In A Nutshell…
On
Friday (Oct 18th) evening, Neil’s family took the night bus into
Guatemala City to pick up their son, Tyler. He flew into the city on Saturday,
and they got on a bus Sunday afternoon for the return trip to El Chal. Neil
called me sometime on Sunday evening and told me that I should go to bed
because they were having bus trouble, and wouldn’t be arriving until much later
than they had thought. He said he’d wake me up when they were closer. Since I
had to take some people to catch the bus for the city late that evening anyway,
going to bed would have to wait. After the dropping two different people off
for two different buses at two different times I finally got to bed at about
11:30. I woke up around 1:00 AM to my phone ringing. If my phone waking me up
in the middle of the night wasn’t a miracle to begin with, then the fact that I
talked to Neil, comprehended what he said, and set my alarm for 1:45 AM before
falling asleep again, was. At about 2:00 AM an old, junky bus pulled over, and
Neil and his family filed out. They all looked about as tired as I felt. All of
them, that is, except for Dylan. He came bouncing off the bus and was talking
like he’d had twelve hours of sleep. I met Tyler, even though I couldn’t really
see him because it was dark. We hauled their pile of luggage home and went to
sleep. The next morning at breakfast, everyone looked and acted pretty tired. Everyone,
that is, except for Dylan. He was as energetic and talkative as ever. I think
he was pretty pumped about hanging out with his older brother again. I could
relate with him a little bit, I think. Older brothers are just pretty awesome.
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| Dylan's "new" room |
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| Neil and Lucinda's "new" room |
The
first thing we worked on when after Tyler arrived was finishing the work in the
two bedrooms upstairs. Just the trim and the floor needed to be finished, so it
wasn’t too long before we were done. I’m sure Neil’s and Dylan are happy to be
able to sleep in their own rooms again.
On
Sunday, (Oct 27th) Neil’s family, a few of the staff girls, and I
went to Mopán for the afternoon for a picnic. We all managed to pile into one
truck, and although the weather wasn’t exactly ideal, we made it. No one
complained… much. We arrived there to see more water pouring over the falls
than I had ever seen there before. We ate burgers and hotdogs for lunch. Due to
the wet and damp atmosphere, everyone was cold, and swimming didn’t seem like
the best idea. But my theory is if you endure the hour-and-a-half long, bumpy,
gravel road ride you have to jump off the falls at least once. And if you jump
in once you have to do it at least one more time… and so on. Although the water
was fairly frigid, I thought jumping in was worth it.
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| Only a little bit wet and cold |
The
following Wednesday evening was the “Clausura” or final program for the school
students. The evening before we had a church cleaning instead of regular
service so that the church would be nice and clean for the program. The only
thing that I had to do at the program was show a clip from the “José” movie that I had helped make with the Basico students. It seemed
to be a bit of a hit because Wesley got rid of about thirty DVDs after the
program. Quite a few people even stayed after the program to watch the whole
thing projected on the wall. The students did really well with the acting and
Wesley did an incredible job of organizing and directing. Kudos to them!
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| The whole school singing! |
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| Grades seven and eight… these were my english students this past year |
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| They prefer studying english over singing |
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| "José the movie" |
On
Monday morning (Nov 4th) I woke up at about 3:00 to get ready to
leave for the General Institute. I had to gather a few people around and take
them to the mission so that we’d all be ready to leave by 4:00. I was pretty
sure that all of our stuff and us were not going to fit into the Toyota van,
but Douglas had other ideas. I’ve always thought that my dad is the best at
taking large amounts of luggage and fitting it into the smallest amount of
space possible. I still think that… but Douglas comes pretty close. For the
first half of the trip to the capital, I had to sit on a wooden bench in
between two seats. The bench didn’t have a back, which made sleeping a little
difficult, but my high levels of sleepiness evened things out. We got into the
city at about 1:00, just in time for lunch. I was in charge of a children’s
class each afternoon, and Lucio was my helper. We had lots of fun learning
memory work, acting out Bible stories, playing games, and doing activities. On
the last day, we had a “gum” hunt. The stories were the parables Jesus told
about the lost sheep and the lost coin. To illustrate how each one of us is
important to God, I didn’t let them eat the gum until every last package was
found. It seemed like a great idea, but afterwards, I wasn’t sure if I got
through to them because they were to busy chewing gum.
Another
really good thing about the institute was seeing Howard and Barb again. They
didn’t show up until Wednesday, so I had to wait two long days before I got the
package they brought from my family. Howard had one talk in the morning and
another one in the afternoon on Thursday. I switched my children’s class timeslot
with Gerber just so that I could hear Howard twice. It was really nice to be
able to hear him speak again! At one point Howard was talking about examples of
church members disagreeing over the smallest things. He told us the story of a
church that got into a big argument over whether to paint the new church walls
white or yellow. They even called in a third party to “break the tie.” The
third party guy thought they should just paint the walls black because of the
sadness of the situation. From the audience Byron immediately pointed at the
white-and-yellow striped canvas of the tent we were in and commented that those
people could’ve learned a thing or two from our church. “Yellow, white. Yellow,
white.”
Pablo
Yoder from Nicaragua was also at the institute. He is a really good speaker as
well. His way of explaining things with stories and illustrations makes him
really easy to understand… even for someone who doesn’t have Spanish as their
first language. His messages spoke to me, and I came home from the week feeling
spiritually refreshed, happy, and just really generally pretty glad that I
went.
I got
home to a house full of visitors. I actually got home to an empty house but I
definitely saw signs of visitors. The house actually wasn’t empty, but I
thought it was at the time. Anyway, after I took a nice long nap, Neil’s
returned from Ixpanpajul and Santa Elena with Alvin Jr. and his family. That’s
when I found out that Lucinda had been home resting because she was sick with
Dengue fever. Alvin is Neil’s friend from the states and he brought his family
to Guatemala for about two weeks. They have four girls and one boy. It was
quite an experience for the children since they had never been too far from
home before. The whole family seemed to enjoy it, and I’m sure it is a memory
they will treasure for a long time.
Top 5 Highlights…
>>Planting beans with Lucio and Pedro. One morning Pedro, Lucio, and I went out to some field to plant
beans. It was an interesting experience! There were no tractors.
>>Empanadas for supper. Neil
picked up some empanadas for supper one evening while Alvin’s were here. They
took forever to arrive, but they were well worth the wait!
>>Food at institute. Because
food at institutes is always so good.
>>Going to a graduation party with Kevin and Chito. Since I was their dad for a day, I took them to a grad party for
someone I didn’t know… and still don’t. We arrived right on time but no one
else showed up until almost an hour later… just a little awkward. The food
tasted pretty good but left me feeling a little sick. I’m not sure how this
made it into the highlights.
>>Getting a burger from Stephan. Stephan spent most of the week of institute “baby-sitting” the
guests at Byron’s house so that Byron could take care of his responsibilities
at the institute. Stephan sent me a message telling me how good the burgers
were. He even sent a burger for me in a package labeled “Proof for Ricky.”
Top 5 Quotes…
“I don’t know who is your wife, but you are
going to be my dad tomorrow.” – Kevin
“A bachelor is someone who washes the dishes
right before he eats instead of right after.” – Tyler
“Hey, if you toot your own horn at least you
know your batteries aren’t dead yet.” – Alvin
“I never complain either… when I’m sleeping.” –
Alvin
“I shouldn’t try to do so many things at once…
like wear a pink shirt and pick up a cup.” – Stephan (after dropping and
breaking a glass cup)
Spanish Vocabulary…
Peregrino (peh reh GREE noh) – it means
“pilgrim”
Memory tool: Pippen’s (from the Lord of the Rings) real name is
Peregrin, and he kind of reminds me of a
pilgrim.
Fun Facts…
>>It’s a tradition around here to have pizza
on Friday nights.
>>It’s a tradition around here to have
pancakes on Saturday mornings.
>>I like weekends.
>>Coke makes a great “treasure” for a
treasure hunt (more on this next blog J).
More to Add…
One
really awesome thing that happened over institute was Pedro accepted the Lord!
That is a huge answer to prayer!
This
weekend the youth group from the city came and spent some time with our youth
group. It was a lot of fun, and I’m sure the next blog post will have more information
about it.
And a
third thing… keep praying for me that I’d grow in my relationship with God, and
as I relate to and be an example to all the young guys like Pedro, Lucio, Edix,
Kevin… (I could go on) that I hang out with.
Dios les
bendiga ricamente!
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