Mom came to visit!

So this past week my sweet mommy came to visit us here in Guatemala. We had a great time touring some really cool places. On Monday morning, we went shopping with the missionary ladies of NLCH to buy the week's food for the home. We do this every Monday, and it takes several hours to buy all the food we need for the week. On Tuesday, we headed to Antigua for the day. We started the day by touring an old convent. Then we met up with another missionary family that we met while we were in language school. We had a great lunch at Monoloco (Crazy Monkey). After lunch we went to the local market to shop and see amazing Guatemalan handiwork.

(above: Inside the McDonald's garden in Antigua)

The rest of the week we stayed at the home and did fun activities with the kids. My mom brought things to make bracelets and necklaces as an activity for the kids. This was a big hit, even the boys wanted to make some jewelry.

School is Back in Session!

(This is a shot of our school we have here on site.)

This past week the children started back to school from their "summer" break. The school breaks are set up differently here because of the rainy and dry seasons. Think of it this way, nobody wants to go on summer break when all it is going to do is rain, rain, and rain every day! The kids have been on break since October and now it is back to school!

After school is done, Jared and I get to help the kids with homework and then play games for the rest of the afternoon. We are two, highly sought-after English teachers. I have English lessons with two of the older girls here once a week for several hours, and I am starting to have English lessons with some of the younger kids. I mostly try and make a game out of it to keep their attention. Today I drew out pictures of the different parts of the body with chalk and then I would say the word in Spanish and the kids would race to the spot. The first one to get there had the chance to tell me the word in English. It was hilarious what kind of words would come out of their mouths when in a rush to get it right. One little girl, named Iza, had just been watching the game for a minute and didn't really know how to play, but she joined in anyway. A couple turns before she had heard one of the little girls run to the foot I had drawn and when I asked her what it was she said "Fút..." (This is also the shortened name for Fútbol here) When Iza had reached this spot first and I asked her how to say it in English she screamed "Soccer!" I laughed really hard when I realized why she had thought that.

(These are some of my sweet English students, Iza is the one on the right!)

Jared is also teaching English to several of the kids and even some of the employees here. This is a great opportunity to spend one-on-one time and it shows the kids that we care about them.

Christmas Fun!

Well, Christmas came and went in a blur! It was so much fun to be in another culture and experience how others celebrate the same holiday. The week preparing for Christmas was so busy for all the staff members. It was a full time job to get the gifts ready for our 50 kids. It got even more complicated that our local church donated several gifts for each of our kids. It was our job to go through and open up all the gifts and make sure they were going to fit the kids. It was a huge process but so worth it.

Getting to watch the kids open their gifts was so much fun, especially if it was their first Christmas living here at the Home. The kids didn't know what to do with themselves! We opened up the gifts on Christmas Eve at 10:30 after a beautiful Christmas program, communion, and a traditional meal of grapes, cheese, punch, apples, meat, and cookies!

At midnight all of Central America set of fireworks... A LOT of fireworks! It was insane, and I thought I was going to get sick from breathing in all the smoke. Our kids had a blast playing with sparklers as we watched the firework show from ALL of our neighbors and even some from our own yard.

Christmas morning we had a traditional breakfast of pancakes and grapes. After breakfast the kids got to open their stockings and some bigger gifts for each house. The little boys' and girls' houses received scooters that they have been riding ever since! For lunch we ate tamales, another tradition throughout Central America.

Jared and I rested for the afternoon and later we had dinner and played games with another missionary couple that lives on site with us. All in all it was an awesome Christmas experience for our first Christmas together. Here is a link to watch an awesome video of our time here at NLCH http://nlch.net/#/photos-videos then just click on the button that says Christmas Video!

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.