Water - water ..... a not a drop to drink!

On Saturday, March 28, Ken noticed that the water was not coming in very well. He went to investigate and found that the pipes were clogged. Two or three years ago, he put a couple of filters in the line to filter out the large sand that was coming in from the street. So....on Sat. he went to clean out the filter. Not only did that need to be done, but the water coming in was pretty dirty! Here's proof! (And this was taken after some of the junk had settled to the bottom of the bottle. The initial color reminded me of dirty pineapple juice!

He quickly turned off the water from the street so that our tanks would not fill up with dirty water. Fortunately, we had a full cistern, so were able to use that water to pump it up to the tanks. (We use gravity fed water in our house.) Unfortunately, another missionary family did not shut off their water supply, and their cistern was filled with junk. They had to pump all the water out.
On March 30 the water was getting better, and on the 31st, I was able to do a load of laundry. (It doesn't help much to wash your clothes in dirty water.) Ken even checked to make sure the city had added chlorine. They had! However, later, as I was giving my strawberry plants a needed watering, I noticed that the water was getting dirty again --- not as bad as before, but not as clear as it should have been. Ken had to shut the water off again for another couple of days. :( We are thankful that our cistern is large enough to supply us with water for a whole week.

Note: A week later, city workers came by to tell us they had had problems with broken pipes, but that they were finally fixed. Therefore, the water should be fine. That's a great time to tell everyone about the problem - after the fact!

Stolen Coffee

On Feb. 27, a car owned by fellow missionaries was stolen off the street in Antigua. (They had a club on the steering wheel.) In it was $200. worth of Guatemalan coffee that we, personally, had bought to sell to raise money for Patzún. (They were bringing the coffee to us.) We don't know why this happened, but it has been another opportunity to trust God to supply both our needs and the needs of Alfa & Omega Ministries.

Busy, Busy

You are probably wondering what on earth we are doing these days. In January and February we were involved with registration details for the annual Intermissions Conference here. We made name tags for everyone attending, met with the hotel twice to figure out room assignments, chose the menus for the weekend, and were in charge of the registration at the hotel on the first two days of the conference. (Several people registered on site on both Friday and Saturday.) There were some major glitches this year, but thankfully, the Lord worked everything out. The conference was great and the speaker was too.

Two days after the conference, we flew up to Texas (March 3). We were able to borrow a car from a friend (Thank you, Roger!!!) and drive to Oklahoma to visit both sets of our parents. Our visits with them were very short, but we were so glad to be able to see them. Returning to Texas, we went to a week of meetings with CAM in eastern Texas. It's always great to meet with our colleagues who work in other countries.

After the meetings, we were able to spend a couple of days with Cindy's sister and brother-in-law in the Dallas area. Two of their children and families were there, plus visiting friends of theirs from Mexico. They had a full house, but we had fun being together. It was also great to be able to visit with friends while there. Ken and I ate supper with two women whom we hadn't seen in years. Thanks Edith and Dagi.

We returned to Guatemala on March 17, cleaned house and prepared for the arrival of friends from Huntsville, AL. Paul and Betty visited with us for a week. We took them to Panajachel and Patzún besides around town here in the capital.

I (Cindy) have had a headache since Tues. Yesterday I took my temperature and found it was 102.5. No wonder I've been feeling bad. (I'm sure my temp. hasn't been that high since Tues.) We have a group of junior highers coming on Saturday, so I need to feel better SOON! Please pray! There is a LOT to do before they come.

Christmas in Pennsylvania

Ken flew to Pennsylvania on Dec. 16. We were both so glad to be together again - after 7 weeks. (Don't want to do that again, if we don't have to!) Here are some pictures of our Christmas there.

Den Momma (Me) showed Isaiah how to paint Christmas cookies (with colored egg yolk)

Concentrating!
He did a great job for the first time - and being 2 yrs. old!

We had a REAL tree - the first in MANY years for the Guatemala Spaughs.
Scott cut it down at a tree farm.

Josiah, ready for church on Christmas Eve
Susan and Lois, friends of ours in Canada, made the hat and booties for him.

Who turned out the lights?

Scott led the Christmas Eve service. Ken sang a solo.

Isaiah, Scott, Josiah, Erin

Precious boys

Jayme, Cindy, Ken

Isaiah was excited about this gift.
He loves to play "bassetball"!

My trip to Huntsville in early Dec. 2008

I went with Erin and Scott and their boys down to Huntsville, so that they could show Josiah to Scott's family. I stayed with Drew and Rachel while there. Had a great time.

Evan - He's not this serious very often!

Helping with the wood floor in the new addition to their house.

I helped too by deciding which different length plank should go where.
Drew then stapled them down.

Evan and his mommy

Our 3 grandsons
Isaiah, Josiah and Evan

January 14, 2009

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mom!
Ken's mother is 88 yrs. old today. We wish her a very special day.

Sorry I haven't written in such a long time. While in the States in Nov. and Dec., I was busy helping Erin with her two little boys, fixing meals, working on her quilt, and enjoying my time with her family. Isaiah is a typical two year old, and is very busy. He is such a cutie, and fun to be around. Josiah is growing and changing all the time. Erin says he's sleeping almost 8 hours at night! Way to go, Josiah! They are now living in the church parsonage, so Scott doesn't have to go very far to work! The parsonage, although not huge, with the basement, is much bigger than the rent house they lived in for a year.

Jayme arrived back in the States from her semester in Ireland on Dec. 21. Ken and I had to go to the airport twice to pick her up! The first time we waited two hours, before finding out that her flight from Ireland had been delayed 4 hours, making her miss her flight from Newark to Pittsburgh. We were told that she would be arriving around 8:00 the next morning. However, when we got back to Erin's, there was a message from Jayme on Erin's cell phone saying that she hoped to be able to catch a flight which would arrive around 9:00 that night. So....we got back in the car and drove back to the airport hoping that she would be there. We arrived about 30 min. after Jayme had gotten her bags. She was extremely tired after having just a few minutes sleep in the last 38 hours and having a cold.

We had a great time at Christmas. Scott was in charge of the Christmas Eve program at their church. Ken sang a solo with the choir! After the nice program, we went home and had a relaxed time opening our gifts.

Christmas Day, I fixed the meal with help from everyone. We ate a late lunch/early supper.

Ken and Scott started an interesting project. They began making a marimba! Ken was able to make several notes, before we left there. Scott will have to finish the project. He hopes to use it in their church services.

Dec. 30, Ken drove Jayme and me down to Huntsville, AL, in a rented car. We were able to visit with Drew, Rachel and Evan for a couple of days before heading back to Guatemala. Drew and Rachel are expecting our fourth grandchild in early August, so we are, of course, excited.

Jayme is now in her January - Winter session at Berea College - taking a 'computer to paint' course. She will be graduating in Dec. Wow! Our 'baby' finishing college. Is it possible?

I have pictures that I want to post, but will do that later. Please stay tuned.

Josiah Scott Kemp

Josiah Scott Kemp

Grandson #3 - Josiah Scott made his appearance into this world at 12:24 p.m. on November 16, 2009 (6 days before the due date). He weighed 7 lb., 7 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. His proud parents are Scott and Erin Kemp (our daughter). We praise God for this miracle of life, and for his giving us Josiah on loan. Erin was in labor for 31 hours. Josiah had a bilirubin problem for the first week, so had to be wrapped in a flexible fiber optic 'light blanket'. Both Erin and Josiah are doing fine now. So far, Isaiah is adjusting well to being a big brother.

Josiah was the talk of the hospital nursery (along with everyone who sees him) because of his hair. It is light brown with seemingly bleached tips! It is quite the hairdo - the surfer look- in Pennsylvania, no less!

The Scott Kemp family