Casa Derrick and Jodie

This weekend saw us host 5 boys from Casa Aleluya. It was a weekend that the parents could come and take their children home, but many did not take the opportunity to do so. So, we dropped by Friday afternoon to see who might be able to come hang out with us for the weekend. So, we got the level 5’s that were left: Geovany 4, Hugo, Nery, Geovani 1, Sebastian (L to R). Yes, Light Bulb, we had you precious Geovani!!

We did have a chance to do everything with these boys that we were able to do with the first few that came over before. This crew was content playing xbox all day. However, they did go to our Saturday Bible study with us, and were able to play some street soccer in Joya Grande. They also we to church with us on Sunday morning.

The damper to the whole weekend was that we received a phone call Sunday afternoon telling us that Geovany 4’s mom was at the door crying b/c her son wasn’t there. We had forgotten that Sunday afternoon was a time for parents to just visit their kids. So, we rushed over to Casa so that Geovany could see his mother. When we arrived, Nery’s dad was there as well, so we were glad that someone took the time to call us. We are thankful for the blessed weekend that we were able to spend with them.
One reality that we have come to grasp while working with and hosting these boys is the fact that we have parents that love and care for us. Parents that still don’t want to let go! We thank the Lord that we are able to get a hug or kiss from our parents as soon as we hit American soil. As you lift us up in prayer, please lift our parents up as well . . . for salvation (Derrick’s) and protection. Also lift these boys up to the Lord; pray that they would know the love of the Lord in their lives.

Rajun Cajuns and Rednecks

Wow! Sounds like the start of a Danny Leblanc joke . . . many of you know what we mean! We had a mixture of people from Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, & Tennessee this past week, and the Lord used them mightily to witness to the lost and poor of La Primavera and La Pinada. They were able to build 12 houses, give 100 families food and clothes, and fix up house #2 at Love the Child children’s home.

With only 18 people, this group worked really hard to complete the 12 houses, especially considering the fact that the sand did not arrive for most of the homes until day 3. After the first day, Derrick’s nick name was “slave driver.” We are still trying to figure out why working a 10 hr shift for the Lord makes people react that way! But it was all fun, and the group had a blast serving the Lord despite being worn out.

We passed out food and clothes in a village called San Jose Pakul. A church from Santiago, Sacatapecez had a host of events before our arrival. San Jose has no evangelical church, so please pray for those from the church who are sharing the gospel. And pray for open hearts.

Hopefully we will get some pictures to post . . . sorry that there are none at the moment.

A Birthday Dream

Many of the people in the villages that we work in do not celebrate their birthdays with parties and gifts . . . many do not even know their birth date. The fact is that for many it is just another day. For the girls of Latin America, the 15th birthday is a very special day. However, like the other birthdays, it too is not celebrated much in the villages.

For this reason, on May 20th, we decided to give a Quinceanera party for Celestina, a girl in our Sunday night Bible Study. It was a very special time as most of her family came together to eat cake and celebrate her birthday. While some of you have participated in a Quinceanera at the mission house, this was a completely different ball game!

Almost 30 of us were inside one of the houses that one of the teams built. Celestina, wearing her typical clothing and a tiara (courtesy of FBC Lacombe), sat to the side and tried not to be the center of attention. Derrick read from Proverbs 31 and charged Celestina and the rest of the women who were present to live a Godly life. He also explained the Gospel in hopes that one would surrender his or her life to Christ. However, there were no salvations, but there were planted seeds. After the charge, Derrick prayed for Celestina and we all ate cake and drank Pepsi. Celestina can not read very well, but we bought her a Bible to help her to learn more, and in the process, she will be able to read about the Lord! After eating, we took tons of photos of the family and then watched the Jesus film.

Please pray for the Garcia’s. There were three families present that do not know the Lord as their Savior. Please pray that the Lord will use the message and movie to move the hearts of these families. Pray that Celestina will come to know the Lord before we leave Guatemala (Aug.).

Bungalows + Jungle + Ruins = Tikal

Tikal . . . Wow! The Lord is truly amazing. While the ruins are interesting to learn about and, from the top, have a spectacular view of the jungle canopy, it is what surrounds the ruins that makes it worth walking through the heat. The wildlife is awesome. While touring the park with our tour guide we were able to see some howler monkeys, coatimundis (raccoon family), and a few tropical birds. We walked for about 4 hrs, and saw most of the ruins.

We returned to our bungalow located inside the park, ate lunch, and a took a dive in the pool. It was about 90 ˚F, with 85% humidity without A/C, and we only had electricity (from a generator) from 6pm – 10pm. So, the pool was nice to have. After swimming for a little while we returned to the trails to see spider monkeys, toucans, parrots, and other types of birds. The sunset was awesome, but the animals took the show!

The next day, we took a canopy tour. The guides put us in harnesses and we rode some zip lines through the top of the jungle. We went through 9 zip lines and 10 platforms about 40-50 feet above the ground. It was so much fun!! Afterwards, we went back to walk around the park and we saw some crocodiles, lizards, turtles, and some more birds. In all, it was an awesome trip. The only thing that we didn’t see was a jaguar or snake. Jodie was happy about that!

Click To Play

Click To Play

An Island of Flowers

For our next journey, we headed to Flores. It is an island on Lake Petén Itzá that is nothing but hotels and restaurants (not many flowers to be found). It is where most of the people going to Tikal stay. It is nice and relaxing, very small, not too busy, but very HOT! Because it is hot, most of the hotels have A/C, which is not common in Guatemala. It is a great place to watch the sunrise and sunset.

sunrise at Flores

We didn’t do too much except walk around and have supper, oh yeah, and swim. The water was clear as a whistle (whatever that means)! The next day, we got up early and watched the sunrise over the lake! Then we headed to Tikal and stayed a night there. We then returned to Flores the next day and went on a boat ride around the lake before we headed to the bus station for a long night back to Guatemala City.

Down by the Riverside

Well we just finished a week of vacationing here in Guatemala. It was amazing to see the different terrain and climates that this small country has. It is just another reminder of how great and awesome the Creator is. This blog and the above bloggs will tell of our trip.

Our first leg of the trip was spent in Cobán. Cobán is not that great of a town, but it is a middle ground for the many beautiful sites around it. We stayed there for two nights. During the only full day that we had, we went to a place called Semuc Champey. It is a place that you have to want to go to, you can’t just pass through and stop along the way. It is about 20 miles down a long, curvy rock road (after a long, curvy paved road). From Cobán, a total of about 2.5 hrs by van. the view looking down onto the pools

The Cahabón river runs through this little village, and forms and awesome natural formation of pools. The river actually runs under the pools, and exits about 300 yards later. The river water never touches the pools, the water comes from the top of the mountains that surround the pools. It is truly an awesome site. So, we took about 3 hrs to enjoy the cool, clean water . . . we went swimming! the river going under the pools

Also, while in Semuc Champey, we went to explore a cave called K’an Ba. Within this massive limestone cavern, we had to walk, crawl, climb, and swim with one hand holding our only source of light, a candle. Fun huh?! Well, it is definitely something that you would not be able to do in the states . . . at least with a tour guide.

After the cave exploration, we went tubing down the Cahabón river and ended up at a little hostal called Las Marias. While there, we took advantage of a swing hanging from a tree over the river. We decided to play Tarzan for a while and took a few dives into the river. We hope to post pics from inside the cave later . . . we’re waiting for someone to email them to us.