"Not much time..."

Some of you are aware that my widowed aunt had moved to Decatur and was living in our house with my mom. It seems that love is always around, no matter what age you are. Yesterday, Aunt Tommie, 81 years old, married Edward Shaw, 82 years old, and moved to Texas!

As she told me, "When you're 81, you don't waste time because there might not be much left!" The happy couple wed in front of 8 witnesses, all of whom got to sign the marriage license.
Congratulations Tommie and Edward Shaw!

P.S. I represented our side of the family in true Guatemalan style...barefoot! My only pair of black shoes broke three steps inside the church!

Changes in plans

Just a short update to let you folks know just what is going on with us. I will blog on these things in the next few days, but for now, let me say that Johnny is NOT going to drive through Mexico...a big answer to prayer. I flew to Tampa today to spend a couple of days with our youngest daughter and her husband, Jennifer and Andy, before heading to Decatur on Saturday. Johnny will follow me as soon as our fully loaded, very packed and stuffed pickup truck gets put on a boat. He will have to drive some, but it will be in the United States!

Watch for blog updates in the next day or two (I promise!) of our summer, our daughter and son-in-law's visit and our despedida!

Mudslides

You may be hearing in the news about mudslides in Guatemala. The western side (mountains=us) is completely shut down and can't move. We got up to rain and came through several "young" slides on Friday morning, heading to the capital. Shortly after we came through one of the slides, the mountain let loose and hit a bus, killing 12 people. We made it to the capital without incident, sold the black pickup and trailer and picked up Lindsay and Micah from the airport. And that's as far as we have gotten. The highway west (back to the Camp) is shut indefinitely, until the roads are cleared and the slides stop. Just west of us, a slide buried a whole bus. Traffic was stopped behind them and people ran to help uncover those buried. Then more of the mountain let loose and the rescuers themselves were buried. They don't know just how many were killed, but they are saying at least 40, plus those that were in the bus.

We are OK, as are all the CAM missionaries that we are aware of. Thankfully, a wonderful CAM missionary family that are in the States right now, have let us use their house in the capital. Lindsay and Micah have their suitcases, so they have clothes. Johnny and I were only expecting to be here one night, so we are extremely limited on clothing, but we are all together and safe. We may not get to play tourist like we had expected, but, as I said, we are all together and safe.
We will post more later, as the news comes in.

We are happy to announce...

Boyd and Julie Robinson, of New Mexico, have been approved to be the next directors of Centennial Camp! They still have to raise support and spend some time in language school before arriving at Centennial Camp, but it is so nice to know that the work will continue! Please pray for their time of support raising and packing up to move to Guatemala. When I get a picture of them, I will post so you can get to know them!

What's happening...

Was asked to update my blog, so I will push the blogs about the teams from this summer back a week or so and give an update.

After we sent the last team home, we started packing...and giving things away! Our Guatemalan brothers and sisters have descended on our house, looking in all of our drawers and closets for things of ours they want! I finally set up a "yard sale" in the living room that I add to as I go through things and decide whether to keep or sell. Jordan, a young man from California that is working with us, has been at the house for the last couple of nights. We had to keep his bedroom door closed to keep people out of it! They think nothing of opening all of your cabinet doors to see what you have...and what they might want. But things are going. We met a nice couple that work in the Peten who is buying the black pickup and trailer. It seems perfect for their needs and an answer to prayer on their side for a dependable vehicle and on our side for a sale!

It has rained everyday, usually starting about lunch time. Since the dryer burned up (thankfully after all of the teams!) I have to hang my clothes on the line to dry. So my day starts with...#1 making a pot of coffee, #2 putting in a load of clothes, #3 drinking a cup of coffee while I check the internet, #4 hanging the clothes on the line, #5 more coffee while I start packing. We gave away all of our extra food this week, some to Guatemalans and some to other missionaries, so we are down to pulling something out of the freezer for supper (we find out what it is after it thaws sometimes), eating cereal left over from the teams, and trying to finish up the cheese, sandwich meat, bread and peanut butter and jelly from the teams. Mealtimes are kind of...interesting.

I guess my hardest part is trying to coordinate everything. Can't deliver the fridge to the new owners until almost the last, but can't wait too late because the truck will be loaded. Can't get rid of the bed until the day we leave. And the hardest...making the young Guatemalan lady hold off on receiving the coffeepot she has already paid for until the very end! She couldn't understand why I said I needed to keep it until the last days!

Tomorrow we pick up our oldest daughter and her husband from the airport for a week of rest and relaxation. We are looking forward to a week of playing tourist! That will leave us a week to finish all of the packing, see how much of the stuff fits in the truck, then repack to get the most important things home. All of this with people stopping by to spend a last few minutes with us. Pray we will be gracious and not look at our guests as "interruptions". Pray we get everything packed and that it fits. Pray as we say goodbye to our friends from the last 5 years. And pray as we travel, Johnny by truck through Mexico and Maria by airplane to Tampa (a couple of days with our youngest daughter and her husband), before arriving in Alabama around October 1st.

Latest derrumbe

Sorry for the delay since the last posting...hope to get caught up on postings on the teams next week, after the last team leaves. As you know, we had to take a few (very few) days in Alabama to renew Johnny's driver's license. While we were there, we were notified of a landslide between Solola and Panajachel. It wasn't until we brought the first Visalia team down to Pana that we saw the damage.

Coming up the mountain from Pana to Solola, you can see where the landslide took out a nice-sized portion of trees and foliage next to the waterfall.

A good view of what the road looked like when we first saw it. Big boulders had come down and took out the outside lane of the two lane road. Dirt and boulders also covered the road and isolated Panajachel for a couple of days.

This view is from the Solola side and was taken two days ago. You can see that they are already working on the area that was undercut (the land that was gone from under the road). The small yellow sign in the distance is the sign for the waterfall, to give you perspective. This area is now down to one lane, which is full of potholes from the boulders hitting the road. Rumor is that there were some injuries to people in a car that was passing thru this area and another small slide pushed them off the mountain several days after the road opened back up. Last week, we just had to pass this way going into Pana and returning to the capital because we worked across the lake and took boats each day. This week, however, we are working at the Camp and pass this way daily, up and down. Pray for safety as we (and others) cross this area routinely.

Southern Baked Beans

Southern Baked Beans

Can't take credit for this one, found it in a cookbook!

1 pound bacon, fried crispy and crumbled

2 1/2 onions, diced, sauted in bacon drippings until brown

6 cans pork and beans (or if using other types of canned beans, drain them)

8 Tbsp yellow mustard

12 Tbsp pancake syrup

10 Tbsp ketchup or BBQ sauce (Bob Gibson's from Decatur, AL, is quite tasty!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix bacon, onion and drippings with remaining ingredients. Pour into 2 9X13 pans and bake covered for 45 to 60 minutes. Serves 16 - 20.