Counter and garden

The other day when we got back from Guatemala, Beto spent most of one afternoon finishing the countertop that Mr. Ken had started. He grouted it too and it looks so wonderful and I am really enjoying it! It is so nice to have the extra counter space, and pretty too!
Beto is constantly babying his plants and it is paying off nicely. We now have lettuce to share with the whole complex and can make nice fresh salads, CA style! He also planted tomatoes, beans, and handmade a bed for radishes. When Miguel comes over to work, he works mostly outside helping Beto and today Beto gave him some seeds to take home to plant at his house. Beto loves landscaping. yesterday he found Mr.Ken's weedwacker and cut all the grass outside, which is nice because we don't have anyone to do that for us now and a weedwacker sure beats a machete anyday.
Today Miguel came to church and I asked him why his brother didn't. He said he invited him but he didn't want to come. Well, he must have changed his mind becuase as we were getting in the taxi near the park, out of nowhere appeared his brother who had been in the park and saw us, so he came today too! as part of the deal of miguel working with beto was to buy him some shoes, so yesterday he got a new pair of tennies and wore them with pride to church today. He also helps wash all his dishes after he eats with us.
Today as Beto and I were walking to the internet there was a young drunk man laying in the road with his head on the corner where the cars turn really fast. We moved him over onto the sidewalk so he wouldn't get his face run over, but he was like a ragdoll. This is the main spiritual concern in our town and we'd appreciate your prayers for this stronghold Satan has on our communitee and God's wisdom in ministering to the men in town.
p.s. the pics of the counter are what beto did. the other pictures of the men is the father's day celebration. don't be alarmed to see beto in the pictures. they just needed an extra man to make the teams even in the games. we had a father's day celebration in the church because here it's march 19th. it was a lot of fun and we had great food and fun! praise God for the the ministry being done through the church!

Easter in Guatemala

These are really just a few pics from our Easter Vacation in Guatemala. His family had just moved into a new house the day we arrived. They are in a much safer neighborhood now and can walk 2 blocks to the church. Beto and I had the perfect balance of play and rest...we enjoyed shopping, rose gardens, a movie with leather couches in the theater!, a trip to McDonald's with the neices and nephews, and a trip to Antigua with the 'rents. We had a lot of fun with Beto's childhood best friends and their wives, mostly newleyweds too, and the family held a joint bday party for my neice, nephew, and I who all celebrate in march. On the way back there wasn't anything but first class in the bus. Poor us! Beto totally dug it as well as I. Praise God for a wonderful and safe vacation. Happy Easter. Jesus is risen!

Lago de Yojoa

last weekend we went with bob, kathy, dani, amy, and aaron to Lake Yojoa (yo...ho..uh) and had a blast hiking, zip lining, seeing coffee plants, passion fruit trees, buying pineapples for about .25 cents each, and eating fried fish that we picked out ourselves. I picked out the ¨marble swirl¨one. mmmm mmmm good! Praise God for great friends and little day trips! We had an awesome time! Thanks Bob and Kathy for taking us! Beto and I hadn´t been out of this little town since we got back January 6th and we really needed to get out for awhile! It really helped!

Lago Chiligatoro

There´s another fun name for you to say...chili...guh..toro...a lake close by to where we live. we got to go another sunday on a picnic and take miguel. it was beautiufl and i got to touch a real live cow, close up! i´m really getting a lot of animal life lately! the missionaries we were with are farmers and we were on a property that had about 7 cows and some babies, so he took the rope and rounded them up and brought over a baby only like 4 days old or something like that. i felt bad for it. it looked like he had a toupee on top of his head. it was a really fun day! oh, and for fun, mateo ¨cleaning¨the fridge!

Miguel

He is becoming more and more a part of the family, and about 3 weeks ago he became part of our spiritual family. He went one day to help Beto at one of his house painting jobs and after talking with Beto for awhile and Beto asking him if he wanted to give his heart to Jesus, he said yes. The owner of the house is also a Christian and Beto asked him if he would come pray with them. After Miguel prayed Beto asked him how he felt. ¨Muy rico¨, he said. Literally, ¨very rich¨but something like ëxcellent!
Thanks for your prayers for him and us. He is consistently going to church with us and helps Beto at least once a week at work or around the house, and is a great playmate for Mateo. About two weeks ago we were again invited to a picnic with the Owens and Dani to a lake nearby and he got to go with us.

Last Sunday after church we invited some friends over for lunch (Beto´s pizza) and we faced our first challenge, that of social class differences. The visitors are rather wealthy for this area and have 3 kids between the two families. We don´t know what really happened, kid stuff, but Miguel felt really left out and felt like the other kids didn´t want to play with him and that even Mateo didn´t want to play with him and Beto found him over in a corner outside crying. My heart broke for him and got a little angry too at the situation, though I love both families. I had one child in one class last year in the school and they are great people. Miguel has a longer attention span and stayed inside watching a movie while they went out to play. I am just thankful Beto was able to talk to him and it ended up being a great day for everyone.

Please continue to pray for him and us. Recently a neighbor donated a lot of school supplies to Miguel but we´re pretty sure he´s still not going to any school. We are praying how we can help him get his education.