The school year has just finished up here in Guatemala, and now the kids have a few months of vacation before classes start back up in January.

Two kids at Casa Shalom, Martin & Julio, graduated from 6th grade, and they even get a graduation ceremony. Martin is one of the most dedicated students I have ever seen here, and so we’ve gotten permission to send him to a school near our house which is like a charter or a magnet school this coming year. In a little over a week he’ll have to take an entrance exam where only 200 out of over 1,000 are accepted. Hopefully he’ll get accepted because this school could be a great opportunity for him.

The tropical storm that had stopped over Guatemala was supposed to move on this past weekend, but it’s still here and might stay for a few more days. There have been over 30 deaths here, and also over 30 in our neighbor El Salvador. Yesterday a piece of road gave out taking two people with it. The news report can be seen here.

Please pray for Guatemala!

Updated Thursday 10/20:

The storm’s finally moved out and blue skies are back! Guatemala needs your continued prayers as the repair and reconstruction begins.

Today is our second anniversary since our civil marriage! There are two weddings in Guatemala: the civil (legal) wedding and the religious wedding. The civil wedding is normally the day before the big one, but because of our visa issues, we were legally married a little over two months before our big wedding. Our wedding website has more pictures and the full story.

That sure was a crazy time for us because we really didn’t know if or when we could be together after our wedding in December. But we did the best we could and just trusted God to do the rest. And He was so good to us! Today is a great day to remember God’s incredible love for us, and it fills us with gratitude for how He’s cared for us and brought us together.

We’ve had a tropical storm that’s stopped over Guatemala all this week that has been just pounding us with rain. I’ve heard that around 20 people have been killed by mudslides and over 10,000 have had to evacuate their homes. We’re fortunate to be ok, but Guatemala needs your prayers as this storm is supposed to stick around for a few more days.