Language school has been very beneficial to us both. Danny knows much more than I do and can communicate somewhat with people. I am learning more and more and trying to speak. I understand more than I can speak. Brayden is in a bilingual school and learns new words every day. We love our small town that we live in. We meet new people every week. We have been forming a relationship with children and their parents that live up the mountain a little bit from our home. They have come to visit our home and play with our children every day for the last two weeks. We started inviting them to go to church with us about four weeks ago. The first week no one came, then six, then fifteen, and then this past Sunday thirteen kids and one teenager went with us. This past weekend we were privileged to have a translator, Patty, and her daughter, Mindy, stay with us Saturday and Sunday. For the very first time, we were able to speak clearly with our Pastor and other church leaders. We were able to hear their desires and plans for the future of their church and community and were able to express our desires and plans for why we have come here. God has clearly come before us, because our plans and desires are very similar. Danny was able to preach and give a salvation message to the people we have been visiting for several weeks. Three people were saved on Saturday night! Praise God! Then Danny also preached Sunday morning for our church family. What a blessing to be given this opportunity. Our visit with Patty and her daughter was so delightful. She answered lots of questions we had about Guatemala and gave great advice about living here. We are looking forward to a visit to her home in Xela very soon, we hope. We are very slowly getting our home set up. It is an extremely long process. We finally have our bank account set up. We can deposit a check from our U.S. bank account, then be able to use those funds after thirty days. We are so pleased to finally have a car! We purchased a 1991 Jeep Cherokee. It is old and not very pretty, but we don't care. It is perfect for our needs locally. We still need to purchase more furniture and household items that are hard for us to find. We hope to find these items soon. We are looking forward to our first visitors from the States in a little over a month. A team from Birmingham is coming to do mission work with us for a week during Spring Break. We are excited to see them and have them work with us. We are so appreciative to the many people that are sending e-mails and messages through facebook. Your prayers, love and encouragement is overwhelming. We love you all! We have some ladies that are making clothes for our new friends here and some who plan to bring and leave their own clothing for those in need here. Thank you! You have asked and are willing to provide needs that we have. Here are some:
Ink for our printer, copy paper, a cookie sheet, crayola crayons, worksheets for children's church and Bible study, Spanish Bibles, and Spanish witnessing tracts.
Our biggest problem is getting these items to us. We are unable to receive packages because we may never receive them. The only way to receive items at this time is through teams that visit us. If they are able to fit extra items in their personal luggage, we can get stuff sent that way. We have been looking into ways to receive needed items, but this has proven to be a big problem. The easiest way to provide for a need that you see would be to send money to our church marked specifically for that need. An example would be that someone noticed that the tarps on the San Cristobal structure need to be replaced. This is very true and is a necessity especially during the rainy season. Those can be purchased here, rather than brought here by a team because of weight and space.
We are learning more and more about the people of Guatemala. Many of the children do not attend school after a time because they are needed to work to provide for the family. There are many children in the families and lots of mouths to feed. It is not uncommon to see entire family leaving the coffee fields at dark after working all day. The schools in our area are not large enough to hold all of the students. Therefore, they have morning school and evening school and divide the students. Tortillas are a common meal for many because they are inexpensive. However, the kids that live just up from us that we have told you about can only buy the meal and make the tortillas themselves.
Brayden and Brianna are both doing wonderfully adapting here. They play with children everyday that do not understand them or that they do not understand. We are proud of them and how they are willing to allow kids to play with their toys all the time.
