Merry Christmas Yalu!

Today a group from NLCH led a day of activities for the people of a small Mayan Village high in the mountains. Four of our youngest girls performed a dance that they had prepared during the week. Other activities during the day were crafts, kite making (which is a REALLY big deal here), games, and best of all a ~*PiÑaTa*~

After all the activities, there was a LARGE meal served to all the people that came for the day.

The Mayan people are so precious! It was cute to watch how shy they were at the beginning and then see them come out of their shells a little as the day progressed.

Jared and I were blessed to see the kids of the Children's Home going to serve others in need.

For more Photos visit NLCH website's gallery at: http://gallery.me.com/kendonw

~Santa Clause~

As you can tell by the pictures I took of the kids, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to a special event with Santa Clause! The kids were so excited about seeing Santa and they even sang Christmas songs on the way to the event. A man had donated 10 tickets to the event for our kids. It was held at a shop called Pintemos (Let's Paint). All we knew about the event was that the kids were going to get to see Santa, but when we arrived we realized it was going to be so much more.

The women of the shop started dressing the kids in aprons and gave them all paint supplies. They got to paint their very own Ginger Bread Man. They also served cookies, pizza, and punch while the kids painted. Later Santa arrived and handed out Candy Canes and took pictures with all the kids. Needless to say they had a blast. A little boy named Kevin (yellow shirt in the picture with Santa) got in line three times to go get his picture taken with Santa, it was too cute.

El Dia de Gracias (Thanksgiving)

I want to apologize for not posting anything on our blog for quite some time. It has been crazy around here with the holidays. Thanksgiving was a fun time with great food and friends. The people of Guatemala do not celebrate Thanksgiving, so several missionary families came to NLCH to celebrate with us. We made all the traditional dishes for the Thanksgiving meal and we even played flag football on very full stomachs.

I (Joy) have been working furiously on the new website for NLCH and it is almost done! I hope all of you will check it out once I finish and post the link. It has been a fun experience for me because I have been able to use all my photography and design skills to make the website.

Here is a link to the online gallery of pictures from the website: http://gallery.me.com/kendonw#gallery

You can see how I am kept busy with taking pictures of all that is going on here.

Full Steam Ahead!!!

It has been a CrAzY last couple of weeks for us. For our first 2 weeks living at the children's home full-time, it has been non-stop going. Our first week back we had a team come in and put on a Youth Conference for our kids. It was amazing to see how lives were impacted for Christ. The Lord used the speaking and lesson times to really minister into the kids lives. The team also helped us to make a prayer room that will be open for anyone to come and just spend time alone with God. They lined the walls with black paper so that people could write or draw on them. It is now covered with scriptures, prayers, and beautiful drawings. This is a very special place, and I pray that it continues to be used by the kids in the future.

Last week was a fun-filled week of CAMP for our younger kids. The kids look forward to camp all year long, and now I understand why! It was a blast. The team that put on the camp did an amazing job and blessed all of us tremendously.

The LAST week of Language School!

So this past week Jared and I finished up language school. We went to visit an old cathedral and did several other fun activities with our teachers. We also got to hang out with all of our friends that we have made here in Antigua over the past three months. It was a bitter-sweet ending; we will miss our new friends, but we are ready to move to the children's home.

At dinner the other night, Jared had an accident with his beans. He didn't realize that he had put the sleeve of his jacket in the beans on his plate. It was not until after dinner that he noticed it all over him and the table cloth. I (Joy) fell on the ground laughing when I saw it all over him. I don't know why it was so funny, but it made my night.

N.L.C.H (New Life Children’s Home)

I thought I would share photos of some of the kids:
Jennifer is a close friend
Little Kevin is precious!
Julia! Sweet Girl!

Sorry it has been awhile since I last updated this blog. We have been very busy for the past couple of weeks. We spent 10 days at the Children’s Home from September 17^th until the 26^th. It was a much-needed break from Spanish school, although we did practice a ton by trying to converse with the kids! During the week we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the other staff members and we really got to know each other. After that, we headed back for our last three-week stretch of language school. It has been getting tougher, and we are ready to be at the Children’s Home soon.

The 2nd Dia de Independencia

We got to celebrate two independence days this year. Yesterday (Sept. 15^th) was Guatemala’s Independence Day. The celebration was a little different than back home though. The main festivities for the day included marching bands, marching bands, and MORE marching bands. A parade of marching bands started around 9 a.m. and lasted until 2 p.m. We could have possibly watched 5 hours worth of marching bands. However, we choose not to because, as cute as those kids were all dressed up, they were not very skilled in the art of music.

GOAL!!!!!!!!!

Jared and I had the opportunity to attend a semi-pro soccer game here in Antigua. It was hilarious for several reasons. First, the field was surrounded by fencing and topped with barbed wire. Second, the entire crowd was very intense (let’s just say we are glad we don’t every word in Spanish!) throughout the entire game. Third, every time a player “got injured” (it was usually a FAKE OUT) firemen would run onto the field with a stretcher and attempt to carry the man to the side. It was strange how quickly all the players would recover after needing a stretcher. Finally, a little girl around the age of two was doing laps around the outside of the field on a tricycle the entire time. Oh yeah, the game ended in a tie 2-2.

The Outhouse!

So, we thought we would show you a picture of our bathroom. Okay, this is not our bathroom, but it is really cool! We went to the macadamia nut farm on a tour with our school for an afternoon activity. This was their public bathroom, and the tour guide stated, "This is the most photographed bathroom in Central America!" I thought it would be fun to share!

Jared and I got the chance to hike up to a spot overlooking Antigua (the city we are living in while we attend language school). It was so beautiful to see the city, even though it was a little foggy. At the top of the hill there is a giant cross that can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. One of the students at our school is from Japan, and she gave us a concert with a really cool instrument that you can see in the video posted below.

On a funnier note, the other night we were eating dinner with the family. In the background, the Miss World pageant was playing on the TV. It got to the point in the pageant where they announced the top 15 women. Sandra (our house mom) was barely paying attention until near the very end when they announced that miss Guatemala was one of the final 15 women. Sandra jumped out of her chair and shouted "Increíble!” over and over again while running over to the TV. It was so funny to watch her get so exited about the Miss World pageant, and I could tell she was very proud of her country.

Small World

Yesterday, Jared noticed that one of the boys of the family that we are staying with was wearing a Dallas Baptist University shirt. It was crazy to see a shirt from our university here in Guatemala! We asked him where he got it and found out that they are friends with a guy that attended DBU.

This past Sunday was Jared's 24th birthday! We got to celebrate with a missionary family that is also going through language school. We met them at church and it has been great getting to know them! They invited us over for dinner and a game night with their two kids. We had an awesome time and were really blessed to have new friends in a place so far from home.

The Signs of Becoming Bilingual 8/13/10

Two nights ago at 3 in the morning, Jared rolled over and started talking in his sleep. He does this quite often, but this time he was speaking in Spanish. He was telling me that it was a good idea to buy a car because it was a good investment. I started laughing so hard; I never thought a person would dream in a language other than their native one.  

Last night I fell asleep while Jared was still studying. I started dreaming that I was translating the sentences that Jared was reading out loud to me. Of course, back in the real world Jared was not reading anything out loud to me. At some point, I woke up and kept asking Jared if he owned a car. The problem was I was still half asleep and had not separated the dream from the real world. Jared could not understand what I was saying and kept saying, “What?” I got frustrated because I thought he didn’t understand my translation, but he had no idea what was happening. I gave up and thought that his teacher would have to correct him in the morning. The next day he asked if I remembered what I had talked with him about last night. He explained to me that I just started talking incoherently out of nowhere. It was hilarious!

Market Day 8/5/10

When mission teams come to the children’s home for a week or two, they always take a trip to Antigua for a day of shopping and touring. We were able to meet up with them and help out with translating in the market. As I (Joy) was walking through the market, I stopped and talked with a very sweet, old lady who was sitting alone in her little booth. She was very excited that I was showing interest in her, and her face lit up when I asked her name. She proudly told me her name was Lucia. After chatting for a while, she encouraged me to come back and visit her whenever I come to the market. I look forward to getting to know her better. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to share my faith with her.

Choc-ALOT Pancakes 7/25/10

This weekend we had to make a trip back to Villa Nueva and the children’s home to take care of a few things. On Saturday night the summer interns hosted a pancake dinner and movie night for the younger boys. We made a ton of pancakes! To our amazement, the boys kept getting more and more when we brought out another plateful. After walking them back to their house for the night, one of the intern girls noticed something was in one of the boy’s pockets. She asked him to take it out and guess what it was, a pancake. After asking the other boys to empty their pockets, we found out that they had all stuffed their pockets full of chocolate chip pancakes. We had a good laugh about that one.

The Centipede! 7/22/10

During class today, I (Joy) felt something that had a ton of tiny little legs crawling over my foot trying to get in my shoe. When I saw that it was a HUGE, GROSS, NASTY, 5” LONG, CENTIPEDE, I jumped up and started screaming, much to the confusion of the rest of the people in the room. A man came over and grabbed a piece of paper, (with my notes on it) squished it, and took it to the trash. He returned with the paper and gave it back, which was completely unnecessary. 

Our Host Family 7/20/10

We moved into the Oviedo’s house on Tuesday afternoon. This will be our home for the next three months, and it is perfect! Our house parents, Roberto and Sandra, have four boys, three of whom still live at home. Meal times are always fun because we try and keep up with them as they talk back and forth. They talk sooo fast, haha.

The youngest boy, Miky, turned 15 the day after we moved in, and it was an eventful day. Roberto came home early from work so that he could set off fireworks when Miky came home from school. It is a tradition here to set of fireworks in honor of someone’s birthday. Later that night we had cake and a bunch of their relatives came over.

Language School 7/18/10

Our first week at language school was a success. We love our teachers, which is important because you have to sit one-on-one for 4 hours a day speaking in Spanish. The first day after class, I (Joy) decided to take pictures off the veranda of the place we were staying for the first two nights. As I was taking pictures of the mountains off in the distance, I heard some kids start shouting at me from the schoolyard a few buildings over. They were all shouting things like “Gringa, I love you!” (Gringa means “White girl”) It was so funny. I just smiled and waved and that got them going even more.   

Our First Week 7/18/10

We spent the first week at NLCH (New Life Children’s Home) just getting to know the kids and the other missionaries that work there. It was great to have time to build relationships with the kids, but we were sad to leave them behind when we left for language school for 3 months. We do get to go back for a week in September for a staff conference.

We taught two of the boys a foot tag game the afternoon before we left for language school. We had a feeling that it would become a hit within a few days. When we came back from language school the next weekend (to handle visa/passport/bank stuff) it seemed that every kid in the home was playing it, even the older girls! It was a great way to learn their names and get to know each of them better. 

Why we chose to Blog! 7/16/10

Hey guys! This blog is going to be a very informal, “journal-ish” style blog containing things that are important and/or things that are hilarious. We hope this will be a means of conveying what God is doing through the ministry, and a way to keep you guys up-to-date on what our lives look like on a daily/weekly basis. It is so difficult to communicate all of what is going on in a monthly newsletter. Thanks for being apart of the ministry! Please feel free to comment on stories and ask questions about anything you want!