October & November in Guatemala

The month of October we moved into our house and the other highlight of the month was working with other IMB missionaries, the Cadenheads, who had a team here from Tampa, Florida. Noemi helped with translation and I helped build stoves in the Guatemala city dump. Of the 450 homes in the dump about 70 have these wood stoves for cooking.

November was a very busy month as well.

• We went to Santiago Sacatepequez to the Day of the Dead celebration and watched them fly kites that were 15' in diameter. For more information on this  mayan  tradition: link:http: //www.mayadiscovery.com/ing/life/dead/guatemala.htm
• Noemi and I attended the Guatemalan Baptist 3 day Convention in Guatemala city. What a blessing it was to see the pastors of 13 new churches that had been started this year.  Of the 13 11 were part of the K'eKchi church planting movement.

We spent 3 days being the hands and feet for BGR (Baptist Global Response). We put together food bags for 500 families affected by the floods during the rainy season. The sacs of rice, beans, and sugar came in 108 lb. bags, we had 20 bags of each.   These were divided into smaller 4lb. bags.  The final bags that were going to be distributed included rice, beans, sugar, pasta, oatmeal, oil, corn flour for "tortillas", salt as the primary items for distribution.  One of these bags would have enough food for a family for 15 days. On the Saturday of that week, we started early with 4 trucks and our van to deliver the food. 

This was a family ministry day. Before it  was given out to the families of the Santa Ana Mixtan, Nueva Concepcion area,  Pastor Fernando gave a clear gospel presentation to the adults. Noemi had the opportunity to present the gospel to the children of the families affected by the floods. When she gave the invitation many children responded to accept Jesus as Savior. The local pastor said he would follow up with them.

• During that same week our crate from the states arrived. Christmas in November!
• We had the oportunity to speak at the Luz de Vida Baptist Church in Villa Nueva and share our call to missions and to encourage them to be involved in missions. We met with the Pastor to see about further evagelization in the community and the possibility of three missions in the future in nearby communities. 
• We had our first invitation for lunch in a Guatemalan's home after a church service. This was the first time they had had missionaries in their home, so we all were having our first! That was a real eye opener to how the average Guatemalan lives. She served us fried chicken guizzards. There are few foods that just turn my stomach and this is one of them. My prayer was: God I will put all 7 of them down if you will keep them down. My wife likes them and wasn't a problem for her. We were so blessed to be there amongst them.

• We had our first Thanksgiving in Guatemala and shared it with our mission family here. God blessed us with  great bunch of co-laborers!!!! We pray we can be a blessing to them as well.
• The month ended with a mentoring trip that we will tell about in our next post.

Please Remember to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
We are so thankful for the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, this makes it possible for us to be here as missionaries. When you give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, you are an extension of the hand of Christ through your missionaries. Thanks to all who will be contributing to this offering! If you have not given, we invite you to follow this link:
 https://netcommunity.imb.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=229.
Prayer Requests:

• We are visiting churches as part of learning what God is doing here amongst them, but soon need to choose a local church as our home church.
• For the children from Nueva Concepcion, their Spiritual growth.
• For Carlos and Victor, our guards in our community, Jeff is storying the Bible with them.
• For the salvation of Victor; for growth with Carlos as he has agreed to be discipled. This will be a little more challenging as he cannot read.
• For Jeff's language learning.
• For ABUJ, which is the local Baptist Union of Youth, Noemi is working with them, for their 2012 year plan of ministry.
• For the local Pastors as they plan for 2012.
• Spirtual Warfare, stomach strength for the times when we get affected by amoebas, giardia and such from water contamination. 

Thank you all for your prayer support for our family. Without it our transition to a new country and culture would have been more difficult.

Kaila's Soccer Team at Christian Academy of Guatemala

Kaila's Best Friend in CR and Josiah's Friends in our Last Trimester

One of the aspects of a Language School is that families are coming and going continually.  Our children make friends on a trimester basis depending on the stay of the families in country. Kaila was blessed by having a Costa Rican / American friend who lived in Costa Rica.  Her name is Sabrina.  Sabrina has a tender heart for the Lord and we believe she will end up in the mission field one day.  As hard as it is for the MK's seeing friends come and go, the same takes place for the Costa Ricans who have to see new friends come and go. Please pray for Sabrina as she makes new friends this new year when new missionaries arrive at Language School. Sabrina will always hold a dear place in Kaila's heart and so Sabrina's mom in my (Noemi) heart.

Sabrina and Kaila

at the San José Zoo

Josiah developed two good friendships during the summer and they are heading to other countries just like Josiah did.  These young men had some great bonding times and we trust that all of them make new friendships wherever they go. God has blessed Josiah with the beginning of new friendships in school here in Guatemala, yet he wonders how his friends are faring in the states and all over the world.

Josiah, Jerod and Caden

McDonald's in Costa Rica was a highlight for the MK's

An adopted Grandfather and Haircuts

One of our missionaries in Costa Rica who works with connecting teams to new church plants became one of our dearest friends and an adopted grandparent to Kaila and Josiah.  He is the coolest, most fun, tek inclined connector we have encountered in a while. His name is David Brown.

Well, we were fortunate to be with him in a conference in Panamá back in April and his grandson visited there while we were at conference.  It worked out that his grandson had the brunt and Josiah had the Spanish.  So, we all let the boys roam in the streets of Panama as we were in the conference.  They did just great.  Later on, his family came to Costa Rica to visit and we had the unexpected blessing that Lynn, his nephew's wife is a hair dresser. Below is Kaila getting her professional haircut.

So far in Costa Rica I had been doing the haircuts because the people there had told me that the hairdressers liked to chop hair.  Well, one day Josiah was desperate for a haircut and Kaila decided to do the haircut.  It turned out as good as could have been expected considering her inexperience. So, this is where Lynn comes in.  What was the chance for his family to have a hairdresser amongst them.

 Well, as you can imagine she came to his rescue and blessed us all with haircuts.

Uncle David teasing Josiah

Good fellowship with a beautiful family from Michigan

Lynn's husband is a Pastor in Michigan.

Lynn cutting Jeff's hair

Kaila so happy with her haircut

Another aspect for which David was known for in our family was icecream.  Icecream in Costa Rica is very expensive.  Well, Uncle David sure spoiled my kids when he came over.  It was Uncle David who also had taken us to cut our Christmas tree in December and spent time in the hospital with Josiah as we were supposed to have been discharged at noon and six hours later we were finally out the door at the time of Josiah's surgery.  We want to thank God for Uncle (Grandpa) David and the timeliness that God had in just having him show up  when we needed a good visit with him and viceversa.

Missionary Goodbyes and See Ya Laters

One of the things that we have had to learn is the saying of goodbyes or see ya laters.  It does not mean that it is easier or harder, but it is one of the aspects to be learned.  In Language School we had opportunity to build some great friendships with some of our colleagues  from the IMB. Below are some pictures of some of our farewells as people started leaving during our last trimester. 

The first set of pictures is from our lunch after church with one of the families that we used to have meals together on a regular basis and times of fellowships.  Our boys hung around together and their youngest used to love to come and visit with the Cucumbers as he would call us. Fun remembrances!

 On the picture below, before Shawn, the lady in the blue shirt, departed to Chile and Pam, the lady in the black shirt went for her stateside time, we decided to get together to say our farewells to one another. Our mentor was Rebecca which is the lady on the far right with the vibrant colors.  She was such a blessing to every one of us, she was like the mother or counselor that we all needed in our first year on the field. We give thanks for her many years of service and great wisdom shared with us in our times together.  Please pray for Rebecca as she retires in October and a new chapter unfolds in her life in the states.

Erin, Noemi, Shawn, Pam, Heather, and Rebecca

On July, we had a farewell for Mark and Pam Grumbles in our home which was a great opportunity to get together with the Missionary family in Costa Rica. Below are some pictures of some of the ones that were able to come.

At a later date, the couple on the red became a source of undescribable blessing!

Please uplift the missionaries in Costa Rica as they work on mobilization, properties divestments, and Language Institute responsibilities.

A Celebration at The Castle Country Club

Laura Picado, our Crown Study Facilitator

At the end of a Crown Financial Concepts Study, one of the things that take place is a celebration for finishing the class.  It happened that in the class we had some affluent individuals that were generous to offer our class final get together at "El Castillo Country Club" in the area of Heredia.  It was a blessed time and surely more than we expected to experience as a result of being in a Crown Study.  Our children were so blessed by it.  They even got to ice skate.  The place had a mono rail around the property, different courts for tennis, volleyball, basketball, a chapel, beautiful manicured areas, picnic pavillions, restaurants, a spa, pools, and beautiful views as it set in the mountains and we could overlook the city of San José.

Don Juan's Wife

Andrés, Josiah, and Kaila

Being children again!

Some good competition!

The young going around campus and exploring!

Sweet view!

Ice Skating in Costa Rica, who would have thought?

The get together went from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sweet time of fellowhip!

Josiah winning the hand!

This was an unexpected blessing in Costa Rica.  The greater blessing was to see the entire group experience transformation in the study, the salvation of two men, Don Joaquín and Don Juan and for us to hear directly from Don Juan's wife how God used this study to change Juan's life.  Please pray for the growth of these two men and for their wives and chidlren.

God surely blessed us with many great relationships while in Costa Rica and we are anticipating developing some here in Guatemala, all because Jesus Christ died on the cross to save such wretch like us and gives us a bond with other believers that is from eternity to eternity!

A Prayer Tea

Prayer Tea at Aserrí Missionary Baptist Church

In June, God led our Pastor's wife and Rosi to have a Prayer Tea for the M women after learning back in April about the needs in that part of the world on the return from Fer from the conference in Panama. So, we geared up for it in the month of May and in the beginning of June we had our first Prayer Tea for the M women.  God brought 35 women to the time of prayer and education about the needs in the M world for tellers of the Truth to come their way.

As part of the time of preparation, we met to pray, we went to shops to get some materials to make some veils as a gift to the women, which Rosi sowed for the 35 women, we ordered some materials from our organization to include in the gift package which included the 52 weeks prayer booklet for the ethnicities of the world.  In the process, we learned to make some eastern snack foods and got the different foods on another trip.  The ladies of the church donated the china and the floor covers so that we would have as close as possible a setting that would be similar to the customs of the eastern world, and finally when the time came, it was time to transformed the temple in a living room setting for our time of prayer as women who want to be on our knees for the unreached people of the world.

The monologue Lady

We had a lady that memorized a monologue that included some of the aspects from the culture of difference parts of that side of the world, so that the ladies would understand a little more of the culture of these women. Our organization has excellent statistics that we were able to share with the women for which they were very thankful, as they had not been aware of the needs of that region of the world in such detail.

One of our group of ladies on a table! Sweet, sweet ladies!

The 35 ladies committed to pray for 52 weeks with the Prayer guide and interestingly, some went home and started to research more about the ethnicities that they are praying for.  God gave us such a blessed time of prayer.  We could sense His glory as the women poured their hearts before the Lord for different ethnicities. Such conviction from the heart was inspiring to my heart!

Faithfulness to the Call

About two years ago, a man on his 30 used to work for what would be an agency similar to our FBI agency in the states. God orchestrated for him to leave that job and concentrate on exercising his profession as a Topographer Engineer as a way to meet the needs of his family. Thus pursuing the call that God placed in his life to also surrender to service to Him in a more full time capacity.  He came to Christ over 5 years ago and has grown in the Lord at a fast rate, for He seeks the Father daily in the study of His word and prayer, and has a very good mentor for a Pastor. This man is the man that I told you I would let you know about his call in the prior blog.

Fer and Rosi on the left, Fer leading prayer time at a visit!

God has called Fer and his wife Rosi to missions and at the time they did not know how this would look.  When we arrived at their church back last August, our desire was to join a church that would want to do church planting around them. When we asked the Pastor if he had the vision to plant churches as missions the first day we visited, he said that he had two men who were called to the field. One of these men is Fer. On that Sunday was when we met Fer.  Little did we know that we were going to become great friends. Well, our friendship developed and we met on wednesdays to mentor each other and seek God's face as to how the call would have feet and field attached to it. Fer and Rosi have helped in three of the mission points that we have described before, La Fila, Cangrejal and lately in a work in Puerto Viejo.  

Back in April, Fer and the Coordinator of Missions for that particular Baptist Association, went to Sinergia 2011 in Panama.  We traveled at night from Costa Rica. Rosi and the children were scheduled to go as well. When we reached the Panama border that morning, the Panama migration office did not let them in because they were Cuban.  So, the rest of the team headed off to Panama, which was one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my life, leaving a team member and most importantly my best friend in Costa Rica, like a sister and her children, the friends of my children behind. Rosi had to find a hotel and the next day catch the bus back to Costa Rica  because there were not buses at that time  of the early morning heading to Costa Rica. Seeing them at the terminal from the window of the bus as we headed off was one of the most difficult times we had to face.  I (Noemi) could not stay behind with her because already that night when we had to go to the CR bus terminal, my daughter Kaila had contracted a fast running infection from her return from Camp and Jeff had decided to stay back for one more day and ride the next night on the next bus. So it was just Josiah and I accompanying our friends to the conference.  If Jeff had been there to go with the rest of the team, I would have stayed back with my friend.  Starting on the night of departure, then on that morning, one of the aspects that was evident to me is that we had entered Spiritual Warfare and we had to press on, because these men were going to find out more of the definition of their call.

At the conference, both men Fer and the Coordinator of Missions learned so much about the need to reach the people in the world that have not even heard the name of Jesus. They came back to Costa Rica and started immediately getting courses from a local oraganization that prepares workers for the ends of the earth.  I ask you to pray because even though Fer has a great degree, business is slow and he is trying to support his family as he prepares for what God has in store in the future.  Pray also that the funds would come within the organization for them to be able to make it to the ends of the earth and possibly for some creative ways to get them there. We have the owner of the funds, pray that the distribution would be according to God's purposes by His people.

This beautiful couple and their children was one of the hardest aspects for us to leave in Costa Rica.  We met regularly with them and we became like sisters and brothers.  They are as committed as you ever can see when it comes to the Word of God, the spreading of God's word, and teaching of His word.  It has been one of our greatest joys to have had the opportunity to know them and to be their prayer partners unto the ends of the earth.