2016: A Year in Review

(A note from Roma: for many years, my sister Bianca was the one who ran our family blog. But she has moved on to the college and adult stage of life. So I have been asked to take over. Let’s see if I remember everything she taught me about how to launch a post! J)

2016 really was a great year. There were unplanned adventures for some of us, uneventful days for others, and plenty of going about the usual mundane routine around the house. Which is not a bad thing. Sometimes the day-to-day things seem small and insignificant, but God can use those times to teach you lessons, give you peace and rest, or whatever you need. The days are long but the years are so short! Which is why I hope and pray that we all “fix our eyes on the things that are unseen, because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18.)

We siblings kicked off 2016 by ice skating with Bianca’s special man, Jessie. What a fun way to start off year! Winter was spent driving around doing photo shoots (our favorite thing to do around here); a surprise trip to Texas for us girls; hanging out with friends; hosting a really sweet missionary family from Ethiopia (another thing our family likes to do as often as possible—we love missionaries!) and celebrating our Mom’s birthday. And Josiah was playing a lot of basketball as well. (And still enjoys it today! A post about that will be coming up soon!)

Bianca and Jessie on a cold photo shoot I took them on. But worth it!

Going to Texas to reunite with friends was the best Christmas present from sissy ever. Thank you Bianca!

SPRING TIME came, which meant joining a large homeschool coop for the first time in a long time. This coop has come in handy for doing fun classes and educational classes (so that if we cover those subjects there, we don’t have to cover them at home!) We’ve made new friends, gone on fun field trips, and have done other fun activities such as bonfires and barn dances. It’s a very neat group with lots of God-fearing home school families. We celebrated Easter and Josiah’s birthday, and for spring break, my Mom’s parents came for a nice long visit. We watched the amazing film: RISEN. (Joseph Fiennes.) If you haven’t seen this film, it’s a must. Then came Ruby and my birthday, and what our recent blog post was about—the awesome road trip U.S.A to Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, and…I’m pretty sure we hit other states too. That was a highlight this past year, seeing and meeting relatives and friends. Read about that here.

Barn dancing with homeschool kids and parents. We got lots more people to come out on the floor later—don’t let the picture fool you! J

This was Easter Sunday. What you don’t know is that I had to walk across the street, climb a big ladder, (first carry the big ladder up and down our super long curvy driveway) and cut this branch from a high tree to capture this photo. The things I go through to get the perfect picture that says SPRING. J

SUMMER TIME! Sports camp at our church; Bianca going to Colorado with her man and his entire family on vacation; and Ben doing ministry in Guatemala for a whole month! Life changing for him. Halfway through his internship, I Face-Timed him and showed him my passport. I was going to join him for one week! It was unexpected—I went with our old church in TX, replacing someone who couldn’t go, so I went for free. I was thrilled! Other summer activities included more photo shoots just for fun, and splashing in the sun at a water park. We experienced crazy weather and having to take shelter in a public building as soon as we had finished swimming; a 4-day power outage in the heat of July; and car problems multiple times, including when we were all dressed up for a photo shoot. But it was still a fun summer. We even got to visit the people who now live in our old house in TX and saw the house again!

Ben and I at the top of Cerro de la Cruz in Antigua, Guatemala, Sacatepequez. My most favorite part of 2016!

Josiah, Mom, and Rubia cooling off one warm July day. Perfect weather. Right before the weather drastically changed and we took shelter at the drug company Bianca works at because of tornado warnings, some serious strong wind and rain. J

FALL TIME brought us enough left-over vacation days to head to Ohio in September to spend time with the Puerto-Rican relatives. It included a day in Amish Country, a wonderful stage production, good food, a cute market and hiking. Still very hot weather at this point, and not very many fall colors yet, but that’s okay. In October, we had our Third Annual Cobbler party at our house and it was delightful! Perfect. Our favorite outreach that we do every year. It included over 80 guests, a tree swing, two piñatas, cobbler and ice cream and fellowship. I pray that the Lord uses these events for His glory! For Thanksgiving, we had all the relatives come and see us again just like last Thanksgiving! So fun to have all these people in the house, reflecting on the goodness of God and Jesus Christ.

Cobbler party fun—breaking into the piñatas!

“Bio” (Abuelo) and Rubia enjoying guitar together over Thanksgiving break when all the relatives flew down. Mikey is enjoying a snooze.

And now I will just skip over to Christmas vacation in Ohio with the relatives, amazing Puerto Rican food, (are you starting to see a pattern here?) chocolate, lights, music, laughter, my teenage cousin doing that weird dance he used to do as a toddler, and singing and candlelight service and telling the story of the birth of Christ…I didn’t want it to end, but it did and we just got back recently and have unpacked and are doing a lot of laundry!

Everyone in Abuelo and Abuela’s living room after presents had been opened.

So, that was 2016! I realize most of our blog readers have probably read a lot of these things in the beautiful Christmas letter my Mom composed and mailed to all y’all, so this post is mainly for people who don’t get our letter, and also to just sum up this past year.

To close, I will share with y’all my personal goal for 2017. I want to write down on blank sheet calendars for 365 days, 12 months, 52 weeks—what I am thankful for. I am learning how thankfulness can fight so many sins—anxiety, worry, jealousy, covetousness, selfishness, etc. It can also humble me, as I realize how much God provides, protects, and blesses in one single day. It helps me to not focus on what I don’t have, but on what I do have: this peaceful, 10-acre lot with cats and a dog, chickens and roosters, lots of wooded areas, gorgeous sunsets, my parents, four best friends, and friends coming to visit soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, and I hope 2017 is filled with blessings, life changing moments, adventures, hope, peace, love, and joy, and a deeper relationship with God.

~Roma (and the rest of the clan)

Celebrating Ben and the Twins

~Posted by Roma

I recently told you about our Mom and Josiah’s birthdays all the way back in January and March, and now we are jumping forward to… this past May and June, when we celebrated Rubia’s and my birthday, and Ben’s birthday!

Ruby’s and my birthday was kept very simple, as all special occasions have been kept pretty simple this year. Dad and Bianca did not celebrate with us on our actual birthday, because Dad was working in OK, and Bianca was in Ecuador on a mission trip. But later, during Memorial Day weekend, we went to OK to visit Dad, pick Bianca up from the airport, and do more celebrating!

On our actual birthday, Mom invited two friends of ours from church to join us for dinner, cake and gifts. In the picture above, Ben is showing Jessie the architectural drawings that our Grandpa drew many years ago—really good drawings! Jessie enjoyed that. After a wonderful dinner and a beautiful sunflower cake, Josiah did a Tae Kwon Do show for all of us in the living room and Ruby and I opened a couple of gifts. We would open more in OK with Dad and Bianca later.

For dinner Mom made meatloaf, with sour cream or ketchup to dip it in, potato fries, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes, and the sunflower cake to finish it off. Daddy also called both of us on the phone that night to wish us happy birthday and talk to us. :-) It was a nice day and fun to spend it with friends as well.

Later in OK, Dad and Mom took us on a surprise birthday trip and we ended up at…the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah OK! It was neat to explore the village, have an Indian give us a tour and teach us to say: “Wado”, and tour the museum. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a restaurant called “The Grille,” and explored the downtown area. We also drove past our new house (which we had not yet closed on at the time). Unfortunately I have no pictures of all this, but it was a sweet birthday for Ruby and me!

After Bianca returned from Ecuador and we were back in Texas, she took all of us out on a birthday photo shoot! We needed new pictures of not only Ben and us twins, but new pictures of Josiah too. We love doing photo shoots and here are just a few photos of us:

Now we switch gears and talk about Ben. J Ben’s birthday was actually spent in Guatemala! He opened a few gifts before the mission trip, and then during our mission trip in Guatemala with our church, we celebrated his birthday, and another lady’s birthday from our team. The Guatemalans surprised Ben and our friend with candy, flowers for Mrs. H, cake for them both, and singing! It was definitely something memorable for Ben and Mrs. H!

Ben and Mrs. H at the mission house in Guatemala with their birthday cake!!! It was SO yummy with Oreos on top.

So, that wraps up a few more birthdays in the family! Still to come…Dad’s and Bianca’s  birthdays, and then we’re done for the year! J

Long Overdue Update

Yes, we are still alive! I can’t believe it has been so many months since we updated. That definitely falls on me as the main moderator of this blog. So I owe all of you an apology! Rather than make excuses about why I haven’t updated, I will give you an update on each of us. Then perhaps you’ll understand why we haven’t had many opportunities to post these days.;-) (I’ll give you a hint: we’re living a day-to-day adventure basically, and we never quite know what the next day will bring.)

Mark—Back in November, Dad started working his new job in Oklahoma. We have had a lot of drama involved with attempting to sell our house here in Texas. That drama has involved switching agencies, the District Attorney’s office, and other legal wrangles. Dad has been enjoying his new job, but wishes we could all live together. He had a surgery done on his torn meniscus in February, and unfortunately looks like he will need to have it done again. He is working on cleaning up our new home in the central/eastern part of Oklahoma so that we can hopefully all move in at the end of July.

Betsy—Mom has been a trooper the past seven months! She has continued to work to homeschool the four younger kids. It has taken a lot of patience on her part to deal with the frequent interruptions to show our home and still maintain a sense of order around here. It also takes a lot to keep up with 5 kids single-handedly!

Bianca—I have had a very challenging school year. I struggled to keep up with my classes last fall while I battled a 6-week illness (sinusitis followed by the flu and lots of misdiagnosis and issues with medicines along the way.) I worked as the assistant to our new student/college pastor from November until May. That was a stretching but very beneficial working experience. I was able to catch up on school, and now am only 3 credits away from being a junior. I spent 10 days in Ecuador in May, and 8 days in Guatemala with my family in June, doing missions work. In July, I will start working part-time at a local soda fountain. My dog Tex—a blue mountain cur that I acquired back in December--has kept me very busy with the various scrapes he gets into. Generally, he finds a skunk once a month.

I’ve had another big event this past year. ;-D You can read all about my courtship over here!

Ben—Ben worked very hard this fall and spring to wrap up his Eagle Scout project (landscaping several areas at our church.) Thankfully he completed the project before Texas turned into a swamp! Many people came to celebrate his Eagle Scout Court of Honor with us despite the monsoon-type rains we had that day. He is still finishing up his high school math and chemistry, and should graduate at the end of this year. He has been very busy keeping up house maintenance.

Rubia—Ruby has continued to be diligent with her school work this year! She has been a great help with taking care of our growing menagerie of pets (plus a few neighbor dogs that need a little TLC.) She is faithful to run with Roma and work out three times a week. She also keeps our refrigerator free of spoiled food so that those of us with poorer senses of smell don’t accidentally eat something bad. ;-P Rubia was ecstatic to go on a mission trip to Guatemala for the first time this year.

Roma—Roma continues to keep us all focused on the bright side of life. She has been very helpful and positive over the past several months. Like Ruby, she has been diligent in her school work, but also finds time to make treats in the kitchen for the rest of us to enjoy. She has been the most interested in continuing to blog, and you may see her start to take over some things here in the future as my life continues to get busier. ;-) Roma loved going back to Guatemala this year! She also went on a missions road trip through several large cities in Texas over Spring Break, along with Rubia, Ben, and me.

Josiah—Josiah has been busy this school year! He gets the majority of Mom’s homeschooling time since the older kids are mostly independent. He has also been hard at work in Tae Kwon Do. He may be able to test for his first brown belt before the summer is over! He has absolutely flown through the belt levels and receives lots of praise from his instructor. He had a blast on his first missions trip (our trip to Guatemala in June.) This week, he is enjoying sports camp at our church!

So there’s a small update on the family! Hopefully we’ll be able to post a bit more frequently here over the summer. Thank y’all for sticking with us during this busy season of our lives!

Guatemala Mission Trip

~posted by Roma

Back in July, I had the wonderful opportunity to take my second mission trip! It was refreshing to be back on the mission field again, after 2 years. (In 2012 our family went to Haiti.) Our whole family didn’t go on this trip; just Bianca and I. Bianca went for an internship with other interns for 3.5 weeks, then the last week our youth pastor here in Texas led a team from our church. And I wanted to go! So after having a garage sale here with the help of my family, raising all the funds, packing my bags, putting my pigtails in my hair and grabbing my jacket, I was ready! It took a step of faith to commit to going even if I didn’t know where the funds would come from, and traveling without my family was different, but at least I had a team with me. J

The night our team got there, Bianca came up behind me, swung me around in the air, and squeezed me! It was great to be with her again after a few weeks. Her Birthday had been celebrated in Guat. over and over again, and in this picture we are having one of her celebrations.

Our team. There were lots of other dear people to me that are not in this picture—our translators, the missionaries, the fellowship Guatemala team, and the interns—but this is the team I came down with.

Guatemala was a great experience as all mission trips can be, and this blog post may end up being shorter than I’d like just because trying to share every detail could take so long. All the words and pictures can’t even do it justice. I would encourage you to go to Guatemala yourself. It’s eye-opening to drive past zone 3 (there are 25 zones in Guat.) where no one goes in, and no one goes out, because of the drug cartels. It’s eye-opening to walk along a train track where the people are living in absolute squalor and kids come running up to you to hug you even though you don’t know them and they don’t know you. We went through dirty places, smelly places, and big wealthy houses with sugar cane fields. (We went through a variety of places in 7 days.) There was poverty, and people were broken.

But on a happier note, Guatemala was also a wonderful place to experience Hispanic culture. I will always adore Hispanic culture, being half Puerto-Rican myself. Getting up late in the morning…drinking strong black coffee with cane sugar…never being in a rush…always being on “Guatemalan time” (which is really late)…going to bed at 2:00 a.m. so slap-happy and exhausted; your stomach hurts to death from laughing! Hispanic people coming to the mission house to visit you even though you don’t know them. They’re all smiles talking with you even though there’s a language barrier…it’s AWESOME! And when I got home, it was hard to do the “Texan routine” instead of the “Guat. Routine.” This trip also had plenty of inside jokes and funny memories that make the mission trip even more memorable. J

The things we did during the week were going door to door evangelizing, visiting different churches and a hotel with a church in it, and VBS with kids in zone 25. (pictured above.) VBS was awesome! Everyone took turns teaching every night, (including me J) we got our faces painted, and DANCED.

All these girls in the above picture are precious new friends of mine and sisters in the Lord! Two of them, S and M, have already visited my home in TX. All these girls are great. I’ll be seeing them again for sure.

Some of my favorite memories of Guatemala were: riding on the huge, colorful bus with blasting music on the way to touristy Antigua; shopping in the market for souvenirs for the family; getting a semi-permanent blue and black braid in my hair; panicking for a minute when two Guatemalan Police came up to me and I thought I was getting arrested. But they just wanted me to have my braid done outside of the town square. J So guess what--I was escorted outside the square!

In Antigua, with Mt. Agua in the background. Pastor D has climbed it! I want to climb it! J

Me with the missionaries Pastor D and his wife O. They are an incredible couple!

The most impacting part for me was the first day that we were going to zone 25 to evangelize. We arrived at pastor O’s church and everyone got silent when going inside because a prayer warrior was kneeling at the stage praying. I never learned this woman’s name or anything about her. I just know she was praying, singing over and over again “Gracias Cristo.” It makes me want to be more thankful. Looking around the room, I noticed that an American wouldn’t think there’s much to be thankful for. Pastor O’s church consists of a room, plastic chairs, a stage, and a bathroom that I won’t even get into. But this lady was absolutely grateful. She faithfully prays for her community every day. You can start praying for “the prayer warrior in Guatemala”, and pray God would hear her prayers and do miracles in her community.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and captions, and Bianca will probably post more on her 3-1/2 week internship later. I hope I go to Guatemala again--maybe for June 2015!

2nd Annual "A Child's Hope" Gala

This past weekend, our family had the opportunity to go to Houston to attend the 2^nd Annual Charity Gala for A Child’s Hope (the organization I work for that is building an academy in Haiti.) The gala is something that we really anticipate! J

This year, our whole family got to go (last year, Dad was on a business trip in St. Louis.) We drove down on Thursday, despite the rain and hail we encountered as we left! :-P We made it down there in time to check into our hotel and then go out for dinner.

We ended up at a local pizza place. The food was good, and different!

When we got back to the hotel, we donned swimsuits and headed down to the pool. It’s not often we get to swim at hotels anymore. Unlike the northern states, most of the hotel pools here in the south are outdoors. Somehow or another, we end up in hotels during the few months of the year when it’s too cold to swim outdoors!

The next morning we slept in a little bit and then went down to breakfast together. Afterward, we ironed our clothes for that evening, and then headed over to the gala venue to help get things ready. We assisted with a variety of tasks, including setting up the items for the silent auction, setting up my table with the missions trip info, and helping sort, label, and stuff the programs for the evening.

After a few hours, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the actual gala! We knew it would take awhile considering 7 people needed to share two bathrooms. J

All dressed and ready!

When we arrived at the gala, I stood by my table and chatted with people about missions trips. The rest of the family mingled, talked with the missionaries from Haiti and with our friend who flew down from Michigan, and enjoyed the hors d’oeuvres. The silent auction also went on in one of the rooms.

Our table all set for dinner.

A friend of mine that I met through the College Plus program lives down in the Houston area. We had an extra seat at our table, so we invited her to join us! When she arrived, I enjoyed catching up with her. She also does a lot of work in Haiti, so we have a good deal in common. J

Finally, dinner time rolled around. J The food was delicious! But what I enjoyed the most was getting off my feet for a little while. :-P

During the dinner, we had a program. Several board members spoke, and several videos were shown about the work being done in Haiti. This was followed by the live auction. That is always interesting, and slightly nerve wracking for the board. It went well, and $105,000 was raised just through that!

After that, a band started playing and they opened up the dance floor. I stayed by my table for a little bit to try and pass out as many informational pamphlets on the mission trips as I could before people left. But then I joined the dance party for awhile. J

Mom and Dad with our friend, Miss D, from Michigan (she went down to Haiti with us in 2012.)

Me with my friend H in front of the mission trip table.

I don’t think we went to bed that night until 1:30 a.m. It was a long day, but so much fun!

             

The next morning, we couldn’t sleep in much. We went down to breakfast and packed our things up in order to make it back over to the conference center by 10:00 a.m. We helped load all the silent auction stuff back into the box truck so it could be delivered. Then we went out to lunch with the missionaries and part of the board so that we could discuss mission trip details.

The restaurant was really nice and the food was delicious! It was great to have some time with the board members.

After that, we headed back home. It was a short weekend, but we really enjoyed it! We are excited about the upcoming mission trips and look forward to the next gala!

Passion Conference, Part 1

As I mentioned yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the Passion Conference down in Houston, TX this past weekend. I have wanted to go to the conference since 8^th grade, but wasn’t old enough until this year. I found out that the college group from our area was going, and I was able to join them!

We met at the community college early Friday morning. After filling out our emergency contact forms, eating some breakfast, and loading up our luggage, we pulled out! Our group had about 25 people from 4 different churches/groups.

The drive was about 6 hours long including our lunch stop. I had a nice time chatting with others I didn’t know, reading a school book, and napping. For lunch, we parked in a parking lot surrounded by a whole bunch of restaurants. We split up into a few groups to eat. I went with some folks over to Chili’s to get lunch To-Go. I had never eaten there before; it was good!

Then we continued on our drive.

The event—and our hotel—were in downtown Houston. I’m always overwhelmed by how large everything is!

When you have 20,000 people all trying to get to the same area, there will inevitably be some transportation issues. Plus you have all the Friday night traffic of people trying to leave the downtown area. We drove around downtown Houston for quite awhile trying to figure out where we could park. By the time we got things all sorted out, we had about 15 minutes in our rooms to freshen up before leaving again!

I was grateful to be rooming with 3 other girls that I had met before. While all four of us are quite different personality-wise, we also had quite a bit in common regarding more important things such as our life purposes.

We started to walk towards the conference center. We ended up eating McDonald’s for dinner because it was on our way and quite fast. It was the first time I had eaten there in 3 years!

Once we finished eating, we walked to the conference center. The number of people there was incredible. The conference had completely sold out!

We got good seats despite the fact our group was so large! That was thanks to a few people who went ahead of us to save seats. J

The conference began with an Introduction Session. The Passion Band led worship. This band included Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, Christy and Nathan Nockles, Brett Younker, and more! Right away, I knew the worship time over the weekend was going to be incredible.

It was a really late night! The second session didn’t start until 10:30 p.m., my normal bedtime. J In between the two sessions, Capital Kings played music. I was pleasantly surprised, as I wasn’t expecting them to be there, but I like their music! Things only got better from there! Louie Giglio spoke that night on Isaiah 6:1-5. He focused on us seeing a glimpse of God’s glory. He also gave a very clear presentation of the Gospel, which was a wonderful way to start off the weekend.

The evening ended in an incredible time of worship led by Hillsong United. I was pretty indifferent to their music beforehand, but wow! The Holy Spirit was truly at work that night; it was one of the most incredible times of worship I’ve ever experienced.

We didn’t leave the conference center until about 12:30 a.m. After such an incredible night, most of us weren’t ready for bed yet. J My roommates and I joined some others in their room to talk. We didn’t end up going to bed until about 3 a.m.

Since we went to bed so late, 6:30 a.m. came quite quickly. I got up first, showered, and then did my devotions. Another one of the girls got up after me to get ready, and then the two of us went downstairs for breakfast.

But we discovered that the restaurant at the hotel (Einstein Bros. Bagels) was quite expensive. Another girl had come down and discovered the same thing. We decided that in favor of our wallets, we would walk down to McDonald's for breakfast. The group would be walking past there, and we would join them at 8:15 as planned.

That morning, David Crowder led worship, and Francis Chan spoke. I am familiar with his books and work, so I was excited to hear from him. He spoke on 2 Peter 1:1-9. One of my favorite takeaways from his talk was “Everything we see is temporary; what is invisible is eternal.”

 

Then we broke for lunch. It was incredible how they were able to feed 20,000 of us and keep it organized! They did a great job.

Enjoying lunch with some of the new friends I made from our group!

To be continued . . .

Passion Preview

I just returned from a weekend down in Houston at the famed Passion conference! It was my first time going, and I was blessed with an incredible experience. Come back tomorrow to hear more about it!

Courage

Photo Credit: Roma

“I am 20 years old and have 13 children and 400 more who all depend on me for their care. Who are all learning to love Jesus and be responsible adults and looking up to me. The reality of it all can be a bit overwhelming at times. However, it is always pure joy.

There is a common misconception that I am courageous. I will be the first to tell you that this is not actually true. Most of the time, I am not brave. I just believe in a God who will use me even though I am not. Most mornings, before I even get out of bed I am overwhelmed with His goodness, with His plan for my life; I stand in awe of the fact that He could entrust me with so much. Most days, I don’t have much of a plan. I don’t always know where this is going. I can’t see the end of the road, but here is the great part: Courage is not about knowing the path. It is about taking the first step. It is about Peter, getting out of the boat.

I do not know my five year plan; even tomorrow will probably not go as I have planned. I am thrilled and I am terrified, in a good way. So some call it courage, some call it foolish, I call it Faith. I choose to get out of the boat. To take the next step. Sometimes I walk straight into His arms. More often, I get scared and look down and stumble. Sometimes I almost completely drown. And through it all, He never lets go of my hand.”

(Katie Davis, www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com, August 14, 2009)

  

~ posted by Betsy ~

Shoe Box Packing Party

Last Monday night, we had an Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Packing Party! We used to do this with our Home Group in Michigan every year, and we thought it’d be a lot of fun to do one with our Life Group here in Texas.

We met and had dinner beforehand, and then got down to business! We packed 20 boxes in record time!

The paper cutting and candy-bag stuffing stations.

The packing crew with the finished boxes!

After the fun and laughter of packing the boxes, we got more serious. We surrounded the boxes and prayed over them. It was such an incredible time before the Father’s throne! We pray that these shoeboxes have a big impact in the lives of the children who receive them!

Guatemalan's Visit, Part 4

~November 10 (Sunday)~

Sunday morning we brought all the Guatemalans to church with us! We went to church in a few different waves. I left at 7:00 a.m. for band practice, my family came for first service at 9:00 a.m., and the Guatemalans arrived in time for the second service at 10:45 a.m.

Group picture!

Photo Credit: Our friend, C.

After church, most of us went home while a couple of people stayed behind for the new members class (just to learn more about our church.) Mom really hit it off with M. They had some good conversations in Spanish!

We kids had fun that afternoon. While the boys rested and took naps, we girls took a walk and shared our testimonies with each other. M and S are such wonderful girls, and I’m disappointed that we’re going to be separated! L

Later that afternoon, we piled into the vehicles and headed back to town. In our county, there is a movement to unite about 30 of the churches. Periodically, they have events where all the churches come together. They were having a worship and prayer service that night. Our family had never been to one, and we thought it would be a good experience for the Guatemalans!

We met quite a few people from our church there. It was a *wonderful* service! The time of worship and prayer for our community with fellow believers from so many different congregations was truly a small taste of heaven.

After the service, we met up with more people from church for dinner! We took everyone to one of our favorite taco places. It was such a fun time of fellowship!

This was the “cool table.” J Yes, the girls have stickers on their faces!

Photo Credit: Pastor D.

That evening, we stayed up super late knowing it was our last night together. We all just crashed in the living room and had a big pajama party! The kids played “Life” while some of the grownups chatted.

Pastor D pulled out the guitar and started singing with M. It was such a sweet few hours together!

After the kids finished their game (probably around 11 or 12) we gathered around to pray together one last time. We shared some of our thoughts from the week, and then the Guatemalans prayed over our family. It was such a blessing to host them in our home, and we were so sorry that our time together was ending! L

After that, the adults went to bed. But not us kids. J Ben and I joined all the Guatemalan kids for a few card games up in the boys room. We stayed up until about 1:30 a.m. Crazy I know, but we know it will be many months before we see each other again!

~November 11 (Monday)~

It was difficult getting up this morning. One because we were all so tired, and two, we knew the parting time had come. L Everyone got their showers and breakfast and started packing things up.

Around 11:00 a.m. the dreaded hour came: the time to say goodbye. L We had such a wonderful and rich time of fellowship with the Guatemalans over the 4 days they were with us! They truly felt like family to us by the end of their visit. Saying goodbye was hard, but we trust that God will bring us back together again soon. We look forward to seeing our Guatemala family again, Lord willing!

Guatemalan's Visit, Part 3

~November 9 (Saturday)~

Saturday was a fun-filled day for our family and our Guatemalan guests! We all slept in that morning after our late night on Friday. We had breakfast from the buffet whenever we woke up.

That afternoon, we left around 12:30 p.m. and headed to a farm that is owned by a family at our church. We were going to hunt for sharks’ teeth! We were joined by several other members of the Guatemala mission team.

Looking around in the dry riverbed.

D found a tooth that is probably the biggest intact tooth that’s ever been found at the farm!

We had packed lunches which we enjoyed outside, since the weather was so beautiful.

After we hunted teeth for awhile, we drove up the road to our church to show them around. We stopped by the youth room and chatted over coffee and soda, killing time until we headed to our next destination.

 

We were going to a Guatemala Team Reunion, hosted by one of the families that went on the trip.

Not everyone was able to make it, but we still had loads of fun! We enjoyed a delicious potluck meal together, talked, reminisced, and played LOTS of games. Here, a game of Dirty Power Uno is going on. Later, some of the team played spoons in the backyard. They lined up to play and then ran across the yard to grab the spoons. Yes, it was *crazy!*

The adults talking inside.

We had a wonderful evening together, talking, sharing testimonies, and fellowshipping as brothers and sisters in Christ. It was a long day that ended in a late night, but so worth it. I was getting so sad that our visit was flying by so fast!

To be continued . . .