2021 comes with little fanfare

First the news: in a modified confusing quarantine. Two districts (with the current least COVID cases) aren't allowed to travel within the country; Orange Walk being one of them. This started December 20th, and under new administration, we are unsure of when it will end. We also have a curfew of 8pm-5am.  This restricts our ability to have Friday night Bible Studies. 

Jeimmy leads a devotional for two women, during a house visit

In place of Bible study, more home visits are happening. Jeimmy as a Salvadorian has natural experience and stamina which helps motivate Nathanael and I. 

Normal busy Friday night with the kids (spring's job) Jaziel and Brianny create chaos ;) 

What we did during December:

Gianny was tasked with making flood icing. To her detriment, our powdered sugar was quite chunky! 

Over the Christmas holiday, we invited 2 friends over (we were unable to have more than 3 people over due to restrictions and one said no). Cookies were decorated, and baked.  

This was a Friday night prepping the same treats to share with the Bible study kids as well as church that night,  in between this picture and our cookie party, Covid restrictions changed. 

They were packed with pretzel treats (We special ordered the flat pretzels to make this treat:) and Hershey kisses.  

Zion and Adrene put the m&m's onto the melted kisses. another reason we are thankful for Harvest Aviation, who made it possible for us to share this treat with our Belizean friends

Nathanael shopped for some Belizean staples (rice, beans, flour) and delivered them to the villages. Apparently the most exciting part of their visits was the cookies. I will not attest to the quality, but one of our visitors stated "it looks like 3 year old's made them!" oh well we are learning...hopefully next year we'll improve our "flood cookie" game! 

Krystal and Jeimmy stop at Selena's house. Selena is Deaf and has 5 children

Misael and Jeimmy stop by Alma's house to bless her family with staples and cookies

Ringing in the New Year involved watching Star Wars, eating snacks, and traveling to the roof for fireworks at 12am.  It was the lest spectacular NYE party we have had.. ever! We are thankful to have been together, and anticipate God's goodness in the coming year.

I made whoopie pies, Jeimmy got her first taste of a whoopie pie She liked it despite the face she is making

One final small note, I was privileged to be interviewed in Revelation Wellness for their end of the year giving project. If you would like to listen, here is the link. (obviously downloadable on any podcast apps, the podcast number is 527)

 

 

NYE 2018

The New Years eve party was a tradition started by Nancy. It always promises a full house, food and fellowship. This year didn't disappoint.

Nathanael and Misael set up for the party, which involved welding the broken gate

Nathanael had a small devotion.

enjoying the party

We then broke out games and food.

many played Apples to Apples big pictures 

I made chicken chili which is a church favorite. Two instant pots full got eaten!

Chilling outside

The children lit some fireworks.

First family picture of 2019

The church went to the park for the big celebration at 12 am.

In the park at 12 am to ring in the New Year

Nathanael dropped kids off. He arrived home around 2am.  The neighbor got a new sound system which he used. I finally was able to fall asleep at 3:30am with ear plugs and the fan by my head.

Adrene, Selah, Morene and Zion stopped in the park for a picture on their way home

The next day Nathanael drove Moriene and Adrene home. I slept until 11 am. Our friends from Koinonia invited us for lunch. Sandra who came for the party also came. Lunch was a mix of Spanish, ASL and English. What fun. No pork and sauerkraut for us. Dirty rice with chicken was well received!

Dirty rice for the first day of 2019

Apples to Apples pictures really is our "go to" game in situations where there is language mixing.  All 12 people (3 Spanish speaking, one Deaf) were able to enjoy the game together

We enjoyed ringing in the New year.

May your New Year be blessed!

Spring and the Davis family

The post that I've been hesitant to write

Good News, Great Joy, to ALL people

If you read our newsletter this past Tuesday, I shared some of the spiritual things that we come against in this area.

The back area behind Koinonia

As I became more and more aware of the fact that a lot of the Jehovah's Witnesses live on our street, I was overwhelmed. They seem like there are so many of them. Their building is huge. They seem to have different concepts on if helping hurts.  (in other words, they seem to spend a lot of money on it and a lot of the people who go locally have a good amount of money)

hanging around before Bible study Friday night

As I stated in the newsletter, Nathanael reminded me that we have more on our side.  I would also like to mention that in the same area of street, we have 2 Christian churches. (one Spanish speaking and one Kreol). It is comforting to know that in the physical sense, there are more buildings devoted to Christianity than JW's.

an intense game of "kings" on a Fun Friday

All of this to say I was personally challenged. It is not my responsibility to convince or persuade. It is my job to do what I'm called to do.  I have felt that calling in the way of doing prayer walks on our street. This is where the title of the post comes in. I haven't done the prayer walking yet.  I am hesitant to post this because then I need to hold myself responsible.

Thanksgiving time at Koinonia, everyone brings things to share and we pay for the treats. The funds go to the church's mission trip to Central America

I will be starting to prayer walk on Jan 8. I am hoping to do it every Tuesday, 7am our time.  If you would like to pray with me, please sign up for the prayer emails. (which yes I also need to take more responsibility for!) I hope to share short snippets of the prayers and pictures of our street so you can picture it while you are praying.

we went to Corozal with Koinonia as they did baptisms. Nathanael helped as people were baptized

Thanks for joining with us on this journey. Thank you because without you we would be unable to do what we do.

Happy New Year!


Spring

PS please be praying for us as we prepare for the New Years party, our biggest event of the year.

New Years Eve Party

One can still celebrate the New Year two weeks later right?

We are thankful for those who were able to come to the party. Some people joined us from Spanish lookout.  Others are Deaf but don't go to church.  Still others live in villages far out, and Nathanael was able to take our trike and pick them up.  Some people brought their whole family.  Some came alone.  Fun was had by all, except perhaps the three children that fell asleep.

Nathanael interpreted Charlie Brown Christmas for those who came. The children handed out pop-corn

Nathanael then had a Jeopardy game involving the past lessons that he taught in Church and Bible study.

Finally we played games and ate snacks

At the last minute we headed to the park to watch fireworks.

Thanks for joining with us this 2018 to support the Deaf in Orange Walk. You are a blessing!

Happy New Year!!

New Years eve party

It has been a while, here are some pictures from our New Years Eve Festivities.

We had a good time of playing games and fellow-shipping.

It was such a blessing to fellowship and just spend time talking. We enjoyed many different types of games.  Apples to apples pictures, Suspend, and Bounce off

Some people who don't usually go to church also came. 

Krystal helped me wash dishes before people came over.