley flanked on either side by steep canyon walls. The trail crossed the river many times. The guys used whatever was there. Sometimes by jumping from stone to stone, sometimes by suspension bridge and sometimes by wading up to your waist!

At one place, the river had carved out tunnels through the rock, which wonderfully serves as part of the trail.

By midday, they arrived at the next village, where they held an afternoon service. Then they started the long hike home again!

Two of the church workers accompanied Wilf and Nico for the trip. Here they are starting a fire to cook breakfast along the river.

We thank the Lord for His work in these Christian's lives and we continue to pray for spiritual maturity and growth in light of many obstacles.

2008-08-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last week, Wilf went visiting in the mountains several times. Earlier in the week, he went with Nico and visited two different villages. They did some Bible teaching and spent the night in one of the churches. On Friday, they headed out again and this time Nate, Kris and little Nico went along. They drove to the bridge (pictured in an earlier post) and then hiked for an hour.
I was a bit concerned for them becuase shortly after they left, we had a major thunder storm in town. Thankfully, they didn't have a storm, but they did take shelter in this church building during a passing rain shower. This is actually the church building for the village they were visiting. They didn't have the service here though because it was too small to hold all the visitors who had come from a neighbouring village.
The service was held at this man's house. Not really in the house, but under his "porch" :)
They made a big event of the service and had a meal before and tamales after the three hour service! Nate is helping the Bible teacher for this town, Santos, keep the fire going for the tamales.

Behind Kris you can see the people sitting under the porch waiting for the service to begin. The service was supposed to begin at 4:00, but it didn't actually start until 7:00-after the neighbouring village brought in their sound system on a mule! Santos has a generator, so they were able to hook up some keyboards and enjoy some singing....for a long time and very loudly! The service went until 10:00, then they still had to eat tamales, and hike back to the truck by moonlight. I was thankful that there was a bright moon becuase earlier that week, Wilf had hiked for over an hour in the dark and rain. This made the bridge crossing quite dangerous.

Of course, at home here, I had thought they would be home by 10:00. When they didn't come in until after midnight I was quite concerned!!

All of the ladies who live in the mountians and the majority of ladies in town, wear this type of outfit that you see in these pictures. The skirt is a colourful, large piece of material that they wrap around their waist several times. The shirts are very lacy, with a lot of bead work on them.

Although the service was very long and they couldn't understand any of it (they didn't even know any of the songs because they were all sung differently than we are familiar with), Nate and Kris still enjoyed going along and are asking to go again-even for an overnight trip!

Wilf is heading out again early tomorrow morning. The kids can't go along this time because they will be visiting two villages that are even further away and the hiking is difficult. Please pray for him as he travels and for the Word as it goes forth. And pray for us at home here. He will be away over night again and the days are long without him.

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!""

Isaiah 52:7

Ladies Bible Study

2008-08-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

The Ladies Bible Study group meets every Wednesday afternoon. Lia drives around and picks up different people because they don't have vehicles and they live a distance away from each other. Driving around to pick up the ladies is a real adventure in itself becuase the roads are pretty rough!
This is a house up the mountainside just outside of town. A group of ladies meet here to catch a ride to the study.

The road goes right through this river and since this is where we meet the ladies, it is also the place where we need to turn around to head back to town. Lia is great at turning around in the river!

This house is right next to the road and I took this picture as we were driving by to give an idea of what some of the houses look like. This house is really quite nice for this area.

I took this from our backyard. In the afternoon there are some really lovely clouds in the sky. It is very beautiful to see the sun shining on different parts of the mountains. I can't quite capture the beauty with our camera.
Somedays the four walls of the compound can feel confining and we can feel a bit low in spirits, but the words of Psalm 121 are so appropriate and comforting for us:

"I will lift up my eyes to the hills-from whence comes my help?

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

I won't quote the whole Psalm here, although the entire Psalm brings wonderful joy and peace!

Welcome to our home

2008-08-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome! For all of you who asked to see some pictures of our home--here they are!! Enter at the front door and I will do my best to show you around.
When you enter the front door above, you immediately enter the main living area. It is a very large room that has lots of windows and a nice high ceiling. I took a picture of the four corners of the room to let you see where we live every day.
The windows above the couch are looking out into the back yard and the door to the back yard is right by the blue mat seen in the lower left hand corner.

The door way you see in this picture leads into Nate's wing of the house :) There are two bedrooms on this side of the house-Nate's and a spare room/office (pictures below). There is also a nice bathroom with a shower, and a large storage room.

Our dining area looks out into the back yard as well.

And the kitchen! Complete with pictures on the fridge of all our family and friends. The kitchen is well supplied so we don't miss too many things we left at home. There is even an old bread maker that makes a half decent loaf of bread-although it sounds a bit sick when it is mixing the dough, hopefully it will last us the whole year....

We also have a water filter by the kitchen sink so we can drink that water and we don't have to buy any. That is very handy even if it only trickles out most of the time :)

Now for the west wing of the house (actually I have no idea what direction our house is facing! It may be the north wing...)

The first room in this wing of the house is our main floor laundry. Since we only have one floor, it is not surprising, but I am thankful for it. We have both a washer and a dryer but so far we haven't needed the dryer because things dry really quickly outside.

I am standing by the laundry room door to take this great picture of Nate :) Our room is to the left and Kris and Lauren's room to the right. Ryan and Brad's room is just around the corner.

I even took a picture of the bathroom becuase I think it is really very nice. We have a lovely bathtub, which is quite a luxury in this country. It is much nicer than the bathtub we had at our old house :)

Kris and Lauren's room.

The boy's room

And our room.

Nate's room (which is on the other side of the house, as I mentioned earlier)

And the doorway to the spare room-which we hope both of our dear parents will come and occupy one day!

The house is a bit bare. We didn't bring a lot of homey things with us-just a few picture frames and of course our clothes. I didn't even bring very many of the kid's toys.

But this feels like home and we are thankful to be here. The weeks before we arrived here were busy with visits and traveling. We slept in many different places. Even in G.C. when we first arrived everyone was feeling unsettled and displaced. But after we arrived here we all felt like we were home. The little boys never asked when we were going to go "home", like they often have in our other travels. We thank the Lord for answering our prayers.

"Home is a comfort, and home is a light,

A place to leave the darkness outside.

Home is a peaceful and and ever full feeling

a place where the soul safely hides.

And being at home should remind you that still,

there's a place that's prepared just for you;

and I think my home is just heaven's reflection,

as long as my home's here with you."

Michael Card

The Bridge to the aldeas (or villages)

2008-08-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today, Wilf and Nico had to go to "the bridge" for a meeting with the men who teach in the aldeas (or villages) in the mountains surrounding us here. They meet at "the bridge" because the men have to hike from their villages to get together. Lia and I took the kids and joined them at the end of the meeting. The bridge is about a 45 minute drive from town. Here the road ends and there is a cable bridge that crosses a fairly large river. On the other side of the bridge, there are only trails to get to the different villages. Part of Wilf's work here will be hiking out to these villages and meeting with the Christians.
The road was in pretty good shape on the whole, though at one point we did have to cross this small stream.

The scenery was really beautiful and I wish we could have stopped more often to take pictures (I'm just like my Dad :)), but of course the road is very curvy and quite narrow so it is not a good idea to sit too long.

Once in a while we would see a little home built into the mountain side. And of course there is a lot of corn planted on almost any bare surface-no matter how steep it may be at times!

Here is a picture of the cable bridge as we are approaching it.

When the road ends, there are basically three homes and of course a little store for thirsty travellers who have hiked out from their village. The kids all went across the bridge with a bit of trepidation because it sways a bit and also, as you can see, more then a few boards are missing. Nico says that the bridge is in pretty good shape right now. He has had to walk on the cables at times when too many boards were missing in one spot.

It was very interesting to meet the Bible teachers and get a sense of how different things are for them in these remote villages. Please pray for these men as they teach the people about the Lord and His Word.

A walk in town and fun at home :)

2008-08-02T17:28:00.001-07:00

So far getting fresh fruit in town here has been very challenging! There are no big grocery stores in town. Only little stores that sell some basic groceries.

There is also a market that supposedly has fresh fruit for sale. We were running a bit low on fruit so we made the walk to the market on Thursday but there was nothing worthwhile available! Someone told us that Saturday mornings were best for fresh fruit so we headed out again today.

At first I was quite disappointed to only get some apples. But as we walked home we first ran into a man selling watermelon out of the back of his truck and then another man selling cantaloupe. So now we have some other fruit besides the oranges that are right in our own back yard!

Our neighbours have these large wheeled tricyles for their twins. Brad loves to peddle through town on the blue one :) (they have a boy and a girl so the other tricycle is pink!)

Of course Kris is often busy playing one of her favorite things-setting up a house. I think Brad has come over for dinner....

Kristen and her friend Ellen on the trampoline.
Brad and his friend "little" Nico (his Dad is "big" Nico) in the hammock by our back door.

Views from our house

2008-07-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Our front door opening to the street. Brad is ready to welcome visitors!
There is a wall like this that surrounds the whole compound. The large door is the entrance for the vehicles.

I took this picture standing in the middle of the road just outside our front door to give you an idea of what is around us.

This is the view the other way :)

The compound is on a corner lot. Nico and Lia's front door is around the corner from us. Above is a picture of the wall and their front door. If we continue down this road a short ways and then go right, we would be at the church. It is very close so we walk to church.

This is our neighbour across the street. None of the houses are very beautiful here. A lot of them are made out of mud bricks and they are surrounded by dirt. This fellow happens to have a vehicle, but that is not very common. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of garbage around and the whole town looks dirty. I expected to see a nice town square at least but even that was all run down and full of garbage. Thankfully, the beauty of the mountains surround us!

Wilf went with Nico to visit some of the people who live just outside the city on the mountain side. Kristen went along with him and they said although the people were very poor, the view from their homes was lovely. Wilf has been doing these visits with Nico for the past two days and he really enjoys it. Most of the people they visit are Christians and they visit and encourage them from God's Word. What an exciting way for Wilf to spend his time!

Brad looking out our doorway. The compound is very nice but the kids and I don't get out of the compound area very often. The town is too unsafe for me to let the kids out without me and there is not a lot for us to do-besides take a bit of a walk. Perhaps we will do more of that when the weather cools off. Although not super hot here, it is too hot when the sun is out, to walk with kids hanging all over the stroller. :) When the sun is not out, it is most likely about to rain!

The pool in the pictures I posted earlier is lovely and close by, but it is not cheap. Lia is talking to the owners about the possibilty of a family rate for the whole year. It is a very new idea around here so I'm not sure yet if they will agree.

One last shot of Ryan! He just had a nice bath :)

Happy Birthday Wilf and Kris!

2008-07-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Friday was Wilf and Kristen's birthday! We spent most of the day unpacking and organizing the house but we took a break around dinner time and went to the local pool. Lia and Nico brought along a wonderful birthday dinner and even presents for Wilf and Kristen.
This pool was built just recently and is a very new thing for a town like this. It is really nice and thankfully it is very close to our house! We hope to visit it quite often as there doesn't seem to be a lot of recreational things to do around town.

There is a smaller heart shaped pool that is great for kids and a much larger pool with a deep end and a bridge to jump off of.

I wanted to try to show the surroundings of this pool because it can look like the town is really exotic :) The pool is like an oasis in the midst of dirt roads, cow pastures and run down and unfinished homes. It looks really out of place, but we are very thankful for it!

Our new home!

2008-07-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of our new home in the town of Cub.. The town has only about 8,000 people in it and it is at the end of the road...and it feels like it too. It is much more rural then anything I have seen in Mexico (Wilf has seen places like this in his travels as a kid through Mexico). I didn't take any pictures of the town yet becuase I want to be a bit careful with that. But even though we live in the center of town, we have cows, roosters, horses and other animals all right around our house! I was awakened the first morning by a noisy rooster announcing the dawn at a very early hour.

On our walk to church this morning there was a large cow meandering ahead of us and on our way home, a cowboy rode by on his horse.

We live in a large walled in compound with the other missionaries, Nico and Lia K. They have been here for 8 years or so and plan to return to Canada in December. We have been so thankful for them and their three kids. Above is a picture of our house. Under the small overhang you see in the picture, is our back door. Our front door is a small door that opens onto the street. We share a nice large yard with the K's. There are lots of trees on the compound as well as a trampoline. I will post some more pictures of the house itself after I get things a bit more organized!

This is Nico and Lia's house. Our houses are almost identical.

Thankfully, there are a lot of fruit trees on the compound. I was feeling a bit discouraged after our initial shopping trip becuase the food is so much more expensive here and some things we are used to getting are just not available at all. One thing that is really expensive is juice. I decided we would survive the year just drinking water. But I was very pleasantly surprised to see the great fruit growing in our own backyard. Our house was equipped with a juicer, so the kids and I have been busy making limeade (limes in the picture above) and fresh squeezed orange juice (orange tree pictured below). Now maybe

we should get a cow so that we can get milk as well.... :)

Ready to Go!

2008-07-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

We are getting all packed up and ready to leave early tomorrow morning! Please remember to pray for us as we begin our journey to G.

I will post more pictures in a few days, Lord willing.