We donated toward a local public school's efforts to paint their old desks. The school didn't have the funds, and the parents weren't able to donate enough to cover the project. One of our church's elders, whose daughter Laiha is in my dance group and attends preschool at that school, came to us for help. We were glad to be able to share with the community!
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| Cleaning desks |
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| Painting desks |
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| Happy kids |
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| Two classes of 31 children were blessed. |
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| Laiha is in the front on the left. |
Our church in Chichicastenango recently started a youth group which meets every other Saturday. I arranged my dance practice to start one hour before it, and we have had a couple of practices so far. After dance practice, Veronica and I stay for youth group.
Clockwise around the circle: Gerónimo and Alicia (church elders), Heber, Abdi, Byron, Axel, Tomás (youth group leader), William, Dasha, Ani, Mayli, Naya, Veronica, and me.
We finally got to use our "new" generator! We bought it four years ago in case of a sudden, long electric outage, and the occasion finally arrived. Our electricity is generally turned off all day about once a month by the electric company for servicing, and it occasionally goes off for several hours during the day for what we assume to be some type of local connection being installed, whether legal or illegal. But these outages aren't long enough to worry about losing the food in our refrigerators.
On Monday night, however, there was a big, windy thunderstorm, and the lights went out. We scurried around to find flashlights and candles. By morning, still nothing. In fact, our cell phones also had no success making any calls, probably because the system was overwhelmed by people trying to call and use the cell phone company's internet service. So we had no communication about what was happening. Michael brought our generator up to the patio outside the kitchen, plugging in our refrigerators for several hours, as well as charging our cell phones and flashlights.
In the afternoon, we drove to a gas station to refill our two gas cans. In the evening, Michael started up the generator again to run the refrigerators, as well as run some lights in the kitchen and use the microwave. But finally, at 10:30 p.m., the electricity came back on after being off for 27 hours!
Once our internet came back, we discovered that a tree had fallen in a nearby ravine and had taken out the power line to the entire town of Chichicastenango and its surrounding communities. We are so thankful for our generator!
We have seen some interesting "critters" over the many years we have lived in Chichicastenango, but this last sighting has really left us stumped! First, a few weeks after arriving here 13 years ago, we caught a rat behind our apartment. Since then, on our new property, we have encountered 2 snakes, 3 mice, 4 scorpions, at least 10 frogs, a tarantula, multiple black widow spiders, and several other varieties of spiders, moths, and other creepy leggy things.
But last night we actually found a crab (yes, a crab) scurrying sideways along the sidewalk right outside our living room door! We are at 7000-ft. elevation in the mountains! Upon googling it, we discovered that there is indeed a species of freshwater crab in the rivers of Guatemala. How this crab arrived on our sidewalk is a mystery, since the nearest river is about a mile away, down at the bottom of the huge ravine behind our house. Maybe it was caught by someone and carried up the ravine into our neighborhood, where it made its getaway and crawled under our gate... or maybe it made the mile-long trek up a steep mountainside ravine? Your guess is as good as ours!
We heard that climate change is confusing the animals, but this one was a surprise to us!
We are happy to welcome our son-in-law, Andrew Bivens, to the family! We had a very nice trip to the U.S. to attend Carolyn and Andrew's wedding and visit family.
Heather was busy here in Chichicastenango for months ahead of time, happily sewing fabric bows and making silk floral arrangements for the wedding arch and the reception hall tables. We filled one suitcase entirely full of decorations that we brought with us! On the day before the wedding, Heather decorated the wedding cakes, and on the morning of the big day, she put together live floral bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids, as well as table decorations. We are grateful to Andrew's family and church for helping with the potluck food preparations and cleanup, and to the various people who pitched in to make this a very special day!
In the Christian churches of Guatemala, it is normal for people to randomly decide to host a Giving-Thanks service, taking over the regular church service time. They invite (and pay) a special band to come play (extra loud), and they usually provide a meal for everyone afterwards.
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| Tables, instead of the normal chairs, were set up, adding to the festive atmosphere and promising a meal to come. |
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| Favorite drinks (Coca-Cola and orange drink) and crackers were set out on each table during the service. |
Our most recent Giving-Thanks service, pictured above, was hosted by three brothers and their families in our church who are in the beef butchering business in Chichisastenango. They wanted to thank God for what He has done in their businesses and in their lives.
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| The music was super loud, so we wore earplugs! |
We were also intrigued by the small gift that was handed out to each attending family at the end of the service, since this was an uncommon detail: a mug with a picture of a bull, a Bible verse, and a picture of raw meat. The families said it was a small "thank-you gift" to everyone, but I also saw it as convenient advertising, hahaha.
I (Heather) have restarted the dance team at our church! And we have also added a second team for the youth. At the end of our most recent practice, the kids enjoyed watching a video of a dance they did several years ago when they were "chiquitito" (very much smaller)!
I (Heather/Erica) took a turn preaching at church! My message was a theme that the Lord has been working on in my heart lately: Why am I alive on the earth? Through God and for God. It's like this world is a board game that God made up and we are the pawns. If we follow His rules, all goes well... if we follow our own rules, the game turns to chaos.
Our church had yet another Christmas party, this time to say goodbye to 2023 and also, sadly, to say goodbye to our pastor of six years, Gregorio. He also pastors a church in his hometown of Zacualpa, where he lives 2 hours from Chichi, so he will be pastoring there full time now. We are sad to see him go, but we are looking forward to whomever the Lord will bring to our church in the future! Please join us in praying for a local K'iche'-speaking pastor from Chichicastenango, so that he can help us in our endeavor to translate the Bible and promote the new translation in the community.
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| A red basket of food was given to each family in attendance: chips, cookies, soda, marshmallows, Corn Flakes, oatmeal, cooking oil, mashed Ducal beans, Incaparina (a hot corn drink), and chow mein noodles. |
I (Heather/Erica) was excited to get "back in action" and lead the church's children in a skit, doing hand motions to the story of Christmas. It was called "The Christmas Story in 30 Words," starting with a longer narrated description. Then for fun we got faster and faster. The video shows the last round, but the kids wanted to go even faster!
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| The Christmas Story in 30 Words |