Last week in Antigua

Well, instead of writing a post for everyday this week titled, Last Monday in Antigua, etc. I settled for one post for the week.  It has been a week full of "lasts."  We've had a meal with everyone we know!

On Wednesday, we had dinner with Nancy (one of Stephen's teachers) and her family.  I am not kidding when I say that they live on the top of a mountain.  The road up to her house is incredibly steep and narrow.  In one part, the side mirror was touching the wall on the driver's side.  The view, however, is beautiful.  They told us that during November and December you can see Christmas lights up and down the mountain.

Today all six of us had a goodbye lunch at Pollo Campero and then came back to the house to open the farewell gifts and eat apple pie.  As usual, it's hard to say goodbye--but such is life.

Tonight we went to dinner with Jane, one of our fellow students.  She is a 15-year old from Boulder, CO, who has been here (alone) studying Spanish for 10 weeks.  She returns home on August 8.

We're almost all packed up; just have to load the truck in the morning.  We're anxious to get to the city in the morning to see the team from Abundant Life Baptist Church in Lee's Summit and the team from El Salvador. Tomorrow will be a great day for a reunion!  Please pray for the campaign this week; the first evening campaign is tomorrow night in a private neighborhood where one of the church members lives.  

 After dinner at Nancy's house--we had typical Guatemala food, including Chili Rellenos, frijoles and arroz con leche.

 All-american dessert to say good-bye to Antigua.  I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed it.

Nancy, Siria, Aracely, me and Corina.  

Dinner with Jane at the restaurant at the Camino Real Hotel.  

Last Sunday in Antigua

We had a very busy final Sunday here in Antigua, although we spent most of the day in the city.  We picked up Nancy, Stephen's teacher, and her sister, Christina, at 8:15 Sunday morning.  Nancy went to church with us last Sunday and this weekend, her sister wanted to come along as well.  We arrived at the Biltmore Hotel for the service about 9:30.

As always, the music at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, Guatemala City, is uplifting.  I have really come to appreciate singing Christian music in Spanish.  My new favorite song from the worship service, "Tu Reinas" (You Reign)  is by Rojo, a Christian band from Mexico.  The music is beautiful and the words are amazing: telling us that Christ is the lamb and victor; he is seated on the throne and reigning with all authority.  Pastor Nelson has been preaching powerful messages from 1 Corinthians.  This week he preached from Chapter 3 and challenged the church (and us) to "grow up" and move beyond the "milk" of the word.

After church, we had the pleasure of taking the Rivas family (Pastor Nelson, Rosemarie and their 4 daughters), Nancy and Christina to lunch.  It was a great time of fellowship; and, as usual, Stephen had the girls laughing most of the time.

By the time we headed back to Antigua it was raining, which makes the drive even more difficult.  We dropped Nancy and Christina off about 5:00 and headed back to the house for a brief rest.  At 6:00 we drove to Jocotenango to pick up Siria, Stephen's other teacher, and her two boys, Louis and Alejandro.  Although we weren't very hungry, the boys helped us make quick work of a giant pizza.  Stephen and I both had to smile when Louis ordered a hot chocolate with his pizza and Alejandro ordered coffee with cream.

We finally made it home for the evening at 8:15!  It was a long day with lots of driving, but well worth the effort.

 The four girls--Daniella, Katerina, Fabiola, Camila (with a bandage on her head from a fall last week.)

 Nancy and Christina--you can definitely tell they are sisters.

 Pastor Nelson and Rosemarie

Siria, Louis and Alejandro after dinner.

Last Saturday in Antigua

Today, for our last "Saturday" in Antigua, I baked two loaves of zucchini bread* this morning and then we picked up 3 large pizzas from Dominos and headed to the town of Pastores, about 15 minutes north of Antigua.  We had lunch with the Valle family--we have loved getting to know them--Corina, one of my teachers, Jose, her husband, and their 4 beautiful daughters, Melanie, Andrea, Michele and Gabriela.  Stephen found time to teach the girls Cribbage, while Corina and I visited with her in-laws in the house next door.  

This picture is on the steps in their house.  Above them and to the right is their kitchen.  Corina cooks "camp style" over wood.  

This is their living room, dining room and bedroom.  There are 3 twin beds (for the family of 6); they rearrange them to make room for the tables you see.  There is one large free-standing piece of furniture which serves as their closet.

This is Clemencia, the girls' grandma.  She makes and sells tortillas Monday through Friday--she uses 20+ pounds of corn flour every day.  On the weekends, she makes tortillas and traditional Guatemalan food to sell on Sunday evening, including Chuchitos ( a typical type of Guatemalan tamale made using the same corn masa as a regular tamale but they are smaller, have a much firmer consistency and are wrapped in a tuzas, dried corn husks, instead of plantain leaves), Atol de Elote (a drink that typically includes masa (corn hominy flour), water, unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon and vanilla), Arroz con Chocolate (rice pudding with chocolate), enchiladas (flat tortillas layered with refried beans, meat, diced beets, carrots and topped with a slice of hard boiled egg), and Rellenitos de plátano (small balls of mashed plantains filled with sweetened black beans, fried and sprinkled with sugar.)  We stopped by last Sunday and I sampled the Atol de Elote and took some Rellenitos de Platano to go.


Today, Clemencia cut some of her beautiful roses to make a bouquet for me.  She is one of the sweetest women I have ever met.  She's always smiling and laughing even though she has a very hard life.

 We are excited to get back home to El Salvador, but it is going to be difficult to say goodbye to our new friends!


*Learned something new last night as I was searching for baking soda in the local grocery store.  Who'd a thought that in Antigua, baking soda is only sold in pharmacies because of it's "medicinal" uses.  

So much Spanish, so little time!

We're feeling the pressure of only 8 more days of classes; and, once again, we are convinced that learning this language will be a life-long process.  We have grown quite attached to our teachers, Araceley, Nancy, Corina and Siria.  I guess that talking for 3 hours a day for 7 weeks has that effect.  In addition, we've meet Corina's whole family and Siria's kids.  Last Sunday, Nancy made the trip to Guatemala City to go to church with us at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva.

Please continue to pray for us as we wrap up our time here.

 Araceley and me--think this was the 2nd day of class.

 Nancy and Corina after a game of Spanish Scrabble with Stephen and me.

Corina and me in our usual shady spot in the afternoon.

Beautiful Place

Ever since we got to Antigua, Stephen had been wanting to find and visit "La Reunion."  It is a golf resort about 30 minutes from Antigua.  Down here you come to realize that maps, including Google's version, are not very reliable.  Anyway, we tried to find the place a couple of Saturdays ago, but ended up driving through the small town Cuidad Vieja (means Old City) on streets that were barely wide enough for our pickup.  During a two-block stretch, we were even going the wrong way on a one-way street.  At that point, we weren't trying to find the golf course anymore--just our way back to Antigua.

With more information in hand, we set out again last Sunday afternoon and after only a couple of wrong turns, we located the Highway 14.  Only here in Central America would the connecting "street" between the principal road coming out of Antigua and Highway 14, be a dirt road.  Anyway, we found the place and it was unbelievably beautiful. The Pete Dye golf course looks amazing (or so said Stephen) and the hotel (28 private suites) and restaurant are as nice as any upper-end Westin or Hyatt we've every seen.

I'm sure the pictures won't do it justice, but they're all we got.  From the vista at the hotel you can see 4 of Guatemala's volcanoes.  The largest one, named Agua (water), was covered by clouds like usual.  On a clear day they told us you can often see smoke coming from the volcano named Fuego (fire) which is still active.

At one point during the search, Stephen had wondered if the people that chose to build had just thrown a dart at the Guatemalan map or if there was a specific reason why they chose the spot.  I'm pretty sure we know the answer now.  It was too late to go to the driving range and Stephen doesn't have any clubs with him.  Plus, we're pretty sure that there's no way we can afford the place, but, as I said, there's no denying that it's beautiful.  Even though the buildings were beautiful, God's handiwork was more than amazing.  Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Birthday to Me

Celebrated a "big" one this year in Antigua!  The day started with gifts from our teachers--a dozen roses from Siria, a loaf of almond fruit bread from Araceley, and two hand-made cards.  The gifts are so special because we know that neither one of these single moms have the money to spare.  My birthday cake was a slice of cheesecake with a candle so it was much easier to blow out than a cake filled with ___ candles.  (Can't bring myself to write/say the number.)   Learned a new and difficult Spanish verb conjugation today and the teachers didn't go easy on me--still gave me homework!  


Spent the early evening talking with my boys and chatting with friends on Facebook.  I know many people are not Facebook fans, but it is great tool for missionaries to keep up with family and friends!

Finished off the evening with bruschetta and our favorite pizza.  All in all a great birthday!

 With Siria and Araceley.

 My birthday cheesecake, complete with my very own candle.

With Nancy and Corina.

Moving Day

It's moving day here in Guatemala . . . . . we moving out of the school and into a house.  The nice thing is that it is literally next door to the school so we can almost carry our luggage over there.  The "owner" is a very nice woman who is originally from Holland.

This weekend, we're also saying goodbye to new friends from all over the world:  Paul, Sheila and their family (missionaries to Honduras), Emma and Patrick (from Holland), Daniel and Cass (from Australia) and David and his son, Scott (from Oregon.)  They've all finished their time at the school and are all off on new adventures.

We have four more weeks of school . . . . we think we're getting better!  When we get back to El Salvador in August, we're hoping other people will also be able to tell the difference.

Surgery Today

Praying Psalms 31:24, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD, for my brother during his open heart surgery today.

Surgery now underway at KU Med center.

Prayer Request Part 2

My brother's heart cath was normal.  They were looking for potential blockages before they do the open heart valve repair procedure tomorrow.  Please continue to pray for him.  Thanks!

Prayer Request

Please pray for my brother, Ron. Tomorrow he is having a heart cath at KU Med and then on Tuesday he will have open heart surgery to repair or replace, if necessary, his mitral valve. His wife, daughter and our dad will be there for the surgery, but my sister is in Mexico traveling for work and, of course, I can't be there.

Thanks for lifting him up!

Prayer Request for Corina

Please pray for Corina, one of my teachers. We took her to the emergency room  here in Antigua, Guatemala on Monday and they diagnosed her with a kidney infection and gave her antibiotics.  After 3 days her pain has not lessened; she went to a public health clinic this morning and the doctor recommended an ultrasound to check for kidney stones.  We took her to a clinic with an ultrasound machine this afternoon.  Interestingly, she got her results about 10 minutes after finishing the test and everything looked normal.  A negative result on an ultrasound, however, doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't have kidney stones (so says Stephen's brother who is a family practice doctor in Kansas.)  So, it's back to the public clinic tomorrow to see what, if anything, the doctor suggests.  By the way, originally they told her the ultrasound would cost 200Q, or about $28 and Corina and her husband, Jose, were concerned about their ability to pay the bill.  At the front desk of the clinic, they found out the charge was only 75Q ($10.00) and you could see the relief on their faces.

Things that might be simple to diagnose with the equipment/tests that are available in the states, can become life-threatening here.  So, thanks for lifting her up in prayer.

 

Not your average McDonalds

I am pretty sure you would not think this was McDonalds, if not for Ronald sitting peaceably on the bench. Nevertheless, this is the garden at the McDonalds in Antigua, Guatemala.  Nothing like eating an Egg Muffin or Quarter Pounder with Cheese while enjoying this beautiful view.

 

If

Prayer Request

Please pray for my teacher, Araceley.  She's a Catholic and is convinced that she needs to do more good than bad things so she can get to Heaven.  I shared the gospel with her in class this morning, using "The Big Question."  She asked if she could keep the tract because it was very interesting.

Moving day and More

Yesterday afternoon we moved from our room with the family of 14 to a room at the school.  All in all, it's a trade up for us.  Our room is probably twice the size, has a desk, two tables, a mini-fridge, a TV and faces the garden of the school not a street.  Right now there are two couples and two single girls in rooms here; there is also a family staying in the small apartment on the grounds.  Paul, Sheila and their kids, Bella, Gabriel and Isaiah are missionaries who will be serving in Honduras.    

The cost is about the same, except that not as many meals are included in the price.  Therefore, we are heading to the grocery store this morning to pick up somethings.  The kitchen here is large and well-equipped, so everyone can share the space without too much trouble.  Actually, we are looking forward to eating a bit "lighter" and a big bowl of popcorn will really hit the spot tonight.

Since we didn't have time to shop yesterday, we visited a pizza place that my teacher recommended, and it was delicious.  Stephen also learned that one of the restaurants in town had a piano so after we ate, we stopped by Cafe Flor to check it out.  The owner, Jose is from El Salvador; but he and his wife have been living in Antigua for 10 years.  On Friday nights, he plays the piano and she sings.  We had dessert there (which was fantastic) and listened to 3-4 of their songs.  They were so friendly, even inviting us to stay in their extra apartment if we come back to Antigua for a visit.

One of Stephen's teachers (Syria) and both of mine (Corina and Aracely) are Catholics.  Nancy, Stephen's second teacher is a Christian.  Syria told Stephen that she doesn't believe in eternal security.  Corina's mother died a week ago Friday and nine days later it is traditional to have a special mass and celebration of the individual's life.  She along with her sisters and friends are making 1200 tamales (they were supposed to get started at 3 am this morning) for the people who will be coming to her home after the mass. The family has been frustrated with their local priest who has offered very little support and comfort.  My other teacher, Aracely, is a single mom with a 15-year old boy and 10-year old twins; her financial situation is difficult.  Work at the school is good, but not as secure/regular as she needs. 

Please pray that we for us as we continue to share our testimonies with them as we "practice our Spanish."  Please pray that their hearts will be open to the truth of God's word.  In addition to them, pray for us to have an opportunity to share with the other who are living here.  Daniel and Cassandra are an unmarried couple here from Australia; Jane is a Korean-American from the states and Emma, who just arrived yesterday, is a 30-year old from Holland.  Lot's of diversity here!

Time to sign off and get going.  We are heading to Guatemala City for church tomorrow and looking forward to a day of worship with the Vida Nueva family!  

Pictures 1, 2 and 3 are views from our room in the school; 4 is from the pizza place last night.

June 8, 2012

Two years ago today we boarded a plane for El Salvador . . . . . what a grand adventure it has been.  Some of the things that have happened we expected, but many, many of the others were unexpected.  Nevertheless, the adventure continues . . . . this summer in Guatemala.  God has a way of working out all of the details if we'll just let him.

Looking forward to many more anniversaries here in Central America.