Monday, August 24, 2009

Just wanted to put a few pics and video from my cell phone. Sorry it's been a while since the last post. Things have been quite hectic but have been going well overall. Thank God that he's still God and we're not Him.
Here is Evan after he fell into the clothes basket that he was leaning into. Here is Miguel after going fishing w/ me yesterday. He went for the first time yesterday and caught the two big bass there. I caught the smaller one and some other smaller ones that I threw back. Miguel goes to our church w/ his family. He was baptized w/ his wife a few weeks back. Pray that he'll be a fisher of men, as well as a fisher of fish. The next couple of pics and the one video show one of Evan's favorite pasttimes of riding his lawn mower.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

recent cell phone pics and videos

Here's some recent cell phone pics and a couple of videos from my cell phone as well. This is the family of Reinaldo and Beatriz. They are a family that has been a part of our church. They come from El Salvador and are moving to Iowa. As they move, I ask for you all to pray for them. Pray that they'll find a great church where they are moving to. They are a great family and we are going to miss them. This was taken of Evan yesterday. Here's some of our wonderful harvest of homegrown tomatoes. Like the song says, there's only two things that money can't buy and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes. We've had quite a good crop this year and others have given us some as well. I don't think I've ever eaten so many tomatoes in all my life. I'm not complaining, though. Here's Evan reading with mommy. Reading is one of his favorite activities, along with dancing, playing ball, eating and being cute.
Following are three recent videos taken on my cell phone. There is one of him reading with mommy and the other two show his new trick of feeding me.


Friday, August 07, 2009

Guatemala, part 4 and recent pics

Here are some recent pictures and the last of the Guatemala pictures.
These first couple of pics were taken at our church's baptism a few weeks ago. This first one shows the baptism of Miguel and Griselda. They have an amazing testimony and it's fun to see what things God is doing in their lives as well.
This picture is of Luis getting baptized. Luis has a great testimony as the Lord has saved Him and delivered him from alcoholism. The Lord has also healed him of diabetes These next ones are of Evan.




http://stjoechannel.com/content/video/?watch=1&cid=73262&shr=addthis
As I put this link, I want to let you know about it. It is a link to see a clip about our trip to Guatemala on the local St. Joe news. They ended up interviewing me and showing some footage and pictures from our trip. Just cut and paste this link in your browser and it should work.
An interesting bridge in Chichicastenango. Say that a few times fast. We just drove through this town but they are famous for their market.
This bus tried to run us over and then passed us on a curve.
This was overlooking two volcanoes and Lake Atitlan.
This was taken in Antigua and shows a volcano in the background. We stopped in Antigua to do a bit of shopping and sightseeing.
This lady was weaving some tapestries and different types of cloth. I ended up buying something from her and visiting with her a little bit.
These last three pictures were taken in Guatemala City. We were able to spend one night there and had a bit of time in the morning to spend before flying out. We were close to the main plaza and that was pretty interesting. That is where these photos were taken. This first one is what is considered their capitol building.
The next two show the National Cathedral, one with me and the other without.

As I close I continue to ask you to pray for our ministry and church here in St. Joe and for the partnership in Guatemala. We know that God will use your prayers in mighty ways to expand His Kingdom. We have definitely seen that in the past and will continue to see it in the future. Pray for continued direction, guidance and leadership in both projects. We have started a home Bible study (in Miguel and Griselda's house) and that is starting well. Pray for that and for a community resource fair that we are planning for Sept. 13. Guess this is all for now.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Guatemala, part 3 and Evan

Here are some more pics from Guatemala (will have one more round after this), some pics of Evan, and a couple of short videos. This and the following pictures are from the ruins at Gumarcaaj. This was basically the capitol of the Kingdom of Quiche (which was a major Mayan group) before and as the Spanish came. It was mostly destroyed by the Spanish as they came, hence the term 'ruins.' That was kind of a joke on our trip, these ruins are ruined. The site is still sacred to some of the locals and as one of the pictures indicate, they still offer sacrifices here. Gumarcaaj is on top of hill surrounded by ravines. One of the pics shows the view looking out. These pictures really don't do too much justice to the site as it was quite interesting, more interesting than the photos might indicate. Here's the picture of some guys offering sacrifices. They do these for a variety of reasons. Thank God that in Christ his sacrifice was the complete and final sacrifice for us. These ladies were making tortillas. This was something really neat to see. This was in a tortilleria, where they make tortillas. Sometimes, you could see the ladies clapping in rhythm and singing as they made them. By the way, no tortilla press here, as they make them by hand. This was a family from church that we worked with quite a bit. Please be praying for Aron, his mom Bilda and his sister. Aron and his mom accompanied us on visits and the services and Aron and his sister were at the youth training. They all desire to serve God and grow in their relationship with Him. This is Pastor David and his family. They were a pleasure to work with and get to know. They are a great family and are really advancing the Kingdom there in Santa Cruz. Please pray for this precious family as well. Pray as they continue the work there and continually pray for our church's partnership. This was El Campero, which is Guatemala's version of KFC. I actually had heard that they ran KFC out of Guatemala. It's basically kind of a fast food place w/ fried chicken but they have a lot of other stuff there as well. We had breakfast and supper there all week. It was good but we were a bit tired of it by the end. The church set us up w/ lunch and I think I showed a couple of pics of that. Here's some pics of Evan that I have taken today and yesterday. This was taken at the local soda fountain at the local drug store. We went in for the first time yesterday and it was quite interesting. I didn't even know it was there until recently. Everything is original in there and it's not just a tourist trap. Not too many tourists make it to the Southside of St. Joe. These next two show Evan getting his first haircut. His curls were just getting a little too long, so we decided to trim them up a bit. This was Evan's first ride on a merry-go-round. He didn't like riding the horse too much but he liked it all right when I held him. This is Evan's new trick. I'll lay my head down and say sleep time and he'll do it as well. The video I'm putting on here shows this a bit but not as much as this picture does. These are some videos that I took with my cell phone. They may not have as much quality as the other ones I was putting on here but I wanted to get some on here and finally figured out how to make videos w/ my cell and put them on here. I'm not sure which one is which, but he kind of does his lying down trick in one of them and he does a sign for 'more' in another one toward the end of it. That is when he points his finger at his palm. He is actually doing it wrong but that is his sign for 'more' and he was responding to us speaking in Spanish. You might also be able to hear him say mas or something that sounds like it and that means more. He says that some and pan, which means bread. He is learning a few words in English mostly, words like ball, book, mama, baba (which can mean baby and or puppy) and dada/papa.