Caleb's Birthday

10 days ago we celebrated Caleb's 6th birthday.  It can't be so that our youngest is 6!  I am feeling older every day! Caleb has spent more of his life in Guatemala than in the States.  He is such a sweet young man.  His personality has blossomed over the last year!  Not long ago he wouldn't even let us take his picture and now he wants to talk to everybody and introduces himself and wants to know everything about you and shares what he likes.  He doesn't like us to call him our baby but he is so we will even though he is now 6 years old.  Here are some pictures from our celebration. Tomorrow we will be celebrating Jacob's birthday.  He will be 10 already.

My prayer for Caleb, Jacob and all our kids is that they grow up knowing and following Jesus no matter the cost.  My greatest desire is not that they finish college or have a successful job making lots of money but that they realize in Christ alone is true joy and that there is no greater joy than serving Him.  Please pray with me for these young men that they know and follow Jesus and take the world by storm!

Levi bought this for Caleb.  I love that our kids want to buy gifts for each other!

Legos from Mom and Dad.  He loves legos! 

Caleb wanted to go "go-karting". 

He loves the dogs! 

Lunch.

Breakfast.

Cake! 

Celebrating with friends.

Visit from Mama Juana

We had a great time with my Mom who visited from the 1-19th of September.  Many came to know her as Mama Juana during her time here.  She was able to do many things with us including going to to beach, teaching in the cooking school, sharing in the art school, sharing her testimony with all of our staff, doing some visits and many other things.  It was great to have her here.  Check out some pics from her visit below.

We had a great time together relaxing and enjoying the sun at the beach.  Look at how tall Luke is!!

Mom enjoyed hanging out at the feeding center.  Caleb and Joel like playing with the kids that come.

This is our monthly staff gathering.  Mom shared her testimony and how for 30 years she prayed for one of her son's to carry on the role of her late husband as a missionary in a Spanish speaking country.  Love Guatemala is partially the answer of a long time prayer of her! To God be the Glory!

 She taught the ladies to make chicken enchiladas.  

They gave her this gift!

Trying to balance on her head as the ladies here do.

We were able to visit our friend Cesar with Mom.  Of course he remembered her by name even he hasn't seen her for over 2 years!

We visited with Jaimie and her family.  She is the one I wrote about here that recently lost her mom.

Amelia and Mom.

Amelia and her family with Mom.

We were able to get out one night with Mom by ourselves. 

Thanks Mom!  We hope you return soon!  Love you!

Grieving with Hope

It was a bit of a rough weekend.  I got a text from Carlos Sunday morning early that one of the mom's of one of our art school students had passed away.  This was not just a mom of one of our student's but a friend and a neighbor. Many of you know her and have prayed and supported her and her family over the years. Her name is Albertina. Above you can see a picture of her with 3 of her kids, Cristian, Milton and Yeimy.

She had been sick off and on for many years but yet I was surprised because I did not know that it was at this point.  It is always hard when someone passes away.  It hurts, it sucks and it seems wrong.

My heart aches and I grieve. I grieve for this family that will be without a mom and wife.  I grieve for many who will not have this friend.  I grieve for this culture where this happens way too often because of lack of medical attention, resources and many other reasons.

So we cry and we grieve with this precious kids who are more precious to Jesus.  We pray and walk with them through their pain.  We grieve yet not without hope.  We have hope not because we have all the answers or know how to help this family in this situation.  We don't have hope because we can relieve their pain. We have hope because we know the God of hope that even in the midst of horrible grief and pain can bring hope and joy.  We have hope because of Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross to bring us eternal hope.  That is why we exist, that is the hope we can offer.  This is the hope that will change the world. Give Hope!

Summer 2015

It's hard to believe this summer is almost over!  We have had a busy summer.  Our summer's are usually a bit busier than the rest of the year with teams and other activities.  This year was no exception.  Our kids don't take a summer vacation from home school either since we follow the Guatemalan School calendar which runs from January to October.  Although they did take time off when teams were here as it is difficult to keep up with home school when we have teams. We have also had several visitors as well this summer. So here is a quick summary with some pictures of our summer since I have done no updates on here all summer!

 We had this young man come down to help us for the summer.  His name is Caleb and he is doing and awesome job and has been super helpful!  He has been blogging on our Love Guatemala website and you can check out some of his blogs here if you have not yet done so.

We got to see Fuego (an active volcano fairly close to us) erupt and also we climbed another active volcano or at least I did, Jennifer will have nothing to do with that ;-) 

 Jennifer's sister came down for a visit.

This is Kim and she brings teams down twice per year.  They came down in early July and were a huge blessing to us and to the community!

The feeding center also started in July.  This young man, Yovany, always has a smile. The feeding center days (Tuesday & Thursday) have become the highlight of our week.  It has been great to see our kids helping and serving in this area. You can read a blog from Caleb, the intern here.

This is Caleb passing out spoons at the feeding center.

 I have never seen a kid so excited to have a box of corn flakes.  This was a visit with one of the families in the feeding center and all they had in the house for food was a few tortillas.

This is some of the team from Piedmont Church when we visited a family that some of them sponsor. They also were here and served in July with Love Guatemala.

 We also had a birthday celebration in July.  We celebrated another year of life with Jennifer.

We have had a great summer!  Thanks for all your prayers and support! We are looking forward to Ben's Mom coming down in next month, a little bit of down time at the beach and then October will be another busy month.  In October we have 2 teams coming down as well as our Love Guatemala Graduation.

Easter, Beach, Luke's Birthday and Mother's Day Pictures

We have taken a bunch of pictures lately that I haven't yet posted.  The first was a family picture on Easter.  I can't believe how quick our kids our growing up.

 We had the opportunity to take some time away for a few days to the beach.  We are grateful for time away to rest, recharge and spend time together.  It was much needed.  It was a beautiful place we rented as you can see.  The ocean was very rough so we couldn't get in the ocean much but we spent a lot of time in the pool.

 Beautiful!

 Caleb did not want his picture taken ;-)

 We were with our friends the Harmans.  Luke likes hanging with Mr. Britt ;-)

Lots of time playing in the water!

Our oldest son Luke just had a birthday on the 9th of May. I can't believe he is 15 already!  We celebrated a few times ;-)  We are so grateful for our special Luke and all the ways God uses him.

Here are a few pictures of the boys with Mom on Mother's Day.  

Flowers the boys picked for Mom.