IT'S JUST A PHONE

So....we all live in a time where we place a lot of importance on things.

For instance....most of us have come to rely on our cell phones as a necessity.

But, sometimes it takes a good slap upside the head to remind us what is really, truly important. Is it our cell phone? No, not really.

My old cell phone

So, last Friday, Jan 2nd, I was 'slapped upside the head'. Not literally, but figuratively.

I was out walking on the boulevard here in San Cristobal, as I often do, and it was about 

3:00 PM in the afternoon. I am always pretty aware of all that is going on around me, but I did not notice a young guy, about 18 - 20 yrs. old come up behind me. I just heard someone behind me say something, so, I turned around and saw this guy standing a few feet away. He then said to me, "give me your phone". 

It was about that moment when I looked him over and saw the gun in his hand pointed at my chest. I must admit my first thought was not fear, but I was amazed that someone would take a chance of going to prison for years over an old cell phone.

So, he points the gun more forcefully at me and repeats himself, "give me your phone".

Well, it's just a phone, so I handed him my cell phone. 

He took the phone and told me to continue walking where I was headed and he went the other way. He went down and crossed the boulevard and it looked like he got in a taxi.

Afterwards it hit me a little more what had happened, and I thanked the Lord for His protection from injury, or worse. Afterall, it's just a phone.

I also had some money on me, not a lot, but some, but he never even asked for anything other than my phone.

Unfortunately, thus is the state of affairs in Guatemala. Crime continues to increase here, as poverty and desperation also increase.

I now can say we LIVE in Guatemala, as it seems a majority of people who have lived in Guatemala at least 5 years, have at some point been a victim of crime. 

Please pray for Guatemala, for the crime and violence that keeps growing here. 

I continue to believe that most people are good, and I love Guatemala more than ever.

 I will continue to walk, carefully, not wanting to let the bad guys have the victory there.

The day after I was robbed, at our youth group meeting while we were taking prayer requests, my daughter Maria asked that we would pray for the guy who robbed me. I pass that request on to all of you, please pray also for him. 

Pray that God's light would shine on Guatemala.

My new phone

It's just a phone. I do have a new phone now, it is a very valuable tool. But.......

It's just a phone.

CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

We want to give you an update on our Christmas Eve outreach dinner, and some events preparing for that. But, first.....

 

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. We know many, many of you had weather issues to contend with and we were praying that it would not put a damper on your celebration of Christ's birth!

Yes, Christmas here was sunny and warm, I even washed the car in shorts and a tank top. But....we also were affected by the weather.

My sister Terry, and her son Cesar (Felicita and Maria's little bro), were scheduled to be with us Dec 22 - 28, but as they were waiting in line at Sea-Tac airport to leave, they were informed their flight had been canceled. So they never made it. We were all so very disappointed, but now look forward to their visit hopefully in February!

We had a very relaxed Christmas, Kimber is here with us so we were only missing our son, Jacob.

 

Family at Christmas missing Jacob

We know many of you were praying for our activities planned around Christmas, and we want to report that you were very effective! Things went even better than we could have hoped!

Quick rundown.....we began plans a couple months ago to hold a Christmas Eve dinner / outreach at Casita Benjamín, a care center for children located by the large Guatemala City dump in a very poor neighborhood. For many families in this area Christmas can be a very sad, depressing time. Many cannot afford to buy even one gift for their children, much less provide a typical Christmas Eve dinner of Tamales, Ponche y pan.

We began practicing Christmas carols with our youth group from church. They all are from a children's home, most are orphans themselves. The idea was for them to help with the program by singing, helping with a children's program while the adults would have an evangelical message, then to serve the Tamale dinner. For practice, we took the youth to Kairos House on the 17th to sing for the people there. It was a wonderful evening of Christmas carols and worship!

Some of our youth group singing and dancing at Kairos House.

On the 23rd we had all the girls in the group over to our house to help bake cookies for the Christmas Eve dessert! They made over 500 cookies! And we had a LOT of fun too! It ended up being an almost all day event, and we had flour ALL OVER! Pizza for lunch and a movie to end the afternoon. They also made a lot of decorations for Casita Benjamin.

Making lots of cookies!

Making decorations too!

Frosting some of the 500+ cookies!

Watching Polar Express and eating popcorn!

Christmas Eve we picked up the youth in a rented bus at about 1:00 PM. We were at Casita Benjamin by 2 and began decorating and preparing. This being the first time this has been done there, we had no idea how many people would come, it could 40, or 175.

The people began arriving about 4 in the afternoon, as it was scheduled for 4 - 6:30. It is a very dangerous area, and everyone arrived by foot, so we wanted them to get home before it got too late.

Decorating Casita Benjamín

Practicing songs before people arrive!

Our youth were FANTASTIC!!!! I am so proud of them. They did GREAT. They sang beautifully, kept the children entertained during the adults program, and served everyone there with a smile and with joy!

We never got an actual count of people (it was a little busy) but estimate probably around 100 people not including our youth and some other helpers, Casita staff etc. Maybe 130 in all. It was so well received it looks like this will become an annual event!

The adults loved it, and we know the Lord is working in many hearts. Everyone there, adults and children received a gift and the smiles were EVERYWHERE!

Singing carols before dinner

Some of the children's program

Singing Noche de Paz (Silent Night) with candels

After the people left, we cleaned and returned by the bus to our church for a Christmas Eve service and, you guessed it, another Tamale dinner! Again our youth served the meal. That hadn't been planned because we knew we would be arriving late, but they just did it on their own!!!!

Bus ride home after a FANTASTIC outreach!

 

It was amazing, God was very evident through it all. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT OF THESE EVENTS! Many, many people were reached.

Again, Thank you, and may the Lord bless you each and all, now, and in the new year to come!

GRADUATION! November / December 2008

In Guatemala it is a big deal to receive certificates or diplomas of most any kind.

They even have a BIG graduation ceremony for the kids leaving 'Day Care' to begin regular school!

In mid-November the Casita Benjamín held their graduation and I was invited as an honored guest! They even made me sit in the front row!

Casita Benjamín Class of 2008!

The graduation was held at Iglesia Nazaret which is in Zona 3 fairly close to Casita Benjamín. 

It was fun also for our two interns, Megan & Amy, who were serving at the Casita during this time. Amy even taught the kids a song to sing which they performed at the graduation!

Early in December, Megan & Amy returned to the States after 2 1/2 months of serving here in Guatemala. It was sad to see them go, but......they will be back!

Mid-December brought us two new interns! Sisters Amy & Grace Emtage arrived to serve for 5 weeks over their Christmas break from college. They are serving at Casita Benjamín, and were a HUGE help with our Christmas Eve outreach dinner we held at the Casita.

More on that in the next blog!

OH GO FLY A KITE! Nov. 1, 2008

There is a tradition in Guatemala to fly kites on November 1. There are big competitions all over the country, with communities building kites that can reach more than 20 feet across!

This year, Oscar Jr and I had an all day event with our youth group to build kites, and then go fly them. It was an awesome day, and the kites (well, almost all of them) actually flew very well!

Building the initial kite framework

We started from scratch with some type of long grass? where we used the long stem to make the frames. Then everyone could personalize their kite with different colors of 'papel china'. Then you need to make very looooooooooooooooooog tails for the kites!

Iris showing off her completed kite!

After we finished making the kites, we of course, needed to eat having worked up an appetite, so we had a pizza party before going out to fly our kites!

Most of our gang displaying their kites before the launch.

We went to a spot with few trees overlooking a huge ravine to fly our kites. There were few trees, but lots of bushes, so we did need to rescue several kites.

My kite just before it escaped!

I may have won the prize for flying the farthest, but we will never know for sure, because it never came back!

It went up, up, up, up and up some more. Eventually there was so much string out that the string broke, and the kite kept going up, up, up, up and more up until it was out of sight!

It was a fun day that we will all remember for a loooooooong time!

A Slow Season?

So...this is supposed to be our slower time of the year, and I suppose it actually is, but we've been busy enough for the time to fly by! Yes, we have fewer numbers of people coming through right now, but still trying to catch up on everything that got behind during the very busy summer months. 

We also had some health issues to deal with. Sandi begin to have some abdominal problems so we went to see a Doctor and it was determined that she needed a hysterectomy right away! So after a few days of tests, etc, Sandi entered the hospital and had surgery! Praise the Lord we had so many people praying for her and the Doctors that everything went as good as it can go. Sandi is getting stronger each day and in another week or two she should be cleared to do anything she wants to again! 

That is a good thing because next week a group of ladies from our home church, Northlake Community Church, are coming to Guatemala for 11 days! Sandi is planning to be working with them for most of their time here!

I somehow during August developed something that was causing me to have severe vertigo. There was no infection in my ears etc. but every 3 - 5 days I would have a severe case of vertigo. I tried an ear Doctor here, but did not care much for him and the treatment he gave me made no difference. I went to a different Doctor and she has been very thorough, and I am optimistic things are getting taken care of. In the last 4 weeks I have had only 2 smaller 'attacks'.

Now, we are working on planning upcoming events. We are already working on plans for the Summer Intern program in 2009. We are having to make adjustments as CAM is having a Convocation, with ALL CAM personnel going to Texas for a week in July '09.

We are also working on a Christmas Eve evangelical outreach dinner for families in the neighborhoods around the dump in Zone 3.

We also have 4 interns here now! Megan Goodwin, Amy Seebeck, Becky Soyster & our daughter Kimberly! Megan and Amy spent 2 weeks in Language school and our now serving at Casita Benjamín. Becky just finished 4 weeks of language school and is serving at The Oasis home for girls. Kimber has another week of language school then will join Becky at The Oasis.

Megan, Amy, Kimber and Becky (l to r)

We continue with our other activities and ministries. We go into Kairos house weekly to visit and lead a worship time with the people there. Many times we enter and you can feel a depressed atmosphere when some kids are not doing well. Usually after an hour of singing to the Lord and a time of prayer it is so much lighter! For a short time the focus is lifted to heaven and the burdens become lighter. It is such a blessing to be there with those families.

Worshiping at Kairos House

We continue to be involved at our church - Comunidad Cristiana 'Pueblo de Dios'.  I continue to help lead the youth group and it is going great. I was invited to the "SOS Las Aldeas", a children's home that most of our youth come from, last week for the 15th birthday of one of the boys in our group. It was a great time to see how the youth that have been coming to our church are really growing in ways the kids that don't come are not. 

This coming week is a traditional time here in Guatemala where everybody goes out and flies kites! We are having an all day activity this coming Saturday for our youth group where we will meet in the morning and build kites, then go out in the afternoon and fly them!

Hugo's 15th birthday!

Last week we also had a very sad occasion. The 15 yr old daughter of one of the elders in our church died. She just had what was thought to be a small cold, and then she died Friday night at about 8 PM. I went to be with the family until about 4 AM and then Saturday at 11 AM was the burial. It was so sad. Things move fast here in Guatemala. Death is never convenient and so here you drop what you are doing and go to the funeral. She was the sweetest girl you could ever meet, and it is very hard on the family. Please remember the Melindez family in your prayers.

More Interns, including our daughter!

September is here and we are looking forward to more interns arriving.
We have 4 interns set to come to Guatemala very soon. Megan Goodwin and Amy Seebeck will arrive Sept. 20 and after spending 2 weeks at language school in Antigua they will serve at Casita Benjamín until early December.
Also arriving Sept 20 will be Becky Soyster, she will spend 4 weeks in language school then will serve at The Oasis home for girls until the end of April 2009!

In addition, our daughter Kimberly has recently been accepted for an internship to also serve at The Oasis for 6 months. Kimber's arrival date is not set as she still needs to raise some more support. She only needs to raise less than $400 in monthly support before she can come, so we are hoping the Lord will provide quickly so she can join Becky soon. Please pray with us that the Lord will provide these needed funds quickly, and about another $1000 in outgoing expenses to cover language school, airfare, visas, etc.
Kimber has received some very encouraging gifts recently and our home church, Northlake Community Church, has pledged to help monthly also!

Kimber with Teresita at Kairos House

Please be praying for all four of these young ladies as they prepare to come. Pray for their health and safety, and that their hearts will be prepared for what God has in store for them in Guatemala!

Pray also for us as we prapare to receive them and help encourage them as they minister here.

CHURCH ELECTIONS - but...stay within the lines!

We are members of "Iglesia Evangelica, Comunidad Cristiana, 'Pueblo de Dios'" here is San Cristóbal and we love our church.

We love our church family here, and the wonderful way they do things "Guatemalan".
They have accepted us just as anybody else, not treating us differently, or 'special' because we're North Americans, or 'missionaries'. When we started attending Pueblo de Dios, we told them we just wanted to attend, not be expected to do much for awhile. We needed time to fit in, we needed time to learn more Spanish, and just how things are done here. Many times in churches here, when a North American or missionary becomes part of the church, they are looked to for answers to everything, to be in charge of things and to lead. There is an attitude toward North Americans in situations like that of "they can do anything, and know what should be done".
Our church was so gracious, they gave us time to just fit in, and they loved us just like anyone else there.
We have gradually become more involved, and the church is growing! We have had a few groups come and work in the church, and that has really made our church come together in a lot of ways. I am helping lead the youth group, and when I started we had 4 youth each week, now we average between 15 - 20, and are seeing changes taking place in our youth!

Youth at Pueblo de Dios

I have become more involved in some leadership, and am gradually being asked to do more.

Mike presenting a group to the church

Sandi has been involved with a womens bible study that meets weekly and we have hosted a few church functions in our home.

Then, just recently our church leadership has been preparing to form a new board. We need a "Board of Directors" to replace our "Board of Service" for some legal reasons to resolve some long standing issues and get everything back under the "official" direction of the church. They asked me if I would be willing to serve and if they could put my name on the ballot with 3 others for position of Tesorero (Treasurer). I said yes, and so they put me on the ballot.

You gotta love the way they do things here...They asked me on Thursday and Saturday we had a congregational meeting to elect a new board! After a lengthy explanation of the procedures for choosing a board and how to vote, each member of the church over 18 and baptised, was given a ballot and a.........CRAYON!

"OFFICIAL VOTING INSTRUMENTS"

We had plenty of pencils, but no sharpener it appears. So...improvise! I LOVE IT!

Anyway, when the dust settled (or crayon shavings) out of 29 ballots cast I received 25 votes, so am now the new Tesorero for Pueblo de Dios.

Fortunately, the previous Tesorera will now be the Pro-Tesorera (vice-treasurer) and will help me a lot. I do not know the tax system or how church finances work here in Guatemala. (Not that I know much of that in the USA either)

Of all the jobs I could have in a church, being the treasurer is probably not the one I would seek, however, they have asked me to do this and I consider it a privilege to serve our brothers and sisters at Pueblo de Dios is this way. They have shown great love for us, and great confidence in us and we consider it an honor and a blessing to be members of Pueblo de Dios!