'Home' for the Holidays

Today, the last day of the year 2013, I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to write about all the things we’ve been doing since leaving Chiquimula (this is the only time I’ve had online since leaving there and will prob. be the last time till getting to Chichi). I’ll try to highlight in writing what we’ve done for Christmas and beyond, and then later sometime, I might come back and give you the pictures and little, but fun, details.

To refresh your memories, I’ve used the following excerpt from one of my first blog posts (titled “Pray for Us”): “We are also hoping to spend some time in the village that has become very near and dear to our hearts, Chijoj/Canilla' (pronounced chee-ho'h (long 'o')/cah-nee-ya'. (Chijoj is a village within walking distance from the town Canilla') Four winters in a row were spent, as a family of 10, living in this village and town, and the place has become like a second home to us.”    

When we left Chiquimula on Thurs. Dec. 19 (exactly 2 weeks after getting there), we were sad to say good-bye to the Bonilla family and the many other friends we made but, at the same time, very much excited to be going ‘home’ to Chijoj to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with the people who call Dad and Mom “Tio” and “Tia” (Uncle and Aunt). The Noriega family lives on the compound that we used to work at with an American missionary, Roscoe Canada, before he passed away several years ago. Several of the kids spent a lot of their childhood here on the compound when it was an orphanage for kids who lost one or both of their parents during the civil war that ravaged Guatemala in the ‘70s and‘80s; and they, along with the local church across the street, are continuing with much of the same the ministry work that Roscoe used to do. The first winter we spent as a family here in 2005-2006, we met Nayo and his sisters, Norma and Alva, when they came to spent Christmas here (although Dad still remembered them from other trips in years past when they had been living at the orphanage). Between 2006 and 2008, they and their younger sister, Elma, moved back to the compound; later, their mom and eventually more of their siblings also moved back to Chijoj, so that now only 2 of the 9 children live in other cities.

The other 2 Noriega siblings and their families came to spend Christmas and New Year’s here this year, so, as Elma said, “The whole family is home for the holidays!” Since the ones who don’t live right on the compound are within walking distance, there was always activity going on with the cousins, and since this is also a ‘hanging out’ place for the neighborhood kids to play soccer, basketball, baseball, and to make use of the playground, the afternoons and evenings were filled with all kinds of games. It’s been mind-boggling to see how the kids have changed since we’ve been here last; many of the guys my older bros. used to play soccer with are now married, some with their own children; the kids who used to come to play every evening are now ‘too old for kids’ games’ (but hang around and still join in sometimes :); and the little tots are now the ones yelling, laughing, running, and playing hard! Times change and people change but God is still the same and we are still created to dream, accomplish, sing, dance, play, and work with the gifts He gives each one of us.    

Another stretching point for me came before the first week here was over. Before we left Chiquimula, I made a remark about hoping that I don’t get asked to translate at church for my dad. I mean, after all, Joe and Bethany are coming in Jan. and Joe’s Spanish is SO much better than mine, so Pastor Rene could just wait till then to have my Dad preach at his church. But, lo and behold, on Sun. before Sun. school for the kids started, Rene told me to ask Dad if he could preach at the evening service the next night. When I asked him who was supposed to translate for Dad, his immediate response was ‘you!’ My protests of, “No puedo!” (“I can’t!”) went unheeded. I asked God why He keeps dragging me into these situations! But, in this case, really more than ever before, I had to rely completely on Him; my Spanish-English dictionary, one of my favorite books right now (I know, I’m weird :), couldn’t help me very much, and I didn’t have access to an amazing app that would translate everything said in English for me (someone really should invent something like that, if it’s not already out there), so I really didn’t have any other options but to, once again, take God at His work that His grace would be sufficient for me in ANY circumstance (2 Cor. 12:9-10). I also realized that in all this, God is really just answering my prayers for less of me and more of Him to be in my life. Maybe I’m just a slow learner, but I am learning! :)       

On Christmas Eve. we and the Noriegas had our family Christmas, complete with tamales, punch, apple pie (our special contribution – not necessarily a traditional Guate. food!), firecrackers, and a bonfire until mid-night! At 10 AM on Christmas day, locals and people from several of the surrounding smaller villages started arriving for the annual festivities that have been a part of the ministry work here for years. There were gifts for the kids and tamales and juice for everyone, in abundance!

This past Sunday, Dad, Julie, Lewis, and I went along with a bunch of people from Pastor Rene’s congregation to an ‘opening the doors’ celebration for the most recent church that a group from Houston, TX built in one of the mountain villages. It takes approx. an hour to drive then an hour more to walk back to Ceboyal. We were treated to more tamales when we got there, then they had a long worship service, after which Dad preached. Thankfully, this time, one of the men from Rene’s church had worked in the States for a while and knew quite a bit of English, so he could do the translating this time.

Tonight, we kids will be playing several songs at Rene’s church for their watch night service. Tomorrow will be another big day with turkey, duck, and donuts to celebrate the New Year. AND my bro. Joe and his fiancee, Bethany, will be flying into the city tomorrow to spend two weeks in Guatemala, so we’ll get to see them very soon!

Until next time – Blessings to you and all your families and friends in the coming year! May God’s love be revealed to each of you in more ways than can be expressed as you walk in the light of His truth.         

In Chiquimula, Guatemala

Chiquimula (chee-kee-moo-lah) is the city in which we are spending our first week and a half in Guatemala. As I mentioned in the previous post, we are working with Otto Bonilla, a local pastor, and his family.

When we got here last Thurs., Otto gave Julie and me our biggest assignment right away – teaching English.

The Bonilla’s run a sponsorship program for the school children in their church. One of the things their U.S. contact wanted for the sponsored kids is the opportunity to learn the English language. Erick (the youngest son) is the one normally in charge of teaching; he helped us out on Fri. with both the forenoon and the afternoon classes and on Sat. with the forenoon class, but since then we’ve been on our own! 

Teaching is one of my bigger weaknesses (especially classroom teaching). In this specific area, I have been stretched several times on this trip, each time more than the previous one. I’ve done some Sun. school and VBS classes in the states before and I figured out that I like teaching Bible lessons if the class is small and consists of older kids/ppl, like pre-teens and teenagers. The first stretch came in Belize, when Julie, Lewis, and I were asked to lead morning devotions for the kids at TCA. Julie opted for the little kids so it worked out great that I got the older ones (5-8 gr.), but it was a large group of kids – around 40! Lots and lots of prayers later, with God’s strength, I managed to talk for a whole 12 minutes on how man looks on the outside but God looks at the heart!

When Otto told us that we’ll be in charge of the English classes while we’re here in Chiquimula, I knew that I would be the one in charge cuz of being able to speak Spanish better than Julie. On Sat. Erick was only there part of the time so that we could get used to teaching on our own, then right in the middle of trying to get my mind wrapped around being in charge of teaching 5 more times he asked if I wanna do a short lesson for his Sun. school class the next day. When I told him I would think about it I knew that I should say yes, but I wanted to see if I could convince God otherwise – I mean, my Spanish is far from perfect! So, after coming up with all kinds of excuses – I told both God and Eric that I’d do it if it didn’t have to be anything long.

I was praying that God would miraculously give me the language fluently, which didn’t happen cuz for some reason He enjoys our weaknesses! But a God-thing that did happen right before I started talking to the kids on Sun. was that all my nervousness disappeared as soon as I opened my mouth. I still had to grope for phrasing and word but they said they understood it, despite my very in-need-of-improvement Spanish :/.    

We’re only doing one English class a day, this week, instead of two so that Julie and I can help with other projects in the afternoon, AND it helps not drain my creativity level! The following pictures show some of the projects our family has been able to help with, and some of the stuff we’ve been doing for fun!         

Playing sports with the kids on Sat.

Lewis, Billy, and Dad dug a trench for a drainage system (around here, picks come first, then you shovel out what what's loose). 

hard at work! 

the drainage system 

after a hard day of work they get to cover it up again :D (complete with very sore muscles!)

Sat. eve, Erick and Marleeny, the neighbor girl across the street, took Julie and I to the park to see the lights

eating 'gringas', a kind of taco called by the slang word for American girls (they were delicious ;) 

on Sun, everyone went along to the park
Ansy, Billy, Lewis, Julie, Me 

Otto, Lisbeth, Mom, Dad 

Erick, Billy, Julie, Ansy, Me, Marleeny, Lewis, Jenifer, Otto Jr. 

on Tue, Lewis, DadnMom, and I painted a house for a the widow pictured here with her son and daughter

halfway thru 

the walls are a tile color and the doors a dark brown 

we celebrated Julie's 17th birthday on the 10th

We’re planning on leaving here to go to Chijoj (the village we call ‘home’, where we’ve been involved since ’98) to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with our ‘family’ and friends there; we’ll probably pull out of here the first part of next week.

As always, thank you, all, for your prayers. Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!  

                                                                     

     

2 Corinthians 12:9 - And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

Leaving Belize...Entering Guatemala

In Guatemala, the majority of the people are Mayans, but in Belize, a land of mixed cultures, there are 4 other major nationalities besides the native Mayan. These 4 are the black Garifuna, the Eastern Indians, the Taiwanese Chinese, and the white Mennonites. The time we spent working in Belize was in the central and southern parts, but the border crossing for Guatemala is located in the northwest central part close to the community of Spanish Lookout.

Dad has a knack of meeting people in interesting ways! We were still having glitches with our rear end gear on Saturday, the day we left the Baumgartners’ place in southern Belize. Our plans were to stop in Spanish Lookout before crossing into Guatemala, because people had been telling us, “You have to stop in S. L. You can find anything there!” On our way north, we stopped in Armenia to tell Lazarus and Allicia’s family good-bye, then went on to S.L. When we got there, we found the store in town that is comparative to a mini-Walmart (you really can almost find anything there!), and while we did some shopping Dad asked two of the Mennonite guys standing around if they knew a local mechanic who could take a look at our bus. By the end of the day, we not only got our bus fixed but also met the man who was the dad of one and father-in-law of the other of the two guys from the store and were invited to park at his place and go with them to church the next day! We spent Sun. and Mon. with the Reimers who so graciously took us all over the community, fed us lots of food, and introduced to many, many people. I could write a whole post on everything we did in those two days; there was so much we saw and so many we met! One little highlight was getting the chance to play a real piano for the first time in months. One of the girls from church invited me to come over to her house to play on Mon. – we didn’t even know eachother for 24 hrs, but hey! there was music involved :)  

We’ve gotten SO many invitations to come back to Belize. These invitations have come from all over the country and from every one of the major nationalities, except the Chinese. (For some reason we never really met any of them :/) I felt so blessed when I remembered some of the comments following the invitations. From a Mayan women: “I promise you, you’ll be back.” From a Garifuna child: “I’ll see you when you come back next year.” (tho we always stressed that we don’t know when, or possibly even if, we’ll be back) From an Indian man: “It’s been more than just another team, it’s been like being with family.” From several Mennonites: “Next time, you can park at our place.” Who but God could bring us to a land we know nothing of, to people we’ve never met before, and work it out with such favor that when we leave 3 weeks later we feel, in a small sense, like we’re leaving family behind? 

The border crossing went very well, without any gliches!

On Tue., the first day in Guate. we made our way towards Tikal, home of the largest Mayan ruins in C.A. We spent all day Wed. climbing ruins and walking the large park.

We are now in Chiquimula, Guatemala where we will be working with Otto Bonilla, a local pastor, and his family for a week or more. We have internet connection here, so I’ll be updating when possible! 

Thanksgiving and Beyond

The last several days have been spent with the Baumgartner family. They have been such gracious hosts and our time with them has been filled with lots of fun memories! I'm banking on the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." and will let the following ones do the talking for this update :D But keep in mind that they only give you a small peek into our lives; the full story will probably only ever be known to those who live it.

Lewis tutoring Trevor. (Lewis and Julie helped him and his twin, Travis, several times) 

Dad, the handyman, did some maintenance and misc. things around the place. 

One day, we took a picnic to Blue Creek, then hiked back to the mouth of a large cave. 

The boys loved jumping off this platform into the deep water of Blue Creek. 

There were some cool 'treehouses' with rope ladders way up in the tops of some of the trees by the creek. 

Vivian, Julie, and Rosanna

The rope swing became a fast favorite!

Hiking back to the cave.

The mouth of the cave. 

Vivian and me

Julie making mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving Day. 

Trevor, Billy, and Mom carving the chicken! 

Susan manning the stove. 

Lewis 'guarding' the pies ;)

We had quite the feast that night! 

Practicing music

Julie, Lewis, and I were invited to teach a few songs to the local worship team. 

This morning (Friday Nov. 29) we were also invited to lead a short devotional at TCA. This was my group.  

This was Julie's group. She specifically wanted the little kids! 

Bontragers and Baumgartners 

  

Recent Activities

On Monday morning, Nov. 18, we headed to southern Belize to visit several ministries and connections Dad and Joe made while here last year. We took Lazarus with us because he wanted to take a look at some of the missions that are already established to get a feel for what might lay ahead for the vocational school, and ministry, In His Footprints, in Armenia. Our first stop was at TCA (Toledo Christian Academy) to let them know that we were in the area. We would be parking our bus there for the following week, but before settling in, we went to visit Lazarus’ brother-in-law and family (Allicia’s sister’s family) who lived in a nearby village.

Our plan was to stay there overnight then head back to TCA sometime the following morning. One thing we’ve learned on this trip, more than ever before, is that plans are really subject to change! As it turned out, Tue., Nov. 19, was a national holiday and the Cox family insisted that we stay for the traditional meal of caldo (a chicken soup very similar to what we’ve had in Guatemala) and corn tortillas, so we ended up staying til mid-afternoon.

They live right next to and are the caretakers of a large orange grove, and we ate a LOT of oranges and drank freshly squeezed juice to our hearts’ content :) For dinner on Mon. they also served us boiled plantains; we were used to the fried ones but all agreed that the boiled ones are just as good! It was also the first time in a long time that we’ve play soccer (or football as everyone but Americans call it); slippery grass and mud and all, we had a blast!

On Tue. the boys went out to forage some root vegetables to go into the caldo. They came back with a food new to us – the coco root. Not to be confused with cacao, which is where chocolate comes from, the coco plant looks like it belongs to the rhubarb family while the roots taste kind of like a potato when boiled. Before we left, Diego (Mr. Cox), who is a pastor and musician, wanted to play some music with us. So, out came the instruments and we stayed a good hour longer than expected! Needless to say, the day spent with the Cox family has been one of my favorites so far because it was like being back with our friends in Guate. (In Armenia, we didn’t get out much, and from then on, we haven’t been working one on one very much with Mayans, which is the culture we’re used to when coming to Central America.)

Instead of going right back to TCA Tue. afternoon, we went to visit the Baumgartners. When Dad and Joe were here last Dec. they met an American lady outside a Christian bookstore about 10 min. before they left the country. Susan and her husband, Dean, have been fostering children for the past 20-ish years, and have now adopted 2 girls and 3 boys. Dean is in the States right now, so Dad offered to help out with some maintenance stuff while we’re here in the area. We stayed for dinner, and also overnight (I mentioned something about plans, right?); we did get to TCA on Wed. morning!

At TCA, we did a LOT of weed eating. The school is made up of several different buildings, most housing one or two grades. On the grounds in the back, there are also several houses available to rent for families temporarily living in the area. And they have lots of showers set up for groups that come down; trust me, we made GOOD use of them! There are several acres of lawn and quite a bit isn’t accessible with the mower they have, so the weed eater is the next best thing. We also tore down a dilapidating veranda in preparation for a team coming down in Jan. who will put up a new one. Since the curriculum they use at TCA is the same as what Billy and Ansy use, the boys were invited to attend classes one day. They loved it and came back wishing that there would be a small private school at home!

Emerson, the principle at TCA, invited us to come to his place to help plant corn on Sat. morn. At 6 he picked up Dad, Lewis, Julie, and Billy and by 10 they were home again, with stories about having helped plant several acres of corn by hand. We were also invited by the Baumgartners to sing and share at the local church, located right next to the school, on Fri. eve. at their youth meeting; then the youth leader, who is also the worship leader, invited us back for the Sun. morning service to play again.

After church, he told us that he wants Lewis, Julie, and I back on Wed. eve. at their music practice to teach them a few of the songs we sang, including one of Julie’s new ones!

Yesterday, we came over to the Baumgartners to stay with Susan and the kids for a few days and help out (and make use of their internet connection :D)

The two youngest boys are close to Billy and Ansy’s age and the two girls are between mine and Julie’s age, so we also have the recipe for fun! We’ll be spending Thanksgiving with them and visit several places, maybe go swimming, one day.
We plan to leave on Sat., but I’m hoping to get one more update on before then – hopefully with more pictures, but with the slow internet connection – we’ll see. As always, thanks for all the prayers and stay tuned!

The boys found an iguana on the road. After the neighbors cooked it with lots of seasonings, the meat was a little rubbery, but delicious! 

Psalms 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; I will guide you with my eye.