Blessed be the name!

Wow, I knew from the start of the year that our choir would be good, but I had no idea how good. They really pulled together and sang their hearts out in chapel yesterday. For me, though, the best part was how well received they were by their peers. Especially with music, peers can be a difficult audience, but not so yesterday. As the choir sang its last note, some of the students jumped to their feet clapping and there were many screaming members of the audience. It brought tears to my eyes! I am really proud of this group, and I think we have a wonderful year ahead of us!
This is a video, though incomplete, of their performance yesterday - hope you enjoy!

What a weekend!

After Bambi and Elaine arrived... and slept... just a bit... we packed up our borrowed van and headed off to Panajachel. The drive up was pleasant as most of the construction we "endured" in our August trip was complete. The drive up to about 2.5 hours.

We ate a the Sunset Cafe the first night and then played games to relax. The next day we headed out on the boat over to Santiago where we visited the local church. Very odd... it was my first trip there and I can now understand a lot of the comments I heard from previous trip members. After returning from Santiago we ate supper at the hotel and again turned in for a relaxing game night.

The next day we got off to a slow start but still managed a visit to the Butterfly farm and did the hike up the mountain to see the spider monkeys. The return trip took longer because we were coming down the mountain and hit Chimaltenango at dusk.

A good time was had by all. Joy might add more to this tonight.

-knme

Safe Arrival

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that Bambi and Elaine have arrived safely with all bags and things with them.

They said they had not problems on their trip.

-knme

To see or not to see

After a long day of working on school stuff, we arrived at church tonight ready and rearing to go for Kids Bible Club. We had a really cool craft planned...Joseph's coat (markers, water, coffee filters, hair dryers.) As I was going over the lesson with my helpers, the power went out. Normally it comes back on in about 5 minutes or so, well tonight it stayed out.
It was pretty neat, we had church by candlelight (without fear of fire ordinances,) put the girls to bed by candlelight, got ourselves ready by candlelight, and then the power came back on.
We did have one thought on the way home from church. Our guard gate is going all high tech later this month, with face recognition stuff and all. As we pulled up tonight to the gate, all was dark. They have NO generator. How do they expect to keep that all high tech stuff running during an outage, huh? We'll see what happens.
Or, we won't see, guess that sort of depends on how dark it is...


And in case anyone is interested, we are in the process of updating the film and global pages of our website, and we will try to keep up with them better.

The Magic Seed

There are so many reasons we would like to stay in this neighborhood, one of the biggest is our gate guard and his family. He is SO good with our girls, in the small ways. Today Abigail planted a seed in a cup, hoping to grow a mispero tree. (They have really yummy fruits which I don't know the English name of.) Well, fancy that - the tree is already two inches high. Apparently Francisco found a sapling and came over after dark and put it in the cup for her. She is going to freak out in the morning.
On the same line of liking their family, please pray for them. They don't make very much money here, even though they work all day, and their son Maynor needs to start school soon. If they can't find a school in the area that they can afford (which they don't think they can) Alba (wife) and Maynor will have to move back to their home town 3 hours away or so while Francisco stays here to work. We are going to be helping them do some research when we have time, and are praying that they are able to stay together. Please join us in that prayer.
Well, off to bed (even though it's only 8 - how lame is that!)

Emma is f.i.n.e.

Incase anyone was curious... Emma is doing just fine.

She had a good day yesterday (save for three potty accidents). She woke up talking and went to bed the same.

We played international Mario Kart last night. Joy's brother Jon seriously trounced us. Humble pie. Actually, some might call it a slaughter. Either way is fine with us.

All for now!

-knme

Overdue update

Greetings and salutations everyone,

This update is long overdue. That is not to say that a lot has happened since 10 September but you know.

Saturday, 12 September we went to watch the school basketball game and then went over to the Woodby's house. They were having some computer issues so they asked me (Ken) to have a look at them. We turned it into dinner. They have two awesome boys who seemed to enjoy keeping the reigns on our two girls. We returned home late so we slept in Sunday morning and skipped morning church (shhhh!)

We went to "The Gathering" in the evening. It was the start of "Kids Bible Club" (KBC), a ministry Joy and Abigail thought up for the kids aged 3 to 6 at "The Gathering".

Tuesday, 15 September, was Guatemalan Independence day and thusly we had the day off. The Woodby's hosted a party. Again, much fun was had by all. I (Ken) had the opportunity to test my grilling skills over a charcol grill. Nothing was burned too badly except for one hamburger. The chicken was a bit hit -- thanks and credit be to Sherry Woodby for the family recipe.

Thursday night we had Elementary Open House. Joy and Abigail made some national styled flags for the cookie contest. They were delicious! Friday night we had Robert and Jonathan Loveall for a sleep-over. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun.

Saturday was pretty laid back. Joy worked with Deana and her girls on planning this weeks KBC. Sunday was a different story -- somewhat. Poor Emma woke up at 6:30a complaining that her stomach hurt. When I asked her and Abigail to go in and gently wake up Mommy... well... she threw up on our bedroom floor (good morning Mommy). She then threw up three more times before 9a. Emma and I (Ken) stayed home from morning church while Abigail and Joy got a ride with the Larimers.

Emma and I watched the ending of three different movies Sunday morning. We caught the last 45 minutes of "Surfs Up", then the last 30 minutes of "Garfield", and finally (she slept through) the last 30 minutes of "The Thunderbirds". Then we watched the Pats lose to the Jets.

Joy and Emma stayed home from "The Gathering" while Abigail and I (Ken) went. It was a good night all around.

Well... that about catches everyone up. Nothing too exciting but yet exciting enough.

Blessings to everyone.

-knme