Celebrating

Celebrating Christmas always feels different in the Highlands, even after 14 years living in Guatemala. It's the time of the year when the patron saint of Chichicastenango is honored with a 10 day fiesta. Streets are blocked with vendors selling all kinds of goods. The air reverberates (even on our property outside of town!) with loud firecrackers and heavy duty "bombas" going off all day and night long. It's the time of many dances where streets are closed and the locals dance in rented costumes of the Spanish conquerers and cartoon characters. Drunkeness is the order of the day. Good church members are warned by their pastors not to be seen at the fair or they will lose their "privileges" to serve in the church. It takes an hour to get across our little town because all the main streets are blocked for the parades and dances. In the midst of this, Christ's birth is forgotten. Actually, that sort of sounds like what's happening in America!

We are working to lift up the name of Jesus in the midst of the revelry and idolatry! I am still amazed at the wonderful Children's Christmas party we had on December 7th! The people were genuinely touched by the love that was poured out on them in Jesus' name. We are so grateful for all the many, many people who put together gift bags in various parts of the country. The Gateway team that brought the Christmas program really lifted up the name of Jesus as well. For me, this is really what Christmas is all about - putting Christ in Christmas.

Yesterday we had another opportunity to celebrate! We had our annual staff Christmas party with over 60 guests. Each of our staff attended along with their families. It was so fun! We started with a powerpoint of the recent Christmas party on the 7th, followed by worship and a devotion. Then John put on his yearly "silly games competition" which everyone looks forward to. From the youngest to the oldest everyone got into the action. We topped it off with lots of goodies and gifts for all. We are so blessed with our wonderful staff and got lots of hugs and kisses from all the children. Now that felt like Christmas!

People keep asking if we will be going away for Christmas but no, we will stay here in Chichi. Our children and grandchildren will be celebrating in Portland and in Brazil this year. Jeff,Luiza and boys are with Luiza's family in Brazil. What a blessing that they were able to travel and visit her family, especially her father who is elderly and in bad health. Joy and John will celebrate together with their families. Thank goodness for cell phones and the inexpensive cost so that we can be in touch with them by phone.

As we close out this year and celebrate another Christmas together (it's our 39th!!) John and I are so grateful for the Lord's faithfulness. We are doing exactly what we feel called to do, and get to minister in a beautiful country with great co-workers. It's a real contentment to feel like we are in His will and doing what we really love. Thank you to those who continually lift us up in prayer. We do feel strengthened by the prayers of the saints. We wish each of you a most blessed Christmas season.

prayer needed

Student starts church:
One of our students, Pedro from Ajmachel, lives in a village where there are no Christians but his family. The village is made up of former Guerillas and is opposed to the gospel. He wants to start a church there. The village has falsely accused him of stealing. They took the whole family in the dark, bare foot, to face trial. They were found not guilty. Please pray for them as they face very tense times as the village tries to do everything possible to quiet them.

Student's life threatened:
One of our graduates, Rodimiro from SanAndres, has been establishing a relationship with the mayor and visiting him regularly for prayer. The mayor has been ousted for embezelling a lot of money. The village is furious and decided Rodimiro is taking some of the money and that is why he is always in his office. If he leaves his home, the have threatened to kill him. He is hold up. Pray for him and his family as this has been boiling for over six weeks now and will not go away.

Our employees and their children will be coming for a Christmas party tomorrow. I (John) will be in charge of the corny games as always. We have over 60 coming. What a joy it is to have such a great team working together with one goal in mind - lift up the name of Jesus in Chichicastenango.

Chiapas, Mexico

Trip to Mexico:
We continue to pray that the Lord will lead us to new areas to develop leadership as we continue to transform communities. Last weekend was one of those exploratory trips. We already have a young pastor, Daniel, that is interested in training pastors. He has an on fire church that is seeing many come to the Lord. We visited three pastors. The bad news is that there are three missionaries that have been training leaders for years in Chiapas. One offers everything from basic Bible to a Doctorate degree and all by DVD! What I knew as credited colleges and universities is now completely changed. Now anyone can name their own university and offer anything they want. Who cares whether it is accredited or not. The good news is that there is so much more to do! There are millions of unbelievers and I believe God wants to set the towns on fire! Our strategy is to put our efforts in Daniel and his church. With this model, we can impact many churches as they see the growth and life that comes from the Biblically- based principles.
We are excited about the future growth of Mexico. Please be praying. This area has had much persecution of evangelicals in the past and there is now a new openness to the gospel.

More Photos!

Enjoy!

Christmas Party 2006!

I wanted to write this last night but was just too exhausted! Thursday morning was bright and clear. When I got out to the front of the building at 6:30 am, the line was already so long that it wound around in the woods at the end of our road! Richard said people had arrived at 2 am to get in the line. Now that is ridiculous especially as cold as it is. Everyone was in high spirits. Various people came in and set up food stands and Lety and I (with the help of Tomas) started letting people in. We were very organized and had all the families checked in by 9:30 am. That's a new record!! Meanwhile our visiting team from Gateway Church in Dallas arrived and began the program for the children. It was a beautiful program. The children and families filled up our land and the music and Christmas story filled our hearts. The gospel message was presented in Spanish and Quiche and over 100 children accepted the Lord. We gave out at least 2000 bags with wonderful Christmas goodies. We are estimating that there were close to 4000 people here. I received so many hugs and smiles that I could hardly keep from crying. The joy of the children was so evident as they just beamed as they received their presents. The purpose of the party is to bless the children of our clinic families, not with just the gifts but with the message that Jesus came as a baby to save us from our sins so that we can live an abundant life.

We want to thank those who worked so hard to collect the gift bags and then to ship them to Guatemala. We are so grateful as we just have no way of providing this many children gifts without the help from our supporters. Here's a list of those who participated:
Gospel Outbound - NJ
Absecon UMC - NJ
Oakbrook Church - VA
Stan and Janet Elmore - MO
Casa de Oracion - MO
Gateway Church - TX

A Taste of Christmas

Tuesday (yesterday) was a crazy day with all kinds of people coming and going at ASELSI and the therapy program going at full steam ahead. We now have 30 enrolled and 4 more children showed up today to be evaluated. We have several mothers that do not come consistently so we may have to remove them from the program and put someone else in their place.

John and I took off for Guatemala City in the early afternoon. Road construction is in high gear all the way down from Chichi and makes the trip even more interesting! Our friend, Caroline, sings in the Messiah presentation and invited us to be her guests for the first performance. We went all dressed up to the National Theatre and had a wonderful evening listening to the Messiah and Christmas carols. Poinsettias were everywhere and the performance was very special. Towards the end of the performance a part of the stage buckled and the tree of poinsettias almost landed on the floor. We never did hear what happened and the soloist never lost a note! Went back to Caroline's house and had chocolate cake and went to bed. We left at 6:30 am to get back early to ASELSI. We sat in lines because of construction stops for about an hour before making it back. When we got back, the women's team from Gateway were immersed in Christmas bags and boxes sorting 2000 bags for tomorrow's fiesta. They are putting on a very special Christmas program as well. Our staff will be participating with them. We finished after dark and all is ready for tomorrow!

We will start at 7 am checking the families in. It is very exciting to think of all the fun we will have tomorrow and the great opportunity to present the Gospel message once again. Please keep us in prayer! We will post photos tomorrow night if I'm still standing!!

Gateway Medical Team

Where do I begin? Our clinics are getting busier and busier and more and more interesting! Our team from Gateway Church arrived on Thursday morning and jumped right into seeing patients. Dr. Heidi was here as well seeing her regular appointments so there were people everywhere. Heidi, an OB-Gyn doctor is getting great response with many new patients being seen every week. We could have clinic everyday and still not see them all. Her patient with the breast mass returned as did 3 of the children who are getting ready for cleft lip surgery. Osni is gaining some weight. Keep praying for him please.

We quickly sent Dr. John Osborne up to the local Health Center (which is part of the government health care service) where he saw 19 patients with high blood pressure and other cardiac problems. Here where we live there are no cardiologists and very little choice of medicines available. He brought along a portable echocardiogram machine to use. I didn't even know there is such a thing! Wow.

Back at ASELSI, Dr. Scott Conard saw all of our patients that we see on a monthly basis with chronic diseases of the heart and diabetes. It was great for our patients to be seen by someone who is a specialist in these areas. It was also great to hear him say that we have been doing a good job with these folks.

Carla Johnston, an advanced practice RN and Tonya Walters, also an RN, saw our sick children. They were also very busy!

Meanwhile I was getting training on how to do ultrasounds! Mary Brenner brought her portable machine and worked hard to show me many things whenever I wasn't being pulled away for other things.

So we were able to see over 70 patients in just a little over 4 1/2 hours!

On Friday morning we set out in the mobile clinic bus for a busy day of seeing patients in Xepocol. This is about a half hour drive outside of Chichicastenango. We took our bus there consistently for a year when Roger Turnbough was with us but have not been back since. Working with the local "Health Committee" we set up our clinic in a field to the side of the local elementary school. People soon started arriving and clinic got started. Dr. Scott and Carla setup their stations on the school porch while Mary setup her ultrasound room inside the bus. Tonya was a quick learner in working in the pharmacy for the first time with Richard who runs our regular pharmacy. Poor Carla had become really sick during the night (something she ate??) but was working hard at seeing patients between running to the outhouse. What a trooper!

We really saw some sick folks and even sent some in for surgical consults based on the ultrasound findings. We saw close to 100 people in all. Meanwhile back in Chichi, Dr. John was presenting a seminar to 12 guests from the various medical care providers located in Chichi.

So all in all it was a great trip and many people were helped. On Saturday morning the team headed off to the lake and then on to the capital to return to Dallas on Sunday morning. Short trip but great results!!

On a sad note, we received notice that little baby Lesly that had come to our clinic 2 weeks ago had died in the hospital. Despite the interventions she continued to lose weight and finally went to be with Jesus. We were all sad for her family as they had tried to do what they could to help her. We also have received the biopsy report on a young mother of a 16 month old child who is also pregnant again. She has ductal cancer of her breast and will need a mastectomy ASAP. Please pray for her, her family and the unborn child. I will let you know how she does.

Please also remember to pray for our Christmas party on this Thursday. The final count is in and we should have 2000 children attend this year. That's 400 more than last year! Thanks to all who worked so hard to send enough presents. Shawn calculates that we should have just a few gift bags left after the party. Please pray for the program that the salvation message will pierce through the darkness and many will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Thanks so much.