Here are some fun facts to brighten your day.These past weeks have been rather busy. It has been the final push to move the church offices into the new and final location in the church building. We are now there.
Yea God!
So, every 6 months, we have to cross the border to get a passport stamp. Since Nancy has been to the states recently we were out of sync with our passport stamps. So off to the border I went for a 385 mile round trip run to Tapachula, Mexico. It was fun.
There was nothing out of the ordinary to mention other than I found a Home Depot. All of the signs were in Spanish - go figure.
This week is new floor preparation...
Julio is anchoring the pins for the new security door...
We will celebrate the progress when we can...
But this is such a God thing for us to see his children growing. And we get to offer such a small part. The students are coming together to study science, art, music...and just have fun! 
So after 26 years of marriage, my wife still wants to do stuff with me. So we zipped down to the coast for a couple days to celebrate the anniversary. As it would happen when you go the the beach to unwind a tropical depression came to meet us. It rained more on than off for the majority of the time.
The exciting part was the fact we took the moto. This is both sweet and sour as it flooded and we would not have been able to leave had we had a car. The water was deep enough to flood the top of my boots. At one point the seat on the moto was covered with a wave.
As we were working to get home before sunset, we were hit with another thunderstorm. The good news is that we had the rain gear - as well we made it home safe.
This is both a sweet and sour. This year we were blessed to have with us Intern Lindsey - who also happens to be mine and Nancy's niece - Lindsey Bandy from Elgin, Illinois. During her summer break from Hope College, she chose to come and spend some time with her favorite uncl... I mean Iglesia Del Camino working with our international missions program and also the social services of Pastores.
This weekend we saw the beginning of new life together in marriage. What a day - Fernando is one of the family serving in the church as our Facilities Engineer. Both he and his new wife attend Bible Seminary where they met. What a privilege to be a part. 
This month the cafe had been doing quite well. Of course the World Cup has certainly helped. We have been full and rockin'! Yea God!
It makes you wonder why would someone spend money on a car that is not much bigger than a motorcycle. It's either that or they washed and dried the car on the wrong cycle. This car often parks out in front of our house. Thank you God for something to laugh at almost every day - and you bring it to me.
We have a few teams coming that require different team activities for the "ya-ya"day as we call them - this is the tour or rest day at the end of the week for our visiting teams. it was "required" of me to do some scouting out for the groups - check the timing and distance, road conditions, costs, etc. I got to do the following:
- See a group of men lift my moto onto the shuttle boat and have a 20 minute conversation with these ladies with whom this is everyday life -
- See a group of kids just swimming and enjoying the bayou that has flooded their house since Tropical Storm Agatha -
- Pass a serious section of road washed out from the storm -
- then be able to enjoy a soda break in a Guatemala tienda.
The back view...
The view towards the front...
April 4th 2010 before services:
Today – Easter Sunday – We have power, lights, projection, new paint for the sanctuary, powerful worship, people giving testimony to the reality of God alive and active in their lives and a total attendance of 273. Yea God!
For the last couple of years I have been using a motorcycle as my primary mode of transport in and around the Panchoy Valley (the greater Antigua area). The vehicle used was a point a to point b only type vehicle. The second of the same type moto in two years was clearly on a road of no longer being stable. But a vehicle of substance was also beyond the financial means.Two points of interest...
Attic fun - Steve and I were in a "vewy scarwy pwace". Christmas Eve morning was spent in removing pounds of old electrical cable either not connected to anything or badly spliced and running new lines that needed to be replaced.
The new cafe kitchen is in process. Luis is getting the new sink cabinetry started. Yea God!
We have a counsel member who is a boot maker as well - and that was where we started. A model was sent down in advance and when Bill, Phil, and Gio arrived we picked up the Mayor of Pastores and began to brainstorm. The hopes for the project is to manufacture viable leather baseball products with proceeds returning to ministry in Guatemala. 
This is a fun photo fact - it is intriguing to me and it make's me ask - "What is God up to? This is the second first Sunday photo of a new building that I have posted this year. The first is above...
Yesterday was the first Sunday in the new diggs! God is so good. This photo was 1 hour before services...
Even with all of the things that didn't happen correctly - which included the previous tenants removing all of the light fixtures and damaging power connections in the sanctuary - the new signage showing up late - little things like that...
... communion was wonderful, the praise was unplugged...
... we still had 150 in attendance. This is lower for the average for the year, but 40% larger than the same week a year ago... Yea God!
