October Birthdays

We have a few birthdays in October. Caleb turned 9 on October 9th and Jake turned 13 on October 20th. Both of these boys bring great joy into our lives. Below are a few pics from our celebrations. Please continue to pray with us for these boys that their hearts would be all for Jesus!

 Caleb wanted to do go-karting with his buddy for his birthday!

 There is always a lot of food involved in our birthday celebrations ;-)

He got a scooter for his bday!

 Cinnamon Pancakes for his birthday breakfast and fried chicken for dinner!

We are grateful for our boys!

Stateside Trip August 2018

We were grateful to be able to take a trip back to Indianapolis for about a month. It was fun to see all of our family. It is hard to be away from family and always good to be able to spend some time with them. We were also able to enjoy some fun things, like a trip to the amusement park, swimming, bowling, Indians baseball game and a preseason Colts game. Check out some of the pictures below.

Some of the cousins on Kunkel side of the family.

 First stop at Grandma Jane and Papa Harrys

2/3 of cousins/family on Price side.

 The other 1/3 of Jennifer's family.

Some fun time camping.

Matt and his sweet girls.

At King's Island.

Colts game with Matt.

It's a Girl: Grace Christina!

Many of you have heard by now that Jennifer is expecting again...cue the "do you know what causes that" questions ;-) She wrote about that journey a bit here. It has been quite the year for us. It has been a year of firsts for us. Let's see we have started the journey to adopt here in Guatemala, we have begun another part of our ministry here, Iglesia Nueva Vida, and many other new things, such as me going back to school etc. etc.

We have been praying for about 15 years for a little girl. "Our plan" was always to have 2 boys and 2 girls so after about the 2nd boy (Levi, who will be 16 in December) we started praying for a little girl. I am laughing right now as I write this because we had 3 more boys after this. After a few years after Caleb came I was ok with all boys. Then the Lord put it on our heart to adopt a little girl from here in Guatemala and we have been in process for this for a while but it hasn't happened yet.

But Jennifer over the last few years has wanted to try again to have another of our own. So we have been trying. You can read about that journey on the above link to Jennifer's blog. About 4 months ago Jennifer got pregnant which is always hard for us especially the first few months since she has had so many miscarriages. But things have gone well so far and about 6 weeks ago or so we had an ultrasound and found out that it was a girl. I was in complete shock. I asked the Dr if he was sure and then again at the next appointment and in certain ways I am still doubting but at the same time getting more and more excited!

For the first time in our lives our home is beginning to fill up with pink and purple stuff. We have cried tears of joy over and over. We are so grateful to the Lord for this new life and big blessing coming in December. Thanks to all of you who have prayed with us about this over the years. I am reading through the Bible and came across Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2. This is her prayer of praise for allowing her to have Samuel after years of not being able to have kids and then the Lord blesses her with Samuel. I leave you with the first few verses of this prayer. We are praising the Lord and very grateful. Maybe He be glorified and praised through this pregnancy and life of Grace Christina Kunkel!

Then Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;

in the Lord my horn is lifted high.

My mouth boasts over my enemies,

for I delight in your deliverance. 

“There is no one holy like the Lord;

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.

   

Crazy July, Jennifer's Birthday and More...

We have had another busy month here serving the Lord in Guatemala. We have had a few groups here serving with us. We generally don't have back to back teams but the Lord knew what was best for us in July. We had these groups planned for several months and then the tragedy of June 3rd happened with the eruption of Volcano Fuego. Then when we begin to receive support we knew why the Lord had these two large teams scheduled this way. We were able to build two homes with these two teams and help this area in San Juan a lot more with these two teams. Thanks for your support Bridge and Piedmont Church!

Here are the videos that Pabel (Carlos Son) made for the teams:

• Bridge Church in Virginia:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fSUGwKd5U
• Piedmont Church in Georgia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGgijt0qYQs

We also had our friend and Pastor, Aaron Story and his family down to serve with us a bit as well. We enjoyed our time with them. Below are a few pics of this as well.

Our groups left a few days ago and today we are celebrating Jennifer's 40th Birthday today. We are grateful for her and her life! She is an amazing Mom and Wife!

We are also preparing for a trip back to spend time with family and friends and get some rest hopefully. The kids are getting very excited. 

Thanks for all you do to make it possible for us to be here serving.

6 years in Guatemala!

It is hard to believe we have been here in Guatemala for six years. There are many thoughts running though my head today. God has done so much and taught us so much in these years here but yet we know he has so much more he wants to do through us. In our church, New Life Church, we have been studying the book of Ephesians and tonight we will be studying Ephesians 3:20 which says, "Now to (N)him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, (O)according to the power at work within us" We have seen him do just this in these 6 years and we are excited about whatever else he has for us here!

Thanks to so many of you for your prayers and financial support over the years that have allowed us to be here and serve. Below are some family pictures over the past 6 years. It is crazy to see how we came here with babies and now they are growing into young men, one of which is now taller than me!

This is in 2012 when we left.

Not only has God changed our family, but has done some amazing things in and through Love Guatemala and now New Life Church here. Below are a few pictures of these changes as well.

This is where we used to meet and where the art school was.

This is where we now meet. This was our inauguration of the building in 2015 that God miraculously provided.

This is the new art school.

This is the new building the Lord provided in 2014.

This was our staff before.

This is our team now.

These are some of the lives that have been changed through the gospel!

Here are some of the teams and people who have served with us!

This is the ground breaking ceremony we had in March of 2014!

 Here are some of our previous graduates.

 Some of our 2017 graduates.

We have been blessed to see the Lord do some incredible things. We are excited how he will continue to use our family in the months and years to come. Thanks again to all of you who pray and support us in anyway! We seriously could not be here without you!

To God be all the glory!

"To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:1`

Birthdays and Other Family Updates

It has been too long since I have posted here so wanted to give a quick family update. We have had a few birthdays over the last few months. First, Ben turned 40 in April and Luke turned 18 earlier this month. I mentioned earlier this year that this is a big birthday year for us. Below are a few pictures from our birthday celebrations.

 Ben's 40th Birthday

 Luke's 18th!

 We took him to a pizza place that had this jeep and spent some time in their playing.

Below are some other activities over the last month or so. 

 Jennifer and the boys on Mothers Day!

Levi participated in the ministry's rally day in which they did an obstacle course like event. Lots of fun! (Read and see more about that day here)