Leaving on a Jet Plane... Don't Know When We'll be Back Again

About three days ago, Kris and I said goodbye to our Guatemalan home and family of the past two years.  As we were driving away on our beloved, rugged road, I read our daily devotional out-loud and neither of us could stifle the tears that came to our eyes because of how clearly it spoke to us:

"There are hidden treasures strategically placed along the way.  Some of the treasures are trials, designed to shake you free from earth shackles.  Others are blessings that reveal My Presence: sunshine, flowers, birds, friendships, answered prayer.  ( . . . )  Search for deep treasure as you go through this day.  You will find Me along the way."

Obviously, our trials could be encompassed in the very act of leaving the Valley and our purposeful work and friends there, not to mention moving back to a very different culture without job security and with lots of unknowns on the horizon.  

But the blessings that God sent us during our last week in the Valley certainly overshadowed those trials.  As usual, I will let our pictures tell the story...

Because of relationships built during my dental health visits in the schools, I was blessed to be able to teach several English classes to the teachers of the Valley.  They had requested these classes because of a new initiative within the department of education to teach more English in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.  I had one of these classes during our last week.  We had lots of fun learning songs, practicing pronunciation, and playing games.  I really enjoyed supporting and encouraging the teachers in this way.

On our last Monday morning, we hosted a breakfast for our CAFNIMA Valley team.  During this time, we shared some special moments with some of our closest friends...

Kris with Marcelino's sweet little girl Nancy.

We were very thankful to have our Guatemalan sister Cata join us during the first part of our last week in the Valley.

Thanks to Shutterfly (and delivery services by Kerry Patterson), we were able to bless our friends with different gifts that depicted our favorite memories of them and our times together in the Valley.

And Kris had to get a final pic with three of his best friends.

We also took time during our last week to make one final visit to our friend Cesar.  As you can see below, his story is such a beautiful one of grace and transformation within a very short period of time.  

We found Cesar all smiles in his new home living with his uncle, aunt and three-year-old cousin.  We spent a while kicking around the soccer ball with him, asking about his continued progress (all positive), and laughing with him.  God is so good to have used us and others to help save the life of this precious little boy.

On Monday night, we scheduled a meeting with the Benitzul community to explain our plans for departure and to thank them for their acceptance, friendship and hospitality.  Many of our neighbors and closest friends showed up.  We were very touched to hear several of their hearts, as well, as they expressed their gratitude for our work in their community and their commitment to continue praying for us.  We committed to continue praying for them, as well.

Our community: Benitzul.

  

Kris and our consistent man of peace, Don Arturo.

Several of the local women and kids stopped by to say goodbye during our last few days in the Valley. This was such an honor for me.  I will dearly miss these sweet ladies/girls and their companionship.

And of course on our very last morning, we had our very own dismissal crew, including Selvin Melvin and several other close neighbors...

As usual, Julio was running a little late on our last morning, but we made sure to wait around to give him one last hug and thank him for all that he had contributed to our lives over the past two years.  

We couldn't say goodbye to Guatemala without one last night at the house of our good friends in Guatemala City- the Bryans.  They were such a consistent support to us during our time away from the Valley... we really don't know what we would have done without them (and their guest bedroom, washer and dryer, and homemade bread and desserts).

So, all in all, I believe that we did encounter some very deep treasures and evidences of His Presence!

When Julio helped translate in our meeting with the Benitzul community, he referred to the passage in Ecclesiastes that says,"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."  He used this to explain to the community that God had set out a time for us to move and live in the Valley and that He had determined a time for us to go home.  We were very comforted to be reminded that we do live our lives in seasons... and to realize that by God's guidance and with His blessing, we were completing one season of our life and moving on to a new one.  

And so we approach this transition (to new jobs, to parenthood, etc.) with eagerness and expectation of God's faithfulness... and we give thanks to all who have joined and will continue to join us on this journey.

2013 Saquiquib Bridge and RMS Team

A few months ago, DeeDee and I had the blessing to host the March 2013 Lipscomb Spring Break team.  That team helped us launch the 2013 Saquiquib Bridge Project with the construction of two concrete bases.  Since March, we had been working hard to prepare for the May 2013 Engineering Mission Team from Lipscomb.  Below are a few pictures which capture our experience with the team and the Saquiquib community....

This scaffolding was built just a day or two before the team arrived.  It was a huge improvement from last year's scaffolding, as we spanned the entire river and had secure handrails installed (not pictured).

As we got to work, we laid out most of the metal parts on the scaffolding to insure we had each of the 257 parts (not counting the 750 bolts donated by Steel City Bolts and Screws in Birmingham, AL).  As it turned out, there were a few plates and angle iron that were not built the way we expected, so we had to make some on-site modifications.  

As with all of our projects in the Valley, community involvement is a huge part of the experience.  Here are a few pictures of us using the strength of the Saquiquib men (and Elizabeth) helping to tighten bolts.  

As good engineers we like things to be straight and level...and thanks to the constant inspection by Dr. Kerry Patterson, there is no doubt that this bridge is both.

As we completed the project, we had the honor to participate in a true Mayan thanksgiving celebration.  Much like what DeeDee and I experienced last year about a month after the bridge was completed, this year the team witnessed the prayers and sacrificial offering of the Mayan tradition.  Afterwards, we got to enjoy a meal and even some dancing at their local church.

This is the "old" bridge pictured as of January 2013.  

Here is the Lipscomb Engineering Mission Team on this year's bridge.

And then we called everyone around to come and stand with us as we celebrated the completion of the bridge.  

In addition to the bridge project, Alex Casey led a team of 4 students working on a Remote Monitoring System for a few of the local water projects.  The basic idea was that a telephone would be able to send a text message to the CAFNIMA staff informing them of how much water was in a respective tank.  

Here is a valve box housing the RMS system for the Benitzul.

The completed float switch design in Benitzul.

Julio, CAFNIMA's water tech, receiving a text message with the tank level information.  

A second ultrasonic system was installed in Semesche.  

The RMS team, including their translator, Cata Ixcol.  

On Tuesday night we also has the opportunity to surprise Cata with a cake to celebrate her birthday.  For the past few years Cata has been in the Valley with us during her birthday, so it was great to be able to show how much we love her and appreciate her contribution to the teams.  

We praise God for two completed and successful projects that will hopefully bless the communities of the Valley for years to come.

DeeDee and I are now in our last week here in the Valley and are preparing to return State-side this Friday.  It will be a big transition for us, but we are excited to return home, especially with one more than we came here with...

Lipscomb SB Team, EWB Team, and a Surprise Visit

As I was looking through our latest pictures and reviewing our most recent blog, I realized that we didn't quite do justice to the Lipscomb Spring Break team that visited us last month.  Here are a few pics to tell the story of how they lifted our spirits and contributed to our work here. 

Almost every morning, the team woke up around 5 AM to be greeted by a gorgeous sunrise... a GREAT way to start the day!

Kirsten, Jamin, and Phillip were very generous in helping us count, collect, and organize materials that had been left over from water projects in other communities.

I was blessed specifically to have one of my former teaching buddies Abigail come along with this team.  She also was a huge help to the McKinney family by serving a homeschool teacher for the kids several days so that Katy and Mark could go out with the team or get things packed up.

 As you can see, the team didn't enjoy the McKinney kids at all.  Really... how can you say no to those faces?!

Luke Burris has been a regular here in the Valley for several years.  He was very helpful with this team in bringing and helping to interpret the design for the bridge that will be built in May.  He and several others served as "overseers" as the concrete foundations were poured during their week here.

John and Kirsten (and all of the team, in fact) enjoyed making friends with the kids of the Valley.

And finally, we offered them a special treat on their last day by taking them to Semuc Champey.  It was a gorgeous day, and we were even lucky enough to get in for free!

Just last week, we hosted a team from the NGO Engineers Without Borders.  They brought with them 8 professional engineers, a geologist, and a foreign travel coordinator for UT, including 6 women and 3 men.  This team was obviously very unique, but they came with a very focused objective, and they were extremely helpful in adding to our data collection possibilities for the Valley through the utilization of GIS, specifically for the community of Sejabal..

I included the picture above because we were very thankful to be able to invite our good friend Cata along as a Spanish-English translator for this team.  As you might assume, she really hated having the help of this good-looking, single gentleman (hope we don't make you blush, Ralph!) as she took a picture of the team. 

 (We only got a copy of one person's pics from the week and did not actually get a picture of the whole team... so our pictures are fairly sparse and don't represent the activity of the whole team... sorry!)

In order to make this team's work possible, we employed the help of several of our local health promoters as Spanish-Q'eqchi' translators.  They were a very valuable resource and it was a really neat experience for this team to partner with and empower the locals.

One huge benefit for this team was they they spent a majority of their time in the homes of the Sejabal community.  After taking GPS points of the house and latrines, they did a short family survey with the head of each household, and then they were thereafter served countless cups of coffee, tortillas, beans, eggs, caldo, yuca, malanga, etc.... it was a true Valley experience!

Thankfully, this team enjoyed beautiful weather all week long, and of course, they were able to see God's majesty as he painted this sunset one evening.

We were so happy to hear that our good friend Mallory would be returning to the Valley once again with this team.  She was a very strong leader for this team, a great hiker, and her fluency in Spanish was such a big help, as well.  We hope that she will find other opportunities to serve the people of the Valley even after we are gone.

So, I had been in on it for several months, but Kris was COMPLETELY surprised when several of our good friends from Lipscomb- Mark Jent, Steve Sherman, and Paul and Rachael Stevens- showed up on our doorstep Friday afternoon.  We were extremely blessed to have this community eat with us, pray with us, and see our work here in the Valley over the weekend.

Even though Mark is apparently not a soup eater, he not only tried but also thoroughly enjoyed the famous Guatemalan dish (and Kris's favorite) Cocido.   But, then again, anything cooked by Nina is always delicious!

Other than napping both afternoons, our other activities of the weekend included hiking down to the Saquiquib bridge sites and visiting the community of Don Bosco Setex to see their water system and join in the morning worship at Julio's church.

From all of these events of the past month or so, we can summarize by saying that we have been immensely blessed by all of the friends and strangers who have supported us and partnered with us in God's work here in the Valley.  We will forever be changed by our experience of living, working, worshipping, and serving here.