Kid's Club Start Up!!!!

It's so exciting! We started Kid's Club up again this past Saturday morning. We will be meeting at least 3 Saturdays a month until the Christmas holidays and restart again in November. We had about 65 kids! It was great. We showed the Veggie Tales movie of Gideon in Spanish. We were able to do a coloring page and then we fed them ham and cheese sandwiches and orange juice with straws (you'll have to watch the movie to understand why the straws!). Next week we will start our series on the Fruits of the Spirit. Please pray that God will bless these times and that the children will start to see their worth in Jesus. They really are so poor and it's hard for some of them. We feed them because it's so important for them to have a healthy meal.

Here's some pictures!

What do the kids do?

What do they do? Well, pretty much what they did in America only not as easily!


We homeschool. They get up by 7 am, do chores, and then start school by 8:30. We do school all morning and eat lunch together at about noon or so (depending on our morning!). Sometimes in the afternoon we have some school work to finish. We also will go to Higher Grounds, our YWAM cafe in Antigua, to do some work or just hang out with people, or, on Wednesdays, we have classes at our house for other missionary kids who are homeschooled. Mark teaches the boys a Bible class and I am teaching a literature class on Pride and Prejudice.


Alicia babysits a lot! She loves that because she's earning her own money. She also will be starting back to Spanish school 4 hours a week soon. She finished 2 years of high school Spanish in one year last year. She translates for people and teaches a Sunday School class in our church on Sundays for girls ages 6-12. She teaches in English and Spanish. She will be doing a missions trip coming up in November with a group from MN where she will translate for them and help head up their children's ministry in a village about 3 hours from our house.







Bailey rides horses! That's what she does. She loves it!!!! We have been blessed with a supporter who has paid for her lessons once a week for about 2 years now. Her instructor came to us and asked if she could come a second day a week to learn dressage and more jumping. She offered Bailey a job at the stables one hour a week to groom horses and clean tack in exchange for one more hour of lessons. Bailey was so excited! Not only can she ride more, but, she's earning it herself. She loves that. She jumps these horses over really incredible jumps. She's learning show jumping and will be starting competitions soon here in Guatemala and eventually in other Central American countries.







Christopher is a typical boy. He's probably the best of all of us at Spanish and uses it all the time. He loves to help out with his class in church and also will translate for the teacher for the boys who don't understand Spanish or if the teacher is English, for those who don't undertand English. He likes to help us out at Kid's Club and at home. He has a lot of friends here, which is nothing new since he's so social!







That's about it, except the sleepovers, parties, summer camp, play dates, school field trips, etc. So, it's really not much different as life in the US!

What is it like in Guatemala?

If you’ve never been to Guatemala it may be difficult to imagine life in this place called the "Land of Eternal Spring". You may have a picture in your mind painted by the Survivor TV show or by a nightly news story. But there is a lot about Guatemala that you may not know. You can go to the capital (about an hour away from us) and visit the I-max theater and then go to dinner at Chilis’ and walk around a mall that looks like something from the U.S. Or you can go to a village and see people living on dirt floors. The extremes here are more noticeable.

Here are some Guatemala statistics by someone named Sue Patterson:

Half of the Guatemalan girls have a child by the time they are 19.
97% of Guatemala's surface waters are contaminated.
57% of Guatemalans now survive on less than $2/day.
More than one child in 10 does not live to be 5 years old.
50% of Guatemalan kids attend school, and only 1% of those will go on to high school.

Here are some stats from International Justice Mission in Guatemala:

There are 22 languages spoken in Guatemala.
The UN ranked Guatemala 4th highest country in the world for income disparity.
It’s the 3rd worst in the world for child malnutrition.
.5% (thats "point 5%) of all criminal cases in Guatemala reach a verdict.
In one year 800 police officers in Guatemala were fired due to corruption.

Yes, there is a lot of need in Guatemala, but there are a lot of good things too. The people are friendly and very open to the gospel. The scenery is amazing, and the fresh fruits and vegetables are wonderful! We’re blessed to live in Antigua, a small town packed with about 70 Spanish schools! If you boiled Antigua down to one square block, it would probably have a language school, a restaurant, a pharmacy, a hotel, a tienda, a coffee shop and a Catholic church.

Antigua is a beautiful city, but beauty is relative. In the states, if a wall is crumbling you fix it, but here crumbling walls look like art. When you’re walking down the cobblestone streets you may see a man urinating in public or a drunk man passed-out on the sidewalk in the middle of the day. But the tourists in this unique part of the country come to see the ruins surrounded by 3 volcanoes.

At our house, even though we live in a nice part of Guatemala, we don’t drink the tap water, and we can’t flush our toilet paper, but the weather is always like spring. Our house is simple, but beautiful and comfortable.

We’re blessed to be working here with YWAM, ministering to Guatemalans as well as tourists and students. In some ways Guatemala seems like a black hole of ministry- like the more you do, the more there is to do. But there’s a reason that God has us here for now. We’re learning so much, and we’re being stretched. Our kids are getting a cross-cultural experience that will add so much to their education and worldview. This place- the good and the bad- has changed our lives, and no matter how long we stay here or where we go from here Guatemala will always be a special part of our lives.

--Mark

New stuff Happenin'

Since there isn't going to be a DTS this fall because we didn't have enough students, we are going to be doing some new things! We're excited because a lot of these things are things we've done in the past, but, because we've been so busy with teams, students, cafe, etc., there just wasn't time.

Here's some new stuff we will be doing:

Kid's Club: We will be starting up Kid's Club again on Saturday mornings starting this Saturday. We are so excited about it because it's a great chance to build relationships with the families around the base. It's going to be a lot of work, but, we are going to be doing it as a family so it will be fun as well!

Saturday Training Seminars: Mark will be teaching an Evangelism seminar again in October. We hope to do about 4 of these seminars a year for Guatemalans and missionaries here in Guatemala. We are hoping to provide an outreach for those who want to come that evening to put into practice what they've learned.

Halloween Outreach: We will be doing a funeral! We love this outreach! We already have a coffin we can use and the staff is excited about using the opportunity to reach out to those who will be on the streets. We will do a program and have a concert. This is Day of the Dead here, so it's fitting!

Christmas Party for the families at the base: We want to do a Christmas party for those families around the base. We are hoping to provide them with gifts and have a party at the base for them to attend with food, games, and a pinata!

Team outreaches: We will also be hosting teams from all over to come and help us with construction, outreach, and ministry.

Homeschool outreach: We are having a homeschool class on Wednesday afternoons at our house for missionary kids and our kids. Mark is teaching a Bible class and I am teaching literature class for girls on Pride and Prejudice. It's an opportunity to provide a service for missionary families.

Higher Grounds: We will be starting a Friday night thing at Higher Grounds for young people to come and enjoy music, food, and fun. Mark will still be doing Soul Patrol outreach at the Parque Central, but, this is another opportunity for evangelism.

These are just a few things that will be happening here in Antigua! Sounds like we'll be busy!!!!! Please pray for us as we begin to really pour into these ministries that will be happening here.

--Dayle

You may not believe this...

We know that about 3000 people died in the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States.

But did you know that, according to Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, there are 3,304 babies aborted every day in the United States.
http://www.mccl.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=400&srcid=183

So, on average, we have a 3000 person tragedy every day in the United States!

Also, according to National Right to Life, there have been 48,589,993 abortions in the U.S. since 1973. http://www.nrlc.org/ABORTION/facts/abortionstats.html

If the 3000 people who died on 9/11 were equal to 1 inch, then the number of babies who have been murdered in our country since 1973 is about 450 yards (from end zone to end zone on a football field 4 ½ times)!

I don’t want to minimize the horror of what happened on 9/11. But we also need to be honest about the fact that we’re killing our own people. Is God going to let 48 million babies be killed without bringing severe judgment? Let’ pray...

God, Bless America with a spirit of repentance.
God, Bless America with mercy for our national sins.
God, Bless America with protection from our enemies.
God, Bless America with a desire to honor You once again.

-Mark

Good Sex!

I recently had the opportunity to teach a 2-part class on sexual abstinence in 4 schools here in Guatemala. My friend Luis Castillo, who teaches regularly on morals and values in these schools translated the classes into Spanish and added some of his own teaching as well.

I began by telling the students that God invented sex. In fact, the first command that we know of to the first man and woman was to go have sex! Genesis 1:27-28 "...male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth..." But I was quick to add that sex is a gift specifically for marriage.

I talked about the emotional risks of opening that gift before marriage and the difference between love and infatuation. But, even better, we were able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with so many students! And many of them indicated a desire to ask the Lord for a new, pure heart!

During the Q&A times that we were able to have in some of the classes the students were asked to write out anonymous questions. Some of them are listed below:

Is it good to have sex as a minor?
How can you love without God in your heart?
I’ve already had sex with my partner. Can I enter the Kingdom of God?
If we have relations several times with one person before marriage and one marries that person, is that also a sin?
Is it bad to masturbate?
Is it adultery if two people use contraceptives and have sex?
What is love?

You can tell by the questions that there is a huge need for teaching in this area! Please pray that the idea of sexual purity will be reinforced in the lives of the students we spoke to. Sex is too good to let the devil mess with it. God only creates good things, so we can give God the credit for good sex!

--Mark

How they have grown!

Look at them! They've grown so fast I can't believe it. Alicia just had her 14th birthday yesterday. Bailey has her 12th at the end of this month, and Christopher will be 11 next May. Where has the time gone?

They are doing well here. They will be busy with us helping out with Kids Club at the base coming up in September and every Saturday after. They are learning Spanish and trying really hard to get their schoolwork done early enough every day to be able to play outside.

We are so proud!

This is our dog and cat. The dog is Shadow and the cat is Mish. We will be getting another dog, a little terrier at the end of the month named Lola.

We are getting another animal because, basically, Shadow belongs to Christopher (or Mark, depending on who you're talking to) and Mish belongs to Alicia. So, as you can see, there's a child not matched with a pet. Hence, Lola will be joining our family to give Bailey a little friend!

Shadow came to us because he was being abused and we bought him from the family who was abusing him. We were going to find him a home, but, he fit so well with us, he became part of our family. Mish was given to the kids when we were in El Salvador renewing our visas. The family we stayed with loved the kids and gave them Mish when we left their home. Lola belongs to a friend who will be leaving to go to the States and needs a home for her.

Mish and Shadow have very distinct personalities. Shadow is all dog, very playful, happy, affectionate, loyal, and sweet. Mish is all cat, proud, used to his own way, cuddly when he wants to be, and, believe it or not, sweet! We don't know about Lola, but, we'll let you know as soon as we figure her out!