Happy Birthday, Maria!

Today is Maria's 19th Birthday. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama and we brought her home on Christmas Day. Since it is hard to celebrate amid the busy activities of Sunday, we did most of her birthday stuff yesterday. We took her to La Mexicana for lunch and then gave her gifts at home. Today she received lots of text messages, phone calls, and e-mails from family and friends. She's a great girl, and we're so glad to have her home for her birthday and Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Fun with Friends

Tuesday evening, we (and the Sankeys) went to dinner in Mexico at the home of our friends, Eli and Isela. The food was delicious!! We had stuffed poblano peppers in a pastry roll, rice, beans, salad, and flour and corn tortillas. Yum! You can see we cleaned our plates! A good time was had by all. Muchas gracias, amigos! :-)

Honduras

One of the first churches that was established when my parents opened the first holiness work on the north coast of Honduras in 1967 was in a village called Armenta. We visited this church on the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2007. This is the "road" beside the church.

Dad preached a wonderful message and gave an altar call. The man in the yellow shirt and his brother to his left were little boys when my Dad told their Dad about Jesus. Vonnie and I were 2 and 3 when we moved to Honduras and Marc was born there a couple years later. This is the sign welcoming my parents back to Honduras. Interesting spelling of "Sankey." :-)

One of the first Honduran converts (she's 100 now). 40 years ago my Dad found her husband (Don Priciliano) working by the road. Don Priciliano told my Dad, "My neighbor and I have wondered if anyone would ever come and tell us about God."

This is the 40th Anniversary celebration in San Pedro Sula. There were 350 people in the building and at least that many outside, standing at the windows, doors, on the sidewalk and in the street. It was a very special time for our family.

In a pose reminiscent of "The Swiss Family Robinson" we gather on the Caribbean coast in Puerto Cortes.

A beautiful bird-of-paradise plant.

Tiffany Melton prepared a wonderful Thanksgiving meal for all of us. It was delicious! Daniel chauffered us everywhere and they took such good care of us! Thank you!!

Sentimental Journey

Mom, Vonnie, me and Dad in front of the house where we lived in Monjas, Guatemala.

Kate and Heidi Bryan, Mom, Andrew, Drew and Vonnie Bryan, me, Kent and Dad in front of the hospital where Vonnie and I were born in Jutiapa, Guatemala. It is pretty primitive - we have a brave Mother!

Kent in Guatemala

Kate, Heidi, Vonnie and Mom

In front of the house where we lived in Guatemala City. By the way, Vonnie has 3 more boys, but they are little so it was wiser to make sure they were kept safely at home in Alaska.

Missing Marc in this family picture! :-( He and his family couldn't be with us because of their son, Logan's serious illness.

A beautifully painted bus in Guatemala City.

Helicopter Ride in Guatemala

While our family was in Guatemala over Thanksgiving, Kent was able to take a ride in Fausto Cebeira's helicopter with Lee Rickenbach, and my sister's husband - Andrew Bryan and their son - Drew.

Here are some fields in the Guatemalan countryside. Wow!

Here are some volcanoes on beautiful Lake Atitlan.

Drew and Kent

Life at RGBI

This is one of Steve's Spanish tutors. They work together one hour each afternoon.

This is Maria outside of our apartment at Rio Grande Bible Institute.

This is Kent inside our apartment. Excuse the laundry in the lower left. :-(

Here's a little lizard we found in our kitchen.

Food

Cold mashed potatoes and tamales, served at a youth retreat.

This is meat being cooked on a spit, the chef is shaving it off, then it's put on a tortilla and called "Tacos al Pastor."

These are gorditas, being fried in a vat of oil. The hand on the right belongs to a lady patting out tortillas. The dough for the tortillas (called masa) is in the bucket.

These are chiles rellenos, made by Melodie Sankey. They are green peppers, stuffed with cheese, coated with batter and fried - Delicious!

Clockwise: Taco, refried beans, rice, enchilada and guacamole.

A fruit market stand.

Clockwise: Grilled veggies, guacamole, enchilada, taco, refried beans and steak in the middle.

People in Mexico

This family attends our church in Soledad, which is in Northern Mexico. This man is selling baskets in the beautiful town on San Miguel de Allende in Central Mexico. I would like to have one of each!

This lady attends our church in the village of Cuchicuato. I think she has a rugged beauty. The scarf sets off her high cheekbones.

These are teens at a Youth Retreat in Saltillo. Kent is in the middle of the back row. Maria is on the far right of the 2nd row.

These men are sitting around the plaza in the center of Saltillo. 30 years ago they could have been "The Marlboro Man."

Rio Bravo

Before a system for irrigation was made, the Rio Grande flooded often, the Mexicans nicknamed the river, "Rio Bravo." That's the name of this town where our other border church is. The little girl is Pastor Santiago's daughter. Is she not the cutest?!

Soledad

This is us at our church in Soledad. The top picture is Ester Luna, Pastor Homero Luna, my Dad and Mom (Leonard and Janet Sankey), us, Melodie and Marc Sankey at the Luna's home.

La Florida

Bible Methodist Missions has 3 churches within an hour of the US border. We are living in Texas while Steve goes to language school and we attend these churches. Here are a few pics of our church in La Florida. The pic of our vehicle "climbing" up a dirt path, is the road from the church to get back onto the "main" road. The path is every bit as steep as it looks, and is equally as treacherous, going down as it is going up.