Friends and family

Even though the coronavirus has all of us here in Chichicastenango separated in our homes, I wanted to share a few photos of our wonderful friends and family here in Guatemala.  We haven't been able to get together for a while, but we are keeping in contact by Facebook, Messenger, and cell phone, just like the rest of the world.

Veronica swimming in our carport with
her friends Andrea and Zury.  Those three
sure know how to "make a joyful noise!"

Our church leaders in our living room
for a small group worship time.

Some of the girls playing with crutches
before the church service.

Special prayer for the children of our
church in January, at the beginning
of Guatemala's school year.

Art class with Eliana, on the right,
who came as a missionary to
Guatemala for a couple of months to
evangelize children through art.  While
 here, she offered 8 free art classes
 to the missionary kids in Chichi!

Making cookies with "Grandma Carol,"
a missionary from New Jersey who we
 will miss greatly when she returns to the
U.S. soon for health reasons.
We love you, Carol!

Crates and slime

The Sunday school director at our church is a sweet lady named Clelia.  She had an idea to buy crates to use for decorative storage in the classroom, and she wanted to paint them bright colors.  Since we have an air compressor for painting, I volunteered to have our workers paint the crates.  What I didn't realize was that they were going to soak up the paint like a sponge, even the primer!  So the paint she bought was used up very quickly, and I ended up going back to the store twice to buy more paint!  But 6 or 7 coats later, the end result was beautiful.

Soon after that it was my turn to teach Sunday school.  Here in the public school system there seems to be a lack of good teaching about science, and the kids didn't know much about the existence of germs.  So I taught them about germs, tying it into Sunday school by the fact that God made very small things.  We made slime as a craft because when talking about germs it seemed appropriate!  The kids had a great time!

Naya and Dasha

Adrian (blue jacket), Byron, Maily, Any,
Heber, Abdi, and William (brown jacket)
The crates can be seen in the background!

Selling cookies

Recently Veronica opened a "traveling convenience snack store," selling chips, candy, popcorn, and homemade cookies to the kids on the dance team after practice. She brings all the goodies in a suitcase with wheels!

This brings us to another event which is happening at our church (Open Heavens Freedom Church): we are trying to raise money to buy a piece of property on which to relocate our church building.  The building itself, which is currently on "borrowed" land, is pre-fabricated and can mostly be disassembled and relocated.   We have to move out by April 2020 because the family who owns the land left our church and asked us to leave two years earlier than we had originally planned to move.

Therefore, Veronica had the idea to sell her cookies (oatmeal raisin bars, sugar cookie bars, brownies, and M&M bars) to the church members after the church service, only keeping a small portion of the proceeds for ingredients and giving the rest to the church.  She was influenced by my story of doing the same thing in Puerto Rico to raise money to send our pastors to a retreat.  By the end of the fund-raiser, the church members were so accustomed to eating my cookies after church, they begged me to continue selling them.  And I did!

When she asked me about it, to me it seemed like a very small amount compared to the price of land.  Veronica responded to my doubts, "But God can use it!  What is a small amount to God?"  I was reminded of the widow that gave only two small coins in the offering, impressing Jesus with her faith.  Our pastor was also reminded of the boy who offered 5 loaves and 2 small fish to Jesus, who multiplied it to feed many thousands!

So this week after church, Veronica started selling her homemade cookies and other snacks and was able to deliver Q136 (which is about $18) to the church treasurer.  It's a faith-filled start!

If any of you would like to contribute to our church's fund-raiser and help us purchase land for the church building, we would be very grateful! 

Please send donations by check made payable to "Michael Montgomery" and mailed to Christian Life Fellowship, P.O. Box 5043, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-5043.  If you desire the donation to go toward our church's land, please include a note with your check, and we will personally deposit the money into our church's bank account.  Sorry these donations will not be tax-deductible, but they will certainly make an impact in the Kingdom!

Leading worship

This week it was my (Heather/Erica's) turn to lead worship at church.  So, whenever I can, I like to include the children.  We used our hour-and-a-half weekly dance practice to review the kids' participation.  First they sang a few songs on stage with me (we play worship songs from YouTube since our church currently has no musicians), then the girls danced while the boys sang, then we invited the congregation to follow along for three more dances, and then the kids sang a few more songs on stage.  My favorite part was looking over to the right during the girls-only dance and seeing the boys paying attention and singing with gusto!  Those who work with children will agree with me that sometimes after an energetic hullabaloo of a practice, it is a wonder the kids do such a great job during the presentation!!!  It always amazes and blesses me!

During the last song I had the chance to pray blessings, miracles, and victory over our pastor's wife, Flory, while she was kneeling at the altar.  The other people in the photo are our pastor Gregorio with their daughter Marjorie and grandson Mateo.

Birthday parties, Chichi style

We have gone to several birthday parties in Chichicastenango, and they all have a very common order of events:

1.  The party's starting time is apparently only a suggestion.   The people who arrive on time (and there are always a few, including Veronica and me) just sit and wait for at least an hour for things to get started.  The party is often outside with large tarps (made of sturdy plastic sacks sewn together) spread between wooden posts covering the seating area.  Lots of balloons and streamers decorate the area.  Mostly cousins and children from church are invited, and it is assumed that the entire family will come with the invited child and stay for the party, so there are always seats for many people.

2.  There is often face painting offered as people are arriving.  It is normally just for the kids, but I joined in because not many people had come yet.  At this party the clown was doing the face painting.

3.  Let the show begin with a clown!  The clown does magic tricks and challenges with the kids and adults, getting many people involved and always involving lots of laughter.

4.  Moving on to the piñata, the clown will invite the littlest kids to swing at it with a long stick first, not blindfolded.  Then the older kids are blindfolded and spun around a couple of times, and they have three chances to swing.  Usually the girls go first, then the boys.  The piñata hangs from a rope that two men pull up and down and back and forth, making it harder to hit.  Eventually one of the rambunctious boys finally opens a hole in the piñata and candy starts to spill out.  At that point everyone dives in with the shopping bag they brought for the occasion, children and adults alike, while the clown finishes ripping open the piñata and dumps the candy all over the ground.

5.  Then everyone gathers again and a family member or pastor prays for the birthday child and the cake is brought out.  We all sing "Feliz Cumpleaños," followed by a funny pronunciation of the English song "Happy Birthday," followed by a Spanish traditional song to the same tune, "We want cake, we want cake, even if it's just a little, we want cake!"  Everyone counts loudly to the age of the child and then shouts, "Mordita, mordita, mordita...!" (which means "Take a bite!") and the birthday child leans down and bites the cake, coming up with a face full of frosting and ending in lots of applause and laughter.

6.  While the cake is being cut and served onto plates for the whole crowd, the birthday child is stationed up front and the guests who brought gifts line up to give their gift, hug the special person, and have their photo taken.

7.  Then everyone eats cake and a tostada with tomato sauce and crumbled white cheese, with hot tea to drink served in styrofoam cups.  (We actually don't eat at events here, because of the possible uncleanliness of the food.  Our friends know this, so they usually run to a local snack store in the neighborhood and bring us each a bag of Lay's potato chips and a bottle of Gatorade.)

8.  Little by little the guests leave to go home.  Happy birthday!

Church Christmas party

Our church also had a Christmas Party for our children and other guests.

Singing during worship time.

Our pastor, Gregorio, leading worship.

Parties are always more fun with
a clown leading the games!

Christmas parties

Our dance team Arise! participated in ASELSI's Christmas parties again this year.  The ASELSI workers handed out backpacks full of school supplies to 400 needy kids.  The children were chosen from elementary and middle schools in the area by the school directors who knew that these were the poorest families.  Each day, 200 children and their parents (divided into 3 groups the first day and 2 groups the second day) were invited to a local church in two different communities about 20 minutes from the town of Chichicastenango.  There was a show for each of the five groups, with dances by the local church youth as well as my Arise! dance team, a skit about Christmas, a clown act, and a salvation message.

These ladies are spreading pine needles
on the floor of the church, which is a
common decoration here.  It is a way
to honor the guests that will soon arrive.

The first day in Chicua there were three groups that entered the church to watch the show and then went out to receive their backpacks.

Arise! dancing as shepherds who were
excited to see the baby Jesus.

One of the groups eagerly watching
the Christmas show.

Waiting between shows in a house next
to the church watching a YouTube
video challenge!

ASELSI chartered a bus to take their
employees (and us) to and from Chichi
each day.  Two moms, Alicia and Clelia,
also came with me to help.

The second day in Chuabaj the church was bigger so there were only two large groups that day.

Practicing when we first arrived
early in the morning.

Ready for the shepherd dance
 "Jesus Is Christmas."

Ready for the dance "Still Rolling Stones."

Waiting between dances in one of
the church's Sunday school rooms.
The papers are packets that I made to
keep the kids busy: word searches,
mazes, dot-to-dots, etc.