Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Craziness in the Kunkel Household

As some of you may know Jennifer's Dad passed away a few weeks ago.  She has been home for the last 2 weeks by herself so I have been going solo around the house.  First of all I want to say I don't know how single Dads and Moms do it!  Single Moms and Dads you rock!  My mom was a single mom most of growing up years with 3 boys to raise. So thanks again Mom for all you did!

It has been crazy around here but we have been having a lot of fun too.  I have been trying to take advantage of this time and spend lots of extra time with the boys.  The Lord has been reminding me again that there is not a more important job on earth that I have other than being a Daddy to my 5 boys.

I have also been reminded how great of a wife I have!  She is a great Mom and Wife and is sorely missed around here!

Overall the boys have been good and we have had a lot of fun!  Although I am sure my hair is even thinner than 2 weeks ago! (Yes I am coming to grips that this is happening:) Enjoy a few pics of the last few weeks:

 Dishes did not get done as often as when Mom is here :)
 We did get to do some fun stuff too like ride some go-karts.
 And of course enjoy the new swing set

We even got a new slide while Mommy was gone!

I had a little fun on facebook too about crazy things that happened around here. You can check that out here: https://www.facebook.com/benmkunkel 

Come home soon Jennifer!!!!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Piedmont Church Makes a Difference in Guatemala

We had the honor of hosting a team from Piedmont church last week.  They were a great team with great hearts.  This was a church that we knew God had brought us together to serve the community here.  Their Pastor, Jerry Dingmore was our Pastor over 10 years ago when we lived in Texas.  After seeing that we were coming down here to serve he contacted me and he came down just a few weeks after we moved here last year to see if this would be a fit for him and his new church that he was now leading.

Fast forward one year later when Jerry and Jay brought down a team of 20 people to work alongside of us and be a huge blessing to the community here.  Check out this picture of the team:

We did a bunch of things with Piedmont Church in a short amount of time.  We started the week out with the toughest job of all.  We moved 800 block about 2-300 yards on tough terrain, down a steep hill, on a path that was being worked on, at times in the pouring rain.
 This is the path we brought the block down.
Here is the team sitting on the 800 block after we successfully moved it without any major injuries.

On the same day there was another smaller team building a "kitchen" for one of the ladies in our cooking school, Julia and her family.  They did a great job!
You were probably expecting a little more than this when I said a "kitchen" but this is literally just a shelter with a "plancha" a rocket stove which burns much more efficiently and safely than what the family was using before.  In fact one of the reasons we chose this family is because their kids were having health issues which in part were due to the smoke they were constantly breathing in.  This is a huge issue here!

They team also built chicken coups, delivered them to 4 families, delivered pigs to 4 families, did lots of home visits and took food, medicine and clothes, did a medical clinic, had a lunch with and prayed over and encouraged our teachers, made canvases for the art school, shared testimonies and a special time with all the students in all the schools and had some fun times visiting Antigua and hiking the mountain or playing soccer.  Wew! I got tired just writing all that.  It was definitely a full week both physically and spiritually as we had times of worship and sharing almost every night too!

Enjoy some more pictures of the week below:
 Worship Time

 Building Chicken Coups
 Medical Clinic

 Delivering Chicken Coups


 Visiting with a sweet family



Thanks Piedmont Church!  We are grateful for your partnership in the gospel here.  We are looking forward to all we will do together in the months and years to come!