Feliz Navidad! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas to all from Guatemala! As we type this it is 2am, and there are still fireworks sounding in the distance. Tradition here is a bit different, they celebrate at midnight, much like on New Year's Eve. It was amazing! The fireworks started at least an hour before this video, and lasted constantly until 12:15. Now we understand why Joy's student who went on furlough just before Christmas was so upset about not being here for this. Who needs snow???

Hope you have a blessed day!

Now it is 7am, and the girls are already up. How is this possible? They were up to 1 am. It's going to be a long day. But our favorite quote of the day so far is by Abigail: (During stocking opening) "Oh, yes, I've always wanted one of these....what is it?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Blessings!

Thank you so much to everyone who supports us regularly, and those who have given special gifts. It is because of you that we were able to bless two very special families today. We have been very blessed to have a wonderful security guard, and a wonderful nanny/cleaning lady. Today we were able to return some of that blessing to them. We had Francisco, Maribel and their families over for a full Christmas Dinner (with turkey in place of ham, which is $6 a pound.) Most of it was food they had never had, and certainly can't afford. We were also able to bless them with Christmas gifts. Really, none of this would have been possible without some of the special gifts we have received recently as we ourselves are on a tight budget. We are so happy and were so excited to have this opportunity. Thank you!


The food we were able to give each family cost almost a week of their salary (which is about $25)


Maynor loves his new hoop, as does Joy as she had been pretending to be the basket lately.



Emma asked to give that car to Daniela, Maribel's daughter, which shocked us all because she loves it. I sure hope that is a sign of a generous spirit to come.



The whole group, from L to R - Francisco (our gatekeeper), Maynor, Alba (his wife), Maribel (our nanny), Edi and Daniela (her family,) Joy, Rachel, Ken and the girls.

Thanks Rachel for the wonderful pictures!

Stay tuned for more updates from our week with Rachel.
Miss you all!

Santa, Satan, which is it?

Driving through the grocery store parking lot the other day we saw rows and rows of these pinatas being sold. My first thought was, "Why does Santa have a black beard?" Then I went on to thinking, "Why does Santa have a number on his chest?" Then I noticed the horns on his head and decided I better ask someone why Santa looked so Satanic here in Guatemala. I'm glad I didn't get around to asking any of our Guatemalan friends as they would have had themselves quite a little laugh.
It seems there is a holiday here called Day of the Devil. Today in fact. The pinata was not supposed to represent Santa at all, go figure with the red suit and black belt - what was I really supposed to think. The tradition of this holiday is as a cleansing of sins. It began as a Mayan holiday and now has Catholic influence mixed in. Families get together and burn their trash, and often one of these pinatas, as a way to cleanse their life of sin and get ready for Christmas. They sometimes fill the pinatas with fireworks as well (because down here we will take any excuse we can get to light off bombas.) Now to me that seems a little dangerous as the fireworks could just go willy nilly and hurt someone. I prefer the method that most of our neighbors used and that was to just light the bombas separately after the trash burning had begun.
Our whole neighborhood smells like a mixture of wood, trash, and firecracker smoke...not real pleasant.
It makes me sad to realize that there are many people here who actually believe that this helps to cleanse them of their sins and evil spirits. There may be a lot of missionaries here, but holiday's like this are evidence to the fact that there is still much Kingdom work to be done here. Please pray tonight for the many people here who still need to learn that Jesus, the reason for the season, is the only way to be cleansed.

On a side note - it was quite loud for a bit there with all the neighbors setting off their bombas. We are a bit frightened of how it will be on Christmas Eve which from what we have heard is way bigger and louder. It has been described by some others as sounding like being in a war zone. So, I guess we don't sing Silent Night down here.

Christmas is coming...

This past week has been the busiest for us since our arrival.

Joy's choir classes performed their Christmas pieces at the High School Christmas concert friday night. They were amazing as was the Band!

Ken has been hauled up in his office for the last two weeks working on two projects. There were some computer problems which he believes stemmed from an electrical problem on 23 November. Also, CAG encountered its 90 day implementation deadline for its new school information management system. The implementation is not yet done but they are very close.

Since we've not blogged since our Thanksgiving get-away here is a brief rundown: calm, lagoon, food, hiking, food, relaxing, fun, horses, and food. We headed about six hours north with three other families from CAG to a rustic camping area. The food was amazing. The hiking was tough but all the kids did a great job. The horses were good... a bit tough at a trot and gallup but we all survived.

Coming up: Abigail, and the other Elementary students, have their Christmas program Friday night (12/11). The CAG faculty Christmas party is next Saturday. Our near-adopted-sister, Rachel, is also arriving next Saturday. Oh, and the annual Pollo Campero fireworks display is next Saturday night.

-knme