Perspectives

Today was a great day!  We had a lot of fun working, praying, visiting and playing with several different families and friends.  We began with a visit to our friend Cesar.  Cesar is man who has touched many lives and some of you reading may even know his story.  Cesar has been bed ridden for years and has a degenerative bone disease which is very painful.  Today as he shared with us he shared about several times when he has almost died.  He has terrible pain almost constantly and yet this man is full of nothing but praise for Jesus!

We sat there as he quoted verse after verse from memory sharing encouragement and hope for us and for the young men from the carpentry school that our friends Carl and Danae had brought to with them to glean some wisdom and encouragement.  One particular verse stuck out to me as he shared today it was from 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 which says "¹⁷ For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! ¹⁸ So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."

It would be so easy for someone in Cesars place to get focused on the pain and suffering and have a "woe is me" attitude, but instead Cesar has used this time in his life as an opportunity to minister to the many people who come through his doors.  I have never met a more encouraging person so full of the Spirit of God! 

The Lord has been teaching me a lot over the last 4 months that we have lived here and one of them is about perspective.  Not necesarily perspectives of living in Guatemala versus living in America, but more about eternal perspective.  We often live and make life all about things we can see, touch and smell instead of about unseen eternal things.

We make life about what we can get, eat and do.  We make it about having fun and living the American dream.  When the Lord reminds us that those things whether good or bad won't last forever.  In fact they won't last very long at all in comparison to eternity.  James reminds us that our lives are but a vapor here one day and gone the next.

So let us spend our days, hours and minutes living for things that will last forever.  Living to be the husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters and friends we are called to be.  Living to make a difference for eternity in all the relationships we have.  Living to invest our money in places that will make a difference for eternity.  Lets use our lives together to make a differnce for eternity!

Home Visit

Today we visited a precious family with a new baby!  Griselda has been in the cooking school for a year.  Her baby was a whopping 8 plus pounds when he was born 38 days ago, which is wonderful and very uncommon here!  Her husband, Julio, is a local pastor in Magdalena.  They also have a seven year old daughter and a three year old son.  They were so sweet and so thanful for the opportunity for Griselda to be part of the Cooking School.  Pastors here do not make much money at all so this allows her to help provide basic needs for their family. 

 

A big thanks to all who sponsor ladies in the cooking school, or kids in the art or carpentry school!  It makes a huge difference in their lives!

Family Visit to the Beach

We were able to get away as a family for a few days earlier this week.  It was great to get away and take some time to rest and relax and spend time together as a family.  We have had a busy stressful last three months and it was nice to be able to enjoy these few days.  It is great to be so close to the beach.  We have always lived a long way away from the beach and in fact this was our kids first time visiting the beach.  The ocean was pretty rough where we were so the kids couldn't swim in the ocean much but they enjoyed putting their feet in.  But we spent the majority of our time at the pool which over looked the beach.  Enjoy a few pictures below:

 Here was the view we had from the pool overlooking the Ocean.

 Joel cheesing.

 Our room.

 Joel and Jacob

 Another georgous view as the sun was setting.

 You couldn't really swim in the ocean because it was so rough, but the boys played a bit in the waters as the waves came up.

We had an interesting trip home as it was raining a lot and we drove up this street that was a bout 2-3 feet of water for miles.  I had never seen anything like it.  I was glad our suburban didn't stall out!

Lost in the Big City

We have been living in Magdelana for 4 days now and we have been driving around to different places to find different things we need for the new house. (Go here for pics)  We are trying to be frugal and find the best deals which takes us to many different places.  Often times they are unfamiliar places since we don't know the area very well yet other than the places we frequent.  Some of the places are fairly close and others not as close like Guatemala City which is not too far but still about 45 minutes away.

Yesterday was one of those days when I began to wonder if it was worth all our running around. We began by going to a sale at a seminary that was about 45 minutes away.  We got there and they didn't have a whole lot of anything.  So then we decided to go to a store in the city which was about a half hour from where we were.  Then we remembered about an email we saw from an email group we are part of for missionaries here in Guatemala.  We remembered that they were selling a bunch of stuff that we were interested in seeing and it wasn't too far from the store where we were going. So we decided to give them a call and try to find their house.  This is when the fun began...

We got some vague directions and began heading that way.  We got most of the way there and we were a bit confused about a certain road and so we gave them a call and they gave us some more directions but apparently we were in a different place then where they thought so we got some wrong directions and then we ended up city in traffic here for about 30 minutes which seemed like hours with 5 kids in the car and everyone honking their horns :)

 

After getting out of the traffic we were forced to go back south away from where we needed to be I later found out.  We called the people again and they were not able to help us much since we had made some wrong turns and not very many streets here have signs we could not even tell them where we were.  I tried to turn around but the streets here make it impossible to turn around!  Then I ended up in a buss lane and got stopped by the police who were gracious to me prolly cause I looked like a dumb greengo :) 

 

We ended up getting turned around finally but by this point I was getting pretty nervous since we were in a city of about 2.3 million people scrolling across many square miles, they speak a language I don't yet know very well and it is not very safe in certain places!  I did not know who to call because I didn't even know where we were.  By this time we were praying and asking the Lord to get us home.  We were not even concerned about going to this home or to the store we just wanted to get home safely.

 

I began to try and work my way back to where I thought we should be and we ended up on a road that the people we were trying to find gave us so I gave them a call and we were literally one block from there home.  How that happened? God!  It is awesome to be reminded that no matter what situation we find our selves in the Lord is in control and regardless of how scared and nervous we are he is not worried about the situation we are in.  He is God of all and over all!

 

So we called them and found our way to their house and then they gave us good directions to get home.  Thank You Jesus for your protection, guidance and provision for us!  Thanks to each of you who pray and support us in our work here in Guatemala!  As indicated in this blog the Lord does answer your prayers!

 

Check out one more beautiful picture of the city and the 3 volcanoes close to us, Fuego (the one you have heard about in the news that has been erupting), Pacaya, and Agua:

 

 

New House in Magdelana

We are so grateful for the new home the Lord has provided for us very close to where we are ministering.  In fact several of the homes and families that have been ministered to over the years through Love Guatemala and Indy Metro Church our now our neighbors. We are starting to get settled and as you can see from the pictures we still need some things so pray the Lord will provide those things and lead us to the best deals.  This transition has brought many problems and challenges but we are excited to be here. Check out a few pics of our new home in Magdelana:

This is the view from our balcony.

 A view from the roof towards Antigua.

 The front wall

 Another view from the roof.

 The kitchen/dining room.

 Kitchen

 More of the kitchen

 The stairs and front door.

 Loft area.

 More of the loft.

Our Bedroom.

 

 

Thanks to all who gave and prayed to make this possible!  We are very excited to be here and be right in the middle of those whom he has called us to reach.  

Ministry in Guatemala

As I have mentioned in the past one of the primary ways we are able to minister here in Guatemala is through making visits to all the families connected with the schools we work with at Love Guatemala Ministeries.

Today we visited a family of a young man named George who attends the Art School.  George has a story that is somewhat similar to a lot of the families here.  He has many problems.  Those problems and struggles that are very difficult for anyone let alone a young boy. These problems came to a head one day for George.  It breaks your heart to see young boys having to bear these kinds of burdens here.  This day about 2 months ago.  At the time we had a couple of men here from Piedmont Church here and they we were all able to share with him and pray over him.  He shared that he had many problems at home.  He was a bit hesitant to share what the problems were but he finally shared that his Dad was in jail and they didn't have much money and that it was very hard.

Today was a bit better of a time with him and his family.  But his mother shared with us that her husband was still in jail from a debt he could not pay back.  So needless to say they are struggling with this.  We were able to pray with them and encourage them from the scriptures again today.

Please pray for this family that George would be released from jail and this issue with the debt would be resolved and that we would have wisdom in ministering to them.

Babe in a Manger

We have been living in Guatemala for about 2 1/2 months now and one of the things we are striving to do is learn as much about the culture here as possible.  I know it is important to love and minister to people here on their terms and in the best way possible according to the culture here not the culture I have lived in for all my life.

Obviously, the culture here is a lot different here than in the United States.  If you visit for a week or two you may not notice many differences other than the language difference.  But living here you begin to pick up on some of the differences.  One being that Guatemalans are not as concered about time and keeping a schedule.  It is more important to enjoy events and relationships then be on time.  It is what we called an event oriented culture.  Most of us from the US are time oriented in that we have a schedule and live busy lives and can't spend 2 or 3 hours over a meal when we have a tight schedule to keep.  This is a bit difficult for me because I like to be on time and it is difficult for me to wait, so to say the least the Lord is teaching me some patience.

I was reading John 20:21 last night and it says ..."As the Father has sent me so I am sending you." And I began to meditate on this passage and how it relates to us here in this culture and really to everyone in every culture.  Jesus has sent us and is sending us to the people of Guatemala.  He wants us to be sent and go out as He came to this world.  Here is how he came into this world:

Luke 2:7 "She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them."

He was born as a babe in a manger.  A helpless, dependent baby.  He could have come in anyway but instead he came as a baby.  So he has sent us the same way to the people of Guatemala.  As a baby.  As a baby in the sense of I am helpless and dependent.  I don't yet know the language very well, I don't know the culture and have to recognize that I need others to learn the things I need to learn.  I can't come pretending to have all the answers and pretending I am the savior rather be dependent on others and especially on Jesus and instead pointing them to the real Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus came as a babe and he became like them and put on flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) He did not just dwell among us just to die and rise again but he came as a babe and lived and grew up in this world.  He learned about the culture and learned to love the Jews and Gentiles on their terms.  He took the time needed to do this.  One thing that has been difficult for me is being patient.  I want to know the language and culture right now.  But it is a long process.  It will take years for us to learn the language and culture well and really we will never be integrated into the culture and language as well as the natives, but we have to be patient and put in the hard work of learning. 

We are all called whether we live in Guatemala, United States or anywhere else to live missionally to live as missionaries learning the culture we are sent to and learning to love them on their terms.  We are sent as Jesus was sent.