Carport

The first job our new construction crew worked on was our carport.  It has been a very nice addition to keep us dry in rainy season!  The entire driveway and parking area is designed to fit about 7 cars total, just in case we might need it for visitors or future ministry vehicles.  The street our land is on is very narrow, with no extra width for parking.  It is also safer to keep cars inside our locked gate at night.

Putting on the trusses and beams.

Installing the coated steel roofing and
transparent panels to allow more light.

Our car is happy.

We sometimes see a complete rainbow!

Goose on the loose

One morning when we woke up we found a beautiful goose in our yard, just standing there!  We suggested to our workers that they catch it and see which of our neighbors it might belong to.  However, they were wary of doing that because, due to the dishonesty here, someone might have claimed ownership falsely.  They didn't want us to get in trouble with the community.  A goose like this is worth a few hundred quetzales, or about $20-$30, which is a lot of money here.  So instead, our workers tried to chase it out the gate.  After a funny scene of grown men chasing a goose, it decided to fly up to the ridge of our kitchen building!  It disappeared after a while, so we hope it found its way home!

Ladies' conference

I (Heather) went with 9 other ladies from our church to a ladies' conference in Zacualpa, a small town 1 1/2 hours away.  Our pastor, Gregorio, also pastors a church there, and we were invited to join them!  There were over 150 ladies in attendance from many different churches around Guatemala.  It was a good day of worship and learning about how Jesus can heal our hearts.

We rented a mini-bus to transport us
there in the morning and back in the
late afternoon.

The church was beautifully decorated.
The ladies up front were being thanked
for helping serve at the conference.

These wonderful ladies from our church are
so funny!  We laughed so much during the
drawing for door prizes that even the
conference hostess commented at one
point, "Oh, that group from Chichi!"

Huge puddles

Now that rainy season is in full swing, one section of the dirt road that we travel on to get to town is full of huge puddles.  Last year they tried to "fix" the problem by filling the low areas with gravel and dirt, but that just moved the problem down the road farther.
     In the photos you can see a large truck, a small tuk-tuk, and a medium pickup truck, but traversing the puddles is actually hardest for the many people that walk or ride on motorcycles.
     Each year the communities that are located on this heavily used road ask the government of Guatemala to pave it, but no progress has been made yet.

Corn

The corn is getting tall all around us!  This photo was taken from the entrance of our driveway.

Visits from Puerto Rico

We were blessed by visits from some of our church friends from Puerto Rico!  They came during the time when Elena and my mom were also visiting.  Luis Pagan's family came to Guatemala for a Full Gospel Business Men's conference and made the long drive to Chichicastenango to visit us!   Then a few weeks later, Jeschell (the pastor's daughter) came as a translator for a group of dentists.  They were just passing through Chichicastenango, but we were able to meet with Jeschell in town for half an hour!  What sweet friends!

The Pagans came out to see our land.
Our construction is visible in the background.

Praying over our land and ministry.

This photo was taken in town, in the
courtyard of a local hotel.

K'iche' class

We are continuing to study K'iche' with a sweet girl named Ruby, who was born and raised in Chichicastenango.  We also have two other students in our class, Ana and Haydee, who are also from Chichicastenango.  Their mom speaks K'iche', but their dad grew up in another city in Guatemala, so the girls were raised speaking only Spanish.

Girls from left to right:
Ana, Ruby, Haydee

The three girls (age mid-twenties) already speak English fairly well, and I (Heather) am tutoring them.  Actually, Haydee has been studying with our family for about six years now, first with Carolyn, then with Elena, and now continuing with me.  The three girls are often hired as translators for teams of American doctors that come to Chichicastenango to spend a few days seeing patients at a local ministry.  However, many of the patients only speak K'iche', so Ana and Haydee realized they also need to be able to speak K'iche', and we invited them to study with us.