Birthday & Beach Trip

We had another birthday celebration this month.  Luke loves life and enjoys watching tv, listening to music and going anywhere.  He loves having people over and being with people in general.  It is hard to believe he turned 17 a little over a week ago!  I can't believe we have been parents for 17 years.  The Lord has used Luke to teach us many things in our lives.  We are grateful for him and the Lord has entrusted him to us.  Luke wanted to go go-karting for his birthday and to eat at KFC.  Jennifer also made him pizza bread and cake.  We had a fun day, well actually a few days of celebrating.

We were also able to get away for a few days to the beach this past weekend.  We are grateful to live fairly close to the beach and to be able to go every once in a while.  We have seen that these breaks are necessary for our family.

Joel and most of the boys enjoy getting in the ocean although they can only do so up to their knees because it is so rough!  But it is still beautiful!

 We usually have at least on beautiful sunset while we are there!  

Joel's 9th Birthday

We celebrated another birthday last week.  Hard to believe our second youngest is 9!  We are grateful for the young men God has entrusted to our care to love, lead and disciple.  Our desire and pray is that the surrender their lives to Jesus and follow him everyday.  We prayed last year for our two youngest would come to know Jesus as their Savior and give Him their lives and both of them did just that.  We are grateful to the Lord for his goodness in our lives.  He is faithful.

Here are some pictures from his birthday.  We ended up having 3 birthday celebrations somehow ;-)

 Celebration with friends

 A little time at the arcade and driving go-karts is always a family favorite for birthdays!

I love that our kids are beginning to have a hunger for the Lord and his word.

New Family Pictures - November 2016

We normally take family pictures with our phones and they are not real great.  So we were blessed by Jessica Ulery with White Elephant Photography with some professional photos.  Thanks Jessica! They turned out great and its hard to believe how big our kids are getting!  Here are the pictures:

Our Team - Love Guatemala Staff

I wanted to take a minute and brag about our awesome team we have here at Love Guatemala!  They have been working super hard this year and especially the last few months.  We have had a lot going on here at Love Guatemala.  Here is a picture of the majority of our team:

This picture was taken the evening of our Independence day celebration. Every year we have a celebration which includes cultural dances, dramas and the selection of our Miss Love Guatemala. This is a lot of work for our staff which they did very well. Check out some more pictures below.

 This was the selection of Miss Love Guatemala.  This is Cindy on the far right that won.  But they all did a great job.  We have seen how this selection is used to help this girls develop confidence and hope for their future.

 These are a few girls (Angela and Andrea) from the Art School and Literacy Program.

 Here are the Carpentry School representatives.

Jennifer and Ben in their typica clothing. Every dresses in the clothing of Guatemala.

This is Mr Matthew, Carlos Lopez father.  I found him praying at the front of the room before the activity began.  He is an amazing man.  He is 87 and still works every day in the field.  

Each month we have a dinner with our staff as well to celebrate together what God has been doing and celebrate birthdays.  Here are a few pictures from our last one this last Friday which we were able to celebrate with our team from Virginia.

 These are the four that had birthdays in September. Guicho, Katie, Patty and Jose who is Antonietta's (Cooking School Teacher) husband. We had plenty of cake for them!

 Please pray with me for our staff.  We have about 5 weeks left in the academic year and there is much to be done.  We have our graduation on October 19th. Thanks for all your prayers and support for our family and our team here!

Encounters with God

It is an amazing thought that we can encounter the living God.  We can communicate with, be empowered by, be loved by, and love the One who created all we see.  I love to read the old testament stories of how God interacted with people like Abraham, Moses and Joshua.  Sometimes we can separate what we see in the Bible from reality and think that God no longer speaks and acts as we find in Scripture.  But that is not the case...

God longs to communicate with his people and show them his presence, power and glory.  God is often communicating to us and sometimes we just miss it.  It is not always in a church service or in times of prayer that God communicates with us.  Sometimes in the small, seemingly unimportant things he shows us his glory.

God desires that we see, experience and share these encounters.  One reason God allows us to experience this is so He will receive more Glory and more people will come to know who He is.

So be looking and expecting to see God at work.  Expect to encounter God! It may not be in the way you think but God is moving and working.  Sometimes it is  in the still small voice as was the case for Elijah in the passage below:

"The Lord said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." I Kings 19:11-12

In this "God Encounter" we see many things happening, the powerful wind, the earthquake, the fire but God was not there.  Instead he was in the whisper.  It is sometimes, many times that God speaks to us in the whispers.  Maybe it is through your kids, or a conversation or something you see that God speaks.  Take the time to listen.  If you are like me you may find yourself asking and talking to God but to just sit and listen in his presence is a difficult discipline.  But many times when we take to the time to do this God speaks and we encounter God and we are changed!

Jennifer's Birthday, 18th Anniversary and other random stuff...

It has been way to long since I have updated this blog.  I thought I would take a minute to update on a few things as well as share some pictures.  First check out this sunrise that I got to experience a few weeks ago.  It was a great reminder for me of the beauty of this country and the goodness and mercy of God in my life!

Luke continues to teach me and challenge me with his life.  This was snapped when he got so excited about something so simple (I don't even remember what it was) I need to approach life with the same excitement and joy as Luke!

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I got to visit this young lady last week.  Her name is Nancy and she graduated from the Art School about 2 years ago.  It was great to see her.  She is still studying and fighting for a better life.  She is becoming a beautiful young lady and I am excited for her future and praying she pursues Jesus with her life!

The pic above is of a house that one of our feeding center kids live in.  We are planning to help improve their living situation in the coming month with a team that will be visiting soon.  Praying through this we will have the opportunity to speak into their lives more!

Jennifer celebrated another year of life last month.  It is never enough for one birthday celebration her in Guatemala ;-) So we celebrated with her by herself and with our staff and with friends. Below is her birthday lunch at Applebees. 

 Luke didn't make it into this photo. ;-)

This lady continues to amaze me and stun me with her beauty! I can't believe we have been married for over 18 years!  I am grateful for our marriage, friendship and love.  God has been so gracious to me and our family!  May we continue to pursue Jesus together and follow his lead!

We found a used basketball hoop! It has been fun to be able to play with the kids.  Some of them are enjoying it although not all of them enjoy sports as I do so I have to find other ways to connect with them.

We continue to pray for water for our well.  I have enjoyed meeting with these 2 men every morning at 6am to call on God!  They have encouraged my faith!

Thanks for your continued prayers and support as we strive to serve Jesus here in Guatemala!

Leaving a Legacy

My mom is here visiting right now and we have had a good time spending some time together.  Probably more so she has enjoyed spending time with her grand kids ;-)  It is great to have her here.  We were able to spend Mother's day together and also she was here for Luke's birthday.

Yesterday we were at church and we talked about legacy and the power of grandparents in our lives and parents in the lives of our kids and some things we should do to make sure we are passing on this legacy of following Jesus to our kids and grand kids.  I unfortunately did not have grandparents for very long in my life.  Most of my grandparents passed away when I was young or I lived far away from them.  But I am grateful to them for the godly legacy they left.

My mom and I were talking the other day and she was sharing how her dad used to have family devotions every day and her dad taught her the Bible.  She has talked about how in the passed that they were in church every time the doors were open.  As I grow older I am more and more grateful for my godly heritage.

Many of you know of my parents desire and preparation to be career missionaries to Peru.  My father became sick and eventually passed away from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.  But when we began to prepare to move here to serve with Love Guatemala, my mom shared with me that she had prayed every since my father had passed away now more that 34 years ago that one of her boys would go and serve in a Spanish speaking country as a missionary.  Now we are able to carry on the legacy my father left.

The power of words, prayers and teaching through our lives with our kids, grand kids and those coming behind us can not be overstated.  Speak life into your kids, into kids around you and watch them become all God created them to be!


Thanks Mom for leaving and continuing the godly legacy! Thanks for sacrificing, praying and leaving me a legacy to carry on with my kids and grand kids. May I be faithful to carry it on!

 

Psalm 78:5-7New International Version (NIV)

5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
    and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
    even the children yet to be born,
    and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
    and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.