Dia de Gracias

Who says you can't celebrate Thanksgiving in Guatemala. We just celebrated our 2nd annual Dia de Gracias with about 15 of our local friends. The food was great and everybody had a good time laughing and eating and eating and eating... We were able to use this opportunity to share with our friends the reason that we give thanks in the first place. Overall, the night was a lot of fun and it was the first time that the RMI guesthouse was used for a different kind of ministry.

The Day Has Come...

We knew this day would come, but we didn't realize it would come so quickly. Marissa learned how to climb out of her pack-n-play last week. She had already started sleeping in her big kid bed during nap times, but didn't want to sleep in her bed at night. Well, last week we were traveling with a Sister Church team and Marissa did not want to nap in a normal bed. So, I put her back in her pack-n-play and within 5 minutes she had climbed out. When Enrique returned to our room, I put her back in and said, "Show daddy what you can do." This time within 10 seconds she was out of her pack-n-play. So, the pack-n-play is finally packed away for good!

Bilingual Baby

Recently, I have noticed that Marissa has really started talking in two languages. She’ll say “Mami no esta,” or “Paty se fue” or “I need a hug.” She even speaks a little spanglish such as “Let’s go arriba.”

The really amazing thing for me is that she has all of a sudden started talking about random things from the past. For example, when we were in the states, Marissa and her cousin Preston watched DVD’s of the Wiggles (a kid’s show). She was enamored with them. It has now been about three weeks since they have been brought up in conversation. Two days ago she was muttering something about “wehhaa”. She kept saying “wehhaa” for almost a week. We listened attentively and tried to figure out what she wanted, yet without any luck. Finally, Chrissie, who understands Marissa’s vocabulary better, said “The Wiggles.” Marissa started jumping up and down and shouting “si” “si.” She was so excited! It was the cutest thing I had seen her do in some time. Too bad we forgot the DVD’s of ‘The Wiggles’ in the states. I guess she will just have to wait until Christmas for Grandma to bring them down.

*Enrique

Halloween Guatemalan Style

As many of you may know, in Guatemala Halloween is not really celebrated in the traditional sense like us Americans with trick or treating, costumes, pumpkins, and harvest festivals. Halloween or as referred to here, ‘The Day of the Dead’ is not something that is celebrated, but rather feared. It is the night of evil before ‘All Saints Day’. Although more and more the commercialized Halloween is making its way to Guatemala; in the small aldeas the traditional views are still held and practiced. This holiday is a mixture of Catholic and Mayan traditions expressed through festivals, processionals, and visits to freshly painted grave sites with food and gifts for the dead. Some even believe that if they don’t repaint the tombstones and leave food for the dead, then their dead family will fight with them or feel as if they are no longer remembered. The days surrounding this holiday the skies are filled with kites. As innocent as this may seem, our friend Flory just told us today that these are used to send messages to the dead. Once again, I am amazed by the fear that is such a part of the culture here. How reassuring for us, as Christians, to know that we won’t spend eternity in a grave, but rather with our Lord in heaven!

On a lighter note, we celebrated the night by coloring pumpkins, eating pan de muerte, and pumpkin pie! Marissa had a good time and is still talking about her 3 little pumpkins.

Back to the Real World...

We returned last Friday night after a great time of rest and relaxation with our family in Florida. We traveled to Florida to meet with RMI leadership and began to plan for the future of RMI in Guatemala. After these meetings, we spent just over 2 weeks with our family throughout Florida. It was a great time to just hang out! I think we literally drove all over the entire state. The time flew by and it is hard to adjust back to normal life again.

Here are some of our pictures!

Marissa and her cousin Amanda enjoying the parade at MGM

Marissa with her grandparents

and her cousins at a T-ball game

Marissa and her Titi Julie

just hanging out

Look for the rest of our pictures on our website in the next few days!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy 32nd Birthday to Enrique!

I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Birthday to my great husband.

I love you,

Your wife

Starting to Feel like Home

I had an interesting couple of weeks. Chrissie and I have been doing a lot of traveling in Guatemala lately. When we travel it seems that we are always running a lot of errands in the same places. Last week we took a couple of days to enjoy some time with friends who came from South Carolina. As we were walking in the lobby of our hotel, one of the hotel employees said, “Hello, Mr. Coreano.” Many of you may know I am a simple person. You can call me just about anything, but don’t call me late for a meal. Chrissie looks at me and says, “Do you know him?” And I said “He works at the front desk.” I thought to myself we come here way too often (mostly because this hotel is where teams spend their last night). Yesterday, we were walking through the local mall and I spotted a man walking towards us. I recognized him and we exchanged greetings. Chrissie looks at me and says, “Do you know him?” And I said, “Yes he is the manager of the Toyota dealership where we get the RMI trucks serviced.” Then today, I had to go and get the tire for the truck looked at and repaired. I took Marissa with me and the same man from the mall was there. He came over and greeted Marissa and myself. How interesting that Guatemala is starting to feel like my home. And why shouldn’t it as we are no longer strangers, but starting to become locals.

*Enrique

Building Relationships

We just returned to Xela after spending 3 days visiting with three different sister churches in the Comitancillo area. We began preparing one of the churches for their upcoming visit from their Sister Church in November. Then, we spent time following up with the 2 other churches who had already received their sister churches this past summer. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know the hearts and minds of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Overall, we believe the meetings were a huge success as we continue to build relationships here in Guatemala. We are already looking forward to the next time we can make a visit out to each of these unique bodies of believers.

Marissa and her friends in Chipel

Changing cultures

Well, we have been in Guatemala since April 2006. We have encountered many obstacles and as a result we have had to learn a new way of thinking. As we continue to change our thinking, we continue to adjust more and more to the culture here. Luckily for me, I have had the luxury of looking at many of these obstacles differently because of my Hispanic family background. This has helped me adjust much easier to life in Guatemala. All this adjustment has given us a different perspective on just about everything we use to take for granted like electricity, clean water, clean fruits & vegetables, and the list could go on and on. Really, we all have to adjust to different cultures whether you are living in a foreign country or just visiting the other side of town. Good thing that Jesus transcends all cultures!

*Enrique

A Day at the Zoo

Welcome to the La Aurora Zoo

We just returned to Xela after spending a great 3 days in Guatemala City with our good friends from South Carolina. They were in town to visit their daughter as they wait for their adoption to be finalized. One day during our visit we decided to go and check out the Guatemala City Zoo. The zoo was a lot of fun and very cheap (only $2.50 per adult admission)! We had a good time just hanging out and it was the first time that Marissa really got excited to see animals.

I know this won't be our last visit to the zoo!

In With The Old Out with the New

Why do we always find ourselves trying to keep up with the Jones? We always want the latest gadgets or technology. Well, sometimes older traditions and things are far better than we could imagine. Recently, I had the great privilege to take part in an ancient Mayan tradition. I got to visit a chux!

Chrissie & Marissa in the Chux

Let me tell you exactly what a chux is. It is basically a very tiny little mud hut, so tiny that you have to crawl into it. It is set up like a sauna with boards to lay down on. The way it works is that you get naked (don't worry I went in with my swimsuit on) and take in a bunch of freshly picked herbs. Once you get in, it is so dark you can't see your hands in front of your face. There is a pile of rocks with a fire burning beneath it in one corner and two buckets of water. One bucket is warm to throw on the rocks and the other is cold to use later. First, you beat your body with the herbs as you begin to sweat. Then you lay down and relax. Once you are ready to come out, you pour cold water over yourself and exit. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. I felt refreshed and relaxed all at the same time.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Guatemala, make sure you find the time to check out the chux!

*Enrique

Chrissie's Bible Study Continues...

So, I am sure you remember that I had started a Bible study a while back with two of my good Guatemalan friends here. Well, I figured it was time for an update, especially since one of them, Shirley, just accepted Christ!!!

Shirley's entire family is Catholic, so I was very shocked when she called me a few nights ago. I thought she was calling to get the

latest update on one of our favorite television programs, but it was an entirely different update. She said, "I accepted Christ

tonight!" I was completely shocked. She started to tell me how her boss at work is Evangelical and had been inviting her to a Bible study for awhile. Well, this night she decided to go and although she went on to tell me it was so boring that half the women were sleeping, God still worked a miracle. It happened during the prayer time at the end of the meeting. Shirley felt like God was talking directly to her and she knew she needed to make a decision to follow Christ with her life. I was so excited for her. It was perfect timing because the next week she was going to help us with Marissa while a Sister Church team was in town. She was so encouraged by the team and the women's meeting during the week. That she actually asked me if I had any Bible studies like the one they did during the Sister Church meeting. The study was a Beth Moore study and I do have 2 others in Spanish.

So, our Bible study continues, but this time with a Beth Moore study on believing God. I am so excited to see how God worked through all of this and I can't wait to see what else He has planned.

Keep praying for Shirley that she would begin to grow in her relationship with Christ. Also, pray for Paty that she would see the need to rededicate her life to Christ and begin to walk with Him once again.

*Chrissie

Missed Opportunities

We found out a few nights ago that our landlord died unexpectedly. It was a huge shock for us. Although we were not close friends, he was fair, honest, and always nice to us and our daughter, Marissa. We are sad as work through his untimely passing as he was only 28 years old.

But, what is much harder to work through is the fact that we have no idea where he is spending his eternity. Is he in heaven, is he in hell? We don't know... Why, because although he sat across from us several times in our home, we never once asked him if he knew Jesus Christ. We never once asked if he went to church. And we never once started up a conversation about how Jesus had changed our lives forever.

Here we are missionaries and we missed this opportunity. Sure, we have excuses. There wasn't enough time, we wanted to build a relationship with him first, and he was too busy. We know God does not command us to change people's heart's, but he does command us to Go and Tell.

We are trying to move forward and we have asked for forgiveness, but the memory of this missed opportunity remains. We want to live a life with no regrets before God and from this point forward, that is what we are going to do.

Making Changes

We are out with a sister church team this week and have been stunned by all the contrasts and changes within this small little village. The village is rustic with outhouses, adobe (dried mud/straw blocks) homes, they cook around an open fire and there are turkeys & sheep grazing nearby. It is amazing that a group of people whose culture appears unchanged for years, are so open to change. When we arrived to the village, the church had a welcome service for the team. At one point a few of the Guatemalan youth got up and shared a song or should I say rap with the team. I was amazed as I looked around the church at the congregation and saw all the men and women in all their traditional clothing clapping and laughing.

It made me start to think about us as Americans; are we open to making changes in order to reach others for Christ? Or do we prefer just to do it the way it has always been done? I think if we are truly going to reach the world for Christ, than we all have to be ready to make some big changes. I'm ready, who else is?

We have moved!!!

No, we are still living happily in Guatemala in our new house, but we have updated our blog. So, check back with us soon and we will continue to update you all about our life.