Feliz Navidad!
Merry Christmas from the Nelsons in Guatemala
Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas! What a year it has been. Here are 12 pictures, with captions, to give you a sense of our last year. Feel free to scroll to the bottom for a short list of prayer requests and our metrics for the year.
Christmas 2020 we were still in Portland, getting close to the end of our first home assignment. Our organization asks us to spend ~12 months out of our 5 year term at “home”, maintaining contact with our support base and recharging batteries. We were really grateful for that time but SO ready to go back to Guatemala. We flew out on a very snowy morning in early February.
We had been gone for almost 5 months and we were thrilled to get on that plane and return to Guatemala. One of the huge takeaway’s from our first longish stint back in the US is that we feel super called to be here. It’s a mystical, strange thing, undeniably felt by all of us in different ways.
We were so happy to reconnect with friends, and to have weather conducive to actually being outside with people, sharing long conversations over meals.
Jeff was able to more or less continue his work virtually (psychotherapy and seminary teaching are great that way) while we were gone, but my diabetes program had been sort of dormant. I came home to new clinic staff (that’s Diego, our nurse, and Chelsie, who runs the door/checks people in and out, and they’re both amazing), tons of patients that needed care, and a Dr. Layla who was very glad to have me back.
HOWEVER, I was only able to be in clinic one day a week until the end of May because I was still teaching high school biology and 7th grade English at our girls’ school. I loved teaching those kids, but I did not love the feeling of being utterly unqualified for such an important task and realizing that this was a large problem at the school… so by April we were looking at other school options in the area.
We narrowed it down to two really good options (after a whole lot of research, praying, surveying friends and educators, etc etc) and then let the kids choose. They decided on Antigua International School, and we continue to be totally thrilled with the experience they are having there. The community of families is wonderful, the teaching staff are highly qualified, energetic, and happy in their work… all three girls have made friends, are thriving academically. The classes are small, totally bilingual, and all three of them are making rapid progress in Spanish fluency. So many of you prayed for us as we agonized over this: the cost, the chaos of yet another transition, not sure if it was the right choice… thank you for those prayers. We feel great about the change and it has been the highlight of our year in a lot of ways.
The new school is in Antigua, about 40 minutes up and over the hill from our old house.
So we moved.
House hunting in Guatemala is no picnic. We started looking at houses in about March, and just hit one dead end after another. Antigua is a lot more expensive than the city, and our housing budget is about $1200/month… everything we looked at was either too small, or big enough but horrifically ugly, or big enough, nice and way too expensive. Or moldy, or without adequate security… after looking at 10+ houses with our very wonderful realtor, and nearly giving up, he texted me a picture of this living room and we pounced. It has 4 bedrooms, beautiful view from the roof, a huge garden, and was exactly the right price. There are moments when God shows up in ways that far exceed our limited sense of God’s goodness, and this was one of them.
The new neighborhood has a pool, praise the LORD.
Here is the scoop on Cora Nelson. She turned 13 in October, is as tall as me and hopefully will soon grow out of my shoes. She’s a straight-A student, speaking Spanish like someone that is growing up in Central America (i.e. with a superb accent) and is just so much fun to be around. She cooks dinner pretty regularly, bakes, is learning to play the piano, is regularly chosen for the boys’ soccer team at school, has a hilarious dry wit and makes friends readily. We’re incredibly proud of the young woman she is becoming and starting to really feel that acceleration in time that happens before they fly the coup.
Lucie turned 10 in July and is so sweet. She’s in 5th grade this year, has made some wonderful new friends, and continues to be a genius at building tiny furniture for her dolls and sewing. She got a Kindle this summer and has put some serious miles on it, tearing through the Harry Potter series and the Austin Family books. Last year was full of so much loss for her: she lost her best friend at the beginning of the year (moved back to Korea) and then her teacher died of cancer in February. Again, so many of you prayed for her heart to heal and I’m grateful to say that she is doing well emotionally… thanks for all the concern.
Hazel is 6 and such a hoot. She’s learning to read in 1st grade this year, and is catching up after a sort of non-content virtual kindergarten experience last year. AIS fortunately created a loophole for the kinder/1st grade classes to be in person even when we remain in high-covid case territory, and she loves going to school. She has a new friend named Hugo that she plays police with at school every day, loves to draw and be read to, and lives in her imaginary world most of the time. I often find her out in the porch swing chatting with imaginary friends, playing with her ponies.
In October we celebrated with a nice meal the birthday of Linda Mijangos- she is here on the right with Sergio, her husband and the psychologist in charge of the counseling program at Seteca seminary in the city. Jeff and Sergio are close friends, and it has been a huge joy for him to be involved in the counseling program. They are working on residency placements for the students for next year, so pray for good opportunities for these Guatemalan mental health providers. Linda was diagnosed last year with stage 4 lymphoma and it has been a grueling year for them— pray for an effective and tolerable treatment regimen and for all the things you pray for when someone is coping with a catastrophic diagnosis. We love them dearly.
Clinic work continues to thrive. I am following about 150 diabetes patients right now, in addition to regular family med/walk-in clinic hours twice a week. Jeff has been seeing patients for therapy on Wednesdays, and it has been SO nice to share the commute time and have the opportunity to work under the same roof. See metrics and goals for next year below!
That’s it! We are incredibly grateful for you all: for the generosity and love you show us, for so much friendship from a distance. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, and huge hugs from Guatemala. May the Lord richly bless you and keep you in 2022.
Love,
Abbie, Jeff and the girls.
Some things we accomplished in 2021:
Completed 3 years in Guatemala and embarked on our 4th. A real miracle.
Taught 23 tenth graders biology, and 13 seventh graders to appreciate poetry and literature.
Rebuilt and then doubled in size a comprehensive diabetes program, which now numbers 148 patients and is still growing.
Grieved the loss of 5 of those patients to Covid or other related causes.
Celebrated 15 years of marriage.
Added 2 single women and another family to our team! (more on that next year)
Helped shepherd 28 Guatemalan counseling students through the masters program at Seteca.
Provided regular individual therapy to ~18 people: a mix of Guatemalan and foreigners, some in full-time ministry work, in a mix of Spanish and English.
Recruited 3 interns to join our team in 2022-2023 to do research on the diabetes program.
Built said internship: put together program materials, research outline, and all the logistics that go into onboarding a 20-year old intern in a foreign country.
Some things we hope to see happen in 2022:
Continued growth and efficacy of the diabetes program. Pray for healing for my patients.
Completion of research project on understanding of disease etiology in the diabetic patient. Pray for wisdom as we try to bring excellence to the realm of ministry healthcare.
Counseling program growth and more opportunities for teaching. Pray for Dr. Mijangos and Jeff to be perceptive to the needs of their students.
Increase in proportion of therapy provided to Guatemalan pastors and ministry leaders. There is significant stigma around mental health; pray for barriers to fall where necessary.
Medical education conference for Guatemalan healthcare providers. Pray for the Guatemalan doctors and nurses faithfully serving the poor in this country.
Onboarding of new team members: pray for Chris & Holly Steed and Heidi Johnson as they are fundraising and preparing to return to Guatemala.
Establishment of a team office from which to provide in-person therapy (both for Heidi and Jeff). Pray for the right space and the funding to materialize.
Serge conference in Spain, crucial time of connecting with our friends and co-laborers around the world. It has been cancelled twice, and could very well be cancelled a third time due to the Omicron variant. We are really hoping we finally get to go!
Nelson family funding: we continue to be grateful for the faithful, consistent and generous funding many of you provide. Pray for our year-end giving to be healthy and for the remaining gap in monthly tuition support to come in.