Good Friends...

This week we enjoyed vsits from special friends. Our supervisior Gary and his wife Lily along with our next level supervisor Stephen came for lunch on Thursday. What great fellowship we enjoyed before they had to leave and head on to Antigua and the capital. And I have promised Gary that the next time they come...it will be time for banana pudding! I am sure he will hold me to it..."have I told you my favorite is banana pudding?!" Next time...



Friday night Ron and Margie long time friends came to dinner and brought our newest Guatemala missy Carol. Carol was one of our little siblings when we were in language school in Costa Rica and has become part of our family. She arrived a couple of weeks ago and it was the first time that she had been able to come to visit us in Chimaltenango. We enjoyed dinner and a good round of Mexican train. Maybe next time the train will pass my way in a kinder manner :)

Sunday lunch at the Pastor's home

After attending morning worship at our church - Iglesia Bautists Canana - we enjoyed lunch at the pastor's home.



As we drove behind the secured gate, we heard a pitful blehhhhing - all I had to say was that I hoped it wasn't the baby crying for his mama.


No, I guess he was just lonely for his brother. The delicious meal we enjoyed was typical fiesta food from Tecpán, the hometown of both Victoriano and his wife Cristiana. We enjoyed barbeque (mixture of chicken, beef, and goat-mainly goat), salad of diced potatoes, carrots, onion, and peas with a little mayo to blend, and yellow rice with cilantro, as well as, Horchata to drink. For dessert we had platanos in mole (not my fav) and then afterwards, there was corn on the cob. It really wasn´t part of the meal but it was fresh so she had boiled it and since it was ready, everyone enjoyed some. (It really was the best corn we have had in the country. Usually the corn is dry but this was fresh - cut that morning and then boiled - yum!)

from left to right - David, Cristina, Victoriano, Ariel and Evelyn

We experienced great fellowship and a delicious meal. The next time, we will enjoy different typical food. Victoriano and Cristiana are such blessings in allowing us to learn and adapt to our new culture.

I feel like Goliath standing next to Cristiana.

They are raising "Nacho" for their family reunion next year. We wouldn't make very good farmers...raising an animal as a pet to eat in the future...just couldn't do it.

Behind their house they have a wonderful garden. Cristiana says that any place that doesn't have something already on it, he plants corn or something. The garden was filled with corn, frijoles, and NUMEROUS fruit trees - lime, lemon/lime, avocado, apple, tangarine, peach, banana. We left with a bag full of limes and avocados. YUM!

Sunrise from our window...

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me
All His wonderful passion and purity
O my Savior divine, all my being refine
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

As the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, I want my life to be a brillant display of His saving Power.

Traveling with Victoriano - Part IV

On Tuesday, Pastor Victoriano Cojti and his youngest son traveled with us to an area where we had not gone before.


Ariel did not have school that day in preparation for exams so after lunch, he and his dad were headed up the mountain to work in their field of corn and frioles.

Santo Domingo Xenacoj is a small town about 15 mintues outside Chimaltenango. However, they are very proud of their beautiful municipalidad building.


There are two baptist churches in town.


The younger of the two, Iglesia Bautista Restoración, is pastored by Román Lazaro. At the present they meeet in this rented building in town.


The town is very Mayan, but both churches have services in Spanish. Most of the people use Spanish for trade and the children are educated in Spanish but their heart language of real understanding is Kaqchikel.

Next we entered Sumpango. We were surprised at the size of the town. The municipalidad building displays the blend of most of these towns. Though the official language is Spanish, the heart language is Kaqchikel. Note on the writing - the Spanish spelling of the town is Sumpango and the Kaqchikel spelling is Tzumpango.


But I think the sweetest display of this fact is the picure of these two school girls - one dressed in the official school uniform and the other in traditional dress.



There is no Baptist work here, but there are some evangelical churches. This gentleman was proclaiming the Gospel in the park across from the municipalidad.


About 5 minutes back toward town we turned on this wonderful paved road to the small town of Santa Marta.


Wow what a road, we thought, until the good road curved and Victoriano said..."directo." To go directo meant take the small, washed out, rutted, 45 degree straight up the side of the mountain. Yes, we went straight up the "trail" in our good truck "Clyde" to a small Baptist mission and pastor's house.




Built by Korean First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, it is a Kaqchikel church.


It is without a pastor at the present time so a Korean missionary comes on Sundays to preach, but the message is in Spanish. One of the major problems is there is no electricity or water at this location. Next to the church is the home of one of the three families who are members.



The location is beautiful. We looked out over the fields to Xenacoj where we had visited earlier...


then down to the town of Santa Marta.



Pray the Lord of the Harvest will send forth laborers to proclaim the truth in the heart language so that all may hear, understand, and receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

MVI 3281

Celebrating Thirty-Two Years

Since we live in such a beautiful country, we don't have to travel far to find great places to celebrate special occasions. On the afternoon of our anniversary on August 6, we left Chimaltenango at an altitude of over 6,000 feet and drove down the mountain for dinner and a night in the old city of Antigua at the base of Volcano Agua. Formerly the capital of this part of Central America, Antigua shows the scars of conquests, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. Antigua is a visual story of Central American history and is a favorite stop for tourists.


The next day, we continued our decent down the mountain. The road carried us between the volcano Agua and the volcanoes Acotenango and Fuego .


After a couple of hours, we reached sea level where we enjoyed the weekend on the Pacific Ocean with its black sand beaches. We have been known to have some fun times in the past battling ocean waves. However, since these waves were dangerously intense, we kept ourselves at about ankle deep!


Take a look at the video to get an idea.



Our trip home on Sunday was also interesting. We decided to explore some new territory down the coast toward El Salvador. We had something that was called a "map" that almost gave us some direction. We were doing good until the road ended at the river.

We were in a little town and didn't know which way to go. We stopped and asked a fellow for directions. He told us to go straight down the road, that we would have to use the ferry, but the road was good. We have had to use a ferry a time or two to cross a river where there was no bridge. No problemo!

We went a little ways and got to the river. The "ferry" was a wooded boat (looked homemade) about 20 feet long and about 8 feet wide with boards propped up on its end to drive up on the back side of the boat and more boards to drive over the back and onto the floor of the boat. The man told David to drive our little truck up close to the front because a car was getting on with us too. That little car must have had 8 Guatemalans in it. The boat had a little outboard motor on it. We looked across the river and all we saw was jungle. No other road was in sight. We finally launched off and started our journey down the river in that little boat. We floated for several miles and finally came to a little town. He backed up to a concrete ramp, put out his boards, and told David to back off. David forgot that he had pulled up the emergency brake on Clyde (our little truck is named Clyde). Clyde didn't much want to back off the boat until David finally remembered to release the brake.



The ride up the river was really pretty - lots of vegetation. We would not have wanted to go for a swim. It probably had more than vegetation in the water. We found our road on the other side and continued our journey home.

What a blessing to celebrate thirty-two years of marriage! We know that we are the recipients of the grace and blessings of the Lord. We share not only a deep love for each other but also a wonderful friendship. We are blessed with the treasures of Miriam and Mike, Stephen, Rebecca and David, Deborah and Chris. And what a blessing to spend these years together serving hand-in-hand as missionaries in Guatemala. Our life is good!



And so are the beautiful sunsets on the Pacific!

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Travel Day with Victoriano, III

Today we visited Itzapa and Parramos. Itzapa has two baptist churches - the mother church (Sinai) has no pastor at the present time.



The second church (Templo Evangelico Bautista Dios es Amor) is alive and growing.


Pastor Apolinario has a heart to reach Itzapa with the Gospel and for the people to receive Christ. We visited in his home and prayed for his wife who has had a terrible condition on/in one of her legs for over 16 years. Pray for healing for Elena. We may be able to assist in taking them to see some doctors who may be able to help her.

There is a new community being built by the government for the people who were displaced and suffered greatly by Hurricane Stan. They are building 96 homes which these people (and not the general public) may purchase for 3 mil quetzales (about $375).


Granted they are not very large but they are well built block houses with glass windows and indoor plumbing. Because of the great work that Baptist disaster teams did for the people and the entire country during the hurricane and afterwards, land has been donated for a Baptist church in the community. It will have green space on both sides of the church with the soccer field/park beside it. it is the perfect location. Pray for funds to begin the building and for people in this area to hear and receive Christ as Savior. The Catholic church also received land for its church but personally I think this location is the more preferable place among the people.




Pastor Apolinario is sharing his vision for the new work. The church had been praying for many years about beginning a new work and now, land had been donated for its inception.

Brothers in Christ and in ministry - David, Apolinario, and Victoriano



In Parramos, just a short distance away, is la Igelsia Bautista Nazareth. Samuel, the pastor and his wife were not home this morning but we stopped to see both the church and the school.



It is our prayer that as we write about the places where we visit that you catch the vision. Each town is filled with many people who have not heard the truth of the Gospel, of free salvation and forgiveness of sins. As you read, will you pray that they will hear and receive and join in the eternal praises of our God at the Throne.

Sunday Memories

Katie and Amber, IBM journeygirls studying Spanish in Antigua, visited Sunday. They worshipped at church with us and we enjoyed Sunday lunch together. (It was kinda like before we came to the field...every Sunday lunch we enjoyed food and fellowship with Deborah and Chris.) I think their two favorite things were the sweet tea and mashed potates. Katie is from the Huntsville, AL area where we lived for 4 years, Amber is most recently from outside Savannah, GA not far from where we lived the last 8 years before our move south. We have many links connecting us and it is fun to learn more about eachother each time we are together. They will be here only until the first of October before they head further south to Peru (Amber) and Colombia (Katie).



On the way to taking them home last evening, we stopped at our local mall where we met 3 young people on a mission trip to our area. Many links connected us as well - home states, colleges and universities (Go DAWGS!!), future goals... But the greatest of all our links is the bond of Family - the Family of God. Being in His Family connects us all...and that bond connects us wherever we are. Are you part of His Family?

Friday we were visisitng several towns around us. We saw this truck load of broccoli headed to market. I have never seen this much broccoli in one place at the same time...look at the size of some of those heads! It is so delicious too.