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| Helping with crafts |
In early December, a local ministry, ASELSI, had a Christmas program for approximately 3,000 people. Heather (Erica) helped choreograph and direct a dance/drama for ten children, including Carrie, Elena, and Andrea. Later in December, another local ministry, Health Talents International, held a two-day event with about 500 people each day. A short-term team came from the United States to help with the event, and Heather, Carrie, and Elena helped translate into Spanish for some of the craft teachers.
When we lived in Puerto Rico, we were introduced to the tradition of setting off fireworks on New Year's Eve. Here in Chichicastenango, they had fireworks at midnight on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. We certainly entered the new year with a bang!
I am still working on learning K'iche' with my friend Sebastián. At the beginning of December, Heather and I began taking K'iche' lessons from a lady named Sebastiana three times a week. Sebastiana comes over to our house so that our older girls can babysit Veronica upstairs while we work downstairs. I am really glad that Heather is able to join me for these lessons because she has a great ability to distinguish the different K'iche' sounds which helps tremendously with deciding how to write down the words.
In our last newsletter, I said that there are no books written in the local dialect of K'iche'. That is not entirely true because there is a small booklet of Bible passages from the books of Mark and Acts that was published by Ed and Mary Fox in 2001. The Fox's began language survey work in Chichicastenango in the 1980's and began translation work in the 1990's. Unfortunately, due to Ed's health problems, they were unable to continue beyond the printing of the booklet. Please join us in praying for Ed's healing since he is still struggling with many health problems. Even though the Fox's had to stop working on the Bible translation for Chichicastenango, they are still working on a K'iche' translation for a different dialect spoken in San Andrés Sajcabajá.
In January, we purchased a songbook at the Catholic church in town that is written in the local dialect. The authors of the songs are all from Chichicastenango. As we explore this language, it is helpful to see how other people have attempted to write it down.
In February, we took another trip to Comitán, Mexico, in order to renew our visas. These trips are exhausting, but they are actually turning out to be quite helpful, as we have been able to buy several things in Comitán which are not available where we live.
During the last weekend of February, we made our first trip to Panajachel, a small town on the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlán, for the Intermissions Conference. This conference is for English-speaking missionaries working full-time in Guatemala. Amazingly, it has been held annually since 1937. It was great to be able to gather together with over two hundred missionaries working in Guatemala. The theme of this year's conference was "Thriving Through Tough Times." I want to close with one of the most powerful verses on this topic, Romans 8:28: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Love in Christ the Healer,
Michael, Heather (Erica), Carrie, Elena, Andrea, and Veronica Montgomery