Day Trip

Wilf, Nico, Ken, Nate, and Kris hiked out to a village Wednesday afternoon to participate in a service. There is no church in the town, so the service was held in the house of a Christian family. The above picture shows the road that we take to get to the bridge and then you see the bridge itself. After the hour's drive to the bridge, they hiked another hour to reach the town.
Here is the view as they approach the house. The roof is just visible in the trees.

Wilf took quite a few pictures of the inside of the house to give an idea of what the majority of people live in around here. The bench was set up for the church service. Notice the corn grinder above Kris's head (used to grind the corn for tortillas), and the fish! In a gully beside the house, the family has a small fish pond.

This is a picture of some of the family who had opened their home for the service.
The man of the house was also there. He has spent the past years studying on the week-ends to get his teachers certificate. They have six children. One of the younger ones is almost blind due to a childhood illness.

This woman is the wife's mother, who lives with them. One of her legs is paralyzed after she suffered a stroke several years ago.

Welcome to the kitchen corner of the house! This kitchen actually has an adobe brick stove. Most homes just have an open fire with a piece of metal on top to cook on.

This picture was taken during the service.

Wilf, Ken, and Nico on the hike back.

Kris and Nate really enjoy going along with Wilf when the opportunity arises. Last week Nate went with the men on his first over night hike.

It is a great oppotunity for the kids to get some exercise, spend time with Dad and be involved in the work here. Thankfully, they had beautiful weather for the hike. Once again the scenery looks beautiful!

Independence Day

Monday was Independence Day here and for the occasion all the schools in town participated in a parade. The parade went right by our front door so we had a great view! A lot of the schools wore beautiful costumes-some were more modern than others! I only took pictures of the more traditional costumes....

It was amazing to us how many young people live in town! I understand that some of them are from surrounding villages, but there are a lot of youth! How we pray for opportunities to reach them with the gospel. Sadly, there is a lot of drinking and immorality and the temptations are very strong.

There really was a great diversity of costumes! The girls below are wearing the native dress which most of the ladies wear all the time.

There is a Christian grade school in town (I think it is associated with the Assembly of God church) and they participated as well. On the front of the truck is a banner with their logo on it

The New Family is Here!

Wilf and Nico went to the city last Wednesday to pick up the new family coming to work with us. After a day of shopping in the city, Ken and Jen and their three kids, arrived at their new home. They will be living in the third house on the compound. So for a while (until Lia and Nico leave in December), we have six adults, four girls and seven boys! It is a pretty busy place :)
Ken is a teacher and he will be looking into the possibility of starting a school in town here. They plan to stay for a few years, so they had a lot of luggage! Once again, Nico's packing skills came in handy.

Unloading the truck by their backdoor.....

...and Wilf unloading the other vehicle by the front door!

Lia and I were happy to see them all! We enjoyed a nice lunch together after their arrival.

Visit to the City

Early Monday morning we headed out to G.C. for a few days. We were very thankful to the Lord that all the kids were well again. Lauren and Ryan had both been quite sick on the week-end. We meet up with Nico and Lia in the city and headed over to a seminary (different then the one we stayed at when we first arrived) where we spent two nights. This seminary is quite large and has a lot of property. We stayed in Casa Grande-and it is quite "grande"-four bedrooms and two bathrooms as well as a large living area and a kitchen.
We enjoyed staying at this seminary quite a bit more than at the other one because there is a lot more room for the kids to run around and play. Wilf and Nico usually spend quite a bit of time running around the city getting things that we need for the mission. The kids and I stay at the seminary since running errands with five kids is not fun!! Nate loved it the first day we were there because a large group of men were playing soccer and they invited him to play and even gave him a team shirt. There is also a playground for the smaller ones.

We stayed for two nights and then headed home again-with lots of groceries and other supplies. Nico is a master at packing things into the vehicles! We were all glad to be home again, although the change of scenery was nice for a few days.