Pumpkin Carving

Yep. I'm behind. But then, you really would expect nothing less, right? I mean if I actually stayed caught up on what is going on you'd really think something was wrong. (There probably would be or it's 8 years from now when there are no children home.)

I decided to just jump to the most current thing I have and fill in later. (Well, latest to the extent it means, the pictures have been downloaded.)

Pumpkin carving begins with a trip to Burt's. (You will recognize that Burt's comes before carving hence no blog about that yet.) The boys carefully pick out their pumpkins after going on the hayride.

This one really has nothing to do with pumpkin carving. I am taking a Photoshop class on cleaning up eyes in portrait pictures or head shots. Just practicing.

We...in fairness, Christopher...used all kind of tools. I think this is the first year that neither Keith nor I had to help. Totally by his lonesome. He did, however, wait until I was back from a trip so I could take pictures.

At first he was concerned that he didn't print out a pattern, but soon decided to go with just a traditional face. He went right to work.

Within minutes, his face was taking shape and pumpkin pieces were flying everywhere.

And, then something went drastically wrong. Our pumpkin ended up shot in the forehead and with a knife through his skull. I go inside for a minute and this is what I came back to. Glad I don't know everything that goes on inside the mind of these guys.

Guatemala Wrap Up

Thought it would be fun to do something a little different. Just a bunch of pictures with little comment.

This is a very typical scene at any evangelical church. Concrete floors. Tin roof - not always waterproof. Not exactly like our church, but it does get the job done. (It also gets very loud when it's raining hard.)

One of the few pics I have of the two of us from the trip.

Very often children hang out around the clinics. It's not every day they get to see a tow-headed child. They are such beautiful children and so sweet.

Just a flower after a rain. It was in a pot between one of the churches and the kitchen area/bathroom.

Thank goodness these were cheap Old Navy jeans purchased on sale. Who would do body painting with acrylic paint? The kids loved his handiwork....wasn't a bad job for my child who really isn't that artistic. (No offense, James, but you know what I mean.) After we got in the suburban, one of the other moms said, "I guess I should have gotten the face-painting kit out." Yep. Probably wasn't acrylic paint.

Hermann is always cutting up and having fun. This baby was soooo cute.

This man really touched my heart. Choban played with a band in his church and was a deacon. He was so kind even in spite of being pretty sick. We met so many neat people.

I wish I had gotten a good picture of the older woman, Ambronsia. She was walking around barefooted (a woman after my own heart). Her daughter, Juana, was so kind and encouraging to us.

The pharmacy. Dieter (in the middle) is getting married next month. He's been the pharmacist on every one of our trips. We will miss him.

This is in Masaguas. For those of you have ever had any Spanish, you will recognize that as "a lot of water." Boy, it didn't disappoint. It rained so much that day. I met with Bonifacio early in the day....he prayed to receive Christ. One thing that always strikes me about Guatemala is that appears much easier for an adult there to accept Christ. It's harder there for them to provide their own hope and security so when they are offered something that provides so much hope, they are much quicker to grab onto it.

I could have just brought this little girl home. Too precious. She's showing a picture of Jesus teaching the people - I think she had no idea it is upside down.

Olga was such a sweet mom and her children so well-behaved. They were mesmerized by the evangecube. The doctor thought they all had parasites...a very common ailment here. Fortunately, we had medicine for that.

This is Jensy. Can you believe she's 12? Guatemalans are generally genetically shorter than other people. You can imagine the issues she has being taller than practically everyone else! Along with her height, you could see some rebellion going on, too. We asked her mom to leave so we could talk to her alone. I really felt for her. She looked like she was so uncomfortable in her own skin. She acted like she was only halfway listening. Then, later before we left she came up and gave me a big hug. (Of course, it could have been because I was James's mom. She definitely thought he was cute, but she did seem sincerely appreciative.)

Such a sweet woman. She promised to pray for me. One of those unexpected blessings we get while we are there.

James sharing the gospel. You can't really see Aleida who is the translator sitting beside him. She was awesome. I loved working with her.

Daughter of one of the leaders in the church in Villa Nueva. She was adorable.

The older kids are obviously intrigued, but always keep a bit of distance. They are all always quick to smile, though.

House on the Rock

Every Sunday afternoon that we are in Guatemala, we go to House on the Rock (or Casa Para Ninos). This year would prove to be quite different since we had Hillary with us. Hillary and her husband Chad have adopted two absolutely adorable little girls. One is from Guatemala and one is from Mexico. Going to a children's home was tough for her.

This is Pablo who was absolutely adorable. We hooked up with him as soon as we walked in the door. Unlike any other visit I have been on, we were there during parent visitation. It was pretty tough for me to watch parents come visit knowing that many of them had brought their kids here knowing that they couldn't care for them. What a blessing to have Mike and Dottie who parent over 500 kids.

But, therein lies the concern. How do 2 people parent 500 kids? It does seem like such a daunting task. Hillary left with so many questions and so many concerns.

I guess we have gotten used to seeing all those kids and understanding how they take such good care of the kids. There is a school. They are fed and clothed. Medical care is provided. But Hillary has such a heart for these kids.

We tried to explain that this was a good place and the children are so well cared for. It was raining so we didn't get to get the tour of the entire campus so it was hard to understand.

In the end, God had a plan. A very special plan just for Hillary. When we met the new translators, we found out that there was a very special one. One who had never translated with a team before, but whose first day was absolutely ordained by God.

You see, Hillary was assigned this new translator who's name is Marta. Marta was the first child from House on the Rock to translate for a team. Her first day was the day after Hillary was so worried about all those children. Marta was able to assure Hillary that it is a good place and that they are well cared for physically, emotionally and spiritually. How cool is my God?

Guatemala

I've already told you about landing in the Tropical Storm....the next day was Sunday and we had the opportunity to visit the new church plant in Antigua. I think it was only their 3rd Sunday to meet, but they were already having two services. The service was awesome, but we had a nice surprise afterward. Mario and his son, David, took us on a little walk. Our walk included a tour of the museum at the Casa de Santo Domingo.

The grounds are spectacular. I have tried to piece together a bit of the history from the signage at the museum and from what I could google. Antigua was originally Santiago de Guatemala (or St. James of Guatemala) and was one of the most important Spanish cities of the New World.

The city was built around a courtyard and included a church, convent, homes, etc numbering approximately 50 buildings. This photo was taken in a room underground and is one of the few remaining artifacts from the original buildings. There was an earthquake in 1773 so the capital was moved and the name changed to Antigua Guatemala or "old Guatemala." We were able to see the bases of the columns of the convent....they were massive.

We enjoyed getting to see a little bit the city. It is cleary very old, but is quite beautiful.

The city was first established in the early 1500s. It's pretty cool to walk around and see pieces of history that are 400 years old.

We also were able to tour a jade factory. Real jade is only found in a swath across Guatemala. We were told that Mexico does produce a lot of jade jewelry, they import it. It was also interesting to learn that Singapore jade is actually a different stone. (They told us the two different names, but I of course don't remember that. I do remember that Guatemalan jade was a better quality.) The Mayans placed great value on jade and actually attached it to their teeth as shown on this actual skull. (I know, it's a little creepy. I did at least leave out the photos of the priests, etc in the mausoleum. That was really creepy.) This little piece of cultural history helped me understand why so many women have gold on their teeth. They find it quite attractive.

The grounds were well-manicured and the plants fabulous. It seemed like a really great vacation spot sometime....maybe if I ever get my Spanish brushed up.

While I Sort Out the Pictures...

A little trouble getting the pictures from Guatemala uploaded, so taking a post "holiday" to share something I came across while there that really doesn't have anything to do with the trip. Actually, this is really for my immediate family. After well over 30 years, I have found proof that refutes a position that I (and Tony and my mom) took back then. I have totally forgotten the context, but it was something about Daddy explaining something about art to us.

Now, you should understand that my dad has quite an artistic eye and I remember him teaching me about what matches and what doesn't when you're picking out clothes. (From him I learned that stripes that go with plaids. It took me years to put green and blue together because that did not fit the fashion rules of the late 60s, but I digress.) We thought he had a slip of the tongue, a brief confusion, some distraction from three kids bouncing around.

Back to the proof at hand. This is really for Tony who was part of that discussion so many years ago (and the many since then as we fondly recall the discussion of colors). Brown is one of the four primary colors.

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, the title is Primary Colors. There's rojo (red), amarillo (yellow), azul (blue) and then the brown blob under blue. There it is irrefutable proof. Daddy, we owe you an apology. (And just in case there is further discussion, you should know that I have more than one piece of proof.)

For those of you not part of our immediate family, thank you for giving us this moment to work through this.