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!!