21st-24th

Tortillas we made
Coca cola on a nice day
The river we played in with the kids in Jovente
So many wonderful kids
Conquering my fear and riding a horse

I’ll try to update more later. I’m super tired now though seeing as we just got back from Jovente and we are going to the Zoo tomorrow.

If praying is your thing it would be wonderful if you pray for:
Traveling mercies
My Dad’s back
Saying goodbye to everyone here in Guatemala


June 24th

We got to Jovente this morning and as we drove past the health center that we were to build the fence around – it was already built!! We bought the stuff and the community built the fence for us, which was awesome. It still needs a door, which we might have the opportunity to build and we might work on this concrete slab. So Jerson (one of the guys who went with on our trip and was on the work and witness trip) became a part of the evangelism and discipleship group and Mehir and I joined the children’s ministry group – though still looking for potential work jobs. Which is great! We are still doing the ending service and we finished planning that yesterday.

We invited kids to Remi and to play futbol with us. There were 59 kids playing futbol with us before lunch. We also got to play with the kids in this river that they were diving into the women a little further down were washing their clothes in.

As I’m writing this – I wasn’t feeling very well while playing soccer and needed to set down – needless to say about 20 little girls came up to me and started speaking to me in Espanol and Catchee. Juan said it looked like they were going to eat me. Then Catherine came around a horse and we all got the chance to ride a horse. It was awesome to be able to conquer that fear of mine and super fun.

June 23rd

We drove the 5 hours to Puerto Barrios today, we ate at the same restaurant as when we went last time – only this time I didn’t get the fish! Then instead of staying at the District Superintendents house, we stayed at a friend of Scott’s house – it was super nice. It even had two showers. We also got a little American treat when we got there – ice cream! Us American girls slept outside while the others (boys and girls) slept inside the air conditioned house (which is a rarity here in the areas of Central America I’ve been to). It was quite the tropical experience with the thunder storm and the rain falling on the tin roof. Not many can say they’ve slept outside on a giant porch in Guatemala.

June 22nd

The last couple of days have been literally crazy, barely anytime to sleep. We are all really worn out. We leave for Jovente tomorrow. Today we did a children’s church and I was King Josiah as a puppet and Kendra was the other character and then Esther and Claudia were the voices. Then as a group we did the youth service (Sunday School); I was Potiphers’s wife who tried to suduice Joseph (who had the coat of many colors aka my scarf). And Joseph was Mehir, it was really funny- everyone was laughing. After church we went to Julio’s birthday party and had some good food – chicken, thick bean dip, corn on the cob, guac, this juice with cut up fruit in it, chips, corn tortillas and cake- and watched the euro cup. It was really nice and then we went to Gotitas de Amor. Instead of helping out with the literacy thing again – Catherine and I played a game with Eddy (one of the kids there). After a bit Danielle (the leader of the literacy workshop) came in and let me do the literacy workshop – it was like I was learning how to read. I can just imagine how frustrated the 50 year old women get – like the ones I was helping with the previous day.

I keep hearing, “…you can’t help everyone…” or “…you can only do so much.” I feel like that’s something I keep continuing to hear constantly throughout my lifetime. I think it will be a bad thing when I don’t hear those words anymore, because it will mean a piece of my passion has died or that I’m not trying hard enough. I never want to get used to it – will that mean I won’t be seeing life through Christ’s eyes if I get used to the pain and the suffering? I think so. I don’t think that He ever gets used to His children suffering. I think that’s a part of why I’ve been so tired, because I haven’t had time to process what it going on through all this culture shock, righteous anger, struggling, passion, brokenness – we’ve been so busy. I learned tonight though that this is the life that Christ has called me to. There are going to be times where I’m exhausted and I don’t have time to process but I just have to continue to pray that Christ will be my never dying strength – I don’t have another choice. My heart breaks but I continue to let God – not myself – LET GOD!

So last night after Gotitas we went to their church service and I lead worship and sang songs in SPANISH! It was amazing!! And we lead the service too – I was a tree in a mime skit and Maddai was a snake – it was fun and Father’s day themed. And Eddy learned how to say “Your eyes are beautiful” in English for me and then later asked me if I had a boyfriend, haha!! I that kid. He is pretty wonderful and has a wonderful heart. He wants to be a missionary when he grows up. I love their church and Gotitas de Amor – it’s such a wonderful blessing. I can see God here; the language barrier doesn’t even exist, the love of Christ surpasses such earthly things. Thank the Lord. I am so thankful for the experience He is putting in my life.

June 21st
We worked at Gotitas de Amor. We were split into three groups, one for games with the kids, another for maintenance and another for literacy workshop. I was in the literacy workshop one with Catherine and Lindsey. It was really amazing; I went from at one point helping a 50 something year old woman to a 9 year old learn how to read and write. It was amazing to be able to help but my heart broke at the same time for them. A lot of the women couldn’t see very well and so it made it really hard to the workshop. They can’t afford glasses – I assume.
I also learned how to make corn tortillas today with the women of the neighborhood.