Pastors visits and Nenton!

We visited lots of Chuj villages to encourage the pastors and ask questions to their wives! Here are the pastor's kids from one of the villages!

After village visitations, we headed back to Nenton. With a little downtime, Julia and I went down to the river and had some girl talk. Regardless of where you're from, girl talk always revolves around career, boys/marriage, and weddings. Haha. How universal.

Afterwards, meeting with the group to talk about our ministry plans for the youth group program that night.

Here's us with Mely and Otto, the pastor we stayed with in Nenton. Mely's a missionary who used to serve in South Africa and Liberia. Hearing what she's been doing throughout her life as a missionary was so inspiring.

Chuj Bible Dedication!

So at the wee hours of the morning (er, night actually at 3:30 am) we loaded up our cars and headed out to San Mateo Ixtacan, where the Chuj Bible dedication would be taking place! For the first time, the Chuj people would hold a Bible written their language in their hands!

The view from the ride. It was amazing! We were above some of the clouds at 10,ooo feet up!

The reason we had to leave so early was that we were a part of this 40 car caravan! People from all these villages borrowed these big vans and headed up the mountain together!

Group picture at one of the stops. You wouldn't guess by the picture, but all the girls are freakin' cold because we had to wear skirts in the cold!

Pee stop became a viewpoint as people watched the vans struggling to make it up the muddy turns.

What should have been a 3.5 hour drive became an 8 hour drive because of the steep turns and the muddy roads. They got smart after a while and started pulling some of the vans up! Teamwork, at its finest! ;)

Me, Kate, and Janet at one of the stops (there were way too many with the vans not being able to climb the roads).

Eight hours later, at the Bible dedication! It was amazing to see everyone there!

Helen and David Ecstrom, honored for their translation work of the Chuj Bible!

Okay, so I didn't get any pictures, but we sold Bibles to the people. It was pure chaos! People were clawing and stampeding (I got annihilated!) to buy their copy! It was insane! And by the way, it started raining, so we were drenched and wedged between anxious Chuj people hungry for the Word! I've never seen so many people being so aggressive about getting Bibles! Ironically, it was awesome and humbling!

Driving to Nenton

We drove up from Huehuetenango to Nenton... the whole five hours, this was all we saw. Green everywhere! :)
They have these terrible propaganda posters everywhere: on trees, rocks, cliffs, walls, you name it.

Janet and Chris chillin' on the ride up.

Here was the church we stayed at in Nenton.

The showers we thought we could use. Late at night after ministry, Janet and I decided to shower and stripped all our outerwear. Turning the knob, no water came out! Dirty, hot, nearly buck naked, and tired, we put our clothes back on and had to figure out what to do with all our oily hair! (Gross, I know)

That's a pila, the place we washed our hands, brushed our teeth, and even washed our hair. Janet and I resorted to using this in the end. It was a fine thing to do! ;)

Ben's birthday!

It was Ben's 10th birthday, so we spent the afternoon eating pizza, playing pinata, and teaching the kids how to play Animal Kingdom!

Ben about to blow out his candles!

Our team with the Perraltas. They work in Guatemala trying to improve literacy to help Guatemalans read and understand the Bible. Also, Willy Perralta works in the schools to include Christian education. Boy, this family is awesome!

Afterwards, we went to nearby dig site, where we saw mastodon fossils!

Teaching in Huehue

We taught English at a lot of schools. These kids were so fun to teach!

Julia loved the fact he was wearing a Brazilian jersey, so she took a picture with him. He became popular after that! ;)

One of Janet's classes.

Some of the girls from Julia and my class!

Afterwards, we took a hike to go pray over Huehuetenango.

Sweet Sunday!

I learned how to sit in the back of a truck with a skirt on. So not easy, but I got it! Haha...

We had Sunday worship in the yard of the pastor's house. It was breathtaking. Here's Janet and me with the pastor's wife and his daughter Eldi.

We then came back, changed out of our uncomfortable skirts, and hopped into the truck to head out. Here's Fabio (seminary student who came along with us), Janet, Katie, and Josh (two of the Eller missionary kids).

We went to Zaculeu, one of the sites of the Mayan pyramid ruins.

Oh the ladies!

The field where a soccer-like game would be played. The winning team's prize, you ask? The privilege of being sacrificed... what an honor (::sarcasm::)

Jumping! I hope Emil's camera caught a better shot of this.

Artsy-fartsy Janet's picture of Ben (the third Eller kid).

We then came back and got to talk with David and Helen Ecstrom, the translators of the Chuj Bible. All ears were theirs.

We had the privilege of eating dinner with the Ecstroms and another family, the Perraltas (a family doing educational ministry). Here's dinner: Guatemalan tamales, made of rice and not corn!

Boy, as unflattering as this picture is, the tamal was stinkin' good! Reminded me of samgaetang with the chicken and rice! No beans in this meal! Yeahhhh!

Me, David, Helen, Janet, and Chris. Honestly, David and Helen are the real deal missionaries. Their stories are so incredible. If only my life could be lived like theirs... They are the Jim and Elisabeth Elliot of Guatemala (so many kids are named after them!).

Huddle!

Our team for the first week of ministry. Daniel and Yvonne (the couple in green shirts) taught us so many children's VBS tools and games... and they even clowned for us during our homeless ministry. Seeing how much they love the Lord and serve Him in their clown ministry was amazing. I was so awed by God's vision for this young couple.