Hello Sun!

Tuesday may have been the first time I have seen the sun in Guate. It was a beautiful day. And having fresh pineapple juice will always put you in a good mood J We went to Bejucialito again. We played an intense soccer game and got really muddy but it was so much fun. Pastor dribbling the ball down court taking on some 5th graders!
We got very muddy!!!!
Many people in the village have been sick because it has been raining so much and it has been passing from house to house. Two families in the village have sick babies. They were giving the babies adult doses of aspirin, which caused the babies to have fever blisters. We brought them some cough and cold medicine especially for children. Pray that they will be healed of their sicknesses.
When we arrived at Beju, the children at school were eating lunch. The teacher saw that we had arrived and released the children for the day. This is good because we get to play with them and build relationships but the children need an education. There is only one teacher for all the children and she is not passionate about teaching. It is just a job. We are going to talk to the mayor so the children in Bejucialitio have a good education. There are some precious kids in the village. I have become good friends with Armando, Gustavo, Wendy, and Elvia. Me and Gustavo :)
We went and ate pizza and ice cream for dinner. Yum!
However, I got the kind with all the different types of meat. I took one bite and realized that there was hotdog sliced up on the pizza :( HAHA

Sunday we had church and then walked across the street to a food court for lunch. We were going to go to Santa Louisa but the weather was really bad. Santa Louisa is a town about two hours away and pastor started a church their eight years ago. Charlie is the pastor at Santa Louisa and he and his family live next door to us. In two weeks we will have a team from the United States go to Santa Louisa to build bathrooms at the church and build Charlie’s house. Right now he goes to Santa Louisa a couple times a week but it will be great for him to live with the people. He will be able to minister to them better.

Sunday night Pastor, Pabs, Monica, Autumn, Kristen and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D and then ate a restaurant called Nais. It was a huge fish aquarium in it.

Monday we went to the grocery store and got food for dinner. Pastor cooked potatoes, chicken, salad and rolls. It was delish! We met with Efrain and worked out all the details for when the groups come and then had bible study. It was great! Pastor talked about dying to ourselves so that we may live for Christ. I could hear this message everyday and never get tired of hearing it. At the end we went to the alter to pray and pastor prayed over us. It was a great experience. We met Karen and Wendy, two of Diana’s friends. They are so much fun and loved practicing their English.

Monday pastor asked if Christians in America drank alcohol. I told him yes, a lot of Christians do. He could not believe it. He asked, “Really?” about five times. He did not believe me that Christians drank. Then he asked if Christians smoked. I said yes and he could not believe that either. We have a lot to learn from the Christian Guatemalan’s high standards!

Thank you for all of your prayers. My Spanish is getting better but please pray that God will open my ears to understand better and that he will give me the words to say.
Also pray for the people in Bejucialito. Kristen and her church have built very strong relationships with them. They want to have good relationships with them before sharing the gospel. This can sometimes be frustrating because I want to share the gospel with them but they have told Kristen’s church that they do not want us to come in and try to convert them and change their religion. They know that we are Christians so they know we are there to show Christ’s love. Although I want to share with them, I know God has perfect timing. When the gospel is presented, I know their hearts will be open to what God has to say to them through us because they trust us and call us friend.
Also, My mom, brother and sister are at church camp this week. Pray for safety and for them to have open hearts.
I finally got to Skype with my dad and grandma who are in Uruguay. Sometimes I love technology J

A la gran! A la puchica!

I flew into Atlanta on Wednesday and met Autumn, Rob and Monica. It was so great to finally meet them. Rob has organized everything for Guate and he become my second dad while I am in Guate. The girls are great. I have gotten to know them so well in the past three days. I feel like I have known them forever and I know we will be great friends! We went and ate at a pizza joint and talked about what we will be doing in Guate. Then we went back to Rob’s house to talk some more and hang out.
We woke up super early and went to the airport. The flight was fine and we Efrain picked us up from the airport. It was so good to see him and catch up on life! He brought us to the church, Guerreros de Dios, and they had prepared a true Guatemalan lunch for us- steak, black beans, rice, guacamole, salsa and tortillas. Delish!!! We met Pastor Pablo, his mother, Kristen and other people from the church. Everyone is so welcoming and so hospitable! They believe that us coming to help them is a miracle because they need so much help. But we say that they are a blessing for us because if we did not have this partnership with this church then we would be hanging out at the hotel for these two weeks. Their hearts and eyes are open to work of God. We have so much to learn from them. Me, Autumn, Monica and Diana :)
It began to rain so we brought all of our luggage to the apartment which is around the block. Kristen has lived here for the past three weeks and we will all be living here for the next two weeks. It is super cute and nice. We chilled here for a while and then we went back to the church to get Kristen’s stuff. When we got there the courtyard of the church had flooded and the pastor’s house had flooded about an inch. We started using buckets to move the water and then we got a little pump that helped a ton! All of the carpet was soaked! God definitely sent us over there at the right time. They desperately needed help getting all of the water out of the courtyard.

BEFORE!
AFTER!!!!!

The second God moment of the trip happened later that night. We ordered fried chicken for dinner and no one thought of the fact that we needed cash to pay. We all put all our cash in the pot and it was the expect amount we needed! God is in control of everything!
Today we went to the village of Bejucialito which is about 45 minutes away. We played soccer with them and visited some of the houses. Kristen is very close with a boy named Gilmar. He was not at home but his mother was and she was making tortillas. She showed us how to make them and then we helped her. It was great J. The children love to be held and sit in your lap and hold your hand. They are so precious. I hope we get a chance to go back!
We came back to the city and ate at Casa Chapina. We had granadas, tostadas, guacamole, frijoles, tacos and Jamaica. We got some groceries then headed back to the apartment. Tomorrow we will go to three different church services.

Thank you for all of your prayers for me and my family. Jonny's appointment went great and his first batch of treatment will be July 5-7th.

Funny story of the day: We were talking to one of the boys in the village and they were talked about a girl named hannah who had come to the village. He said hannah montana? He lives out in the mountains and even he has heard of her. CRAZY!

Just Passing Through

I drove home last Wednesday and Thursday and spent the week with friends and family-watching movies, celebrating father's day,eating fro-yo, laying out at the pool, running with Pops, and celebrating Ab's 17th birthday!


I have really enjoyed my time at home but I am excited to get to Guatemala. Today I will fly to ATL and meet up with my team. Then on Friday we will fly to Guatemala. Please pray for safe travels, for our baggage to arrive on time, for our team to mesh well and work well together and for God to prepare our hearts for what He has in store for us.
More prayer requests: My dad is in Uruguay leading a mission trip for two weeks. Tomorrow Jonny has an appointment and they will discuss when treatment will start.

Fun at work

During the school year I only worked a couple hours a week but for the past month, I have been working full time. The ladies I work with are no longer just co-workers but they have become some of my good friends.
There is a girl named Dallas and she sometimes wears her hair up ontop of her head and it looks like a beehive. A couple Fridays ago, some of us decided to wear our hair just like hers. When Dallas saw our hair she used some choice words but she thought it was funny. And Dr. Kyler thought it was funny too!


The other day, Tosha was trying to load some brackets but everyone was trying to get stuff out of the drawers that she was sitting by. We made this sign and turned on the flasher. Beware of wild beast!

Samantha had a baby shower a couple Saturdays ago so we all decided we would go and where something zebra. Some of the girls couldnt make it but we still had a good time. Im so excited to meet little Sophie Marie :)

As you can see some of us embraced the zebra idea! Thanks Tosha for not letting me down!

Dallas called in sick one tuesday becuase she had pink eye. She felt better on Wednesday but on Thursday it had jumped to the other eye. It looked terrible! So we put out heads together and came up with a solution, an eye patch! We used a dry angle, a rubberband, a stapler, and Shannons artistic skills.

Brittaney had the duty of watering the plant and she could barely keep it alive. She passed on her duty to Dallas and now the plant has a little flower. Yes, we got excited over a little flower :)
I'm so glad I have gotten to know these ladies better. They are so much fun and great co-workers. We will have so much fun when I get back in August!