Right now...7:27 Central Time these are the conditions of the areas where our immediate family are around the world (by way of these cool little icons that pop up on my computer screen each morning when I turn it on)
Hamilton, MI-the sun has risen and it is a balmy 2 degrees F.
Leavenworth, WA-Still dark and 25 degrees with clouds.
Xai-Xai, Mozambique, Africa-Rainy, afternoon at 80 degrees F.
Ankeny, IA-Still dark and 14 degrees.
Tucson, AZ-Still dark and 53 degrees.
Mixco, Guatemala-a beautiful morning, the sun rising to a crisp 57 degrees. Looks like another gorgeous day in the land of eternal spring.
God bless in whatever conditions you find yourself in today!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Prayers needed:
1. Our orchestra director here in Guatemala is from England. Her father,who lives there, has taken a turn for the worst and she is awaiting a call any day to go and mourn with her mother. Obviously our Beauty and The Beast performances next Thurs., Fri., & Sat. are weighing heavily on her mind even as she is in sorrow over her father's failing health. Pray for God's intervention and for his comfort and peace that passes all understanding to surround Chris, Richard, Bryony & their whole family as they prepare for what God has laid ahead of them, and confidence that no matter what must be done that He will provide all we need.
2. In the states, one of the students who has run sound & participated in drama with us lost his brother in a tragic car accident on the road near our home in Hamilton. Pray for Tanner and his family as they lay this loved one to rest and move with his Holy Spirit to help this family realize God's comfort and peace even in circumstances that make no sense.
Thanks for your prayers and God bless. At His feet, The Klandermans
2. In the states, one of the students who has run sound & participated in drama with us lost his brother in a tragic car accident on the road near our home in Hamilton. Pray for Tanner and his family as they lay this loved one to rest and move with his Holy Spirit to help this family realize God's comfort and peace even in circumstances that make no sense.
Thanks for your prayers and God bless. At His feet, The Klandermans
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Great Commision Children's Home
Our friends, Sean & Glendy McDaniel and their two sons run the orphanage shown in this video. (the youngest is in Aaron's 6th grade class at school & Sean is the Music teacher and worship coordinator for chapel at CAG) We had a chance to visit the babies during Christmas break, while other friends, the Johnsons, lived there to care for them while the McDaniels were in the states trying to raise support. What the McDaniels need more than anything else...is not very glamorous...but vital. They need monthly support for formula, diapers, workers to help, & the electric bill. It takes about $350 a month per child to raise these little ones. Their home is debt-free, their ministry is focused on raising up Christian Guatemalan men to help lead communities and families back to the Lord, and they serve in many other ways here in Guatemala. Their hearts and testimonies are amazing and we wanted to share this with you. Let us know if you are interested in more information or supporting this ministry here in Guatemala. God bless as He opens our hearts.
Random things...but at least something!
Dear Everyone, Here are some tidbits that God has laid on my heart to share with you today. Sorry these are so far between these days...up to my eyeballs in Beauty and the Beast (performances 29-31st of January)...which God has blessed beyond expectation...but hopefully after that I will have more time to share all the amazing things God has shared with our family here in Guate (pronounce Guah-tay)!
1. Check out this Youtube clip that Dave Osborn, our landlord & friend, put together with Caden & Maya and their friends at CAG. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbIPIRU What do you think God Looks like? It was used in their chapel service this past week. (This is another one from thanksgiving...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0-h6WAXo0..enjoy!)
2. At the end of a youtube clip, by our friends the Johnsons who are serving here in Guate with us, is this version of the Lord's prayer...Father in Heaven, reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from the enemy and from ourselves. You are in charge. You can have us. Do anything you want!...may that be our prayer today.
3. The offeratory in church this morning was His Eye is on the Sparrow. Amazing that no matter where we are in this world, the God of the universe who cares for every sparrow, has his eye and his heart turned toward us. We can sing because we're happy, and we can sing because we're free! But it wasn't until I looked down and saw that Maya was handing me a kleenex that the tears really started to flow. Thanks God for tears of happy memories, for blessing us with caring children, and for touching moments to make our hearts remember whose we are!
4. For the past two years Aaron and I have spent the moments after our kids go to bed sharing in God's word by reading through the Bible in a year. This January we began our third year more committed than ever (and in a great habit) to read His word and pray together each day. At Union Church, where we worship on Sunday mornings, after the first of the year we began a walk through the Old Testament to look at what God teaches us there...how knowing the God of the Old Testament can help us know our Savior and Redeemer better...the quote from Mordecai to Queen Esther was ringing in my head all morning (paraphrased here by me) "Maybe you were in this place at this time for such a time as this". Thanks God for preparing us for things we have no idea are coming up in our lives! You are amazing God!
5. I love Sundays!
6. Caden & Maya decided this afternoon that they and Lily would like to spend time in Caden's bedroom each night reading through the Keys for Kids devotions and reading from the Bible that my parents brought down for them in Dec. Go God, and use the guiding of the Holy Spirit to grow our children into your children. You are awesome.
7. Prayer requests: A. Pray for Chris Rice & her family as her father declines rapidly in health in England after years of being bedridden. She is the pit orchestra director for our Beauty & the Beast production and we are lifting her up and whatever happens that God will provide all that she needs and we need for the upcoming weeks. God you are in control and we have faith that no matter what the situation that you will make a way. B. Thanksgivings that my folks made it to Africa well & safe. Now pray for sleep adjustments, safe travels, and God to reveal his majesty in that place to them as they spend the next month with my brother. C. For each of us wherever we are to be God's ambassadors to this world where he has seen fit to give us life and breath for this day.
8. Thanks for all your prayers and support and I pray that daily God draws you closer to him and you get a chance to experience the abundant life (not as the world thinks about it, but in reality) that He gives. At His feet, Amy
1. Check out this Youtube clip that Dave Osborn, our landlord & friend, put together with Caden & Maya and their friends at CAG. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbIPIRU What do you think God Looks like? It was used in their chapel service this past week. (This is another one from thanksgiving...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0-h6WAXo0..enjoy!)
2. At the end of a youtube clip, by our friends the Johnsons who are serving here in Guate with us, is this version of the Lord's prayer...Father in Heaven, reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from the enemy and from ourselves. You are in charge. You can have us. Do anything you want!...may that be our prayer today.
3. The offeratory in church this morning was His Eye is on the Sparrow. Amazing that no matter where we are in this world, the God of the universe who cares for every sparrow, has his eye and his heart turned toward us. We can sing because we're happy, and we can sing because we're free! But it wasn't until I looked down and saw that Maya was handing me a kleenex that the tears really started to flow. Thanks God for tears of happy memories, for blessing us with caring children, and for touching moments to make our hearts remember whose we are!
4. For the past two years Aaron and I have spent the moments after our kids go to bed sharing in God's word by reading through the Bible in a year. This January we began our third year more committed than ever (and in a great habit) to read His word and pray together each day. At Union Church, where we worship on Sunday mornings, after the first of the year we began a walk through the Old Testament to look at what God teaches us there...how knowing the God of the Old Testament can help us know our Savior and Redeemer better...the quote from Mordecai to Queen Esther was ringing in my head all morning (paraphrased here by me) "Maybe you were in this place at this time for such a time as this". Thanks God for preparing us for things we have no idea are coming up in our lives! You are amazing God!
5. I love Sundays!
6. Caden & Maya decided this afternoon that they and Lily would like to spend time in Caden's bedroom each night reading through the Keys for Kids devotions and reading from the Bible that my parents brought down for them in Dec. Go God, and use the guiding of the Holy Spirit to grow our children into your children. You are awesome.
7. Prayer requests: A. Pray for Chris Rice & her family as her father declines rapidly in health in England after years of being bedridden. She is the pit orchestra director for our Beauty & the Beast production and we are lifting her up and whatever happens that God will provide all that she needs and we need for the upcoming weeks. God you are in control and we have faith that no matter what the situation that you will make a way. B. Thanksgivings that my folks made it to Africa well & safe. Now pray for sleep adjustments, safe travels, and God to reveal his majesty in that place to them as they spend the next month with my brother. C. For each of us wherever we are to be God's ambassadors to this world where he has seen fit to give us life and breath for this day.
8. Thanks for all your prayers and support and I pray that daily God draws you closer to him and you get a chance to experience the abundant life (not as the world thinks about it, but in reality) that He gives. At His feet, Amy
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A Birthday Prayer
Dear Lord, Thanks for seeing fit for blessing me with another year of life. Thanks for my family that you have graced me with and extended family and friends who support and care for me more than I deserve. Thanks for great students with whom I can share what you have shared with me. But thanks most of all for being my God and for giving me your Son to bring my sinful nature back into line with your perfect plan. Keep turning my heart toward you until the day you bring me home. Go God! Amen!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Dec. 21 & 22-The last days of our Trip
The final two days of our trip were spent at a little farm, near the town of Poptun, named Finca Ixobel (click here for website). It was a campground hippie resort and it was very relaxing (after the first night...we arrived in the dark and it wasn't much to be excited about then). 
Our treehouse cabin was cozy and had all the luxuries we could need (including mosquito screens for all the beds and a bathroom one short trip down the stairs). With a hammock out the front door...it was just wonderful!
The main lodge area was two buildings snuggled together. One housed the main reception desk and the other the kitchen. It was surrounded by porches with big wooden tables where you could play games or sit down with some glass bottle sodas and just enjoy time. The whole place ran on the honor system and you just took what you needed and wrote it down in a book and paid for them when you left. It was very laid back and was just the thing we needed after our very busy previous days!
On the morning of the 21st we headed out on a self guided hike around the finca. True to Guatemala principles...the trail was simply marked by red paint splashed on a tree or rock every once in a while. We'll let the pictures do the talking for this trip, (Greg had gone on a 6 hour cave swimming hike so he was not with us on this excursion) but it was wonderful.
We got back in time for lunch and had the best burgers we ever had in our lives as well as fresh cut fries. The whole place was rustic but beautiful...but the food was the best we've ever eaten...it was incredible, homemade breads, home-cooked buffet type suppers, desserts and shakes to die for! We ate very well, sorry we didn't get any pictures...just too busy eating.
It was a great ending to a great vacation and we hope you enjoyed the pictures and adventure with us. 
God bless as he takes time to refresh you during this Christmas season as well.
Our treehouse cabin was cozy and had all the luxuries we could need (including mosquito screens for all the beds and a bathroom one short trip down the stairs). With a hammock out the front door...it was just wonderful!
The main lodge area was two buildings snuggled together. One housed the main reception desk and the other the kitchen. It was surrounded by porches with big wooden tables where you could play games or sit down with some glass bottle sodas and just enjoy time. The whole place ran on the honor system and you just took what you needed and wrote it down in a book and paid for them when you left. It was very laid back and was just the thing we needed after our very busy previous days!
On the morning of the 21st we headed out on a self guided hike around the finca. True to Guatemala principles...the trail was simply marked by red paint splashed on a tree or rock every once in a while. We'll let the pictures do the talking for this trip, (Greg had gone on a 6 hour cave swimming hike so he was not with us on this excursion) but it was wonderful.
We got back in time for lunch and had the best burgers we ever had in our lives as well as fresh cut fries. The whole place was rustic but beautiful...but the food was the best we've ever eaten...it was incredible, homemade breads, home-cooked buffet type suppers, desserts and shakes to die for! We ate very well, sorry we didn't get any pictures...just too busy eating.After lunch we toured the grounds and found the swimming hole. 
It had some giant stands of bamboo that Caden & Lily found fascinating. 
It was a clear spring fed pond, quite cool but refreshing surrounded by little thatched huts hung full of hammocks. 
Suffer we did! It was great...chilling there.
It had some giant stands of bamboo that Caden & Lily found fascinating. 
It was a clear spring fed pond, quite cool but refreshing surrounded by little thatched huts hung full of hammocks. 
Suffer we did! It was great...chilling there.
It was a great ending to a great vacation and we hope you enjoyed the pictures and adventure with us. 
God bless as he takes time to refresh you during this Christmas season as well.Dec. 20-Morning in Tikal & beyond
During the night we woke up to this incredible noise! It seemed monstrous. It was something between a gigantic whirring sound, like a mighty engine trying to start, and a great wind trying to get through a space that is too small. An Englander we met the next morning (Hi Becky) said it reminded her of the sounds the dinosaurs made on the movie Jurassic Park (the scary ones at night). I think it sounded like the space machine going full force on the movie Contact (maybe we watch too many movies!) but this amazing sound woke us up from a dead sleep at about 3:30 in the morning. It was really the sound of Howler Monkeys (which I'm glad the tour book warned us about or I would have been scared out of my wits) stirring in the trees around our resort. I can't imagine the explorers here who would have heard that from their canvas tents or less...how brave they must have been.
At 5:30am we were supposed to get a wake up call so we could meet our guide at 6am for our morning sunrise tour. At 5:50 Aaron rolled over and checked his watch...and then we were off in a run, trying to wake tired 3 year olds and get cranky bodies dressed was accomplished but Mom & Dad were both a little frazzled as we got to our meeting point at 6:15 (only 15 mins late but late none the less). So instead of hiking the 30 mins across the park to our vantage point we hopped in the back of a pick-up and had a brisk bumpy ride to help wake us up!
We climbed 199 wooden steps (very sturdy with handrails...rare in Guatemala) and sat atop Temple IV in Tikal to watch the sunrise.
This is what we saw.
Even though our view was only fog, listening to the jungle awaken was great. After about an hour just sitting and soaking it all in 
(except for a call to Mom & Dad VB from the top of the temple...our guide, Samuel, had his phone) Samuel took us around the park showing us the sights for the morning. We saw...
Massena Trogon (Slaty Tailed Trogon)
Collared Aracaris
Unique Trees (called a hugging tree...see why?)
This tree had bark with medicinal properties like witch hazel.
This one is for all you tree huggers out there! (Like a palm tree with spikes & they were very sharp!)
Ruins trying to fight their way out through the encroaching jungle.
We climbed some pyramids & it was pretty cool.
The final temple we ended up at was Temple V. 
It is the 2nd highest and has steps that would even make my parents steps at their house seem wide (this is about a 70 degree angle you are climbing up...crazy how steep this was.) We didn't climb it but Greg went back in the afternoon and did it. 
We said "Adios" to Samuel (who had became Lily's big buddy) and headed back to our lodgings for a late breakfast and packing up our rooms around 10ish and then headed back into the jungle to see what we could see before we had to leave for our next destination.
This is a tree stump that started out as a seed lodged in one of the ancient stones and then grew until it cracked the giant circular stone in half.
We climbed to the top of Temple IV where we had been seated that morning and the sight was amazing.
This view is actually seen at the end of Star Wars (the first movie).
It was incredible sitting up there above the jungle...how it must have looked back when the Mayan civilization flourish...because they think there was no vegetation...what a sight that must have been.
This is a look back at Temple IV from the trail we headed out on.
This is where we were seated to see the view from the top of Temple IV.
As we left some spider monkeys played in the tops of the trees. Just a one of the many we saw during our days in Tikal. They were just really hard to photograph.
As we headed out to our final destination, Finca Ixobel in Poptun, Guatemala we were in great spirits because of the fantastic sights the Lord provided us with. 
More on that in the next blog!
If you would like more information about Tikal I found this cool interactive website about it...http://www.destination360.com/tikal.htm. Enjoy!
At 5:30am we were supposed to get a wake up call so we could meet our guide at 6am for our morning sunrise tour. At 5:50 Aaron rolled over and checked his watch...and then we were off in a run, trying to wake tired 3 year olds and get cranky bodies dressed was accomplished but Mom & Dad were both a little frazzled as we got to our meeting point at 6:15 (only 15 mins late but late none the less). So instead of hiking the 30 mins across the park to our vantage point we hopped in the back of a pick-up and had a brisk bumpy ride to help wake us up!
We climbed 199 wooden steps (very sturdy with handrails...rare in Guatemala) and sat atop Temple IV in Tikal to watch the sunrise.
This is what we saw.
Even though our view was only fog, listening to the jungle awaken was great. After about an hour just sitting and soaking it all in 
(except for a call to Mom & Dad VB from the top of the temple...our guide, Samuel, had his phone) Samuel took us around the park showing us the sights for the morning. We saw...
Massena Trogon (Slaty Tailed Trogon)
Collared Aracaris
Unique Trees (called a hugging tree...see why?)
This tree had bark with medicinal properties like witch hazel.
This one is for all you tree huggers out there! (Like a palm tree with spikes & they were very sharp!)
Ruins trying to fight their way out through the encroaching jungle.
We climbed some pyramids & it was pretty cool.
The final temple we ended up at was Temple V. 
It is the 2nd highest and has steps that would even make my parents steps at their house seem wide (this is about a 70 degree angle you are climbing up...crazy how steep this was.) We didn't climb it but Greg went back in the afternoon and did it. 
We said "Adios" to Samuel (who had became Lily's big buddy) and headed back to our lodgings for a late breakfast and packing up our rooms around 10ish and then headed back into the jungle to see what we could see before we had to leave for our next destination.
This is a tree stump that started out as a seed lodged in one of the ancient stones and then grew until it cracked the giant circular stone in half.
We climbed to the top of Temple IV where we had been seated that morning and the sight was amazing.
This view is actually seen at the end of Star Wars (the first movie).
It was incredible sitting up there above the jungle...how it must have looked back when the Mayan civilization flourish...because they think there was no vegetation...what a sight that must have been.
This is a look back at Temple IV from the trail we headed out on.
This is where we were seated to see the view from the top of Temple IV.
As we left some spider monkeys played in the tops of the trees. Just a one of the many we saw during our days in Tikal. They were just really hard to photograph.
As we headed out to our final destination, Finca Ixobel in Poptun, Guatemala we were in great spirits because of the fantastic sights the Lord provided us with. 
More on that in the next blog!If you would like more information about Tikal I found this cool interactive website about it...http://www.destination360.com/tikal.htm. Enjoy!
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