Visits

We had a great surprise from the Selfs today! They were staying in Panajachel and made the trip across the lake to come see us. It is always so much fun and encouraging when fellow missionaries come to visit. Or anyone comes to visit for that matter.

Thank you guys for the delicious lunch, wonderful fellowship and great encouragement.

My Cousin Evan...

I got a call one night from my aunt saying my cousin Evan was coming to Guatemala. I said GREAT, when is he coming and she said "in two days!!" I just laughed...nothing like being young and impromptu. He had the opportunity to take the place of some one who could not come on the trip. This was a team from their church in TN who have made multiple trips to Chimaltenango. He was not able to come to our house but we were able to go see him. It was so much fun to see him. He is a neat guy who loves the Lord. I am thrilled we got to see him while he was here.

Kristyn, our intern for the month of June!!

Kristyn was an absolute joy to have in our home last month. She is from our sending Church, Bible Center Church in Luling, LA. We have known her for many years but to actually live together for a month you learn a lot more about each other! We laughed a lot, we cried some, but most of all we enjoyed every minute she was with us.

Kristyn had the opportunity to work in the Alfa & Omega School. The English teacher was gone for one month so Kristyn was able to help the kids continue their studies. All the students really liked her, she was a kind, loving, Teacher who cared about the kids.

Hard at work teaching the little ones their numbers, colors, and days of the week.

She also taught them Duck, Duck, Goose!!! They loved it. The boys would run all over the field while the girls would barely run around the circle.


This is the Mirador (the look out). It is a great view of the lake and you can see for miles around. The guy standing on the right is our Tz'utujil teacher Diego. He took Patin & tortillas for us to eat. (My next blog is about Diego)

The kids had some time off from school. We decided to take a trip to the beach so Kristyn could see the black sand beaches. AND we did relax and enjoy our time there too.

We went to Pana one day and had a lot of fun shopping and showing Kristyn life in Pana.
The last week Kristyn was here was a busy one. She studied Spanish in the mornings, and we studied Tz'utujil. We had a team come in from North Carolina and we were helping them all week. In the afternoons we would go with them to the Colonia and have VBS classes for the kids.

It was neat to be able to work with the team and to have Kristyn here to help out with all we were juggling.

Kristyn, we appreciate all your hard work and the time you spent with our kids. You became part of our family for a brief month and it was very sad to see you go at the end of the month.

THANK YOU, OUR GOOD FRIEND!!! WE MISS YOU...

La Campesina

La Campesina is a small town on the west cost of Guatemala. The people there speak Tz'utujil. We had the privilege of going with a group from our church. Our church has started a daughter church there, and it was their 5 year anniversary.

The pastor of the church is Elias & his wife is named Rosa (Ana Samuc's sister) & they have 3 kids. They are from Santiago and moved to La Campesina to work there. I felt a real kindred spirit with Rosa, she was very loving and hospitable. She too has left her home town, family and church to minister to people she did not know. Hmmm missionaries from Alpha & Omega church in Santiago, I like that.

It is very HOT there and we got to go down to the river to cool off before lunch. It was very refreshing, Danny and the kids really enjoyed a nice swim with the men & children. While the ladies fixed some delicious Chicken vegetable soup & tortillas. Then we had the anniversary service. It was neat to see how the Lord has been working over the time they have been there.

We especially enjoyed getting to know the people who went to La Campesina with us from Santiago.

Hanging with the Coolbaughs!!

We had a family come down to visit us and explore what the Lord may have for them in the future. They are both optometrist and would like to help in any way they can here in Santiago.
We had never met them before, but we all hit it off. They have four kids and brought them down so they could see what it was like to live on the mission field. Everyone got along so well, it was like we had known them for years.

We enjoyed introducing them to the Tz'utujil people and culture.
They were a great encouragement to us. We were able to relax with them and share what the Lord has been doing in our lives here in Santiago. Since we have been here we have had hard times, sad times, happy times and encouraging times but knowing we are right where the Lord wants us makes all the difference in the world. They prayed for us and some of our specific situations It was neat to see how the Lord has blessed this family and they were able to come down here to bless and encourage us in a time that I think we really needed an extra boost!!
Thank you Coolbaughs, We all really enjoyed meeting you and look forward to what the Lord has in store for the future.

Foote Notes November 2008

Greetings to all,

We want to thank you for your continued prayer. We have been here in Santiago for three months and have felt the Lord leading in so many ways. Thank you for praying for our transition and adjustment, Praise the Lord it is going well.

Danny and the kids are working more and more on their Spanish as we continue to learn about the culture and the people. Sometime the beginning of next year we plan to start formerly learning Tz’utujil. We would like to find a tutor who is a good teacher, someone who can read and write. Up until now we have been learning words and phrases. It is exciting to be able to use and understand words in the market or in church but we have a long way to go. The locals love it when we use the few words that we already know; it really motivates us to learn more.

We are so excited to be able to go ‘home’ for Christmas. We are going to split the time between both families. We will be in New Orleans with my family and in Pell City with Danny’s family. Regretfully we cannot see all of you during this short visit but we do hope to see a lot of you. We ask that you keep us in your prayers as we travel this holiday season.

We are thankful to those of you who came down this year. You were a great encouragement and help to us. We look forward to seeing who the Lord is going to send our way this coming year. Our calendar for 2009 is already getting filled up, Praise the Lord!

As our Pastor Gary says in Luling, We have a perfect Savior but we do not have a perfect church. Our church Alpha & Omega is going through some turmoil. We ask that you keep Pastor Abraham and the Elders in your prayers. Pray that they would let the Lord lead them to make wise Godly decisions. We do not know all the ins and outs of each situation but we too are fervently praying.

Our visits to Antigua!

We have been going to Antigua for several weeks now and we really like it. It is where Danny studies Spanish. It has cobble stone roads and very old buildings. There are 2 volcanoes you can see behind the city. It is gorgeous landscape. We had a great time this past week-end. As soon as we walked to the main drag we saw this family playing their instruments. We were all very impressed. They were all home made notice the turtle shell drum!! The little boy playing the marimba was standing on a stool.

We found a cool restaurant that we love Fonda de la calle Real. It must be a favorite here too ,there are 3 around town. We just thought we were walking in circles until we figured out there was more than one.

Titus decided to wriggle his loose tooth while we waited for our food and next thing we know he said Daddy it came out! So there we are in this nice restaurant with Titus tooth in hand, trying to conceal the blood and rush him to the bathroom. Like we are not a spectacle already (large gringo family in a foreign land) we have to throw some excitement in too!

Antigua is known for their cobble stone roads, quaint shops, antiques and a great history. This was a great photo op I could not pass up.

We finished up the day with Ice cream (we like ice cream down here Isaac can eat it too!) and a visit to the park. Needless say we have had some fun times in Antigua.