Guat-date (Update from Guatemala)

I'm pretty terrible at updating this blog. You probably already know that though. I like to wait until I have some good stuff to say before I write a blog, at least something interesting...but due to the ongoing harrassment by my family, I have agreed to write one even though I don't have a lot of interesting, exciting things to say.
I'll just give you an overview so you know that we are actually still alive and fairly well and in Guatemala working towards the children's home.

On February the 10th Geoffrey and I were blessed with our first baby. His name is Theodore Rupert Haynes. He is now 11 weeks old.

As you can see from the countless photos of his every move, we adore him. He is helping us build new relationships and deepen existing ones. In case you are wondering, and I am sure you are, yes that is a litter box and yes, he speaks English. We are proud parents.

We are continuing to teach English a few nights a week and sometimes on Sunday. The three children that come to our home every Tuesday and Thursday evening are learning very fast. We have become quite close to their family and are praying for open opportunities to share the gospel with the parents. They belong to the Jehova's Witness church and we love them.

Julio, our longtime friend, comes over every Sunday and we spend time together. We are praying for his relationship with the Lord to deepen. He has chains that are holding him back.

On Tuesday, February 21, Ms. Fran (who we visit and spend time with every week now) received a frightening phone call from someone claiming to be part of an organized crime unit in Guatemala demanding Q.10,000.00 or they will kill her. Many, many people began praying for her safety and she felt a strong peace from the Lord and knew everything would be fine. Since then she has not received anymore calls.

Thursday, the 23rd, we rode with Galen and Phyllis Groff to a missionary conference in Atitlan.

Galen and Phyllis have been missionaries in a nearby city for quite a while. They have started a school and seen many people come to Christ. Not only did they take us to this awesome MALL where Geoffrey thought he'd died and gone to Heaven,

but they took us to spend Thursday night at a children's home, Misioneros del Camino, which is on the very long drive to Atitlan.

There we met the Metcalf's, an awesome family, with a lot of wisdom and insight on what children need emotionally to develop properly as they grow. They taught us a lot about the problems with staffing a children's home and we walked away encouraged, more aware, and with new friends.


Then we finished the drive to the conference. This is an annual conference for native-english speaking, evangelical missionaries living in Guatemala full-time. Nice, I know. The purpose is to worship in English, around like-minded people, and to be refreshed and relax and encouraged. It was wonderful.
Panajachel is the city that hosted the conference and it is basically a crater filled with blue water over time. It is completely surrounded by volcanoes and mountains and jungle on all sides...not to mention it pretty much sits in the clouds.



That is us and those are two huge volcanoes in the background. Nice, I know.
There we made some wonderful contacts, including the Maynor's. They are a family with the same vision as us. They moved to Xela, Guatemala and are also building a children's home. They are one step ahead of us. While we are still looking for land, they have just begun the construction of their home. They are working with a ministry called Living Water Teaching, which has been established in Guatemala for 32 years. Wonderful people and I am excited to get to know them more in the future as we work together to give a purpose to the lives of orphans here.

And now we are back in Coban. I caught a pretty awful virus while we were away and am working to get past it now. I think the Lord allowed me to catch it just so I'd have time to sit and write this blog and catch up on all the other computer work I've been needing to do. We are still searching for land and communicating with lawyers to get to the point where we need to be.

We want to praise the Lord for the way He answers prayers and moves on our behalf. We needed more friends and contacts here and we made them. We asked the Holy Spirit to touch more people's hearts to financially support our mission here, and He did. We asked Him for insight on how to build new relationships with the people around us, and He sent us Theodore. We asked Him to show us how to wisely serve the people here, and He sent us children who work the streets that we can feed and love on. And of course we praise Him for all you guys who pray for us and love us and tell people about us and for Mom who is constantly dealing with donations, bank stuff, lawyers, and letter-writing, and our soon to be accountant which she will meet with next week. She is a hard worker on our behalf.

We want to ask you to pray with us for:
1) a vehicle
2) a piece of land for which we will build Casa Gloria
3) salvation for the people we work with daily and for the Mormons and the Jehova's Witnesses in Coban
4) our state-side lawyer, that God would move in his heart and that the work would be done that needs to be done with the IRS
5) the person who will do our taxes hopefully next week
6) pray for our visa paperwork to come through and go through quickly and well
7) wisdom in dealing with the attorneys and the government here
8) Jenna Robinson, our lovely friend coming to volunteer with us here for her spring break
9) and pray that we would continue to seek the Lord at all times regarding all things

and whatever else the Lord leads you to pray.

Well, friends, our website is almost finished... www.misionvidanueva.info

and if you have not liked our facebook page, please do, or we will not like you... www.facebook.com/misionvidanueva

We love you,

Jenna and Geoffrey

and Theodore!