Rain... and more rain

David, the children and I headed about 2 hours south of our home about 2 weeks ago. The damage to the roads and homes was really aweful then...now, we are just coming out of Matthew and it is only being magnified. Lots of folks are dealing with trouble reaching ministry sites on the outer skirts of the city due to horrible and non existant roads that were fine just 2 and 3 months ago. Please keep the country of Guatemala in your prayers as we stay "a float" for the next 2 months of rain season and then the journey of repairing. 

this is the drive into the place we were traveling to 

can you see the chunk of road missing to the right of the road... this is far to common on the outer skirts of the city right now due to all of the rain that we are continuing to have. Please pray for the safety and refuge of the Guatemalan people as we still have 2 more months of our rain season. 

this is a road and homes about 2 hours south of us. There was so much water in the homes and yards that almost everyone had canoe type (dug out tree) style boat in their homes to use.... we can only imagine the illnesses that are harboring there...misquitoes, snakes, rats, leeches , etc that are multiplying where so many elderly and small children (the most likely to suffer) are playing and resting. 

A Great Visit

last day together.... San Martin...home made bread, black beans, eggs w/  green peppers and onions and lots of coffee 

Grace .... quite silly for so early in the morning.

NO! Don't go !!!! 

okay... you're family is patiently waiting ..... have a safe flight Steph and a wonderful week... Thanks a ton for the visit ! 

 Friend Stephanie was just here for a long weekend and we had a blast ! There are no photos because basically we sat in front of various fire places scattered along at our hotel, ate amazing Guatemalan food, drank tons of coffee and TALKED a TON! We topped off the long weekend by taking Jacob and Grayson to a movie, Frozen..Death on a Mountain. Grayson and I had our heads in Stephanies shoulders for most of the movie as it was really graphic and bloody... (basically 3 skiers get stuck for a week on a ski lift and have to fight off hungery wolves..why did we choose this???????? because we live in Guatemala where if it snows it will be with the Lords return or something and so why be scared very long over it) while Jacob who wants to pursue a medical career in orthopedics and Steph who has served time in the ER profession never missed a beat of it... this morning we drug ourselves to the local bread store for coffee and yes, more delicious food ..this time our company was Grayson and Sarah Joy. We then scooted off to the airport , said our good byes and took a deep breath realizing how much God smiles on friendship ....  I loved it God ~ thank you !

A Great Night

Last night we hosted 3 other families who are serving here in Guatemala in different capacities. These are all fairly new families to us. The Lord has brought them all along our path more closely in the last month or so. We all have older kids the same ages. What a huge thing this has become and we consider it even sweeter because as parents we are all building wonderful friendships to. There were also some children here from families where the parents couldn't come and so in total we had about 30 people for lunch and the last of the crew left our house about 8:30 and we'd started at 1:00....needless to say, we all were a hungry bunch and the food was very secondary.... I had prayed , as did David , that the Lord would begin to use our home here for hospitality and encouragement for anyone and everyone... what a blessing for us to see this begin to happen. We have been serving here for 16 months now and one of the other couples had been here for 16+ years (the husband has been here  a little longer...but as a couple 16 years) ... they have so much going on ministry wise and it was amazing to hear of their vision and the tools the Lord has used to put it all together.... For those of you who have been praying for , especially in the area of connecting and receiving support from around us, Thank you !

So, with all of that being said ...i'm off to start our home school day. We are entering in our second week and things are going so well.... we are so blessed ...to blessed to be stressed yes? yes!

(Sorry , no photo of the group... meant to the whole afternoon but it didn't happen)

So Proud of David

Just wanted to pat David on the back here amongst friends... David had the opportunity to speak at the UN (yes, the United Nations) on combating world hunger on behalf on FH Guatemala. SO PROUD of him !

Apologies (again) and updated photos

 Again, I must start off saying ...so sorry ! Better late than never with our anniversary photos. We had a wonderful time in Antigua, Guatemala. David treated me to a two night stay there in one of my favorite places in the world...so far (smile! ) 

The happy couple ...yes, we're officially 20 years old together.  Gracias Senor para mi esposo. (thank you Lord for my husband! )

coffee...beautiful AND tasty ! 

loved the artwork INSIDE my soup..almost to pretty to eat but hunger won out and it was just as delicious as beautiful. 

I really should have taken a photo of the rig up I had to do to take this photo. I had my camera balanced on creamer and salt shakers , camera on it's tippy edge..me hoping not to breath to hard and hence the camera would have fallen onto the tile floor. Obviously, it all worked out. 

Some pretties from the hotel grounds

All of that beauty for 65$ a night.... gotta love it ! 

This was taken at a coffee plantation where we had breakfast. This precious lady makes tortillas to order...Divine... can anyone with a gluten allergy shout out AMEN with me for CORN tortillas freshly off the grill ....devine!

our beautiful sauces and those delicious tortillas housed in a little canvas baggie to stay fresh and warm....making you hungry?

This was my SWEETEST, LOVEY present .... i bought this sweet puppy off the street from a vendor using some "sock money" that I had put aside for our family to use when the Lord prompted me....for anyone who really knows me , you would know that it was the Lord because I have a deathly fear of dogs.... !!!!! can't say it strongly enough... however, i have now turned over a new leaf and not only own a dog but she is with us all day long in our home.... we named her eslobon . in Spanish that means "missing link" ....who knew that so many of our aches of home could be quenched by a friend with 4 legs ! ...

Have a blessed day! There is so much more to fill you in with....stay in touch~ M