Happy Birthday Olivia!

Our niece Olivia turn a whopping 2 years old today. Besides getting a new brother recently, looks like she got some nice new pink cowgirl boots! ( www.lifewithaoc.blogspot.com )

Happy Birthday--we love you!

Road trip to Baja Verapaz

Our day started at 0500 yesterday as we headed north to Santa Cruz del Quiche, met up with the rest of our friends from Paxot and Mactzul and headed east to Zacualpa about an hour away. There we met with families from 4 small churches (about 50 people in total) and all caravaned out another 2 1/2 hours to the town of Pachajop in Baja Verapaz for a worship service and baptism of two people. The scenery was beautiful as we climbed mountain after mountain. The interesting thing is people there speak the Achi language and Spanish. So the sermon was done in a mix of Spanish and Quiche so everyone could understand. We had worship in the morning, baptism service at the river, lunch and another service of singing and teaching. It was a great day and we "sold" (below cost) 60 Bibles. It is encouraging to know that the Word of God will be more available to Christians in the area. We headed home at 4:30 and made it back at 9:00.

Tomas (he usually smiles but he forgot his teeth yesterday!), Kemmel, Ana Elizabeth, Lindy, Sebastian and Micaela, and Manuel tucked in behind.
Church services at the home of the family baptized. The pink cast is from the tarp made of pink grain bags.

Everyone hiking down to the river.

Manuel (left) and Tomas waiting to make their public confession of faith.

The two elders praying before they get started.

Manuel

Tomas

1Peter 3:20-22 ...In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Abelino and Victoria with Kemmel (they wanted a picture with Kemmel the tall guy).
Brothers Agustin, Andres, Tomas (our new brother) and Victor. Great work!

Leadership Meeting

We are at a 2-day meeting of our organization's management staff. It is a nice time to get away from the usual routine and enjoy some time in fellowship while learning about leadership skills. This time we are focusing on qualities of a servant leader and communication within an organization. Our dynamic activity this morning involved randomly and secretly assigning numbers to each person and then (without talking or seeing) organizing ourselves in numerical order. Instead of blindfolds we used our new sports packs over our heads, hence the KKK look.

We are at a hotel in San Lucas Toliman with breathtaking views of Lake Atitlan and excellent service. What a treat! We are in an area near a cloud forrest reserve near by and right now we are getting rained on so hard that there is a river flowing through town down to the lake--very cool!

A Drive in the Country

Today was clinic in Chutzerob, which is always a joy. The brothers and sisters there are very active in their clinic ministry. Today, brother Sipriano wanted to tell us that several members of the surrounding communities have come and thanked him and other church members for the clinic and the attention we all give.
We saw a variety of patients, and when we finished we headed out with two of the elders to see a very ill woman who has been confined to bed for the last 4 months. The ride out was about 45 minutes. She was a 26 year old mother with severe anemia and probably a pelvic infection post partum. We prescribed some medications and labwork and a follow up appointment at our clinic. We then prayed for them and invited them to church as they were attending worship somewhere but couldn't remember the name of it! We pray that God will heal her and that the family will glorify his name.
We took a different way, back thinking that it would be faster, but we ended up wandering and backtracking and trekking our way through the hinterland of Chichicastenango. But, thank the Lord we made it back to well known roads and got everyone dropped off at home. I kept telling my passengers that we were doing good, and they would say "good and lost!" It was quite the adventure and we met lots of nice people who pointed us the way home.

Satisfied Customer

Well, one of our favorite patients, Sebastian came in to clinic today, a crippled over, mostly deaf guy who came in looking for some relief of his back and hip pain several months back. Each time he says he is getting better and better. Well, today he told us that he has been working his field all by himself, which is something he hasn't done in years. He said he wasn't able to even put his own shoes on or pick up his walking stick by himself until the last month or so. So today he threw his stick on the ground and bent over and picked it up to show us how well he is doing. Although he is still very limited in his movements, he is obviously having dramatic improvements that I can't completely attribute to his naproxen tablets. He is alway praising God for his faithfulness, and we can see how God has helped him be functional again. What a blessing for him and for us to get to witness it.

Sheri's Birthday Party

Well, we didn't eat all the pie by ourselves. We invited Sheri and our friend Dee over for a proper Chilean Once (early evening snack/supper) of ham sandwiches, deviled eggs and apple pie to celebrate Sheri's birthday last week. It was a great evening of fellowship.

YUM!

It's time to take advantage of all the apples we have been gifted!