"Life is So Dull Here"

Said by no missionary to Guatemala, ever, I'm quite sure.

This past weekend was a perfect example of a relatively normal weekend here in Guatemala.

Saturday started off quite calmly.  We took the older girls to gymnastics and then went on to campus to get something I had left in my office.  Driving through campus they were ripping up the sidewalk and part of the parking lot because someone had clogged the sewage system by flushing their toilet paper.

We then ate lunch, which we cooked quite normally on our stove.  After lunch we headed downtown to the zoo.  It is really quite reasonably priced and one of very few places we can actually get out and walk around.  Most people bring their cameras to the zoo and take pictures of the animals.  Not so much the people behind us in line - they lined up to take pictures with our children.  You may think - weird, arrest them - we think, just another day at the zoo.  Abigail once commented she thought we should be on the other side of the fence with the animals with the way people stare at us when we are out.  I think it must partly be the red hair, because it's not like there aren't any gringos that live here.

After leaving the zoo we decided to take the van by the mechanic.  The air conditioning hasn't been working, and we can't drive with the windows down.  Now, I know some of you are thinking "air conditioning, do you know how cold it is here?"  To which I say "do you know how hot it can get here with windows so black you have to put your face right up to them to see through."  Okay, enough hypothetical arguing...not having air conditioning here is not just losing a luxury.  Proof of that - it got so hot in the car that I got sick.  Literally.  Praise God the trash can was between two cars at the garage and none of the workers could see me.  I just know that could have turned into a "watch the crazy white lady get sick" kind of moment.

That led to a day of sleep, and a night of sleep, so that we could get up at 6 for church.  (That seemed early to me until earlier this week I learned that my friend's church starts at 6 a.m.)  Just as we are getting ready to go out the door I remember that Emma had been scratching her head, and Ken had seen what looked like a bug on her head at the zoo.  Just in case, I thought, we better check her for lice - a horribly common occurrence in this country.  Sure enough - little buggers on her head.  So, scratch the original plan for church and an annual meeting.  Daddy stayed home with Emma, washed her hair, combed her hair, repeated process.  Then, when we all came home we tag teamed doing all three girls heads, and Ken checked mine.  Whenever we do that I am reminded of a story I heard about some third world Asian parents eating the lice of each other.  Praise God we are not that short of food.

After finally clearing all the lice from the child(ren) we went to school today.  Back to another normal day behind the walls, where pretty much everybody looks and talks like we do.  Normal, until the nurse declared that Emma had to be sent home - and we have to repeat the process again.

Yeah, never a dull moment around these parts :-).  (No Kenneth, that is not a pimple, it is a punctuation mark.  Joker.)  Oh, and we never did get the AC fixed...

To go beyond

I had a great opportunity while we were on furlough...okay I had many, but one is particularly relevant to this post.  I was privileged to attend a vision casting meeting at a local school, as they seek to improve and build up their fine arts program.  It was inspiring in many ways,  and by the end of the weekend I was really feeling compelled to use my gifts and talents to reach beyond the walls of CAG.

I don't know exactly what form that will take, but have already had a great meeting with our administration,  and have been asked to address the board at their next meeting.   (That part has me a little nervous.)  Prayers for me to cast a clear vision would be much appreciated.

So far the director of the school has asked me to pursue building a prestigious, traveling children's choir.  His hope is that we could, using CAG students and other MKs, have an outstanding choir which could start by visiting local schools and presenting Christ through our music and some speaking time.

I have also been asked by a Music Camp Guatemala founder to pursue starting a choir for Guatemalan children which would be run from a Christian perspective and have a discipleship through music idea.

We'll see where God is leading and just how he is going to get us there.

As always thanks for your prayers and financial support which make our ministry here possible.   You are a blessing to so many families through our family!  Please continue to pray that our support team would grow.

Blessings!  JRE

First Day back at School

First - it would appear our refrigerator is fixed. Way cool, eh?

Today a fourth grader restored our faith in humanity. Abigail's dear friend, who moved back to the U.S. with her family in December, planned ahead to try to help Abigail's first day back go well.  First she asked her teacher if Abigail could have her old desk, then her old books, then she topped it all off with a letter.  The letter encouraged Abigail not to change who she is just to fit in with the other girls in the class, among other things.  It was just what she needed to hear!  We are so blessed to have friends that have raised their daughter to be such a loving, considerate person.  We miss them terribly!

Please continue to pray for Abigail as she adjusts back to a class where her one good friend is no longer there.  She had a good weekend with the other three girls from the class, but one of them is telling her ways that she can "be cooler" and "be like me."  So far she is standing her ground well...I  just pray that it doesn't mean losing any opportunity to have friends in her class this year as the other three girls are very close.

Emma also has had a great day. We feel that her return to a classroom oriented structured learning time will be a good adjustment for her. She seems to be fitting right in.

As expected when Sara saw Olga she ran right up to her with a big hug. She really enjoyed her first day back too.

As for Joy and I? Well, we're wiped out - but we're chalking that up to, mostly, the altitude. Joy is continuing to work with the administration to best determine the class offerings for her department.

On the home front... we're still not completely unpacked - but we're close.

Please be in prayer for some close friends of ours who are leaving tomorrow to go overseas to Papua New Guinea (PNG.) They will be doing much the same as us for a Christian school and Wycliffe compound there.

Blessings.

Back in the Saddle, Broken refrigerator

Greetings from San Cristobal, Guatemala. We're back and we are excited. We have had a full couple days since returning.

First, thank you to everyone who was praying for our travels. I don't believe we ever had such a smooth trip - ever. All luggage arrived and no bribes were necessary. The Agrellas' extracted us from the airport and we got to see Maribel, Edy and Dani (before they left to visit Edy's family in Chimaltenango.)

One of Emma's classmates arranged to take her with them to a water park for the weekend. These two are so very cute, and close. It was really great to see how excited they were when we told them!

Joy went grocery shopping Wednesday - then Thursday morning we discovered our refrigerator was not working properly. Sadly we ended up tossing most of the food Joy bought Wednesday. :9(

At the recommendation of a friend we called a company to come and look at it on Friday. They came and by night time the temp inside was a cool 40F. We went shopping, again, Saturday and replenished our food. We monitored the temp throughout the day but by night time the temp was again back up to 50F.

The family which took Emma had lent us a gignorma-cooler so I made an evening trip to get ice. We reorganized all we could and seems like the cooler is down to 40F and most everything else in the freezer.

We're praying that when we wake tomorrow the cooler will still be adequately cold.

We ask you pray with us for wisdom for what we should do next. Do we put much money into repairing an eighteen year old (circa 1996) refrigerator or do we figure out how to replace it?

With Emma being gone Joy, Abigail and Sara did their nails tonight. When I arrived home, from getting ice, I was greeted with Sara shouting "how pretty my nails are" and how "Auntie Cheeeeri is so going to love my nails" - it was hard to tell her that Auntie Cheri was not going to be at our church tomorrow.

All in all a good week. We miss everyone back north but we know we are home and that God has this ALL under control.

-knme