We had a wonderful day on Saturday. We took the family to the beach, and we found so many amazing sea shells that we had never seen before. In fact, Nate (8 years old) found a very special one. He wrote about it here...

"we found the shell in the beach.we found an octopus in a diferrent shell."

In fact, when Nate found a shell just like the one pictured, we opened it and found a small octopus in it and we played with it for a while. That is, until it BIT Nate on the hand. That's right, who knew that a baby octopus would bite? Well, this little guy had a beak, and the first clue should have been that even the little ones use their beaks to break open clams and crabshells. No doubt he just had lunch thanks to the former owner of the shell. Anyways, what an amazing sight to see it as we put it back in the water and watched it jet away like a squid.

Sunrise

Lamentations 3:22-24 "God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!I'm sticking with God..."

Sunday morning, I woke Nate up before the sun, and we got in the car and headed toward the beach. It was our weekly date time (although now he likes to call it our "adventure" rather than a date!), and I had a special plan. What made this plan so great was that it included a nice, hot cup of coffee and a stop at the Lighthouse Donut shop. After grabbing our very fresh, very delicious key lime donuts, we went across the street, sat on a bench and watched the sun come up. It reminded me why I love the morning so much. Everything was so clean, so new, so peaceful. Even the sand was nearly untouched, except for some random bird footprints, and those of a few other early-morning risers like ourselves.

God's goodness is too much to wrap my mind around. Every morning, I get a new, clean, untouched start, and I get to decide how it will go. No, I don't pick what will happen, what unexpected things may jar me, but I can choose, in the morning, that I will empty myself of all my junk, beg God to fill me up with His Spirit, and decide, first thing, that I am going to bow to God's authority and control.

Thank You for the morning.

Fiesta!

On Sunday afternoon, we were surrounded by over 60 people who joined us to celebrate all that God is doing in Antigua, Guatemala and in our own family. We worshipped together, ate, laughed, listened to a few stories, shared a few of our own, and watched as God moved in a fresh way in all of our lives once again.
So much to celebrate! Six people were recently baptized at our sister church in Guatemala (Iglesia del Camino), and we watched a short video that Pastor Mike had put together to celebrate that event (Click here - it's available on his online journal).

SO MANY people responded to our financial needs too! Due to the outpouring of God's people, we leaped to 70% of our monthly support!

Over $3000 of our moving expenses were provided, and in addition, another $1000 matching gift could bring this total to $5000 by the end of this month!

We are so grateful! Please continue your prayers that we will be prepared when God releases us to go.

Jessica in Antigua

Jessica had a GREAT opportunity to see Guatemala City, Tikal, and Antigua a delegation to meet with the president of Guatemala. Our team at IDC (Iglesia del Camino) received an award from the president for building the first computer lab in Pastores (a little town just NW outside of Antigua).

She also visited Tikal, an ancient Myan city ruin
with over 3000 known buildings. Check out the size of one of the ruins...














Yes, she really is hundreds of feet up in the air...with only a wood guard rail. The tiny box in the background over her left shoulder is another large ruin. Yes, it looks lower than Jessica because she is hundreds of feet above it (yikes!)...