Don't Blink or the "Break" will be gone!

I continue to marvel at just how fast "break" can pass.

I believe that for the first time we did not have anything "big" planned for break. Normally we'll try to do this, or do that - get away for the first couple of days to some economical place. Not this year. Sure, we had some small plans - like, for example, to go see Rio 2 and to play games with some of our friends. Yet, at the mid point of the week work almost got in the way. We had some hard and long conversations and made some hard decisions - I ended up working some of the time but we decided to leave work alone over the final weekend and just enjoy the last couple of days of vacation. We feel God honoured that decision and gave us rest to wrap up the break.

For those of you who have never attempted to watch a movie in a foreign language (without subtitles) let me tell you it is both a fulfilling yet maddening experience. At the end of the movie my Spanish enabled me to understand the "jist" of the movie while leaving most of the finer dialog open for, shall we say, interpretation. I'll be honest - even though it was a kids movie some of the vocabulary used was still difficult to figure out and some of the characters talk so fast... But we enjoyed it.

This year Joy lead worship for the Sunrise Easter service while I provided sound tech. Our girls are not "morning" people, as is evident by this picture near the start of the service.

2014 Sunrise Service at C.A.G.

Another cool part of Semana Santa (Holy Week) are the amazing decorative carpets they make from coloured saw dust. Here is a picture of one from inside the new SanKris mall.

Semana Santa Carpet at SanKris Mall

We did get to enjoy a games with Claudia, Pedro, Peter and Gabby and Mark, Kim, Eric and Kalia - which were fun and relaxing.

This week C.A.G. is doing their spring "Spiritual Emphasis Week" with the secondary students (grades 6+.) It kicked off yesterday and seemed to go very well. We are all looking forward to what God will do for these students this week.

Well, speaking of the children I must go wake them for school. We continue to be thankful for everyone who supports us - both in prayer and with their finances. Both enable us to be here working for the Lord.

Blessings to all,

-knme for the whole family

Ps - whilst downloading pictures from my Guatemalan phone I found this treasure from March 2013, right before I became stuck in the USA - I took Abigail out for a birthday meal, just the two of us, at San Martin. The staff treated her to a "birthday surprise." Hopefully she'll forgive me some day ;9)

Happy birthday Abigail (2013-9th)

Semana Santa Right Around the Corner

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is right around the corner. It is the week leading up to Easter and is a big deal here in Guatemala. I'll be honest, I'm excited for it because it is a week in which, in theory, I can sleep in. Selfish? Yep - probably. Realistic? Hopefully.

The past couple of weeks have been a blur. Joy's father left on the 25th of March. That was rough for us. We really enjoyed having him around. Right around that same time C.A.G. started their spring testing window for Measures of Annual Progress (MAP.) This was big for me as I handle the majority of the proctoring. That should wrap up tomorrow morning.

Joy's new elementary choir program has been quite the hit. They sang in elementary chapel last week - purely awesome! Have a listen:

We have decided not to return the kids to gymnastics for the rest of this school year. We may reconsider it over the summer but for now the choir, piano and ballet is keeping them active and busy enough.

On a personally exciting note: C.A.G. has approved the purchase of some street hockey equipment! Now, this may not seem overly exciting to some, however to me - a "Canuck", this is is very exciting.

Also, C.A.G. is seriously evaluating the addition of some "Computer Science" courses to its elective curriculum. It is too early to know exactly what this will shape up to look like but it is also exciting.

We have completed Abigail's registration for summer Camp Guamiski. She attended this two years ago and had a wonderful time. She is super excited to be returning this summer.

Well - that is all for now. We continue to thank God for all of you who have continued to support us: both financially and in prayer. Our being here and our work would not be possible if it were not for all of you.

Blessings,

-knm/jr/ac/eb/sje

Three Weeks Gone...

I'm not quite sure where the past three weeks went but I'll tell you they disappeared in record time.

We have so very much enjoyed having Joy's father, Edward, here with us for the past three weeks. We really haven't done much... Time just seems to have disappeared.

Our first weekend we went to the Auto Safari Chapin. We really enjoyed this. We stopped for ice cream at the Sarita. We had two trips to the dentist (no emergencies but regular cleanings.) We capitalized on our "snow day" and went up to Panajachel and stayed at Las Buenas Nuevas. This was very relaxing (sleeping in) and fun. We took the boat over to Santiago Atitlán - got thoroughly scorched.

Then there was Abigail's birthday. That night we had dinner at the Kim's, the home of the girls' piano teacher. It was truly amazing. We had great Korean food and then a small piano concert where Yo Han (their son), Ha Yeong (their eldest daughter), Abigail, Emma, Joy and Linda (their teacher) all played different pieces. We also sang hymns in English and Korean.

Saturday we had Abigail's real party... and wow - it was wild. Abigail, Emma and seven of Abigail's friends had a party at the mall then they came to our home where we had dinner and a movie. Whilst all this madness was happening Ed, Sara and I went to see, "The Adventures of Mr. Peabody and Sherman" - totally in Spanish. It was, actually, a pretty good movie.

We have had a game of Rummy Cube on the go for the past week. We're letting Ed win.   :9)

A good time. We'll miss him. Thanks to the Northeast for having scheduled a new snow storm for his return. That will be a quite a shock for his system.

Blessings,

-knme

Two Week Recap - Where does time go?

I sat down this morning to read the last post and realized it was two weeks ago. Oops. As I recall last week was just tiring.

The week before last we were blessed to have had the Missions Team from Portsmouth Christian Academy in town. They were working with some of our AMG friends, the Wilsons', not with us but we were privileged to get to visit with them numerous times throughout the week and that was truly wonderful. Our niece, Emily, was on that team and it was really great to see her. The kids too enjoyed some extra time with their cousin. We said goodbye to them on Saturday, March 1st. Even though their return trip was more complicated than originally planned we understand the trip was amazing and very positive.

Saying goodbye to Emily and the PCA team gave way to some last minute preparations for the arrival of Joy's father, Edward. He arrived late in the evening this past Wednesday night. This is Ed's third visit to Guatemala and first since Christmas 2010.

Ed will be doing some work on enhancing the inventory system and protocols at C.A.G. during the week days and relaxing and enjoying the grandkids in the evening/ weekends. This past weekend we took him to see the Auto Safari Chapin... if he shows off his pictures we encourage you to have a look - there's something about driving through a safari and taking seriously cool up-close pictures of the animals. This coming weekend we are planning on visiting the Lake at Panajachel.

For those who are following Meghan - she was at school for chapel and discipleship this past week - she is doing remarkably well considering. The doctors have said she is ahead of where they anticipated she would be, with regards to her recovery, and everyone is prayerful that the worst is behind her.

Not much else to say and with that I'll bid you all a happy Monday!

Blessings,

-knme

Weekly Update

Well.... As most of you have likely seen on Facebook Meghan is home safe and sound after her surgery. This is a huge answer to prayer. As she continues to recover she will be home schooled by her mom.

Also, her brother was able to fly down to visit with her, thanks to the company he works for - which covered the cost of the airline ticket.

Last weekend Abigail performed in the Union Church talent show. She did an amazing job! We were very proud of her.

Our family had an interesting weekend. We decided not to attend the Intermissions conference this year. We stayed local and had a family night Friday. Saturday the girls went to gymnastics then we went to pick up some stuff at the store before we headed off for a preplanned family adventure...

We were heading down the main boulevard and decided we really did not feel like running out of gas so we pulled into the Texaco. I put a full tank in, paid, then we got ready to leave... Alas the van had other ideas. It did not start. Now, if it were a computer I'd have better luck figuring it out. If it were a piano then maybe Joy... Better idea - call Cesar, our favorite mechanic. He drove up to the Texaco, opened the hood, and said, "Well there is your problem - you're missing your serpentine belt!" I mean, what!? How does this happen?

Well, long story short, after trying for three hours to find a new belt we gave up and accepted the Agrellas' loan of their suburban so we could go on our adventure. Oh, and a thank you to Mark for extracting Joy and the girls from the hot van at Texaco.

We did go on our adventure and Cesar found a belt, repaired the van and brought it to the house that night. So for us a good end to the day.

Our niece , Emily, arrived in country Sunday with the team from her school. It was awesome to get to surprise her at the airport and to hang with her and the team that evening. We were not able to visit with them today but hope to tomorrow night and Wednesday.

I am racking my brain ... I believe that covers the notable things in the past week. If not I'm sure we'll follow up soon.

Blessings and thanks to all,

--knme

Surgery Successful!

Megs surgery lasted a lot longer than they expected,  but the doctor feels it was so successful that he wants her to start walking tomorrow.   Today she is in a lot of pain.  They put 8 screws in her spine, and discovered she also broke her sternum.  Thanks so much for your prayers for her!

Waiting on Meghan

Meghan is still in surgery.  We will post more when we know it, but so far all we are hearing seems positive.