Edit: I have written this blog several times. Our school break was the week after Easter, but I am very late with posting one blog. However, I have an excellent reason. This past Thursday, Eddie and Sue Turrentine, Teddy and Lisa Turrentine, Al and Cindy Stokes, Elizabeth, Ellie, and Cash Westbrook landed in Guatemala. It takes us 6 weeks to prepare for Teddy and Eddie’s arrival, one week to survive their visit, and 8 weeks to recover from their stay. I have no idea what Al Stokes was thinking when he agreed to come with Teddy and Eddie.
Yesterday, Teddy, Al Stokes, Matthew Cain, Edgar, Jonathan, Esvin, Pastor Adan, and Ronaldo built 2 houses in the morning. Eddie and Sue were able to do some PR in Chimaltenango and El Tejar for Grace Ministries and Colegio J.E.T. Daisy and Lesly insisted on going with Eddie and Sue in order to help them. Somehow Daisy and Lesly convinced them to pay for lunch at San Martin! We ended the night with fried shrimp, baked beans, potato salad, and tres leches for supper. All of the teachers benefited from Lisa, Sue, Cindy, and Mrs. Laurie’s cooking.
Blog from Last Week:
School vacation came to an end this past Monday. It was a nice break for the teachers, but everyone was ready to be back in school. Our “vacation” was an absolute whirlwind as we try to accomplish a million other things on our to-do list. I am going to try to recap some of the past week.
We always worry about some of our children no having sufficient food during our school breaks. Chino and I spent the part of Good Friday taking the basic eggs, flour, beans, rice, and oatmeal to some of our families. When you give 5 dozen eggs to a father and his eyes fill with tears then you know the food is much needed. One teacher received a text from a student telling of their hunger so the teacher made a food delivery to their house. We know some young children have to cook for themselves so we provide easy food such as canned vegetables, canned fruit, and sardines to help feed them.
Our Easter was spent cooking breakfast for about 15 of the youth boys. Then we had a church service and lunch at Iglesia JET. We had a our Easter supper with about 15 extras around our table, but we were interrupted by having a huge fire on the neighboring mountain. The next 2 days consisted of lots of fire, firemen from 7-8 stations, and news reporters. Did my children dye an Easter egg? Nope. Did my children participate in an Easter egg hunt? Nope. But on Sunday evening, we were looking at this large fire covering the ravine and mountain side while the firemen are trying to stop it with fire breaks. I just reminded my children that while our friends in the states have Easter egg hunts, they can’t talk about watching a fire engulf the entire 2 mountain sides and a ravine on Easter Sunday.
Pastor Adan helped complete some follow-up doctor appointments from the USA medical team. This is greatly appreciated as the needs are immediate.
We watched the men hoist the metal frames for the basketball court. They used ropes and trees to assist in the lifting of the metal frames. It looked like a huge spider web. I really think the frame will be completed this week and the tin will be finished next week. We will add lights to the basketball court and soccer field. This will be such a good thing for our school.
David painted the kitchen and we are beginning to start the remodeling of the kitchen. The kitchen was not designed to cook daily meals for 200 people. A little bit of readjusting and we believe the kitchen flow will make more sense.
Soy and I are in the process of moving houses. This means we have cleaned out a ton of stuff. Our days have been spent a lot of time at our new house which has no internet. My girls spent days with no technology and no television, and they had a blast. The other day I came in and found them having beetle bug races on my kitchen table! They have caught every cricket, stick bug, and beetle on the mountain.
The mission house became a “garage sale” filled with toys, shoes, and clothes. Yesterday, all of the kindergarten, first, and second grade girls left with toys and clothes. Some of the teenage girls went home with bags of clothes. Last night, some of our neighbors came and giggled as they carried lots of toys, clothes, and home decor to their house.
Shining Light Abroad Ministries 