We had a wonderful week with our team from our home church of First Bible in Decatur, Alabama! They left early Saturday morning amid hugs and tears (and lots of car horns honking!). Johnny and I were blessed by their visit and the work they did for us. After completing the basketball court, they leveled out our yard and moved some plants - all because they knew I would like it! What love!
We spent the weekend in the capital and plan to head back to the Camp in the morning. Due to a generous gift, we went to eat at Applebee's (yes, we have one!) today for lunch! Tomorrow it's back to cooking again or eating Steve Bateman's favorite, peanut butter. Lots of soup and sandwiches around our house!
Please pray as we get to rest the month of August. We have no teams scheduled although we will not be sitting around twiddling our thumbs. There are several church visits already planned and I hope to talk to two ladies about starting a prayer group in their homes. My language skills are always a concern for me. I also plan to get curtains finished this month. The house will look much more finished with the sheets down and curtains up!
Also, Happy Birthday to Johnny tomorrow, the 30th!
Maria
jcoker@caminternational.org
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Folks from home!
Well, First Bible arrived safely on Saturday noon, after a long morning of travel. The first order of business was lunch where the guys were the hit of Pollo Campero!
Sunday morning was spent relaxing because church didn't start until 3 PM! But here we are, enjoying a great time with Guatemalan brothers.
Yesterday, Nancy, Joy and I went to the Argueta church and had a VBS type program for the kids. We were only expecting 7 but 12 showed up! We (and they) had a great time!
And worked concrete!
They were tired puppies after this day!
This basketball court was finished!
Xiba kept waiting for someone, in this case Chepe, to drop something at lunch!
Sunday morning was spent relaxing because church didn't start until 3 PM! But here we are, enjoying a great time with Guatemalan brothers.
Yesterday, Nancy, Joy and I went to the Argueta church and had a VBS type program for the kids. We were only expecting 7 but 12 showed up! We (and they) had a great time!
Bob Dishman, Jerry Namie and Jon Moore wired the garage for us. We can now see without turning on the car lights at night!
They moved rock, dug out dirt and leveled the areas for the bleachers...
And worked concrete!
They were tired puppies after this day!
This basketball court was finished!
Xiba kept waiting for someone, in this case Chepe, to drop something at lunch!
Thank you, FBC, for sending your best! We are enjoying having them!!!
Maria
Monday, July 16, 2007
We're still here
Thank you to all of you that have so patiently checked the blog regularly on the off-chance I have posted something! It's been two weeks since our last posting, and much has happened. We continue to have difficulty getting to internet access and sometimes when we do have access, the service doesn't allow us to get to web pages, only email. Welcome to Guatemala!
Jon and Jamna stayed an extra day with us to help with 150 prejuveniles (12 to 16 year olds) who spent the weekend at Centennial Camp. It was about a disaster with trash thrown everywhere and kids up and running around all hours of the night. Since our garage was the only place to meet (or sleep), our gate was open for the weekend with the poor dog on a chain. We have decided that overnight activities are not possible yet, until we get the cabins usable up on the mountain (and far away from us!). We will still work with groups wanting to use the Camp for day activities.
Work continues daily on the Camp property. We are in the process of pouring concrete for a basketball court. This is what the team from Louisiana started and what First Bible, Decatur, Alabama, will work on next week. We have had different groups coming in the meantime to work on pouring also. We had a group working last Saturday when, at 11:15 AM, I was asked if I could supply lunch for the workers. Johnny was amazed that I came up with something for 13 people in 45 minutes! Frankly, so was I, but our God is amazing!
Also a work in progress is the stone wall that will separate the house from the basketball court.
As you can see, it is about 1 meter from the fence, but now the fence has been moved to the top of the rock wall. This gives us a little more room in the yard, our private area. We are also in the process of planting fruit trees and other flowering plants in the yard. Seems like everytime I plant something, though, someone decides to move something and I have to move the plants! Camp Do-over!
We have had lots of rain, but haven't floated away yet. We live under umbrellas when we are outside and in sweats when we are inside! Yes, even though we are south of most of you, with the altitude and the rain, it's cold!
Saturday we went to a church to show a film to a group of kids with the leaders of the prejuveniles. They use our projecter (we go with the projector) and this week, asked us to supply a movie. Out of all of the choices we had (not much for this age group), they chose The Chronicals of Narnia, which has a Spanish track. None of the leaders had seen it but after watching it, we will probably be showing it again. They absolutely loved it! We are always on the lookout for good movies, both for kids and adults, in Spanish. Since many of the people we work with cannot read, we have to find films with the Spanish language, not just subtitles. If you know of any good movies, let us know!
Sunday, we spent the day in two different locations in two opposite directions. Needless to say, much of our extra time yesterday was spent in the car. When we got home, it was time for the sweats! We enjoyed a DVD and just decompressed!
We are revving up for this week and our home church's arrival this coming Saturday! This blog was a little long and I hope to be able to post again before 2 weeks! Until then...
Maria
jcoker@caminternational.org
Jon and Jamna stayed an extra day with us to help with 150 prejuveniles (12 to 16 year olds) who spent the weekend at Centennial Camp. It was about a disaster with trash thrown everywhere and kids up and running around all hours of the night. Since our garage was the only place to meet (or sleep), our gate was open for the weekend with the poor dog on a chain. We have decided that overnight activities are not possible yet, until we get the cabins usable up on the mountain (and far away from us!). We will still work with groups wanting to use the Camp for day activities.
Work continues daily on the Camp property. We are in the process of pouring concrete for a basketball court. This is what the team from Louisiana started and what First Bible, Decatur, Alabama, will work on next week. We have had different groups coming in the meantime to work on pouring also. We had a group working last Saturday when, at 11:15 AM, I was asked if I could supply lunch for the workers. Johnny was amazed that I came up with something for 13 people in 45 minutes! Frankly, so was I, but our God is amazing!
Also a work in progress is the stone wall that will separate the house from the basketball court.
As you can see, it is about 1 meter from the fence, but now the fence has been moved to the top of the rock wall. This gives us a little more room in the yard, our private area. We are also in the process of planting fruit trees and other flowering plants in the yard. Seems like everytime I plant something, though, someone decides to move something and I have to move the plants! Camp Do-over!We have had lots of rain, but haven't floated away yet. We live under umbrellas when we are outside and in sweats when we are inside! Yes, even though we are south of most of you, with the altitude and the rain, it's cold!
Saturday we went to a church to show a film to a group of kids with the leaders of the prejuveniles. They use our projecter (we go with the projector) and this week, asked us to supply a movie. Out of all of the choices we had (not much for this age group), they chose The Chronicals of Narnia, which has a Spanish track. None of the leaders had seen it but after watching it, we will probably be showing it again. They absolutely loved it! We are always on the lookout for good movies, both for kids and adults, in Spanish. Since many of the people we work with cannot read, we have to find films with the Spanish language, not just subtitles. If you know of any good movies, let us know!
Sunday, we spent the day in two different locations in two opposite directions. Needless to say, much of our extra time yesterday was spent in the car. When we got home, it was time for the sweats! We enjoyed a DVD and just decompressed!
We are revving up for this week and our home church's arrival this coming Saturday! This blog was a little long and I hope to be able to post again before 2 weeks! Until then...
Maria
jcoker@caminternational.org
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Jon and Jamna
We have had the honor this week of hosting Jon Tucker and Jamna Abdalah. Jon is from our home church of First Bible Church in Decatur, Alabama, and Jamna is from Nicaragua but is currently a student at SETECA, a seminary in Guatemala City. They are living with us for the week and discovering how cold it can get in the mountains!
We are celebrating the 4th of July today, but yesterday was back-breaking work of clearing an area for a garden,
digging a latrine for the 200 kids we have coming this weekend,
and moving rocks to build a wall within our fence. And that's just their first two days here! We will see tomorrow what the weather brings and what's on the list to do!
Maria
jcoker@caminternational.org
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