New changes and a fun weekend!

(me with Mariu, Carol and Andrea)
(the whole group....Who is that blinding white girl in the middle! AHHH!!!!)
(me and Carol....My new roommate!!)

This past weekend was a weekend of change and a lot of fun! First....on Saturday I moved out of my house and in with a family from my church here in Guatemala. They are such a blessing in my life and I am so thankful that they were so willing to let me move in with them. I am sharing a room with the oldest daughter of the family Carol. She is lots of fun! We have stayed up late every night talking!! I really like living with a family...don't get me wrong I enjoyed living on my own, but there is just something different and special about living with a family. I am excited to live with a Guatemalan family and learn even MORE about the Guatemalan culture. I know it will be good for my Spanish, because even though all of the 3 kids of the family who are my friends speak English...I am still around Spanish everyday! It's just nice having a family!

Last night after we were all done eating we had a little devotional time and time praying for each other. In that moment I just thought about how blessed I am, and how wonderful God is. He has provided so much. Way more than I could have ever imagined...I still think I am trying to understand it all, but God is so good! I am so thankful for everything He has given me and provided for me.

On Sunday and Monday (Monday was a holiday in Guatemala) I went to Panajachel (a town located on Lake Atitlan) with the Mata's (the family I live with), Mariu, Andrea, Pablo and David. It was a lot fun. It was really nice to get out of the city and enjoy being in nature and seeing God's creation! It was nice to just relax and hang out with friends. We walked a lot, took a boat to a beach and swam in the lake. It was just a good, fun relaxing weekend!

I just want to thank God for everything He is doing in my life, He is providing so much and so much more than I could have ever expected. It's all about having faith, even when it's hard to!

Amazing Women!!

back row L-R: Courtney (another missionary here in Guatemala who helped translate), Darcie, Nancy, and Connie Front Row L-R: Me (in case you didn't know! :-)) and Susan

I had the amazing opportunity to serve along side some amazing women almost 2 months ago. I am sorry it has taken me this long to post about my experience on my blog. The first week of March I had the opportunity to join Wooddale Church from Minnesota. They were here in Guatemala on a short term missions trip. They have been coming to Guatemala for 12 years! They have a great ministry and it was wonderful getting to know all of them!

I had the privilege to join 4 amazing women and help translate for a home visitation ministry. For five days we went to different towns and visited families. We had the opportunity to enter many homes and pray for those who had needs such as, sickness, financial, spiritual, loss of a loved one, a son or daughter who had fallen away from the Lord, etc... It was a great week, but also it was also emotionally draining to see need after need.

One of the highlights for me was the opportunity to spend each day with the 4 women from Wooddale. As we walked around each town I had the opportunity to get to know each one of them better, and it was refreshing to have some time just sharing what God is doing in my life!

I am thankful for the time that I had with this ministry and these amazing women!!

Prayer

Hey family and friends!

Just wanted to send out a prayer request to all of you....I can't share the details right now, but I just need some prayer. Please pray for God to provide and provide a miracle. I had a hard day and I have to do some hard things, but I know that God is HUGE and bigger than anything going on right now.

I will share more details when I can, but if you could just lift me up in prayer right now I would really appreciate it. Thanks for all of your love and support!

Prayer of Detachment

Last week in our weekly meeting as a team Kyle shared this prayer with us. Just like the other one I posted, this one really made me think. I hope you find this as an encouragement and something that you will pray as well!

Prayer of Detachment

Deliver me, O Jesus
from the desire of being loved,
from the desire of being extolled,
from the desire of being praised,
from the desire of being preferred,
from the desire of being consulted,
from the desire of being approved,
from the desire of being popular.

Deliver me, O Jesus
from the fear of being humiliated,
from the fear of being despised,
from the fear of suffering rebukes,
from the fear of being forgotten,
from the fear of being wronged,
from the fear of being ridiculed,
from the fear that others may be loved more than I.

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire
that others may be esteemed more than I,
that in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease,
that others may be chosen and set aside,
that others may be praised and I unnoticed,
that others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become as holy as I should.

-John of the Cross (1542-1591)

Peace Prayer

Two weeks ago I was with a team from Wooddale Church from Minnesota and during the devotional time they passed out The Peace Prayer (attributed to St. Francis of Assisi). It was something that just spoke to me and touched my heart and I wanted to share it with all of you!

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

A year and a half....

So exactly today I have been in Guatemala for 1 & 1/2 years. I have been thinking about it a lot today. Just reflecting on my time here and thinking about how this culture has become so much of who I am now. I love it here in Guatemala. I love the people, I love the culture, I love Spanish, I love my church here, I love my friends here, and I love my teammates that I work with at SEPAL.

I have been thinking about how I have about 6 more months on this adventure in Guatemala before God leads me on a new adventure. I know 6 months is a lot of time, but this year and a half have gone by so fast, so I know these 6 months will fly by!

I am excited for the rest of my time here, but sad too when I think about how little amount of time it is. I am just trying to take it one day at time and enjoy each day with my friends and my time in this wonderful country.

One thing I am looking forward to most is this summer! I have the opportunity to lead the summer team (STEP). It is a group of college aged and older who come to Guatemala for 7 weeks to be exposed to missions and to Guatemala. I am going to have a great team of leaders helping me this summer!

Would you pray with me during my last few months here? Pray that even though my time is short it won't seem like it and the relationships I have will continue to grow. Would you also pray for the summer team? That we will seek God in all of the planning of the summer, and that God would be forming the right team to come this summer.

Thank you so much!

Why couldn't it have been Mickey Mouse??....Oh...the adventures of living in GUATE!

So.....Tonight I wish that I saw Mickey Mouse.....but instead I saw......

A REAL MOUSE!!!!





I was lying in bed....just about to fall asleep when I start to hear this noise. I am trying to figure out what it is. It is at my window...which is right above my head. I keep listening and think maybe it is outside of my window. I keep listening and think maybe there is a rat outside of my window, or maybe it's the wind, and as I keep listening I think maybe it's a moth trapped behind my curtain. So...I continue to lay there and then I feel something!!

I get up...turn on my light and pull my curtain back to look...and all I see is something moving. This thing moves up my curtain and then on top of my curtain rod I see it....THE MOUSE!!! I scream and run out of my room. I call for my roommate Rebecca. By now it is midnight...and she has been asleep for almost 2 hours!!

As I think about if I should knock on my roommates door and wake her up I am standing at my doorway...and the mouse is still on my curtain rod just staring at me. I finally decide I should wake Rebecca up, because I need help. I don't know what to do with the mouse, and I certainly can't fall asleep knowing there is a mouse in our house.

So...I knock on Rebecca's door, and open it and say, "Rebecca...there is a mouse in my room." She wakes up, not too sure what is going on. I tell her come on....come in my room and look. She comes and the mouse has moved from the curtain rod and is climing down my curtains, but behind the curtains...so you can only see the curtains moving. I try to show Rebecca that the curtain is moving, but she is still waking up and doesn't see it....but then the mouse goes back to the curtain rod and Rebecca see's the mouse...we both run out of my room screaming!

We don't know what to do....there is a mouse in my room!! There is no way that I can sleep knowing that the mouse is in my room. We finally get brave and go back in my room to look for the mouse. We don't see it...and now the problem is finding it!! I just moved back into our house after house sitting for 3 months...so I have stuff all over my room. We get two brooms and start banging the floor and everything we can to try and scare the mouse. We start to move everything out of my room. We have almost everything moved out...except a few things in my closet...a blanket and two plastic bags.

I am moving a box out of room when Rebecca screams...and slams my door shut!! She has just spotted the mouse!! So...now we decide we need to come up with a plan...how are we going to trap this mouse. So we get an empty box and we are going to trap the mouse and then take it outside. We go back in my room and start looking for the mouse...and we can't find it. We look under my bed...behind the curtains, everywhere!! Then Rebecca lifts up the blanket in my closet where it is folded and there is the MOUSE!!!

We trap it with the box and while the box is on it's side we try to get the blanket in the box. When we think the blanket is in the box we decide to lift the box upright and close the top as fast as we can!!! We succesfully have the mouse in the box, or so we hope!!! We take the box outside and dump out the blanket that we hope the mouse is still in. We lift up the blanket and there is the mouse!!! It's outside!!!!

We checked the rest of my room and no sign of any other mice...and no way it could have come into my room through my room!! No holes or anything. So now that it is 2am I think I have finally calmed down...and I think I can go to sleep without worrying about a mouse!!

Oh...the adventures of living in Guatemala!!!

P.S. My roomate thought I should add that about 5 times during the process of trying to capture the mouse I said....this is why I need a husband, so he can do this for me! ha ha :-)

Ecuador!!!

Me and my teammates that I worked with in Ecuador (Noe, Diana and Samuel)

Me with some of the girls on Island Santay

Last week I got home from going to Ecuador for 2 weeks! I was excited to go to South America for the first time, go to a conference for Latin American youth, and to have the opportunity to serve for one week after the conference.

The conference was great, and it was encouraging to see over 400 Latin American youth be excited about missions, but more importantly wanting to serve God wherever and whenever He calls them!

One of the highlights from the conference was the last night. The guest speaker was the grandson of Nate Saint. Nate Saint was one of the five martyrs killed by the Auca Indians in Ecuador in the 1950's. Actually the Sunday after the conference was the 50th Anniversary of their death. Also at the conference as the grandson of the Auca Indian that killed Nate Saint. The amazing thing about this story is how through the deaths of these martyrs, God was glorified. The men that killed these 5 missionaries came to know Jesus. The grandson of Nate Saint (Jesse) was baptized in same river where the body of his grandfather was found. The Auca Indian that killed his grandfather was the man that baptized him!

After the conference I had the opportunity to serve with 3 other people from all over Latin America. We (Samuel- from the Dominican Republic, Noe- from El Salvador, and Diana- from Ecuador) went to an island called Isla Santay. It's an island in the middle of a river close to the coast of Ecuador. There are about 200 people who live on the island. They live without lights, bathrooms, or running water.

There is no church on the island...but there is a church that is working regularly on the island, sharing the gospel and helping on the island. 2 years ago they build 36 houses, and they also married 20 couples on the island. Before this, no one was married on the island...they just lived together.

While we were on the island we slept in tents and did various things on the island. Every morning we helped several men cut down bushes and shrubs. They are hoping to clear land to grow fruits and vegetables to start to build a little bit of economy on the island. A big city and market are only about 15 min away from the island, so there are opportunities to sell things in the market. In the afternoons we visited the families on the island, and every night we had a program for everyone on the island.

It was fun working with the team...and definitely a growing and learning experience! Thank you so much for all of your prayers during my time in Ecuador!!