We sure do celebrate a lot of birthdays… Here’s the third one for the week!

Celia and her family came over to celebrate her birthday with us today.

For a few years we’ve been praying about opening up a girl’s home in order to help girls like Celia and her sister Estela. In Guatemala most kids don’t have the opportunity to go to school past sixth grade. Celia just finished sixth, and her village doesn’t have any further opportunities. So we’re hoping, praying and planing to open a new home for them in January. Please be praying for us during this time and important decision.

Today Benjamin turned 25, and it was great to celebrate the day with him. It’s been great having him here with us these past two years and watching him grow!

Next year we’re going to be hosting our very first team!

A church from Florida is planning to visit us in February, and they want to do an evangelical outreach. We’re really excited by the idea, and we feel like Celia’s village would be a great place. Her family goes to church near where they live, and we’re getting to know the pastor to see if we can partner with him in reaching out to the community.

Check out these paintings by Edwin & Martin!

The school year is wrapping up here, and all the English classes gave a presentation to show their parents what they’ve learned this year.

My students shared the verses that they have memorized and what the verses mean to them. I’ve really enjoyed working with them, and these last two months I’ve taken over as their full-time teacher. I think that they’ve learned a lot, but I pray that they’ve also really taken to heart our conversations about God and His will and plan for their lives. It’s been a great experience, and I hope that I can work with them again next year!

Yuli and I are getting older! We both have September birthdays, and it’s a blessing to be able to celebrate them together with our family. God has been so good to us!

Sidenote: I guess that I really like that gray sweatshirt!

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.