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!

Rain or shine

Who knew that I would get so dissappointed while handing out cards promoting a church on the street corner of San Francisco in the rain. Some people would walk right by and not even make eye contact, some would give you the hand, and others would say no thankyou.
This morning before we went into the city I read John 15. The verse that I meditated on all day is verse 18 which says if they hate you, remember that they hated me first. Also, verse 20 says if they persecute you, remember they persecuted me first.
When I remebered this, it made me think of how small my persecution was compared to the persecution Jesus and the disciples received- beatings, being spit on, and ultimately death. When people rejected our info cards, we were being persecuted. But it is hard to call it persecution when we compare it to the persecution that Christ received. They weren't spitting on us or beating us. This experience reminds me to daily ask myself, what am I doing that would cause people to persecute me? If I am living out the christian life, I should face persecution.

Although many people were rude, there were the few people who were very thankful for the card and there were those fellow christians who said encouraging words. I thanked God when a brother/sister in Christ encouraged us.

I was very discouraged at different times today, but God is using us. Normally the epic website receives about 30-40 hits and day and today it received over 300.
Tomorrow we will spend another 6 hours handing out info cards about epic church.

Alot of mudslides ( not the drink!)

Our first group arrived on Saturday July 3rd. That morning before the group arrived we watched the Argentina Germany game and then Theresa, Ryan and I went to a little park by our hotel to outside and read. I have been blessed with wonderful friends who sent me letters for each day. This day was Alyssa's day. I love that girl. The following are some of her encouraging scriptures: Eph. 6:7, Phil. 2:14, and 2 Cor. 12:9-10. Also Bec challenged me to memorize Ps. 67. It was a great morning preparing for the group spiritually and spending some good alone time with God before the group arrived.

Happy 4th of July!!!! Sunday we went to a church named Real Vida. It was awesome. All their songs were Hillsong and the preacher was great. I was sitting there and I noticed a red headed girl sitting 5 rows in front of me. I thought to myself, "Hum, that looks like the back of Rebecca Griggs head." Then I looked and noticed Daniel and Ms. Ruth! How crazy is that, that out of all the churches in Guate to go to, we went to the same church. It was very encouraging to see them one more time! Our group went to Antigua for the day. It is the colonial area of Guate and is surrounded by volcanoes. We went to the market, ate at Monoloco and then headed home.

First Baptist Naples wearing monkey masks at Monoloco.


Monday was our first day in the village. It took us about 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get home each day. And it rained everyday! Right now about 100 children attend the one room school house. Our purpose in the village was to dig trenches and lay a foundation for an addition to the school house but God had bigger plans for us. Since there was not enough tools for everyone, we also played with the children and split into teams to go door to door in the village. It was great! The children are so precious and so hungry for love and attention.


Tuesday I started to memorize Col 4:2-6 and thought about these verses through out the week. It says,
"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders: making the most out of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

Some of my favorite little rascals. I wanted to take a picture of them and they wouldnt let me. When they finally turned around, this is what they did.

Wednesday was awesome! My favorite day of the trip so far. We finished the trenches and everyone was playing with the kids. I was playing with some kids and a little girl named Norma came up to me and asked my for a Bible. I got her one and sat down to share the gospel with her. I asked her questions and shared that gospel with her and she knew all the right answers. She was already a believer so I asked her if she knew the story of creation. By this time a group of kids had gathered around to listen. I went on to tell them about Jesus' birth, death and resurrection. All the kids had heard the gospel presentation already so most of them had already prayed to receive Christ. The kids went to go play but this one boy named Adian stayed. I told him the story of the little boy with two fish and 5 pieces of bread. He wasn't ever looking at me while I told the story. He was watching all the children play. I just knew that he wasn't paying any attention to me so I started to ask him question about the story. He knew exactly what the story was about. He probably would have sat there all day and listened to me tell Bible stories.
The kids came back over to where I was sitting. I gave them silly bands, taught them father Abraham and then videoed them. They loved watching the videos of themselves.

It started to rain so we all loaded up and got on the buses. The dirt roads were really muddy and there was a huge hill we had to get up. I was on the first bus. We tried to go up the hill but got stuck halfway up it. All the boys got out to push and all the girls went to the back of the bus and jumped up and down to give the back tires traction. We made it up after a couple tries but the truck and other van still had to come up. I just sat in my seat and prayed! Miraculously, we all made it up the hill.

Back on Tuesday the groups that went to the village witness to some ladies, gave them a Bible, and told them same passages to read. Then the next day our team would come back and discuss the passages with them. They were so hungry for God's word, just like the little boy Adian who listened to me tell Bible stories. This was a huge wake up call for me. When was the last time I spent more than an hour reading the Bible or praying or memorizing scripture. And when was the last time I resisted the Holy spirit telling me to go share Christ with them. Its time to step up! I read Psalm 6 and I want this to be my daily prayer! I want this passion to be the passion I have to see non believers accept Christ. I encourage you to read David's cry to God in Psalm 6 and try to think of the last time you felt this way, or if you have ever felt this way.

Peace and Blessings!

O what a beautiful morning, o what a beautiful day.

This morning was my first time to see the sun in Guate. It is "winter" here, which means it is the rainy season. It is normally always overcast but the temperature is perfect- mid 70s. This morning I was encouraged by Isaiah 61:1-4.
v.1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.
When I read this passage I keep in mind Ephesians 1:18-20 which says we have inherited an incomprehensible great power for us who believe, the power that raised Christ from the dead. Think about that for a minute, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us! The only way I can proclaim the good news to the guatemalans is to fully rely on the Holy Spirit and his power in me.
Isaiah 61:3 says to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes and Isaiah 61:4 says they will rebuild the ancient ruins and renew the cities.
There is ash all along the streets and the mudslides have destroyed towns.
Isaiah 61 is the perfect passage for Guate at this time and it is my prayer for Guate. At the end of the day when I am tired and I really want to complain, my prayer will be Isaiah 61:10, which says, "I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels."
We met with Efrain for breakfast to schedule next week. He works for Feed the Children. Then we went with Efrain and Jake (Efrain's co-worker) to the village that we will be working in. It is an hour drive but it is beautiful!


And adventurous due to the steep gravel roads up the mountain. Fun fact: Guatemala city has an elevation of about 4500 feet and the villages surrounding the city have an even higher elevation.

It is cheaper to ride on top.

We will be preparing the foundation for a room that is being added onto the school. There are 100 students that attend the one room school house. We will also feed the children a mid-morning meal. I am excited to meet them and build relationships with them! The village people are very lost. I only saw two catholic churches and Efrain said that most people do not have the catholic bible. And even if they did, most of them can not read. We will be in the village to do construction but I will take every opportunity to talk to people about Jesus. It breaks my heart that most of them probably have never heard the gospel. Please pray that their hearts will be open.
We went to Pollo Campero for lunch. I ate a chicken sandwich with black beans and guacamole on it. Its was different but tasty! Tonight for dinner we are going with Efrain to a steakhouse. I am very blessed to be in a city with good cheap food.
Our first group will arrive on Saturday from Naples, FL and they have about 40 people in their group. Until then, Theresa, Ryan and I will be making preparations for them and by making sure we have water, materials for the foundation of the school, meals, etc.

Thank you so much for your prayers! Check back later to see how God is working in Guate!