Our Baggage

Sunday, Glenn shared for 6 minutes at Holland Road Fellowship (formerly Grand Prairie Bible Church).

Glenn carefully lugged his "hand-carry-on" piece of luggage to the stage and started off by stating "You know when Judy and I leave later today, the TSA agent will ask several questions.  They'll ask if we packed the luggage ourselves and if the luggage has been in our possession ever since."  With a clever smile and quick answer Glenn continued 

"So, now I can truly say that the luggage as been with me at all times!"

After a few laughs, Glenn unzipped the soft sided luggage and began pulling items out to tell his story.  He told of how, Camino Global (formerly CAM International and Central America Mission) is now working Globally.  He held up the globe.  He told of how we travel to minister to missionaries all over the world as we minister to others in the area of pastoral care.

It is hard to share exactly what we do, since there is a great deal of confidentially.   

He shared how just 30 years ago this month, GPBC now HRF converged on Terminal D at DFW to send us off to our first foreign mission assignment - Bolivia, June 13, 1986!  Glenn thanked the folks in the worship service for standing behind us prayerfully and financially all these 30 years.  

Thank you!

SurfSide Beach

Glenn and I took my parents down to the coast for a few days.  We had to drive through horrendous rain storms toward and through Houston to get there.  We left on Saturday just in time, just before the flooding started.  We were blessed to re-connect with some old friends who joined us for dinner on Friday night. 

We worked puzzles, ate Mexican Casserole and watched the news.

Pastoral Care Meetings

Over Memorial Day weekend and into the week, Glenn spent some time with the Pastoral Care Team, pictured below.

It has been clearly evident that we need to work together in order to reach out to our fellow missionaries in the area of encouragement, care and counsel, especially as the geographical and cultural boundaries continue to grow and the needs of the missionary body become more than one particular person can handle by himself.

We are encouraged as a team to pray for each other and visit together regularly to share resources and mutual encouragement.

Praise HIS Name Among the Nations

 Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name.

2 Samuel 22:50

It is What it Is

I'm reminded that 
"it is What it is...
but it will become what I make it"

CAG Graduation

Saturday, we attended the High School Graduation for Jonathan.  Born in El Salvador, adopted by American missionaries and then he came with his family over to Guatemala 9 years ago, Jonathan completed his Senior Year at CAG.

We are super proud of Jonathan.  His full name is Jonathan David.  A fitting name for this gentle giant. We are all excited for you, Jonathan!! Way to go:)

Have You Met Melvin?

Glenn recently connected with Melvin at SETECA.  Melvin and his family works in Rio Hondo/Estanzuela, on the road to the Caribbean coast.  

Each summer, an army of folks from Northwest Bible Church in Dallas, converges on the community and shares the love of Christ with the children, teens and adults in this tropical area.

Glenn has been able to secure some biblical materials, tracts, biographies and Bibles at a reduced cost and then he has been able to pass them along to Melvin to use in that ministry.

We look forward to reconnecting with Melvin and the group from NBC (the church where we got married 36.5 years ago) in a few weeks towards the end of June.  Although we will not be directly involved in the day-to-day ministry of the Campamento, we will be able to help with some transportation logistics on the last day to help folks get up to Antigua, do some sight seeing and get back to the hotel before they head back home the next day.

747 plane

Its not every day a 747 lands at the GUA city airport.  When the airplane was taxiing on the tarmac, the traffic stopped for people to see this big bird. We were all curious where it came from, what it was carrying and who might be on the plane.

One school bus stopped, let the kids out to poke their nose through the chain link fence and watch this humongous plane.

As one of my favorite quotes goes, 

"Where there is a will there is a RunWay."

From the Heart

The other day, I called up Gail.  I said, "Gail, I have some new stamps!  Come over and we can chat and make some cards."  Sure enough, Gail took me up on the offer.  She dropped Lydia off for some math tutoring, and then came on over.

We had about 2 hours to ourselves. 

 We stamped.  

We laughed.  

We giggled.  

We enjoyed catching up on our families.  Now, where is so and so these days?  How many grandchildren do you have now?  We talked about how our lives have changed these past 10 years here in Guatemala.  Becoming "empty nesters" to grandparents.  We smiled as we shared "grandchildren stories".

Gail was a great encouragement to me as we sat in my craft room and shared our lives together.  Thank you, Gail, for your example of love, hospitality and your kind friendship.

Gail shared from her Heart.

Gail even taught me a new technique where I could put the "Bible Verse" down at the bottom of the card, instead of in the middle or at the top.  Wow!  Thanks! Always learning.

Baccalaureate Service

Saturday afternoon, Glenn and I attended the annual Baccalaureate service for those teens who are graduating from the missionary kid school here in Guatemala.  Has it been 9 years since Gary participated as a Senior from CAG?

We are so proud of Jonathan.  We look forward to seeing how God will continue to work in his life as he continues follows God through the next years.

Congratulations, Jonathan!!  We are all proud of you.  Your grandparents and family are proud of you, too.  Congratulations, Ruth and Paul, for seeing your youngest grandchild through this important step in his life.

Missionaries are Real People

We have an author in the family. 

Ellen recently wrote a book entitled, Missionaries Are Real People  She published the book through Amazon.  So, for now, you can download it to any electronic device.  Click on the above link.

Glenn and I read the book with great anticipation to understand how Ellen has processed her life as a  missionary kid, what she has learned from her adventures of going to the mission field as a missionary single gal and what advice and counsel she might offer both missionaries and sending agencies through her more recent experiences as a missionary wife and mother.

Additional information: 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a missionary or a missionary kid? How can you grow in your understanding of some of the every day struggles that missionaries face? Whether you are currently a missionary, are preparing to go to the mission field for the first time or whether you are one of those special people who support missionaries through your friendship, prayers and gifts, you will find this insightful book helpful in suggesting some specific ways to survive, adjust, empathize and encourage.

{photo: Courtesy of Ellen R}

Thank you, Ellen, 
for sharing
  your life, 
your insights,
 your frustrations
  and
 challenges
  as well as your joys that you have found living on the mission field.  

As you turn the pages to open the next chapter of your life, may you continue to share, learn and enjoy as you experience God's love and delight in you.

I love you Ellen.

Mom

What's Your Beef?

Now...

That is a load!

How do you spell, "Overloaded?"

This is a "Guatemalan Cattledrive":)

Karen's One Week Adventure

It is not very often that we have family members who come and visit us in our home.  I can understand.  Guatemala is not their home.  Our kids mainly grew up in Dallas or in Bolivia where we served with South America Mission.

Karen's teaching job had a one week break last week, and we arranged for her to fly here and spend a relaxing week at "home" with us.  Another objective besides her company, was to go to the Air Supply concert on Friday night.  It brought back memories of listening to music that we played in our 10 CD player in the Cowboy Blue Toyota HiLux back in Bolivia.

We drove down to Puerto Quetzal to watch the NCL SUN dock and reconnect with some recent friends we met back in December.

After the early morning drive down to the coast and meeting our friend, Juan, we then drove on up to Antigua for Karen to do some shopping.

Then the week was topped off by Glenn, Karen and myself going to the Air Supply concert.  

Karen grew up listening to this group in our HiLux truck CD player.

The concert was great.  We are so glad we took the time out of our schedule to enjoy some great music.  

Thank you, Karen, for coming "home" to visit us.  We enjoyed cooking together, watching old re-runs of Becker, watching Fixer Upper and eating meals out on our patio.  Thank you, Karen!  You make us proud.

If you are not familiar with Air Supply,

 then click on the link below for a YouTube of their music!

 Enjoy!