March and April 2023 Update

Making Alfombras, or Carpets in Antigua for the Procession

March started out with an almost two week visit from our good friends, Rob and Kristin, and their kids! We had so much fun showing them around Guatemala. They were able to bring down some items that our school and House of Destiny (baby orphanage) needed. They treated us to a very fun 5 days split between Lake Atitlan and the beach. The girls got to dress up in traditional Mayan clothing and we had the opportunity to share the gospel with the store owner because he wanted to know why Americans would move to Guatemala when everyone down here is trying to get out of Guatemala!

Rob and Kristin decided to sponsor two little girls who attend the school (like Compassion). They were able to meet them at the school and then meet their family and see their home.

The 40 days leading up to Easter are very busy here. Antigua happens to have the largest celebration and people from all over come to see the carpets and processions. Every Friday and Sunday there are vigils and processions where carpets are made from different materials like sawdust, flowers, fruits/vegetables, etc. Then men carry the large floats, depicting various scenes of Christ's death, on their shoulders through the streets of Antigua. Each person who participates pays to be part of the 12-18 hour procession for their penance. They intentionally suffer as a way of offering themselves to God (or to the priests) in order to receive forgiveness for their sins.

Four of the seven of us reached “grammatical fluency” in Spanish at the end of March, which means we have learned all the grammar. We still need to learn much more vocabulary and practice using the grammar we have learned. We have one final phase to learn which is what the majority of rural Guatemalans use to speak in.

Us with our Wonderful Spanish Teachers

Andreé with his Book on Elders

This month was exciting! Juan Carlos and Dan started meeting with Andreé who is the first elder candidate for the church! Andre and his wife Yesenia are Godly people who love the Lord and his church. We look forward to seeing how the Lord works through this process! Dan was especially encouraged after the first meeting. Our goal is to help build up the local church and this is a great step in that process.

We also enjoyed having Carlee and her niece Bethany join us for 9 days! They came down with the intention of serving, and each day we served in a different place. We took over the orphanage for a day, so the staff could have the day off and have some time as a team. We visited the school and delivered two stoves to families who attend the school and were in desperate need of a healthy stove to cook on. Bethany and Carlee were each able to share the gospel and pray for the families (mostly in Spanish!). We spent a day at the feeding center serving alongside a fantastic team who consistently serve and love the kids each week.

Bethany Reading a Bible Story to About 75 Kids

Delivering Food Baskets w/ Fernando

We went to a more rural village where we took food baskets, shared the gospel and prayed for the families. Bethany also had the chance to read the Bible story in Spanish to the kids and we watched the kids retell what they comprehended. We also held our first worship night for the leaders of the church. They faithfully serve every week and we enjoyed a chance to serve them! Carlee and Bethany joined us for our weekly teen girls bible study and English service as well.

We are all looking forward to coming home to Spokane June 5-July 11 and would love to see as many people as possible. Please send us a message if you will be around, we would love to get together with you! We sent Seth home a month before us so that he can take drivers ed and get a job for the summer.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child, reach out to us and we will help you get matched with a child. You can also help with buying stoves for people who cannot safely cook for their families because of all the dangerous smoke. Use the "Contact Us" at the bottom of every page to send us a message.

Here is a stove that we will be replacing with the help of our Church!

Scroll down for more pictures from our last two months. Thank you so much for all of your prayer and support. We really appreciate having partners join us in what God is doing here in Guatemala!