After waiting for over a year, today we got our electricity connected!

Here they are installing (by hand!) the posts on our road.

Guatemala’s independence day is the 15th of September, and it’s incredibly fun to celebrate. In the days leading up to it all the schools run through the streets with torches, and I got to run with my students.

Then on the 15th there’s a huge parade with the bands of each school. Margaret loved watching the kids pass by.

We’re overflowing with corn! We’re trying to give most of it away, but there’s still enough to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Here’s my favorite way to eat corn: grilled over a fire and then seasoned with lime juice & salt. Yummy!

Martin and Edwin are two great teens living at Casa Shalom. We just love spending time with them, and this weekend they came over to celebrate Martin’s 16th birthday. I’m excited to watch them grow and mature, and I’m excited to think that they’ll probably be here with us in the future.

We have a space on our land where we hope to build a second house as the ministry expands, and this year we planted corn in the space. I’m not much of a farmer, so it’s been a challenge to learn about all the different things needed to grow and protect the corn stalks.

They grow huge here! Some stalks are over 8 feet tall, and my neighbor’s corn is over 10 feet. Unfortunately we just had a big storm that knocked a lot of it down. The last picture is my neighbor’s field. He lost the majority of his crop from all the wind.

I’ve enjoyed the new experience, and it’s been a great way to build relationships with our new neighbors.

I’ve had the opportunity to help teach English at a school near us. It’s the Christian school that Yuli taught second grade at last year. Once a week I teach English conversation and pronunciation with the most advanced students. It’s a lot of fun! I make them memorize a lot of Scripture. 🙂

This next month we’re going to start reading “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis together.