Scott's Visit

Over the last nine days, we enjoyed having one of our friends from Atlanta visit us, Scott Sienkiewicz. Scott was in my first graduating class of youth from Bright Star, he came back and worked with us as an intern there one summer (which included coming on our first trip to Guatemala), and we have stayed good friends over the years.

Our pace has slowed down quite a bit since Kendon & Wendy's return, so I'm afraid we may have bored Scott a little at times, but we really enjoyed getting to spend time with him again and be with him here at NLCH. He was an instant celebrity with the kids because of his ability to swallow a coin and then pull it out of his elbow, among other tricks.

Elections are coming

Guatemala has all of its elections (everything from president to mayors) on September 9th. It will basically be a whole new government, since presidents are limited to one 4-year term and every political office in the country is up for election on the same day.

The news has reported a lot of violence against candidates and their families and workers (more than 60 attacks so far). I've added a feature that links to the latest Guatemala news headlines at the bottom of the column on the right, so feel free to read more of the details there if you wish.

As bad as some of those stories are, we still feel safe and have not been able to sense any difference in the social climate here. We are just praying for the Lord's will in the elections, that they can serve to improve the lives of the people of this country, and that the threats and violence against the candidates and others involved can stop.

Fun on our doorstep

I don't have much description to add, but we took this picture the other day as some of the little girls were playing in front of our apartment, and I had to post it.

Belated Birthday Posts

We got quite a bit behind in trying to post pictures about every one of the kids' birthdays, so we'll use this post to catch up. The recent birthdays, pictured below, were Astrid's 17th, her sister Nancy's 12th, Franki's 17th, and Daniel's 15th.

Gross but Cute!

You really need to click on this picture and blow it up to a larger size in order to get the whole effect! This little guy (Eliseo) still looks pretty cute, despite the large amount of snot on his upper lip, the red soda mustache and beard, and the tooth decay.

Jenifer Update

Thank you for praying for Jenifer. She has now been fever-free for over 24 hours! She returned to the girls' home unit and will sleep in her own bed tonight. She even ate lunch and dinner with the other children and I saw her walking around with her friends tonight, laughing and enjoying herself. I am so thankful for the Lord's quick healing of her body! Please pray for continued healing and a good report when we go to her follow-up doctor's appointment tomorrow. Please also pray that no other children will be affected. I had a few approach me tonight after dinner to ask for medicine for sore throats, so of course I am a little worried.

Kendon's Back

NLCH's director, Kendon, came back from a two month furlough in the U.S. today, and so we can hand the reigns back over to him. It was not an easy summer with him gone, but all buildings and children are still standing, so things could have been much, much worse.

Jenifer

Please pray for Jenifer, a 14 year-old girl at NLCH. On Tuesday, she started running a temperature of 102.5. She stayed the night at our apartment and rested during the day yesterday. She only had a low-grade fever and cold symptoms throughout the day. She stayed again at our apartment last night and I woke her up at 5:45 am to check her fever, fully expecting that she wouldn't have any and that she could return to school today. I was shocked when the thermometer indicated a fever of 105.1! I quickly gave her liquid fever reducing medicine and used rags with ice water. I thought maybe I wasn't coherent at that early hour and perhaps read the number wrong so I took her temperature again. It was still extremely high so Daniel and I took her to the hospital. She was given an injection for her fever and has strep throat. However, her fever continues to be high and we are getting ready to take her for a second injection. Please pray that God will bring healing to her body!

One Year

On Wednesday we completed our first year of living in Guatemala. We've been putting off writing this post for a few days because it's kind of challenging to think about (plus we've got a team here, so as you can see, there hasn't been much blogging time for a while). On one hand, it seems like forever ago that we lived in the U.S. So much has happened since coming here that it is tough to believe that all of these experiences we have had have been crammed into one year.

On the other hand, it is also tough to believe that we already are past the halfway point of our time in Guatemala. It already makes me sad to think that we have fewer days left here than have already passed, and we both feel challenged to make the most of each day that we have with the kids here during the next 12 months.

One of the neat parts about having been here a year is that we are starting to be here for some of the kids' birthdays a second time. Yesterday was Karla's 12th birthday, and one of our first posts after arriving last year was about her 11th.

Intern Retreat

This past Monday through Wednesday, we took the remaining six summer interns on a "end of the internship" trip to Lake Atitlan (Panajachel). We had a great time relaxing, shopping, going on a boat ride, eating and sharing with each other about the experiences of the summer. This trip was planned in early Spring before we had even met most of the interns. At that time, the trip seemed so far away and it is amazing to me that the interns now leave in just two days.

They have been such an incredible group -- helping in so many ways and planning special activities for the children at NLCH. Each intern is extremely talented and has such a heart for servanthood. I don't know what we would have done without them this summer! Monday will be a difficult day for us as we say goodbye. NLCH will certainly seem a little more empty without them here.... and we will have some very sad children this week who will be missing them badly. It does help that a team from PA arrived on Thursday and will be staying until next Saturday. That was great timing.

Below are a few pictures from the retreat:

Summer interns:Emily, Teryn, Beth, Shelly, Bethany and Liz
Beth and Bethany
Look at the variety of services offered at this place! Where else could you find massage therapy, scuba diving and Asian food all in the same place?