I wanted to share my guatemalan birthday experience with you all. I was woken up sunday morning by my host sister pounding on my window to come open the door. I, in my sleepy self and not thinking it was my birthday went and opened the door. There was most of the family to give me a good morning hug, light off fire crackers, and give me flowers. It was really sweet of them. Then, I went to church and their tradition is that they have people with birthdays stand up in front of church and sing to them. The whole church lines up and gives hugs to the person who has the birthday. So there I am with the never ending birthday song and every person in the church gave me hugs. It was pretty crazy. Then I spent the whole day with the team and at night they had bought me a pinata. It was my first pinata ever. We had a great cake and they sang for me in two languages. It was a nice birthday and it is always fun to celebrate it here.
I have enjoyed this team so much. They are a great group of people and fun to be around. It has been really special to see them serve and how they bless the people here and how God has been changing and touching their hearts. They have like 3 more days here, tomorrow we have our excursion day and will be taking them to antigua to see a little more of guatemala.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
I just wanted to write to you all and share a bit of what has been happening in the last weeks here. God has been amazing and seems to show up before us and have everything planned. He truly is opening doors and making all steps possible. These last weeks have been mainly preparing for our first team that comes in one week. I am sooooo excited to meet them. They are from florida. They are the ones who have provided the funds to build the houses. I look forward to meeting them and showing them the houses and the lives that they have changed.
Some specific things that I have done have been related to the sports camp that we will be holding on the 28th and 29th of march with the group. I had to go ask the mayor of Magdalena permission to use the court. It was pretty scary, everything is so formal here and I was scared I was going to offend him and be exiled from magdalena (not really haha, but truly I was nervous). It went so unbelievably well. He decided not to charge us anything to use the court, and said thanks for helping the community and that anytime we need anything to talk with him. I was so happy to have that relationship started and look forward to see where that goes. He isnt a christian but it is really nice to have his approval and backing in what we are doing.
Another blessing has been the school in Buena Vista. We went there to talk with the principal to see if when we had groups if we could come and teach arts and crafts, maybe english and give out lunch. It turns out that the principal is a christian and has been praying for someone to come and teach bible classes to his students. (in a public school!) We will call them morale classes, but they are specifically for teaching the bible. It was so amazing, he welcomed us with open arms and is giving us as much time as we would like with the kids. Our first event will be with the group and we will go to the school, give a message, play with the kids and give them all a lunch. There are about 415 kids total in the school.
Another answer to prayer is that we now have a local guatemalan family working with us. They came to us and said God has touched their hearts and they want to work with our ministry and serve God. It is great because he is basically the youth pastor and teaches the kids at church. He is going to go at least 3 times a week to the Buena Vista school and teach the bible classes. It is nice to have a local to teach and get to know these kids and we will have on going ministry in that school. I think that Kerrie and I will end up teaching english at the school for one hour a week as well, but we arent sure yet. Please be praying for Carlos and Theresa, the new couple working with us. They are giving up everything for God and living on faith that he will provide for their needs.
All in all I am loving it here in Guatemala. My heart is so happy to be here. There are things that are hard but they are overwhelmed by the blessings and the amazing things that I see happen everyday.
Some specific things that I have done have been related to the sports camp that we will be holding on the 28th and 29th of march with the group. I had to go ask the mayor of Magdalena permission to use the court. It was pretty scary, everything is so formal here and I was scared I was going to offend him and be exiled from magdalena (not really haha, but truly I was nervous). It went so unbelievably well. He decided not to charge us anything to use the court, and said thanks for helping the community and that anytime we need anything to talk with him. I was so happy to have that relationship started and look forward to see where that goes. He isnt a christian but it is really nice to have his approval and backing in what we are doing.
Another blessing has been the school in Buena Vista. We went there to talk with the principal to see if when we had groups if we could come and teach arts and crafts, maybe english and give out lunch. It turns out that the principal is a christian and has been praying for someone to come and teach bible classes to his students. (in a public school!) We will call them morale classes, but they are specifically for teaching the bible. It was so amazing, he welcomed us with open arms and is giving us as much time as we would like with the kids. Our first event will be with the group and we will go to the school, give a message, play with the kids and give them all a lunch. There are about 415 kids total in the school.
Another answer to prayer is that we now have a local guatemalan family working with us. They came to us and said God has touched their hearts and they want to work with our ministry and serve God. It is great because he is basically the youth pastor and teaches the kids at church. He is going to go at least 3 times a week to the Buena Vista school and teach the bible classes. It is nice to have a local to teach and get to know these kids and we will have on going ministry in that school. I think that Kerrie and I will end up teaching english at the school for one hour a week as well, but we arent sure yet. Please be praying for Carlos and Theresa, the new couple working with us. They are giving up everything for God and living on faith that he will provide for their needs.
All in all I am loving it here in Guatemala. My heart is so happy to be here. There are things that are hard but they are overwhelmed by the blessings and the amazing things that I see happen everyday.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
I have arrived
So here I am in Magdalena, at an internet cafe. The sun is shineing and crazy music is playing in the background. I am typing on a crazy keyboard that has keys in different places than US ones. I have had a good time so far. I have only been here for about a day and a half. I had a good overnight flight, my bags all came, and now I am rested up and ready to start my life here.
Today I bought a cell phone my number is 001-502-4640-5575. Yes there are 8 numbers in guatemalan phone numbers.
Well I need to go cause I have to pay here by the half hour and my time is up (and this keyboard is driving me nuts). I will write more soon.
Today I bought a cell phone my number is 001-502-4640-5575. Yes there are 8 numbers in guatemalan phone numbers.
Well I need to go cause I have to pay here by the half hour and my time is up (and this keyboard is driving me nuts). I will write more soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
