February 2006

Dear Family and Friends Near and Far,

Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. —1 John 3:1

So many things have happened since our last visit with you via email, phone and even in person. I shall try to capture the high lights in bullet form and thus allow you a glimpse into our lives.

• Keith, Marta and Nick came for a visit at Christmas.
• Nick left again on January 2, 2006.
• Marta flew back on January 5, 2006.
• Keith departed on January 25, 2005.
• Charles flew to Canada for medical consultation on January 28, 2006. He will be gone for three weeks.

Those times of “Good-Bye” were hard and painful. There were too many
“Farewells”, too close together.

• From mid January on we have been home base to a work team from
Tennessee, consisting of five college graduates.

They had already been on the road since last October, stopping along the way to help wherever help was needed. All five of them slept in classrooms adjacent to the school’s gym. Nevertheless, they became part of our family. On one occasion when we had business in Honduras, we included them in that outing.
When shopping needed to be done, Petra went with members of the team to the local farmer’s market.

• Petra opened channels of communication between us and the next door neighbors.

In Guatemala, each house or property is surrounded by at least three meter high walls, due to security. Thus, it is impossible to talk to the neighbors over top of the walls. However, one day while walking to the bakery, Petra saw the gentleman from the other side of the wall, introduced herself and asked him and his family over for coffee. Since then, the neighbor lady and Petra had lunch together, exchanged their phone numbers and went together to the market.

• Since last week Petra is helping the niece of our gate guard to complete her English assignments for school.

One day last week, Petra received a call from the gate that Flory, the niece of the gate guard wanted to see her. Could Petra please help her with her English assignments? When asked, if Flory owned a Spanish/English dictionary she said no. Even in her school class, no books were avilable for use. The students had to learn by coping from the board. According to Flory, their English teacher (who himself only speaks broken English), never explains anything in Spanish but only in English. Petra printed out word worksheets from the internet and will give Flory an English/Spanish dictionary.

The most exciting fact I (Petra) am learning is that God is all transcendent. He transcends time, space, cultures and languages. His
Word is powerful, drawing people even without the help of our words.

At the beginning of this week I found a dramatic reading of the book of
Mark on audio cassette, entitled “La Historia” (The Story/History). I asked one of the Guatemalan workers, Reginaldo, if he knew the story of
Jesus.
“Not really,” he replied, “only a very little bit.”
“Would you like to listen to the story of Jesus? It’s in Spanish.” “Yes, I can listen to it.”
The following day he mentioned he had finished one side and asked, if I had a movie about this "Story" as well. Thus, for the past three days we have watched the Jesus Film in Spanish during his 40 minute lunch break. Today, after watching the final part, the resurrection, great commission, and invitation of the Spanish narrator, Reginaldo prayed along silently and received Jesus into his heart and life.

• We are humbled to see how God uses your faithful prayers and financial sacrifice, as well as our availability to bring about HIS purposes!

Thus, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. - 1 John 3:1

God bless you and Thank you!

Dios le bendiga,

Charles & Petra, Jonathan & James Wirrell
Willing and able to serve the Lord by nurturing Missionary Kids as well as by serving the underserved in Guatemala.