Life After Guatemala

MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends and counting the blessings God gave you in 2007.

We are spending this Christmas in Santa Rosa, CA --- the place where Jeannette grew up, and where we currently call "home."

We feel pretty settled into life back in the states, although in some ways we will never be the same after living in Guatemala and sharing the lives of the people down there for almost a year.

We both have jobs at North Bay Regional Center as bilingual case managers, serving people with developmental disabilities. Currently Jeannette works from the Santa Rosa office and Brian works in Napa (a little more than 1 hour away) but we are hoping he will get a transfer sometime this spring, ending his long commute.

Other than work, we are spending time with our family members who live nearby (the whole reason we moved back here for the time being). We are also teaching English to a group of Latinos at Shiloh Covenant Church. Most of them are Mexican and they giggle at some of our Guatemalan expressions, but last month a new girl joined our group. She’s from Guatemala City and speaks Spanish in a way that is very familiar to us. She also does some cultural things that make us long for Guatemala. We are dreaming about going back to visit sometime in the next year. Primero Dios.

A couple of prayer requests: We are still searching for a church community in Santa Rosa where we feel challenged in our faith, and drawn into worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ. We are also looking for friends our age -- perhaps a few young married couples to hang out with and shares our lives with. Thank you for your prayers!

May you have a wonderful New Year --- filled with challenges, growth, love & joy! Blessings!