Thursday, November 6, 2008

Stephanie in Guatemala etc.


This week Stephanie is in Guatemala for a Presybterian Guatemala Mission Network meeting partly with two pastors from eastern Guatemala churches that we visited in 2007 and with which we're considering forming a partnership. She and I talked briefly by phone at dinnertime yesterday.

She sounded OK- In fact, she said the biggest challenge she's faced is trying to decide whether to leave in the middle of worship services when she has go to the bathroom. She said it wasn't raining - that it was pretty - though our Guatemalan student minister thought a tropical depression was headed that way. We got her a rain jacket (and a new camera) before she went.

Stephanie wore the shirt jacket her mother Nancy made her out of material from Guatemala on the plane at 6 a.m. Monday. I don't know whether she'll be able to get any more material. She took $50 worth of Guatemalan quetzales - she's basically been at a church camp on Lake Amatitlan (lake pictured above) so far and I see she hasn't made any ATM withdrawals.

To see a video about the church camp, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dVrK7vcXgY

The meeting finishes up after lunch today and she and former missionary Ellen Dozier will stay in a Guatemala City hotel tonight (in a city notoriously dangerous, especially for women). Ellen - who's been worshiping with our church since she returned from Guatemala this summer - and Stephanie may try to connect with a Honduran missionary (currently in Guatemala) who was in the U.S. and worshiped as part of our church in 2004.

Stephanie is slated to return at 10 p.m. Friday. If something goes wrong with her connecting flight in Houston, she can always stay with my Mother, who is at a meeting in Houston.

Vincent and I are both going to the doctor's this afternoon. After another (4-day - in this case) fall break, he has now missed two days of school.

Monday evening Vincent and I went to the memorial service for his great grandmother, Granny Love, in downtown Reynoldsburg (OH). His father and most of his aunts and uncles were not there. After that, I visited with my aunts and cousin at nearby Mt. Carmel West Hospital (a squad car - it turns out - was taking Aunt June to the ER with very high blood pressure readings while Vincent and I were leaving the funeral home) while Vincent went to the Pickerington Barnes and Noble. We got home to St. Matthews at 1:15 a.m., which didn't help our colds.

With his cold, Vincent predicted a Senator McCain win Tuesday night and was surprised to wake up Wednesday afternoon and find we have a President Elect Obama. Most Children's Fellowship kids Wednesday night seemed happy about the outcome.

-- Perry

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