June 5th -7th

My Guatemalan family
From left to right: (Skipping the first puppet) Catherine, Leslie and Remi
Eating beans and eggs and tortillas



Beautiful children here

June 5th

Luke 5:1-11- We’re going to be used as God’s tools to further the Kingdom- I feel unworthy!!
Today we learned about Maxima Mision!! We will be leading two groups – one from Chicago and one from Kansas City. We will be going to Honduras once before we go with the group from either Chicago or Kansas City, so we can see the need in Tegusegalpa. Then when we go back we can meet the need. We are leaving on Friday and it’s a 10 hour drive. We already know we will be building a fence, playing games , being with the kids in the school, teaching Sex, Lies, and the Truth seminar.

June 7th
Yesterday was amazing and fascinating in so many ways. Well on Thursday we drove 5 hours from the city to Puerto Buarres and spend the night at the DS’ (district superintendent) house. And for dinner we went to this restaurant and I ordered fish and it came out like a fish, eye ball and everything-it was good but I ended up trading with Emily.
Then drove another 3 hours and went to the house of man who is building/planting the new church in Juevente, which is a town of about 600 people and its said to be a very indigenous culture/place. Some of them speak Catchee which is one of the few Mayan languages left. We worked at the school in Juevente and had a house down the hill that we would eat our meals at. So for breakfast we had eggs and beans and lots and lots of tortillas and for lunch we had chicken is some type of broth and lots and lots of tortillas.

At the school we did Remi (the puppet show) while another group did Sex, Lies and the Truth seminar in the morning. Every child who was present at Remi excepted Christ in their life. Its amazing to think that God is using ME as His tool. God is so good.
I definitely experienced a lot of culture shock while in Juvente – garbage lining the streets, girls with razor cell phones – yet they don’t have running water or even a solid flood and they don’t sweat or not even near as much as we do.

So after the show (Remi) we played games with the kids – all the children crowded around me, hanging off me, almost every single girl was holding my arm or rather Bubuhas’ arm (I’m a clown and that’s my name, its Bubbles in Spanish) – I’ve never felt so loved. It was so fun playing with all of them as well as even just sitting with them. They kept saying me name – Bubuhas!! I had a couple of girls that would just continually hang on to me. They were so sweet.

Then we had lunch at the house at the bottom of the hill and then went back up to the school where we did another workshop and then played soccer with the kids while Dr. Rene did a seminar on AIDS for the parents. Oh my lanta, playing soccer was so much fun, I did get called a chicken from one of the girls because of my pants that were rolled up, it was really funny and then another girl walked up to Juan and said you’re too big/tall and another girl called Wes a trampoline and Leslie clumsy. So we all have alternative nicknames now. After soccer all the kids took us down to this river and man was it a hike but they were all running- the whole time was a blast.
Then on the way back to PB last night we stopped at a restaurant and ate dinner and I got quizzed on my Spanish. I’m learning so much Spanish and when I was talking to my parents on the phone, I was speaking Spanglish. One of my team mates said that it makes her heart smile when I speak Spanish. So its getting a lot better than I expected and we’re all getting so close and our family is continually getting bigger. There are wonderful people here, who have blessed my heart emensely; I am so thankful to finally be here. I feel like I have known these people for so much longer than two weeks (for the North Americans) or 6 days (for the Mexicans).

We got back from PB in the late afternoon and were all really happy to be back. We will be taking our first trip to Honduras on Friday, the drive in 10 hours. I think it will be a fun experience. We are just going to see the need and then when we go back later in the month we will meet the need.

Well the eleventh member of our team just got here- she seems really nice thus far. Please if you might pray for team unity, because the rest of us have already had a week or two to bond and she is coming in late and that might be hard for all of us. And that we will be safe and I will continue to learn more and more Spanish as this adventure continues.

I really want to say thank you to everyone who has been such a big role in my life – chances are if you’re reading this, that’s you. I can’t believe my dream has actually happening. At times it has seemed surreal but I’m just trying to soak up as much of it as I can and love this life I am able to live.

Have a wonderful day everyone. I’ll keep sharing my stories when I get the chance.

Love you all!!

More pictures to come