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.

Kids Stuff

The kids and I spend most of our time at home. We don't venture into town very often becuase the sun is very hot during the day and there are not a lot of places to walk to! I am thankful that the kids have entertained themselves well, so far. Nate and Kris have been able to accompany Wilf on some of his trips and that has been really interesting for them.

We did bring along our K'nex and the lego and that keeps them occupied often. Nate made this great windmill a few weeks ago. He is also working on landing his front flip on the tampoline and enjoys playing soccer with Uncle Nico, who is a great soccer player!

We also thank the Lord for the provision of the pool just down the road. The owners let us pay a "membership" for the year and we head over there often to cool off. All of the kids have improved in their swimming! It is a great source of recreation for us and a way to get out of the four walls once in a while :)

This is the rainy season so most days, later in the afternoon, the skies cloud over. We may get a lot of rain, or just a quick shower. The kids love going out in the rain and jumping on the trampoline. It is a great way to cool off!

Kristen is the best "player" in our family! She is continually thinking up fun things to do with either Ellen or Brad. These pictures are of her and Ellen's Tortilleria. This shop was open for quite a few days!

Pretty creative hey?

The K's have these great trikes for their twins. Brad loves to peddle around the yard!

Our kids get along great with the kids next door and we are thankful for that. Nico and Lia have been away this past week and we will be thankful to see them again tomorrow.

. On September 10th, we will be adding 3 more kids to the mix when the V's arrive! It will be a busy place, but we are thankful for the company.

Our kids would love to have some friends from the town. However, the language is a barrier as well as lack of oppotunity. There are some kids in our church but they only come for Sunday school Sunday mornings and there isn't much time for socializing. Hopefully, opportunities will arise for them to make some new friends!

This Weeks Hike

Tuesday morning, bright and early, Wilf and Nico headed out to the mountains again. This week they did the longest hike yet. After the hour's drive to the bridge, they hiked for four hours before reaching the first village. Tuesday afternoon they held a service in the first village and they spent the night in the church. Wednesday morning they hiked down a valley flanked on either side by steep canyon walls. The trail crossed the river many times. The guys used whatever was there. Sometimes by jumping from stone to stone, sometimes by suspension bridge and sometimes by wading up to your waist!

At one place, the river had carved out tunnels through the rock, which wonderfully serves as part of the trail.

By midday, they arrived at the next village, where they held an afternoon service. Then they started the long hike home again!

Two of the church workers accompanied Wilf and Nico for the trip. Here they are starting a fire to cook breakfast along the river.

We thank the Lord for His work in these Christian's lives and we continue to pray for spiritual maturity and growth in light of many obstacles.

Last week, Wilf went visiting in the mountains several times. Earlier in the week, he went with Nico and visited two different villages. They did some Bible teaching and spent the night in one of the churches. On Friday, they headed out again and this time Nate, Kris and little Nico went along. They drove to the bridge (pictured in an earlier post) and then hiked for an hour.
I was a bit concerned for them becuase shortly after they left, we had a major thunder storm in town. Thankfully, they didn't have a storm, but they did take shelter in this church building during a passing rain shower. This is actually the church building for the village they were visiting. They didn't have the service here though because it was too small to hold all the visitors who had come from a neighbouring village.
The service was held at this man's house. Not really in the house, but under his "porch" :)
They made a big event of the service and had a meal before and tamales after the three hour service! Nate is helping the Bible teacher for this town, Santos, keep the fire going for the tamales.

Behind Kris you can see the people sitting under the porch waiting for the service to begin. The service was supposed to begin at 4:00, but it didn't actually start until 7:00-after the neighbouring village brought in their sound system on a mule! Santos has a generator, so they were able to hook up some keyboards and enjoy some singing....for a long time and very loudly! The service went until 10:00, then they still had to eat tamales, and hike back to the truck by moonlight. I was thankful that there was a bright moon becuase earlier that week, Wilf had hiked for over an hour in the dark and rain. This made the bridge crossing quite dangerous.

Of course, at home here, I had thought they would be home by 10:00. When they didn't come in until after midnight I was quite concerned!!

All of the ladies who live in the mountians and the majority of ladies in town, wear this type of outfit that you see in these pictures. The skirt is a colourful, large piece of material that they wrap around their waist several times. The shirts are very lacy, with a lot of bead work on them.

Although the service was very long and they couldn't understand any of it (they didn't even know any of the songs because they were all sung differently than we are familiar with), Nate and Kris still enjoyed going along and are asking to go again-even for an overnight trip!

Wilf is heading out again early tomorrow morning. The kids can't go along this time because they will be visiting two villages that are even further away and the hiking is difficult. Please pray for him as he travels and for the Word as it goes forth. And pray for us at home here. He will be away over night again and the days are long without him.

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!""

Isaiah 52:7