Wrapping up the Year

It's hard to believe it's November 30th already.  I guess we're getting old because the years are just flying by now.  Sometimes it feels like we aren't getting much done especially looking at the slow rate of change around here.  But, looking back on 2011, we can see lots of progress. 

Several of the churches both here and on the coast have had great success in evangelism and baptisms and discipleship and training of future preachers.  We are really proud to be a part of the work in these communities especially when they comment that the clinic has opened doors and brought new contacts for teaching the gospel.  This next year we are looking at how to incorporate even more evangelism efforts into our clinic areas.

Sheri and I got together today to look at our education program.  This year Sheri was successful in kicking off the diabetic education program (classes and patient education materials), hygeine class and de-worming in several area schools, nutrition classes in our ABC churches, as well as some ladies' bible classes. We are putting together a plan for next year which includes starting our Prenatal/Early Childhood Nutrition Education, prenatal classes, Patient education on gastritis, and the most daunting of all--SEX ED classes for all of our ABC congregations here in the highlands.  Be praying for us all on that one!

Our ABC program has been a success this year as well.  Last year we had a congregation with a very high percentage of failing students.  So Kemmel set up a pilot tutoring program using some recently graduated scholarship recipients.  After tutoring, only one of the students who failed last year failed again--and some even had 80's averages!  Not only that, but they decreased the failure rate by half this year.  The overall GPA for the kids went from 65.7 to 71.6.  This has been a concern and special interest for Kemmel, spending time with the parents and coordinators and asking to turn in midterm grades and trying to pinpoint what the kids were lacking most.   What a blessing to see them succeed this way!

Our scholarship students are also special to us and it was great to see kids pass their classes or graduate.  The parents are always so thankful for the help as education often costs more than a family brings in.  Today, we were treated to lunch by the parents of one of our scholarship students, Marvin Calel Macario. They are a humble family but doing their best to get their younger kids through school and even encouraging their grandkids to stay in school.  We enjoyed a great lunch out and talked.  They told us how they had had an arranged marriage (they're only 63 and 52 years old) and how they had been blessed all these years together. Pedro said, "It wasn't like today where everyone is hugging and kissing before they got married.  Back then, your mom found you a wife and you said, 'alright'.  We all laughed a little and agreed that both methods have their advantages. 

So, we feel blessed to be in this work and ask God to open our eyes to new opportunities to share his salvation with others in 2012.

We are getting close to Thanksgiving--it's hard to believe it's 3 days away.  Here in Guatemala it's not a holiday of course so  we don't actually celebrate it the usual way.  But, our annual staff meeting is this Thursday and Friday, and for the third year now, we will be having a Thanksgiving meal together with our fellow coworkers (about 50+).  I think Carlos, our director at Clinica Ezell understands what a big holiday it is for us and always tries to have several traditional dishes for us. However, there is always a craving for the special things your family has at the table, like dresssing and creamed veggies, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, rolls, etc.  Since we don't have the time to fix a big meal just for our selves, I decided to fix a few things at time this week to get a small taste of home.  Tonight we are having baked chicken and broccoli rice casserole and pumpkin pie for dessert.  Maybe tomorrow I'll make some hot rolls to go with some left over chicken! Since Kemmel is not a turkey or traditional dressing fan, I'll be fixing some cornbread dressing next week with a southwest twist to have with some pork roast.  That should hold us over until Christmas!

Then There Was Light

The house we live in has been a real blessing to us.  For the most part it is a comfortable home in a peaceful neighborhood.  However, recently the little callejon (small side street) next to our house got new street lights.  Not just one, but three--in a row over about 50 yds distance.  Two of them shine directly into our yard and of course, our bedroom window. It looks like daytime in our backyard and our bedroom!  It reminds us of that episode from Seinfeld where Kenny Rogers Roasters moves in across the street from Kramer's apartment, giving his room an eerie red glow.  So yesterday while in the City, we stopped at Sears to look for some thicker curtains.  We were in luck!  They sell blackout curtains--hallelujah!  We were too tired to hang them last night so we'll see what it looks like tonight.  I just hope our trees and plants can survive the 24-7 light. 

PLEASE PRAY FOR SHERI AS SHE IS ON A TRIP TO THE ZONA REINA TO HELP ANOTHER GROUP WITH A CLINIC. 

In Everything, Give Thanks

We were invited to a thanksgiving worship service today in Xepocol to celebrate the graduation of two sons of our coworker Gaspar Chan.  This is the third of four sons who have graduated from high school--a very big accomplishment around here.  Their uncle Pedro brought the message about giving thanks in all situations.  He reminded us of the many sacrifices that these young men and their families made to get to this day, and how God was with them during the hard times and also today as we celebrate together.  As we sang beautiful new hymns together and looked around the cramped patio space overflowing with people from the church, I thought back a few years to when Gaspar and his dad and uncle were the only men working in the church, teaching, preaching, visiting, leading singing.  And how Gaspar would wonder outloud how much longer they could keep the church together as all they had was new converts and no one to lead.  Since then, they have even more new converts and some of the other men and the older teens have stepped up to help, resulting in 7 worship teams (preacher, song leader) that rotate week to week, leaving time for others to do evangelism and prayer home visits.  This church has struggled over the years but never failed to worship God and bring praise to his name and give thanks in all things.  They have a reputation in their community for serving others--including non-Christians.  We have learned a lot from this church--especially how to put "loving your neighbor" into practice.  So today we rejoice and give thanks to God for the way he has blessed this church with new Christians, maturing Christians and an educated youth.

In 2006 the church had 1 graduate from high school.  This year the church is blessed with 7 graduates from high school, 2 in high school, 2 entering high school and 3-5 in middle school.  10-15 years ago most of these children would not have finished elementary school. 

The church in Xepocol when we first moved here in 2006. Now it is probably 1.5 to 2 times more people.

Gaspar and Family in 2006 - Noe is in the white shirt and Manuel in the red shirt next to him.

Noe (left) and Manuel (right) - graduates 2011 

Noe in front and Manuel in back

We hope to have many many success stories as these as the years role by.  Both Noe and Manuel are leaders in their church and soon to be leaders in another community as teachers.  God is good to all of us!

Great Happenings

We have had a great couple of weeks.  Of the great happenings, one is an ABC child named Jose Yonathan, also know as Chepe, from Mactzul V.  Jose is a special needs child with some learning disabilities, behavior problems and motor skills issues, but thanks to another ministry in town named ASELSI, he has the ability to go to school and get physical therapy assistance.  As he hangs out with us quite often in 2 of our clinics, we can see a vast improvement in his abilities and behavior.  Chepe is in the Little Lambs school and here is a link to a video of him having fun with the morning song.

http://aselsi.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/jesus-little-lambs/

Also, of note is the men's leadership seminar that was held in Paxot II on I Timothy.  The seminar was lead by Goyo, a minister in North Carolina orginally from Venezuela.  We had 22 churches represented and 60 different ministers who participated in the seminar which included small group discussions.  We were pleased that some of our staff participated in the seminar while the rest of the team kept the clinics running. 

Goyo is the minister of a spanish church in North Carolina and we hope to make plans for a spanish speaking group to come and focus on teaching children's ministry methods to the local churches.  Many churches either do not have children's classes or they have one class for all children ages 5-12, and the teenagers attend general assembly.

A few of these men traveled from as far as 5 hours away via public transportation and dedicated 3 days to the seminar.  Guatemala is blessed with dedicated men who want to lead their churches.

Here are some of the pictures.

 Gettin warm by the fire!

 Small group discussion

The wonderful women dedicated to cooking for the group.