Hurricane news

As far as we are from news, sometimes we depend on you to keep us posted on what is happening in the world! One of our daughters called and notified us of Hurricane Dean and his progress across the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, we have had several calls and emails about how we were doing. So this is an update on the Cokers - we are doing fine, it is raining at present, but we really haven't seen any more rain than is usual this time of year. I believe they were expecting more rain for the western part of Guatemala, which could have caused landslides and flooding. But we had a couple of beautiful days Sunday and Monday, with rain that started about 2:00 PM yesterday. So thank you for your prayers and emails of encouragement! It's nice to know that when someone hears "Guatemala", they think of us and how we are being affected!

Please do be in prayer for our government elections here, to take place the middle of September. There have been more demonstrations in the Capital, although we are not affected by them out here in the country. But the change in the government (President, VP, even mayors and such) can affect us, for better or worse. Your prayers for God's will in Guatemala is greatly appreciated by all of the missionary community and the churches of Guatemala.

Maria
jcoker@caminternational.org

Our latest projects

This is what Johnny and I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. Yesterday, we planted about 20 plants, including bougainvilla, roses, azaleas and gerber daisies. The rain started about the time we finished, about 1:30P. It seems to be raining more each day and we can expect more with Hurricane Dean coming. But the house doesn't leak!!

For those of you that will ask: the plant in the front of the picture is a ground orchid.

We hope to get the basketball goals made and put up next week. We'll post pictures when they are in.

Maria

jcoker@caminternational.org

The newest wall

Well, so much for blogging! The internet was running faster this morning and I hoped to get some pictures put on but it slowed down after I got one posted. Oh well! For those of you who haven't been here for several months, this is our new wall that was added to help with the grade of the land down to the garage. Coming down these steps is so much easier. I have canna lillies planted in front and some plants on top. This is one of our "August" things. I'll show more next time!

Maria

jcoker@caminternational.org

We aren't "resting"!

I had such great plans to post pictures of our garden and the "wall" we made around it and pictures of the birthday party of our guard's children. Alas, the internet access where we are at present will not allow this, so I will have to do it later. Although this is a month of "rest", we are not resting! We have no teams, but we have been working around the Camp. As I mentioned, we have been working in the garden that was formed when a wall got moved. I took advantage of all of the dirt and decided a garden would look great! We bought plants in Antigua on Monday and will take them back to be planted today. I guess I will just have to take a picture after all of the planting and post it instead!

We were invited to a birthday party for the children of our guard last week. All of his family attended and lunch was included. The women had on their best huipiles and looked like a flower garden. I took balloons and a craft for the kids to do. It was a good thing that I had plenty of materials because almost every adult joined in and did the craft also! The craft a very simple, but the Guatemalan people love to be creative and are very artistic. That's a good thing because the craft involved neon green and pink pipecleaners and beads! We all had a great time!

I hope to be able to get online again later this week. Maybe I can post pictures then!

Maria
jcoker@caminternational.org